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[AlStar]

Can you play in the hardcore/ironman mode (forget what they call it) and earn achievements while running mods?

It's stupid, I know, but I get a little thrill when that achievement window pops up; and as silly as it is, I'd probably take being able to earn achievements over UI improvements (even as much as they'd help.)

[Mephansteras]

I should give this a go again. I bounced off it the first time, but I was sick and I think it requires a bit more focus to get into than I had available at the time.

Just to make sure you know: The discord is an amazing resource, and (for me at least) playing without it would have been impossible.

I also highly recommend a couple of mods which you can find info on on this page. The game is obnoxious enough that some of the QOL range from basically needed to simply very convenient (elysium, multiple operation, auto operation, auction speedup, one click interrogate), some of the info mods are also super helpful in helping you understand how the game actually works or are simply very useful (more grid info, numeric descriptions, city event helper, skill level in recruitment)  and even some of the gameplay mods (such as great painter, one click favor, undying vessels, open other world rift (which lets you do the special "lol, only open on chinese new years" events at any time of year)) simply remove some of the more tedious gameplay elements.

Good to know, thanks!

[lemon10]

Can you play in the hardcore/ironman mode (forget what they call it) and earn achievements while running mods?

It's stupid, I know, but I get a little thrill when that achievement window pops up; and as silly as it is, I'd probably take being able to earn achievements over UI improvements (even as much as they'd help.)

Yup, totally compatable! Its the only reason I have any achievements at all.

While playing on "Immortal" difficulty Achievements are unlocked
You are locked to the highest "difficulty" setting options of Classic
New difficulty menu gets unlocked. Going up to Tribulation IX with all difficulty settings enabled
Many in-game indicators disappear. Your knowledge of the game is tested to its limits

In Practice:

You need to enable Immortal for even the most basic achievements, like "1 creature killed". ie: a farm animal.
Immortal locks you out of multiple saves, though you can manually bypass this by backing up the save folder.
You cannot save manually in-game without exiting.
You cannot exit the game without saving (unless you use task manager to force close). If your game is autosaving, you have to wait for it to finish, then save and exit.
You cannot change the frequency of saves from every 20 minutes.
The already confusing Feng Shui system has some of its variables re-hidden.
Chances of success, eg: Breakthrough, Artifact Crafting, or GC Quality predictions are all gone. Easy to accidentally initiate a GC breakthrough instead of a normal one, panic, cancel it, and end up with a Tier 9 Golden Core Cultivator.
If you use the Developer Console during an Immortal game, you can no longer save as Immortal. Your old save is kept, but a new "effectively classic" one is branched off from it.
You can still use Mods, including cheat/admin mods like MODModifier (Mod), which is arguably easier than using the console.

Its important to know though that immortal mode is *more* then ironman though, notably it removes a ton of info that is critical for your first time playing the game.
If you don't already know how feng shui works then making working buildings is a big problem.
If you don't know what you need to have 100% breakthrough chance then its easy to mess up and fail your breakthroughs.
If you don't know exactly how strong your GC is and everything you need to do will be its easy to accidently get a trash one cause you forget crucial stuff.

I would very much not recommend it if you are just starting out as the game is already enough of a pain in the butt when you get all the info and can use saves, but achievements are indeed very shiny.

[Folly]

I also highly recommend a couple of mods which you can find info on on this page.

Lots of mods on that page. By far the most essential imo is Numeric Descriptions.
ACS will often throw you into a situation where you have, for example, three available 'Slightly Increases Strength' upgrades and only enough resources to take one. Numeric Descriptions will reveal that one of the upgrades is +5%, another is +15%, and the last is +50%. Really huge difference that you would have no way of knowing about without the mod.

[Il Palazzo]

Is there a mod that disables the incessant invasions?

[Micro102]

I'm not sure, but if you want to not have to worry about invasions again, train a body cultivator. They basically instantly destroy anyone else who is not also a body cultivator.

[Il Palazzo]

That doesn't help with the tedium.

[lemon10]

Is there a mod that disables the incessant invasions?

There is probably some chinese mod that does it, but a very quick search didn't show any results. You could try asking on the discord, but I suspect they won't be any help there either.

That doesn't help with the tedium.

Honestly I never found the raids themselves that tedious. Some of the surrounding stuff was quite annoying (eg. having to soul search everyone and dump them into the hell gate), but not the raids themselves.

E: You could totally use modmodifier to just kill everyone, but it probably wouldn't be any easier then instantly killing everyone with a OP body cultivator so you are probably just stuck with the tedium.

[EuchreJack]

Invasions are controlled by the Event Frequency setting for your initial start. On Immortal, that is 3 days, so you'll get invaded every 3 days.

[Akura]

A Bear Yaoguai joined my sect. Plenty of time(I hope) to prep him for tribulation, and his skills show a very high Qi Sense and Artifact Crafting. The latter is important, because I currently have no artifact crafters. The two cultivators I do have(both a T3 GC now), both have zero skill in artifact crafting. This is bad.

It only warrants mentioning because, multiple times, he's woken himself up in the middle of the night because of hunger, before chowing down in bed on some braised bear meat or stir-fried bear that he apparently kept in his pocket.

[Sirus]

Does that count as cannibalism?

[lemon10]

Invasions are controlled by the Event Frequency setting for your initial start. On Immortal, that is 3 days, so you'll get invaded every 3 days.

Not quite, you get an event (or possibly two or three) every three days, but that event could be weather, a visitor, something far away happening, ect.
It's entirely possible to go a long time without any invasions at all.

Does that count as cannibalism?

Ehh, no more then a human eating monkey meat would count methinks.

[Frumple]

I... don't remember ACS's specific metaphysics, but it's fairly common in punch magic settings for similar critters to explicitly be versions of their species that had managed to obtain greater sentience and a human form -- it's less human vs monkey and more monkey learned the hand jive and found a nice tux and lives here now.

It's fairly likely that was pretty explicitly cannibalism, and more specifically what amounts to cannibalistic veal eating :V

E: Though I do remember ACS has it so pretty much anything can eventually become a full fledged sophont, so cannibalistic veal eating is in a sense basically everything you do in this setting. Lean into it, eat children before they can run away fast enough.

[Micro102]

Lots of people talking about T3 golden cores so I'll just throw out a little checklist for squeezing out every bit of qi.

1) have any current Golden cores use Stat boosting spells on potential recruits.

2) make them learn every manual that increases max qi or stats.

3) feed them at least 3 red ginseng and 3 of that purple stuff (ganoderm? forgot the name), and ONE purple junk pill (with some cure powder ready) if you found or made any. There are other things to consume but these are the ones you are likely to see.

4) visit the Kunlun sect and copy their magic altar building. It makes up for a lot of rare treasures you won't have for a while (and the middle top square is the tile you have to base your qi items around).

5) make sure to use spirit wood on the outermost ring of display tables because their qi range is long enough to contribute without changing the element of the tile your cultivator sits on. Also, it's not just a diamond shape, the game's math allows for 4 more display tables so there is a 5x5 square around the seat for qi collection.

6) Get a golden core as a master if possible.

7) wait for the perfect season and time and cast a weather spell (rain for wood cultivators)

[lemon10]

Make sure your dude is as happy as possible going into the tribulation. Make sure not to cultivate for a few days beforehand and (if you have any) then stick some happiness talismans on at the last second to boost mood above 100.

9) Make sure you set up the cultivation room and qi gathering array at least 5 days previously. This is because it takes 5 days for the items to reach full power. If you move even a single item right before the whole array is reset and it does literally nothing (and 1 day is 20% power ect).

As micro says there are other stuff you can do (mostly better drugs), but those are generally later game (specter refining, hall master) or less important.
E: 3b) More drugs! Foundation pill gives massive temporary stat bonuses (but are rare and hard to get after your first free one) which significantly increases law compatibility. A Earth flux is super important as well, the first one is probably worth a whole core rank on its own. Eat the happy pills for the mood boost!