Reached Base/Lab - Staying East for Now

[GI_JIMBO]

Made it to the Base but have not gone through West Door. Seem like I have all sorts of Side Quests, Hunting Trials, Tall-Neck stuff to finish in the East. But there are Tools in the West needed to complete Quests in the East. The underwater breathing gear for example.

If I go West I can pickup better weapons and stuff. And then come back better prepared.

Thoughts?

I'm beginning to understand the complaint about the game having too much "grind".

[Alcator]

I don't think the stuff you are describing is actually what the complaints about GRIND are about.

What they are complaining about is that each Outfit and each Weapon has at least 3 levels of upgrades (some as many as 5), and that depending on the rarity of the item (Blue - Purple - Gold), you will need a specific sequence of high-tier loot from machines, with some of those machines being really difficult to locate, let alone defeat. So if you want to have 6 gold weapons on you, get ready to respawn over and over at specific campfires and fighting the same 'boss' machine over and over, hoping that the 95% probability of dropping the needed loot smiles at you.

THAT is the grind being criticized, not "To the south of you, there's a Tallneck".

[Rarewolf]

i got to the base,
continued the story while doing side missions here and there.
got to a point in the story where i was getting my ass kicked a bit too much and i wasnt doing enough damage.
around level 25?
i stopped and started doing side mission and got to level 30 in a flash, which was where i wanted to stop. saw i had more side missions and continued anyways cause im greedy.
got to level 37 and i was like. oh. nice.
i continued main story got to gemini mission.
did the "grind" to get parts to upgrade equipment.
i mostly just bought the stuff i needed and got to level 40 and then finished gemini.
i havent felt this grind that you guys are talking about.
also i like using the soundshell arrows that blow off the parts.
makes things super easy to get.