Ultra difficulty - Ouch
 

So….
I'm a sucker for tactical punishment as most of you know.
I usually play games on the hardest possible mode.
(Except hardcore delete save types, screw that nonsense.)

Open admission that Ultra Elex is kicking my ass and I think I'm going to play one step down. Ultra mode here seems to turn every monster into a mini-boss that hits like a brick. Literally you can be one shot by a rat.

I openly admit I'm not the godlike FPS twitch player but this mode is seriously difficult for me. This is coming from someone that played all the Gothics and Risens on max difficulty. Ultra is just something else here. 55 hits to kill a bird is a bit much.

I feel this mode doesn't add any tactical changes, just HP & STR bloat off the charts.

Yeah, I am just playing on normal. Really, I have nothing I need to prove anymore.

dafuq Wisdom? Only people here who insist on playing every game "nightmare" are dart and JDR.
Don't follow their steps, there's an abyss waiting.

I played on "Difficult" and it was pretty challenging for most of the game. I have no desire to try Ultra. :)

Wimp. :p

Try the difficulty suboptions perhaps?

WIMP? What's dark matter got to do with this?

pibbur who claims not to understand what the joxer meant.

I played on Ultra from the start. It's not a hard game, you just have to understand how it's designed. You're not meant to fight anything beyond a clumsy rotboar or runt whatever for awhile, at least until you either get a companion (Duras) or level up from doing other quests. Once you start getting decent gear, skills and a companion you can venture into starting to kill stuff slightly stronger than runts territory, and then the combat in the game starts progressing from there.

You can also buy grenades to help but it's an expensive playstyle. Alb spells are very powerful at early level, too. Force Push, Drone Control and those spells will help you take out stronger enemies at lower level than you normally would be able to, especially if you have a companion.

I've only died a few times in the whole game probably after just treating it as a survival RPG more than a kill all monsters RPG. And once you get powerful later in the game you can start slaughtering mostly everything that moves (and reaping much higher XP rewards.)

The way the difficulty works in this game is really not about how "hard" it is - but about how long you're going to have to wait until it becomes doable to fight stuff.

For some reason, PB decided to make the first many hours about doing quests with little or no combat.

That's how you're supposed to progress for a long time.

Then, at a point that will depend on the difficulty setting - you will reach a stage where things can be killed without you dying.

Being a PB game, I'm sure it will eventually become trivial no matter what difficulty - it will just take longer.

So, you have to ask yourself how meaningful it is to put it on "Ultra". I think the psychology is supposed to be that it's more satisfying to finally become powerful the longer you wait for it.

It doesn't really work for me, though, because I don't feel powerful based on linear number progression. I tend to feel powerful based on smart development choices and skillful execution of combat moves.

Those don't really seem to be a factor in Elex - at least not so far. Meaning, anyone can be powerful as long as they're willing to wait for it.

I should add that I play on Difficult - but that's really an irrational choice on my part.

I can "feel" that Normal would be the better choice in the beginning stages - and it seems PB designed the game around it.

That said, I think Normal would be an awful choice in the latter stages - because the game is almost certain to become a complete pushover as soon as you break the power-curve.

I'm conditioned against Normal - because, in the vast majority of games, Normal means extremely easy.

In Elex, Normal seems to mean waiting the appropriate amount of time before getting a return on your progression investment :)

I will have to see if I'm right about the game becoming too easy too soon. I hope I'm not.

But my gut tells me they've screwed up the power balance yet again.

That said there are some weapons that make all enemies a pushover, whose attribute requirements aren't hard to achieve no matter the difficulty level.

Didn't they fix that in the latest patch?

Along with GLASSES giving 30 armor :)

I mean, seriously.

Iirc, glasses give 10 armor, but yeah…it's stupid.

They did nerf flamethrowers in the latest patch.

According to that reddit site it gives 30% - which would be even worse:

The sunglasses grant a hidden 30% damage reduction, making them straight up the best early game headgear. This bonus does not show up in the menus, but it is there.

No idea if it's true though, and - anyway - it's fixed.

Obviously not intentional - but one has to wonder who tested the game :)

I've never heard of any armor in Elex being based on a percentage, so I don't think that person knew what they were talking about.

I couldn't bring myself to use sunglasses anyways because the idea of my character wearing them instead of a helmet seemed ridiculous. :)

I'm certainly pleased that I managed to wait for this patch :)

The game is growing on me…..

Glad to hear you're enjoying it. I think you'll find the exploration is exceptional, and some of the areas are quite interesting.

The atmosphere really is superb in some places.

The flamethrower still knocks back fast enough to be op.

And yes the 30% damage reduction sunglasses are no more. Still wear them since the helmets are a paltry 3 armor.

I hate flamethrowers in games, usually - so at least I'm not tempted :)

Actually, I think I will focus on the bow this time. It's just that Clerics appeal to me the most - but I have a feeling the tech weapons are less satisfying than the bow.

Hehe, choices choices.

Hmm, it seems the lighting has been screwed up by the patch. Night is bright as daylight - and many areas that used to be relatively bright before are now very dark.

I can't imagine it's intentional, but I feel like it's not a good experience as is.

Oh well.

Wow lots of responses when I logged in here after work!

I play hardest difficulty because of the problem Dartness mentioned… most games after you clear the first couple hours you just get overpowered and faceroll everything and it doesnt engage me anymore.

I never noticed the difficulty custom settings before! Sheesh. I swear I went through all the options at the beginning (I always put subtitles on first thing).

Maybe I'm expecting to kill things too fast in this mode. I played Risen and Gothic with one point in swords because everything was killable, just needed patience and timing. Even a troll can be felled with 150hits. This game some things are too tough amd I just cant dodge enough. Maybe I should try running :)

Anyway this was not meant to sound like a complaint. I love the game.

You really have to run for awhile IMO, unless you find cheesing the system and killing things in 200 hits or whatever fun.

My strategy was fire a shot or see how much damage Duras is doing, if it's barely moving the health bar, run. Then you'll start learning which creatures you can mess with and which to avoid entirely, then just use that knowledge going forward. Survival skills like Camouflage, Sixth Sense and so on help a lot too.

Good luck and enjoy. :)

Thats the other downside. I generally don't play with companions in any game. Much prefer the solo. I either find them way too strong (Patty Risen 2 wtf) or way too weak (Dogmeat.. nooooo!!)

It is to be expected, since the night sky is filled with two huge moons! (Small moon orbiting big moon actually.)

Wow, pickpocket skill is stupidly overpowered :)

Really? I rarely found NPCs carrying much on them. Usually just some elexit and 1 or 2 random items of low value.

I sort of forgot about it after a while though and stopped using it.

Well, so far they carry a lot more Elexit than most items have been worth. I think I just looted more than 1000 elexit in 5 minutes. I also looted sunglasses from a trainer. It's fast and if you fail, reloading is nearly instant.

I guess later on it won't be worth as much, but right now it's the best investment I've made in terms of progression :)

It's more of a "must-use" component of ELEX IMO. But I guess if you really just want to avoid combat for even longer and then level up enough to handle it yourself, that's an option. Duras just makes a good bodyguard for the early parts of the game.

Bow is a great choice Dart. I think the ranged weapon that does the most damage is a Warbow III.

But there is a Cleric spelll that increases cleric gun damage so that puts them at the top for ranged weapons apparently.

I think all the ranged weapon types are viable. I went with bows but that's because I was a beserker and it made sense from a role-playing standpoint. I would have went with energy weapons had I played a cleric or shotguns If I was an Outlaw.

Spearguns are pretty wicked, too, as they can cause bleeding damage which takes larger chunks out of enemies even if you are low level. So the attacks themselves don't do much but the bleeding does.

What's the recommended difficulty for a first playthrough?

Having great fun with the game and I'm getting into a proper PB mood :)

The basic Cultivator Bow + Duras has really been enough to clear the vast majority of Goliet quests with zero challenge. The pickpocket skill has made money a non-issue - so I can buy whatever I need. Primarily, I've been buying arrows so that I don't feel I have to conserve ammo.

Combat is a bit clunky - and it's way, way too easy to evade and shoot at most stuff. In fact, the only thing preventing me from defeating harder enemies is a lack of patience. I suspect once I upgrade the bow and get Ranged weapons to level 2 - it's going to be a lot easier.

As always with PB games, the best part of Elex is the world and the exploration. The writing is not very good - but some of the plot is kinda neat. The combat is less than satisfying - but it gets the job done in terms of progression.

The progression itself is ok, even if I still think it's a mistake to prolong the power incline for so long. But, the jetpack and super forgiving monster AI means I can easily run from quest to quest in a timely manner.

The only big downside for me, so far, is the bright night issue after the patch. I remember the darker nights from before - and it was really cool from a lighting perspective. I fear we won't see a fix for this for a long time - if ever.

Pretty annoying, actually - but I refuse to wait for another patch.

I can easily see how it has gotten such poor ratings, though. It's about as far from a mainstream experience as I can imagine for an otherwise great game.

Anyway, having fun…..

Also, the world is pretty huge. I just ran all the way to Hort from Goliet - quite a hike.

Love the variety so far!

I think some people (I whish I could write kids and teenagers but alas not) still haven't understand this, no matter how basic it is. :-)

If really that's the point, ask yourself why you thought that you choose another difficulty level would worth a thread? I wonder. :-)

I'd have to say people who feel the need to belittle how others have fun should probably consider who the real kids are :)

@Dasale sorry I dont understand your question.

I used to play Battletoads, Ninja Gaiden, Double Dragon and Robocop. When you grow up playing a NES, you just cannot play modern games in normal mode, nightmare is the bare minimum.