Total Carnage is ridiculously hard in Marathon 2

[Cadaver747]

Or maybe I lost my touch. There are woo many enemies on the 6th level and I have zero ammo left, and there is that achievement for which I had to not take the energy pistol in the water, and devs were very cruel to not place any save stations (and regeneration is underwater), so any death takes me back 2 levels back. Marathon 1 on TC feels like a breeze in comparison.

I don't want to try and speedrun the game like some cool guy on YouTube, I want to feel the game and eliminate as much enemies as possible.

It seems that I will have to start over, check every secret for spare ammo in the first levels and kill anything I can with my fists to have a nice ride in We're Everywhere level. Or maybe I'm missing something.

[Terin]

Total Carnage is tough, but absolutely skip that achievement for now. Compilers and especially Hunters are tough targets without the Fusion Pistol, but melt much easier with it, and you get PLENTY of ammo on that level. Get to the save terminal ASAP, use a map online if you need to, and it should go much smmother.

[MrMuffinz]

I'm playing TC currently because for the first 5 levels I was snoozing, and then you hit about levels 6-8 and the difficulty ramps up hard. I have a feeling I'm going to regret TC in the long run myself, as I find nearly every encounter as of level 6 to just be absolute torture.

Constant purple troopers and cyborgs and very little ammo.

Tips that worked for me so far:
-Use your dual wield pistol as much as humanly possible to save on all of the other ammo
-When fighting normal Phfor fighters (the ones with staffs) or normal Flickta pull out your fists and sprint (sprint key) into them and punch. Sprinting fist attacks do quite a bit of damage.
-Remember where save terminals and health stations are and save/heal after any big annoying encounter (you'll learn to do this naturally just to avoid torturing yourself)
-If a level really drained you of resources with useless side paths while exploring and there wasn't anything worthwhile you discovered then just load an earlier save and try to sprint to the end as quick as you can. Some levels can literally be beaten within a few minutes if you think about exactly where to go-- you'll just potentially miss out on some ammo.

On level 6 there's actually a save station very close to the yellow health station. Get out of the water up nearby stairs, press the button, go up the stairs, down the hallway till you're in the big open hangar, follow the left path/ledge until you find the first entrance on your left. You enter here and there will be some Hunters, kill them, and on the opposite wall (but facing sideways/ 90 degrees) from where you just entered there's a save station. Similarly there's a save station in the previous level in a room somewhat adjacent to the room where you destroy the two panels for the objective.

[Soap]

it's funny you say marathon 1 TC is easier because i could not agree less, i find it incredibly not fun but i find 2's TC to be a very satisfying, crunchy experience.

[Cadaver747]

Originally posted by Ganymede:

it's funny you say marathon 1 TC is easier because i could not agree less, i find it incredibly not fun but i find 2's TC to be a very satisfying, crunchy experience.

Marathon 1 is definitely less funny. As for the TC being less harder for the first game, well I haven't beat Marathon 2 to make a clear conclusion, and it's based on my initial feelings. I do like Marathon 2 and when I played it on medium difficulty it felt as the most satisfying one in the trilogy. And to be honest I thought that Marathon 1 is almost impossible until I beat the very first level with fists, only 4 levels gave me a real pain, mostly due to specific placing of recharge and save stations.
As for the Marathon 2 on TC, I restarted the game recently, this time with secrets sweeping and now I have ton of ammo, maybe after I beat the 6th level with all that firepower, and later the whole game, I will laugh at myself in the end, who knows.
(Still I dread the release of Marathon Infinity, that one was the hardest for me of default difficulty)

[Murgen]

M2 is much easier than M1 on TC. You can grab the fusion pistol on the previous level; you get the achievement when you read the completion terminal, but there is nothing stopping you from aborting out of that terminal and then grabbing the pistol.

The hardest part of Ex Cathedra is with the trooper ambush at the end. You'll probably want to save some MA-75 ammo for that. Good luck!

[Watcher Rat]

Also, if you do start over, make sure to A) find the shotgun on the first stage and B) keep walking back and forth around it until ammo stops being transported in (you should get a few collections). Then SAVE IT until later on when the difficulty ramps. That shotgun will carry you through a lot of terrible fights if you conserve its ammo properly, and will set you up for success later.

[Cadaver747]

Originally posted by Murgen:

M2 is much easier than M1 on TC. You can grab the fusion pistol on the previous level; you get the achievement when you read the completion terminal, but there is nothing stopping you from aborting out of that terminal and then grabbing the pistol.

The hardest part of Ex Cathedra is with the trooper ambush at the end. You'll probably want to save some MA-75 ammo for that. Good luck!

I've got the Fusion Pistol on 2nd level, I specifically avoided it on 6th level and never took the clips around it underwater, but I took the clips spawned for me in upper section - Achievement was not obtained, I can only guess it's a bug or the game registers any fire shots made with Fusion Pistol, or perhaps even having that weapon from previous level breaks it. I guess I'll speedrun to this moment on Kindergarden later without that weapon.

But I must admit that this 6th level is very easy with all that weapons and ammo saved, except for Magnum clips maybe, I've left only 1 and several BOBs dropped a magnum instead of a clip.

[Cadaver747]

Originally posted by Watcher Rat:

Also, if you do start over, make sure to A) find the shotgun on the first stage and B) keep walking back and forth around it until ammo stops being transported in (you should get a few collections). Then SAVE IT until later on when the difficulty ramps. That shotgun will carry you through a lot of terrible fights if you conserve its ammo properly, and will set you up for success later.

Yes, I've got the shotgun, and additional shotgun shells spawned but only once, I tried to move back and forth a few times but nothing happened, maybe it's a bug or that spawning is linked to the difficulty. There were x10 shotgun shells ammo in total, plus x1 more was spawned for me in later level.

And yes, so far I haven't used my shotgun.

[TehSpoopyKitteh]

Originally posted by Cadaver747:

Originally posted by Watcher Rat:

Also, if you do start over, make sure to A) find the shotgun on the first stage and B) keep walking back and forth around it until ammo stops being transported in (you should get a few collections). Then SAVE IT until later on when the difficulty ramps. That shotgun will carry you through a lot of terrible fights if you conserve its ammo properly, and will set you up for success later.

Yes, I've got the shotgun, and additional shotgun shells spawned but only once, I tried to move back and forth a few times but nothing happened, maybe it's a bug or that spawning is linked to the difficulty. There were x10 shotgun shells ammo in total, plus x1 more was spawned for me in later level.

And yes, so far I haven't used my shotgun.

Try to get mobs to fight each other by running circles around them. The hunters, fighters, drones, and troopers are all vulnerable to that. They’ll attack whichever other monster attacks them. It’s especially satisfying to watch with a group of hunters ;-)

[Cadaver747]

Originally posted by TehSpoopyKitteh:

Try to get mobs to fight each other by running circles around them. The hunters, fighters, drones, and troopers are all vulnerable to that. They’ll attack whichever other monster attacks them. It’s especially satisfying to watch with a group of hunters ;-)

Yes, that's what I do since Marathon 1, and I try to kill with my fists whenever I can or to use my dual magnums.

>>> Re: Vid Buoy achievement
Just reached the end of this level on Kindergarden difficulty and received the achievement. I suggest to avoid the secret with Fusion Pistol on the 2nd level in case you want it.

[Soap]

Originally posted by Cadaver747:

Originally posted by Ganymede:

it's funny you say marathon 1 TC is easier because i could not agree less, i find it incredibly not fun but i find 2's TC to be a very satisfying, crunchy experience.

Marathon 1 is definitely less funny. As for the TC being less harder for the first game, well I haven't beat Marathon 2 to make a clear conclusion, and it's based on my initial feelings. I do like Marathon 2 and when I played it on medium difficulty it felt as the most satisfying one in the trilogy. And to be honest I thought that Marathon 1 is almost impossible until I beat the very first level with fists, only 4 levels gave me a real pain, mostly due to specific placing of recharge and save stations.
As for the Marathon 2 on TC, I restarted the game recently, this time with secrets sweeping and now I have ton of ammo, maybe after I beat the 6th level with all that firepower, and later the whole game, I will laugh at myself in the end, who knows.
(Still I dread the release of Marathon Infinity, that one was the hardest for me of default difficulty)

For Marathon Infinity, I have only gotten to Poor Yorick on TC (mostly cause I haven't bothered to play more of it) and it is much harder than the first two. I'd rather think about Infinity than playing it generally speaking because skill issue lel - But yeah, M2 gets much easier on TC esp if you save scum but even when you don't, the game isn't too stingy with ammo till the Blake levels and then Simulacrums just floods you with ammo. Like, the last 5 levels of 2 are pretty "easy" and are not like the earlier sections of the game despite being the same if not more punishing than the earlier levels all because of ammo surplus. Don't even have to know all the secrets there cause I certainly don't. They do help quite a bit like secrets should but I don't find them mandatory in the same way earlier levels are. I have no qualms in admitting that me not liking M1's TC is a skill issue but it is also indeed due to how funky the first game's level design is.

[W0rmh0leXtreme]

For saving ammo with punches these tips might also help:.
Hunters, drones, F'lickta and S'pht compilers can be stun locked by punching. If you get several of them into a narrow corridor so they can only come at you one at a time you can stun lock the one in front, and so long as the ones behind don't have a clear line of sight they'll just sit behind the front one and wait their turn. Takes a lot of punching but if you've got low ammo or want to save it's a good option

Any melee enemies that lack a ranged attack can easily be kited with punches as their attacks aren't instant so you have a brief period of time where you can punch then get away before their attack hits. In this way these enemies can be dealt with without risk by running forward to hit then backing off before they get to attack. They also go down quicker this way due to the extra damage running forward gives to punches. You can also run right past enemies and punch them as you pass by, you'll be out of range before they finish their attack so they'll miss.

[Delta Dagger]

Once you get the weapons figured out and some other things, M2 isn't that difficult, but you'll see it be REAL damn cheap in places. I save the crap out of shotgun shells for the cheap spots. The dual shotties will power you through just about everything.

[Cadaver747]

I did it, 100% achievements! But I gave up on the last fight, it's ridiculously not cool, and run to the terminal.

[Deltau]

Aw the last fight is cool. Maybe if you're not gunning to complete the game you can appreciate it a little more.