Unsure if serious… big red bar bottom center? :D
@Chaplin I’ve done a couple Bifrost exits now, am I correct that there is no benefit beyond banking a horn for each giant you kill?
Don’t sweat it. While mechanically fairly simple, there is a ton to learn and discover.
I have around 40 hours played at this point. The first 5 to 10 was quite the hill climb as the game shares DNA of a lot of genres, but defies being boxed in by any of them. Even now, I am still learning bits.
Here, let me embarrass myself. Just last night, after dozens of hours, I realized each tier of weapon upgrade has a new activated ability. That is tier 1 has one ability, tier 3 has three. I know. It’s embarrassing. I thought weapons just had light attacks (X on Xbox controller) and heavy attacks that took mana (Y). For some reason I thought the other effects were passive. Nope. Now I am discovering whirling blade auras or healing spells that I never used, but could have, dozens of times. My only excuse is all the learning I was doing about game economy, ramps, day/night, vendor tabs, quest resources, etc. while also trying not to let the tree die.
I have not confirmed if you get more XP. Maybe??
Still, since Golden Horns really matter (especially early), I think the best policy is to always evaluate if things are spiraling out and keep your eye on the Bifrost before it’s too late. “Can I get one more Jotun?” “”I think I will be fine if I just upgrade the walls now.” “Blood Moon, hmmm…am I good?” It is fun to push it, but then also to make that crazy bailout run just, JUST as you realized, “nope.” It has a special charm. It is sort of like a mech sim or something where you can punch out to gain something over just dying in the cockpit. Again, ToM is a genre defying mash up that I find so unique.
Oh, I did confirm that Horns can be used in the room behind the healer to get a random rune for 1 horn, 1 more for 2 more horns, and 1 more for 3 more runes. Thus you can dump 6 Golden Horns at the start of a survival run to try to get some rune synergy going.
This game looks and sounds intriguing, but it refused to recognize my 360 controller and I simply cannot play a real time game with WASD movement. A quick check of the discord showed others having controller issues as well.
Refunded it for now but put it back on the wishlist as I’d certainly like to give it a go. Maybe when the winter sale rolls around and a couple of patches have dropped I’ll try again.
Yeah I think in my first game I spent my only horn there, since I had no real idea at that point they were a meta currency.
How do runes work in terms of initial loadout btw? I seem to always start with the same one, and I’m not sure how I go about changing that.
I think they did a beta build to try address controller issues? I always search forums for controller issues before buying anything these days, which is where I saw that. :)
Sorry it was not working. I am using the no battery, can only be plugged in via USB, OG Xbox 360 controller. No issues here, but that doesn’t help you. The game has seasons and mid season. Maybe catch the mid season (2 months) after a patch and see if it helps.
Runes are random bonuses that drop from monsters or chests and take up a character rune slot (you have 5). Runes that drop are only for you, cannot be dropped, or traded. You can destroy one to open up a slot. Essentially they are another character build modifier that will flavor runs and fuel the plan “agility” I mentioned before.
While random drops will be the main way of getting them, there are others. The Golden Horn method we discussed before is one. Starter kits is another. A starter kit is selected via character customization before the game and gives you different stating setups. Often this includes 1 rune with something that compliments that rune. Kits unlock as part of progression. I like the Harvester kit as it comes with harvesting tools for a quick start but also the Rune that gives extra material drop chances from monsters. Besides early harvesting, I like the game long benefit for component hunting.
Also runes get unlocked via progression or purchase in the shop. Once you get one by either method it adds to the random drop pool of future games (unless in a kit). This is one of the very “rogue like” design elements.
Woohoo, had my first victory today. Ended up getting every class unlocked except for the Berserker. Seer was one of the classes I was looking for but unlocked the Sentinel right before it. Really enjoyed the Sentinel but I took the Seer out for a spin on this last game that I just won. Too many things I love about the class. The group support is great with the heal but I also got a ton of use out of the faster ally revive.
The 4th Jotun that showed up was that void one that summons a bunch of adds and she was just one-shotting everyone. I basically spent the entire time reviving the 5 or so allies that were fighting it. That rez isn’t just faster, it’s like… 1 second revive time instead of 3-4 seconds or whatever it is by default. Just a massive difference that allowed me to swoop in and rez a couple people between her attacks.
On top of the heal and revive speed, faster attack speed and +50% weapon durability are just great. I can’t decide if the weapon durability is the best QOL skill in his kit or if it’s the immunity to temperature effects. All I know is that this is the class for me!
Well done! I still need the Berserker, Warden, and Sentinel. I did really enjoy the Seer as a support to play with my friend over the weekend. The area heal is nice and yeah, the near insta revive is cool. He lacks damage skills, but kinda has a damage buff in the attack speed. The durability and temperature immunity are indeed great QoL skills.
Really I like all the classes so far. It is part of the joy of a new run to pick on and run with it for a few hours. I do wish the Ranger was balanced a bit better. He has some issues with bow mechanics, arrows, and skill tree order. Not terrible, but just so much potential is still untapped.
Dammit, now I want to do a run!
Are you on PC Kevin? Are others? Maybe we could get a Qt3 run in this weekend. I also am looking at Discord as I’d really like to pick up an all voice 10 man session or three. Or maybe just find a stable group to chip away at the 100 day survival run unlock (not a single sitting type thing).
I’m on PC, yep! Can’t remember what I am on Steam at the moment. I might have it posted in one of those gamertag threads. I’ll try to remember to update when I get home.
Man, the margin of error to finish the saga solo is really thin. I can ALMOST do it, but fall short just a bit. Two solo tries tonight, two nail biting losses. I do feel like I got some terrible RNG on map setup each game though. Both games I essentially had to map the whole map. Ouch.
I know it’s very doable though. Some folks are finishing on day 5 to 7, I just can’t quite do it before the forever winter crushes me.
@vinraith @Petey @inactive_user @Profanicus @KevinC
I know some of you didn’t like the pacing. I agree in that 10 man was a different game entirely then solo or duo. Well, today got a major patch. It does a lot of things to tweak difficulty at low player counts. It also fixes bugs, makes climate potion crafting easier (less need to be Seer), improves durability, improves bows and Ranger, and basically should make the game less rushed. I worry 10 player will be way too easy now, but we will see.
Anyway, I am pretty excited with the changes. I do wish there was scaling to make it harder for 5+ players. Or even just the difficulty parts left alone as a “hard mode” (with more rewards) fo solo/duo.
The patch notes are here:
I haven’t gone through the patch notes but just that sounds like an amazing patch. I don’t like how quickly weapons degrade, it only started feeling decent with the Seer’s +50% weapon durability. I would have been fine if the soul cost remained the same, but barely being able to go through one night of town defense without your weapons falling apart was pretty tedious.
The small nerf to Angrboða was also warranted, IMO.
Sounds great, but…I do think that the overall design feels like it absolutely is intended for multiplayer and solo is going to kinda always be a bit clumsy. That’s ok! I have lots of other games to play ;)
Yeah. I can’t wait to try it. The durability was a pain especially in large games where souls were too rare to repair. When Fenrir deaths start happening, a real durability spiral started to set in for those that didn’t Hoover up the early mats. I often took durability skills in classes that offered them and tended to make backup blue weapons. Maybe the repair potion won’t be totally nuts to craft now? That would help too.
The bow was especially a problem. It lost durability crazy fast. Much faster than melee weapons. I am curious how that feels as it was specifically called out as adjusted.
Angrboða didn’t bother me. I sort of liked her kit of abilities requiring a bit more than spam, roll, repeat that the other Jotun do. I also very often have a lightning weapon which is her direct counter too.
Now the jankiness of the Thunder Orbs not going off when you hit them for them to then surround you to chain stun and kill you…that bugs me the most.
Woot! I was able to complete a solo run. Well, the tree still died because I was trying to make it to day 16 for the Warden. Still, I got Fenrir solo! And that felt pretty good.
@KevinC (or anyone that might be interested), I am eyeing the recipe unlock for making 100 days in survival over this weekend. Any takers on being part of it? I am hoping to get 3 or 4 people, but will solo it if need be. It should take about 15 hours.
A note about multiplayer: This game is fairly unique. When the game is made all players are essentially part of the game. It is locked in. Players can leave and rejoin. It will scale based on the total count though so its not great for people to not be there most of the time, but if something happens, people can duck out or back in and the game can pick up after all players leave too. Essentially the clock is running if any one player is there, at the difficulty for the players registered in the game.
The first 50 days should be fairly easy, especially if I tune things down with the end goal of 100 in mind. However, everyone interested would have to be there at the start and hopefully fairly committed for chunks of the weekend.
Anyway, thoughts? I will start it up tomorrow AM PDT most likely. I might just solo it and run it as a background game for a long time if it is logistically unappealing.
Not a lot of gaming time in the cards for me this weekend, unfortunately. :(