Game needs a little work on the balance side.

[Cumbusted]

It's been happening constantly where I'm fairly overlevelled for something but I get destroyed.
For example the little Hillkat in the cave, I'm level 15, the quest is level 13 but keeping up with all of them with just Emilie with me is kinda ridiculous and I get stunlocked out of even healing.
Going up the mountain at this level I have trouble with even the bunnies, to make no mention of snowmen.
I figure I gotta do quests and grind a little but at this point every other enemy gives me 1 exp.
What am I doing wrong? I have the best equipment available to me at this time, I'm pretty good at using the mechanics at hand, I always break their guard when they're red, etc, I'm not sure what I could do better besides magically "git gud."

[muxmeister]

You might need to take a different approach to circuits/skills then, if a more offensive approach doesn’t work then you can focus more on dash and guard arts in tandem with stocking up on sandwiches and other HP recovery items for a “tanking” build where you can effectively facewall the mobs until they die. If you’re fighting multiple enemies, you can also change how your party members’ AI reacts through the presets in the submenu so they can help how you fight. That’s what I did for example on the snowmen when I wasn’t fast enough at the time to dodge all their shots. One of the strengths of CC is its flexibility in supporting different kinds of playstyles.

[Cumbusted]

I'll have to switch it up then and keep trying.
I had a lot of trouble with Apollo yesterday and going defensive helped.
Hmm... the cave's pretty dark too, it's easy to get combo'd.

[..]

Yeah, some strategies require different approaches, but so long as you have both a defensive and offensive aspect, it'll likely work. For me, I went through the game with more offensive skills, initially focusing on anything with the brawler trait and took some focus/ranged skills as a convenient alternative. I rarely ever blocked, and instead dodged my way out of things when possible(sometimes you just have to block, however). I took cover when things like snowmen showed up, and tried to close the distance and ravage enemies in melee when there was an opening. To help, getting a bunch of hi-sandwiches and using them while taking cover/spare time allowed me to continue. I don't ever remember using many skills when I began, but I started using them way more around the end game material.

As for Apollo, I believe just kiting him is enough, although the duel probably allows for any strat to work.

[burningmime]

My go-to strategy when having trouble is to pump defense (get all the highest DEF items; ignore HP and other stats) then have a couple healing items on hand, and focus on dodging instead of blocking, occasionally tossing in attacks when possible. It really slows down the pace of battle.

However, this definitely isn't the only build that works. Try a couple different builds out (you can reset all skills in the training hub for a modest fee) and see what you're most comfortable with.

[muxmeister]

Originally posted by burningmime:

(you can reset all skills in the training hub for a modest fee)

Suppose you haven't played in a while; some versions ago the devs made it so you can only reset a single circuit tree branch using a stackable key item that's given to you at certain story points (usually after getting shades) or farming late game area materials traded with a high fee, supposedly to keep it in line with other games in that it's supposed to be a hard item to get and you can't spam/abuse (?) the system.

[Cumbusted]

You can swap branches for free, no?
Or is that not the same thing I'm thinking of?

[muxmeister]

Later on when you have access to more elements, more circuit trees will open up. I meant resetting a whole grid for a single element (I visualize them "branching out" from the Neutral circuit). Spending CP earlier on to focus on only certain paths e.g. guard arts will be permanent until you get said key item to reset that element for you to tweak again with the total of all the CP you have accumulated thus far.

[lachsen]

Just to be sure, I'd really like to see your current status (Level + Equipment). If enemies only give you 1 EXP it definitely means that there should be no need to level any further.

The most common reason why people have problems is because they neglect equipment. Since you claim you have the best equipment, that should not be the case... but just to be sure I'd like to see what kind of equipment you've chosen exactly. Because what sometimes happen is that people choose modifiers over high base stats, intentionally equipment low-level equipment because of it. This often makes you more vulnerable in practice.

CrossCode really is balanced in a way that if you have proper level and equipment, your strength relative to enemies should stay the same, which means you will always be able to take the same number of hits. The difficulty increases by having enemies attack more aggressively and make attacks more difficult to dodge.

Edit: Apollo is of course an exception and this is a battle which is intentionally hard - and that's also why it's fully optional.

[Cumbusted]

This is my Equip Screen:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1342867945
And my stats:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1342870129
This is after trading a bit up the mountain.
I still get demonished by Snowmen and the bunnies give me 4 exp.
Maybe I'm just really bad at the game? ;w;
Are modifiers the added skill effect things?
I figured those would be more vital since I was being killed so easily so I opted to have more of those.

[lachsen]

So overall your equipment looks pretty decent, especially in terms of attack. The only thing somewhat neglected is your defense.

Just getting the default Equipment form Bergen (Iron Mail, Iron Edge etc.) should give you a defense of around 66. So replacing your Bronze Mail with an Iron Mail and maybe one or two of your weapons with "Iron Edge" might help to improve your defense value.

+ 14 defense will definitely help to survive battles more easily.

If you are easily killed, your first priority should be improving defense and HP. Modifiers can help you as well (HP regeneration especially), but you should always prioritize Equipment Level.

[Cumbusted]

Alrighty, I'll look into that.
I've been super stingy with money so I probably have enough to buy equipment.
I also have a lot of quests to turn in now since arriving up here.
Thank you~

[wervyn]

Generally speaking your equipment is good, the only thing I'd swap out is the Bronze Mail for some Iron (or other traded gear you like), since it's a little behind the curve and torso gear is usually where DEF comes from. A couple notes along those lines though, it could be that you're just equipping yourself in a way that doesn't mesh well with your playstyle. Your stat build highly preferences attack and DPS, and using dodging to avoid taking damage (Flash Step for example). This is a great way to play, it's the kind of thing I usually build, but it does rely on not getting hit. If that's your primary trouble, then as others have suggested making a defense focused build will probably make the game easier for you.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the snowmen in particular are definitely tougher enemies, and part of fighting them is applying tactics and strategy to those fights. Frequently they're found around terrain features you can use to your advantage to avoid that big spray attack, such as walls to hide behind or jump pads to climb up cliff faces. You can also get some good mileage from dashing in, launching a quick special like Sphere Saw, and dashing out before they hit you with their stomp. And, once you get the Heat element from the local dungeon, they become much easier to deal with since you can do significantly more damage to them with it. Basically, combat in CrossCode isn't just about having better stats, it's primarily about understanding each enemy's attacks and weaknesses and how to evade and exploit them.

ETA: And ninja'd by Lachsen with mostly the same advice. Oh well!

[Cumbusted]

Well I'm doing a lot better. Still dying here and there but a lot less since I'm minding my equipment a lot more. I'm back to having fun with the game, thanks a lot for the help and sorry about the slightly salty thread. Y'all doing good. ;w;

[lachsen]

Glad to hear we could help! :D

[Cumbusted]

Yup yup!
As a tiny sidenote since I just ran into this, and a bit of feedback, maybe the cooldown on enemy respawns should be a little shorter. When you're on task grinding for something like tophats and you need to get a B or better rank on the way to take out the snowmen for it, it's kinda hard to do it efficiently if you have to wait a while before resetting your route up the mountain since they're a little on the rare side~