This game is too hard

[FroBodine]

I don't know how anybody can beat this game. I know I suck, but I can't suck this bad. I have only made it to the third map, and I just get worked over. Days pass, the enemy gets too strong, and I get overwhelmed and stomped on.

How the heck do you beat this game? Are the developers going to put out a balance patch ever? Do they even communicate on this forum?

The game is fun, but just too darned frustrating and difficult.

[eyeris]

That's just the type of game it is. The genre is usually referred to as a "roguelike". The idea is that you play through it a zillion times and each time you accumulate more skills, characters, etc. It's like an RPG meets the movie Groundhog Day or (more recent) Edge of Tomorrow.

[juanval]

It is possible to finish the game. I achieved 5 times in this last version. It depends on luck and that you are an experienced player. I put some advices some theads below.

[emirfassad]

The game is not difficult it is highly random with an extremely restrictive choice basis. That means that the player's chance of completing each level is very small.

The first level has eight to ten encounters. Each encounter has two or three options. Each option may have up to a half dozen outcomes. Since each encounter occurs once per game sampling each of the possible options on the first level alone requires between 64 and 512 plays.

It is relativly easy to reach the second map but highly unlikely that the play weill have gained enough knoweldge/experience from the first map to effect his chances of surviving to the third.

The second map is a bit less random. It has more combat encouters but opponents are significantlhy stronger. I place the probability of surviving any one combat between one-quarter and one-third call it 7/24. There are four combat encounters, I believe. The chance of surviving all of them would be about 1/140. It takes 97 plays to have a 50% chance to complete this level.

If you are willing to play the game a couple hundred times you might make it to the next map.

Though there a many player choices on each map the outcome of each choice has a high variability. That means that very little of the information you have garnered from previous game play will contribute to your choices in your current game.

Since each map has few opportunities for character improvement unpassable roadblocks are common.

It is these last two points where this game fails as a rogue-like. The best rogue-like games present problems for the player and provide him with opportunities to surmount them. The worst rogue-like games simple provide scads of random events.

WazHack & Bionic Dues ae both good rogue-like games. Crowntakers is not.

[HolyDonkey]

Originally posted by eyeris:

That's just the type of game it is. The genre is usually referred to as a "roguelike". The idea is that you play through it a zillion times and each time you accumulate more skills, characters, etc. It's like an RPG meets the movie Groundhog Day or (more recent) Edge of Tomorrow.

The problem is that it seems to be a bit unbalanced as when every hero is fully leveled up, you still die and die and die :)

[EVILBONESAW]

I wish you were allowed to use food items in battle to heal instead of just potions. That would make the game slighty more managable. I like the game but am finding it tought to progress...ill keep at it though.

[Plume]

If you are playing in easy mode, keep dying to improve your mercenaries and unlock their archetypes and find out wich one works better.

If you are in normal mode, I can really recommend you to unlock mercanaries and archetypes before. Easy mode is more of a "normal" mode, and normal a "hard" one.
I don't why the dev chose to unlock normal mode when you didn't win the easy mode... It's really necessary to win easy mode first to understand how you can counter RNG.

The game difficulty rely indeed a lot to RNG, but as I said earlier you can kind of counter it. The game is not impossible.
Sometimes you won't be able to and you'll die raging... But well... The game lack some balance, as lot of other players said. But I found the game very fun and enjoyed the hours I spent on it !

Random advices I can give you :
- try to avoid hard fights at later stage if you can
- buy potions each time you can, use your potions each time you need (no use to have plenty of potions if you're dead !)
- dodge is a really sweet stat to upgrade as you can easily upgrade crit with runes
- abuse opportunity mecanics during combat
- watch your back !

You can read my guide if you need more help too :
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=365094854

Hope it helps !

[RatBastage]

FroBodine. I am sadly old enough to have played Rogue on my schools mainframe, and then kept playing versions of the game for decades after that.

In all that time I have played thousands of rounds of Rogue games... and won only a tiny handful of times.

This is part of what many people miss about Roguelike games, you are supposed to lose far more often than win. This was sad for me as I liked the gameplay but hated losing all the time. Thankfully now we have many "Roguelike" games that leave out or reduce the insane win/loss ratio of the original games.

I feel your pain, as I am always looking for Roguelike games that dont kick in my teeth 99.9% of the time (My real win rate in Rogue was less than 0.1% probably closer to 0.01%)

[FroBodine]

Thanks RatBastage. I am old right along with you, and although I never played it on the Unix systems, I did play the Epyx version on C-64 and I think eventually my Apple II. Good stuff!

Anyway, I have progressed a little in this game, playing on easy mode first. I still haven't beaten it, but I did get about 2/3rds through the game.

Oh well, it looks like the developers have abandoned it anyway, so we'll never see any balance patches that they were talking about.

[McWiggles]

Yes, the upcoming DLC/expansion, upcoming patch including free content, recent release of iPad / Android versions are a clear indication of abandonment.

[FroBodine]

I had not heard about any of those things. Good news!

[McWiggles]

If I could give you any advice it would be to *always* choose the "9 hour search" option, the extra stuff you get usually circumvents the extra enemies that spawn later on. Hope you learn to enjoy the game more!

[HeirOfTriclot]

IPad? New patch ? or New DLC ?

[FroBodine]

I enjoy the game quite a bit! I was just very frustrated at the insane difficulty level. I still play it from time to time, and look forward to the upgrades.

[McWiggles]

HeirOfTriclot; There is a version on iPad / Android that includes, some new events, NPC's (like a banker who will loan you money) new runs and a ring slot with gems that give you buffs usually at the expense of something else. (E.g. +3 Armour points but - 1 HP per turn).

The devs did mention DLC but stated that the additions present on the tablet versions will be released in a patch for free and that the DLC contains new stuff not present in the current PC / Tablet versoins.

[Angusiasty]

After I unlocked few (like 4-5) alternative merchants modes game is far too easy compared to other rogue-likes :/