The 'stupid' challenges

[Tim]

As you know, some challenges in this game are otherwise hard or just stupid. You know which challenges I'm refering to...'Speed' 'The Guadian' and things like that. Let's take this thread to discuss buffs or nerfs to these idiotic challenges. Also, in Adoption (I call it that ^_^) What is your favorite item so far? Mine...the Battery Buddy <3

[Grok]

Guardian is fine until the moron steps on a red poop and takes anywhere from half a heart to 4 hearts in damage.

[AM DERG]

Played/beaten most of the challenges. (Only missing "Brains!" and I'm not even sure if I care enough to try. The lack of a reduced cooldown on the Brains, and the fact that the item sucks in general is just me drawing the line between what I am and am not willing to put up with, and I've unlocked Godhead, if that says anything.)

My verdict is as follows:
The challenges are all interesting in concept - they all look nice on paper or sound cool from a distance. In practice, they're all exercises in frustration and are terribly executed. Too many challenges rely on luck, the absence of bad luck (from the troll engine itself?), or just saintly patience for pure .

There's a difference between a "challenge" and self-inflicted torture.
Too many of the challenges seem to take an idea a step too far from what would be enjoyable.
Playing the game sped up? Cool! Challenging even. Playing with an added timer? Too far.

Considering most of the rewards are rather meh, I'd go as far as to say: if you're not a completionist, don't bother.

[Lunacy]

The stupidest thing in The Guardian for me was...
not the unavoidable damage
but I had a wide room with a Host (those skull towers) on the edge and it literally took 4 minutes for the dummy to get close enough to activate it so I could kill it in order to access the boss room.

[Orc]

Originally posted by Magical Purple Man:

Fun fact, you can't hurt satan at all with kamikazi, so if you have no alternate way of attacking him you're ♥♥♥♥♥♥ in the Blue Bomber challenge.
I wish I was joking.

For some reason I've been having a lot of trouble with this challenge even though it's not that difficult. Did about 5 runs of it today, all dying past mom; and one of them making it to the last form of Satan but I ran out of bombs and had no familiars to do damage so I was ♥♥♥♥♥♥.

As for the speed challenge, beat that first try. I got Sacraficial Dagger + Unicorn Stump and destroyed everything.

[DontEatSmurfs]

IMO when someone says that challlenges are fun, its because they did and want to do it again, what i do, is finish them and never EVER look at it again...because most of them is not nearly fun as some here says, for me its pure labor that you need to put to get that achive and thats my friends...is not fun at all

[Shadowspaz]

Originally posted by DontEatSmurfs:

IMO when someone says that challlenges are fun, its because they did and want to do it again, what i do, is finish them and never EVER look at it again...because most of them is not nearly fun as some here says, for me its pure labor that you need to put to get that achive and thats my friends...is not fun at all :bbtcat:

All personal taste. I very rarely play through the challenges a second time, but I usually enjoy just the creativity and difficulty behind them.

I guess the only reason I don't do them multiple times is because it's always the same challenge. I would do Lost runs all the time for the challenge, but since it's the main game, it's always very different runs. That being said, I certainly wouldn't say I was really any good at the Lost. :P

[DiscouragedOblong]

i'd say Speed is the only actually hard challenge. Bomber is broken but everything else was pretty easy. They're called hcallenges for a reason guys

[DontEatSmurfs]

Originally posted by Fac Hacks (shawn):

i'd say Speed is the only actually hard challenge. Bomber is broken but everything else was pretty easy. They're called hcallenges for a reason guys

really ?
so ... my dummy running 3 times at spikes was my fault ( i was with full heart at womb 2 ) , since this is a challenge and everything is under my control...
onans streak, pay to play, XXXXXXXL, have a heart and i rule are the only real CHALLENGES that we have, the rest are RESET fest or pray to god for everything go ok...
you know...i could do family man or the purist, if i loose was MY fault...not some RNG BS that i cant dodge

[Tim]

Originally posted by DontEatSmurfs:

Originally posted by Fac Hacks (shawn):

i'd say Speed is the only actually hard challenge. Bomber is broken but everything else was pretty easy. They're called hcallenges for a reason guys

really ?
so ... my dummy running 3 times at spikes was my fault ( i was with full heart at womb 2 ) , since this is a challenge and everything is under my control...
onans streak, pay to play, XXXXXXXL, have a heart and i rule are the only real CHALLENGES that we have, the rest are RESET fest or pray to god for everything go ok...
you know...i could do family man or the purist, if i loose was MY fault...not some RNG BS that i cant dodge

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXL was the first thing I did in Adoption. Wait, scratch that Pride day. Pay 2 Play is the next thing ima scratch off my list....
Onan's streak is all about hitting yor shots. Since I just shoot at a wall, hoping it'll kill something....I die :P

[Hollowriller]

Speed would be less random if you had The map and compass, it would force you to decide if you have the time to go for the item room or rush to the boss,

as it is now you can lose it simply from geting lost, (also an imunity to the lost debuff). the
others are not as well done as they should be.

Brains should have a reduced cooldown on bob's brain.
Guardians is a mess with the suicidal dummy.
XXXXXXXL is simply tedious.
haven't tried any of the others.

[Shadowspaz]

Originally posted by Hollowriller:

Brains should have a reduced cooldown on bob's brain.
Guardians is a mess with the suicidal dummy.
XXXXXXXL is simply tedious.
haven't tried any of the others.

Originally posted by DontEatSmurfs:

onans streak, pay to play, XXXXXXXL, have a heart and i rule are the only real CHALLENGES that we have, the rest are RESET fest or pray to god for everything go ok...

I don't think you can discredit a challenge because you find it tedious...

I think Brains would fall into that category. It's completely doable without getting any items- You just need to be patient and focus on dodging a lot more. It's a long challenge, but I don't think it needs to be a short one. Reducing the cooldown just takes away the patience aspect of it, while keeping everything else.

XXX...L is a pretty straightforward challenge. But again, requires patience.

I would only consider The Guardian and Blue Bomber as challenges that need balancing, because you are completely out of control of your losses in a lot of cases. Speed can require a bit of luck, but having a knowledge of the map layouts helps in determining the right direction, and there are a LOT of items that can really speed up the run, that you can get at any time.

Regarding "the rest are RESET fest or pray to god for everything go ok":

This game is unique in that it is very common to be able to substitute skill with luck, and it seems that the vast majority of players only see one side of this. They claim challenges are terrible, or that the Lost is really unbalanced, because "it all depends on RNG". But it doesn't. If you play the game, depending on getting OP combos to carry you through the run, then you aren't improving, and you're going to stay dependent on the luck. If you improve, though, luck will matter less and less. That's why I don't like Guardian + Bomber as they are, right now- Losses are 100% luck, and it violates this balance they've created.

[DontEatSmurfs]

Originally posted by Shadowspaz:

Originally posted by Hollowriller:

Brains should have a reduced cooldown on bob's brain.
Guardians is a mess with the suicidal dummy.
XXXXXXXL is simply tedious.
haven't tried any of the others.

Originally posted by DontEatSmurfs:

onans streak, pay to play, XXXXXXXL, have a heart and i rule are the only real CHALLENGES that we have, the rest are RESET fest or pray to god for everything go ok...

I don't think you can discredit a challenge because you find it tedious...

I think Brains would fall into that category. It's completely doable without getting any items- You just need to be patient and focus on dodging a lot more. It's a long challenge, but I don't think it needs to be a short one. Reducing the cooldown just takes away the patience aspect of it, while keeping everything else.

XXX...L is a pretty straightforward challenge. But again, requires patience.

I would only consider The Guardian and Blue Bomber as challenges that need balancing, because you are completely out of control of your losses in a lot of cases. Speed can require a bit of luck, but having a knowledge of the map layouts helps in determining the right direction, and there are a LOT of items that can really speed up the run, that you can get at any time.

Regarding "the rest are RESET fest or pray to god for everything go ok":

This game is unique in that it is very common to be able to substitute skill with luck, and it seems that the vast majority of players only see one side of this. They claim challenges are terrible, or that the Lost is really unbalanced, because "it all depends on RNG". But it doesn't. If you play the game, depending on getting OP combos to carry you through the run, then you aren't improving, and you're going to stay dependent on the luck. If you improve, though, luck will matter less and less. That's why I don't like Guardian + Bomber as they are, right now- Losses are 100% luck, and it violates this balance they've created.

I somewhat agree with you, if the dummy AI was "smarter" and brains CD from bobs brain a little less tedious, those challenges would be ok and not "OH MY GOD!! I GIVE UP! THIS DUMP AI !!"

[the real mario]

Id have to say slow roll, its way to easy to be a challenge.

[Shrombus]

Originally posted by Candyhead:

Id have to say slow roll, its way to easy to be a challenge.

this is almost 4 years old, dude.

[Tim]

great to see steam loves necroing stuff :)