Leveling

[TrueEvil]

Is it better to grind through a stage to level up, despite the extra difficulty penalty over time? Or should I move through the stages as quickly as I can?

[Boksha]

Grinding levels isn't worth it; enemy waves get stronger faster than you do. The important thing is that you gain items as quickly as possible. If there are unopened chests or terminals near the teleporter area, it's worth spending extra time grabbing them after the teleporter has been charged; otherwise, just leave for the next stage where the chances of finding more chests will be bigger.

[TrueEvil]

Originally posted by Boksha:

Grinding levels isn't worth it; enemy waves get stronger faster than you do. The important thing is that you gain items as quickly as possible. If there are unopened chests or terminals near the teleporter area, it's worth spending extra time grabbing them after the teleporter has been charged; otherwise, just leave for the next stage where the chances of finding more chests will be bigger.

Normally I explore and find most of the chests in a stage before moving on (entire stage takes ~7-10 minutes unless I can't find the teleporter). Is that too long?

[Boksha]

There's a decent amount of leeway in how long you can spend in a level provided you're actually finding new items. If you're below 30 minutes by the time you reach stage 5, you'll probably be fine. This is on Rainstorm difficulty though; there may be less leeway on Monsoon.

[TrueEvil]

Originally posted by Boksha:

There's a decent amount of leeway in how long you can spend in a level provided you're actually finding new items. If you're below 30 minutes by the time you reach stage 5, you'll probably be fine. This is on Rainstorm difficulty though; there may be less leeway on Monsoon.

That's similar to how my progression goes. Thanks for the help.

[Shining_Darkness]

Originally posted by Boksha:

There's a decent amount of leeway in how long you can spend in a level provided you're actually finding new items. If you're below 30 minutes by the time you reach stage 5, you'll probably be fine. This is on Rainstorm difficulty though; there may be less leeway on Monsoon.

There is zero leeway on monsoon. Spend all the time you want hunting chests before moving on because most of the time it will be at I See You by the time you hit stage 4 with how BS it can be with add spawns during bosses. Honestly they kinda need to turn down the add count for solo during boss fights because there are times where I literally cannot attack the boss for all the enemies clumped around it. And good luck on dunstriders if the game decides to spawn 20 wisps for it to feed on.

Monsoon is some serious need of tweaking. It isn't so much hard as it is overwhelming. Solo there are often times too many enemies to kill. It didn't used to be like this. That cirt "bug" fix really has been highlighting the places that are in need of work because as was said, the enemies outpace you in terms of scaling/levels. You get to the point where if it has not been giving you good items, you simply cannot kill fast enough because your damage frankly sucks late-game in comparison to enemies being able to basically one-shot you.

[Thug Killadome]

Originally posted by Shining_Darkness:

Originally posted by Boksha:

There's a decent amount of leeway in how long you can spend in a level provided you're actually finding new items. If you're below 30 minutes by the time you reach stage 5, you'll probably be fine. This is on Rainstorm difficulty though; there may be less leeway on Monsoon.

There is zero leeway on monsoon. Spend all the time you want hunting chests before moving on because most of the time it will be at I See You by the time you hit stage 4 with how BS it can be with add spawns during bosses. Honestly they kinda need to turn down the add count for solo during boss fights because there are times where I literally cannot attack the boss for all the enemies clumped around it. And good luck on dunstriders if the game decides to spawn 20 wisps for it to feed on.

Monsoon is some serious need of tweaking. It isn't so much hard as it is overwhelming. Solo there are often times too many enemies to kill. It didn't used to be like this. That cirt "bug" fix really has been highlighting the places that are in need of work because as was said, the enemies outpace you in terms of scaling/levels. You get to the point where if it has not been giving you good items, you simply cannot kill fast enough because your damage frankly sucks late-game in comparison to enemies being able to basically one-shot you.

I used to play a lot of Monsoon before the update but currenty it's really not a lot of fun--you rely way more heavily on RNG on Monsoon to give you good stuff and since you're skipping chests to keep up with the faster difficulty, you essentially have to do more with less items. The wisp count on Monsoon is pretty silly, and Malachites pop up sooner.

[Xilo The Odd]

best way to run each level:

task 1: locate portal asap

task 2: farm gold as far away from teleporter as possible, opening chests on your way to the portal

task 3: leave any chests near the teleporter available for purchase or activation. (this is primarily for fireworks item, use them just as a boss spawns if you have fireworks otherwise open them after the battle if your out of gold when you get back to the portal)

task 4: defeat boss, from inside the portal area, see if you can spot anything in the distance you may have missed.

task 5: collect anything you may have missed and then move on.