Stress - Is literally killing me

[500KG]

So I get the basics, i'm used to this kind of rpg. I've tried 4 times now and I can't seem to progress past the first few missions.

The enemies attacks seem to hit me for 10 stress per hit, those wine throwing little guys or the witches at the back. Once somebody hits 100 stress, ♥♥♥♥ really hits the fan. They always fail the resolve test and drag everybodies else'e stress up to 100, which in turn brings them all up to 200.

I just finished a battle now that I went into with full hp and one guy had 50% stress.
He was hit three times in a row, which made him freak out, which made the others freak out then all of a sudden nobody was responding to my commands and just gaining stress over and over until one died of a heart attack and the others just stood there while being pummeled by arrows.

Am I doing somethnig wrong here? Regardless of the scenario, stress just goes through the roof!

[dlmcelroy0]

You might want to check out this thread:

stressed out new player

That player was also struggling with stress. There's a lot of good advice, both for dealing with stress, and the game in general. A few high level bullet points, geared towards stress mitigation being your biggest issue:

• back line stress dealers are your highest priority. make sure your party can hit them.
  
• don't interact with curios unless you know what will happen. bad curios interactions can drive stress up
  
• bring enough shovels
  
• bring enough torches
  
• don't set out with heroes who have over 35 or so stress to begin with
  
• do your heroes have +stress quirks? mitigate the effects with trinkets, don't bring them on missions where they will trigger, or dismiss them.
  
• bring heroes who can destress, and use those skills. Crusader, Houndmaster, Jester, Leper, and Abomination have abilities to manage stress, either for themselves or for others.

General combat advice: speed kills. If you are rolling with a lot of slow heroes, you're going to get dinged more. If you bring a stun on a quick hero you can grab control of the combat. Focus fire - it's better to get rid of one enemy than distribute damage across two.

It is manageable. I can't see how much playtime you have but it seems like you are fairly new (no offense, we all were there at some point). There's a steep learning curve, but experience does count!

Best wishes.

[500KG]

Thanks a lot for that, really useful! I'm about 7 hours in the stress snowball is the only obstancle for now. The rest seems really fun!

[Donathan Cheadledge]

I've recently started playing after not playing for ages, originally I had the same problem as you. It's been pretty much solved for me by just focusing fire and/or damage over time effects (blight/bleed) on the stress giving little ♥♥♥♥♥.

[Chara the Explorer]

As has been said, stress in this game is less about "the accumulated hardships of dungeon crawling" like is advertised and is mostly just pseudo-damage hurled out by certain units. This DOES, however, mean that you can largely mitigate stress by focus firing such units, or dragging them out of position (many enemies will be forced to rely on much weaker abilities if they're not in a favourable position).

I would also recommend bringing a ton of torches and keeping the light above 75 percent. This makes the monsters weaker, minimizes stress, and increases scouting chance (keeping surprises like ambushes and traps to a minimum).

[Scootz]

If you can focus on killing the back two units within the first 1/2 rounds and then usually you should be able to balance out the stress with crits/camping.
So a general rule of thumb (for me at least) is to make sure at least two units can hit rank 4 and bring some one with a high stun (Houndmaster or Bounty Hunter) to stun the other stress dealer and then stun the damage dealers.

[red255]

yeah not going to make a massive guide. but will state the obvious.

1.) kill the people that cause you the most problems first/faster.

2.) get camping skills and units that reduces stress.

3.) play with full torchlight if it ever drops below 75 light a torch. bring enough torches.

[Caramirdan]

Don't forget food, short/med/long: 12, 18, 24.

[Doctor ☢ Apocalypse]

Those negative perks can really make a difference. I had issues with stress until I sat down and really went through all the quirks and perks to get a better understanding of what was causing me so much stress.

[Chara the Explorer]

Originally posted by Doctor "Papa" ☢ Apocalypse:

Those negative perks can really make a difference. I had issues with stress until I sat down and really went through all the quirks and perks to get a better understanding of what was causing me so much stress.

This is true. If you have a guy who's scared ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of the Warrens AND of Beasts, probably don't send him there, yeah, OP?

[No One]

Originally posted by Caramirdan:

Don't forget food, short/med/long: 12, 18, 24.

Need more than that if you intend to feast. 20 and 32 minimum. TYet more if there's any backtracking.

[red255]

just take it all. seriously. if you get more than you need, you can eat or drop it. unless the money is breaking your game which it shouldn't be