Way too hard

[Cirative]

I'm a veteran of turn-based games, but wow, even on the easiest difficulty I cannot beat the first mission (after the tutorial). After about five tries, I turned the difficulty down to Young Blood and was able to get to the extraction point... and then got obliterated when I had to stand my ground waiting for the Thunderhawk.

How am I supposed to beat this?!

[Yaz]

Here go my tips. Most of them apply not only as you're beginning the game but also as you improve your deck and advance in story.

1. Most players play on easiest difficulty as it's hard already and provides a nice challenge.

2. Level up first and foremost ONLY one armor, i would advise Terminator, as it scales awesome for midgame, endgame and challenge.

3. Focus on levelling 2 companions, not all at same time. I'd go for Kai and Ray, simply coz they re the best for challenge, which you need to do hundreds of times if you want those 3 lv6 Swords of Russ and 3 lv6 Mjalnars, even though they might not be the absolute best for campaign.

4. One of my primary mistakes when i started was playing power armor and loading the deck with 10+ effort weapons, meaning i would get 20+ effort per turn, which is bad. I barely used utility.

5. So use 10 to 15 weapons, the best rarity and damage u can get with the lowest effort possible.
The rest of the deck is about utility (teleports, shields, -effort, wolves, stuns, blazes, assaults, ambushes, heals, sprints, or even runs etc). Because you never want to move using a 10 effort card. Thats ridiculous.

6. The goal (as terminator) is to have 10 to 15 weapons that cost 7 or less ( a couple of exceptions), and all the utility which, besides the wolves, is pretty cheap, around 5 effort or less.

7. For campaign, 90% of the maps dont have infinite respawns, or timers (some secondary objectives might though, but you can go back to do them when you're stronger with a better deck), so advance slowly, pulling one group at a time, killing everything, then healing, equipping weapons, re arranging deck, and waiting for everybody's effort to come down and only then advancing to aggro next group.


And the most important tip of them all, you need to UNDERSTAND THE EFFORT SYSTEM, and know when to make only one action and pass or use both actions.

As in, if you first action still has you with lower effort than an enemy is better to pass than doing a second action as you'll have a turn AGAIN before the enemy, giving you 2 more attacks before him.

Also, if you pass without taking actions, it adds 4 effort, if you take one action only, you get the effort of that action only, if you discard 2 cards to cycle through deck, it adds 6 effort and if you take 2 actions, you get the added effort of those actions.
It's up to you to decide what's best.

Most of the game is about managing effort, and as your cards get better and your deck becomes better, it gets easier to do and the results are more visible, than with a starter deck as it is really untrimmed and very unefficient.

[Cirative]

So, leveling up my armor... how do I do that? It says I'm still level 1, and I don't have the Terminator or Scout armors unlocked yet. My deck is mostly epics and legendaries now, after opening 12 packs (plus the DLC) and forging a few cards.

[Wicked Sick]

Originally posted by Cirative:

I'm a veteran of turn-based games, but wow, even on the easiest difficulty I cannot beat the first mission (after the tutorial). After about five tries, I turned the difficulty down to Young Blood and was able to get to the extraction point... and then got obliterated when I had to stand my ground waiting for the Thunderhawk.

How am I supposed to beat this?!

In short. If you are both veteran of turn-based games and you can't beat the first mission, there are only two options. I'll skip the first one in the name of respect, so there is only the second one left: you misunderstood some basic element of this game, e. g. the effort system or that you can move with use/equip cards as well. Try the tutorial mission again and don't skip the hints. If it won't help, I suppose the politely skipped answer was the right one.

Personal challenge: If you show me a video how NOT to complete the very first mission on the easiest difficulty, I'll point out to your mistakes directly. Or you can just try to find them amongst Yaz's hints.

[Wicked Sick]

Originally posted by Cirative:

So, leveling up my armor... how do I do that? It says I'm still level 1, and I don't have the Terminator or Scout armors unlocked yet.

You can't. Yet. It's your first mission. He forgot.

Originally posted by Cirative:

My deck is mostly epics and legendaries now, after opening 12 packs (plus the DLC) and forging a few cards.

Ahaha, alright. I got it now. You're just kidding. Your deck is mostly E/L, you are a veteran of turn-based games and you can't beat the very first mission on the easiest difficulty... Good job, you got me.

[Cirative]

Are you always this helpful with people? Please don't ever become a life coach. If you can't add any actual tips or advice to the discussion, don't bother posting. Your snarky sarcasm isn't going to magically boost a player's understanding of the game.

[Wicked Sick]

I offered you to point out to your mistakes directly, Mr. veteran sir. I don't see any sense on writing hundreds of tips and hints in the situation you're clearly doing some elementary thing terribly wrong, probably some I'd never expect by a veteran player. I honestly can't imagine how to NOT complete the very first mission on the easiest difficulty with a deck many times more powerful than it's needed and by a veteran of the turn-based games. So the only way to help you is to show you DIRECTLY the problem. Which I don't know, till I see your gameplay.

It's like "I'm an IT expert and my computer is not working, pls help." with no additional info. There are thousands of possible reasons. Including such as "Your computer is not in electricity." or even "It's not a computer, but a washing machine."

Also I was 100% serious with the advice to repeat the tutorial and pay attention to the game hints.

[Wicked Sick]

Just to be sure, I've just made a deck consisting of common cards only (!) and finished the first mission with 160 HP lost. Easy as pie. Not a single perk used. Just as a new player. So I'm really sorry, but you're a veteran of turn-based games as my 90 y.o. grandma is.

You missed some elementary thing and I have no idea what it is. I do wonder how is it even possible to lost the first mission after my last experiment. Back to my theory, you're just trying to fool us. Case closed for me.

EDIT: Just finished on veteran difficulty with the same deck.

[Vargas78]

Maybe watch some playthroughs on youtube, see what theyr'e doing that you are not.

[LordLancelot]

Originally posted by Wicked Sick:

It's like "I'm an IT expert and my computer is not working, pls help." with no additional info. There are thousands of possible reasons. Including such as "Your computer is not in electricity." or even "It's not a computer, but a washing machine."

That some real funny s-h-i-t !
:)
I work in IT tech support, I will try to use it monday make sure it is not a washing machine !

[LordLancelot]

Yaz has very good tips follow this tips but i would level 2 squad member before raising your terminator hero armor. Early on squad member offer the best bang for the rune invested.

Some game play video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mAUbRlQ-MU&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQfxk2gT0gU&t=96s

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwr-x61kVSM5UMSUdWofIfg?view_as=subscriber

[Bilateralrope]

Originally posted by Yaz:

5. So use 10 to 15 weapons, the best rarity and damage u can get with the lowest effort possible.
The rest of the deck is about utility (teleports, shields, -effort, wolves, stuns, blazes, assaults, ambushes, heals, sprints, or even runs etc). Because you never want to move using a 10 effort card. Thats ridiculous.

6. The goal (as terminator) is to have 10 to 15 weapons that cost 7 or less ( a couple of exceptions), and all the utility which, besides the wolves, is pretty cheap, around 5 effort or less.

Do you suggest aiming for these all to be one use weapons, or do you include an equip weapon or two into the deck ?

Are melee weapons worth using ?
So far I'm noticing the same problem with melee weapons as I've seen in other strategy games. Sure, they hit harder. But it usually takes an extra action to get into melee range.

[Yaz]

Personally i use 12 weapons, 2 of them equips. The equips for challenge mode are Honored Hammer and Honored Spear. Then, the usual, 3 Mjalnars, 3 Swords of Russ, 2 Wolfborn Claws, 1 Axe of Morkai, the DLC legendary hammer (forgot name; usually serves as Honored hammer reload). All the rest is utility. 6 teleports, 1 aoe healing, 3 -5 effort, 3 stuns, 2 wolves, 1 honored shield, and 2 dragon"something" shields ( the rare one that costs 3 when maxed).
For campaign though, using a ranged equip weapon with overwatch might be an option too, or for advanced strategies to proc ambushes before enraging to bypass all the effort (usually strategy for bosses).

The idea is to use low effort cost teleport to get in position and PASS coz you'll probably get another turn before enemies, and then you get 2 actions upclose.

Or, use the -effort cost and other low cost cards to move like stuns or the dragon"something" shields. Also, remember that the teleports are 4 or 5 tiles movement cards as oposed to normal cards which are 3 tile only move cards. That gives you huge mobility and positioning for very low effort.

Also, use wolves, as they seem to have taunt status, and use them as sponges for the first contact damage, putting enemies with ~15effort, then you move in for lets say 5 effort, PASS, attack one for say 7 effort, PASS, coz you ll play again before enemies, and only on next turn you ll attack twice, because there's no way, unless you have -effort cards, to have another turn before enemies.

Obviously, honored weapons also help a LOT, coz along with the talent, gives you 15 rage per attack, which means you get loads of Rages, which gives you extra turn.

As in, if you enter rage mode when your turn ends even if its after an ambush, meaning after 4 actions and you have 40 effort, you act immediatly after again. A new turn with 2 actions.


So, there's a lot of stuff you can work with to keep your turns coming faster than the enemies'.

[LordLancelot]

Originally posted by Bilateralrope:

1)Are melee weapons worth using ?

2)So far I'm noticing the same problem with melee weapons as I've seen in other strategy games. Sure, they hit harder. But it usually takes an extra action to get into melee range.

1) For Terminator yes, non rage melee legendary will be around 1000 damage.

2) Ranged also need an action to position themself before shooting. And non Terminator will need action to get away from Melee Terminator.

[Wicked Sick]

Originally posted by Yaz:

Personally i use 12 weapons, 2 of them equips. The equips for challenge mode are Honored Hammer and Honored Spear. Then, the usual, 3 Mjalnars, 3 Swords of Russ, 2 Wolfborn Claws, 1 Axe of Morkai, the DLC legendary hammer (forgot name; usually serves as Honored hammer reload). All the rest is utility. 6 teleports, 1 aoe healing, 3 -5 effort, 3 stuns, 2 wolves, 1 honored shield, and 2 dragon"something" shields ( the rare one that costs 3 when maxed).

I abandoned the White Wolf's Fury for good. I rather pay 1 extra effort to reload the Honored hammer and have a hammer with decent accuracy than 6 effort reload only (the side effect has no use when you OHKO the enemy). On the other hand, 2 Axes of Morkai works that way (ammo or rage attack). Wolves are not any good for terminator, blocking your hand till the end of the turn (together with the healing already).

Originally posted by Yaz:

That gives you huge mobility and positioning for very low effort.

Still the worst mobility of all armor classes.

Originally posted by Yaz:

Also, use wolves, as they seem to have taunt status (...)

They don't. AI just aim the lowest HP (unarmored) character.

Originally posted by Yaz:

(...) because there's no way, unless you have -effort cards, to have another turn before enemies.

Isn't there? ;)

• Stun them before (2× +7)
  
• Wolf Howl (+6)
  
• Einar's bolter (2× +4)
  
• Yngvar's shotgun (2× +2)
  
• ...
  
• And of course the rage you mentioned

[Yaz]

1. I use wolves for challenge for the last hit of the last enemy as it allows me to pre set the next wave on the best position with Kai and Ray and Valgard.

As the wolf tanks/kills last one, companions are already in position, cycling deck for a grenades/blaze/missiles/ambush (not all of them, just 1 or 2), pre setting next, instead of moving to kill last one.

This way, 90% of each wave dies before they move, if not all of them (till like wave 6 or 7)

Wolf gives me the time to cycle deck and prepare. This allowed me to trim around 5 to 10m on challenge total time, in opposition when i didnt do it and used Valgard to kill last one, or whoever companion was on that spawn point.

Just because, then, on next wave, that companion's spawn point wouldnt have grenades or ambush in hand, nor would he be on that sweet spot where flamer/missile launcher hits all spawning tiles, making that next wave take 500% more time.

2. About the effort scenario you presented there, yes, but obviously, there was no need to go to more advanced, complex scenarios to explain a basic mechanic. It would confuse him instead of enlighten him.

3. Agree on all other points, just a quick mention to White's Wolf Fury,as it has a true cost of 3 effort, if it doesnt kill or misses as it adds 3 effort to that target. If it kills the target, then great. Reload for 6 is fine. I mean, i agree with you, its just i didnt find a real good replacement yet.

PS: If the challenge layout doesnt have that sweet spot (some dont, have pillars), that tile without obstructions, i restart the challenge as it makes it way way faster, because companions never ever move, and hit all spawning tiles with their equip weapons.