Not that anyone needed to know this, but don’t play on the easiest difficulty level. It’s too easy. I started over, and the next level up is still pretty easy so far, but I know what I am doing now too. Still really loving this game.
I think part of the last 10% is figuring out a way to shrink the dungeon map without losing any of the upgrades, leveling up, etc. The map is just so fricking huge. If they condensed the gameplay into a map that was maybe 25% smaller then that’d be a start. I restarted on the next higher up level and it just feels like a trudge going through all the post-battle work like you say above. If the map was smaller, it’d feel like each battle or quest or loot spot was more meaningful to me.
Yup, that’s another good point… The map is not meaningfully different than Slay the Spire but it both looks worse and is much less user-friendly. I am sure a serious strategic approach at higher difficulty would involve picking an optimal path before you start the level. That is not happening with this map.
The maps used to be much smaller
Well, picking an optimal path is the first thing I do when I move to a new level. You can scroll around the level and zoom out as well so it’s no more difficult for me than doing it for Slay the Spire. I look to avoid elite encounters and pick the route that gives me the most stuff that I want to get.
What you say about replacing minions and leveling and equipping them is true but I have rarely had to replace them in my current game. I have 2 teams and haven’t lost anyone yet halfway though the second level. I’m sure that will change though when I bump the difficulty up from normal on my next game. I think the best thing they could do is allow you to save minion skill and gear templates to make replacing them easier when they die. Maybe someone will suggest that to them for their upcoming DLC.
Is there any way to see what different attacks an enemy has? I think in Darkest Dungeon you could look at the different attacks once you’ve seen them once, so the player didn’t have to commit them to memory or take notes.
You unlock that knowledge (that’s what the Humonarium is for, the book on Iratus’ desk). Unfortunately you can’t access that knowledge in battle. But it’s already been suggested to the devs to change that somehow (thanks to a combined Qt3-effort the devs now seem to take it into consideration).
Ah OK. I’m still in the tutorial so I haven’t built anything yet. Hopefully the devs make it accessible during combat.
I played this quite a bit yesterday but am souring on it. The overly long, sprawling maps, the minions that seem pretty bland and anonymous, spells that just didn’t really appeal to me, and the boring loot system just didn’t work for me I guess. I kept finding relatively mediocre artifacts but can only equip 4 at a time. It’d be neat if you could use artifacts to upgrade existing ones instead of just adding more XP to your guy, so he can another magic point eventually.
I made it to the dwarves and a big party eventually wiped my team out. Just don’t have much drive to flesh out my 2nd team and re-engage. I really like the genre though so I’ll check out the other DD-related ones and hope for the best!
Does anybody know what’s the %-chance of getting the minion’s brain back in case of its dead?
It seemed like pretty much always on “More Pain” - would guess 75 or 80%. Feels like 50-50 at best on Good Always Wins. (Which I like more, by the way, at least at the beginning; the two minions you unlock by winning are fun, and the first level is a much better experience with the [dramatically] tighter difficulty. Into late-dwarf and barracks, I’m not so sure, as the damage formulas around crits and % increases vs armor/resistance mitigation continue to be an issue allowing hits of 100+ fairly early on.)
(Or, in other words, a huge feature of a good roguelike is that losses are generally attributable to some decision or chain of decisions that the player has made in the past. Watch an expert video of Darkest Dungeon and you won’t see any dead characters; watch an expert video of Slay the Spire and you’ll see an absurdly high win rate at Ascension 20. Iratus has more than a few enemy groups that will run you out of a minion or two with nothing you can do about it if they use 3 or 4 abilities in the wrong [right] order, or if the 50% redirect procs on the attacks you’re using to break stance twice in a row, or whatever else. Hope you didn’t spend rare parts or equipment on that undead guy or gal.)
Edit: five minutes later, that seems whiny and I’m back at it. This game pushes my buttons in both good and bad ways! And it’s great to have up on a second monitor while working from home. Find the small joys in 2020.
I wish I heeded this advice. I played the tutorial and just kept going until I finished the first floor. It is really easy. I think I may put the game on hold for a while and then start fresh on a harder difficulty.
The dwarves are killing me. I am getting regular party wipes at this point and can’t keep up. My current game is pretty much over at this point. Not sure what I am doing wrong. I might have to see if there is a YouTuber who is good at the game to get some tips.
Maybe your first mistake was listening to this guy:
:)
-Tom, still playing on the easiest mode
Does the easy mode get challenging at some point? I finished the first level and while I thought it was cool at first started to get a bit bored without much push back. Figured I’d take a break and start one harder difficulty at a later date.
3 or 4 easy battles after the tutorial ended, I restarted on the next higher difficulty. Not to get into a whole game difficulty debate, but aren’t we supposed to lose and restart in this genre?
Oh, I couldn’t tell you. I’m not that far into it, frankly. Still on the first floor with only a couple of the new monsters unlocked.
-Tom
I went back to my easy game, where I am on the 2nd level with the dwarves. It is still pretty easy so far, so I am trying to take the time and really learn the classes and the skills. I am taking damage in the fights, but not losing minions, unlike the next higher difficulty level where I was losing at least one minion every fight.
I can’t figure out how to use the Lost Souls at all. She heals, and then attacks the minion she healed. She also buffs the enemy units. I guess I need to pair her with units that have skills that hurt buffed enemies. Just not sure what classes to use.
I guess, but I didn’t find the classes you unlock to make that much of a difference so far. That’s the only thing that carries over I think.
So the easy mode never really gets hard and is kind of pointless in that sense… but it might still be worth it to run it up through the Barracks (3rd level) and get the Fallen Dhampir unlocked. Because they’re a total pain in the ass to unlock on the higher difficulties.
As for the dwarves, you have to have a very clear idea about what is threatening and why in each group, and go into the fight with a plan. There is almost always an order to kill the four enemy troops in that is optimal… and, at least at the higher levels, there’s almost always one or two groups on the level that are going to mess you up no matter what because it’s two or three “threats that need to die early”, maybe an oracle to heal, maybe one of the redirect-attacks-to-me guy.
You can get away with pretty much anything at the tutorial difficulty because the base damage numbers are lower. As I have noted (or to be less charitable, complained about) a couple of times, the way damage works in this game leads to a very wide damage distribution on everything but the easiest level: a particular ability can and will hit you for 20-30 damage 90% of the time, 60 damage 9% of the time, and 300 damage the 1% when a couple of debuffs and buffs and a crit just lined up in a way you might not even have been able to prevent.
(As for the Lost Soul… I am 35 or so hours in now and still haven’t figured out a way to make her super useful. Probably my least-used minion type. On the other hand… I have two words for you… Blood Phantasm.)
I’ve build a team of 2 lost souls and 2 deathknights. The DK go into stance that damage when enemy gets a buff. The souls from the back, does the attack that damage the whole enemy team with sanity, and gives a debuf( 2 if you spec that way).
On the second round, the last soul can do the special move that increase remove all Buff and debuff on the enemy, and increase the atk power by 1 for your whole team for each buf/debuf removed. Or you can continue doing sanity damage until every enemy is dead.
I’ve mostly spec sanity damage and armor for the DK
So far it worked pretty well. Not sure its gonna carry me to the end.