The game has become too easy after the last update

[yurybx]

Previously, I had to think carefully about tactics already at the second ten levels. But after the November 25 update, I went through the whole game without straining. There were some difficulties only at the last three levels. Maybe you should fix the balance?

[[They/Them] ChesseTheWasp]

bruh i can barely survive to level 4 or 6

[Retro]

to easy the hell? this game is hard as fug lol

[DaviddesJ]

I feel like it was too easy even before that. I'm waiting to come back to it when some higher difficulty levels are introduced.

[Dylan]

Difficulty in RW is a pretty interesting topic- I often get these two conflicting pieces of feedback.

The game is quite hard before you understand how all the spells and skills interact- learning this is really the meat of the gameplay experience.

I think right after the first Enshrinement update, there were some shrine/spell combos which were very, very powerful, and pretty easy to get. Flame Burst + Furnace Shrine, or Arc Lightning + Butterfly Wing Shrine (+ Permenance), were really quite something.

There are multiple ways to approach a singleplayer game like RW. Players who's view was "I want to maximize my win percentage"- a view which is somewhat encouraged by the win-streak achievements- could find one of these (overly) powerful combos, utililze it as much as possible, and basically find that the game had become boring.

On the other hand, another approach to the game, is just to wonder what the different ways to win are. Sure, the Arc Lightning + Heaven's wrath build is an easy win- but is there a viable path to victory detouring through Watcher Form?

I'd like to serve both camps if possible, though the second approach is the one that I personally tend towards- I die on realm 9 with weird builds all the time, despite having pretty deep knowledge of what strategies are safe and effective.

Ultimately my goal is for the randomness of the level generation to blur the lines between which builds are best, and to balance things to within the level where you aren't constantly pressured by the game into taking one overpowered generally useful skill (Prince of Ruin for example, was this skill when it was a 5 cost sorcery skill which could chain through walls).

Anyways I'll be updating and tweaking the game's balance for a very, very long time- so keep the feedback coming if you've got it, the more specific the better.

-Dylan

[DaviddesJ]

That's all true and yet the game still needs at least a few different difficulty levels, the easy setting for one person even trying different things is impossible for another even if they follow a guide. Also, one of the things that a higher difficulty setting can do is to limit the player's choices so they can't just pursue a single build strategy every time.

[᲼᲼]

What are some builds you're using to make the game easy? I can only get by using summons that suicide on top of the enemy.

[Stormlock]

I feel like the game could use some added difficulty options, perhaps in the form of 'ascensions' like so many roguelites cribbed off of Binding of Isaac. Some very small tweaks to level generation would ramp the difficulty up a lot in interesting ways, like starting on a later floor, fewer portals, less rewards, real time or turn count limits, getting locked out of random spell schools, or even just giving everything more hp. I suppose things like this will be in challenge runs, but I'm hoping we can mix and match them instead of being locked into specific challenges which we'll probably optimize strategies for fairly quickly.

Originally posted by ᲼᲼᲼᲼᲼᲼:

What are some builds you're using to make the game easy? I can only get by using summons that suicide on top of the enemy.

I started pretty recently but summons seem quite strong to me as well, particularly with enchantments backing them up. If you like that playstyle, I'd look into using angelic choir with a damage bonus, hollow flesh, dominate (works on gates!) and protect allies. Those angels will steamroll levels filled with anything they can hurt, which is a surprisingly large list. Touch of Vampires + Death Cleave also does very well for certain types of levels. Seems to me the trick is finding a minion that the majority of the level can't hurt and exploiting that. Dragons do great there too. And pick up word of beauty, it's way too good even at it's high cost and low charges.

[Vault Dweller]

i think the game is easy for you because you have played it a lot

[DaviddesJ]

I like the challenge options, but is there a way to combine them or have more of them?

[Chocos Ramabotti]

I prefer rouge-likes if they pose an accomplishment to beat, after all this is an genre where the process is fun, not the destination. I become quickly bored if I know the ending can be reached easily on an trivial mode.