How do I beat nightmare mode

[Roemint]

Please help I have 200+ hours doing every character on D5 on both maps and I can't even beat nightmare with any character that isn't masochist or knight. Doesn't matter what I do, I either die on wave 6, 8-10, or 15-17. Drop general tips, specific character builds, anything that helps.

[Mirai]

It just requires a very minimalist approach. You can't buy a lot of big expensive items, you really have to focus on what works best for the 'Tato you're playing. If you haven't beaten it with Masochist or Knight already, then at least the unlocks aren't an issue.

[mellusions]

I have found the nightmare videos Cephalopocalypse on Youtube has done to be very, very helpful to understanding the shop mechanics/banning items and how to maximize those things for this harder mode. (They are potato by potato so you can pick a character you are having particular issues with.) You really do need to be VERY thoughtful in your shop purchases in a way you do not on D5.

I have over a 1,000 hrs in this game, a lot of it doing random/random D5 challenges, but hadn't played in a long time so I really needed a refresher to get ANYWHERE on nightmare. I kept dying by wave 11 over and over and over and feeling pretty poky about it, to be honest. LOL Two thumbs up for his vids because I'm having a MUCH easier go of it overall now and have about 3/4's of them done on Abyss.

The Abyss map is easier in general I have found but particularly for melee characters so maybe start there. (After the first 10 hrs. I took a pass on the Crash Zone map for now. It really feels too unbalanced/unfair and I hope it gets some small adjustments.)

I got Technomage done tonight on the 2nd try with icicles, spicy sausages and no dodge at all, but a lot of armor (20-22?), no cursed items. Felt pretty easy? Could have a go at him. :)

[Mirai]

You really do need to be VERY thoughtful in your shop purchases in a way you do not on D5.

Yup and the thing is, we went through this with D5 a long time ago, too. People claiming it was over-tuned, impossible, etc. It's just been so long since that happened, people have forgotten.

But Nightmare is meant to just be there if you want to play it, Evil Empire literally said their intention was to just make a harder mode for people who wanted it and that it was not meant to be the new default mode.

If you just want the character and the weapon, there's always the Accessibility options. You can use them to win it once and then come back and do it for real later when you feel up to the challenge.

But something funny happens if you slow everything down to 25% but don't turn off the projectile waves, it causes the projectiles to spawn just as fast but move across the screen slower, making this dense web of projectiles. I've beaten Nightmare legit', but I just wanted to see what it'd be like if I turned everything down to nothing and didn't think to turn off projectiles or that something like that would even happen. It was an amusing surprise.

[Thief]

i *eventually* beat it with creature, getting every cursed item i could possibly get. the mobs have so many hp that i had to be able to one-shot most of them. that and dodge were the only things that helped me, and i was still sweating by the 14th round.

[Oskepeppy]

For me, using Lich is a very, very easy first spud to win with, just focus everything except for damage and bring your sharp tooths. Pretty easy, but some skill required. If you have the opportunity to play CO-OP, using two Cryptids makes the whole game a breeze. Give it a shot!

[rlh445]

take Jack bro. Started with Laser and just took whatever other ranged i could find on the first few floors. then got lucky and found baby w/ a beard and a sniper rifle. rofflestmoped those chucklef***s, felt real good to smash that obnoxiously overtuned difficulty.

[Roemint]

Originally posted by mellusions:

I have found the nightmare videos Cephalopocalypse on Youtube has done to be very, very helpful to understanding the shop mechanics/banning items and how to maximize those things for this harder mode. (They are potato by potato so you can pick a character you are having particular issues with.) You really do need to be VERY thoughtful in your shop purchases in a way you do not on D5.

After watching some of Cephalopocalyse's videos, I can say that Im sure my problem was that I didn't take anywhere near as much armor as I should've

[Roemint]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3737229599

[S'bass thulu]

As Miral said... you can turn off and mess with the projectiles in options. That was the most annoying part to me, so I've turned them off.

[ÒwÓ]

Just pick damage. that's it. and a reward for nightmare it is a character with only damage options. If the game won't give damage then just keep gambling on next run.

lifesteal/regen are useless. armor/dodge has some values later on but useless for 3/4 the rounds. HP, speed, and food+ are decent but only thing that matters the most is Damage. It's that easy, the hard part is try not to get one tap'd by a wide projectile or get swamp'd cause again, you don't have enough damage

[Roemint]

Originally posted by ÒwÓ:

Just pick damage. that's it. and a reward for nightmare it is a character with only damage options. If the game won't give damage then just keep gambling on next run.

lifesteal/regen are useless. armor/dodge has some values later on but useless for 3/4 the rounds. HP, speed, and food+ are decent but only thing that matters the most is Damage. It's that easy, the hard part is try not to get one tap'd by a wide projectile or get swamp'd cause again, you don't have enough damage

I tried that exact thing and I would usually die to the first elite or horde, which is probably why I could only win with characters who convert defense to damage

[Broseidon]

yea, except for the bro's that get damage from defensive stats, everyone pretty much always is a glascannon, even with defensive stats, feeling tanky is very hard. had a run with chunky with 170hp and 20+ armor and it still felt somewhat squishy, those stronger variants deal just so much damage.

you need the damage to kill mobs and not get overrun, only after that can you try to also get some survivability,
personally i think you also need to be greedy and get some economy in the first few waves, be it harvesting or bags or coupons or extra enemies,
obviously that will make the start even harder (getting economy instead of something that helps you immediate)
but without money, you won't be able to buy the needed damage later.

and obviously the imo biggest factor in winning a run:

get lucky

if you don't get what your character needs you just won't win, was somewhat the case in D5 when you could gett unlucky, but in Nightmare you really are at the whims of shopRNG.

[Kappa]

Jack is pretty easy if you want to give it a try ( if you are lucky and get candybag soon you'll eventually get even more elites before 20 ).

Get laser and go with harvesting > Attack speed > Crit
Sacrifice Armor and by lategame consider getting some extra hp and, eventually, dodge.

[Johnny]

Feel like Knight with Fists seems to be a good strategy so far for me, but I keep messing up at Wave 18...

[Roemint]

Originally posted by Johnny:

Feel like Knight with Fists seems to be a good strategy so far for me, but I keep messing up at Wave 18...

I personally used stones to win