Is there a balancing issue with the game's combat?

[Ahmad240]

I've been playing for over a 100 hours and I can't help but think that this game lacks balance. Aloy is under-powered compared to the overpowered Aloy in the first game. Enemies even at level 50 can pose a challenge and sometimes, one-shoot you or at least takes third of your health bar.

I'm capitalizing on the enemies' weaknesses and I mainly deal elemental damage followed up by the normal arrows when their health is corroding or their plasma bar is building to explode - and I still can't play the game. Aloy is too slow whereas the enemies are too agile for her.

I don't usually complain about any game's difficulty. I played Elden Ring and Dark Souls 3, and granted, those games made me pull my hair, but I felt that there is a fighting chance because it was fair and you're supposed to get better with each defeat. But in Horizon FW, the gameplay's scaling isn't like that.

What are your thoughts and opinions on this?

[Kashra Fall]

Ropecaster is the great equalizer. Elite ropecaster for main game, the ties that bind for DLC. One shot is strong enough to down all small/medium creates, to shots is strong enough to down larger ones. Proceed to use tear arrows at that point (Sharp shot bow.) to take off pieces that either give agility or moves and then back away and use the arrows/shredder gauntlet to your liking. Alternatively, having a buddy (Overriden mount with aggressive behaviour.) is also the great equalizer.

I finished the game the other day on NG ultra hard and it was rough for sure, but the DLC especially the water wings, has been the biggest threat thus far.

[StormhawkV]

There are a few attacks that deal way too much damage compared to how difficult it is to dodge them (acid clawstrider, slitherfang) but apart from that it's fine. What I don't like however is how the different ammo and damage types are scattered across so many weapons. Zero Dawn made it much easier to build a well rounded arsenal. Here every bow seems to fire acid arrows in addition to one other arrow type. I have 4 now and I'm still missing certain elements.

[Ahmad240]

I agree that the elements are too spread between the hunter's bow and advanced bow. There's also the precision bows - I don't know how many to be exact. Keeping the wrong arsenal of weapons can break your gameplay.

[brothersingame2016]

i finish the game on ultra difficult and was easy on PC but i remember when i beat the game on PS5 over there was very hard i think is because mouse and keyboard is way better for AIM

this is the only thing you need for the entire game on ultra difficult
armor = nora thunder warrior or queen marine ( lv 5 )
hunter bow = death seeker shadow ( LV 5 ) use this bow for everything but when you going against boss i recommend the
IRIV'S DOWNFALL ( LV 5 )
COILS = 2 LEGENDARY ELITE CRITICAL HITS
2 LEGENDARY ELITE OVERDRAWS
1 CRITICAL HIT CHANCE

THIS SAME COILS YOU CAN USE ON THE DEATH SEEKER THAT'S EVERYTHING I USE SIMPLE BUT WORKS FOR ME NOW IF YOU CHECK ON YOUTUBE VIDEOS HAVE A LOT BETTER BUILD TO BUILD

now if you going to play this game multiple times like i did i recommend speed run 1x in story mode to farm all the weapons and LVS them you go to new game plus on ultra difficult
i did this way on the pc because when this game release on ps5 i played on normal and ultra difficult my save game was 120 hours and here on pc i spend half the time

[PhantomFury]

I spent 50 hours playing on PS5 on Easy. It was my first big game when getting back into gaming after a 15 year hiatus, and the first time I have tried to play a game with controller. Aiming was very tough for me, and it took me a lot of work to be able to play. I thought easy was difficult. Now playing it on PC now, and on Normal. Its almost too easy. I'm 25ish hours in, and its too easy.

Best advice I can give is before leaping into a battle use the focus and find the weak spots. I'll elemental what they are weak to, if they have canisters I'll hit them with element to blow them up, and run in with regular arrows into the weak spots. Dodge, and Keep Distance. Its easy. Half the time you can stand in one spot, elemental, frost, bang the canisters, and they are dead or 1/4 half before they even get close to you. Dodging and quickly regaining your LOS and smacking in an arrow or two before they get back.

I'm level 32 and haven't done the first sub routine yet. Just blew the Bulwark and hitting those side quests. I don't have any superb gear, just random stuff I've bought, and each item when I upgrade to a new one I grind out all the upgrades for it. I enjoy farming....

[StormhawkV]

Now that I spent a lot more time looking at the damage values I can produce I have to say I do not like the tear resistance of the second highest difficulty setting. It's way too high imo. It's almost double of what hard difficulty has. It's probably fine for NG+ but when starting from scratch it makes combat a bit tedious. Parts are simply not coming down unless I use tons of tearblast arrows.

[Kashra Fall]

Originally posted by StormhawkV:

Now that I spent a lot more time looking at the damage values I can produce I have to say I do not like the tear resistance of the second highest difficulty setting. It's way too high imo. It's almost double of what hard difficulty has. It's probably fine for NG+ but when starting from scratch it makes combat a bit tedious. Parts are simply not coming down unless I use tons of tearblast arrows.

Use the shredder gauntlet, surprinsgly effective.

[Jamie]

Originally posted by Ahmad240:

I've been playing for over a 100 hours and I can't help but think that this game lacks balance. Aloy is under-powered compared to the overpowered Aloy in the first game. Enemies even at level 50 can pose a challenge and sometimes, one-shoot you or at least takes third of your health bar.

I'm capitalizing on the enemies' weaknesses and I mainly deal elemental damage followed up by the normal arrows when their health is corroding or their plasma bar is building to explode - and I still can't play the game. Aloy is too slow whereas the enemies are too agile for her.

I don't usually complain about any game's difficulty. I played Elden Ring and Dark Souls 3, and granted, those games made me pull my hair, but I felt that there is a fighting chance because it was fair and you're supposed to get better with each defeat. But in Horizon FW, the gameplay's scaling isn't like that.

What are your thoughts and opinions on this?

put it on easy and use wemod. problem solved

[Soüp]

I was actually thinking this game's better balanced than the first one, at least on normal difficulty. The problem is, damage scaling with difficulty is much greater here (technically it scales enemy HP and resistances rather than damage, but the result is the same) which turns combat into a real slog on ultra hard even when taking full advantage of elemental attacks.

[EightSeven6]

If you're getting smacked around shoot a single rope into the machine and run away, then watch them stumble giving you a chance to hit back.