Village of shadows difficulty impossible on new game?

[Der Großmann]

l did see some speedruners beat it but some things just don't make sense , l do exactly what they do but for example l'm stuck in the first sister boss fight at castle Dimitrescu ,the regular enemies littering the already small arena ,one pipe bomb ,one land mine , 3 healing items and 10+ shotgun shells and still l get insta killed ,even the regular enemies helping the boss are nearly indestructible ,as soon as the fight starts the boss will rush me and combo me into game over , is it even possible to beat it?

[Grubbs008]

Originally posted by Andy French:

I beat village of shadows on a new game. It was very challenging, I avoided facing enemies as much as possible to save resources for the bosses. The Moroaica and the Hauler you can face them with the knife. They take a long time to die with the knife but they are slow and most of them are programmed to go back to their spawn point if they leave this area going after you so you can take this moment to stab them in the back with the knife so you are safe from damage and killing them you can earn resources and money that in this difficulty comes a great deal of money.

The thing is, most people don't want to sit there knifing an enemy for 15 minutes just to trigger a cutscene to knife them for another 30 mins after that.

[Denoloco]

Yeah it is a terrible difficulty. On hand it forces you to use unlimited ammo, on the other you can start it right away with the deluxe edition without having unlimited ammo at all.
I tried and gave up on Moreau, which is basically a softlock unless you only kill bosses and spare all resources. Shame, Madhouse in RE7 was one of the best maximum difficulties of all times.

[Seraphim]

Originally posted by Denoloco:

Yeah it is a terrible difficulty. On hand it forces you to use unlimited ammo, on the other you can start it right away with the deluxe edition without having unlimited ammo at all.
I tried and gave up on Moreau, which is basically a softlock unless you only kill bosses and spare all resources. Shame, Madhouse in RE7 was one of the best maximum difficulties of all times.

Moreau should be doable with mine-stacking, a few explosive rounds, the sniper and the barrels in the area.

I didn't do a new game on VoS yet, but I will in the next few days. Played a lot on NG+, but did a standard run in NG to practice some things. I'm so scared of Bela (and also of the lycan attack and Cassandra, she's so fast and aggressive).
I found a video on Youtube from CarcinogenSDA, he did a No Damage run on Vos in a new game, maybe you should watch it, could be very helpful.
Some things I noticed in the video:
- Don't waste your ammo on Moroaicas. You have to shoot some of them, but most of them should be done with the knife, like Andy French mentioned. But some additional things: The first Moroaicas you encounter in the cellar can be done with the torch there. Trigger them, run all the way back to the torch and wait for them until they set themself on fire, then slowly go backwards in the hallway behind you. At some point, they will turn around and go back to their spawn point, that's your chance to stab them. It's possible that some of them will just teleport back, then you have to trigger them again. In the "bloody" cellar you have to shoot the first 3 or 4 of them, for the rest it's the same as before (without torch, of course), with one exception. Stabbing them in the back takes forever, so you should "bodyblock" them. When they turn around (there's a corner with two barrels, where they turn back), jump in front of them, don't let them get past you and slash the hell out of them, they will not attack you. Yes, it takes some time, but also saves A LOT of ammo which is better used on the daughters and Lady D.
- Don't use ammo on Samca, too. Just run to the mask on the roof, don't grab it (!), only kick the ladder, jump down there, run all the way to the mask again and crouch behind the fence there. They will group on the other side of the fence, but they can't hit you through it. Slashing time :D
- Save your lockpicks in the castle until you get the sniper. There should be ammo for it in one of the drawers instead of something else when you open it before getting the sniper.
- Don't blow up the wall in the treasure room with the pipe bomb to get the blue eye. The pipe bomb is way more worth than the treasure.

A pipe bomb can also be useful in the fight with Bela, you get the first one in the cellar and also scrapmetal to craft another (although I'm not sure if the Duke is selling the recipe before).

[Seraphim]

Did you get past Bela in the meanwhile?
I started my run yesterday and well... Bela and Cassandra were really hard, but Lady D was just insane. Took me FOUR hours and I was left with a few sniper bullets, no shotgun/pistol ammo and no healing items. Thank god Donna is "free" and it will be easier from now on (I can collect resources again, Duke offers me bufffood and I get a lot of money).

[Tails' Cash Explosion]

I legit felt ripped off paying for the deluxe version for the difficulty mode, hoping it would be well balanced like Madhouse in RE7 for a first time playthrough. Instead it's just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cheap difficulty and now I probably won't bother with anymore playthroughs of RE8 for multiple years.

[Lahgtah]

Originally posted by Denoloco:

Yeah it is a terrible difficulty. On hand it forces you to use unlimited ammo, on the other you can start it right away with the deluxe edition without having unlimited ammo at all.
I tried and gave up on Moreau, which is basically a softlock unless you only kill bosses and spare all resources. Shame, Madhouse in RE7 was one of the best maximum difficulties of all times.

Yeah they kind of dropped the ball on VoS' tuning, obviously intending for infinite ammo with at least something(even then, it can still be really bad if you blew CP on inferior guns.)

I like the increased AI aggression, and the change in spawns of enemies, but I really don't like how everything's a huge damage sponge. Really should've went with keeping the AI health the same as standard for hardcore and VoS, but having more aggressive and more lethal AI. Would make it really challenging without forcing the player to resort to relying on infinite ammo or cheese tactics like pathing/leashing exploits.

Infinite ammo should not be required, just a fun extra to goof around with(and I wish we could toggle each individual weapon instead of all or none like in RE 5.)

[Schaffner]

I didnt try on the first run, but even with good weapons and unlimited ammo there are some annoying parts.
-Additional enemies after you lose your hand and have to run from Lady D.
-Some more enemies during runaway parts in the Facotry.
-The fight against the boss Soldat.
-And the most annoying part was the boss fight against Heisenberg.
Dont know if I messed something up but it felt like 15-20 rockets from that tank were needed to finally trigger the last phase. And your tank only lasts 2-3 hits. No help from any unlocked stuff.

[Seraphim]

Originally posted by Schaffner:

-Additional enemies after you lose your hand and have to run from Lady D.
-Some more enemies during runaway parts in the Facotry.
-The fight against the boss Soldat.
-And the most annoying part was the boss fight against Heisenberg.

- Just make sure Lady D and the first additional enemy "stick together", you don't want Lady D on one side of the hall and the Moroaica on the other. Run past the second Moroaica when it's getting up from the ground (maybe block while you're next to it).
- Shoot a flashbang in their damn faces and run past them.
- Again: Flashbangs. He will charge to the left and stick for a while on the next wall he can't break through. You can even stop him with flashbangs if he's directly charging at you and only a few steps away.
- For Heisenberg, your aim has to be good. Destroy the weak spots to interrupt his attacks. Stay as far away from him as you can. Only use the rockets to push him away, not for damage.

[gilfordtan]

If you're asking whether it's possible to beat NG VoS without any unlockable, yes it is possible. You have also seen speed runners doing it. Basically you to know which fight to skip. There is definitely not enough ammo for everything, and you will spend a ♥♥♥♥ ton on mandatory boss fights. If you still have trouble with Bela, check out the small details of how speed runners did it. You will need at least 2 mines and 1 pipe bomb for that fight. Shooting the other window will stun her for a short while.

[Something Diabolical!]

It's not impossible it just isn't fun or interesting in the least bit. The game isn't hard it's just that everything is a bullet sponge and wastes all your ammo which wouldn't be a problem but this RE wants to be an action game instead of a survival horror so conserving ammo feels stupid... Might aswell be a walking sim.

[Vador76]

it's possible but i guess it's supposed to be played with the long revolver ( that use sniper ammo ) and maybe karambit knife.

but it's great to have a proper difficulty mode in a survival horror game

[tap and die]

You're encouraged to speedrun this mode because you will not have enough ammo to kill anything outside of bosses.

[Seraphim]

Originally posted by Vador76:

it's possible but i guess it's supposed to be played with the long revolver ( that use sniper ammo ) and maybe karambit knife.

If you use the Handcannon and/or the Karambit, it's not a new game. VoS new game = no NG+ items allowed.

----------
I finished my VoS new game run on Friday and it was a pain. Took me around 13 hours, I had to load a previous save, because with the resources/ammo left I wasn't able to kill Miranda. I wasted too many pipe bombs/mines/magnum ammo in the factory, so I had to go through the whole factory and the Chris part again.
Unfortunately I ran out of flashbangs this time (used them on Sturm and the two full armored soldats to get past them, I didn't want to change my FPS to do that), they can end the "dark" phase in the fight with Miranda instantly, but I had plenty of mines and they did the job.
A VERY big mistake: I bought the V61Custom and sold the M1911 handgun. The V61 does more damage, but I didn't have enough money left to upgrade it. In the fight with Miranda the handgun is very useful to shoot the orbs and in the end (when you get caught by the roots of the mold) where only the fire rate matters. The M1911 does a better job than the V61, so I recommend not to buy it, the money is better used to upgrade the sniper/Wolfsbane. Thank god loading the previous save gave me the M1911 back :D

[Spanutch]

VoS is the way to play for a great challenge when starting a new game. I had lots of fun with it and made the game feel like a real survival horror game.

[snake]

It's just another difficulty where they make you take more damage and the enemies do more.

It's lazy