What am I doing wrong?

[MatchstickMan740]

I've been playing this game for 4 hours straight now and I maybe extract 5% of the time (only doing forest btw). Otherwise I run into unwinnable situations most of the time blocking the extraction.

I don't rush.

I snipe and rotate (half of the time I find out when I rotate that I'm actually surrounded by random enemies that have the eye sight of literal gods).

I keep myself healed constantly.

I repair my armor.

It's getting VERY frustrating and I'm doing everything ya'll are saying in these posts, in guides, everywhere I can find information on.

Also I gotta say it's very annoying the visuals of the enemy not being any indicator of their potential strength (somehow the guys with literally their head uncovered can't be headshot but the guys with a full head cover can.....cool)

[Nerxis]

Was the same for me at first. It's just a matter of git gud, it clicked for me after severel more hours, now im extraxting like 90-95% of the time, except some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ happens and I get one tapped when I go around a corner. I'm still learning but after a certain point it really clicked for me and then it hooked me.
Set money aside for better amor, that helps alot.

[RicWalker]

thats the thing: do not flank. yeah from all the other shooters you know, repeaking same spot is bad. so they teach you to circle around for a flank.

in this one, thats bad. you cant go wide or you run into other camps or just roaming guys that come to investigate.

So you shoot, retreat out of sight wait a second or two while reloading or bandaging and than repeak the same spot.
The AI tends to run around wildly and screaming when they loose sight of you or get hurt. A corner of a building, a rock or a wall that blocks line of sight is your big friend in this game. Sidestep in and out of it,
Something you would not do in real life or other shooters works great here.

the guys without any headgear by the way are neutrals! you can walk right up to them and loot their camps dry. same goes for the green army guys. both groups aim their guns at you but they will not shoot at you unless you shot one already on the map.

[Kidney]

Dont take unnecessary risks, that is usually my problem when i dont extract :D. Sometimes just unlucky^^. Also using biggest caliber i can (Mozin for me for the timebeing) Also keepem on the edge of the screen as far as possible with scope, so they cant see and shoot you
Clear the village's surrounding area to have room to retreat in any direction.
I figured out that if you go to the village, start by looting the outer buildings from north to south walking either SE or SW of the middle, take care for gouhls, and hunters from S (for me at least)
I usually get in and shoot one of the Lazar guys as to attract the hunters, then i just retreat after they shot once. To atract the Hunters and Soldiers. When im done with the village i start checking the middle, for a bunch of dead bodies ^^ If it was hunters or military they will usually leave the area after they finished.
(Lazar has brighter shades on his face important cause he is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane when you face him upclose, so keep the furthest distance possible)

[Cannon Fodder]

Originally posted by RicWalker:

The AI tends to run around wildly and screaming when they loose sight of you or get hurt. A corner of a building, a rock or a wall that blocks line of sight is your big friend in this game. Sidestep in and out of it,

I have had the exact opposite experience. Everytime I retreat to cover they pursue, and turn the corner prefiring at me, and "sidestepping in and out" of gunfire is simply a no go. I get hit more than I'm missed, even at lengths of the entire screen, and more often than not i'm one-shot or unloaded on by someone who is around a blind corner and magically dead quiet but knows i'm there immediately.

OP you're doing nothing wrong. The combat in this game needs work.

[Fantajim]

No enemy strength indicator is one of the appeals of this game. You need to learn what type of enemies you are up against in each map. Use the sniper against humanoids and something more flexible against beasties. Respect lone hunters in the beginning they pack a hefty punch. Try to stack small in the beginning, extract when you have some loot. Multiple small extractions are worth more than big ones, if one of them fails it doesnt hurt that much. Ignore the town center humanoid gang for the time being and try to ambush the small bandit encampments. Don't attack the green soldiers and become friends with Igor, he will help you out to become stronger.

[Cannon Fodder]

Originally posted by Fantajim:

Use the sniper against humanoids and something more flexible against beasties.

If the game gives you dozens of weapons and ammo to choose and use, and only one is useful then its not good design.

[Aqua lamb]

the sawmill feels unwinnable.

[SireSteelHell]

i ignore forest for first few games and do the second map... looting the elec boxs at the radio tower for $$ loots..... gets you started easily

[Voggi]

Really I struggled until i managed to get some better armor

[Porp]

not having a scope on your gun is pretty bad.

you lose bonus damage, stealth, and the ability to hit-scan enemies. you can usually kill enemies from a far without them shooting at you.

i never engage enemies at close range unless i need to. if i get spotted, i just run as far away enough for them forget my existence reapproach, and keep poking them down.

in regards of looting, you can drop all your loot at an extraction point to relieve weight and go back to reloot corpses. that way you can extract while you weight is in the very red range. very useful when you find enemies/wildlife near the extraction point.

[Elevator Doors]

Holy ♥♥♥♥♥ some of these bandits are just stupid accurate. Lazars men i understand as theyre elites but when some scrub offscreen unloads a whole mag and all of it hit me...something is wrong.

[Cannon Fodder]

Originally posted by PAWKIEN:

not having a scope on your gun is pretty bad.

you lose bonus damage, stealth, and the ability to hit-scan enemies. you can usually kill enemies from a far without them shooting at you.

Lol, not really. The scope kills your peripheral, nukes most of your ability to scroll the screen while aiming, AND Blacks out your health, ammo, and other HUD options so you don't even know if you're dying, meanwhile the AI maintains perfect aim no matter what.

[sebirez]

It's hard to say without seeing some gameplay. If you're not extracting, you're dying, and if you're dying, you're running into/failing to evade enemies/environmental threats, taking on more enemies than you can handle, or failing to take out the more isolated enemies when you get the opportunity. That means you might need to move more carefully/quickly/frequently or learn to measure, evade, and hit enemies. Again, it's hard to say. When/where do you tend to die most?

[Aedwynn]

Originally posted by Cannon Fodder:

Lol, not really. The scope kills your peripheral, nukes most of your ability to scroll the screen while aiming, AND Blacks out your health, ammo, and other HUD options so you don't even know if you're dying, meanwhile the AI maintains perfect aim no matter what.

If you use scope properly, enemy is killed in 2-3 shots even with starting weapons, as such they have zero chance to fire back. If you combine it with stealth, you always fire first while enemy fails to even notice you. With proper sniper rifle you oneshot anything humanoid.

[Crooked]

Learning when to retreat back to safety (heal up/reload/ run away if need be) is the #1 thing that changed the whole game for me. I was dying enough that I was getting frustrated until I started watching my health and getting to safety the moment I had any bleed or when I was less than 50% health.

It's not perfect, I still die pretty often, but using stealth and line of sight to your advantage will help out tremendously. Enemies don't appear to follow you into buildings, so if you're in a camp and get hit just duck inside one of the empty buildings and heal up/ reload.

I never had any luck with sniper rifles, I used the EC 74 for quite a bit. However, once I got a fully repaired ECM modded out and setup nicely, it became much more easy to win fire fights. I'll turn a corner and take out three enemies before they even get a shot off. Also, using the ECM I use semi-auto 95% of the time. I'm sure others have god aim and can full auto across the map, but using semi auto and give myself plenty of space I win almost every single one on one.

I'd say that I'd focus on doing small things at first that you know you can find success in. Mine was helping Igor, then B-lining to his house in raids to see if he'd found a gamestation for me. Using that money to buy mods/new armor/better ammo made each successive raid easier. The 29kg backpack was a must buy, started making real money at that point lol.

Also, I've played all 30+ hours of my time on the Steam Deck using a trackpad to aim. If I can find success in the game anyone should be able to lol.