Prairie King is TERRIBLE.

[CHAOS_FANTAZY]

Seriously. Practically every little thing about this game is just RNG. RNG for where the enemies spawn, RNG for how many enemies spawn, RNG for what kinds of enemies spawn; RNG for all the different items they drop—determining whether you get the different gun upgrades that, when combined, turn you into a zero-effort screenclearing monster or five useless Coffee powerups in a row. Even your own ability to kill the monsters is RNG, because the coins dropped by monsters is RNG'd and if the game just decided to not drop enough coins for you, well, guess what, you missed out on a chance to buy a powerup, the run is over.

It's manageable—kind of fun, even—for the first two worlds, but in the third, the game is either spawning too many of the super-tanky mummies that immediately shamble all over the powerup you need to kill them all if they ever drop one, or spawning in the Hellbats two tiles away from you as it instantly sweeps in and kills you, because you're standing too close to the edge, because the center of the screen is occupied by mummies. Couple this with a game that has long-running timers on every stage causing each run to take half an hour and suddenly, you've wasted hours trying to beat the stupid thing only to lose all your lives in 3-3 anyway.

I'd go as far as to say that this needs to be fixed more than the bug that causes Prairie King to crash, because as it stands, the achievement for beating the game is completely unreasonable. And a fix would be simple. Rather than having the enemies spawn completely randomly until time runs out, have them spawn in set amounts from set locations in waves—death sends you back to the beginning of the most recent wave reached, and once you've cleared out all the waves for one level, you can advance to the next. The item RNG would still be frustrating, but it would at least manageable, because it would be predictable. The game might actually take an inkling of strategy and skill then.

[Pulptenks]

Ppl says is more easy to fish with a controller, maybe with praire work too?
I dont have controller to test (and I hate dirty controller peasant )

[Ham Sup Lou]

I thought it was over with Abigail after that embarrassing defeat. She hasn't invited me over since.

[coup_on_tv]

Always use keyboard when controlling, try to play on days where your fortune is lucky, always try to get the damage powerups, (The most expensive powerups) the star is the best active effect. I have the fectors challenge achivement but i warn you the only reason why im good at it is because of my hours on binding of issac.

[Petite Fleur Sasha]

It is :( And Fector's challenge achievement is the worst. I am still trying to beat it without deaths, but I think I won't be able to make it bespite my big wish to have 100% in beloved Stardew. I am not bad at Isaac, but here I beat 1 world clean and then die in the 2 or 3. It is increadibly frustrating.

[VickersAE]

There was no new for me to comment on this but... Damn the ET game...

Originally posted by red255:

...OK. aside from the achieve you can just walk away.

it reminded me of ET from the Atari days which supposedly fills some hidden landfill in the AZ desert.

I just walked away.

wasn't sure if it was going for bullet hell or what. I don't see a point in giving a lengthy diatribe as to why its bad.

everyone whose played it thinks its bad. if someone doesn't think its bad I'll give reasons why its bad if you want. but theres no need if every one agrees the game is bad,

[.:Toffel:.]

i spent nearly as much time with the prairie king as i did with my farm and i gotta say its freakin awesome! the music is amazing, it controls well with the 360-controller and it really reminds me of the old games on the c64. its even much better because those old games were simply crap for the most part.

so no, good sir, i do not agree and if you insist on your opinion, you shall enlighten me

Originally posted by red255:

...OK. aside from the achieve you can just walk away.

it reminded me of ET from the Atari days which supposedly fills some hidden landfill in the AZ desert.

I just walked away.

wasn't sure if it was going for bullet hell or what. I don't see a point in giving a lengthy diatribe as to why its bad.

everyone whose played it thinks its bad. if someone doesn't think its bad I'll give reasons why its bad if you want. but theres no need if every one agrees the game is bad,

[Ottofyre]

Originally posted by tomoffel:

i spent nearly as much time with the prairie king as i did with my farm and i gotta say its freakin awesome! the music is amazing, it controls well with the 360-controller and it really reminds me of the old games on the c64. its even much better because those old games were simply crap for the most part.

Thing is, though.. as much as you enjoy it, you still haven't beaten it. Much less without dying. I think the major gripe with it is that it's so out of place with the main focus of the game and yet there's not just one, but two achievements tied to it.

I really don't like the game. While it does control well with the 360 controller, as you said... for something like this I much prefer games where you can learn the patterns. This is too RNG for my tastes.

[Shyno]

Once you have the game figured out you can at least reach the last boss consistently, by the time you get to the 3rd world the money is already somewhat averaged, if you're lucky you get maybe an extra upgrade, if not you can still beat it. The RNG stuff tends to compensate itself over time, you don't need so much luck (aside for the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crashes).

I mean just beating it, doing so without dying, that's another story.

[SapienChavez]

38/40 on achievements is annoying.

[divlyfein]

I really wanted to make a guide when I finally did Fector's Challenge, but never got around to it. I feel like there are not many good ones. First, the lucky day/food thing does not work. It has no effect on Prairie King. I really think this needs to be changed. Now it does have a 'placebo effect' on your attitude of playing it!

If your one of those people who can't accept defeat then never give up. I can guarantee it will be one of the hardest things you have ever accomplished in a video game (for all the wrong reasons), but it is worth it. I agree the RNG is terrible. To get Fector's challenge requires a lot of practice and skill, but pure luck on getting that certain run.

I always thought that the new game + mode, after you beat it, should allow you to keep all your upgrades without drastically increasing the difficulty. I have gotten pretty far into new game +, but as it stands it is basically impossible. I have seen no videos of people beating it. Kinda unnecessary. I feel like if you get new game + and can keep all your stuff, it will remove some of the RNG factor and allow people to get a better shot at completing Fector's Challenge.

It is also discouraging that people who bought the game when it came out got this achievement because it was glitched. All around I think the achievement is honestly unnecessary for what the game is all about. I'm glad there was one for beating it, but Fector's Challenge is a little extreme.

[Petite Fleur Sasha]

Originally posted by Spawk:

I think the difficulty doesn't fit with the overall game at all. Much like the jump rope minigame in Final Fantasy IX, I have no qualms about cheating to win it.

Yes, it is suddendly hardcore(ish) and the game's mood is calm and relaxing. I really hopw that there will be some change one day, maybe a difficulty option.

[WitchyWoman]

Honestly a way to make it a LOT easier is at the beginning of the levels just stand in the corner of the map and shoot. You can shoot all the directions including diagnonal by holding the down/up button and left/right button at the same time. Hope this helps!

[DasaKamov]

Originally posted by AbboClarkarina:

snip

Holy necromancer, Batman!

[Ryu Fireheart]

With practice you can beat this mini game. The problem is with fector challenge, it relies on coin drop rate for upgrades and also to get good powerups during the cemetery levels (you will be using all powerups as soon as you get them). I did spent like 3 days to get this one, hours and hours...

Hint: aim for 3 fire rate upgrades, 2 firepower upgrades before you face fector. Also in the last shopkeeper you should buy a star power up (this will show up once you get the 3rd fire rate upgrade). activate it as soon as you meet fector and shoot him non stop. He will be dead in seconds, and he will only have a chance to shot like 2-4 bullets (be careful).

P.S. Playing the mini game during a luck day may help a bit with coin/power up drop rate, and maybe also eating a +3 luck food. Also i feel like enemies drop coins more often once killed with diagonal shots at close range (i can't confirm it...)