Spearmaster campaign is frustrating.

[Kligan]

I've completed Survivor, Artificer and Rivulet campaigns and moved on to Spearmaster.

And boy is it a frustrating experience!

The world is as chaotic as Artificer's, but with SUBSTANTIALLY less mobility and firepower for the player.
Trying to avoid danger is pointless, because it's full of enemies wherever I go. But that's not what annoys me. Deaths before I could even react to it - do.

A jumping lizzard flies from over the edge of the screen and instantly kills me.
Another lizzard literally falls on my head from above the screen and instantly kills me.
Two king vultures camping me at both ends of a pipe on the same screen at chimney canopy with nowhere to go.
Another time I come out of a pipe to be greeted by three lizzards partying at the entrance. I instantly turn around to find two more lizzards camping the pipe back the way I came. Well, f*ck me, I guess.

On top of all the insanity that's going on while trying to get from point A to point B, feeding takes a lot of time (standing still to make spears) and is always dangerous. Having two spears at the same time is cool and all, but it doesn't really help that much when there's predators everywhere, not giving me enough time to try and safely deal with one before many more show up.

I'm not opposed to difficulty, but this just feels frustrating, as I said. The main thing that annoys me are static screens. They caused couple of rare deaths in previous campaigns, but here - not seeing what the hell is going on beyond the edge untill I come couple pixels away to transition the screen often results in risks or deaths.
And yes, I know there's a mod for camera scrolling... but I had to turn it off because it breaks some areas of the game.
Oh, and not having a pouch to store things... Moving colored pearls by carring them adds to the frustration.

I feel like the world was way overtuned for this campaign.
If at least I could make spears while on the move, that would've make things a bit more interesting.

[Kligan]

Originally posted by Goblin:

Have you tried disabling the mod that changes their behaviour to see if it makes them stop? It could always be a bug with the DLC's own code, or worse somehow intended, but my first instinct would always be the random less tested code someone decided to add to try and alleviate one problem and possibly cause four others.

That said, the wiki does say "It is significantly harder to get an Elite Scavenger on your side than a regular Scavenger; they will often still try to attack the Slugcat even if the Slugcat head.png Slugcat has a high reputation with Scavengers." and scavs have individual grumpiness, so maybe you're just getting unlucky.

I have tried to disable the mod.. and got turned into a porcupine on my way back from 5p, when a swarm of his overseers were following me across the empty topmost section of The Wall.
Scavs started flinging spears everywhere trying to get overseers. Killed one of their own and hit me in the head.

[45]

Originally posted by Winterkalte:

Originally posted by Kligan:

How do you passage with pearls when you can't swallow them?

It's a remix option! "Passage with key items". Transfers pearls + quest items in shelters. Super cool. I always gave up on collecting them all before because it was too tedious but with this option it feels pretty good.

doesnt work if you do it on death i assume i had 3 passages, the orb didnt follow so i warped back and didnt take my last chance. i have no clue what they were thinking with this campaign

[Special Thanks, You]

I honestly didn't mind spearmaster up to the pearl delivery quests. You have to make good use of pipes to both juke predators and use them to create spears. While creating spears in a pipe that you're also using to juke predators does take longer, it's safer and allows you to get your weaponry back. Most enemies in Spearmaster's campaign die in two spears, so always have two on you.

The pearl delivery quest and suck my ♥♥♥♥. Not well designed at all as it forces you to carry a pearl around and only have 1 spear at a time for a character designed around always having 2. The quickest route is obviously going through the exterior like 20 times but the exterior is an awful region. I actually restarted my spearmaster playthrough to save my passages to skip the entire quest (From shelter atop Pebbles, teleport to Moon to get her to change the pearl, and then teleport to the shelter at the beginning of the Wall. From here it's a straight run to Communication Array).

As for the scavengers, I have no clue why they're bring so aggressive to you. I think spearmaster starts with lower reputation like hunter does, but even then I farmed reputation with my infinite spears and they stopped bothering me.

[Kligan]

I think the worst part for me was Chimney Canopy. It's a clusterf*ck. I regret going to 5p through that region. Once I got to 5p, got the pearl and threw it into a shelter together with coupel other pearls (gonna use passage later to bring all that to Moon), the other regions were not that bad.

I decided to go through The Gutter to Drainage System to Garbage Wastes to Waterfront.
It's kinda a long way round, but I wanted to see if I can get some more collectables on my way through, as well as to catch more broadcasts. And grab another pearl.

And yeah, even while carrying lime pearl from Garbage Wastes in one hand, things are not nearly as bad as they were at Chimney Canopy.

[CtenosaurOaxacana]

I guess I don't mind the spearmaster pearl fetch quest so much because I'm used to multi-pearl deliveries to the Moon with one item slot free at best lol.

[45]

except you need to eat through dmg with your specific spears can only hold one with a pearl, they lose their eating ability if dropped at all, and you have no storage in a campaign that forces you over bottomless pits. Just the concept is silly anyway.

Rainworld's goal is to transcend existence having goals and earthly ties completely clashes with the entire theme of the game. The idea that you can lose a pearl from being knocked out and it falling into a bottomless pit resulting in a scenario where you MUST suicide to even continue is ridiculous. Did they not even consider this softlock happening?

Downpour in general is out of touch with the original's themes and motivations like the echo in arti's campaign that seems to be omniscient and talks about arti's future instead of about itself which is what echoes do. But im willing to forgive it where it at least redeems itself at the gameplay level. Spearmaster's campaign just isnt fun.

[RCMidas]

Yes they consider this non-softlock, because there's a Remix option specifically to respawn key items like coloured pearls near to where you lost them at the start of the next cycle.

[45]

Originally posted by RCMidas:

Yes they consider this non-softlock, because there's a Remix option specifically to respawn key items like coloured pearls near to where you lost them at the start of the next cycle.

Remix also thinks "classic" means handholding and wall hacks on radar.

[RCMidas]

There's constructive criticism, 45, and there's juvenile whining. Be better and utilise the former for a change.

[Kligan]

I just got to LTTM.

And boy, now I understand why others call her Big Sister Moon...
Her superstructure is MASSIVE. She's a big, big girl :D

Getting there through all the spiders and lizzards and miros vultures was a bit annoying. But at least on the inside there's no danger, unlike 5P with his rot. So that's a nice change of pace for this chaotic campaign.

Even this endgame location was not nearly as chaotic as Chimney Canopy... So I'm beginning to think that the problem might be with just that one location. Compared to the rest of the game, Chimney Canopy was an absolute insanity. And was what caused me to start this thread in the first place, after I was dying there over and over, and over again.

[Honkiewithaboomstick]

Originally posted by Kligan:

But yeah, come to think of it... the reason I love Rain World so much is because it was not combat focused, and instead - being observant, avoid danger and survival.
Artificer's campaign was something new and exciting, because she had ineteresting mechanics and mobility.
But Spearmaster, I feel like, is just a regular Rain World, but now it sh*ts enemies everywhere and makes it combat-focused. Which is... not great.

Unironically you just have to spend more time with it, and get better. Mods or not, You will eventually learn not to fear predators, as YOU are more dangerous than them. Your fear just prevents you from it, even with the instant death lizards and centipedes are not as dangerous as you probably think they are. It's just grabbing and throwing, grabbing and throwing.

The best thing a slugcat has is it's wit and it's opposable thumbs. With that it can overcome any situation.

I can offer a few strats on how to ♥♥♥♥ things up.
-On vanilla, doing a backflip and pressing up or down while throwing a spear will send it either up or down (you dont need to backflip with omnithrow as you can aim spears up and down just naturally so it makes it alot more easy but you're going for the "vanilla experience" so I'll give you these tips as if you're not.)

-wait for one to rush you Backflip over a lizard and down-spear it. might seem hard at first but its not to bad

-Alternatively when crouching sometimes you can send a spear into a lizards mouth/jaw some of the time and this is also a good strat for killing them It's more consistent if you slide at them(down, direction you're running + jump key really fast) before it but it's not necessary.

- nothing works like the good ol," just juke yourself behind em and spear their backside."

Rocks might not seem like much but if you throw one at a lizard and THEN spear it this is also good for consistently killing oncoming lizards head on as the rock usually flips them around.

Another strat is if you can sink two spears into something meaty (green lizard, vulture) Rush it, and then spam grab/throw/grab/throw and you will essentially stab it to death with those 2 spears. spears have a 1/2 second cooldown on when they can be picked up so always endeavor yourself to sink at least two spears into something when trying the bum rush tactic on spongier enemies.

Centipedes will release their grasp upon being hit by a spear, normal ones take 3 hits and bigger ones can take up to 10, so just crouch/grab/throw/grab/throw at them and you can decimate alot of them unless they catch you without a spear.

Also when bit; you have a split second to press the throw button and the direction of wherever the predator that bit you is, and you can escape their grasp before it stuns you if you can get good at doing that consistently then the only time something will kill you is if you don't have a spear of it triggers the 50% instant death.

I hope these help and happy hunting

[45]

Originally posted by RCMidas:

There's constructive criticism, 45, and there's juvenile whining. Be better and utilise the former for a change.

one is me one is you. my complaint has a purpose and makes sense your post is just being petty

[Kligan]

I found that one of the easiet way to deal with lizards as spearmaster is to just slide right into their faces. And upon contact spam throw with two spears. Even if the first one hits the armor and bounces, the secon will connect with the flesh and wound the lizard.
Sometimes both spears connect, and can go into an open mouth.
Of course that doesn't work on all lizards... But I found it especially useful in narrow tunnels against blind lizards.

[Sonstar]

Always head to sky islands first. Why? Because you're going to want to passage from moon to there for her quest.
I did this while carrying a slugpup like a madman, and the pearl in one hand. One spear challenge lol.

[Kligan]

A fun thing only spearmaster can do:
https://i.imgur.com/dLFv857.png

Who said farm arrays to subterrainian is one-way?

Despite the rocky start (that was a huge mistake going through chimney canopy), and after a while of getting used to the Spearmaster (their movements kinda odd because on one hand, this slugcat is faster than Survivor, it feels like, but the tail weight them down), and some frustrating places to deal with (mostly because of enemy spam), I'm back to enjoying the game.

Edit: I climbed all the way up, found a broadcast, triggered it... and my pearl rolled over the edge and fell all the way down to subteranian floor.... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!