Is this game just insanely hard or am i awful?

[Goose]

Is this game just stupid hard or am i just awful?

[syrf90]

It's hard, it's not that stupid, you're probably alright. There are global progress levels and they are core for success because they'll award you with either new powerful combat options and direct permanent power-ups. But the game remains hard to the last. You just keep going, every node you match earns you global progress.

[Goose]

I'm level 25 at the moment. How many levels are there?

[syrf90]

40 levels there are. I've just beaten 40th thus gaining the last achievement! Bitter joy, no more content at all, good night sweet Ironcast. Killed final boss trice on the long way.

Btw this last run I've been slain by Durant(first big boss out of 2) due to poor luck on weapon blueprints. Haven't nothing better than lv2 heavy cannon, scratched his shields for a while and perished. That's Ironcast for you.

[Goose]

Originally posted by syrf90:

40 levels there are. I've just beaten 40th thus gaining the last achievement! Bitter joy, no more content at all, good night sweet Ironcast. Killed final boss trice on the long way.

Btw this last run I've been slain by Durant(first big boss out of 2) due to poor luck on weapon blueprints. Haven't nothing better than lv2 heavy cannon, scratched his shields for a while and perished. That's Ironcast for you.

I'm sorry what theres more than one boss?

[syrf90]

Durant (Giant slow french mech) is the first one. Once he's defeated, a second campaign runs in with, brace yourself, much harder battles sequence and then final boss. And that final thing could break Durant in a blink of an eye.

[Goose]

Originally posted by syrf90:

Durant (Giant slow french mech) is the first one. Once he's defeated, a second campaign runs in with, brace yourself, much harder battles sequence and then final boss. And that final thing could break Durant in a blink of an eye.

I feel like i am doing something wrong. I have to be. I cant even touch durant. How am i supposed to manage on the second stage?

[syrf90]

You probably miss some core stuff indeed. However, it's a notable show of willpower, to get this far with some serious handicap.

Since we don't know what exactly you have missed, I'll try a fast roundup.
Weapons:
Machinegun & Pulse repeater - Best dps BUT !fire only while enemy shields are down! or damage reduction will be ridiculous.
Lance & Railgun - break shields with them!Reduction is applied fully on EVERY projectile. So, one projectile weapons suffer least from shields.
Missiles & Shotgun - worst weapon options until 2 levels higher than anything you have. Their main stake is heavy AoE damage. Bad enough, shields do soak AoE.
Heavy cannon - decent compromise, especially with Beechwood pilot

How to kill ♥♥♥♥:
Break shields first (with single shot high dps guns). Shields mitigate a lot of damage.
If enemy has lance or rail, break it next. They DO a lot damage.
Otherwise or after, break legs. Evasion could very irritating.
Switch back to shields once enemy repairs them. Always.

How to defend:
Don't use "Walk" until you have at least 10-20-30% evasion engines. Mostly because of Coolant waste.
Use shields always. Shields are top priority. They save systems. They save hp thus money. They render any weapon except lance&railgun useless.
I'd even recommend ignore engines&walking until you have a steady grip on mechanics. They are deep in probability theory territory.

Upgrades:
Here comes the best part of Ironcast, and most random, so little advise here. But, by all costs, get at least one Coolant up somewhere on the way.
Also pro tip: get a couple of upgrades, save for Coolant, then aim for two level upgrades. 1 to 3, 2 to 4 etc. Hope you understand what I mean. Saves a good chunk of pretty moneys.

Active skills:
Spam them. Burn them at first turn (if they do you some good of course) so you can reuse them sooner.

Overall tips:
Pick system augmentations, they're cool and rare.
Pick The Traitor as second mission(red one). It's usually easy and very lucrative.
Choose missions with most Scrap reward.
Don't pick missions against Juggernaughts, ever. They'll do horrible damage to you and give no blueprints since you can't kill them (No, you can't, really, I'm serious)

And some base things just in case you missed them somehow:
You need to install gear manually.
You can choose enemy system for attack in right slider menu.
You can match diagonally.
You earn exponential more XP for longer chains. It is important since you get maxHP boosts on every lvl up.
You can continue current match after white nodes if there are suitable nodes.

Hope this helps!

[Goose]

Originally posted by syrf90:

You probably miss some core stuff indeed. However, it's a notable show of willpower, to get this far with some serious handicap.

Since we don't know what exactly you have missed, I'll try a fast roundup.
Weapons:
Machinegun & Pulse repeater - Best dps BUT !fire only while enemy shields are down! or damage reduction will be ridiculous.
Lance & Railgun - break shields with them!Reduction is applied fully on EVERY projectile. So, one projectile weapons suffer least from shields.
Missiles & Shotgun - worst weapon options until 2 levels higher than anything you have. Their main stake is heavy AoE damage. Bad enough, shields do soak AoE.
Heavy cannon - decent compromise, especially with Beechwood pilot

How to kill ♥♥♥♥:
Break shields first (with single shot high dps guns). Shields mitigate a lot of damage.
If enemy has lance or rail, break it next. They DO a lot damage.
Otherwise or after, break legs. Evasion could very irritating.
Switch back to shields once enemy repairs them. Always.

How to defend:
Don't use "Walk" until you have at least 10-20-30% evasion engines. Mostly because of Coolant waste.
Use shields always. Shields are top priority. They save systems. They save hp thus money. They render any weapon except lance&railgun useless.
I'd even recommend ignore engines&walking until you have a steady grip on mechanics. They are deep in probability theory territory.

Upgrades:
Here comes the best part of Ironcast, and most random, so little advise here. But, by all costs, get at least one Coolant up somewhere on the way.
Also pro tip: get a couple of upgrades, save for Coolant, then aim for two level upgrades. 1 to 3, 2 to 4 etc. Hope you understand what I mean. Saves a good chunk of pretty moneys.

Active skills:
Spam them. Burn them at first turn (if they do you some good of course) so you can reuse them sooner.

Overall tips:
Pick system augmentations, they're cool and rare.
Pick The Traitor as second mission(red one). It's usually easy and very lucrative.
Choose missions with most Scrap reward.
Don't pick missions against Juggernaughts, ever. They'll do horrible damage to you and give no blueprints since you can't kill them (No, you can't, really, I'm serious)

And some base things just in case you missed them somehow:
You need to install gear manually.
You can choose enemy system for attack in right slider menu.
You can match diagonally.
You earn exponential more XP for longer chains. It is important since you get maxHP boosts on every lvl up.
You can continue current match after white nodes if there are suitable nodes.

Hope this helps!

Thank you for all of this! the only thing here that i dont think i knew was that missiles suck until they are two levels higher. I fricken love missiles. Maybe thats why i suck so bad

[syrf90]

I'm a fan of shotguns myself, but Aoe weapons just don't click in Ironcast, what a shame. However, they could be viable if your second weapon is lance or railgun. That's will provide more gambling gameplay since rockets and shotgun do only one shot per activation, making enemy's evasion a second top priority after shields. When enemy's shields are on, aoe is equal to full autos, both equal to zero damage.

Cosplaying Syn Tzu's bold Art of War quotes here :)

[Goose]

Originally posted by syrf90:

I'm a fan of shotguns myself, but Aoe weapons just don't click in Ironcast, what a shame. However, they could be viable if your second weapon is lance or railgun. That's will provide more gambling gameplay since rockets and shotgun do only one shot per activation, making enemy's evasion a second top priority after shields. When enemy's shields are on, aoe is equal to full autos, both equal to zero damage.

Cosplaying Syn Tzu's bold Art of War quotes here :)

I will put all this information to good use and hopefully get myself a win, thank you

[syrf90]

Rule Brittania!

[bertpigeon]

I've seen guides say to keep your shield up but frequently i'll encounter a turn or two with no energy drops, after i cleaned it all up from previous turns. Is the game difficulty just down to how lucky you get with gem drops?

[RadeonGeForce]

Originally posted by bertpigeon:

I've seen guides say to keep your shield up but frequently i'll encounter a turn or two with no energy drops, after i cleaned it all up from previous turns. Is the game difficulty just down to how lucky you get with gem drops?

Yes and no. If you can get a shield, drive, or augment that uses less energy you'll make things much easier for yourself. I may well bypass an upgrade if it's going to be a resource hog.

[Adeon Hawkwood]

Originally posted by bertpigeon:

I've seen guides say to keep your shield up but frequently i'll encounter a turn or two with no energy drops, after i cleaned it all up from previous turns. Is the game difficulty just down to how lucky you get with gem drops?

While there is a degree of luck there are things you can do to help control it. In particular there are two types of shields and drives, Hardened Shields and Heavy Drives have better defense than the Standard versions but also cost more energy. Be very cautious about equipping them (especially both of them) unless you have something to help mitigate the costs.

One other thing to consider, if you use Walter in the Windsor mech then you have his ability to reduce drive costs and the mech's ability to steal shields. This combination makes it much easier to manage your defenses which can help with learning the game.