Won and unlocked most folks (alongside the rank 3+ 'win with positive relations in all expeditions' meaning "NO LOOTING SHRINES" unlock) using Huang Feihong. There's an online beginner's guide but I've never read it.
I would've gotten higher than 3000+ points, but I forgot that while the 6th expedition means spend everything because funds don't matter after this, the endgame still has the option of 'gifting' to the museum for extra fame, and the 'sell' to auction for funds >_> and I sold a few things for funds. Also I abandoned the 5th expedition but still won out \o/
Recommended companion is the cook. And that's generally all, alongside an animal handler or two animals (I won this with a cook, a journalist and his dog, and two water buffaloes, in which I dismissed one in exchange for that lizard-village mount that starts with a 'c', which is very important to remember and not mix up with the lesser version which starts with a 'p'. They are both dinosaurs)
This was after several hours of failure BECAUSE OF ONE MISTAKE LIKE DRINKING JUST ONE WHISKEY BOTTLE, or accepting a complimentary 'drink' from a priest (which made my previous run companion an alcoholic), or forgetting to gift a necklace to a different mutated-alcoholic companion when they were at N/A loyalty hearts, and then losing because of lacking sanity. So here's a tiny Tiruin guide to
not grinding your teeth against that sharp cliff rock surviving THE CURIOUS EXPEDITION.
The developers made the game with free DLC(?)--the arctic expedition, which I haven't explored in depth at all, but includes its own scenario requiring its own cheap specialized traversing tools. Differing terrain, from Desert, to Jungle, to Arctic, to Prehistoric (which is a mix of all the others except Arctic); Desert requires water, which is freely refilled from the ship. Jungle requires the machete, which is cheap at 2 per use, and is used up per forest tile traversed. I'd recommend not spending on climbing gear, which is only used for hills or hilly terrain, and instead using it as a trade good instead due to its price, and the rarity of hills (despite its sanity penalty, giving good 'view' when traversed). Rope is for swamps, which is somewhat common in Jungle and Prehistoric.
The 'cook' is recommended as s/he is able to turn animal meat (from the inevitable fights, which seemingly increased in possibility since the addition of the Arctic expedition) into either burned, overcooked, and cooked--5, 10, 15 sanity gain each. Animal meat is gained either from good (2+) standing with local villages depending on the inhabitants, or from fights. Ever animal seen on the overmap killed (sans those met by events, which doesn't include spawned ones thanks to your actions), regardless of what it is and how many that are in the battle, decreases local standing by -1. This is one reason why I noted it as something owning; I beat my competition of 4 other explorers in fame, and still came out on top to fund myself AFTER abandoning the 5th (out of 6) expedition due to an annoying placement of glowing markers for unlocking the golden pyramid mission-end goal.
Any place one rests in the wilds, from a mountain waterfall resting area, to an oasis, to a rocky overhang, somehow has a chance of giving a negative attribute to a non-animal crewmember (or your explorer). ALL shrines and stone statues, if anything is taken from them, will result in loss of local standing (-3 for shrine, less for stone statue, none if nothing is taken) and either a terrain change or a curse/ailment for shrine/stone statue respectively. These are the only areas that can ruin your standing with the locals unless I forgot something, other places like stone
circles, shipwrecks on land, looting sarcophagi in tombs, and ANYTHING within portals (to a prehistoric time) will not affect your local standing; the lattermost will, but only to that area in particular--it will reset to your standing before you entered the portal after a certain amount of days as the portal journey is temporary, so journey everywhere in it while you can. Blessing temples/"Temples" just give benefits and nothing else. Local villages give FREE recruits at a standing of 2+; marbles and other trekking tools compatible with the environment (eg machete for jungle areas) get a bonus% to trade price, but this will be apparent for later on anyway. Weather balloons = 'instant explore of one unknown special location'. Cosco flares do the same, but are limited to a shorter range. Crystal balls do not uncover special locations, they just uncover locations, and have a 30 day cooldown (and are expensive). ANY gun purchased, whether gilded/fancy or otherwise (like a shotgun compared to a golden pistol) deals 2 damage, but they do differ in their combos. I didn't do much research on them despite being able to buy them due to lacking experimentation time.
Otherwise, Huang is an all-around great character due to his healing powers being able to stop death from wounds/fermenting wounds. He doesn't remove it, but stifles the death-counter to near nothing as the regeneration similarly equals the health loss. His attacks are the only different battle 'dice' among all the explorers, ranging from an 8 damage martial fist, to a 3 damage 3 shield kick, to a 2 damage 2 party heal punch, to a 2x stunning attack, or a 1x multi-stun enemy group attack (and 2 damage to all enemies).
The problem is that I forgot how to unlock him, having done so a long time ago using Marie Curie.