Blind Pests

[Caseo]

I don't really mind most of the DLC enemies, but blind pests feel kind of egregious to me. They spawn in numbers comparable to wisps, which means they likely cost the AI director the same amount as a wisp and are considered of similar difficulty.

Despite this, they do more damage than wisps, attack faster, are plenty accurate, and have more health than wisps to boot. Considering they spawn in swarms just like wisps, I honestly just start to feel demoralized when I get the stages where they can spawn. They really need to not spawn in such large numbers, or have some of their stats reduced.

[Leviathan]

According to at least two 5 minute tests I did (counting number of spawns) with kin+dissonance artifact, they cost around 15 credits. They're not considered the "same" difficulty because they don't even have the same role in combat. They have the same role as vultures while being less tanky, dealing less damage and being more predictable.

And their cost (half a vulture) seems pretty okay. They are already the most expensive basic enemy you can find at stage 1.

Originally posted by Caseo:

they do more damage than wisps, attack faster

Originally posted by Caseo:

and have more health than wisps to boot.

But that's all necessary for them to fulfill their role of forcing you to keep moving.
They need to do more damage, because otherwise you can ignore them unless you're low health (giving them the role of forcing you to keep moving only when you're low on health). They need to attack faster because otherwise they'll only have the role of forcing you to relocate every so often. And they need to have more health because otherwise you can just kill them without them fulfilling their role.

Originally posted by Caseo:

are plenty accurate,

They are not accurate. They're precise, but really inaccurate. After they aim they always hit the same spot. That means you only need to not be stepping there when they shoot. The delay they have between the moment they aim and the moment they shoot makes them inaccurate IF you keep moving fast enough. In particular, with base speed any survivor can do it by just strafing around them. It's the same way you deal with quite a few ranged enemies, in particular Brass contraptions and alloy vultures, which have the same role, although Vultures are more troublesome because you cannot change your strafe direction with them while you can time it with small groups of blind pests. Brass contraptions too, but they're minibosses (although still cheap minibosses that only cost 60 credits)

[Someguyinhere]

Originally posted by Leviathan:

According to at least two 5 minute tests I did (counting number of spawns) with dissonance artifact, they cost around 15 credits. They're not considered the "same" difficulty because they don't even have the same role in combat. They have the same role as vultures while being less tanky, dealing less damage and being more predictable.

And their cost (half a vulture) seems pretty okay. They are already the most expensive basic enemy you can find at stage 1.

Originally posted by Caseo:

they do more damage than wisps, attack faster

Originally posted by Caseo:

and have more health than wisps to boot.

But that's all necessary for them to fulfill their role of forcing you to keep moving.
They need to do more damage, because otherwise you can ignore them unless you're low health (giving them the role of forcing you to keep moving only when you're low on health). They need to attack faster because otherwise they'll only have the role of forcing you to relocate every so often. And they need to have more health because otherwise you can just kill them without them fulfilling their role.

Originally posted by Caseo:

are plenty accurate,

They are not accurate. They're precise, but really inaccurate. After they aim they always hit the same spot. That means you only need to not be stepping there when they shoot. The delay they have between the moment they aim and the moment they shoot makes them inaccurate IF you keep moving fast enough. In particular, with base speed any survivor can do it by just strafing around them. It's the same way you deal with quite a few ranged enemies, in particular Brass contraptions and alloy vultures, which have the same role, although Vultures are more troublesome because you cannot change your strafe direction with them while you can time it with small groups of blind pests. Brass contraptions too, but they're minibosses (although still cheap minibosses that only cost 60 credits)

At this point I hate them purely because they primally annoy me. Their entire being makes me feel like Kratos through the entirety of GoW 3.

I don't die to them anymore, I just really want to genocide their entire species.

[Pen]

simulation, your attempting to obliterate on monsoon, and you arent the best at this game

you have kin on, and it selects blind pests

THE ♥♥♥♥ DO YOU DO NOW

[Someguyinhere]

Originally posted by Pen:

simulation, your attempting to obliterate on monsoon, and you arent the best at this game

you have kin on, and it selects blind pests

THE ♥♥♥♥ DO YOU DO NOW

Don't forget to add you're playing Acrid with unfavorable drops.

[Leviathan]

Originally posted by Someguyinhere:

I just really want to genocide their entire species.

Then do :D

Originally posted by Pen:

simulation, your attempting to obliterate on monsoon, and you arent the best at this game

you have kin on, and it selects blind pests

THE ♥♥♥♥ DO YOU DO NOW

Strafe through the entire stage lol

[tv]

Wait until Clay Swordsmen get implemented

[Someguyinhere]

Originally posted by tv:

Wait until Clay Swordsmen get implemented

That actually sounds cool though. Blind Pests are very cartoony. Not very cool. Nice to make explode though

[Dreams of Fury]

I feel your pain due to my first time booting up the DLC when it dropped I spawned in the new map with 3 or 4 Pests above me, I went in blind, didnt look at updates or anything, run was ended in less than 10 seconds cause I didnt know how to deal with them.

But that didnt stop me, I now deal with them with zero issues whatsoever no matter what stage of the game I'm on, its first stage rats I have no idea how to deal with besides hope and pray lol.

[azumazku]

now i'm not going to say blind pests are worthy of a nerf

but i am going to say they are the reason i don't use artifact of kin anymore.

[Loken Stoneheart]

Bare minimum theyre genuinely obnoxious and unfun. Like, perfected lunar wisp level unfun.

Also "just strafe lmao" where you have to crab walk for the rest of your life once they start spawning, because running directly towards or away from them they'll still perfectly hit you on repeat. Yeah I really want to walk sideways for the rest of the game.

[Leviathan]

Originally posted by Loken Stoneheart:

Also "just strafe lmao" where you have to crab walk for the rest of your life once they start spawning,

Only until you kill them.

Originally posted by Loken Stoneheart:

because running directly towards or away from them they'll still perfectly hit you on repeat.

Nah, you can safely run towards them, and about running from them, yeah, it's dangerous. If you're skilled enough you can use the sound cues to time zigzags, and it does work, although it's hard to do and NOT a good idea. When the are above you they'll still miss, and when the angle becomes closer to horizontal you have to start timing your zigzags. Still, it can be done, as in here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-oK9DZpKFA
Again, it's not a good idea to show your back to any enemy in this game and blind pests are included in that. Still, if you're going to run away try doing it diagonally (on a spiral path) so that you keep the orthogonal speed of strafing while you get away (as I do in the last part of the video).

Originally posted by Loken Stoneheart:

Yeah I really want to walk sideways for the rest of the game.

That's life. Otherwise a brass contraption will get you.

[カミル]

AH, the topic I've been looking for. Yes I agree. Blind pests ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ suck, easily the worst addition to the new expansion.

At least post patch that is, void infestor taking over drones and engi turrents was worse. Speaking of which it still takes over squid turrets. And for some reason when they do the squid turret insta kills you so this item was bad/average at best before, now its actually a threat to even pick it up. Man, this expansion has too much bad in it.

[B〄F Altonator]

Alright guys april fools is over now. I had a good laugh at all these blind pest threads. Maybe next year we can make the beetle seem like a super god.

[Anzaman]

Originally posted by カミル:

Blind pests ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ suck, easily the worst addition to the new expansion.

Blind Pest literally one-hit killed me on my previous run.

Run was going smooth, I could even tank Stone Golem laser blasts. And then this lil flying rat just goes like "You died".

They need to be rebalanced.

[AngelofAnger]

Look I wanted to make a similar topic. i STRUGGLE A LOT with Artificier at level 1. Is just the way they fly around I spend like all the 4 firebolts to hit them once lol.

Look, I know I am bad, luckly for you I dont play online so I will mostly suffer alone.

I personally wish they could start less tanky in early game and maybe scale with more health later on.