Why do I die in 2-3 hits?

[Jeshrack]

So I've been playing this game on and off for years. I'm on 1 BC, and while I'm far from an expert at the game, I've played it enough to get the general gist.

But why do the monsters do so much damage? Not only that, they attack very fast.

Typically I'll be doing fine, totally hitless for the first few stages, then one mob will hit me twice in rapid succession, or one will hit me into another monster, and that will be the end of the run.

It's almost to the point that having a health bar is totally pointless. May as well just have two little heart-pips up there because 2 hits is pretty much all it takes.

And its not even the big beefy mobs. Even the little exploding bats take off 90% of my health bar.

I like so much about this game, but the design around "never get hit" is very frustrating.

I just want some kind of adjustable difficulty that reduces monster damage by some amount.

There have been attempts to add accessibility to the game over the years, but never something a simple as means to avoid dying in the blink of an eye.

Any suggestions on how to mitigate damage? I always take a shield, but even that doesn't seem to help much.

[Tryyton]

dodge...
i only have shields in backback, basically never use them normally, just through the backpack mutations.
besides that, it really depends on when you last played the game. it changed a lot, but you can now play any version you like and i think this dlc might work with older versions too, but i might be wrong.

you could look into the accessibility options, in case you don't know about those yet. let's you activate continues and such. good luck. yes, you still get achievements when you use them.

[Dizz]

When you hit BC1 the difficulty goes through the roof. Feels like it would be new game+4 or +5 in comparison to other games I've played.


It's actually so bad it made me drop the game entirely, since there weren't any builds to really accommodate around it, it's just dodge or get 2 shot. This actually led to me changing my glowing positive review to negative, since there isn't a "mixed" review option which is what I would prefer to set it as.

I love challenging games (played and beat basically all the dark souls titles, and even enjoy Super Ghouls and Ghosts), but the devs dropped the ball with difficulty scaling on this one sadly. YMMV.

[Minty❓]

You can use assist mode to drastically lower damage taken. Personally, I prefer the "don't get hit" design vs. games where you are expected to take some poke damage.

[Tryyton]

well, the more BC the better you need to be. took me a long time from 2 to 3, but i also play a tactic glass cannon, which is basically the hardest way to play the game. if you struggle tryy survival.

but i adapt since the prototype already, so i played as many different games as there are updates. that is hardcore tbh. play update 5 or so and you'll see.

yes, dead cells can be hard, but still mostly fair. there are so many ways to play it. tryy to stick to one stat mostly and you'll get there. i might never reach 5 BC, but i don't care. it is still fun and my most played game.

negative review because of your skill is not fine imho. yes, it gets harder, but that is kinda the point. i mean, you also do more damage. no idea when you last played, but you might want to give it another shot.

Originally posted by Minty❓:

You can use assist mode to drastically lower damage taken. Personally, I prefer the "don't get hit" design vs. games where you are expected to take some poke damage.

that is also a good point. you can use continues and such now!

[injected11]

Originally posted by Jeshrack:

And its not even the big beefy mobs. Even the little exploding bats take off 90% of my health bar.

The bats give loads of time to kill them, and they die in one hit from any weapon. The whole point of them is to punish carelessness.

[Steel]

It's either git gud and avoid getting hit or use assist mode, which is exactly what you said you want (adjustable enemy damage etc), pretty sure that's an option.

[St0rmFury]

I abused (if you could call it that) save slots to get better at bosses.

This was before there's a boss rush mode.

[Jeshrack]

Thanks for the suggestions here. I didn't realize the assist mode would let you adjust monster damage.

That helps a lot.

I set it to 50% thinking that would make a difference, then I got to Death for the first time and he literally killed me in 1 move. He threw that whirling staff at me. It then hit me, took half my health, knocked me back, then took the other half.

It was about 1 second.

I cannot imagine how that got past even the most basic play-testing.

I would say I'm not mad, just disappointed, but no, I'm mad.

Killing me in 1 second before I even see the what the boss can do is stating pretty plainly that I'm not supposed to learn the boss' patterns. I'm supposed to have watched in-depth playthroughs of the game and come into the fight with the entire encounter pre-memorized.

No discovery. Just pre-spoil all the content or waste your time dying instantly.

This is mostly a vent post, so don't mind me too much.

[The Grand Mugwump]

Really depends on what build I'm using. If I'm going survival, then I can take a lot more hits. There are also more mutations you can get which help with survivability. I've found vengeance can be a life saver when learning the ropes, which is probably why it's one of the first ones unlocked.

It also depends on the monster. The bigger and more telegraphed the attack is, the harder it hits typically. And not all monsters are born equal. Some hit like trucks while others seemingly exist to be speed bumps.

I stopped playing Dead Cells for around five years and got back into it recently. I felt the game was much easier than what it used to be. But then again, past me is a stupid idiot.

Edit: It's also possible you're not finding all of the scrolls on each level. That is the most important thing to do. Otherwise your damage and health will be terrible.

[Marfolog]

Are we actually talking of the same game? While 1BC is a spike in difficulty it's so far from being unforgiving, hell even on 5BC I rarely had instances of dying that fast (unless I'm playing tactics). All that aside the game also gives you various tools to prevent yourself from getting comboed to death (disengagement, Y.O.L.O.) and it also has a hidden built-in mechanic that prevents you from getting oneshotted from high health.

[Revolution]

Its the reason I dropped the game after the first dlc. The amount of time you spend per run is just not ok with how quickly that run can die.

[Tryyton]

Originally posted by Jeshrack:

Thanks for the suggestions here. I didn't realize the assist mode would let you adjust monster damage.

That helps a lot.

I set it to 50% thinking that would make a difference, then I got to Death for the first time and he literally killed me in 1 move. He threw that whirling staff at me. It then hit me, took half my health, knocked me back, then took the other half.

It was about 1 second.

I cannot imagine how that got past even the most basic play-testing.

I would say I'm not mad, just disappointed, but no, I'm mad.

Killing me in 1 second before I even see the what the boss can do is stating pretty plainly that I'm not supposed to learn the boss' patterns. I'm supposed to have watched in-depth playthroughs of the game and come into the fight with the entire encounter pre-memorized.

No discovery. Just pre-spoil all the content or waste your time dying instantly.

This is mostly a vent post, so don't mind me too much.

uhm... something doesn't add up here. he won't kill you in a second, he doesn't do that attack to start (when i remember right). either you have all your stats equal or a completely mixed stat loadout. with 50% lower dmg, there is NO way he can kill you in 1 sec. sorry, literally impossible.

no idea what you are talking about regarding the need for playthrough videos... are you new to dead cells? sure it might help, but for a regular DC player, you should live long enough to see his attacks. when i first saw him i lasted quite a long time. saw basically all his attacks. i didn't do that much damage to him but had a weird loadout. still managed to see his attacks.

there is a room where you can train to fight. not sure if those bosses are included yet, but it might be an idea for you. i killed death the 2nd time i saw him. 3rd time it took me less than a minute to take him down...

how many BC did you have against him? atm i play this DLC only on 1 BC to get used to it and get some drops. it definitely feels harder than other areas on 2 BC. so 3 BC will be interesting (3 is my max...).

[HoneyDrake]

Originally posted by Marfolog:

Are we actually talking of the same game? While 1BC is a spike in difficulty it's so far from being unforgiving, hell even on 5BC I rarely had instances of dying that fast (unless I'm playing tactics). All that aside the game also gives you various tools to prevent yourself from getting comboed to death (disengagement, Y.O.L.O.) and it also has a hidden built-in mechanic that prevents you from getting oneshotted from high health.

The reason 1BC is "way more" difficult are the new enemies encountered early on.
We are talking about normal/casual players which had tons of tries getting to a decent point and finally unlocking 1BC. They will be having a difficult time relearning their own boundaries with those new additional enemies.

[Tryyton]

yeah, that is also a very good point. you basically encounter some enemies 2 maps earlier. kinda... but yeah, good point.

from 1 bc to 2 bc was not that bad. from 2 to 3 was a pain in the butt though... i might be further already, but i keep playing tactics. maybe i should switch, but i just like the purple stuff so much.
got some new weapons from the dlc and they are not purple, so i might switch to use those better. the purple ones i got so far seem interesting though. slightly disappointed about the whip sword though, because it uses both slots, like the scythe.

[crossing blades]

the whip sword has a funny hidden tech, if you have "hold to attack" on, and hold the attack key while spamming transform, it makes you swing way faster in sword mode, and slightly faster in whip mode, this might still be doable without the "hold to attack" but I'm unsure