Do not rush to New Game +2!

[raven_raven]

After pretty long grind in the first playthrough, I was clearing all the areas without much problem and I though that it's time for final boss. I've beaten him after second try, then rushed through New Game+ to get achievement for beating game twice. That left last achievement for getting all equipment to be done while on New Game +2.

And that is a mistake. In the beggining of New Game+ almost every chest dropped equipment, so I thought that every beating of a game rises you chances to get higher-tier gear. As it turned out, I was wrong. Going to New Game +2 did not raise equipment drop rate, but instead made playing the game frustrating instead of challenging. Even with four Grace Runes on and level almost 300 it's too much for me.

So think twice before you beat the game second time, as it gets much, much harder after that. Equipment can be achieved even in NG+, after it stops dropping in normal chests you have beat subbosses and pick up blueprints from gold chests. Going to +2 and further won't raise the drop rate! IMO it's bad design, since more common drops after beating game would suggest that higher level the enemies are, more equipment you will get. It's not true.

It would be funnier if Vampirism was based on level of enemies, not on fixed value. Also it would be nicer if there was no level limit, that way I could at least grind my way through. Now I'm one achievement away from perfecting the game and I don't think I'll make it, it's not fun anymore.

[Silent-G]

Couldn't you start a new game at level one and still get the achievment? I guess you'd have to delete your max level save in order to do that, but it might be worth it if you really want that last achievment.

[raven_raven]

I'm thinking about that. I would have to beat game once in order to get to NG+ where last gears are dropped, but that would be funnier than this hell the game serves me right now.

It's great that you can beat the game so many times and make game harder and harder, but it's a pity that you can't go back and at some points you stop developing your character. Also mechanics behind drops are quite unclear, as there are multiple kinds of chests, yet they almost always drop money.

[Pixel Peeper]

I too finished the game a 2nd time far too early (bosses were still easy the 2nd time around) and ended up facing a horde of 3rd variant trash mobs without being adequately upgraded.

Thankfully it only cost me a half-dozen pointless deaths and maybe a couple hours to turn things around.

Additionally, some people have said that that some of the earlier drops stop appearing at higher levels. If so, one would be wise to obtain all available equipment before moving up a NG.

[raven_raven]

I do not confirm, as I looted missing low-tier equipment fairly quickly in NG+, it simply was dropped before high-tier gear to fill up holes in smith's menu.

That was the main reason I moved up to NG+2. I thought that I would fill up last two colums in NG+ as quickly as I filled up first three in NG+. Oh, how wrong I was.

[rpgamer987]

Yeah. Should've expected the game to get more difficult each time. Think you might've had a bit of confirmation bias on the chests dropping more equipment, though.

Even though you did rush, which was a bit of a mistake, I'd still say the jump from +1 to +2 is still fairly drastic. It comes as a bit of a surprise, and takes some getting used to, but once you can start clearing a few rooms, the gold dropped is plenty enough to quickly finish off the upgrading to be more sturdy.

[I Should Be Sleeping]

Guess it's a good thing I'm not too skilled then. Still on first playthrough, only beat first boss and level 60 something.....

[DarkestLight]

NG+ was really fun. I can handle NG+2 with no grace runes and clear about half the castle. Still, NG+2 ruined the fun for me. After making all gear/runes usable I quit. Manor is mostly maxed but I dont care too much.

I have no idea what keeps some people around to NG+10... and even further.

[Delphi]

I'm sorry to hear that it went from challenging to nuts, but thank you for the warning! I'm terrible at games like this as is, so I'm only at level 63 or something like that right now. A Long way off from NG+, but I'll keep this in mind all the same, and make sure I've got everything before moving further.

[Saelune]

The rune that lowers enemy level helps alot. Also the last sets of armor require you beating mini bosses to get them. Seems certain bosses drop certain sets. The last 2 I needed, which I just finished getting a moment ago, were dropped by that spear knight one, and the twin skeletons.

[Pnume]

NG+2 was easier than NG+ for me. I had maxed out critical damage by then and I made a lot of cash in ng+2

[stormyeater]

Thanks from this tip, i'm playing new game + now and will try to find rest of the equipment there for achievment. After that i dont think i will even start ng+2, but we shall see...

[Yasume]

I found 21 blueprints in New Game+2 and I didn't use Grace Runes most of the time, so no one has to worry.

[Travithymia]

I'm on NG+2 and I have to use 5 Grace Runes and a Sky Cape consistently, as well as my highest value armor/health equipment, though keep in mind I'm only level 210. The only classes that seem to work at all are Barbarians and Assassins, even Paladins get shot down pretty early in Castle Hamson. Waiting until you have the blueprint achievement before progressing past NG+ is definitely solid advice.

[Pnume]

Originally posted by Freeasacar:

I'm on NG+2 and I have to use 5 Grace Runes and a Sky Cape consistently, as well as my highest value armor/health equipment, though keep in mind I'm only level 210. The only classes that seem to work at all are Barbarians and Assassins, even Paladins get shot down pretty early in Castle Hamson. Waiting until you have the blueprint achievement before progressing past NG+ is definitely solid advice.

You should not focus your equipement on armor. The damage reduction calculated from armor( 200/(200+armor)) is very light. You need a lot of armor to get a significative damage reduction ( 200 for 50 % and 600 for 75%) and it is a lot more effective to focus on DPS.

[Neat]

Still give it a go. Honestly it may seem frustrating now, but a good run will come around at some point.

Also there are ways to cheat having to beat any monsters:

-Grab an assassin and just mist through as much monsters as possible. While you do this explore as many rooms as possible and find gold chests. If you feel like you can take out an enemy room, do so. Use the gold to buy crit chance (trust me it's probably the best thing you can use it on) or better equipment.

-Do the same with a barbarian with fah ro dus or whatever the shout is. It's pretty easy to jump into a room of enemies and just hit that a few times and get to the next room. You're again hunting for chests with gold in them. Though the barbarian might even last longer because of his high health here.

-Spelunker makes it easier to find the chests, but harder to get past the projectiles. Just run a spelunker purely to get chests and try and dodge projectiles to get to the next room. You may not last very long but the gold bonus will net you some money at least, and every upgrade counts.

-Paladin is also extremely useful. Use that shield whenever you can. If you run into a room of melee guys or fire-ball things, use shield + down to turn into a statue and wait while they kill themselves.

-A lich king will usually have spells like crow storm which you can spam at the start of entering a room, use it and abuse it and you can even get past really difficult rooms blocking your path.

-Abuse the fact you can enter and leave a room as many times as you like. A lot of the time when entering a room all monsters nearby are ready to fire their projectiles and do so. When you reset the room by leaving and entering a lot of the time their projectiles are now on cooldown. Use this time to kill an enemy or two. If it gets hot again, leave the room and come back. Rinse and repeat. There's no shame in it as some rooms are ridiculously difficult and almost guarantee you taking some damage if you fight them the normal way, especially with new game+ 2 monsters.

-If you haven't already, use a spelunker or assassin to locate all the boss rooms and lock down the castle after death so you can directly teleport to them. Khidr, ponce de leon and herodotus get more damage but their strategies remain the same so they should actually be easier to take down than difficult monster rooms in the castle. I wouldn't reccommend taking down alexander like this, as his minions get stronger every new game I think, and you usually need enough dps to take out each minion in a minimum of two hits in order to beat him, otherwise you get overwhelmed. Of course you can only do each of these bosses once, but even with the 40% gold penalty from lockdown, you can get a nice bit of gold for upgrades.

Not sure what else to say. It's a bit of a slog just gold hunting rather than playing the game legitimately, but you'll come out of it relatively quickly, whilst hopefully learning how the enemy projectiles behave so you can beat them more easily too.