Finally decided on my ideal order to do areas! (minor spoilers)

[RedNoodlePanda]

Think I've finally settled on my ideal area order.

Five playthroughs now, three with Pale Reach. I've decided on my personal preference for order to do areas in.

I do Stellar Basin, Pale Reach (if you have the dlc), Twisted Strand, Gale Cliffs, Devil's Spine.

Pale Reach rewards are incredible, especially early on. I've done it first on one playthrough, but without the first special ability from the first area you do, it is VERY challenging. I'd recommend trying to get it done right after SB.

Gale Cliffs is best once you have a proper means of escape (boat normal speed or 3rd ability). I do the shrine at GC as soon as I'm physically able to, then head to SB.

Stellar goes first because the hazards are easy to dodge, the early abyssal/hadal is great, and it gets you a ton of research parts and building mats early on.

Twisted either comes next or after Pale. While it is tricky to navigate, the hazards are easily avoidable until you... Don't have to worry about them any more.

Gale goes second last. By this point you'll have speed, probably a better hull, as well as abilities to use to dodge the jerk who dwells here. The fact that the game tries to push you here right after Marrow is brutal.

Devil's Spine last. Tricky navigation, dangerous hazards, lots of different equipment needed. The only reason I sometimes come here early is to speed run the tablets for their reward.

I'm sure a lot of folks think Gale Cliffs SHOULD come first, but I find you hemmhorage money with ship damage there, whereas you can get a more solid start by doing Stellar first, so long as you get a net of some sort while doing Marrow.

I really wish the Devs didn't direct you to GC first. It's brutal for a first area, and grinding to make yourself blast through it makes a lot of the rest of the game feel trivial, difficulty-wise. SB should definitely be first (or second after Pale Reach).

/hopoffsoapbox

[Remnant Melody]

I like your logic about it, really. I was even thinking of doing roughly that order, but definitely not Pale Reach first, second sounds better right after SB. I also did Gale Cliffs in pieces, as yeah that cranky resident in the cliffs is a little much at first, its also totally fine to not do an entire area completely and come back later.

Dunno, themeparking it or being a bit chaotic about doing areas is viable in the current design. So I think by that its fine.. really leaves it up to the player how they want to do it and to be fair, min/maxing the 'perfect run' in such short and chill game kinda ruins the fun of it too.

[RedNoodlePanda]

Originally posted by Sassy Astareon:

I like your logic about it, really. I was even thinking of doing roughly that order, but definitely not Pale Reach first, second sounds better right after SB. I also did Gale Cliffs in pieces, as yeah that cranky resident in the cliffs is a little much at first, its also totally fine to not do an entire area completely and come back later.

Dunno, themeparking it or being a bit chaotic about doing areas is viable in the current design. So I think by that its fine.. really leaves it up to the player how they want to do it and to be fair, min/maxing the 'perfect run' in such short and chill game kinda ruins the fun of it too.

Yeah I ran all over the place on my second playthrough. And I still do, to an extent, just to pick up things like the Mouth of the Deep. But for main story and doing the whole area, this is what I settled on.