Just took Diamond Red as my first mine.

[bunny de fluff]

It was a huge pita. Went there straight from Ernie Island, one imp with 4 rookie recruits, a few silenced rifle. Slave master was like one shot one lethal wound. So painful . Didn't manage to clear the map before fighting him but luckily only one slave died. What should I do now? Go get Flay?

[Cursed Life]

So you skipped the whole initial area, weird.

[bunny de fluff]

Originally posted by Cursed Life:

So you skipped the whole initial area, weird.

Someone gave the tips to go there right from the start, and then camp there to maybe train all the mercs to become better units because you wouldn't have money problem for a long time. It's starting to feel like the wrong way to play this game though : )

[Hassohappa]

I believe you could just sit on that mine while training up your first squad of 6 and get enough money to exist like that without consequence for a long time and just set out with an absolutely overpowered team but you might not enjoy just cakewalking through the game.

Looking at the map myself my first playthrough I started with Diamond Red as well. There's nothing to indicate "high level" or "low level" areas beyond distance from the starting point and that is a point you can start at and then move out from that will set you up to be able to interdict any assault teams that the Legion sends so it's a good starting point even if you aren't going to sit there cheesing training. Flay and Larry are both near you and they're both fine soldiers made much more appealing by not having salaries (you need Metaviron for Larry though so that might be harder to get without taking some detours).

Overall the game isn't hard enough to demand some perfect route or anything, it's not designed to be played with some rigid path and there are obvious objectives of mines and enemy bases to take so unless you're looking for someone to just tell you what to do I think you'll be fine taking the game as it comes.

[Cursed Life]

99% of the player go to the closest mine to the east, thats the intended path.

[bunny de fluff]

Originally posted by Hassohappa:

I believe you could just sit on that mine while training up your first squad of 6 and get enough money to exist like that without consequence for a long time and just set out with an absolutely overpowered team but you might not enjoy just cakewalking through the game.

Looking at the map myself my first playthrough I started with Diamond Red as well. There's nothing to indicate "high level" or "low level" areas beyond distance from the starting point and that is a point you can start at and then move out from that will set you up to be able to interdict any assault teams that the Legion sends so it's a good starting point even if you aren't going to sit there cheesing training. Flay and Larry are both near you and they're both fine soldiers made much more appealing by not having salaries (you need Metaviron for Larry though so that might be harder to get without taking some detours).

Overall the game isn't hard enough to demand some perfect route or anything, it's not designed to be played with some rigid path and there are obvious objectives of mines and enemy bases to take so unless you're looking for someone to just tell you what to do I think you'll be fine taking the game as it comes.

I'm not going to train a super soldier squad before venturing out : ) Maybe I'll train the STR of some people but that's it lol. I think this time around I will to slowly South to get Larry first instead of going east. Thanks for the reply.

Originally posted by Cursed Life:

99% of the player go to the closest mine to the east, thats the intended path.

Agreed. Now I am trying to train up the strength of Kalyna, but only slightly. Her str is just too low.

[Hassohappa]

Originally posted by Cursed Life:

99% of the player go to the closest mine to the east, thats the intended path.

That's insane. Diamond Red is 7 tiles away from Ernie. Mfumu's Mine is 7 tiles away as well (5 as the crow flies but you aren't a crow). Diamond Red says it's a rich deposit, Mfumu says it's a poor deposit. From Diamond Red you are starting in a corner so you can expand more safely while Mfumu is surrounded on all sides.

I think it's perfectly reasonable for a new player to start at either mine but nothing in the game pushes you to Mfumu, if anything the map layout pushes me to pick Diamond Red which is what I did without looking up anything.

[bunny de fluff]

@Hassohappa: the two mines cannot compare in difficulty. Red diamond mine took a huge chunk from my team and I save scum the crap out of the whole fight. I won't do this again lol
: )

[BastardSword]

I would expect going for Mfumu (the mine just east of Ernie) is way easier in terms of enemies, and will provide you with a useful cash boost that you need to start getting stronger. Fairly early on in the game you need to start giving most or all of your squad good modded sniper rifles to be able to fight the stronger enemies in places like Diamond Red and the mine and areas around Port Cacao. Once you can take over those areas then you can deal with pretty much everything on the map before a certain event, then you'll need to get better weapons and probably a second squad if you don't already have one.

[bunny de fluff]

Originally posted by BastardSword:

I would expect going for Mfumu (the mine just east of Ernie) is way easier in terms of enemies, and will provide you with a useful cash boost that you need to start getting stronger. Fairly early on in the game you need to start giving most or all of your squad good modded sniper rifles to be able to fight the stronger enemies in places like Diamond Red and the mine and areas around Port Cacao. Once you can take over those areas then you can deal with pretty much everything on the map before a certain event, then you'll need to get better weapons and probably a second squad if you don't already have one.

The slave master in the Red diamond mine has a certain unique rifle that does ridiculously high and accurate damage to us making the whole operation absurd for my squad. I don't even have a dragunov , only some pea shooters. Wouldn't recommend doing this for anyone.

[Gillsing]

Originally posted by Hassohappa:

I believe you could just sit on that mine while training up your first squad of 6 and get enough money to exist like that without consequence for a long time and just set out with an absolutely overpowered team but you might not enjoy just cakewalking through the game.

I would surely enjoy that. It's what the game deserves after torturing me with its lack of a proper tutorial. I went through hell, and now the game is going to pay.

Also, the most important reason to go to Diamond Red: Livewire is tired and wants a 12 hour boat ride to rest. Hm, how do I arrange that when all the other mines are so close? How do I even know that a 12 hour boat ride is needed? Because the lack of a tutorial made me read forums and guides and spoilers. Great job! 👍

Graaf shot Buns so hard she thought she died. 5 wounds in one attack. Vengeance for all the guards she'd assassinated? MD got so scared he didn't come back until it was all over. Graaf also shot my sneaky martial artist IMP so many times that Thor had time to make it up there and end everything before even a single slave got shot. 6 wounds for my IMP. Pretty sure he went down at the end, but then he was back up with higher health. Did he get bandaged automatically when the fight was over?

And then a diamond transport appeared while they still had a wound or two left. I have to get those before they disappear, right? Off they went. Might as well pass by the other Légion squad as well, right? Massacre. Reload, and read the AIM challenge in time:

Elusive Killer: Livewire should kill one target and not take any damage.

Yeah, here's Gold Fever, Livewire. We'll set up in the south retreat zone, and you shoot one of the guys, and then we save the game often so we can always reload and retreat if you take any damage. (She didn't.)

For the diamond raid they split up, as I was hoping the enemies might get stuck between two rifles. But they just split up as well. Still died though, so that was good. And everyone got home safely with 1-3 wounds each. And Livewire is tired again. When is her 15 min break?

[Hassohappa]

Originally posted by bunny de fluff:

Originally posted by BastardSword:

I would expect going for Mfumu (the mine just east of Ernie) is way easier in terms of enemies, and will provide you with a useful cash boost that you need to start getting stronger. Fairly early on in the game you need to start giving most or all of your squad good modded sniper rifles to be able to fight the stronger enemies in places like Diamond Red and the mine and areas around Port Cacao. Once you can take over those areas then you can deal with pretty much everything on the map before a certain event, then you'll need to get better weapons and probably a second squad if you don't already have one.

The slave master in the Red diamond mine has a certain unique rifle that does ridiculously high and accurate damage to us making the whole operation absurd for my squad. I don't even have a dragunov , only some pea shooters. Wouldn't recommend doing this for anyone.

FWIW the poacher camp nearby has a dragonuv for sale.

Also I never said that the two mines were equally easy, only that for someone completely new to the game there is no apparent reason the game gives you to pick going to Mfumu over Red Diamond.

[bunny de fluff]

@Hassohappa: thanks for the tip of getting my hands on a dragunov : )

[Cursed Life]

Originally posted by bunny de fluff:

The slave master in the Red diamond mine has a certain unique rifle that does ridiculously high and accurate damage to us making the whole operation absurd for my squad. I don't even have a dragunov , only some pea shooters. Wouldn't recommend doing this for anyone.

Only one bullet, you have to reload every turn.

[Gillsing]

Originally posted by bunny de fluff:

@Hassohappa: thanks for the tip of getting my hands on a dragunov : )

On my way to intercept a weapon transport I just found a secret stash with a Dragunov and a single chip. Could be a random weapon though? In the Savanna Coast just to the west of Mfumu mine.

[bunny de fluff]

Originally posted by Gillsing:

Originally posted by bunny de fluff:

@Hassohappa: thanks for the tip of getting my hands on a dragunov : )

On my way to intercept a weapon transport I just found a secret stash with a Dragunov and a single chip. Could be a random weapon though? In the Savanna Coast just to the west of Mfumu mine.

I see. I would be doing a lot of scouting operations near that region just in case.