Is there a way to skip grinding?

[Define Brackish Water]

I want to play the game to play it and enjoy the challenge again. I regret stopping to level up the three classes I didn't care for and earning enough to get all the unlocks that change how classes are played. I'm still not done with this process and I'd like to just get to the end of it. Is this possible or not?

[Suzaku]

"Stopping" to level up? Friend, leveling up *is* the game. You level, unlock stuff, promote, level again, and continue to slowly unlock everything.

You're playing the game. If you want to end the process, you'd have to literally uninstall.

[Define Brackish Water]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

"Stopping" to level up? Friend, leveling up *is* the game. You level, unlock stuff, promote, level again, and continue to slowly unlock everything.

You're playing the game. If you want to end the process, you'd have to literally uninstall.

Why would I play the game to level up? I learned not to dig down those time wasting holes back when Modern Warfare 2 released and had 10 prestige ranks.

I like team-based PvE shooters. In some of them you get objectively stronger the more you level up. I'd like to just move up to the top of the totem pole so I can play the game as it was meant to be played.

[Suzaku]

Well, the good news is you literally only need to promote each dwarf once so that you have access to all of their upgrades, and they can all be used in deep dives. After that, promotions are just so you can continue to advance your overall rank, which only has some cosmetics locked behind it.

Since you said you've already leveled up 3/4 dwarves, sounds like you're almost done. Just finish it up and don't worry about it.

[GIRL]

This game hardly has a reason for you to level up beyond the first promotion (for each Dwarf). Most of the weapon unlocks and upgrades you can get in under 100 hours of game time, easily. You need 1 promotion to unlock the "end game" content, aka Deep Dives (and an extra perk slot), the rest is literally just for bragging rights.

You should be playing the game to have FUN, not for a never-ending grind for power-creep. If you have fun playing the game, upgrades and progress will come. You'll breeze through your first promotion before you even know it. And after that, if you don't want to promote, then you can do exactly that, and just continue playing.

Promotions/level-ups past your first promotion are literally just resource sinks for people who don't have anything else to spend their materials/credits on.

[Sokaku]

This game has the shortest grind I've seen in a coop shooter. It's not about powering up but rather encouraging you to explore the strengths and weaknesses of each piece of equipment, unlocking it gradually to develop your own play style. The alternate primary/secondary are not an upgrade to the other, they just offer a slightly or significantly different playstyle option to the class. BOTH always have a use situationally so you learn which situations weigh better for one or the other and learn to cope if the mission / team synergy doesn't play to your chosen strengths.

Overclocks arguably take a bit more effort / time / luck to unlock but that simply gives you something to bother "playing" for. The game isn't Pay to Win, so you are playing it as it's meant to be played.

[GIRL]

Originally posted by Define Brackish Water:

I like team-based PvE shooters. In some of them you get objectively stronger the more you level up. I'd like to just move up to the top of the totem pole so I can play the game as it was meant to be played.

You might be confusing this game for something like Borderlands. You don't get stats or anything from leveling up. There's no skill tree with points you get to spend each level. There's a perk tree, but you get points for that just by doing missions.

Once you get all the weapon/gear upgrades, you're pretty much just as strong as the veteran players who have played 1,000's of hours. The only difference would be experience and skill. Also, there's no "way the game was meant to be played," you can play on any Hazard (difficulty) level you want. If you feel like you absolutely MUST play on the MAXIMUM difficulty at all times, you're probably not going to enjoy the game.

This game is goofy, it's team-based, and it's primarily about just having a good time with your fellow Dwarves in the caves. Not saying you shouldn't challenge yourself, if that's what you wanna do, but there's not really any pressure to do so.

Tl;Dr, You reach the "top of the totem pole" relatively quickly, progression-wise. The majority of the game is about teamwork, beer, and cosmetics. And of course just having a good time.

[Ackranome]

Leveling up?

[ShugoTheRipper]

As others have said you are almost there!

Rock And Stone!

[Vandal Savant]

You can play on the experimental branch, which has a cheat terminal that lets you unlock everything and get unlimited resources I guess.

[Fryskar]

Guess you could find a save editor/cheat on google.

[Define Brackish Water]

I'm not on the first promotion. I just have 3&1/2 dwarves at around rank 15. I don't really want to care about these upgrades but I've played several- plenty- other games where you can't really challenge the highest stuff unless you have everything unlocked. I just want to play the game for real and not have to deal with this artificial difficulty. I "GET" that this stuff "extends the life of the game" or "slowly introduces new things to players" and maybe I'm just fed up with it but I just don't have the time to sink into this. I want to do a match without being penalized for not buying the wee itty bitty damage buff that makes the enemies that much easier. It's a reverse difficulty curve where the game starts out extra hard but becomes easier later just because you have better stats.

Not that all this doesn't make Haz 4 & 5 very tough. I just want to skip it so I can play the end-game content how it was meant to be played. Is there a way to do that? A lot of other games with these mechanics have a way of mopping up all the fancy XP points I need to be done with it.

[Ackranome]

Originally posted by Define Brackish Water:

I'm not on the first promotion. I just have 3&1/2 dwarves at around rank 15. I don't really want to care about these upgrades but I've played several- plenty- other games where you can't really challenge the highest stuff unless you have everything unlocked. I just want to play the game for real and not have to deal with this artificial difficulty. I "GET" that this stuff "extends the life of the game" or "slowly introduces new things to players" and maybe I'm just fed up with it but I just don't have the time to sink into this. I want to do a match without being penalized for not buying the wee itty bitty damage buff that makes the enemies that much easier. It's a reverse difficulty curve where the game starts out extra hard but becomes easier later just because you have better stats.

Not that all this doesn't make Haz 4 & 5 very tough. I just want to skip it so I can play the end-game content how it was meant to be played. Is there a way to do that? A lot of other games with these mechanics have a way of mopping up all the fancy XP points I need to be done with it.

The hardest stuff is EDD and Haz 5.

Both of which potentially can waste others' time and generally aren't done solo.

Do you believe carrying is part of the game?

[Scuzz MB]

First, there is no "end of it all." It's a core gameplay loop game. If you don't like it so far, it's not for you. Well, If you care nothing about leveling any other classes, then there's no reason to play the other classes you don't want to. I really don't understand the fuss at all. I'll spare you the sermon on why you're severely limiting what you're going to get from it by ignoring 3/4 of it...there are very very few one class "mainers" in this community.

But if you don't give a flying turd about leveling or 3 of the 4 classes you don't HAVE to play them ever. There's no reason to do the assignment missions with a different class if XP is not something you care about for them and you never intend to play anything but one class. But there's no setting in the game that restricts you from picking up overclocks and cosmetics based on your "preference" of class (except sort of with matrix core machine events).

If you DO want to advance your player level while doing Promotion Assignment missions, then the absolute worst you ever have to worry about is 4 missions every once in a while to do with non-preferred classes.

[Define Brackish Water]

Originally posted by Ackranome:

Originally posted by Define Brackish Water:

I'm not on the first promotion. I just have 3&1/2 dwarves at around rank 15. I don't really want to care about these upgrades but I've played several- plenty- other games where you can't really challenge the highest stuff unless you have everything unlocked. I just want to play the game for real and not have to deal with this artificial difficulty. I "GET" that this stuff "extends the life of the game" or "slowly introduces new things to players" and maybe I'm just fed up with it but I just don't have the time to sink into this. I want to do a match without being penalized for not buying the wee itty bitty damage buff that makes the enemies that much easier. It's a reverse difficulty curve where the game starts out extra hard but becomes easier later just because you have better stats.

Not that all this doesn't make Haz 4 & 5 very tough. I just want to skip it so I can play the end-game content how it was meant to be played. Is there a way to do that? A lot of other games with these mechanics have a way of mopping up all the fancy XP points I need to be done with it.

The hardest stuff is EDD and Haz 5.

Both of which potentially can waste others' time and generally aren't done solo.

Do you believe carrying is part of the game?

I'm not looking to be carried, nor get into something over my head. I get that these things are also time-gates so new players won't go into areas that are way too tough, that doesn't have anything to do with this.

[GIRL]

Originally posted by Define Brackish Water:

maybe I'm just fed up with it but I just don't have the time to sink into this.

It... really doesn't take that long to unlock everything. And, again. Why do you feel like you HAVE to play on the highest difficulty imaginable? There's not really an "end" to the game, therefore there's not really "endgame" content. One promotion isn't that much to ask.

Plus, you should be having fun on the way there. If playing the game feels like a chore to you because you're only concerned about leveling... This game isn't for you, I don't think.

Originally posted by Define Brackish Water:

A lot of other games with these mechanics have a way of mopping up all the fancy XP points I need to be done with it.

What games, lol? I can't think of a single game besides WoW that lets you just skip a majority of the progression, and that's exactly what made WoW so boring. Just made it feel like none of the "progress" I made matters. Just plopped me in at level 85, like, "Here ya go! You're not as powerful as players who worked hard to grind to level 85, and you can virtually do any content you want!" Killed my vibe instantly.

Games should be about the journey, not just instantly about skipping to the part where you have all the shiny trophies.