Nightmare Mode Is Easy; Just Get Good

[ItsJustKetchup]

I see a ton of people complaining that "Nightmare Mode is too hard," when in actuality, it really isn't too bad once you understand how the pacing in the difficulty works. The only parts of it that are considered "hard" imo is the early game (pre-first egg), collecting the third egg, and Hell Charles. Other than that, taking it slow and taking your time is required. For those that want the strategy, read below:

1. After Eugene dies, immediately gun it to the first set of missions, starting with the free scrap barn, then the free scrap house.

2. After clearing the house, don't even return to the train. Just jump off the balcony and run to the fish mission and do that since the two locations are close together. For the fish, just hold shift and spam tap W to basically disable the fish unless you got unlucky and he spawned in front of you when entering the water. Once this mission is done, go back to the train. Don't forget to collect any scrap you see on paths and at landmarks, as well as upgrading the train as you do all this. Speed is the most important stat to work on first, so prioritize upgrading that heavily and maybe damage a little bit. Defense, while nice, is easily the least useful in this mode since Charles does so much damage even when maxed out, so it's best to prioritize getting good at using Bug Spray and movement speed to minimize the chances of getting hit.

3. Once back at the train, drive down to the lock pick location and clear that mission and gather the scrap. Then head to the first required mission close by and get the keys to the first egg. Either late into the lock pick mission or as your talking to the lady for the keys is when Charles will often start to show up. You cannot take him on yet, so hide in a house or under a structure until he leaves.

4. GET BUG SPRAY IMMEDIATELY!!! Charles won't be gone for long, but you should have just enough time to drive to the flamethrower mission and acquire Bug Spray (the flamethrower) and possibly loot the area for scrap (and the paint can if you want) before Charles reappears.

5. Charles will probably reappear shortly after or right when you're leaving this mission, and chances are you will probably have to fight him now. Switch to Bug Spray and NEVER USE ANY OTHER GUN WHEN FIGHTING CHARLES DIRECTLY FOR THE REST OF THE GAME!!! Bug Spray is the only gun capable of fending off Charles in this mode due to being the only one able to slow Charles down enough to where he can have trouble hitting you. The other guns cannot slow him enough since his speed in Nightmare Mode is insane, so he will shred you even in late/endgame if you use any gun besides Bug Spray to fight him. Perform quick, small bursts with Bug Spray to prevent it from overheating during the entire fight, and don't be afraid to shoot the ground to slow him down if he's zooming at you from far away. Always drive forward when fighting Charles in Nightmare Mode for obvious reasons.

After these five steps are done, Charles will leave you alone for a little bit, which will give you time to heal up and work on missions before he shows up again. From this point on, what you do and how you spend your time WILL be entirely dictated by Charles. Work on quick missions first, and tasks such as the Pickle Mission, getting Eggs, gathering specific paint cans (if you care about 100% completion) Lighthouse Mission, and Slenderman Mission for example will be extremely risky to do, but are still possible in Nightmare Mode if you strategize when and where you defeat Charles to maximize your available time for these missions. When approaching cultist locations (such as mine entrances, the endgame shrine where you start the Hell Charles fight, and the Bob location), try your best to remain in the train and use your other guns (Bob in particular is extremely good at killing cultists) to clear the area of cultists since they can 2-3 tap you outside of it. Make sure you're prepared and loaded on scrap and upgrades before attempting Hell Charles, as you only got one shot at it.

[DarkSkyline16]

I usually don't like people who say "Get Good" and then just leave. But you listed a good plan to beat it, so perhaps your one of the good Try Hards.

I would say if the Dev didn't use a Sweaty Dark Souls player as his reference for how hard this should be, we wouldn't have this issue. lol

[ItsJustKetchup]

Originally posted by DarkSkyline16:

I usually don't like people who say "Get Good" and then just leave. But you listed a good plan to beat it, so perhaps your one of the good Try Hards.

I would say if the Dev didn't use a Sweaty Dark Souls player as his reference for how hard this should be, we wouldn't have this issue. lol

exactly lol. When you're starting out in Nightmare for the first couple attempts, I agree it's rough, but once you find the pattern to get out of early game, then Nightmare Mode is not really that bad. The main run killers from my experience are the second and third egg locations, slender mission, pickle mission, and some of the paint cans if you want to go for 100%. That and Hell Charles for obvious reasons.

Apologies if I came off as condescending in this to people struggling. I personally agree with the people saying it isn't that bad once you know how to get out of the start of the game, so I just wanted to at the very least back up the point with the strategy.

[Tayzor Azul]

It was not that easy chief !

First of all why when fighting Charles you never get scraps anymore ?
This is the real problem with Nightmare, its way to exaggerated. The only scraps you can find are from the Quest, on the ground and chest. This is really bad if you do not spend 2 hours getting all scraps possible all quest etc.

I had to hide most of the time because for some reason Charles was never going away to explore other parts. He was camping me like those CoD kids.

Most of my deaths were at the swamp quest because for some reason every time I get that fish Charles shows up and its game over.

The Bug Spray is not that great either I completed Nightmare mode with Bob gun. While I upgraded 100% my train.

So for what Nightmare mode offers its pretty lame. Just a better weather effect, limited scraps and way to much damage and health on Charles.

Just because you add more Health and Damage + 1 life does not mean challenging.

[ItsJustKetchup]

Originally posted by Tayzor Azul:

First of all why when fighting Charles you never get scraps anymore ?
This is the real problem with Nightmare, its way to exaggerated. The only scraps you can find are from the Quest, on the ground and chest. This is really bad if you do not spend 2 hours getting all scraps possible all quest etc.

That's...the point. It's supposed to be harder to get resources.

Originally posted by Tayzor Azul:

I had to hide most of the time because for some reason Charles was never going away to explore other parts. He was camping me like those CoD kids.

Most of my deaths were at the swamp quest because for some reason every time I get that fish Charles shows up and its game over.

I'll give you the first one, you're not gonna be able to fight Charles right out the gate at the start of the game, hence why I stated to go grab Bug Spray immediately. Even with the nerfs, it's still the best gun in the game because it slows Charles enough to stop him (most of the time) from eating your train alive, especially on Nightmare. Charles post-early game dictates the entire flow of the game, and you have to balance what you do around when you last shoo'd him off. If you're starting missions and he hasn't showed up in a bit and he shows up mid-mission while you're away from the train, that's on you and you better hope he gets into a position where you can rush back to the train without spotting you.

As for the fish part, skill issue. How are you doing the fish mission and when? If you make the fish mission the third one after doing the two free scrap missions at the start of the game, and you tap W instead of holding it down and waiting for the fish to move away from you as intended, the fish is completely free and cannot move. This method consistently gets me to the lockpick mission/first egg quest before Charles reveals himself for the first time.

Originally posted by Tayzor Azul:

The Bug Spray is not that great either I completed Nightmare mode with Bob gun. While I upgraded 100% my train.

Do you have video evidence on Youtube for clearing Nightmare Mode without Bug Spray? I have not seen a single video on Nightmare that doesn't use Bug Spray as the main gun because Charles just moves way too fast and deals too much damage to risk using anything else when fighting him. Yeah, Bob is stronger than Bug Spray damage-wise, but Bug Spray's movement speed reduction is more consistent and more valuable than the damage, even if it does make the fights longer. It overheats faster, but overheating is literally never an issue if you learn to tap fire instead of just holding m1 the entire time to never trigger the overheat.

Originally posted by Tayzor Azul:

So for what Nightmare mode offers its pretty lame. Just a better weather effect, limited scraps and way to much damage and health on Charles.

More of a personal preference, but I prefer Nightmare over base. The default mode is imo way too easy and Charles showing up is rare. Like, I can clear close to half the map before he shows up for the first time there. If anything, I think the cultists are a bigger problem than Charles because they can 2-3 shot you on Nightmare due to their damage buffs when outside of the train, actually wild. Makes the 2nd and especially 3rd egg locations actually hard if you're not super careful.

[MrFox]

Base game was finshed in like 1.1 hours..
this new mode even just as easy..
lots of food, and snipping they have the same spawn locations. SO!
my total play time is 2.2 hours

[ItsJustKetchup]

Originally posted by MrFox:

Base game was finshed in like 1.1 hours..
this new mode even just as easy..
lots of food, and snipping they have the same spawn locations. SO!
my total play time is 2.2 hours

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