Do I suck at this game or is hard like...really hard?

[Sinophile]

I am level 40 but struggled to take down a level 30 Thunder Jaw. I can eventually do it, but end up depleting all of my healing items. I never use traps or tiripcasters, only bows. Am I playing the game wrong?

[d.]

Try to use purple weapons and go for vulnerable areas.
General strikes don't do much damage, and also try to use elemental damage, I feel like in this (over HZD) is more important.
So, freeze/acid till it kicks in and then damage into vulnerable spots.

Having a mount as aggressive also helps. Those velociraptor things are just OP.

[Magenof]

Same, feel like 50% of the combat segments I'm just getting tossed around by a hoard of robots. Haven't found the 'flow' of the combat yet. Also having no time to scan during combat for weaknesses is annoying, wish it slowed the game more.

[Skeeter]

it's not you, the gameplay is just trash

[GlowWorm]

Level tends to not the be ultimate measure of capability in this game. Gear, and tactics / skill, tend to be quite important.

[Boikinov]

Use acid first, then tear both disc launchers
Find a small hill between you and the thunderjaw, lure it to shoot you with it's head-mounted gun while you hide behind the hill
Ready your tripleshot arrow, jump up from behind the hill, slow motion, aim and shoot thunderjaw's forehead (the big red glowing spot) when it is embracing for the gunshot
If the forehead still covered with armor plate, you need to tear it first, that's why acid helps
After the weak point revealed, just repeat the trick above or apply plasma status to amplify your damage

[Alcator]

The game essentially expects you to ALWAYS put machines into Corroding status ('acid' full circle), otherwise you will have difficulty getting through armor.

It's kinda like the first game expected you to put machines into Brittle state (cold) or Burning state (fire) to take them out quickly.

[Black 🌈]

How to beat the game very easy: Freeze ammo. No matter where you hit, if your target have the freeze status, it will take maximum damage.

[TH3R4BB!T]

How I did it mostly:
- Hide in tall grass
- Tear the weapons from the machine with tear arrows
- Then use freeze arrows when going aggressive
- When in freeze state, use the arrows that are quick drawn and do a lot of damage
- Hide when machine does attack, refill ammo, repeat previous step
- Also hope that if hit that it does not drop HP to much
- More hoping that machine does not glitch in movements and that dodge works

Side note: you can use most weapons that the machine drops when teared

[Thornok]

in case you have no more healing items, holding down q will refill them from your stash


but there are always some tricks to beat a certain type of machine

[Helifax]

The game can be very challenging even on Normal Difficulty.
Sure skill is required, but it's not a skill issue. It's a gear issue.
This is a Gear Oriented Game. To kill all the big bad machines make sure you upgrade your gear (weapons + weapons), put coils, exploit elemental weaknesses. Use combos to great effect (Frost + bolt blaster melts enemies).
So once you have the right gear and a tactic all you need is to develop your skills :D

If you struggle, watch something like this:
https://youtu.be/magnLDciIV8

There are many great videos that go deep into the combat mechanics :D

[TasmańskiZwierz]

Heavy combat machines are always a challenge and need proper method to take them down; consider them as minibosses - and, as such, expect large usage of consumables on them. While you can always take them down with basic regular bows, simply aiming for weakspots (not recommended until you have Advanced Arrows available), it is much easier to use dedicated gear that can exploit their weaknesses. Then again, it is up to you if you want just to kill (such as while clearing quest area) or get resources from detachables.

Most basic combat tip is: ALWAYS have your target lighted up by Focus, so you can track weakspots during combat. Coupled to it: since opening inventory pauses game, open machines section in Notebook and take your time to study where elemental canisters or other elemental attak-prone elements are. Focus can lit selected one for you in combat, but it's rather tricky and unwieldy when actuall fight start.

Going for canisters is alway a desirable option (unless you want loot from them ofc), as igniting and detonating them with right elemental arrow ALWAYS tiggers elemental explosion, that deals hefty amount of damage and instantly applies corresponding state to machine, regardless of resistances. So, in case of Thunderjaw, despite it's strong against frost and shock - which prevents of reliable stacking those effects with regular ammunition - detonating Chillwater Storage or Sparker causes to to become Brittle or Shocked, respectivly, opening you way to deal addional damage and/or easier time aiming for weakspots or other chain reactions.

Trick is, combat machines have their elemental canisters and other vurnable elements hidden from direct assault from the front and/or armored, so you need to encircle them and bait charges in order to be able to access them. Most straightforward, albeit risky and requiring good timings, method versus Thunderjaw, which has its canisters hidden on underbelly, is to perform slide-in when it's charging on you and shoot from Warrior Bow during Concentration (bullet time) while under it.

However, Thunderjaws actually prefers to fight on distant with their heavy weaponary, and don't really want to come in close, unless they want to snap you with tail (hard to dodge properly, that one). To force change in behaviour, you need to detach their heavy weapons first: disc launchers (2, carried on back), rapid fire cannons (2, on either side of maw) and tail. In addition, you want to destroy radar (on top of the spine) ASAP too, as it will scramble your Focus, preventing you from re-scanning machine to refresh weakspot highlighting for a time).

Now, achieving it can be more or less challenging, depends on what gear you have to your disposal. Advanced Hunter Arrows do short work of those, requiring just 2-3 hits to detach part - same as regular Sharpshooter Arrows, while Advanced Sharpshooter Arrows will take 1 to 2. Tear Arrows from Sharpshooter Bow will always detach part (or armor plate) it landed onto, but it will not deal addional damage for hitting weakspot. I'd say best option are Advanced Hunter Arrows, then Tear Arrows, then Sharpshooter ones, as Sharpshooter bows are SLOW and thus undesired out of long distances.

What you should aim first and detach ASAP are disc launchers. Those are VERY dangerous, releasing series of flying discs that will converge around your location and shoot powerful laser beams from the sky, with very large AoE effect. Getting rid of them not only makes fight much safer, but also allows you to use them as heavy weapon for youself, for some hefty damage - if you manage to get to them, that is.

Next thing that should go down is radar, for reasons desribed above. When it's off, it's time for some running around to get cannons - they are much smaller target than previous ones, and for most of the time can be reliably hit only when Thunderjaw is charging one of his maw distance attacks (either cannon salvo or laser beams directly from the maw). In this phase it will also start charging at you from time to time, so you can start trying to get slide under it, or try take out it's tail, which is very important upgrade resource. While it's standing back to you, it will have Ammo Drums exposed, which are another nice, big weakspot to attack (and give loot when taken off).

Tearing off all said components without triggering any chain reaction should have take Thunderjaw down to ~30-40% hp, and change it's combat style into almost pure meele. This should open to you plenty opportunities for sliding startegy and detonating canisters, which you can use to finish it off. Alternativly, you can try to tear off armor plate just above its eyes to expose Data Nexus, which is indestructible weak spot, into which you can spam your arrows till machine's dead. Javelins work especially well there, assuming you can aim them reliably, but bombs do a nice job too.

If you are having a hard time with aiming (as Thunderjaws are very mobile and agile, despite their size), you can consider old good Zero Dawn strategy with ropecaster. After few hits it will become tied, which you can use to deal critical strike (like on Knocked Off or Shocked machine - thou it will deal too small damage to be worth it) or use those precious few seconds to focus on precision aiming. Adhesive ammo could help a lot too, thou I didn't really test it in combat.

Traps and tripcasters aren't really usefull there I think, maybe except shield tripwire used as layer of protection. They are very good against small and medium machines, but against heavy-hitters they are simply too weak or too easy to avoid to be true gamechanger.

[5ean5ean]

To beat the big machines you need

1. Ropecasters to pin them down.

2. Freeze for a damage taken mulitplier.

3. High damage sharpshot.

People keep using hunter bows and traps and wonder why they ca t do anything. You just cant use 1 strategy of "shoot with 1 bow until is dies."

[TasmańskiZwierz]

Origineel geplaatst door 5ean5ean:

To beat the big machines you need

1. Ropecasters to pin them down.

2. Freeze for a damage taken mulitplier.

3. High damage sharpshot.

People keep using hunter bows and traps and wonder why they ca t do anything. You just cant use 1 strategy of "shoot with 1 bow until is dies."

Hey, its working for me, as it did in Zero Dawn! Not most optimal strategy, but it works. Just need Advanced Arrows. And a lot of patience. And big quiver. And resources to craft arrows in the move. :V
Aaaaand Sharpshooter bow isn't really worth it, unless you are using double notch with Advanced Arrows, but its 1. expensive 2, slow 3. barely more effective than triple notch advanced hunter arrows spam.

[Major_Tinz]

The combat system is terrible on mouse and keyboard. A lot of the special attacks just don't seem to work for me either. I have skills that I never use because I follow the instructions, but it doesn't work. It's all way too fiddly for me.

[JapanGamer29]

If Hard is too hard, why not play on Normal? That's what I do.