Let’s talk about Ultra Nightmare

[Flybye]

I started playing Rage 2 for the first time in Ultra Nightmare. Some warned against it, but I was tired of others stating Rage 2 was too easy in any difficulty under that.

It is brutal in the beginning. I tried getting through the space center with just my rifle and handgun, and that was just a big fat no. I finally got the shotgun, and tried that level again. I made it to that area’s end fight with minimal upgrades. And I still couldn’t beat it. I had to reload an early save point and upgrade my cartridge capacity to be able to get the job done!

People whine about bullet sponges. Me? I LOVE it. It makes you think about ammo and being stocked up on bullets all the time to get the job done. Using the BFG always brings a giggle, though.

I grinded and grinded to get myself upgraded to weapon damage lvl10. Those mechs that I could barely put a dent in can finally come down with a few rockets. I am 60+ hours in and finally have the tank. The lvl 6 and under dens all feel so easy. Don’t even get me started about rolling up to a den in the tank.

The absolute insane moments are those mutant spore areas. Those things jump at you from everywhere! You find yourself using every ability and weapon imaginable.

I will never understand why people want to finish a game so fast in a lower tier difficulty then whine about the game being too short. People don’t even appreciate the visuals. With the overgrown town I am sure to get around 100 hours.

I am very happy I started in Ultra Nightmare. It gave me the frustration and playability that I expected. I am very looking forward to those lvl10 areas and that overgrown city.

[proci85]

Technically hard was okay for the first time, at least usually. Most of the game was completely reasonable for an FPS veteran, and then there were some completely crazy difficulty spikes like the crusher which was immune to everything besides rockets and the Borderlands raid-boss inspired sandworm.

Ultra nightmare is practically the first fps ever where the player dies more easily than a regular enemy. Enemies are bullet sponges, while the player can re-live Far Cry 2 infamous mode, i.e. a single shotgun equipped enemy is a deadly threat.

The problem is that Rage2 is designed to be a hectic fast-paced shooter with regeneration in mind, while ultra nightmare forces the player to stay behind cover as the player will die instantly out in the open. The game is not built with stealth in mind and lacks the mechanics for it.

I still have the opinion that if you want a Mad Max / Just Cause 3 like experience, stay away from anything which is over hard.

[wsglad]

I met several bottle neck instances on such difficulty. And I could not beat necro add-on campaign.

[YoungerDryas]

I think it's funny not even 1% of Steam players have beat the game on either nightmare or ultra. With all the complaining I see about the game being "too easy" I'd think at least 1% of players would have actually beat the game on one of the higher difficulties.

[Flybye]

Originally posted by proci85:

...
The problem is that Rage2 is designed to be a hectic fast-paced shooter with regeneration in mind, while ultra nightmare forces the player to stay behind cover as the player will die instantly out in the open. The game is not built with stealth in mind and lacks the mechanics for it.

And I’m actually happy it doesn’t. I’ve had to do a lot of headshots from far away. I can see why the game doesn’t have a sniper rifle. The regular rifle does perfectly well.

[Mister Torgue Flexington]

Originally posted by Flybye:

Originally posted by proci85:

...
The problem is that Rage2 is designed to be a hectic fast-paced shooter with regeneration in mind, while ultra nightmare forces the player to stay behind cover as the player will die instantly out in the open. The game is not built with stealth in mind and lacks the mechanics for it.

And I’m actually happy it doesn’t. I’ve had to do a lot of headshots from far away. I can see why the game doesn’t have a sniper rifle. The regular rifle does perfectly well.

wrong!!!!

the Hyper Cannon you get from the Greenhaven Ark (not too far from Dreadwood) is pretty much a Railgun (aka "your sniping weapon")

[Flybye]

Originally posted by Mister Torgue Flexington:

wrong!!!!

the Hyper Cannon you get from the Greenhaven Ark (not too far from Dreadwood) is pretty much a Railgun (aka "your sniping weapon")

I actually JUST got it last night. Let me play around with it some before changing my mind. :)

[proci85]

Originally posted by YoungerDryas:

I think it's funny not even 1% of Steam players have beat the game on either nightmare or ultra. With all the complaining I see about the game being "too easy" I'd think at least 1% of players would have actually beat the game on one of the higher difficulties.

after playing on hard the first time because I didn't realized that hard was the highest difficulty at release, I would say a player with fully upgraded health / weapon should be completely ok on ultra-nightmare on NG+, as hard would be considered easy. I remember skipping the Nut lvl3 trasher until after project dagger and I melted it within 3 seconds with a fully upgraded plasma cannon with 7 os 8 weapon upgrades. I remember fighting the first story related cyber trasher on hard for 20 minutes straight (it was 1shotting me so I needed to be really careful). and killing the last story related one within seconds, after I realized I can upgrade my weapons and my damage.

hard with upgrades was tough at the beginning, I could for example not progress on any of the arena trashers (including the story one). In the open I was fine, as the AI isn't really smart and cannot really handle quick changes between guerilla / flank tactics, also the AI is just plain bad on coordinated flanks.

now, theoretically ultra-nightmare on a first playthrough is possible, but it requires knowing where easy to get stuff is as you cannot progress with the story (because of the two trashers and the mutant infestation) and you cannot progress with projects. what you can do is ramp up your damage, constitution and health, then do Kvasirs story mission, then eventually you are probably good to go.

ironman mode on easy is a walk in the park compared to the amount of planning needed for ultra-nightmare on normal game mode.

---

the rifle is relatively accurate, but hitting things from a distance is still problematic for long distances. and enemies do have helmets. again, doable, but tedious.

[proci85]

Originally posted by Flybye:

Originally posted by Mister Torgue Flexington:

wrong!!!!

the Hyper Cannon you get from the Greenhaven Ark (not too far from Dreadwood) is pretty much a Railgun (aka "your sniping weapon")

I actually JUST got it last night. Let me play around with it some before changing my mind. :)

without upgrades, it is practically useless as it is lacking damage, unless you want to snipe low level authority sentries from the edge of their detection area.

that means you managed to clear the level10 arc, congrats!

[Flybye]

Originally posted by proci85:

...the rifle is relatively accurate, but hitting things from a distance is still problematic for long distances. and enemies do have helmets. again, doable, but tedious.

If you are steady enough, and they don’t move, I’ve double tapped the mouse button and got it done. You see the helmet flying off and then that wonderful squishy bone crushing sound. It is not often, though.

[Flybye]

Originally posted by proci85:

Originally posted by Flybye:

I actually JUST got it last night. Let me play around with it some before changing my mind. :)

without upgrades, it is practically useless as it is lacking damage, unless you want to snipe low level authority sentries from the edge of their detection area.

that means you managed to clear the level10 arc, congrats!

Thanks! I might actuelly attack Authority HQ tonight. I have full health and damage, and this level 10 arc didn’t even feel that bad. Fine I’ll admit I used 1 BFG core after the crusher’s helmet flew off. :D

Only thing that worries me is I don’t have any weapons binded. Yep I am still scrolling. I have most abilities binded around my mouse buttons, though.

[proci85]

make sure to get the charged pulse cannon before you set course to operation dagger. it should be fully upgraded and make sure to get familiar with its mechanics. it is by far the best weapon to melt down crushers.

weapons are automatically binded, 2 is assault rifle, 3 is shotgun, 4 is the rocket launcher...

[YoungerDryas]

Originally posted by proci85:

Originally posted by YoungerDryas:

I think it's funny not even 1% of Steam players have beat the game on either nightmare or ultra. With all the complaining I see about the game being "too easy" I'd think at least 1% of players would have actually beat the game on one of the higher difficulties.

after playing on hard the first time because I didn't realized that hard was the highest difficulty at release, I would say a player with fully upgraded health / weapon should be completely ok on ultra-nightmare on NG+, as hard would be considered easy. I remember skipping the Nut lvl3 trasher until after project dagger and I melted it within 3 seconds with a fully upgraded plasma cannon with 7 os 8 weapon upgrades. I remember fighting the first story related cyber trasher on hard for 20 minutes straight (it was 1shotting me so I needed to be really careful). and killing the last story related one within seconds, after I realized I can upgrade my weapons and my damage.

Lmao, that same crusher was tearing me up too. I also forgot to not only upgrade my abilities, but I also forgot about crafting (I started playing again after a few month hiatus). I swear 40 of my deaths are from that fight, lul.

[Flybye]

I beat project dagger last night...unimpressed. It was...borderline easy. I mean once you have all abilities, guns, and have life/weapon damaged stacked up, nothing feels too difficult. I don't think they accounted for that lol. Ultra Nightmare went from OMG this game is impossible to yes I can finally pass a lvl5 to a walk in the park. With how the lvl10 Arc was, I was hoping for a nonstop bombardment of baddies that would make me want to throw my keyboard across the house. But nope. At least that is how I would have designed it. If you pic Ultra Nightmare, I will make you suffer on the last mission.

I have 87 hours on the game, and I have greatly enjoyed it. But even the ghosts fell meh. I see them doing their little teleport thing, and I'm like "Oh yeah? I can do it, too, you little wench!"

[proci85]

Originally posted by Flybye:

I beat project dagger last night...unimpressed. It was...borderline easy. I mean once you have all abilities, guns, and have life/weapon damaged stacked up, nothing feels too difficult. I don't think they accounted for that lol. Ultra Nightmare went from OMG this game is impossible to yes I can finally pass a lvl5 to a walk in the park. With how the lvl10 Arc was, I was hoping for a nonstop bombardment of baddies that would make me want to throw my keyboard across the house. But nope. At least that is how I would have designed it. If you pic Ultra Nightmare, I will make you suffer on the last mission.

I have 87 hours on the game, and I have greatly enjoyed it. But even the ghosts fell meh. I see them doing their little teleport thing, and I'm like "Oh yeah? I can do it, too, you little wench!"

I think ultra-nightmare was meant for NG+. I did my first playhtrough on hard (expecting that to be a nice middle-of-the-road), then I did a quick ironman-easy run, then I started with ultra-nightmare.

----

The trick is on ultra-nightmare is how to start. You don't have defibrillator until midgame because that arch is impossible without proper gear. Enemies will have armour, so in general, you cannot clear any shrouded place until midgame as it will be crowded with enemies taking 4-5 point-blank shotgun shots and they will one shot you. You cannot progress with the projects, as that requires either to clear a den of muties (which will onehit kill you), or clear a muties + crusher den (impossible), or to fight through a medium sized base and fight a cyber crusher in the open. That means, midgame.

What is doable is to scavange all easy places, upgrade your assault rifle (armor piercing should be the first upgrade), then constitution (with upgrades), then work on your weapon damage at the doc. Get and upgrade the rocket launcher, grab the health and overdrive upgrades. Visit the cities. Visit the two Monster TV places, they have boxes with coins which are enough to upgrade your weapons with the necessarry basics. With a lvl5 pistol (with AP), assault rifle (with AP), rocket launcher (with quick lock-on), maxed out constitution and 4 points into weapon damage% at the doctor, Kvasirs mission at the Eden center is doable. From that, upgrade focus with all finding stuff, you should have enough points. Around weapon damage upgrade 6, the two story related mutant dens are doable, and at this point, you should be able to get the defib. After that, aroung weapon upgrade 8-10 all arcs are doable. Get the charged pulse cannon (have rockets as shrouded enemies are bullet sponges!) and then grab the hyper cannon. I got the firestrom afterwards, that one is useful when you are out of rockets and still want to kill mechs.

At maxed constitution, damage and with all weapons available (well, besides the grav-dart), the difficulty level is similar to hard at the first third of the game. I didn't needed the BFG.

Oh and one thing: Authority sentries are like stationary cyber crushers in the open in ultra-violence when it comes to difficulty. Even level3 ones are practically near-impossible until the endgame.

[Flybye]

I’ve gotten too used to popping the sentries with 2 BFG rounds and a few extra hits only because I find them annoying to deal with.

But I feel like I will run out of $ soon. Dens don’t reset so no excesses of money crates. Or do the dens eventually reset to do them again?