I really wanna get into this game, but...

[Anime-Profile-Picture]

I just freaking can't. I keep walking into enemies that must be several times my level, because I just can't damage them. Unless that really is just the game? And I'm not talking about the open world stuff, I mean the story. Or at least I think its the story. I went into the Everfall under the Pawn Guild, cuz it seems like that's part of the main quest (unless it isn't?) and I just can't damage ♥♥♥♥. At first I thought it was because you can only damage enemies in the Everfall with fire, a lot of the pawns said that these enemies were. But then I encounter this troll (or maybe ogre? I dunno) and nothing will damage it at all, and then it just picks me up and literally ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ eats me.
Am I missing something here or is this just what the game is? If it is that I'm too low a level (10) and this isn't the main quest line, then how am I to know that? Is there a way to tell your enemies level? Like in every other RPG ever made ever? Perhaps not every other RPG but in this one at least it would be ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ nice.

[Grr. [SG CMD] Majah Lazah]

If you expect to just mash a button and win every combat regardless of context or application mechanics, this is likely a game you won't enjoy.

[Karathrax]

That is indeed the main quest's next step. If you're facing the Everfall at level 10 rather than 15 or so, that seems to indicate you might have skipped a couple of available quests back in Cassardis. Did you return to Cassardis to talk to Adaro after Elvar stopped your entire party dead in their tracks to tell you to do that?

Have you seen the innkeeper in Gran Soren and upgraded your skills using your discipline points? Have you hired a mage or sorcerer with holy or fire enchantments to help you with extra damage against the undead? If you're using a Shortbow or Longbow, have you considered using Oil Arrows and having a mage/sorcerer turn them into fire arrows with an enchantment? Have you upgraded or replaced your weapons with better by seeing Caxton at the shop near the fountain in the center of Gran Soren?

The ogre is indeed tough, but have you tried luring the Ogre into charging off the edge of the walkway? Sometimes good strategy means using your environment, too.

You have lots of options available, investigate! ;)

[Anime-Profile-Picture]

Originally posted by Karathrax:

That is indeed the main quest's next step. If you're facing the Everfall at level 10 rather than 15 or so, that seems to indicate you might have skipped a couple of available quests back in Cassardis. Did you return to Cassardis to talk to Adaro after Elvar stopped your entire party dead in their tracks to tell you to do that?

Have you seen the innkeeper in Gran Soren and upgraded your skills using your discipline points? Have you hired a mage or sorcerer with holy or fire enchantments to help you with extra damage against the undead? If you're using a Shortbow or Longbow, have you considered using Oil Arrows and having a mage/sorcerer turn them into fire arrows with an enchantment? Have you upgraded or replaced your weapons with better by seeing Caxton at the shop near the fountain in the center of Gran Soren?

The ogre is indeed tough, but have you tried luring the Ogre into charging off the edge of the walkway? Sometimes good strategy means using your environment, too.

You have lots of options available, investigate! ;)

I did most of those things except the first thing. I didn't return to Cassardis cuz I thought that bit of dialogue from the Elvar guy was setup for something later on, not something I had to do right away. Thing is, there's a limit to experimenting once you're in the thick of the dungeon. I would have considered something like getting it to charge off the edge a real cheese move.
All I want to know in this game is how much higher a level my enemy is than me.

[Valden21]

Basically, you went to the Everfall too soon. Even though it IS the next place the storyling wants you to go, it's recommended that you hit level 15 before trying. You'll also want to increase your equipment capabilities and your skills before doing so. For equipment, visit Caxton; he's Gran Soren's blacksmith, and his shop is located just to the northeast of the fountain in the city's main square. The innkeeper in Gran Soren can help you with your skills.

If it's the ogre that's giving you trouble, I recommend avoiding it. Yeah, doing so might seem impossible, as it's right on the main path, but there's a side path that skips the ogres. The door to the side-path is after the second group of zombies, and it takes you down to the bottom of the Everfall without even going by the ogres.

My last piece of advice concerns the pawns. Your two support pawns might be too low-level for your character's level. The thing is, only your main pawn (the pawn that you created) will level with you. Support pawns' levels are static, so they'll eventually become useless and you'll have to get new support pawns.

[Anime-Profile-Picture]

Originally posted by Valden21:

Basically, you went to the Everfall too soon. Even though it IS the next place the storyling wants you to go, it's recommended that you hit level 15 before trying. You'll also want to increase your equipment capabilities and your skills before doing so. For equipment, visit Caxton; he's Gran Soren's blacksmith, and his shop is located just to the northeast of the fountain in the city's main square. The innkeeper in Gran Soren can help you with your skills.

If it's the ogre that's giving you trouble, I recommend avoiding it. Yeah, doing so might seem impossible, as it's right on the main path, but there's a side path that skips the ogres. The door to the side-path is after the second group of zombies, and it takes you down to the bottom of the Everfall without even going by the ogres.

My last piece of advice concerns the pawns. Your two support pawns might be too low-level for your character's level. The thing is, only your main pawn (the pawn that you created) will level with you. Support pawns' levels are static, so they'll eventually become useless and you'll have to get new support pawns.

I'll keep that in mind. I just wish that I new level 15 is the standard level of that place. I'm sure it could be done at 10 but Christ knows its a pain. I wouldn't have thought 5 levels would make a difference. Thing is I just got of the back of a Final Fantasy 15 playthrough, and in that game you can comfortably take on enemies that are 20 levels higher. That that game is broken as hell.

[Nightwalker]

Each type of foe has their own defensive numbers for both physical and magical attacks. You must exceed those numbers in order to damage the foe and whatever amount you exceed them by is how much damage you might do. There are other elements involved in computing damage done to an opponent but basically it comes down to numbers. Your base STR plus the STR of the weapon (or magic attack number for a staff) is what needs to be higher than the defense of the monster. The monster you met in the everfall was an Ogre. You can look up it's defensive stats on line. Just type in Ogre dragons dogma and something on the wiki will pop up. You can also learn what type of magic attack an animal is resistant to on the same info screen.

This is not a game where you should be in a rush to complete the main story line or even advance up in levels as fast as possible like most other games are.

My answer to your question about "am I doing something wrong" is YES, you are pushing the "please kill me" button by rushing off into battle without a sound plan. Oh, by the way those blackboards at the Inn in Cassadis, Gran Soren Inn and the pawn guild are "message boards" and you can accept special quests or missions from them. Those missions/quests are not tied to the level you are at. It's best to read up on them before you accept them or you may well end up dead.

Take your time, talk to NPCs and give them gifts of things they like if you can. Some of them will then offer you a mission you won't find anywhere else and most are fairly easy to accomplish. Do side quests. Wandering around the countryside exploring in the early game is not the smartest thing to do. At the start of the game you and your pawn are weak, have crappy weapons and hardly any attack skills to help you damage your foes. If you are short on money to buy better weapons and armor you can kill those cows outside the gates of GS. There are very few other monsters in their area and they may drop beefsteaks when you kill them. If you have the beefsteaks in your inventory for 2-3 days they will go sour and you can sell them for about 2K in $ then. Just like the carrots you can buy in Cassardis are worth 5x what you paid for them once them once you do the same thing to them. Nothing turns rotten in your storage locker but some things will and flowers will wilt if you keep them in your inventory too long (usually over 3 days).

This concludes todays msg for beginners.

[zadymek]

Originally posted by Silenthero:

I just freaking can't. I keep walking into enemies that must be several times my level,

Wow, wow, woooah!
What level? Enemies have stats not levels. And as soon as you will be willing to check some other Vocations you will discover that your/Main Pawn character also can drastically differ cause different "classes" have different stats growth.
I'd say you just don't understand the game. Pls, take your time to listen to what Pawns advise, read the in-game manual, turn on the Training messages and Cinematic camera (yeah, I know it hurts to experience these ;), y know, learn stuff.

1. Think. Not like "hmm, how about I do this" more like "hmm, I wonder if I can..." And recognise when you can't. Ogre is a very tactics heavy enemy, you bother it multiple times and try many things (different elements, climbing, attacking different parts ...bringing different sexes with you etc) untill your Pawns learn about it enough so they can instruct you on how to deal. But with many other foes you will have to figure tactics yourself.

2. Yeah, the story isn't very captivating - and part of this is just the fact that the main questline is hardly distinguishable. Hunt for some side quests though, these tend to be better.

3. The game is very tacics and equipment heavy, in different proportions for different Vocations. But, the early Everfall episode DO is unbalanced. Also, i could swear that the Ogre you meet there has programmed suicidal tendencies and suppose to kill itself. Anyway, if you go there unprepared it usually looks like this
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1632849093
and it's the devs' (who clearly "encourage" you to go there full party with boosters and stuff) fault I say.
Hopefully after that you acknowledged that the tutorial part of the game is over ;)

4. Also, yes you are too low a level, and probably underequipped and no knowledgeable. But look at this from the First Blood Part II point of view: you were suppose to only check the area, weren't you? Why didn't you run? You can always go back later, right?

5. One advise: if you'll ever bump into a dragon, somewhere in the world, do what you should have in Everfall.

[Guh~hey~hey~♫]

That's why I like to first go power level at BBI before moving onto the story. There's tricky but easy to get used to methods to kill the 2 first bosses in BBi at a very early level and on hard mode too.
This bring you to level 80 while also granting you a pretty good gear. It has also the effect of greatly simplifying your stat growth.
You wanna play a magic class, do it as a sorcerer, you wanna play a physical class, do it as an assassin, result being you'll secure a solid attack stat growth for whatever class you wanna play as.
For beginner it might need around 1 hour to complete, but once used to it, it take less than 20 minutes (starting with the character creation).
At that point you dont need to worry about the strength of any ennemy or the level requirement of any quest, you can just roll over anything you might encounter outside of BBi.
Though some side-quest still require you to come up with carefull planning if you dont wanna fail them, especially escort quests.
And some BAMs still have their OHKO attacks (hydra, cockatrix, etc...), but this is only dependant on tactics.

Though I wouldnt recommand it for a first playtrough, it might spoil the game by removing most of the challenge once the rush is completed... basically you concentrate all the challenge the game has to offer in the 20 first minutes, then everything become a cake walk.

[Gasil]

So asides strategies for killing things an important aspect of the game is to get good gear and upgrade it; even if you're low level, a good set of upgraded armor and an upgraded weapon do the difference (to the point you effectively just button mash, your way in the fight). You may want to hunt for the materials to upgrade your gear, and at the same time you can level up and make it easier for you. Just use the wiki to search for materials locations.

[Anime-Profile-Picture]

I appreciate all this feedback. I would like to make is clear that I'm not expecting to just press the kill button and then wait for wins to happen. I'm actually not a total ♥♥♥♥♥♥. But when there's no indication as to a recommended level for an area and I can't damage and enemy at all, there really isn't anything I can do. Its all well and good to know the game inside and out before playing, but I like to experience most games blind.

[Guh~hey~hey~♫]

Some important things along the learning curve of the game:
- Use of iframes
- Use of debilitations
- Use of knock-down
- Team up tactics (locking foes as red classes, pulling down giant ennemies, etc...)
- Use and abuse of consummable items
- Ennemies patterns and weaknesses
- Pawns stupidity and what to expect from them
- Classes hidden stats and how to take advantage of them

[Guh~hey~hey~♫]

Originally posted by Silenthero:

I appreciate all this feedback. I would like to make is clear that I'm not expecting to just press the kill button and then wait for wins to happen. I'm actually not a total ♥♥♥♥♥♥. But when there's no indication as to a recommended level for an area and I can't damage and enemy at all, there really isn't anything I can do. Its all well and good to know the game inside and out before playing, but I like to experience most games blind.

that's why pawns often tells you things like "it's okay to flee..." :3

[Valden21]

Originally posted by Silenthero:

I appreciate all this feedback. I would like to make is clear that I'm not expecting to just press the kill button and then wait for wins to happen. I'm actually not a total ♥♥♥♥♥♥. But when there's no indication as to a recommended level for an area and I can't damage and enemy at all, there really isn't anything I can do. Its all well and good to know the game inside and out before playing, but I like to experience most games blind.

Sadly, there's no really indication as to the recommended level for any individual area of the game, as that kinda relies more on experience than anything else. However, in general, the nastiest enemies are in the far north-east and the far west. If you really want to know if you're potentially weak for an area, listen to what your pawns say to you.

[Gasil]

By the way, another underrated way to pass a difficult portion of the game is to make friends on steam with people of higher level pawns (maybe 10 or 20 levels so you don't feel it cheesy to bring a level 200 on), being friends you can rent their pawn with 0 cost of RC, they'll also surely might come with better bestiary to help your pawn learn and make it more effective.

Check out Karathrax pinned post Active Pawns, I've seen some lower level pawns there to befriend.

[Zand]

Just want to chuck in a recommendation for using Throwblasts they do very respectable damage through most of the game. Just dont give them to a pawn to hold because they wont be there when you need them.