How is the game for 2 players?

[Sputnik]

Me and a buddy been looking at this game for a while but don't want to play with random people. Is it viable/fun 2 player still?

[King Fossil]

It's okay but it can be kinda hard. The game scales enemy spawns/hp so it's not impossible, but if one person makes a mistake and goes down you lose 50% of the team instead of 25% like in 4p so it's a lot more punishing.
Also it can be annoying not having a full set of movement tools for getting around, though you can work around that.
So it's viable, but not as good as with 4.

[Steelfist]

The randoms in the game are really good compared to pretty much every other title, so firstly I'd recommend giving it a try.

But if you don't, that's fine. The game treats 2 players as if it were 1 in terms of spawns, so it's actually one of the easiest ways to play (if a bit slow paced.) There are 'duos' of class types that synergize really well if you only have 2 players, mostly Engi/Scout and Driller/Gunner. So I'd recommend running those pairs to begin with.

[Ninja Zyborg]

game is best with 2-4 players, so yes.

[Nosteru]

I played on Haz3 with my RL friend. It was absolutely fun and manageable.

[V0lcanF1re]

is great, get it and you can play solo, with 2 players, and invite 2 more friends later on.

[Barser]

You will have fun as 2 players. But later on you probably want to open the game up to 2 more people to have even more fun.

[MaximumSquid]

Bosco is insanely useful

Game is the hardest on two-player, but the game scales so you can manage.
Finding a good build combination can take a lot of stress out of the equation.

Vampire Freeze Driller build + Engineer Hyper Propellant build is very strong.
Driller can mine minerals from a distance /w TCF to save time.
Engineer can pool enemies to one location with lures to save ammo.

Check out Karl.gg for builds

[CuriousEagle31345211]

its good i find myself closing the ability to join the game and playing with just 1 other person quite a lot actually. dont need any special builds or anything and dont feel forced to pick scout for flares unless you see the mission has 3 footsteps(bigger map generation)

[Red Spot]

Originally posted by MaximumSquid:

Bosco is insanely useful

Game is the hardest on two-player, but the game scales so you can manage.
Finding a good build combination can take a lot of stress out of the equation.

^That.
2-Person might actually be harder than 1-player with Bosco. That can be remedied by just adjusting hazard though.

Fun? Absolutely. Tag-team as scout/engy or basically any combination you wish can be great fun. 4-Team synergy is still most fun though, specially in a crowd that just wants to have co-op fun without sense of entitlement.

[GIRL]

Originally posted by Sputnik:

we don't want to play with random people

I understand the concern, but I think you'll have more fun keeping your lobbies public and having rando's join. This game's in-game community is a lot better than most multiplayer games. Very few trolls, mic flamers, or bossy players. Obviously it goes without saying that if you play with rando's you'll likely get a sour apple at some point, but the ratio of helpful/fun players to harmful/annoying players is... well it's a lot to very few.

Many of us on the forums have hundreds, if not thousands of hours sunken into the game, with the number of times someone legitimately joined the game that made the experience worse small enough to count on our hands.

In-game, there's a lobby browser, and people can title their own lobbies. Look for lobbies that specifically mention helping new players, there's always a few of them. Usually they'll say stuff like "Greenbeards allowed," that's you - a Greenbeard - join those, you'll probably have a great time and learn a lot faster. They're usually run by more experienced players who want to help newbies (they're not usually overbearing or hand-hold-y either).

[Insano-Man]

Personally, I've found it opposite of most people here. With the player scaling, having four people in the game turns every match into a giant, rolling fight ball. Individual contributions shine less, meaning team-carrying and clutch-saving are that much harder to pull off.

Meanwhile, from what I've seen with two players, every situation is much easier to control. The swarms are shorter, smaller, and the bugs aren't as tough. You've got to play a bit more cautiously, and being short-handed means the maps go slower, but I've always felt safer playing in pairs.

Except for point extraction, of course. There, the swarms are made up, and the player scaling doesn't matter. More people means faster ice cubes, means getting the Hell out sooner.

I don't doubt public games are another story, but Bosco's never done right by me. If I had to pick between him and one of my regulars, I'd take everyone on their least favorite, least levelled class - back-to-back - before I ever thought about Bosco once.

[epiik]

Duos is the easiest way to play if they are 2 really good players. Full teams are the hardest when you're running high hazard levels + elites.

[Syncourt]

Personally I've always found it more difficult with 2. While the enemy scaling barely changes between 1 and 2 players to account for Bosco, when the players are new and die often it can be made more difficult by not having your guaranteed backup and revives. It's like Bosco can go down also.

Once you both gain a good amount of skill and knowledge with the game that will become much less of an issue though.

As mentioned above, 3-4 players not only provides much more firepower against the swarms that don't even scale near +100% per player, but it also increases your chances of having somebody alive that has an opportunity to revive.

[Ser Pounce]

Originally posted by Sputnik:

Me and a buddy been looking at this game for a while but don't want to play with random people. Is it viable/fun 2 player still?

It's pretty good and manageable, even in solo (though it can be boring/lonely but that depends entirely on you. I know people that play this game solo only).

[Kamen Kreuz]

My friend and I have a blast playing this in duos. Don't worry about it being too hard, since you can pick the difficulty for every mission type (except Deep Dives), it's only as tough as you want it to be.