Katida Lanco is the granddaughter of Jozefo Lanco. Perhaps due to her wealthy upbringing, Katida is a carefree, cheerful and somewhat naive girl with an adventurous spirit.
Katida is inflicted with a rare genetic disorder that prevents her from synthesizing the phermedosine hormone that enables humans to survive in space.
Note that the following contains major spoilers about key events in the second half of the game.
Recruitment and Role in Act 1[]
Katida's recruitment is somewhat more complicated than that of many other characters and has a substantial impact on the direction of the story.
Yuri and friends will be introduced to Katida after learning that she has been kidnapped by Cadmus, the feudal lord of the Spetses system. Her grandfather will task them with rescuing her from Cadmus's palace. After they succeed in doing so, she will be very impressed and apparently rather taken with Yuri and will insist on joining Yuri aboard his ship. When she is rebuffed, she stows away but forgets to bring her medication. She is discovered after nearly dying aboard Yuri's ship and is rushed to the hospital on Marjeno in the Magellanic Stream.
After purchasing the medicine for her in the White Bazaar on Strategio, Yuri may visit her in the hospital where it seems that she has begun to recover. During the visit she reveals why she stowed away. Yuri may either lecture her or yell at her, telling her how dangerous and careless she had been. Yelling at her will set the first of three recruitment flags. If Yuri chooses to yell at her, he will feel guilty afterwards and may go to to the Blue Bazaar where he may purchase either artificial or real flowers for her. Purchasing and bringing her the real flowers will set the second of the recruitment flags.
Soon after, she will recover and join as a temporary crew member to help the party buy a set of fake IDs that will enable them to enter the trade show on Zefiro. Yuri will take her home to her grandfather shortly after.
The final recruitment flag is that Yuri must side with Nova Nacio in the conflict between Nova Nacio and Kalymnos in the next chapter.
If the recruitment flags are all set, Katida will be recruited as a permanent crew member automatically when Yuri and company raid Desmond's lab early in the second act, where it will be revealed that she had been forced to marry Desmond against her will.
In terms of stats, Katida is a fairly mediocre character, and she has no special abilities. However, recruiting her has a significant influence on the direction of the story and will make a key battle in Act 2 much easier.
Role in Act 2[]
If Yuri fails to successfully recruit her, she will become a Lugovalian officer in the second act. During the incursion into the Small Magellanic Cloud by Yuri and Lord Roth, they will find Katida's fleet waiting for them after arriving in the Spetses sector. Yuri will have to battle Katida and will find her to be a talented captain, and will manage to only destroy her ship. Roth and Nele Baecker will sacrifice themselves to survive long enough to fire the Mayr's high-stream cannon, killing Katida and destroying enough of her fleet for Yuri to break through the blockade.
If Yuri recruits Katida, then another Lugovalian officer will be waiting for them, and Yuri's battle will be much easier. Roth fires the high-stream cannon without any problems and he and Nele will both survive and will participate in the final battle in the Solar System.
