What does Nightmare difficulty impact?

[☧ Voievod]

Does it impact the number of times the alien comes looking? or the Alien AI?

I know the radar is scrambled but besides that?

Thanks

[☢LordMiki☢]

i dont no all ,but some are yes improved AI like those robots ,they see you mutch faster ,they take aslo more hits to kill
i think even alien is more amm... aware of you ,can fined you faster ,exspecially if you run he is there even faster ,i am sure there is more i just dont remember

[Antti-san]

Crafting parts and ammo are much more sparse on nightmare.

[NinthElement]

In descending order of impact:

1. Random loot is far less plentiful, forcing you to save items for when you really need them
2. The alien won't do a hit-and-run if you burn it while it's charging at you - instead it kills you instantly
3. Androids and humans do more damage, making it more likely you will die in one attack unless you keep your health near full
4. The alien is slightly more peristent, and all enemies are marginally more observant
5. Androids take more ammo to destroy, and the flamethrower uses fuel faster
6. HUD is disabled, so you can't see how much health or ammo you have (ammo can be seen in the menu but health can't)
7. The map is disabled, making it pointless to collect map data
8. The motion tracker flickers a bit, but otherwise functions as normal including as a pointer to your next objective

[☧ Voievod]

Originally posted by Ben Jerkinit:

Originally posted by Nefarious:

Does it impact the number of times the alien comes looking? or the Alien AI?

I know the radar is scrambled but besides that?

Thanks

It hightens all senses on the Androids, Humans and the Alien. Even if you can break line of sight they can still find you. Yes, the map is disabled but the motion tracker still gives you a general direction.

Basically have to play mistake free, run even a little and you are dead, pure hide-n-seek. Not impossible but you must have maximum patience, some areas take an hour or more to pass through.

Are you talking out of experience? have you played and finished the game on Nightmare?

[LAG]

Originally posted by Nefarious:

Are you talking out of experience? have you played and finished the game on Nightmare?

finished the game on nightmare, here's a list of what you need to know:

1) everything must be looted and almost always you'll find empty boxes and containers. Use what you have only when you have to

2) the motion tracker is broken like it becomes after you're kidnapped by the alien at the end of the game before the spacewalk. It'll flicker but still show movement and the direction you have to go. Map is disabled and useless.

3) the flamethrower is a lot harder to use. It takes a 3 course meal of fuel and the alien has a tendency to either run you down or outright kill you even if you burn it. it also tends to just stagger the alien. The alien is still afraid of it if you point the flamethrower at it though so you can still point it at it and move backwards, but you're going to have to be generous with torching the alien to actually get it to retreat. Of course the combination of little available fuel, high fuel consumption and high amount of torching required means you shouldn't depend on the flamethrower at all.

4) Alien still oneshots you but mostly acts like it would otherwise, just that things that might take a while longer on normal goes a lot faster on nightmare. Such as the alien seeing you. Alien still investigates every noice.

5) Humans and androids become a pain in the ass. The androids especially tend to oneshot you. You can't see your hud so how much hp you have is a mystery (it's very little). When the alien investigates a locker you're going to have to hold your breath for so long that you take HP damage. If your hp is low (which it will almost always be) you won't make it before you need to breathe. So avoid lockers.

6) in addition to oneshotting you the androids take too many bullets to kill with the few scarce resources you have. Just don't use your gun at all unless you have to. You HAVE to save bullets for the reactore core which by far is the hardest part (4-8 androids on the catwalk that you just can't avoid).

It does NOT take an hour to get through one place, you'd have to die over and over again. I managed the nightmare mode with probably less than 5 deaths, almost all of which were when you initiate the reactor purge. If you can deal with the game on hard spot free then nightmare mode should be a breeze.

for reference the second time you encounter the alien in the medical bay i ran up to it, shot it, wacked it with the maintnance jack and ran into the went up ahead because it's stuck in the animation and can't kill you. That's the level you should be on.

Cheese any box you can find, remember that you can peek basically anywhere without the alien noticing you. Never have eye contact with the alien, that means it can see you(unless you peeking).

I had a death where i threw a noise machine from under a bed and when the alien picked it up it saw me because it bent down (played myself).

Remember that the alien still follows the same rules as it otherwise would have done, it can't detect you behind waist high objects, still won't enter wents before later in the game and there won't be more than one alien before you get into the nest.

Also, if it's not obvious to you already the way to deal with humans is to hit the wrench into a wall and then go and hide. The alien and the human will both investigate the noise and meet, with the alien murdering the human. Works with noise makers or anything of the like (especially some stupid survivor trying to shoot you and alerting the alien).

[☧ Voievod]

Originally posted by LAG:

Originally posted by Nefarious:

Are you talking out of experience? have you played and finished the game on Nightmare?

finished the game on nightmare, here's a list of what you need to know:

1) everything must be looted and almost always you'll find empty boxes and containers. Use what you have only when you have to

2) the motion tracker is broken like it becomes after you're kidnapped by the alien at the end of the game before the spacewalk. It'll flicker but still show movement and the direction you have to go. Map is disabled and useless.

3) the flamethrower is a lot harder to use. It takes a 3 course meal of fuel and the alien has a tendency to either run you down or outright kill you even if you burn it. it also tends to just stagger the alien. The alien is still afraid of it if you point the flamethrower at it though so you can still point it at it and move backwards, but you're going to have to be generous with torching the alien to actually get it to retreat. Of course the combination of little available fuel, high fuel consumption and high amount of torching required means you shouldn't depend on the flamethrower at all.

4) Alien still oneshots you but mostly acts like it would otherwise, just that things that might take a while longer on normal goes a lot faster on nightmare. Such as the alien seeing you. Alien still investigates every noice.

5) Humans and androids become a pain in the ass. The androids especially tend to oneshot you. You can't see your hud so how much hp you have is a mystery (it's very little). When the alien investigates a locker you're going to have to hold your breath for so long that you take HP damage. If your hp is low (which it will almost always be) you won't make it before you need to breathe. So avoid lockers.

6) in addition to oneshotting you the androids take too many bullets to kill with the few scarce resources you have. Just don't use your gun at all unless you have to. You HAVE to save bullets for the reactore core which by far is the hardest part (4-8 androids on the catwalk that you just can't avoid).

It does NOT take an hour to get through one place, you'd have to die over and over again. I managed the nightmare mode with probably less than 5 deaths, almost all of which were when you initiate the reactor purge. If you can deal with the game on hard spot free then nightmare mode should be a breeze.

for reference the second time you encounter the alien in the medical bay i ran up to it, shot it, wacked it with the maintnance jack and ran into the went up ahead because it's stuck in the animation and can't kill you. That's the level you should be on.

Cheese any box you can find, remember that you can peek basically anywhere without the alien noticing you. Never have eye contact with the alien, that means it can see you(unless you peeking).

I had a death where i threw a noise machine from under a bed and when the alien picked it up it saw me because it bent down (played myself).

Remember that the alien still follows the same rules as it otherwise would have done, it can't detect you behind waist high objects, still won't enter wents before later in the game and there won't be more than one alien before you get into the nest.

Also, if it's not obvious to you already the way to deal with humans is to hit the wrench into a wall and then go and hide. The alien and the human will both investigate the noise and meet, with the alien murdering the human. Works with noise makers or anything of the like (especially some stupid survivor trying to shoot you and alerting the alien).

Sounds like a pain.

I love the challenge but I also want to finish the game.

[LAG]

Originally posted by Nefarious:

Sounds like a pain.

I love the challenge but I also want to finish the game.

wouldn't be nightmare if it wasn't. It took me less time to finish the game on nightmare difficulty than hard since i had learned the game by then. Run down it's basicly a less forgiving hard mode with less stuff and meaner enemies.

[Dayve]

Originally posted by 9thElement:

In descending order of impact:

1. Random loot is far less plentiful, forcing you to save items for when you really need them
2. The alien won't do a hit-and-run if you burn it while it's charging at you - instead it kills you instantly
3. Androids and humans do more damage, making it more likely you will die in one attack unless you keep your health near full
4. The alien is slightly more peristent, and all enemies are marginally more observant
5. Androids take more ammo to destroy, and the flamethrower uses fuel faster
6. HUD is disabled, so you can't see how much health or ammo you have (ammo can be seen in the menu but health can't)
7. The map is disabled, making it pointless to collect map data
8. The motion tracker flickers a bit, but otherwise functions as normal including as a pointer to your next objective

The alien does do hit and run on nightmare mode, it's just that it does so much damage to you (as everything does on nightmare) that if your health is less than like 90% it'll just kill you instead.