Worst/Infuriating Parts of Spelunky 2

[ACM]

BY THE WAY I LOVE THIS GAME

- Bear traps in foliage that's near impossible to see
- Oh boy, getting tele-fragged is just about the worst thing in a video game.
- Enemies behind doors that hit you immediately upon going through them
- Whipping things above you is MUCH harder than the first game and just causes frustration
- Why do bullets from shotguns not trigger arrow traps????
- Whipping a shotgun moves it like 2 blocks, while a gem gets whipped only 1
- This might not be a real thing, but it seems like grabbing ledges is more precise. After playing Spelunky 1 for so long, it just feels like its harder to grab a ledge when I want to. Could be me being dumb though.
- The ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ lava in Volcana is so anger inducing, and I'm a calm dude. I activate the drill for it and it goes through a patch of lava. Then, while climbing down the chain a droplet of lava
touches me and I'm instantly dead. I understand that its my fault for going down the chain, but
there is nothing I can do to prevent the drill from ruining the pathway.
- Climbing gloves control scheme is different and much worse to use now, instead of holding on to a ledge indefinitely without touching the keyboard, you have to hold in the direction of the
wall. It's cumbersome to use to say the least.
- IF YOU GET CURSED IN THE JUNGLE, IT'S VERY HARD TO REVERT(as far as I'm aware)
- NO SERIOUSLY, if you get hit by the skull-ghost-thing through a wall as it tracks you, you have 1 health for the entire run until you can sacrifice enough for Kali.
- The Voodoo guy that curses you just needs sight on you to deal remote damage, the only way
to break this is to hit him, with the skull floating around him, or to run away far enough and break his attack.
- The Porcupine boss is extremely inconsistent when it comes to activating his attacks and bouncing on his head. I've been killed before by bouncing on his head and him starting an
attack immediately.
- I can understand why the ghost moves faster, but the second phase of the ghost, especially the one that moves around you in circles is inconsistent. (need to test this more)
- Why was the cape floating changed? Instead of toggling the float, you hold the button to float.
- I cannot understand why shooting bomb bags and boxes makes them explode. It's realistic but just kind of annoying whenever it happens to me, I see no reason why it's like this.
- Why do critters not activate arrow traps anymore? You used to be able to throw rats to trigger
arrow traps, but its been removed.
- Whipping while hanging from a ledge pushes you from the ledge, I don't know what benefit
this has and has only led me to taking accidental damage.
- So in the first game, when an enemy came out of a pot, it was frozen for a second to let you whip it. In this game it seems like spiders are frozen, but snakes more instantly towards you
when the pot is broken. I have been killed by more snakes in this game than I was ever killed
by them in the first game because of this small change.
- Shooting a shotgun from a rope or ladder causes you to be pushed off the ladder.
- You cannot hold jump in webs to get rid of them anymore
- Oh boy using climbing gloves with a cape in tight corridors is just the worst thing I've ever had to do in a platformer.

If you got anything else, I'll consider adding it.
Feel free to argue about any of these things with me as well.

[nottud]

I thought you can uncurse by rescuing a pet?

[Space Cadet]

I'm not here to argue as some of the stuff you said is quite valid. However, I would like to offer my two cents on these two points.

Originally posted by Nathanbigbob:

- The Voodoo guy that curses you just needs sight on you to deal remote damage, the only way
to break this is to hit him, with the skull floating around him, or to run away far enough and break
his attack.
- The Porcupine boss is extremely inconsistent when it comes to activating his attacks and
bouncing on his head. I've been killed before by bouncing on his head and him starting an
attack immediately

The shamans are a big NOPE enemy for me unless I have a shotgun. If I don't and I ever see one, I'll just use a rope or a bomb to avoid him.

Quillback appeared quite diffcult to read for me at first too, until I discovered a neat trick - if you throw a projectile at him (and you can do that safely from one of the ledders up above), he'll instantly charge in the opposite direction. Needless to say, this is very easy to take advantage of.

[ACM]

Originally posted by nottud:

I thought you can uncurse by rescuing a pet?

No I swear I just tried this, the heart that monty gives you when he licks you is a cursed/gray heart. BUT I COULD BE STUPID.

[Space Cadet]

Originally posted by nottud:

I thought you can uncurse by rescuing a pet?

No, that's how you cure poison. The curse is forever (until you die that is).

[Fuhrer]

Originally posted by nottud:

I thought you can uncurse by rescuing a pet?

I know that's the case for poison, but I don't know about curse.

[ACM]

Originally posted by Space Cadet:

I'm not here to argue as some of the stuff you said is quite valid. However, I would like to offer my two cents on these two points.

Originally posted by Nathanbigbob:

- The Voodoo guy that curses you just needs sight on you to deal remote damage, the only way
to break this is to hit him, with the skull floating around him, or to run away far enough and break
his attack.
- The Porcupine boss is extremely inconsistent when it comes to activating his attacks and
bouncing on his head. I've been killed before by bouncing on his head and him starting an
attack immediately

The shamans are a big NOPE enemy for me unless I have a shotgun. If I don't and I ever see one, I'll just use a rope or a bomb to avoid him.

Quillback appeared quite diffcult to read for me at first too, until I discovered a neat trick - if you throw a projectile at him (and you can do that safely from one of the ledders up above), he'll instantly charge in the opposite direction. Needless to say, this is very easier to take advantage of.

Yeah I know you can do this, but the distance he charges seems to differ, and he has a LOT of health if you want to kill him this way. I probably shouldn't be trying to kill him I guess???

[Space Cadet]

Originally posted by Nathanbigbob:

Yeah I know you can do this, but the distance he charges seems to differ, and he has a LOT of health if you want to kill him this way. I probably shouldn't be trying to kill him I guess???

Unless you have something to kill him with easily, I'd say 1 extra HP is not really worth it.

[nottud]

I got cursed from a pot and I cured it by rescuing a pet - it comes up with a grey heart and my health remained the same but now I was uncursed. Perhaps maybe worked for me because the curse was a lower strength?

EDIT: Looks like I am wrong about pets lifting curses as others have noted.

[Nosferatuno]

Curse can only be moved my Kali. Get ready to sacrifice if you're cursed.

You can curse enemies by throwing the ghost pot at them. For high HP enemies, it's super useful if you're ready to sprint for the exit.

OP, this game plays & feels different from Spelunky. A lot of your complaints will feel valid until you relearn timings and speeds of things. They changed the physics, and it takes time to relearn it. Most of your frustrations I think will fade if you stick with it for a bit.

[Not Anonymous]

The most infuriating thing about spelunky 2, is spelunky 2.
Game is ruthless

[Gigith]

Originally posted by Nathanbigbob:

- Why do critters not activate arrow traps anymore? You used to be able to throw rats to trigger

Legit infuriatingly unfair.
It was also a lot of fun tossing them into the traps.

[Ninian]

The two things I think on this list that definitely need changing:

-- Enemies spawning right next to doors. This absolutely is not okay because you shouldn't be ganked by something before you can react to it. This very thing is why I feel Binding of Isaac lost its way with its later DLC.

-- Arrow traps should be triggered by critters or projectiles. It can arguably make them much easier to deal with, but I'm of the mind an arrow trap should only punish the careless, inattentive or clumsy. You should never be FORCED to eat those 2 HP in order to progress. Trading a bomb or a rope really hurts early game too and if it happens on 1-1 you're better off just restarting. That's just not ideal.

I also think:

-- Shops should always be made of wood or some other undiggable material in the Dwelling. Moles in shops aren't challenging just dangerous and needlessly annoying.


Most of the rest of those can be dealt with learning new patterns and relearning old ones. For instance I pretty much never whip pots anymore. I believe spiders can now be whipped on the ground, so just toss the pots to see what comes out.

[cottonrhetoric]

So far, the only things I find upsetting are when movement mechanics contradict what I'm used to from Spelunky 1. Like the new cape mechanics, or how I can no longer press down to climb down a rope that's next to a ledge.

[Misery]

For me, it's the nature of the game's secret stuff.

I hate it. I ***HATE*** it. All of it.

Now to be fair, I dislike this sort of crap in any game that's even lightly inspired by roguelikes. I've got enough stupid cryptic weird crap in this genre to last a lifetime. But the nature of this game's secrets are something special, and I mean that in the worst way possible.

Just the way they START is bad enough. There are two real options, and I dislike both.

1. The Black Market. Really? This, again? I hated the tedious search for the stupid door in the first game, but it's dramatically worse now, since it takes place in the balance disaster that is the jungle. I'll put it this way: I dont go to the jungle. Simple as that. Just... just no. The area is irritating and I dont want to do that godawful search for the billionth time.

2. The drill. Seriously? This is one of those things that makes me wonder if the game could have used a bit more testing. This is ALSO really tedious, just in a different way: You have to wait for all the stupid lava to stop dripping before you go down there... and even then, the chance of a genuinely unfair death is ALWAYS there, because even when you THINK the stupid slop is done falling down that pit, one last blob might hit you on the way down. Had that happen earlier today. Oh, AND sometimes there'll be a shop under the drill! Ugh. Seriously, who thought this was a good idea? And why?

Just... uuuugh. It's crap like this that makes me wish the game had REAL modding capability (I dont mean just the stupid Frozlunky thing again). That way, this stuff could be changed/replaced for those that dont like it. I know I'm not the only one.

Noita, which is a rather similar game, pulls even more of this sort of nonsense, and it's even worse there, but that game at least has real modding support.


And honestly, I expected this here. I hated it in the first game too. I did hell ONCE. Only once. Fortunately beat it on my first try. And then I resolved to never, ever do it again.


I've already seen the various routes and where they go eventually, and honestly, I'm not sure I at all care to attempt any of it. Just.... ugh. Like I said: Too much of that gibberish with this genre. Chances are I'll stick to normal Tiamat runs only, because screw it.

I really wish devs would stop doing this sort of thing to such an extent.

IF YOU GET CURSED IN THE JUNGLE, YOU CANNOT REVERT IT (as far as I'm aware)

If you dont mind spoilers, well.... There are two ways to cure it that have been found so far. Both of them are bloody stupid. 1. Get the ankh. Die. Yes, really. 2. Do the... er... Star challenge? Or was it the sun challenge? One of the two. You get the Elixir if you do that while cursed (and actually win it). It cures curse, and that's all it does. I *think* this challenge is in Neo Babylon, but I could be mistaken. One way or another, if you go the Elixir route you're going to have to deal with much of the game cursed.

I do see that someone mentioned using Kali's altar to deal with curse, but.... of course the game has to spawn one first. And you have to be able to reach and use it. I've not tried this method, but I'll give it a go next time, provided I ever go to the Jungle again.

If there's any less idiotic ways to deal with curse, I dont know what they are. Just one of the many, many reasons I dont go to the jungle. Curse honestly just seems like an imbalanced mess. I mean, isnt poison bad enough?

The Porcupine boss is extremely inconsistent when it comes to activating his attacks and bouncing on his head. I've been killed before by bouncing on his head and him starting an
attack immediately

There is a way around this, no need to bounce on him: If you throw something at him from behind, he'll go into his rolling attack instantly. Be careful though: he doesnt do the jump first, and he'll come straight at you, so be ready to dodge the moment you throw it. The skull blocks above his room mean there are guaranteed skulls to fling at him, so that's good. But yeah, this means you can trigger his roll exactly when you want to, in a super predictable way.

My main problem with that guy is just that it's freaking tedious waiting for him to slooooowwwwwlllllyyyyy move to the right spot so I can get him to charge to the right while having room to avoid him.


A couple of other things from your list:

Arrow traps requiring ropes: If you're finding yourself constantly using ropes to deal with these, you're doing it wrong. ALWAYS carry stones/skulls/whatever with you. Stones in particular are the best for setting off arrow traps. Needing to use a rope to pass one means you've made a mistake somewhere.

Enemies in pots: NEVER whip pots. Always do one of two things: Throw the pot at a distant wall, or throw a rock at it (which will kill anything that might be inside). The freeze ray is also good at that. And when you do throw one, be ready to jump out of the way, on the off-chance that there's a scorpion inside.

[ABCmouse.com]

I'm personally a huge fan of the axolotls that force you to pump the brakes every five seconds or else you get put in a bubble and have to wait until you can pop out, then wait again until you get up, and PRAY that it hasnt turned around to put you back into a bubble the second you get up.