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Returnal is loving amazing and I'm glad I went into it basically blind, I didn't even know it was a bullet-hell kind of game. The thing is, it's not really that difficult? It can be overwhelming at first because there's just so much stuff happening at once, but you're equipped with really gratuitous dashing and movement abilities that can dodge right through attacks. I thought Phrike was an insane, tough roadblock but I ended up handily beating him on the third try without even burning an astronaut once I just calmed down a little. The thing dragging it down is it really needs a Suspend option besides just putting the console into rest mode.
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Aug 12, 2021 19:16
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Mechanicus has a really bad case of a reverse difficulty curve. The first four or so missions are pretty dang tough as you only have basic weapons and no skills. Now I have four hero units each with a ton of ways to generate cognition (the stuff you use to shoot your guns) and each one of them has a minimum of three weapons on them. Flamers are also absolutely broken. They do the same amount of damage as my other physical weapons, can be used in melee, attack every unit in a cone, inflict burn which is two points of damage per turn, and the only downside is that they take one extra cognition point to use, which is a complete non-issue. The game has also given me a bunch of cool units to play with, but I haven't gotten a mission to increase the number of people I can bring on a mission so they all just have to chill back on the ship. moosecow333 has a new favorite as of 19:36 on Aug 12, 2021 |
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Aug 12, 2021 19:31
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WaltherFeng posted:4 stages of Sekiro: 5. i wander this desolate land, in forlorn search of a worthy opponent
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Aug 12, 2021 19:34
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Have I got completely stuck in Zero Time Dilemma, or is there a clue that I'm just missing? I've started doing Team D's stuff (after doing all the initial fragments for the other paths), and pretty much one of their first things was the Secret Door path which is now asking for an 8 digit number. Have I got enough clues to figure that out from notes/files, as no other paths even exist right now, the only available thing is this path and the Transport room. Everything else is greyed out. Or will there be a clue I've missed in the Shower Room or the Transport room?
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Aug 12, 2021 20:24
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There's one more reason why I really like Sekiro even though I generally rather loathe Soulsikes: You've got mobility in spades, and the levels are built for quick traversal. When you die, you can just ninja-zipline your way through the parts of the level you've already cleared and get back to where you were in like 20 seconds flat.moosecow333 posted:Mechanicus has a really bad case of a reverse difficulty curve. The first four or so missions are pretty dang tough as you only have basic weapons and no skills. Yeah, that also contributes a lot to the feeling that the game is just some 20% too long. At some point you've seen it all and done it all, leveled everything to max and got a killer team ready, but there's still like a dozen+ missions to be done.
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Aug 12, 2021 20:26
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BioEnchanted posted:Have I got completely stuck in Zero Time Dilemma, or is there a clue that I'm just missing? I've started doing Team D's stuff (after doing all the initial fragments for the other paths), and pretty much one of their first things was the Secret Door path which is now asking for an 8 digit number. Have I got enough clues to figure that out from notes/files, as no other paths even exist right now, the only available thing is this path and the Transport room. Everything else is greyed out. Or will there be a clue I've missed in the Shower Room or the Transport room? Do all of the shower room choices. Try to have a sense of humor about it.
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Aug 12, 2021 20:32
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nvm found how to get back to other fragments. To be clear, it had nothing to do with the above spoiler, I had to go back to the fragment where the Transport room and randomly a new cutscene was available. THAT unlocked going back to the other fragments. It was annoying because there was no "NEW", it was totally unmarked. THAT's something dragging the game down.
BioEnchanted has a new favorite as of 22:00 on Aug 12, 2021 |
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Aug 12, 2021 20:52
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Philippe posted:Sekiro is a real odd duck, genrewise. It's got some Souls DNA, what with the estus flask and the bonfire and whatnot. But the gameplay is more of a Tenchu, AssCreed type game with a stealth focus. It doesn't even do the FROM Software "throw you into a pile of mechanics and let you figure it out" thing. I like Tenchu, some MGS entries and stealth games in general and the few clips and reviews I've seen look pretty great but I'm also not a masochist type when it comes to games that just like to mercilessly gently caress me up and trial and error me to death so now I'm back to being on the fence with it. I can probably grab it for cheap and I kinda need a fresh genre after Hitman, NBA2k and RE8 so I'll probably give it a whirl but also maybe check out the "what to know before I play this game" thread, even though I typically like to go in blind. If I hate it though, I'm gonna hold some of the people in this thread accountable, so consider yourselves on notice.
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Aug 12, 2021 23:27
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The thing dragging Sekiro down is that rather than removing all the normal Dark Souls bullshit from the whole game, they only removed it from the first 2/3s so they could concentrate all of it in the last 3rd.
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Aug 12, 2021 23:47
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BiggerBoat posted:I like Tenchu, some MGS entries and stealth games in general and the few clips and reviews I've seen look pretty great but I'm also not a masochist type when it comes to games that just like to mercilessly gently caress me up and trial and error me to death so now I'm back to being on the fence with it. I don't know if Sekiro is as much trial and error as it is knowing what you have to do almost instantly, then developing the skills to achieve that goal over time. That's what made it my favourite of the FromSoft games, I wasn't left clueless as I often found myself in their other games, it was more constant skill-checks that I had to beat. Also beating the last boss was probably the most satisfied I've ever been after beating any video game enemy.
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Aug 13, 2021 00:01
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sekiro absolutely has a ton of trial and error and I would not recommend it to anyone who dislikes that
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Aug 13, 2021 00:16
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Gay Rat Wedding posted:sekiro absolutely has a ton of trial and error and I would not recommend it to anyone who dislikes that Can you think of some examples? You're probably right, but I don't remember having to trial and error it much, at least not compared to how I approached Souls.
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Aug 13, 2021 00:39
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Nearly every boss is nothing but trial and error and not to mention the Interior Ministry Ninja and O'Rin of the Water. This is like saying there's no trial and error in Bloodborne despite Father Gascoigne being a brick wall for people for like 4 weeks.
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Aug 13, 2021 03:40
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RareAcumen posted:Nearly every boss is nothing but trial and error and not to mention the Interior Ministry Ninja and O'Rin of the Water. I didn't really have that experience because of how narrow the Sekiro battle system is, and how wide the tells are. poo poo, the game even throws up big red warnings when the most dangerous attacks appear, kind of the exact opposite of trial and error. But yeah, fair enough, it's probably personal bias in a game that gelled with me in a rare way. Relatively speaking I breezed through understanding what I was supposed to do in Sekiro, it was just being able to do it that I sucked at. On the other hand, I trialled and errored my way through the latest Tomb Raider recently because I can't detect white signposting to save my life. So sorry Biggerboat, best to listen to these guys over me.
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Aug 13, 2021 04:00
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I think of trial and error as something where you don’t know what you’re supposed to do or how to get past something, whereas with Sekiro or Gascoigne I always felt like that part was pretty clear, and I just wasn’t good at it and needed to learn the attack patterns.
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Aug 13, 2021 04:02
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Sekiro presents itself as giving you a lot of options between stealth and a variety of prosthetic tools, except only a small fraction of anything you can do is relevant against anything difficult. you should cycle through tools to find the few that aren't worthless against whatever you're fighting. most of the difficult fights are loaded with gotchas. the most egregious case is when hitting someone neither staggers them nor makes them animation cancel to deflect you, and instead they magically hyperarmor through your hit and smack you. There is no way to learn when they get this hyperamor besides simply eating poo poo until you learn when it exists. the souls series is not perfect about this, but I generally felt like I had a fair shot (if unlikely) at beating any difficult souls boss on my first attempt at it by reading their animations and playing carefully. in sekiro, difficult bosses felt like you did not actually start with a fair shot at beating them, it felt like you needed foreknowledge of things that you could not learn other than by trial and error. Stealth is similarly inconsistent. Enemies have completely different sight and sound ranges across different encounters, so they have comically poor perception in the areas you're supposed to stealth through, while they can instantly see you from extremely long distances without any alert build-up in others. stealth does not have rules and patterns you can learn and consistently apply throughout the game, it all changes based on whatever the devs want you to do in that particular encounter
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Aug 13, 2021 04:08
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Gay Rat Wedding posted:Sekiro presents itself as giving you a lot of options between stealth and a variety of prosthetic tools, except only a small fraction of anything you can do is relevant against anything difficult. you should cycle through tools to find the few that aren't worthless against whatever you're fighting. I always found that there was a tell with enemies that told you that they were going to activate their 'hyperarmor' and strike you, it was a slightly louder clang than the usual one that sounded when they blocked an attack.
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Aug 13, 2021 04:26
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Morpheus posted:I always found that there was a tell with enemies that told you that they were going to activate their 'hyperarmor' and strike you, it was a slightly louder clang than the usual one that sounded when they blocked an attack. There's definitely an audio cue before they do their counter, yeah. It's the games way of punishing you for trying to just brute force through their stagger bar. The clang is a hint to back off, reset your own stagger bar if needed, and either go back in or wait for them to come at you. E: One thing that did drag Sekiro down for me when I first played was the fact that counter to every other From action game, holding block will increase how quickly your stagger meter lowers. Having just come off a replay of DS3 where holding block drastically slow stamina recovery, that took a while to get used to.
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Aug 13, 2021 05:21
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The only tips I have for Sekiro are hold block to regain stamina, if you're going to parry anything just stand still for it because moving only adds another plate you've got to spin and complicate things, firecrackers work on basically everything and are constantly reliable.
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Aug 13, 2021 06:37
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I've never played Sekiro but "Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice" is one of the coolest names of a video game of all time IMO.
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Aug 13, 2021 06:40
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I'll be honest, Zero in ZTD is a total bitch compared to the earlier and later versions. Zero the first and third were willing to let things go and let things play out but Zero the third is getting all whiny whenever no one dies. I understand that it's probably a history preservation thing (as the broadcast in the previous game mentioned 6 casualties IIRC) but it makes him seem super petty and childish.
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Aug 13, 2021 07:07
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More people should play I Wanna Be The Guy, not because there is any joy to be found there, but just to see what real trial-and-error difficulty is so they can properly calibrate their Bullshit Scale.
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Aug 13, 2021 08:14
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One issue I have with some of the more elaborate boss fights in FFXIV is there's not a lot of signposting regarding what you're supposed to be doing. It's one thing to know not to stand in fire or take care of the character that's healing him, but then there's "okay now he'll project himself into two mirages, the first one you want to keep away from him but the second you want to keep close" and other weird things that aren't immediately obvious- and in the heat of a multiplayer instance it can be difficult to pay attention to anything that isn't immediately obvious. (Come to think of it this is an RPG thing in general, even with non-MMOs- a lot of bosses have a trick to them but in order to figure it out you have to die to them at least once which seems... counter to good design.)
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Aug 13, 2021 09:44
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Bussamove posted:There's definitely an audio cue before they do their counter, yeah. It's the games way of punishing you for trying to just brute force through their stagger bar. The clang is a hint to back off, reset your own stagger bar if needed, and either go back in or wait for them to come at you. Yeah you get a clang and also the spark from your blades clashing is bigger. And if you don't want to back off it's your cue to start deflecting instead of attacking
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Aug 13, 2021 10:53
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Maxwell Lord posted:One issue I have with some of the more elaborate boss fights in FFXIV is there's not a lot of signposting regarding what you're supposed to be doing. It's one thing to know not to stand in fire or take care of the character that's healing him, but then there's "okay now he'll project himself into two mirages, the first one you want to keep away from him but the second you want to keep close" and other weird things that aren't immediately obvious- and in the heat of a multiplayer instance it can be difficult to pay attention to anything that isn't immediately obvious. FFXIV both has some of the best universal indicators of any MMO (clump for this effect, spread out for this effect, look away from this graphic, etc) and also will occasionally abandon all of it and go for form over function with incredibly cool looking AoEs/indicators that are never used again.
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Aug 13, 2021 11:59
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Morpheus posted:I always found that there was a tell with enemies that told you that they were going to activate their 'hyperarmor' and strike you, it was a slightly louder clang than the usual one that sounded when they blocked an attack. Yeah. They start their attack string by perfect parrying you. Its the same spark and sound as yours. Thing is with sekiro you almost never need to back off, except with a few tricksy opponents and grabs. They hyperarmor and start attacking? Parry that poo poo. They start a large rear end combo? Parry that poo poo. They do a backoff move? Run into their face. Never let off. Perfect parries can even put certain bosses into very vulnerable states. The game tells you hesitation is defeat and it means it 100%. And thats one way, probably the easiest and most intentional, way to play it. The other way is to figure out which tools and moves hard counter enemies, and each enemy has at least one. For example the purple ninjas really slow leg sweep, and most sweeps in general, is punished severely by the monk kicks first move. It will make their stagger bar explode into the red. Ichimonji is the premier crutch move for most of the game. Things like this. If youre open to experimentation you can find solutions to any encounter you find. Except dodging, you have fuckall i frames.
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Aug 13, 2021 14:45
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BiggerBoat posted:This thread made me look up Sekiro and after reading some reviews I think I wanna give that a shot. Sekiro is basically taking the dark souls fight mechanics but puts the emphasis on blocking instead of dodging. Unless the game telegraphs it with a big red warning sign, every attack is blockable. Well timed blocks will reduce your enemies poise, and once their poise is down you deal a fatal blow. The stealth mechanics are there, so you can play a lot of hit and run with the rank and file enemies. Mini bosses and big bosses you obviously have to go toe to toe with. It's also very souls like in that the "difficulty mode" for the game is based entirely on how much information you look up online or in a game guide while playing. As someone that loves the Fromsoft series, I'd say it's one of my favourites, largely because the "in your face" combat is a refreshing change from the "make sure you have the proper magic rings and levelled up sword or you'll never be able to dodge roll that boss to death" style that the dark souls games veer towards. It's purer exploration and combat.
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Aug 13, 2021 16:02
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Rockman Reserve posted:Returnal is loving amazing and I'm glad I went into it basically blind, I didn't even know it was a bullet-hell kind of game. Yeah I really enjoyed it. Wait until you get to the last level if you want to see some bullshit though. Also if you get stuck, I have a really stupid strategy that makes the last level incredibly easy. Let me know. So I got around to playing Horizon Zero Dawn and I'm enjoying it so far. It is gorgeous to look at and the animation / body movement looks really fluid and fantastic. Little stuff like how Aloy stumbles when descending a steep surface and uses her arms to catch her balance. My only gripe is that you seem to have to use cheap tactics to win a lot of fights. Oh you're level 7? Here, kill these two giant tiger robots with a bow and arrow. Vs. big stuff it's either "lay traps and wail on them while they're down, then run away screaming" or "slow time, take a shot, roll, roll, roll, roll". She has so many cool movesets - but a lot of them just seem impractical to use (like the slow-mo hip slide). Maybe I'm just not used to it yet. Edit: Also naming your main character "A(l)loy" in a game about metal monsters is kinda cringy. Frank Frank has a new favorite as of 16:29 on Aug 13, 2021 |
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Aug 13, 2021 16:25
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You should be working towards getting a full weapon loadout by the time the game starts asking you to take down two Sawtooths at a time. Just firing away with the starter bow and arrow won’t be effective outside of the starter area, you have to study the machine’s weaknesses using the focus, use elemental effects, tearblast arrows and traps to soften them up. This is generally why I think the common wisdom of “rush to Meridian to buy all purple gear” is pretty bad advice, because the intermediate weapons are cheap and you should start learning how to use them.
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Aug 13, 2021 19:21
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Sure as balls you should get the unlimited fast-travel as soon as possible.
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Aug 13, 2021 19:24
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exquisite tea posted:You should be working towards getting a full weapon loadout by the time the game starts asking you to take down two Sawtooths at a time. Just firing away with the starter bow and arrow won’t be effective outside of the starter area, you have to study the machine’s weaknesses using the focus, use elemental effects, tearblast arrows and traps to soften them up. I'm not in Meridian yet. I'm doing the side quests as they pop up as someone in this thread said it's pretty short if you don't do that. I'm wearing mostly blue(?) Carja stuff right now. Most of it is modified in some way. I've done all of the hunting ground sidequests available, the one "vault" exploration task and a bunch of other small stuff. Edit: Also that's more or less how I dealt with those two sawtooths (sawteeth?) I wired all the exits to the building they were patrolling with electric traps, stabbed them when they tripped one, shot them in the stomach with my fire bow and ran away across a nearby river to hide which they won't cross for some reason. Just felt kinda cheap. Inspector Gesicht posted:Sure as balls you should get the unlimited fast-travel as soon as possible. Oh my god that's a thing? I was afraid they were going to put them in microtransaction loot boxes after I got my first 10 or whatever. I've been riding my robot horse/bull all over creation. Frank Frank has a new favorite as of 19:45 on Aug 13, 2021 |
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Aug 13, 2021 19:41
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Frank Frank posted:Yeah I really enjoyed it. Wait until you get to the last level if you want to see some bullshit though. Also if you get stuck, I have a really stupid strategy that makes the last level incredibly easy. Let me know. The two sawtooth fight is a massive pain in the rear end even once you get everything upgraded. They're just some of the worst enemies to fight in groups because of how fast they are and their explosive tank is extremely hard to hit. Traps/ropes never seemed that useful unless you've set up at least 4-5 in the area as a way to quickly run though to get an enemy off your back. If the enemies aren't weak to it the damage is pretty minimal. I found way more use for traps when assaulting enemy camps by leaving traps as I sneak in, so eventually when combat starts a bunch of them are running into traps I set up prior to the attack. Once you get out of the sacred land, the best thing to do is go straight to meridian for - unlimited fast travel - see what the purple weapons/armor cost (parts wise, make sure to keep and not sell them) - Buy the green/blue weapons with high tear damage and freeze asap - Buy at least one of each weapon, the best you can afford to get them all (because it unlocks the upgrades as well) More then anything you want Freeze, which will slow the enemy for a bit and let you get a ton of quick high damage on their weakpoints. Everything from there is just then building up your cash reserves to afford the purple weapons and armor. Also, I don't know if you know this, but you need to be hunting all the animals you see. The final upgrades for a lot of the abilities require the blue animal drops and they are hard to find. You'll want to be upgrade that as often as possible. It goes a lot faster when you realize you can buy 100 sticks for 20 metal, so all those upgrades costing 500 wood you save a lot of time just buy the wood you need instead of harvesting it. pentyne has a new favorite as of 19:51 on Aug 13, 2021 |
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Aug 13, 2021 19:48
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Frank Frank posted:I'm not in Meridian yet. I'm doing the side quests as they pop up as someone in this thread said it's pretty short if you don't do that. I'm wearing mostly blue(?) Carja stuff right now. Most of it is modified in some way. Scan enemies, find the weakness on whatever part they have and then shoot it with that, trust me, I had serious issues with the game too before I asked someone how it worked. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kotgY4zImvg&t=56s
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Aug 13, 2021 19:50
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Ok that’s more or less what I’ve done. I have a blue bow with +tear +damage modifiers on it and it shoots tearing arrows. I have a sling that launches freeze bombs and my wire trap thing shoots explosive wires and electrical wires. Sounds like I’m at least going about things in the right way.
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Aug 13, 2021 19:52
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Frank Frank posted:Oh my god that's a thing? I was afraid they were going to put them in microtransaction loot boxes after I got my first 10 or whatever. I've been riding my robot horse/bull all over creation. It's extremely easy to miss, I didn't know it existed until I was towards the end of the game. Go to the vendors in Meridian and scroll to the bottom of the supplies tab, you'll need some materials to buy it but they're all relatively easy to obtain.
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Aug 13, 2021 20:06
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BioEnchanted posted:I'll be honest, Zero in ZTD is a total bitch compared to the earlier and later versions. Zero the first and third were willing to let things go and let things play out but Zero the third is getting all whiny whenever no one dies. I understand that it's probably a history preservation thing (as the broadcast in the previous game mentioned 6 casualties IIRC) but it makes him seem super petty and childish. gahhhhhh this is kind of almost making me want to burn through ZTD again because I remember it so poorly and want to hear your ultimate thoughts  Have you poked your head in the VN thread in Games? I'm crazy behind in there because I'm annoyingly stuck in Umineko but it's a fun discussion thread.e: VVVV BAAAHAHAHA okay that brings back some memories Rockman Reserve has a new favorite as of 20:36 on Aug 13, 2021 |
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Aug 13, 2021 20:12
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Rockman Reserve posted:gahhhhhh this is kind of almost making me want to burn through ZTD again because I remember it so poorly and want to hear your ultimate thoughts I have SOO MANY KEYS but not enough to unlock anything. I have 2 places to put 8 digit codes but the one of those that I have doesn't work in either, I have some of Q's real name but apparently not enough for one of the choices, I know one of the two mementos of mothers but haven't figured out (or have forgotten) the second one. I'm SO CLOSE but so far.
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Aug 13, 2021 20:35
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pentyne posted:More then anything you want Freeze, which will slow the enemy for a bit and let you get a ton of quick high damage on their weakpoints. It also disables the concept of enemy armor - you'll deal normal damage even if an arrow clunks into an armor plate instead of the chip damage you usually deal. That's on top of it tripling the damage of arrows. So aim for weakpoints if it's convenient but don't spend extra time to do so, because you want to put as many arrows into a target as possible while the freeze lasts.
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Aug 13, 2021 20:43
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i also highly recommend treating your bow like a semi-auto and just spamming it. by the end you will absolutely be making the most out of running and jumping and sliding in close quarter to make the most of your slow-mo. You're more powerful up close than you might think! Embrace Aloy's inner Max Payne/Doomguy.
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Aug 13, 2021 21:00
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Cat Army 
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The Iron Rose posted:i also highly recommend treating your bow like a semi-auto and just spamming it. by the end you will absolutely be making the most out of running and jumping and sliding in close quarter to make the most of your slow-mo. You're more powerful up close than you might think! Embrace Aloy's inner Max Payne/Doomguy. It gets to the point where actually taking time to focus aim feels like a huge mistake. First shot from a distance to start combat? Sure. Headshot on unaware enemies? Of course. During frantic combat? Get good at dodging, run up close, , and just unload a dozen arrows as fast as you can. Honestly in combat you should be
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Aug 13, 2021 21:36
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