"Killed by a oily mimic"

[キャンディーアップル]

Ok, I'm a beginner and I keep dying. There's a steep learning curve but I keep improving each run.
However, each run, I die because of the sudden appearance of an extremely powerful enemy that I couldn't escape, right in the middle of an area filled with easy or average enemies.
Happened to me multiple times, every time I'm like "why have I been playing for so long if I'm going to die so fast without having the chance to escape that fate".
Difficulty is fine, but this is brutal. And kinda unfair. I wonder if that's supposed to happen often, because I can't imagine dying in the same condition with a character I would have played for hours.
I'm in that cave close to the starting area, loot is bad and enemies are easy, then I encounter an oily mimic, description categorize it as "impossible", I'm escaping immediatly while sprinting, I die 2 turns after, no idea what happened but I'm still dead and have to start from scratch.
I have no idea what I was supposed to do in that case, so if you got any kind of information, I'd be glad to hear it. I'm going to give up (yet), but I'd like to have a better understanding of how to avoid that kind of situation.

[Faital Ryuu]

High-leveled enemies showing up in low-level areas is pretty normal actually. It's neither common nor rare unless you're having bad luck. But 99 times out of 100, your death was your fault in some way or another. There was most likely something you could've done to evade the troublesome hostile creature like using Sprint, using a grenade, using heals, perhaps even one of your skills could've helped. As a turn-based game, you can think through your turns if it's a matter of life and death. It takes a bit of playing to develop a good sense of what's happening in the game.

Originally posted by RandomUser512567:

I'm in that cave close to the starting area, loot is bad and enemies are easy, then I encounter an oily mimic, description categorize it as "impossible", I'm escaping immediatly while sprinting, I die 2 turns after, no idea what happened but I'm still dead and have to start from scratch.

This second part confuses me because I think there's more going on than just you getting chased by a Mimic. With Sprint active and you moving away from the Mimic, you should've out run the Mimic. You may have gotten attacked by other things or perhaps you had one or more Bleeding debuffs that caused you to die two turns later. Can't help you there if I don't know what all was going on. But at least you're learning that running away is always a good idea!

You can play Qud however you want, but if Red Rock (the "cave close to the starting area" if I'm guessing correctly) is proving a bit frustrating, you should visit some other places. There's a lot to see!

[キャンディーアップル]

That makes sense. In my case I could have done more for sure, but since I'm still a beginner, there are probably lots of things I've missed to prevent dangerous situations.
I'd love to have an optional popup window warning of a nearby danger, would help beginners tremendously.

[ephemeraltoast]

If you don't know why you died, check the expanded combat log. On your death screen, you should receive a detailed report of everything that happened in the turns before you died. This will help you understand what to do differently next time. You can also use it while you're alive! Look up the key binding in the options if you don't know it. It's ctrl-M for me but I don't remember if I changed it. When you're in danger, knowing exactly what's happening each turn is essential to survival.

Sprinting away was a good idea. It's possible you got slowed in a pool of liquid, which causes sprinting to fail/stop early. The game does not do a great job of explaining this and it took me a while to figure it out.

[Caramel_Clown]

I just woke up with terrible headache and not able to give sound advice, but all I can say is - CoQ is an unforgiving game. It's not just your early experience that is like this. You will lose many many characters. I probably had fifty characters die at this point. But what you have to do is learn something new each time you die. In a game like this where once you're dead and you have to start over there's one thing you can take from previous run - your experience. You have to think what you could've done differently. Maybe your character isn't well thought out? Initial choice of stats and mutations/cybernetics is crucial, and largely determine how difficult early game will be. Also, it is important to know limitations and shortcoming of your character.
A lot of this game relies on knowledge. Your survival will depend on how well you understand a sticky situation you've ended up in. What the enemies are capable of, and what you can do to deal with the situation. So don't get upset if game seems very unfair and confusing early on. It'll be like that. There is a lot of depth to many aspects of this game, and it can be overwhelming. Even after nearly two hundred hours I keep finding new stuff, and obviously - new ways to die.

[キャンディーアップル]

Hey guys thanks for the advices. I'll try paying more attention to the combat log and be more patient.
However, a QoL pass to help beginners with having a better understanding of the in & outs would be welcome. The log shows all kind of informations, not always the relevant ones. Should be able to choose what I want to display in that log for instance.

[Faital Ryuu]

Originally posted by RandomUser512567:

Hey guys thanks for the advices. I'll try paying more attention to the combat log and be more patient.
However, a QoL pass to help beginners with having a better understanding of the in & outs would be welcome. The log shows all kind of informations, not always the relevant ones. Should be able to choose what I want to display in that log for instance.

Here's another useful tip: Liquid depths greater than 100 drams (I believe?) prevent sprinting and movement-based skills from working. NPCs will pathfind around most liquid pools to reflect movement restrictions in liquid pools, even ones that can't hurt you. This is very useful for common areas you would visit that have a lot of liquids like the Waterlogged Tunnels. If you wade through shallow pools, you get a movement speed penalty, roughly have of what you get if you have to swim through deep pools. Keep this in mind when trying to flee whether or not Sprint is active.

[ephemeraltoast]

Originally posted by Caramel_Clown:

In a game like this where once you're dead and you have to start over there's one thing you can take from previous run - your experience.

Headache or no, this is it exactly. Every death is a learning experience. The first time I got a character I really liked playing to level 15 she entered a screen with a legendary Seeker of the Sightless Way, took one step, and died instantly to Mind Sunder. That felt really awful and unfair. But I learned from it. I learned that I should always stop on a screen transition and look around before I take even one step. I learned that if what I see is a legendary Seeker, my one step should be back the other way. I learned the power of the Mental Mirror mutation.

What you learned from this awful and unfair-feeling death is at least this: enemies of much higher difficulty than you expected can and will show up anywhere, even in what seems like low-level trash areas, and you need to in some way appropriate to your build be prepared for that. As you play more you'll learn more about how you can be prepared for it. And I do think you'll learn since your response was to come and ask for advice, which means you're thinking the right way about it. :)

[ephemeraltoast]

Originally posted by Azulavis:

Originally posted by ephemeraltoast:

enemies of much higher difficulty than you expected can and will show up anywhere, even in what seems like low-level trash areas, and you need to in some way appropriate to your build be prepared for that.

How exactly should I prepare for such encounters?

Depends on your build, but basically: practice safe movement habits (use W or auto-explore instead of mashing direction keys, use space to open doors instead of barging through them), take skills and mutations/carry grenades that provide you with some kind of stun or disable so you can run away, keep yourself fed with meals that increases HP or quickness, and heal to full after any encounter that brings you below 80% HP or so. You'll be in a much better position to either take on a harder enemy or run the hell away from it.

[EternalEllipsis]

Originally posted by Azulavis:

Originally posted by ephemeraltoast:

enemies of much higher difficulty than you expected can and will show up anywhere, even in what seems like low-level trash areas, and you need to in some way appropriate to your build be prepared for that.

How exactly should I prepare for such encounters?

There's a lot of solutions but if you want a quick and easy answer...

Just pick Force Wall in character creation.

It has an insane amount of versatility and utility for both offence and defense in pretty much any build if you use your head.