New player on styx. Advice needed

[Prophet419]

I dont really want to quit the game but the difficulty curve going from the forest to the arctic is a little ridiculous as a solo. I even waited all the way until I had a hunting rifle, am I doing something wrong or is this game just designed around cheese? 10k+ hp pools on an arctic scorpion or polar bear makes it seem like it wants me to sit on rocks and cheese since I already had the best gun available

[Tanyon]

Is you are a "new" player you should not be on STYX. Olympus is the beginner map, STYX is intermediate and then Prometheus would be hard. Obviously taking level and location into consideration.

Are you doing Missions or Open World?

If I were you I would start with missions on Olympus those allow you to transition easier into each biome and allow you to gather Ren to buy better starting gear from the station.

They really need a better way to direct new players in what they should be doing when they first play the game. So many people want to do open world or play on a different map not realizing the difficulty spike.

[КрендельФигов]

The thing is that the Arctic is not a boy scout camp, and Styx is a map with three difficulty skulls. When I went to the Arctic at Olympus Openworld or Missions, as soon as I saw a polar bear on the horizon, I did approximately the same thing as in the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odTzRQKKG1U
Only I made diagonal beams from stone, ran next to the rock wall and from the hotbar ‘on time’ assembled a platform on a wall steep enough for a bear not to climb there, at a height of 2-3 floors. And from there, ‘from a crouch’ (for an additional bonus of stealth) he fired the first shot in the head. And very rarely it was a oneshot from a titanium rifle (Attachment Sniper 2), but as a rule it was 1/3 HP. Moreover, the shot “passed” even from such a distance when the “life bar” above the head was not yet visible. Then i finished off while sitting on top.
In addition, at first I carried a ‘folding’ stone house with me in case of bad weather. Once when I was drilling exotics on Missions and a storm began (four petals yellow). So, in addition to everything, the temperature began to drop + at night it drops further. I didn’t calculate that one fire (MXC Campfire) would not be enough for me to warm up and in order to avoid getting frostbite I had to ‘sit on the fire’ (at 500C degrees at once). After this, caught fire (in my opinion, for 20 seconds, and sometimes the burning ended earlier), then “cure” by overeating on meat, and so on again.
After that, I began to go to the Arctic with a folding concrete house (1X1), which, if necessary, was assembled on the most vertical cliff at the level of 2-3 floors in a very short time.

[Prophet419]

Originally posted by DarthTanyon:

Is you are a "new" player you should not be on STYX. Olympus is the beginner map, STYX is intermediate and then Prometheus would be hard. Obviously taking level and location into consideration.

Are you doing Missions or Open World?

I've been doing open world stuff on styx because it has open world missions. The forest areas on styx has felt completely fine, its felt similar to my short olympus experience. The very first open world mission though took me into an arctic zone though where I was met with level 80s and the Polaris miniboss polarbear.
I'll probably end up checking olympus out once they release the open world missions they talked about last update

[william_es]

Originally posted by DarthTanyon:

Is you are a "new" player you should not be on STYX. Olympus is the beginner map, STYX is intermediate and then Prometheus would be hard. Obviously taking level and location into consideration.

I would say Styx is actually harder then the starting areas of prometheus.

Styx has permanent baked in buffs on the creatures and the weather is insane (on a scale of 1 to 10, it goes to 12). And that's across the board on ALL styx, missions or open world.

New players really should stick to Olympus, and knock out exotic mining. Use the exotics to buy basic workshop gear (canteen, oxy bottle, weapons, tools, etc), before moving onto other maps. That way when you go into other maps, you have all of your immediate concerns taken care of when you get out of the drop pod. You're not worrying about water, air, or getting jumped by something.

[Prophet419]

Originally posted by КрендельФигов:

The thing is that the Arctic is not a boy scout camp, and Styx is a map with three difficulty skulls. When I went to the Arctic at Olympus Openworld or Missions, as soon as I saw a polar bear on the horizon, I did approximately the same thing as in the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odTzRQKKG1U
Only I made diagonal beams from stone, ran next to the rock wall and from the hotbar ‘on time’ assembled a platform on a wall steep enough for a bear not to climb there, at a height of 2-3 floors. And from there, ‘from a crouch’ (for an additional bonus of stealth) he fired the first shot in the head. And very rarely it was a oneshot from a titanium rifle (Attachment Sniper 2), but as a rule it was 1/3 HP. Moreover, the shot “passed” even from such a distance when the “life bar” above the head was not yet visible. Then i finished off while sitting on top.
In addition, at first I carried a ‘folding’ stone house with me in case of bad weather. Once when I was drilling exotics on Missions and a storm began (four petals yellow). So, in addition to everything, the temperature began to drop + at night it drops further. I didn’t calculate that one fire (MXC Campfire) would not be enough for me to warm up and in order to avoid getting frostbite I had to ‘sit on the fire’ (at 500C degrees at once). After this, caught fire (in my opinion, for 20 seconds, and sometimes the burning ended earlier), then “cure” by overeating on meat, and so on again.
After that, I began to go to the Arctic with a folding concrete house (1X1), which, if necessary, was assembled on the most vertical cliff at the level of 2-3 floors in a very short time.

Not a boyscout camp yet you explain exactly how you overcome it with "boyscout camp" tactics. Good to know the arctics difficulty is so high that you basically need to cheese it

[Borfoid]

Originally posted by Prophet419:

Not a boyscout camp yet you explain exactly how you overcome it with "boyscout camp" tactics. Good to know the arctics difficulty is so high that you basically need to cheese it

You said what weapon you had, and that's fine. Decent weapon, arguably not the best though... Conversation for another time.

What buffs do you run with, what armour, wep/armour mods, do you use tonics? Do you have a better env suit? Your ability points are also critical to longevity.

[Prophet419]

Originally posted by william_es:

Originally posted by DarthTanyon:

Is you are a "new" player you should not be on STYX. Olympus is the beginner map, STYX is intermediate and then Prometheus would be hard. Obviously taking level and location into consideration.

I would say Styx is actually harder then the starting areas of prometheus.

Styx has permanent baked in buffs on the creatures and the weather is insane (on a scale of 1 to 10, it goes to 12). And that's across the board on ALL styx, missions or open world.

New players really should stick to Olympus, and knock out exotic mining. Use the exotics to buy basic workshop gear (canteen, oxy bottle, weapons, tools, etc), before moving onto other maps. That way when you go into other maps, you have all of your immediate concerns taken care of when you get out of the drop pod. You're not worrying about water, air, or getting jumped by something.

Think I started at like level 7 which did make some things a slight chore but it wasnt a huge difference... until i left the forest. My main reason for being confused about crazy scaling, bears in the forest have like 1k hp.. polar bears though? I did at least 6k before i got mauled xD

[Prophet419]

Originally posted by Borfoid:

Originally posted by Prophet419:

Not a boyscout camp yet you explain exactly how you overcome it with "boyscout camp" tactics. Good to know the arctics difficulty is so high that you basically need to cheese it

You said what weapon you had, and that's fine. Decent weapon, arguably not the best though... Conversation for another time.

What buffs do you run with, what armour, wep/armour mods, do you use tonics? Do you have a better env suit? Your ability points are also critical to longevity.

New player only lvl 36 or 37 so very baseline stuff. Was expecting to just run in and out of the arctic for the first mission when it has you placing down waypoint beacons. Think its cured leather armor with plating 1 on pants/chest random utility on the rest, no tonics, no env suit upgrade because its the very first mission and I havent gotten any currency as of yet in open world mode

[Tanyon]

Yea unfortunately harder enemies and bosses have little to nothing to do with skill and everything to do with "how can I kill this without being in danger" which usually leads to building things that you would consider "cheese".

I always carry a structure with me and if I see a polar bear I get off the ground and lure it over and just shoot it from above.. it's not great for game-play really but it is what it is..

You can joust them.. but a couple wrong moves or lag spikes and you are bear dinner.

[Tanyon]

I'd definitely get a farm set up ASAP. Then grab whatever you can and start growing everything. Even if it's wooden boxes it's better than nothing. Some of the foods you can make.. omg.. will give you like 250 health AND 150 stam and vice versa.. have to put tech into cooking and unlocking bio-fuel and all that kinda stuff.

[Borfoid]

Originally posted by Prophet419:

Originally posted by Borfoid:

You said what weapon you had, and that's fine. Decent weapon, arguably not the best though... Conversation for another time.

What buffs do you run with, what armour, wep/armour mods, do you use tonics? Do you have a better env suit? Your ability points are also critical to longevity.

New player only lvl 36 or 37 so very baseline stuff. Was expecting to just run in and out of the arctic for the first mission when it has you placing down waypoint beacons. Think its cured leather armor with plating 1 on pants/chest random utility on the rest, no tonics, no env suit upgrade because its the very first mission and I havent gotten any currency as of yet in open world mode

You're doing fine.

You don't need to cheese anything really, sometimes things go to the dogs and you just have to take the hit... My latest play on Prometheus I lost an entire base, everything, because of stupid placement of my thumper.

The difficulty curve is just brutal and ramps up massively when you move from the training wheels world to something harder.

Once you've got a better suit, few more levels, figured out how to better maximise your ability points for your loadout with a bit of respec, got decent armour, decent mods, got chems sorted... Arctic will feel like a playground.

When you start out in a place like that after moving up a notch it's asking for punishment, you've got to keep your head down. You're fine, just stick with it

[Borfoid]

Originally posted by DarthTanyon:

I'd definitely get a farm set up ASAP. Then grab whatever you can and start growing everything. Even if it's wooden boxes it's better than nothing. Some of the foods you can make.. omg.. will give you like 250 health AND 150 stam and vice versa.. have to put tech into cooking and unlocking bio-fuel and all that kinda stuff.

You need the buffs... If there's one thing you need. It's the buffs.

[Prophet419]

Damn wasnt expecting food buffs to be that important. Thankfully I found a bug with the first styx mission so xp isnt much of an issue. After placing the first forest beacon lvl 40-70 komodos spawn infinitely xD thank you for the advice guys, Icarus is a beautiful world that I didnt want to give up on so easily.
Some day I'll get my revenge on polaris and his goons but for now.. I am the komodo slayer

[Borfoid]

For the buffs, don't forget that you have 3 stomach slots (base) and there's 3 easy to find and produce foods that give +% to ranged damage too - and offer all of those lovely additional stats on top of that damage boost.

Get cooking!

[Rekal]

There's always a legitimate way to defeat all the critters. Figuring out the best way that works for you is part of the fun. A big part of this game is crafting and using consumables to obtain a benefit. I mean, land mines are a thing in this game. If you expect to run around with your trusty bow and knife and kill everything that moves... Sorry, you're going to run into the frustration you're facing right now. There's a lot more to the game. Explore more of it.

Have you considered what food buffs you're using? You can stack 45%+ extra projectile damage just by including the right three foods. Good for bows and guns. There's food for melee damage and speed as well if you want to get right up in their face.

Getting up in their face is dangerous though! Really?

Your armor and mods can make a big difference. Are you using workshop armor? Or have you crafted up the composite armor? It has a base of 44% physical resistance while the best armored workshop armor - Naneo - is only 33%. The HARK envirosuit adds 10%. 'TIS BUT A SCRATCH is a solo talent that adds 15%. That puts you at a base of 69% physical resistance. Plus the composite armor can fit on two advanced plating mods for an additional 2x 10% physical resistance multipliers. Which brings you to 82% base. Add 15% more multiplier from a Strength Enhancement Tonic brings you to 93% physical resistance. What's stopping you from grabbing a shield on top of all that and making that polar bear your cuddle buddy? Drink the health tonics and you'll probably regen faster than it can damage you. Melee starting to make a bit more sense right?

What about all the debuff mods you can add to your melee weapons, have you tried them yet? Plain Jane extra damage isn't always the best option.

Composite armor not warm enough for the arctic zone? Prepare hot coffee or tea. Use torches instead of a lantern and leave the torch lit to warm you.

Again preparing consumables is a big part of the game right?

The Anti-Poison Pill will stop all the scorpion's poison for 10 minutes so that's one thing you can prepare to have one less thing you worry about.

Health Tonics are the actual health potions in the game, not stacks of meat. Meat is just cheaper.

Land mines are expensive, but what about the Hedgehogs? Just wood and rope - the poor man's land mine. Lay them around the area for when you need to pull back and recover. Run the critter through them to slow and damage it. Win!

Carrying all that stuff is definitely going to fill up your inventory. That's part of the game though - build an hunting lodge closer to where you need it with storage for your hunting gear and unloading your catches more frequently. A cave would work fine too as an alternative to store your hunting gear. Maybe make the lodge out of cheap wood and tear it down between uses and store the whole thing in a cave instead of letting it get wrecked by weather. Not everything has to be fancy stone or concrete.

As far as the arctic enemies you're facing:

Polar bears are similar to the brown bears. There's a way to joust them that makes them comically easy to dodge. It's slightly different than the brown bear dance but it works fine once you figure it out. You can look up videos for examples.

For the scorpions, have you tried poison arrows? Or the cave worm arrows? Or fire arrows? Or the Black Wolf arrows? More simple but effective consumables. Again, straight damage isn't always the best option. DOTs stack in this game. Nothings stopping you from carrying 3 or 4 wood bows with the different arrows loaded to save you time while fighting.