The "What should I know before I play this game for the first time?" Q&A!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The "What should I know before I play this game for the first time?" Q&A!

«‹›2 »

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Ramadu posted:

Help I hate myself and want to play a bad jRPG so I picked up FF13 for . What do I need to know to play it and not hate it as much as I probably will?

It's a really terrible linear joyride through bland hell for the first dozen hours or so but then it opens up and becomes a genuinely good and fun game with cool sub-systems and a lot of flexibility in your customization of characters and such.

Just keep repeating as a mantra "Chapter 11 will happen. Chapter 11 will happen."

# ¿ Mar 30, 2012 05:51

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 14, 2024 02:12

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Spalec posted:

Any tips for Dead rising 2: Off the record? There's a few bits on the wiki for vanilla DR2, I guess they all still apply?

General tip, but if you've played any of the DR games before, you owe it to yourself to just go ahead and play the true, finally-and-without-dumb-health-attrition sandbox mode right off the bat.

With one caveat: Some of the challenges (the floating star things) will be near-impossible to Gold ranking the very first time you come across them, and a few may even require item forethought and planning and drink-mixing. However: They are all incredibly fun, except one item-collection one which is wacky-random-monkey-cheese and actually super loving frustrating to Gold without max speed and the fast-movement drink and collecting a bunch of the item in advance.

Also note: It is every person for themselves in Sandbox mode. You see that survivor over there running at you with urgency? He is not going in for a hug.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2012 18:27

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Also, re: Dishonored. If you're going for no-kills, be really careful about setting down unconscious people near stairwells, and railings, and such. They loooove to slump over the side and fall on their heads, and then die, and count as a kill you made, and ruin your run.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2012 07:48

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

owl_pellet posted:

Starting Dragon's Dogma. I recall seeing posts either in this thread or the general 360 games thread about people unintentionally teaching their pawns to pick flowers or whatever instead of fight. Is this really a concern or do you have to seriously try to screw up your pawn's behavior?

Your pawn will be stupid as hell at the very start of the game and will pick up on all your RPG OCD if you let him, which can be good (no more worrying about looting everything in sight, because he will do it for you) or bad (when he does it in the middle of a fight, instead of helping), but mashing the HELP and ATTACK MY TARGET buttons and so forth, as well as giving him a broad mix of abilities, will help a lot.

The reason I say a broad mix is, if you make a mage pawn for example, and he only has like, fire/fire/lightning/lightning, enemies that are weak to ice or blindness or whatever will not make him prioritize hitting them much. But if you give a mage pawn a broad range of elemental attacks and status effects, once they hit the weakness once (or, if they see you do same) they will do everything in their power to hit it again, and again, and again. Which might be anecdotal, but I swear that helps your little helper monkey put down the god drat herbs and come fight.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2013 06:56

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Dr Snofeld posted:

I'd like to hear some advice on this game as well, more along the lines of starting classes and how not to make things harder than they need to be.

Starting: Every class is pretty fun and viable, but the rogue-alike (Strider) is the best mix of mobility and damage to start, uses daggers (which get a double jump, which is really handy for navigating tougher platforming and also for reaching a small number of bonus chests in a couple of areas), and can be utilized by the player a lot better than the pawn.
Pawns: Generally speaking, the pawn is best as either a Fighter or a Mage type; they can't be the hybrid vocations EVER, and they are really crappy at using projectile weapons. However, pawns are really good at using elemental weaknesses once they know them, so it's always beneficial to have a dedicated caster in your group, and probably one that isn't you. If you're not in the front lines of combat, you're trusting the AI to always be up there for you, and while that's fine if you're up there too (their sword-and-board fighter to your stabby strider or assassin), trusting them to be your sole defense if you're the squishy mage is asking to be killed. A notable exception is if you're playing the Magic(k?) Archer, because they get homing arrows so you can circle strafe fights and just run away when poo poo gets too real.
Difficulty: It's really hard to screw yourself too badly, but early on you will get sent on some escort/retrieval side quests. They will send you into or through the woods at night. The woods at night are something you need to experience for yourself to truly understand, but probably save the game back in town before you do.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2013 07:20

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Geektox posted:

Anything for Dragon's Dogma specifically for the Strider vocation? My blades seems to hit like a wet noodle.

They will until you get better ones or spend a few levels in Assassin (who have 2x the Attack growth). Strider pre-L10 is basically all about darting around and praying you don't die and sniping things with a bow and then climbing on things as needed to hack away at weak spots. It's good practice for later in the game, when you'll need those tactics to stay competitive with the really, really rough monsters, but at that point you'll also at least feel like you're doing *some* damage.

Also, if you feel like you're just not doing poo poo early, get a mage pawn with Fire or Light Affinity, because a big problem is the sheer volume of poo poo that is at best neutral to slashing weapons but is weak to those elements, that you don't have by default.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2013 20:57

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Polaron posted:

Dragon's Dogma

I just picked this up on Gamefly, and it seems..Very Japanese. I've heard it's possible to blunder your way into some odd story choices and that the way you build your character physically actually makes a difference, so is there anything I should watch out for?

The odd story choices largely come up because of how the game handles relationships and affinities between your protagonist and NPCs, but unless you decide to talk to the same NPC you hate like 50x in a row it's not going to affect anything noticeably. As for build, it boils down to "if you build a small light-framed person there's a few spots they can squeeze into for shortcuts that bigger people can't, if you build a burly giant they'll be a lot harder for flying enemies to pick up and try to huck off of cliffs and stuff."

Whichever you do, though, make your pawn the opposite so you can watch as harpies either effortlessly spirit away your tiny baby mage friend, or struggle under the weight of big fighter man.

# ¿ May 25, 2013 18:42

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

frontlineKHAAAN! posted:

I'm about to start Disgaea D2 having never played a game in the series before, though I always meant to. What should I know?

To add to the poster above me:

-You can talk to the "Data Shop" moth in your base to see classes you haven't unlocked yet, and the conditions to unlock them---if it's something like "Level 20 ??? and Level 20 ???" then you haven't unlocked the classes that feed into those yet. But:
-Don't worry about grinding to unlock classes, because almost all of them will get handed to you as the story progresses, including two that would otherwise require getting multiple classes to Level 100+.
-You can pick people up with the Lift command, but if they end their movement on top of a character they will just walk to the top of the tower stack anyway. This is also the way you mount characters onto Monsters, which is like a mini-tower with unique attacks.

OH ALSO every chapter, you should walk around the castle. They will place 3 chests around the castle, which will give you stuff ranging from an infusion of cash to some nice items (randomized), and they go away (replaced by the next chapter's chests) if you don't go get them before you get to the next chapter.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2013 17:06

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Bluemidget posted:

Anything for the new EDF? I haven't played the first one if that makes a difference.

-Fencer (big slow guy): dashes when he has a melee weapon in the primary hand, and rocket-jumps when he has a gun in the primary hand. You can dash in the air.
-Fencer: You can time alternating your shield's pulse attack (L2 on the PS3, by default) with your melee-dashes to zip around the battlefield (each one cancels the other's recharge-animation deal). Same with Javelin type weapons and dashing later.
-Fencer: You can equip the same weapon in each hand. Hammer time. Mega TF2 heavy miniguns. Go nuts.
-Ranger: Bring rocket launchers to mission 13 and others like it (you'll know them when you get there, but trust me, mission 13). Not Missile Launchers, not Mortars. Rocket launchers.
-Whatever class picks up a weapon box (multiplayer), that's what class's weapon you'll get out of it at the end of the level.
-Each class gains armor from box pickups at a different rate, with Fencers getting almost 1 permanent max armor (so, hit points basically) per box, all the way down to Wing Divers getting something like 1 armor per 3 or 4.
-The Wing Diver's starting big slow rocket-type attack can take off 90 (of your 150 starting) armor in one hit if you get caught in your own blast radius (like, say, if you turn and fire and an ant wanders in front of you at the last second). Always Be Flying.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2014 00:55

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

The Jorts of Zeus posted:

I just picked up Rising Dead 3... What should I need to know? I got the PC Apocalypse edition and it looks like I can just grab whatever badass weapon from weapon lockers without consequence. This seems wrong? I dunno.

The little chunky-bar at the bottom when you're in the locker menu is how much, I dunno, locker energy? You've got to spend. So combo weapons use about as much as two individual items, super-combos are like two combos put together, etc.

All you super-need-to-know is that they don't really explain it well in the skills is: picking up the icon for a category lets you sub anything in that category for anything else in recipes. Which can get real nasty when mid-game you can take any two guns and slam them into one of the best ranged weapons in the game. Oh and it should be obvious but taking Smarts early (for the PP gain boosts) is a great idea.

Also-also, if it's on PC, save BEFORE you access the survivor board in safehouses, especially if you've got people following you. It locks up sometimes and then you're at the mercy of your most recent autosave.

# ¿ Sep 8, 2014 00:51

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Delaio posted:

I've got Disgaea D2 on the way, anything I should know as someone who's only played 1&4? I don't usually get into the insane post game grind stuff if that helps narrow it down.

-Rotate the camera when you're outside the castle to find the most useful NPC (he's behind the building geometry and offers one of the game's new features, the Cheat Shop (which isn't really "cheating" so much as replacing a lot of the annoying bills you'd have to vote for in previous games to customize the play experience)).
-The game unlocks new Devil Dojo options (it'll make sense when you get there) based on how many people have finished stages under a given existing DD option. So everyone should always be assigned to one, in addition to the generally-good-idea because they give free stats.
-Sea Angel monsters are some of the best for grinding in mid-/late-game (XP passive to your allies, very useful ride attack option).
-Monsters in general don't suck this time around, and making your glass cannon mages ride around on giant HP sponges can be a very good idea.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2015 17:25

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

HOOLY BOOLY posted:

Just as a tip for dealing with survivors in general. Yes, their AI is as terrible as it looks but it's much easier to deal with them if you give them weapons and use the waypoints to move them around instead of the "follow me" mode. They can also use the bathroom shortcuts you unlock so long as you can herd everybody into the bathroom (which is harder than it sounds somtimes)

To add to this, if waypointing isn't cutting it, it's really stupid but it helps to spam the Follow Me command if they're not making enough progress towards the waypoint you set, because it gets them to try to path around what they're fighting and come to you instead of pausing and deciding now is the time to make this Sunglasses Hut their Alamo.

Oh ALSO weapons you give them don't lose durability or ammo when they use them, so as long as you can keep away from their incredibly bad aim, it doesn't hurt to toss a shotgun or two in their hands.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2015 02:09

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Mayor McCheese posted:

Quick one for Just Cause 3:

-Vehicles you haven't collected yet have a blue gear icon next to their respected name (bottom left side of the UI).

Another quick one for Just Cause 3:

- On the Gear Mods menu, hovering over/ moving the selector over a gear mod at any depth in the tree will show you how many gears it'll take to unlock, both as a number (on the right and bottom) and as a percentage bar of the total gears in the game (bottom). This is helpful if you're agonizing over not 5-starring every wingsuit challenge right away, for example.

# ¿ Dec 27, 2015 01:53

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Nohman posted:

Also Shadow of Mordor: GOTY? It kind of barfs a ton of DLC. Is some of it broken cheat items or garbage I should uninstall?

The important thing, just like the base game, is to not buy up your health too much or worry about dying, as that robs you of interacting with most of the fun parts of the Nemesis system.

# ¿ Dec 27, 2015 05:34

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

SpitztheGreat posted:

I could use some advice for MGS:V. The save feature is drat near killing my interest in this game as I can't justify losing an hour or more of time carefully scouting out a location, only to have to reload when I have a reflex moment and lose the bonus points. I bought the game used, and if it weren't for that I would be very upset about some of the design decisions made for a game that has ratings of 9s and 10s from most gaming "journalist".

The biggest trick to this is: you can replay missions, and indeed, many of them have bonus conditions that you won't know about until after you complete them once anyway. And like the wiki says at the bottom, won't be able to complete without stuff you might get later in the game.

Basically the biggest bullet points I can offer that aren't explicit in the article:
- You will get upgrades for almost anything (weapons, better soldiers, better utility tools) as you go, so don't sweat being Optimal on anything ever
- If you are sweating it, there's only 1 mission you can mess up permanently (Mission 4, wiki says why)
- Listen to music in-game and just have fun with it

# ¿ Jul 9, 2016 05:17

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Vidaeus posted:

Anything for Grim Dawn apart from what's on beforeiplay.com?

If you played Titan Quest by these guys: the Shaman tree is kinda like Dream from that game, in that it's the "basically anyone can benefit from something here, and the individual skills are strong as gently caress."

Easiest mode is playing Shaman+Anything and maxing out Devouring Swarm. You can start a new character on Normal or even Veteran and faceroll through most of the game while feeling out what sort of character you want to play within that.

Respec is point-for-point at "Spirit Guide" NPCs, one is in the northernmost corner of the starting village/keep. It starts off pretty cheap (like, 25 bits a point) so don't feel like you have to restart because you mis-allocated a level or two. Also this means if you want to try out a skill, drop a point in it, see if you like how it feels, and you can go buy it back later.

Keep Aether Crystals, Scrap, and Dynamite in your inventory as you collect them, because the things that will want them are frequent enough that it's annoying to have to personal rift back and forth to grab stuff.

The Crucible DLC doesn't give you loot/XP until you finish a segment (by either opting out every 10 levels, or dying). You get some loot for dying but not as much. If you want to give yourself a buffer through the early game of the story mode + a few quick levels, jump into Crucible at level 1 and smack stuff until you die, this should get you level 5 or 6 + a decent assortment of basic magic items.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2016 17:11

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Just want to shout out to this thread for the Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate entry on BeforeIPlay, super-helpful even to someone who's on his billionth Musou.

One thing that isn't really a "Before I Play" but cool to know: Save data is cross-play from PS3 WO3 to PS4 WO3U, and DLC is/was cross-buy. Plus a bunch of the levels appear to just be...straight up free on PSN, so go nuts.

Also-also, a thing that you may not know if you only played WO3: WO3 for the PS3 was PSN-only because of weird Sony no-disc-for-JA-V/O restrictions, but the PS4 version has a beautiful shiny disc you can get for ~$30 brand new on Amazon instead of waiting for the digital version on PSN to drop below $60.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2016 21:11

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Also, if you want the best/most bonuses in Alpha Protocol, REALLY lean into

The White Dragon posted:

Be nice to people you like, be a dick to people you don't; just do what comes naturally.

because the bonuses for relationships are different for positive/negative relationships, but get stronger the further to one end you're at. Having someone sorta-dislike you gets you less than full blown hatred.

And is pretty fun to make happen.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2017 15:44

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

GhostBoy posted:

Anything for Nioh? I don't want to spoiler the story for myself, to tried to avoid Let's Plays, though I have learned enough that Ki Pulse is important, and preparing for fights pays dividends.

Three things from a couple hours of playing, all related to the same point:
Many skill descriptions are misleading-to-only-technically-accurate, and the skill movies show you less than you'd think.
1. The skill directly beneath each weapon's high/med/low stance that says "You may now Ki Pulse while dodging" should actually say "You may now Ki Pulse BY dodging" which is insanely, incredibly powerful.
2. Any skill that says "at the end of a combo press triangle" means "any time you hit triangle after hitting square" so you can Sq-Tr, Sq-Sq-Tr, whatever.
3. The charge-triangle Axe skill that says you slam the ground makes it look/sound like you'd use it to knock someone over. It also looks like it has a tiny lovely range because you hit directly at your phone feet. What it actually does, is hit anyone up to your weapon's reach, and knocks them over (at least, anything human-sized in the first couple areas). This also depletes their Ki. This is good, because they're now out of Ki and on the ground and open to a Final Blow.

Only the most minor of spoilers because it won't make sense until you're out of the tutorial/Tower, but:
Also, SPIRITS: You can see what any Guardian Spirit has as its unlocks (what you get at Spirit 10, 11, etc.) by going a few tabs over on YOUR Status screen, or by going to Change Guardian Spirit at any shrine.
Shark spirit has a suite of super-useful stuff that you can unlock as you get a couple points of Spirit (enemies on radar, life on kill, reduced Ki consumption on strong attacks).

# ¿ Feb 16, 2017 18:25

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Chernobyl Peace Prize posted:

Three things from a couple hours of playing, all related to the same point:
Many skill descriptions are misleading-to-only-technically-accurate, and the skill movies show you less than you'd think.
1. The skill directly beneath each weapon's high/med/low stance that says "You may now Ki Pulse while dodging" should actually say "You may now Ki Pulse BY dodging" which is insanely, incredibly powerful.
2. Any skill that says "at the end of a combo press triangle" means "any time you hit triangle after hitting square" so you can Sq-Tr, Sq-Sq-Tr, whatever.
3. The charge-triangle Axe skill that says you slam the ground makes it look/sound like you'd use it to knock someone over. It also looks like it has a tiny lovely range because you hit directly at your phone feet. What it actually does, is hit anyone up to your weapon's reach, and knocks them over (at least, anything human-sized in the first couple areas). This also depletes their Ki. This is good, because they're now out of Ki and on the ground and open to a Final Blow.

Only the most minor of spoilers because it won't make sense until you're out of the tutorial/Tower, but:
Also, SPIRITS: You can see what any Guardian Spirit has as its unlocks (what you get at Spirit 10, 11, etc.) by going a few tabs over on YOUR Status screen, or by going to Change Guardian Spirit at any shrine.
Shark spirit has a suite of super-useful stuff that you can unlock as you get a couple points of Spirit (enemies on radar, life on kill, reduced Ki consumption on strong attacks).

Ok another two:

- Once you unlock the map, go to the Dojo and do the Way of the Ninja tutorial. It will teach you nothing, BUT it unlocks the backstab passive ability (massive damage attack on an unaware target from behind --- lock onto them and then triangle when you see the targeting reticle turn red, while within weapon's reach) in the Ninja skill tree. Which you should get.
- The non-consumable item that says something about consuming "all obtained Amrita" to return to the start of a mission + cancel a mission (basically your "gently caress this I want to leave" button) sounds like it'll eat anything you got from the mission. Literally all it does is 0s our your current possessed Amrita, like dying. So if you're near a level up breakpoint, feel free to get enough Amrita to level up, get your level up, then use the item with your tiny baby amount of Amrita burnt.

Chernobyl Peace Prize fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Feb 17, 2017

# ¿ Feb 17, 2017 18:39

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

MockingQuantum posted:

Any tips for Master of Magic?

The biggest one for me was always: Dark Elves are a comically strong choice (Myrran so you have a map with fewer people on it, basic melee units get additional magical ranged attacks so you can whittle down early fights / grind through weaker enemies without a scratch.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2017 18:46

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

1redflag posted:

nioh?

Here's what I had shortly after it came out:

Chernobyl Peace Prize posted:

Three things from a couple hours of playing, all related to the same point:
Many skill descriptions are misleading-to-only-technically-accurate, and the skill movies show you less than you'd think.
1. The skill directly beneath each weapon's high/med/low stance that says "You may now Ki Pulse while dodging" should actually say "You may now Ki Pulse BY dodging" which is insanely, incredibly powerful.
2. Any skill that says "at the end of a combo press triangle" means "any time you hit triangle after hitting square" so you can Sq-Tr, Sq-Sq-Tr, whatever.
3. The charge-triangle Axe skill that says you slam the ground makes it look/sound like you'd use it to knock someone over. It also looks like it has a tiny lovely range because you hit directly at your phone feet. What it actually does, is hit anyone up to your weapon's reach, and knocks them over (at least, anything human-sized in the first couple areas). This also depletes their Ki. This is good, because they're now out of Ki and on the ground and open to a Final Blow.

Only the most minor of spoilers because it won't make sense until you're out of the tutorial/Tower, but:
Also, SPIRITS: You can see what any Guardian Spirit has as its unlocks (what you get at Spirit 10, 11, etc.) by going a few tabs over on YOUR Status screen, or by going to Change Guardian Spirit at any shrine.
Shark spirit has a suite of super-useful stuff that you can unlock as you get a couple points of Spirit (enemies on radar, life on kill, reduced Ki consumption on strong attacks).

Chernobyl Peace Prize posted:

Ok another two:

- Once you unlock the map, go to the Dojo and do the Way of the Ninja tutorial. It will teach you nothing, BUT it unlocks the backstab passive ability (massive damage attack on an unaware target from behind --- lock onto them and then triangle when you see the targeting reticle turn red, while within weapon's reach) in the Ninja skill tree. Which you should get.
- The non-consumable item that says something about consuming "all obtained Amrita" to return to the start of a mission + cancel a mission (basically your "gently caress this I want to leave" button) sounds like it'll eat anything you got from the mission. Literally all it does is 0s our your current possessed Amrita, like dying. So if you're near a level up breakpoint, feel free to get enough Amrita to level up, get your level up, then use the item with your tiny baby amount of Amrita burnt.

And also: You can respec once you unlock the shop, for an amount that is at first trivial and ramps up with each subsequent respec. So don't sweat it if you don't like your starting choices. Also, those choices only amount to 2 stat points total in the end, so effectively Nothing.

And: Spear is strong as hell. Holy poo poo spear is good.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2017 03:24

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

theshim posted:

Honestly I found Lilith to be crazy good in BL1, especially if you spec into Mind Games - the daze effect is stupidly crippling.

Gaige or Krieg (the two DLC characters) are the most fun to play BL2 solo with. Or with friends.

Gaige and Krieg are hilarious to play as/with, because from an outside perspective you see either:
(Gaige): Why is my ally shooting at the floor, and hitting? I don't understand bullets anymore.
(Krieg): Where did he run off t---oh everything's dead in the next two zones and he's just running around screaming still.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2017 17:09

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Luminaflare posted:

Anything for Dead Rising 4?

From what little I've played it seems like it's a lot less harsh with timers and survivor escorts.

You can't really "miss" anything. If a Survivor in one of the little random blue quests dies, whatever. They'll throw another one at you or a similar event into the area soon enough, so you can max out every shelter.
Explore stuff a lot. You can pay for collectibles to show up on your map (as you level up your shelters with survivors you've saved), but you can find a bunch of crap by just following the usual rule of "it looks like I can jump up there, bet there's a reason for it." And you can, and will, get an insane amount of PP just running in and out of stores to visit their locations the first time (you can tell if you haven't because the minimap shows them as filled in white instead of having a shop type icon).
Always combo stuff. Also, get the "get $ for making combos" skill and you won't be hurting for money.
Related to both of the above: You can buy anything. You can probably find anything too. And unless you're on a higher difficulty, you can find more than enough weapons/food sitting around any of your shelters that you won't really need to buy food/weapons.

Top thing I wish I'd known before I started playing (good news edition):
- Even if you aren't buying vehicles, explore the garage of every shelter. It's worth it

Top thing I wish I'd known before I started playing (bad news edition):
- Stealth kills are insanely buggy, and half the time Frank will just sneak up behind someone and grunt while nudging his head against their spine until they turn around and attack him. Don't rely on them in a pinch, or, ever.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2017 00:26

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Bishop Beo posted:

Any tips for Dead Rising 4? Got it as part of the monthly humble bundle.

- Finding survivors raises your shelter level, and as your shelter level goes up you can buy the ability to see blueprints, safe room keys, and lore collectibles on the map.
- Related, if you're standing right where the map SAYS a blueprint should be, look around for the little safe room icon, on the walls, doorways, etc. of the business/building you're in; it's probably in there, so you'll need to find the key. Or it's in a weird apartment you have to climb around the outside of the building to get to, and you're standing on the ground floor with no direct access from the business you're in. There's a few of those.
- Survival is the best skill tree; more inventory slots + more healing items are by far the best things you can ever get
- Stealth is, or was, insanely buggy and rides the line between useless and actual liability (as in, "oops instead of killing the guy, Frank locked up and just very slowly walked forward to get attacked a ton while being uncontrollable")
- Killing zombies and building up combos to very high counts can get you a ton of XP, very very quickly
- The value of a lot of throwing items (basically anything that doesn't insanely brutally super-murder a ton of guys at once) is in enabling you to get a huge boost to your hit count in one "shot" so that you can use a power move, throw an item, then have the hit count necessary to use a power move again

# ¿ Apr 8, 2018 01:02

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Barudak posted:

The enter every location achievement is absolute madness, do not attempt.

This does bring up a good tip though, you get enough PP from running into locations to discover them that that's a good way to pick up some early, easy levels.

# ¿ Apr 8, 2018 05:39

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Terminally Bored posted:

Anything for Disgaea games in general? There are tips on the wiki but they're mostly for specific installments. How should I play this? Why do some 2 or 3 person combos do less damage than a standard attack? How should I build my teams?

I'm playing through 3 and that's my first Disgaea game.

You can get away with building basically whatever, you will get enough named NPCs in any given game that you'll probably use them the most + maybe a mage or other specialist for gimmicky poo poo.
Vary up your weapon choice though (and be mindful of what stats contribute to a weapon's attacks and equip accordingly, at least at very low and super-high levels), just because they all have pros and cons:
- Spear: Slightly longer range, attack skills have weird aiming requirements
- Axe: Short-range, lower-accuracy, heavy damage with a defensive shred. Good for opening a combo
- Sword: All-around great, has a lot of AoE attacks
- Fist: In later games has the best 3x3 AoE attack (more on that later), also has a lot of enemy-movement abilities, which are extremely useful for navigating item world and just general strategy.
- Gun: Extremely long range in a line out from the character
- Bow: Medium-long range in a more traditional ranged pattern

For how to play in general, story mode maps usually have some sort of gimmick to plan around or overcome, but if you grind by running Item World and the like for awhile, you can brute force basically anything. A good plan is to play through the main story until you feel like you're stuck, then Item World on something where the starting floor (it'll say like, 11+, 21+, etc.) is a right around your level or a little under. Then run through it, getting gear and levels. Repeat.

Forgot what's on the wiki, but if these aren't there, these are good:

In every game there's eventually a map in late-game/post-game/side-content where there are enemies on a 2x3 or 3x3 grid with XP boost and defense penalties, which you will use ten thousand times for grinding.

Throwing monsters into each other combines them, which is extremely relevant in any of the games's little Dark Assembly / monster congress / whatever voting minigame, because it means all you need to do for some of the bills that all but demand you fight to pass them is bribe one high-level monster onto your side, then run around throwing it into lower level things absorb them into a single friendly NPC for the duration of the fight. Then boom you've done it.

# ¿ May 9, 2018 14:09

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Terminally Bored posted:

Thanks so much! I'm really stupid and didn't figure out that it matters who opens a combo.

Also iirc the damage done ramps up with hits, so save your heavy hitters for later and put any multi hit attacks in early.
Also be aware that you can still combo people if forced movement attacks carry them into the area of effect, like if you uppercut a dude 1 sq back into a waiting axe attack

# ¿ May 9, 2018 15:58

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

RatHat posted:

Since Dead Cells is coming out August 7th on basically all platforms, any tips you guys have picked up from the PC Early Access?

- If you power-drop instead of just falling down something, you won't get stunned for falling any distance. You also fall a lot faster. This also works on elevators you'd otherwise have to wait for.
- You'd be surprised how quickly most of the bosses' first forms go down to "roll through them, attack once or twice, repeat"
- The timed doors are pretty close to a wash compared to the loot you'd get for killing every single enemy and fully exploring every stage, but are (by their nature) faster. So for efficiency's sake, once you get comfortable with the controls just run around like an idiot trying to speed-run stages.
- The crappiest items can randomly turn into the best runs if you Get Good, so only suicide if (1) you've spent all your cells between stages and (2) you hate the playstyle a lot. I've gotten hung up on the first boss on my 50th run despite having items I liked, and gotten to the final boss using things I thought were garbage for multiple stages straight.

# ¿ Jul 21, 2018 21:46

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Subnautica tip that I wish I'd known:
- If your scanner gives you a name but no "pick up" option, stab it with your knife. This applies to lots of objects.

# ¿ Dec 27, 2018 22:41

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

SolidSnakesBandana posted:

Currently eyeballing Far Cry 5. My main question is this: what percentage of gametime can be spent with my doggy companion by my side?

Like 90% of the open world content and maybe 30% of the direct story stuff (hope you like waking up in basements naked)

# ¿ Jan 19, 2019 02:03

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

KirbyKhan posted:

I have begun playing Void Bastards

It seems that staplers to the face are ideal for Spooks. I have no idea how many damage upgrades I will need for screws.

Kittybots are invaluable, and yet the game dumps them on you in huge piles. Which is great.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2019 02:37

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

I dunno if anyone's mentioned this yet but

Code Vein
The items you can exchange valuables for called "<NPC Name's> Ichor" that say they increase your maximum Ichor, are not permanent increases. They are buff items to use if you want to top off your capacity before a boss without backstabbing dudes on the way.

Related: You will be able to buy Valuables with a repeatable-item-drop a few hours in, so don't feel like they're truly limited trade items. Also different items are worth different amounts of points (1-5) for different people, you can Google a guide if you really care about optimizing it.

Even if items share the same weapon class, they may operate differently; a broadsword and katana are both one-handed swords, but their attack patterns are wildly different. Very very relevant to this is that there are spears, which are polearms with a much better attack pattern than the big beefy halberds and poo poo.

Early-tier crafting materials drop like candy. Upgrade anything you want to at least +6/+7 without fear of running out of mats.

The fastest roll is a dash that you don't have recovery/standing-up time from. It's most easily reached by using a spell (Hasten) from one of the earlier class unlocks, and is well worth prioritizing for a number of boss fights.

ALWAYS LOOK OFF THE SIDE OF LEDGES. Like a third of the secret areas and even progression I've found by mid-game maps is from little drop-falls.

e: vvv Cool, put some more stuff in the post!

Chernobyl Peace Prize fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Oct 1, 2019

# ¿ Oct 1, 2019 20:34

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Kaboom Dragoon posted:

This is the guide for relationship items for Code Vein btw, best items at the top, worst at the bottom.

You might want to spoiler that though, it contains a moderate plot give-away in it.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2019 21:44

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Xander77 posted:

Couple of things that seem to be troubling new players in Disco Elysium:

* Click to walk, double-click to run.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2019 14:34

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

srulz posted:

Anything for Hades? After playing the very first run the game seems to be exceedingly simple, but now I'm on run 5 or 6 and the game just introduce completely new mechanics almost after each run, it's almost overwhelming.

-The Shield really is that good.
-Not everyone you can give Ambrosia to is in the base every time you go back, so if you're trying to target a gift for someone, you might have to die a few times.
-Once you've unlocked every weapon, you unlock the ability to customize them. So even if you don't have an interest in some of them, get them anyway.

# ¿ Dec 15, 2019 17:55

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Zaodai posted:

Care to elaborate a bit on the right way to use it/what makes it great?

In addition to what NObodyNOWHERE said, a big part of the Shield being strong is getting lucky on a few key boons/buffs, like bull rush doing 400% damage to Armor (which is basically "wipe out Armor with a single charge") or anything that rewards spamming Specials (like "free projectile on Special") for boss fights when you can just bounce it off the boss and back a few times while staying at medium to long range. Also later on you can get flat damage reduction for just equipping it, which is nice if you're bad at the game (me) and need longer to learn mechanics (me).

In general the way to use it, for me, is:
Early / anything with a slow attack animation: mash the poo poo out of melee attack / dash in the direction of an enemy you want to do nothing and die.
Later: Special bouncing and dashing around to make chaotic areas more manageable
Always: Be hitting Special and dashing around if you don't know what you should be doing at a given moment. The free damage from bounces while you get your bearings adds up.

# ¿ Dec 15, 2019 21:54

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Also, cultist identities will get hinted at by other ones you take out along the way so the worst thing that'll happen is having to fast-travel back to go clear a fortress you skipped. But in the process you'll get to skip any you don't feel like doing.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2019 17:43

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Related, there are also a few tied to main plot stuff, so if you're getting frustrated that you just can't track down a dude somewhere, just keep 'er movin'.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2019 17:47

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 14, 2024 02:12

Chernobyl Peace Prize: May 7, 2007; Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

ahobday posted:

Double post, but anything for Wolcen? I watched a beginner's guide video, and I think I understand the basic mechanics. Respecs are in the game so I'm not too worried, but anything I should know, especially about becoming overpowered? I'm bow/ranger at the moment.

Avoid putting anything in your stash for the time being---sell just about everything, keep gems in your inventory, etc. Right now your stash tab can just get wiped out at random by one of their numerous hotfixes and patches, so save yourself the heartache and just run lean for the next couple days.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2020 02:00

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The "What should I know before I play this game for the first time?" Q&A!

«‹›2 »