When to go to each location?

[LloydsGamble]

Hi, just picked up the game a few days ago and really enjoying it so far, just have a few questions.

Is there any ideal order in which to visit each location?

Up till now (week 8 or so) I have been doing short/medium runs in the Ruins only and mostly been very comfortable there.

I saw an apprentice level quest pop up in the Warrens and decided to try going there for a change.

It was far, far harder than the Ruins. I finished the short quest but I came out with 4 heaviliy stressed heroes (1 afflicted) and two diseased heroes.

The mobs there seemed far tougher, inflicting huge amounts of stress and diseases for fun. Might be I was just unlucky and my party composition wasn't idea but seemed twice as hard as the Ruins despite being the same level of quest.

So what's ideal in the early game? Is it better for me to just stick to the ruins for now or should I be trying the low level quests in all locations?

I understand now that certain classes are better for the Warrens (Beastmaster/Plague Doctor) but I was trying lot's of different parties in the Ruins without any problems at all.

Is the Warrens considered hard or was I just unlucky/not used to it?

Are there particualr reasons to go to one location over another? Better chances of certain loot etc?

Is it viable to just stick to the Ruins and 'master' that before moving on to a new location?

Sorry bit of a spammy post with scattered questions but any help is much appreciated.

[Paranoia]

Ruins is basically the Easy Mode.
The other locations have their gimmicks. Warrens´s one is that pretty much everything is connected multiple ways, so one can avoid routes that are trouble. And they´re weak to Bleed.

Cove is strong against Bleed, causes Bleeds a ton, but is weak to Blight. And filled with Glass Cannons, so take either speedy dudes or Tanks.

Weald is Blight-heavy place with enduring enemies mostly. Tanks and/or Stun necessary.

[Herr Gutentauben]

Ruins is probably the easiest health wise. But there is a lot of stress to deal with thanks to the cultist and the courtier...but in apprentice they should not be too hard.

Warrens has a lot of disease and weald blights whilst the cove has a lot of damage and annoying utility tanky enemies...

Every area has it's challenges, the best option would be to wait until you have improvements for level 1-2 heroes and then get into those areas with a little bit of advantadge to learn about them, but use your level 0 heroesi n the ruins if you are comfortable in there to level them up.

Just give yourself time, this game has a lot of stuff to keep in mind to play everything as good as possible.

[Shirome Artiste]

When doing apprentice runs the ruins are, generally speaking, the most forgiving. The enemies are almost all straightforward: They either punch you in the face or deal stress. Sure, there's the occasional maggot/spider pack or the odd wandering brigand group, but you're mostly facing skeletons and the occasional cultist.

The other areas start to introduce new and more mechanics and enemy types, and without knowing things beforehand will feel a lot more punishing.

In short:
Weald introduces marking, blight, bonus damage from marks and focussing a target down. Also ooze and rabid dogs.

Warrens introduce (fairly) well rounded parties that can deal damage, stress out and debuff/DoT.

Cove introduces a metric boatload of bleed inflicting nuisances, high damage/low health priority targets and IIRC that's the only "new" thing that it introduces.

[LloydsGamble]

Thanks guys, seems it's just about gaining experience then. As you say, it's not a game you can learn overnight.

Would you say it's best to visit locations based on what heroes you have available at camp? (Eg: If Plague Doctor/Beastmaster are recovering, avoid the Barrens?)

I think I'll go Ruins whenever I am trying/levelling new heroes as Dr.Kappa suggested and when I am trying different comps.

And go to the other locations with more specialised parties when I have all the heroes I need available.

[jay jay the dank planezinho]

I wouldn't say there's an easier dungeon than the other. It depends on your team mostly. You don't have to follow any order, but you do need to assemble the proper squad to where you are going. Like, in the Ruins you are going to face mostly undead. They have huge bleed resistance, so if you send heroes that specialize in bleed damage, the easy dungeon might not be so easy anymore.