Glacial level

[2009dh]

This kicks my ass every time - what am I missing here?

[Calfax]

There are some patches of dirt where you don't accumulate hypothermia, I would recommend to skip these levels if you are low leveled or don't have enough hp/resistances.

[2009dh]

The patches don't accumulate hypothermia - but you cannot recover on those spots - I am still stuck on these levels, freezing to death. I can reset the shop / dungeon - but still soon run into another glacial level - getting frustrated. Is there anything else to be done? Ring of elements does not help. Resist cold & winter gear will slow the process, but the cumulative effects overcome them eventually. If the level happens to be a long one or you go down a lot of dead ends, then it is a very frustrating death.
The devs hint that there is a trick to these levels so that even low level characters can beat it in the release notes of this patch - I am not seeing it - any help would be appreciated.

[Calfax]

Originally posted by 2009dh:

The patches don't accumulate hypothermia - but you cannot recover on those spots - I am still stuck on these levels, freezing to death. I can reset the shop / dungeon - but still soon run into another glacial level - getting frustrated. Is there anything else to be done? Ring of elements does not help. Resist cold & winter gear will slow the process, but the cumulative effects overcome them eventually. If the level happens to be a long one or you go down a lot of dead ends, then it is a very frustrating death.
The devs hint that there is a trick to these levels so that even low level characters can beat it in the release notes of this patch - I am not seeing it - any help would be appreciated.

The trick is for the community to find, maybe alcohol or something, people still haven't found out.
I recommend to skip those levels if you aren't prepared, they are somewhat rare.

[Siradein]

Originally posted by Calfax:

Originally posted by 2009dh:

The patches don't accumulate hypothermia - but you cannot recover on those spots - I am still stuck on these levels, freezing to death. I can reset the shop / dungeon - but still soon run into another glacial level - getting frustrated. Is there anything else to be done? Ring of elements does not help. Resist cold & winter gear will slow the process, but the cumulative effects overcome them eventually. If the level happens to be a long one or you go down a lot of dead ends, then it is a very frustrating death.
The devs hint that there is a trick to these levels so that even low level characters can beat it in the release notes of this patch - I am not seeing it - any help would be appreciated.

The trick is for the community to find, maybe alcohol or something, people still haven't found out.
I recommend to skip those levels if you aren't prepared, they are somewhat rare.

Wearing a NATURAL fur coat seems to make you immune to the effects of the glacial levels.

[2009dh]

Thanks for info. Not an easy trick to pull off though, before L10, when the ice starts. Guess I'll prioritise a certain legacy, there is a potion that would help - but it seems a very low drop rate.
I hope there is another simpler method to survive the cold....

[WarMage]

Hey, I'm back to the game after a long time away. Is having fur really the only way to deal with those levels ? I'm having a hard time.... every dungeon eventually end up in a damn frozen level that I simply can't do. That's really annoying.

Edit :
Oh and sometimes, the freeze debuff bugs out and it doesn't go away at all even if you've left the frozen area. That's just.... terrible.

[nibbe]

That freeze debuff bug is with the map generation with larger levels where it doesn't fill the entire level with ice and it's fixed in the next version (the entire level is counted as glacial even when it forgets to show it).

The thing with glacial levels is that each time you end a turn on a frozen tile, you get one point colder. When you reach 12 points you gain first level of hypothermia which starts to give you D3 frost damage per level per turn. Hypothermia level raises by one for every 12 turns you spend getting colder.

The warm spots on the ground do not make you warmer or colder and those are meant to be used to rest and to move around without getting colder. To reduce the number of turns spent on frozen spots, you can jump towards the next warm spot.

You guys have already listed all of the things that helps your survive these levels but you have left out turning back before reaching the point of no return. Depending on your equipment and resistances, you may have ~48 turns that you can spend getting colder (~8 points of frost resistance) before you start to take too much damage and it might take 10 turns to get back to the stairs if you use the warm spots on your way.

In that case you could spend maybe ~40 turns exploring the map and then go back to previous level to warm up safely or you could push just a little further and end up freezing to death.

Glacial levels were designed to require ~8 points of frost resistance and some thought where to end your turn and it's up to the player to figure out how to get there. Every piece of winter armour is the same as 2 points of frost resistance because they remove one dice from the damage.

So, the items and things that glacial levels made more desirable are:
- Amulet of frost ward
- Winter armour pieces
- Frost resistance enchants

[WarMage]

I appreciate you sharing information with us, thank you.

To be entirely honest, I hate what you described. It doesn't sounds fun at all. If frozen levels were rarer, that would be fine. It would give you a choice to "endure and push through" or ignore and turn around. But since they're so prevalent and happen let's say 70-80% of the time it's not much of a choice but an almost unavoidable hard wall that forces you to stop exploring and sleep at the inn if you don't have a pickaxe or is lucky enough to have a well placed boulder to seal off the level. Basically, it removes player choice instead of adding options.

Now, let's talk about the "options" that we have to deal with this :

- Amulet of Forst Ward
Easy enough, that's perfectly fine. Add 5 resist frost.

- Winder Armour Pieces
Winter gear couldn't be crafted before. Yesterday, I got a rare plan drop (blue in colour instead of white) that gave me the ability to craft 1 winter gear. I haven't found any other such plan though. Seems like the drop rate is exceedingly rare. Finding the armour randomly is of average difficulty. What I dislike about it is that it forces us to have 2 armour set for reasons that will be explained in the next point.

- Frost Resistance Enchants
Really bad idea because of the way the game is already balanced. We need resistances and immunity to so many things that are already lethal there's almost no room left on our gear to add more enchants. We already need to deal with Fear, Confuse, Paralyse, Curse, Blind, Instant death, Charm, Sleep, Stun, Polymorph and more. Those are run enders. On top of that, most people want +5 Crit chance meaning 5 more enchants because that's how you can get the materials needed to craft anything drop properly. Otherwise, it's such a slow grind it's unsustainable. Then, the very few spots left are for + STR or + AGI depending on your build. And that whole story take into account you've got your Heritages in order and all your crafting recipes because you'll need every piece to be Blessed. On top of that, we haven't even talked about the huge cost of finding, crafting & enchanting all that gear. Where's the space for added Frost Resistance Enchants ?!

The only viable option I see right now.... is either having natural fur as stated above (which locks you in a specific playstyle/build) or having a second armour set (winter set). The issue with the second set is that resources are already scarce in this game and now you'd need to splurge on extra armour pieces and enchants ?! My my... that's quite sadistic.

Anyway I'm sorry Nibble, I really want to like Rogue's Tale.... but that new mechanic isn't fun. If we had extra space for enchants... that would've been a different conversation but in the current state of the game you're lucky if you get one armour set finished with all the proper enchants and stuff.

[2009dh]

This level almost stopped my progress & turned me away from the game. It is an unenjoyable mechanic. I worked tirelessly towards spiritual guidance in order to mitigate it - but it feels like such a waste of a talent point (I have since discovered how right Mike is! - so swings & roundabouts I guess). I would like to see a way to lower your cold level within the glacial area. Maybe a rare alcahol or food (brandy or chilli?) or standing next to a campfire or some other secret method for us to discover. As it stands, it is kind of a progress stopper for new players.

[WarMage]

Upon further testing, here's another odd behaviour :

If you go in, get some freeze built up, then go back up a level to unfreeze yourself once you go back down you'll freeze faster. That's so damn annoying.

[2009dh]

Every 12 turns of freeze gets you a freeze level & it is a D3 damage for each freeze level every turn (minus cold resistance, minus another 2 for each winter armour). When you come out to recover and the last freeze level drops off - you would be on the equivalent of still having 11 turns worth of freeze still banked - so wait 11 more turns after freeze icon disappears for full reset - then you would be good to go back in.

[WarMage]

With further tests.... ah damn, 2009dh got here before me. Yes, that's the issue. The icon disappear before your freezing counter gets to 0. Yet another annoying detail.

Does anyone know what Frost Resist do in regard to freezing level ?

I thought it would delay freezing or something but I tested it and it doesn't extend or slow down the 12 points limit. So you freeze as fast at 0 frost resist than you do at 12. What's the point of Frost Resist here ?

The only thing I saw do a difference is winter gear that prevent the first few damage roll from affecting you. 1 roll ignored per winter gear equipped.

[2009dh]

Frost resistance cancels out the damage directly. Each cold level will damage you for 1-3 points of damage. eg. 4 cold levels would damage you for a random amount between 4 and 12 with an average of 8. So if you rolled 8 damage and had 6 cold resist you take 2 damage that turn. each winter armour reduces damage by 2 - so a full set would be equal to a further 12 damage reduction.
Edit - can't remeber if I just assumed the random damage amount being 1-3 or if I read it elsewhere, it may be a flat 2 points of damage per cold level - will try to be more observant next time it comes up.

[WarMage]

I'll confirm for you it's 1D3 damage per cold level. You can see it if you mouse over the icon at the top of the screen.

Thanks for the cold resist info. I didn't notice that... probably because it kills you so fast anyway.

[WarMage]

To help others... you can also go for the Thermal Tatto heritage. Hard to do... because Zombies don't spawn very often. You might have to get lvl 20 and reset your dungeon 15-20 times but eventually.... you'll get it.

It substract 1 damage to the freezing dice roll making it a D2 instead of D3. That does help prevent it snowballing a little.

My preferred way to deal with freezing is to have a Ring of Shielding (it regen fast while you walk) and getting + Frost Resist. It's not great, you can still die a horrible death.... but it'll help give you time to explore. Don't forget to jump instead of walking and try to path through the safe ground patches. Still a huge pain but at least it's somewhat functional that way.

I'll be honest, I'm still skipping those level whenever I feel like it. They're not worth the bother.