Why am I so bad at combat?

[Hemmingjay]

I have 30 years of gaming experience and have done well in all sorts of games. I cannot understand why I cannot seem to shoot a centipede in the first missions. I can kill spiderlings ok, but the centipedes DESTROY me every time. I can't even hit them. What can I do to overcome this? I can't see a way around dealing with them.

[Nighteyes]

Their hitbox is not at the head if I remember correctly, so try not moving your cursor with them as they move towards you, this should help you identify the hit zone.
Buying a SMG makes this easier if you can afford it and is not using one...
Now just keep letting them rush at you till you are confident about where to hit and you can switch to your weapon of choice and killing them with abandon <3

[Hemmingjay]

Thank you! The submachine gun is VERY helpful here. It is a huge grind if you don't start with one, but it is worth it.

[Reignhardt]

I had moderate success with the first shotgun as well

[Neyreyan_Youtube]

Depending on your starting character you get certain items, i got the small revolver and had the same problem but it's a mater of practice and you just need to upgrade the gear a bit and maybe chose other skills.
Right now the game is a bit unpolished regarding the first 4-5 hours so it can be hard. I still use a pistol on the small criters:D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Fupy5VXsA&index=6&list=PLq7wBqfieZx_1mdXZP43FMLluzYOAfUL1

[Reignhardt]

before i got the shotgun i would try really hard to just dodge their attack, then as they are fleeing shoot them, i got about 50% accuracy this way.

If its too close quartered like a hallway or cluttered room, i try to kite them outside.

[CrazyGoblin]

I'm at the end of the game and centipedes are still a massive pain. I'll occasionally put down sticks of dynamite if I'm suspecting a centipede nest, otherwise I just mash them with a shotgun.

I'm actually specced to use SMGs, but I've found the shotgun (even without muzzle attachment and -30% reload time) to be extremely useful when clearing houses, to the point that I prefer it over the SMG. I'm considering switching over altogether, but the SMG has been decent enough when fighting the bosses and reskills are limited, so I'unno.

[WITCHER]

Originally posted by Hemmingjay:

I have 30 years of gaming experience and have done well in all sorts of games. I cannot understand why I cannot seem to shoot a centipede in the first missions. I can kill spiderlings ok, but the centipedes DESTROY me every time. I can't even hit them. What can I do to overcome this? I can't see a way around dealing with them.

tell u what mate, most of the time those centipedes start to attack in packs. some of them will separate after couple of seconds yet most of them stay together. if they attack from a corps or from that bloody wall watch, they will be invulnerabile for 1-2 seconds after attack. so the best way to shoot them according to my experince is to use a powerful shotgun and keep your distance to let them pass that 1-2 seconds invulnerbility. then start to kill the biggest pack first and then the rest of them. the big first pack of them can be easily killed by 1 shotgun shell. another trick for this is to run back and pass a door so when they want to attack u then they need to pass the same door frame and u have the best small spot to shoot them without missing cause they wont have too much space to make a zig-zag movement in that small frame.

[johberion]

@Witcher
That's a pretty good idea. Those centipedes are right bastards.

[CrazyGoblin]

Also worth mentioning that the most powerful shotgun deals 12 damage per pellet, meaning that a single pellet will kill a full-health centipede. Can take out a fair whack o' the drongos in one shot. Also works great on spiderlings.

[Hemmingjay]

Awesome advice everyone. These tips have helped me to survive long enough to start hunting. Cheers!

[chai]

@Hemmingjay: Nice! just for our reference in improving the game, which class did you pick? and is the performance smooth or you're getting low fps?

[Lucius Kern]

I went for the Drifter, had no issue with the centerpeids. I only died on the Shadow Beasts that I think you are suppose to die on, and the first time i encounter ghouls, because holy crap they are fast. But that aside once i got used to their patterns it got a lot easier. Getting medical items like bandages/medkit/parameid backpack and so on definatly makes it easier, if you surive a fight without using stims then heal up before continuing, since stims lowers max hp for the rest of the job, those expensive stimpacks are thus not nessecarily better, because lets face it -60 max hp with the tier 3 stims is not something you want to fight a ghoul, giant spider or god forbid an actual spirit.

Overall the combat was great, perhaps a bit unforgiving on the aim so i can see why the original posters struggled with the blood crawlers, but once you get used to it, it becomes easier, aim for the bodies not the head.

[CrazyGoblin]

I still haven't gotten the shadow beast dodge timing down, and mother spiders are a cinch to me nowadays (I'm far more concerned about the bajillion butt-babies she farts out after death). I mostly just tank the hits whether I want to or not, and fill their shadowy bodies full of lead before they get the chance at too many more passes.

Ghouls are also fine enough, although with two or more at a time you run into the issue where dodging one will leave you helpless to the attacks of the other, since you can't cancel the dodge animation and therefore are out of I-frames and can't dodge the second one's attack. But once you manage to hit them they don't take too much punishment before ragdolling.

Centipedes continue to irritate me and get in far more hits than they really have any business getting. Spiderlings used to be an issue, but then I found out about how the shotgun can take out 4-5 in a single blast, and that the boot knife does enough damage to kill any that you successfully dodge.


In closing: screw ghasts.

[Hemmingjay]

I have used all of the classes and have similar results. Performance of the game is phenominal for me, but I am running up to date hardware so I am unsure if this helps. I am absolutely NOT experiencing any lag at any point. Well done!

i7 4790k 4.5Ghz
16GB RAM
GTX 1080Ti
Win 10
SSD

[chai]

@Hemmingjay: sweet, thanks for the info mate!