So, why did we make the game impossible?

[Im Abe Lincoln]

I've been playing the game for a long, long time now. I've found the difficulty to be just about perfect. I only ever completed one normal run on the game. Since the last update I can't even beat a second mission and died on the first twice. Power ups are way more rare (although even I'd admit they may have been a bit too free in the last version) and I've had multiple paths lead to literally nothing - just a big F U for going this way dummy! I've seemed to have at least two of my first level runs have no Glory Zones at all and the less said about the Flee! zones the better.

The joy in any roguelike is seeing your power scale up. If I never get to that point then I've had little fun. What was the point in scaling it up so dang high?

[♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥]

I'm not trying to be mean here, but you've barely played this game. The game expects you to be able to beat normal runs consistently.

That said, there are a lot of dead end paths, which can be pretty irritating. You eventually learn which paths have a tendency to dead end, but that they should be there.

Glory zones didn't have their appearance rate decreased last patch, so I think you might just be having some bad luck.

[Zero]

That depends on when you last played the game. Depending on how long, so much could have changed that it's impossible to narrow it down. In fact, we're due for another update tomorrow.

[Sairek Ceareste]

You say you played the game for a "long, long time", but I only see about 7.3 hours on your record. Which to me doesn't really make sense.

Did you mean to say you haven't played for a long long time instead? What you're saying up above would make more sense to me if that's the case.

[batterystaplegames]

Hi there! We haven't really changed much about the earlygame in several months, other than the recent Glory Zone changes (which I don't think changed the overall difficulty much, and it sounds like you haven't been seeing GZs on 1 much anyway).

Sounds like a string of bad luck - keep at it!

[Im Abe Lincoln]

Originally posted by Sairek Ceareste:

You say you played the game for a "long, long time", but I only see about 7.3 hours on your record. Which to me doesn't really make sense.

Did you mean to say you haven't played for a long long time instead? What you're saying up above would make more sense to me if that's the case.

No, I mean I have been playing a long, long time. I check back in with it every couple weeks but I started playing a long, long time ago. I haven't put a ton of time into it but I've watched it grow and change for months. I'm going to hope it was bad luck but I never had 4 runs go as badly as mine on this latest patch.

The bosses are starting off way buffed up on level 1. Level 1 bosses used to go down if you looked at them sideways. Now they are more like level 3 or 4 bosses only I have nothing to fight them with. I'm willing to admit I'm bad but my point is that I've never had this problem before. Something is clearly different as it just happend again. Level 1, one item buff off a Glory Zone, Twin Astrals launching ridiculous amounts of homing things at me.

[Im Abe Lincoln]

Originally posted by Sourpowerpete:

I'm not trying to be mean here, but you've barely played this game. The game expects you to be able to beat normal runs consistently.

That said, there are a lot of dead end paths, which can be pretty irritating. You eventually learn which paths have a tendency to dead end, but that they should be there.

Glory zones didn't have their appearance rate decreased last patch, so I think you might just be having some bad luck.

I accept that in terms of hours played. I'm simply relaying my feelings from months of playing. There's always been dead paths but not like I experienced today.

[Astar]

You have 7.6 hours on record :l kids these days don't know the meaning of practice. I blame Allen Iverson

[Sairek Ceareste]

Originally posted by Im Abe Lincoln:

Originally posted by Sairek Ceareste:

You say you played the game for a "long, long time", but I only see about 7.3 hours on your record. Which to me doesn't really make sense.

Did you mean to say you haven't played for a long long time instead? What you're saying up above would make more sense to me if that's the case.

No, I mean I have been playing a long, long time. I check back in with it every couple weeks but I started playing a long, long time ago. I haven't put a ton of time into it but I've watched it grow and change for months. I'm going to hope it was bad luck but I never had 4 runs go as badly as mine on this latest patch.

The bosses are starting off way buffed up on level 1. Level 1 bosses used to go down if you looked at them sideways. Now they are more like level 3 or 4 bosses only I have nothing to fight them with. I'm willing to admit I'm bad but my point is that I've never had this problem before. Something is clearly different as it just happend again. Level 1, one item buff off a Glory Zone, Twin Astrals launching ridiculous amounts of homing things at me.

Well if we're talking about a 'long long' time ago, then we're talking about the game being properly balanced now?
I mean, Ace over Nina no longers gets +2 HP, 50% more damage, and +1 jump with slicing through boss invulnerability frames anymore.
Level 1 bosses don't go down sideways anymore, because bosses shouldn't go down sideways. That's what we call good game design.

You don't need anything to fight anything with, but skill. People have down several "no upgrade" runs with surprising efficiency.

I mean, I don't like throwing the "git gud" argument around, but that's really what this game boils down too. No amount of augments and power ups will save you if you're just bad at the game. If you wish to do good at the game, then you simply must practice by playing more and more.



If you are really struggling that much, I suggest you go to the Defiant mode pod, and turn on Marathon. Despite it being a skull, it actually makes the game easier since longer levels means more resources and augs to pick up (it basically slows the difficulty curve). Plus longer levels just means that much more practice with the levels themselves.

If you're still struggling with that, then use casual mode. There's no shame in it -- nobody starts a game off as an expert.
When you're comfortable with that, then try normal mode or defiant with the marathon skull again and just keep going at it. Eventually you'll learn the boss patterns, level archetypes, how best use boss powers and refine yourself and understanding of the core game mechanics.

Also, picking a level seed, so you have a consistent level that isn't "random" and changing constantly helps with practice too.


Finally, if you really want to try, playing some of the Megaman series' games helps too, the Megaman Zero and ZX series are what most of the people on the discord have played (I believe). Many skills you learn in those games will also help transfer to this game, and they're great, fun games to boot but individually, not too long. If you can beat any of those games on hard mode (though preferably all six of them like I have), you will have an incredibly easy time grasping and adjusting to 20XX with how it is now in probably just a couple runs.

[♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥]

Definitely play Megaman ZX, it's so much fun. Though you'll want to find a decent map online, because the one in game suuuuuucks.

[Jimmy Hunter]

Megaman X4-X6 would also be good to play as well. You'll see many mechanics from 20XX from both Zero and X being applied to Nina and Ace, especially some of the armors X gets.

[♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥]

Originally posted by Jimmy Hunter:

Megaman X4-X6 would also be good to play as well. You'll see many mechanics from 20XX from both Zero and X being applied to Nina and Ace, especially some of the armors X gets.

X4 I definitely recommend. X5 is... ok, it's not a bad game imo. X6 is frustrating in almost every way though, I don't recommend it at all.

[Jimmy Hunter]

Originally posted by Sourpowerpete:

Originally posted by Jimmy Hunter:

Megaman X4-X6 would also be good to play as well. You'll see many mechanics from 20XX from both Zero and X being applied to Nina and Ace, especially some of the armors X gets.

X4 I definitely recommend. X5 is... ok, it's not a bad game imo. X6 is frustrating in almost every way though, I don't recommend it at all.

I feel the same about X5 and X6, but they do have some mechanics we see in 20XX. X5 was kinda meh to me, and X6...Well...The armor was fun?

[Frission]

I'm with the OP on this, it's more than just bad luck. I think the level builder is pretty inconsistent in the current build. I recently went to level 3 Frostor and it had been built like it was level 7, with ice spike shooters eeeeverywhere. Even with the fire shield power I got roasted by them before I could reach the boss. The game is currently more frustrating than fun, even on casual.

[Jimmy Hunter]

Originally posted by Frission:

I'm with the OP on this, it's more than just bad luck. I think the level builder is pretty inconsistent in the current build. I recently went to level 3 Frostor and it had been built like it was level 7, with ice spike shooters eeeeverywhere. Even with the fire shield power I got roasted by them before I could reach the boss. The game is currently more frustrating than fun, even on casual.

It's certainly not bad luck, otherwise we wouldn't have atleast 2 pages of people finishing the run on Daily Challenges.

If you're still constantly getting hit while having Rollster's power...I can safely say this is not the game's fault.

[♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥]

Originally posted by Jimmy Hunter:

Originally posted by Frission:

I'm with the OP on this, it's more than just bad luck. I think the level builder is pretty inconsistent in the current build. I recently went to level 3 Frostor and it had been built like it was level 7, with ice spike shooters eeeeverywhere. Even with the fire shield power I got roasted by them before I could reach the boss. The game is currently more frustrating than fun, even on casual.

It's certainly not bad luck, otherwise we wouldn't have atleast 2 pages of people finishing the run on Daily Challenges.

If you're still constantly getting hit while having Rollster's power...I can safely say this is not the game's fault.

Flameshield is the Twin's power =P