Is it normal to abandon most missions?

[ExoneratedPhoenix]

Seriously, the only time I can survive (on easy mode!) to fulfill an entire expedition is buying like 16 food and 10 torches, and the rewards are less than it cost, and my heros all need stress healing at 1-1.5k each.

Each expedition costs 7-8k to complete but only rewards like 3k...

So I now just buy nothing and abandon quests once reaching a profit...Is this normal?

Game seems unbalanced.

[Jesterofgames7712]

If your failing to make a profit you likely aren’t checking curio’s or managing your inventory properly.
Or not using the antiquarian. Keep in mind your mission reward does not count the gold earned from the mission as well.

Plus you can always stress heal in dungeons (medium dungeons are better for this cause camp fires.) with Jester, Crusader Flaggellant or Houndmasters skills.

But yes you can 100% just take random soldiers from the stage coach throw them into a dungeon with no gear and abandon mission with a profit. It costs you nothing. But also you don’t need to do this I’ve beaten the game 3 times without relying on that.

[ExoneratedPhoenix]

Originally posted by Jesterofgames7712:

If your failing to make a profit you likely aren’t checking curio’s or managing your inventory properly.
Or not using the antiquarian. Keep in mind your mission reward does not count the gold earned from the mission as well.

Plus you can always stress heal in dungeons (medium dungeons are better for this cause camp fires.) with Jester, Crusader Flaggellant or Houndmasters skills.

But yes you can 100% just take random soldiers from the stage coach throw them into a dungeon with no gear and abandon mission with a profit. It costs you nothing. But also you don’t need to do this I’ve beaten the game 3 times without relying on that.

I'm checking all curios etc. The issue is every corridor adds 20-30 stress to my characters and they freak out by room 3 of 6 odd.

I am using antiquarian occasionally, I don't see how they help significantly with my issue?

Inventory wise, I need to use 2-3 torches per corridor or it goes pitchblack and I end up losing battles blatantly quickly.

So I need 10-12 torches and they want food a lot so need 12-16 food.

I have managed to complete 1 mission once, and it used all my torches, all my food, all 4 were insane from stress, and they had about 1-2 HP between all of them. Skin-of-the-teeth success.

Yet to complete a mission since. Literally I am half dead after just a couple corridors/rooms no matter what combo I have. I have 16 heroes and have diversified them as much as possible but it doesn't really help. They're all almost identical. Some healers help, but their healing is usually 1-2 HP while the enemies do 8-10 per round, so it's pretty pointless.

[gruetoo]

Heroes are disposable. Don't spend the cash on de-stressing them if a fresh recruit off the stagecoach can be just as good (if not better, depending on what diseases and quirks they picked up on the mission). Sending minimally supplied disposable heroes on cash runs is perfectly viable to help bolster your coffers, but you are going to have to learn to effectively clear missions at some point. In my experience, 16 food and 10 torches for a medium length mission isn't out of the question, depending on the zone. Don't discount the trinket rewards for successful missions. The right trinkets can mitigate, if not eliminate, most of the frustrations of combat.

A big cost saver is learning how not to get stressed in the first place. This is primarily accomplished by being able to deal with stress-inducing back liners quickly and effectively. Proper curio management can not only net you more treasure, but certain ones can help manage stress, healing, and quirks as well. Using the right items on the right curios (as well as knowing which ones are best left alone) is a learned skill, and there are external resources you can look up for precisely that if you don't want to trial-and-error it all out yourself.

[ExoneratedPhoenix]

Just got surprised and my party switched entirely and all died.

Yeah, this game is sh!t.

Hope I am under the 2 hour refund option.

[ExoneratedPhoenix]

Originally posted by gruetoo:

Heroes are disposable. Don't spend the cash on de-stressing them if a fresh recruit off the stagecoach can be just as good (if not better, depending on what diseases and quirks they picked up on the mission). Sending minimally supplied disposable heroes on cash runs is perfectly viable to help bolster your coffers, but you are going to have to learn to effectively clear missions at some point. In my experience, 16 food and 10 torches for a medium length mission isn't out of the question, depending on the zone. Don't discount the trinket rewards for successful missions. The right trinkets can mitigate, if not eliminate, most of the frustrations of combat.

A big cost saver is learning how not to get stressed in the first place. This is primarily accomplished by being able to deal with stress-inducing back liners quickly and effectively. Proper curio management can not only net you more treasure, but certain ones can help manage stress, healing, and quirks as well. Using the right items on the right curios (as well as knowing which ones are best left alone) is a learned skill, and there are external resources you can look up for precisely that if you don't want to trial-and-error it all out yourself.

Curios you just touch to collect items - never seen one you can use an item on?

Not seen a single thing that lowers stress while in the dungeon.

I am using 16/10 on short missions, and only 40-50% completing them.

How am I supposed to level up heroes to go to harder dungeons if I am just using level 0 stagecoach heroes all the time and throwing them to a meatgrinder? I will always be at the weald then.

Getting heroes levelled up requires completion, but completion is near impossible.

2.7 hours in and hopefully going to get refunded.

I have no trinkets to buff me up as I can't complete any damn mission.

I have watched some YT vids and their RNG is MUCH, MUCH more ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ forgiving. I am getting WAY more stressed than their characters, and the monsters are doing like half damage.

How the ♥♥♥♥ does this game have such raving reviews...The game mechanics are just broken. This isn't a "difficult" game, it's just RNG torture with a stress mechanic that fills up on every mission.

[ExoneratedPhoenix]

Just checked a curio guide, none of them relieve stress, so no idea why I keep being told curio management is important.

I touch them, they give you something, usually negative!

The game is just broken and people like to flagellate how they love playing "challenging" games.

[RopeDrink]

Yeah, this game is sh!t.

2.7 hours in and hopefully going to get refunded.

The game is just broken and people like to flagellate how they love playing "challenging" games.

All games are generally at their hardest when you don't understand what's going on. No offense, but if you're running for the refund option after 2.7 hours, then this is obviously the case for you.

Assuming you don't actually want to call it quits, rest assured that it's actually a very easy game once you know what's actually happening. Just keep in mind that the game itself isn't going to force feed you every single answer.

Just got surprised and my party switched entirely and all died.

There are statistical and mechanical options for situations like this.

Curios you just touch to collect items - never seen one you can use an item on?

95% of curios in the game have at least one -- but usually several -- item interactions. In most cases, curios are generally negative, but using certain items either remove the negatives or guarantee positives. This is how you use the curios to turn a profit, or gain specific positive benefits (like buffs, heals, stress-heals, extra loot, etc). There are also a few outliers, such as curios that have a negative interaction when used with certain items -- but those can be avoided.

Learning curio interactions is one of the first knowledge hills, which is why most people would recommend checking a curio list rather than trial-and-error (which takes a lot longer).

Not seen a single thing that lowers stress while in the dungeon.

This falls under learning curios. Plenty of them remove stress, provide loot, heal you, remove negative quirks, provide you huge combat buffs, etc.

Once you interact with a curio, you can right-click a provision in your inventory to interact with it. If you want to use trial and error, the game will provide an icon on those provisions after you've used them to interact with a particular curio at least once. This will help you to remember what happened the last time you used X item on Y curio.

Example:
You see a chest -- description says it's locked:
Open it with no items -- likely to spring a trap, or maybe acquire loot if lucky.
(Or)
Interact with curio and then right-click a key in your inventory -- opens it safely and gives more loot than usual.

From then onward, any time you interact with the same type of chest -- and if you have a key in your inventory -- the key will display an icon that represents what happened after past interaction, such as a picture of gold if it provided a loot reward.

How am I supposed to level up heroes to go to harder dungeons if I am just using level 0 stagecoach heroes all the time and throwing them to a meatgrinder? I will always be at the weald then.

By getting better at the game.

Keep in mind that the first 5 weeks are mechanically the hardest part of every new save -- even for seasoned veterans.

However -- contrary to your experience, it is absolutely possible to comfortably beat missions with level 0's. It's just harder within week 0-5 -- especially when ignorant of mechanics. You'll get better at it as you learn the game, such as good party synergies, what curios actually do, and so forth.

I have watched some YT vids and their RNG is MUCH, MUCH more ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ forgiving. I am getting WAY more stressed than their characters, and the monsters are doing like half damage.

This is -- shock horror -- because most people uploading videos have put in time enough to learn the game a bit more than you have. On the flip-side, you will also get videos from people who don't know what they're doing and make the game seem like it's harder than it actually is.

I could boot up the game right now and make it look like a walk in a park, but that's because I know exactly how it works and what it expects of me. That could be you as well, but it won't happen if your response to a problem is to call the game rubbish, mass-insult people who aren't in your position, and scream for a refund after 3hrs.

How the ♥♥♥♥ does this game have such raving reviews...The game mechanics are just broken. This isn't a "difficult" game, it's just RNG torture with a stress mechanic that fills up on every mission.

This loops back to things being difficult because you don't get it.

You'll find that there are tonnes of people here who'd be more than happy to help -- but it's best not to insult them or the game before asking, as that invites more bitterness than helpfulness. It'd be like walking up to a doctor and calling him a self-flagellating dunce because you find med-school to be a bit difficult.

[Airvanz]

Originally posted by TwistedHelix3:

Just checked a curio guide, none of them relieve stress, so no idea why I keep being told curio management is important.

I touch them, they give you something, usually negative!

The game is just broken and people like to flagellate how they love playing "challenging" games.

ah yes just touch everthing without consent, hey look there is a Wood full of Sharp thing maybe we can use something so we not get hurt like warp our hand with "bandage"? nope just touch it. hey look a pool of water maybe we can filter the water so it save to drink use something like "antvenom"? Nope, Touch and drink it

Hey look An antique Cabinet, Probably locked, are we have "key" for it? Nope touch and just Smash then broke it. This altar look Unholy maybe we can purify it with some "Holy Water"? Nah touch it and get Cursed. What a mountain of Corpse and Rubble We need some tool to clean it up like, "Shovel"? Nah Touch it and clean up with your bare hand then you tired,dirty and get hurt

[Arroba]

Yes It is normal , and Lost all héroes is normal that It isnt normal It is playing in easy Mode .
Sell abalorys that sure you have abalorys to sell and to have gold .

[Cujo]

Originally posted by RopeDrink:

snip

Great post, but OP no longer has the mouse icon, sadly.

[RopeDrink]

Originally posted by Cujo:

Originally posted by RopeDrink:

snip

Great post, but OP no longer has the mouse icon, sadly.

Rest assured that there will be another person like this down the road who plays for a few hours and comes to the same premature conclusion (despite 5-6 years of proof to the contrary).

There are answers to all subjective complaints, but not everyone has the time, patience, or inclination to learn when everything isn't immediately obvious.

The main problem is that the difficulty is in reverse, so it's the short-term people like that who are punished the most, because instead of being reeled in by an appealing hook, the game typically sticks a boot on their neck for not knowing what the game isn't going to tell them, and puts people into the mindset that it's nothing but an unfair RNG-fest (which only truly applies to the first 5 weeks + a small variable amount of extra weeks spent bridging the gap).

[No One]

There are players with 300 hours who don't really get the game yet. I'm not sure how, but they show up all the time.

I personally think DD is designed with a reverse difficulty curve on purpose. In the first dozen or so weeks it's like actually kinda hard. Then you're new, so kinda hard looks really really hard.
Then you get anchored to the impression the game is hard. When it eases up you feel like you got much better at the game...if you don't pay very careful attention. "I'm winning I'm so good at this now."
Result: the game seems "hard" to most, and yet they still win without having to understand it much. You get to market a "hard" game without restricting the player base overmuch with actual difficulty.

[RopeDrink]

There are players with 300 hours who don't really get the game yet. I'm not sure how, but they show up all the time.

Maybe so, but if they have around 300 hours, chances are high that they've beaten the game anyway.

I personally think DD is designed with a reverse difficulty curve on purpose.

That goes against decades of gaming, except maybe the 80's, where the industry wasn't remotely as fleshed or refined, and a lot of games were likely made for the sake of making games, and/or trying to fit them into ridiculously small amounts of memory, so cutting corners would be rife.

You'd get games that wouldn't tell you the controls, didn't come with instructions or hints, would try to ravage the player from the word go, and typically had high punishment -- usually in the form of "you screwed up, so go right back to the start seeing as save-files don't really exist and we didn't bother with a password system, hahaha".

I can't see a modern studio, be they new or experienced, sitting down with a cup of coffee and believing that making the game start out like DD does is a good idea.

I mean, it would be better if it started out like, say, Castlevania SOTN -- Reynauld and Dismas fully decked in goods, carrying you for a few weeks, and then having all their gear stolen or nuked after a forced/scripted fail, and you're left to rebuild the Hamlet, starting with the Guild (which is where all the problems begin to even out).

[Adept]

curios can stress heal. This game is pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sometimes. but i usually win out just a little in the end. Ive found that party comps are everything and having synergy especially for each area. Like bringing a houndmaster to ruins would be a bad idea since they cant bleed. Also you got suprised because you probably had low torch light... but sometimes rng is just a pile of ♥♥♥♥. Good luck with your refund. This game is actually really fun when you get the hang of it. Or you could just cheat engine yourself unl money so you can enjoy other aspects of the game, even with all the loot the game is still hard.

[No One]

Vampire Survivors does the same thing. I haven't tried it myself, but without the meta-upgrades I think winning is actually mathematically impossible. Then you get all the meta-ups and learn about weapon combos or whatever they're called, and you can win without even moving. The game is still considered "hard," even though it explicitly makes itself not-hard.

sitting down with a cup of coffee and believing that making the game start out like DD does is a good idea.

Why didn't they fix it, then?
To be precise I think it was a happy accident. They realized the start was hard and the rest wasn't, and then went, "We can use this."