Medium vs Challenging difficulty jump way to much?

[Woeful Wraith]

So been getting the feel for the game again playing solo on medium. Medium is super easy so I though I'd bump up to challenging and the difficulty spike is insane. It's almost impossible to solo now. So it's either be bored to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tears or spend a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hour getting my ass repeated kicked with nothing to show for it.

This makes the game a waste of my time. And don't say play in a group. Tried that and I'm ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tired of getting yelled at to collect more ♥♥♥♥. A ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bunch of bullish ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[Dakota]

What's the part that's getting you killed more on challenging compared to medium?

[zidj]

The current difficulty design has a series of spikes, you can think of them as "tiers":

Tier 1:
Diff 1, Diff 2, Diff 3

Tier 2:
Diff 4, Diff 5

Tier 3:
Diff 6, Diff 7

Tier 4:
Diff 8, Diff 9, Diff 10

[CadiMossy]

Skill issue.

[Midas]

There is a lot of variation to difficulty. Some constellations will be harder than others depending on your loadout, irrespective of difficulty. Also different map layouts can be harder than others. You might have had an unlucky string of especially bad combinations of factors beyond just the difficulty.

Though, at difficulty 4 (challenging), I think that's when proper heavies start showing up, so if you aren't used to fighting those, you might need to change your strategy and load-out to accommodate it.

[Woeful Wraith]

Originally posted by zidj ⛑️💉:

The current difficulty design has a series of spikes, you can think of them as "tiers":

Tier 1:
Diff 1, Diff 2, Diff 3

Tier 2:
Diff 4, Diff 5

Tier 3:
Diff 6, Diff 7

Tier 4:
Diff 8, Diff 9, Diff 10

That's irrelevant if the next step up from "do it with my eyes closed" is "get instantly trounced by two dozen enemies that can one shot you".

Originally posted by CadiMossy:

Skill issue.

Perhaps, but medium sure as hell doesn't give you the slightest preparation for anything in challenging. Christ there's 10 times the number of enemies and they're 3 times harder to kill, with so many more boss enemies or whatever they're called. Christ I hit one with a tank weapon 5 times and it didn't even seem damaged. Throw two dozen more enemies that never run dry because they keep calling in more drops.

It's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ spike between the two.

[Woeful Wraith]

Originally posted by Midas:

There is a lot of variation to difficulty. Some constellations will be harder than others depending on your loadout, irrespective of difficulty. Also different map layouts can be harder than others. You might have had an unlucky string of especially bad combinations of factors beyond just the difficulty.

Though, at difficulty 4 (challenging), I think that's when proper heavies start showing up, so if you aren't used to fighting those, you might need to change your strategy and load-out to accommodate it.

Yeah, well I heavy I had took three tank busters to the chest and didn't seemed fazed, and that was a ♥♥♥♥♥ to even get because there were like 2 dozen enemies flanking from almost ever side. my turrets get blown up instantly, orbital strikes barely dent.

If this is normal then ♥♥♥♥ this game.

[Midas]

Originally posted by Woeful Wraith:

Originally posted by Midas:

There is a lot of variation to difficulty. Some constellations will be harder than others depending on your loadout, irrespective of difficulty. Also different map layouts can be harder than others. You might have had an unlucky string of especially bad combinations of factors beyond just the difficulty.

Though, at difficulty 4 (challenging), I think that's when proper heavies start showing up, so if you aren't used to fighting those, you might need to change your strategy and load-out to accommodate it.

Yeah, well I heavy I had took three tank busters to the chest and didn't seemed fazed, and that was a ♥♥♥♥♥ to even get because there were like 2 dozen enemies flanking from almost ever side. my turrets get blown up instantly, orbital strikes barely dent.

If this is normal then ♥♥♥♥ this game.

Yes, this is fairly normal, but it's all stuff you learn how to deal with better. All enemies have weak spots, and all the bigger enemies can be one-shot with a hit to the appropriate area with the appropriate weapon.

Do you have the rocket sentry or autocannon sentry unlocked? You can use those to help you fight heavy armor while you learn how to fight them. So long as nothing gets in melee with them, they'll kill basically anything that comes into their line of fire until they run out of ammo.

Which enemy was it?

[PyroShark_]

Originally posted by Woeful Wraith:

If this is normal then ♥♥♥♥ this game.

I hate to say this but you might not be cut out to go higher. Level 10 missions will have 20 Heavy/Elite enemies at one time for the bugs. I literally cannot understand how you are feeling because I get so ungodly bored playing anything that isn't at least level 8 due to a lack of enemies to blow up. And I don't mean that in any rude way, just that I have not had the same experience and I probably can't give you any advice except try to aim for weakpoints, every enemy in the game has weakpoints. For example every heavy bug can be killed with a single shot from multiple anti tank weapons, even Bile Titans.

[Woeful Wraith]

Originally posted by Midas:

Which enemy was it?

I think it was called a devastator. though I found out one thermite grenade will take it out. Maybe I missed with the anti tank missiles? Hard to tell with so many enemies. Pretty much the entire screen is a big red blur.

[Cryptic]

there is a noticeable jump from 5 to 6 when you're stuck at that hurdle, but just stay with it. you'll get better. personally i find difficulty 9 to be my fav. it has a good mix of unit types. i can solo diff 10 on any front but i think the heavy population is a bit overwhelming at times. 9 is where it's at.

though i will say, squid level 10 is a walk in the park. like literally so easy. hoping they get more units soon to spice it up

[Tacticowl]

Originally posted by Woeful Wraith:

It's almost impossible to solo now.

There's your issue.

[Midas]

Originally posted by Woeful Wraith:

Originally posted by Midas:

Which enemy was it?

I think it was called a devastator.

You'll want a medium-penetration weapon for that. I don't know what warbonds you have unlocked, so I don't know what primary weapon I can recommend to you, but lots of the support weapons would kill devastators very quickly, like the Auto cannon, Grenade Launcher, Machinegun, or laser cannon. I would highly recommend the auto cannon if you have it since every hit will stagger and interrupt devastators, preventing t hem from fighting back.

[Woeful Wraith]

Originally posted by Cryptic:

there is a noticeable jump from 5 to 6 when you're stuck at that hurdle, but just stay with it. you'll get better. personally i find difficulty 9 to be my fav. it has a good mix of unit types. i can solo diff 10 on any front but i think the heavy population is a bit overwhelming at times. 9 is where it's at.

though i will say, squid level 10 is a walk in the park. like literally so easy. hoping they get more units soon to spice it up

Do the difficulty spike with more players? Like solo is 5 and a group of 4 is 5.75 or something?

[Woeful Wraith]

Originally posted by Midas:

Originally posted by Woeful Wraith:

I think it was called a devastator.

You'll want a medium-penetration weapon for that. I don't know what warbonds you have unlocked, so I don't know what primary weapon I can recommend to you, but lots of the support weapons would kill devastators very quickly, like the Auto cannon, Grenade Launcher, Machinegun, or laser cannon. I would highly recommend the auto cannon if you have it since every hit will stagger and interrupt devastators, preventing t hem from fighting back.

It was actually a hulk. It was immune to my thermite, I dropped a 120 orbital and it didn't faze it.

I do have some tank busting stuff, that i'll try, but leveling is so slow and it takes like 7 missions to get the money to buy stuff, that like 3 hours and barely gets you a level.

[zidj]

Originally posted by Woeful Wraith:

That's irrelevant if the next step up from "do it with my eyes closed" is "get instantly trounced by two dozen enemies that can one shot you".

You'll overcome it with time and build experimentation. Diff 6 was my great filter for a while