Broken Difficulty

[Dr. Guildo]

So when did they ramp the difficulty up to a ridiculous level?

I played the game in early access and could pretty reliably loop on monsoon difficulty. It was tough but doable. Since coming back to 1.0 I can't even get past the second level. The speed at which the variable difficulty level increases and the number of stone golems and elite enemies thrown at you is just nuts. And this is on the DRIZZLE. I'm playing as the commando and his weapons just do a pathetic amount of damage. Some of the elites that spawn on the second level take as long to kill as a boss.

I guess the devs just got so used to playing it that they kept on "tweaking" the difficulty upwards with no thought as to how difficult it would be for people who don't play it for 8 hours a day.

[Revolver Rez]

Yeah, I can imagine this change does feel annoying to someone who hasn't unlocked mostly everything back in early access. Especially as Commando, who is easily the most underwhelming class.

How long are you taking on stages though? It's now more important than ever to rush the first few areas in around 5 - 6 minutes (and even faster on Monsoon) until you get to around stage 4 and can happily grab everything because of the money you're now making.

[Dr. Guildo]

Originally posted by Pun Knight:

How long are you taking on stages though? It's now more important than ever to rush the first few areas in around 5 - 6 minutes (and even faster on Monsoon) until you get to around stage 4 and can happily grab everything because of the money you're now making.

I haven't timed myself but I'm not hanging around. I'm trying to strike a balance between not taking so long that the difficulty ramps up too high, but conversely spending enough time killing enemies so that I can open some boxes so that I'm not completely under-powered. I kind of feel like I can't win either way.

[Wehzy]

Difficulty hasn't changed at all, ive started playing on moonsen a few days ago and i didnt even notice that RoR has different diffs. Anyway, i didnt had any issues clearing it first run. Most important thing is, be fast. if u take longer than 4-5 min its pretty much over.

Also RoR is supposed to be very hard.

[Loken Stoneheart]

They made the whole game harder a while back when they found out they had a bug that increased health regen and removed it from everything but drizzle, despite balancing around the regen.
Then this patch they increased difficulty scaling on all difficulties by 10% because they added scrappers, even though 5+ printers for the same item that eat up all the chest tokens spawn every map now.


I still think its alright difficulty wise for the most part, but the game has definitely gotten harder through development.

...Also whoever says "RoR is supposed to be very hard" just says that because the monsoon difficulty description is edgy. First game was never all that bad, and had far more player agency because you couldn't get blindsided in a 2d game.
It also had proper survival items like %Damage reduction, %HP increases, and infusion that stacked all the way to 9999 with just one, instead of the RNG-Bear.

[MajorTom]

If it makes you feel any better, you're not alone. It took me probably 50+ runs (judging by the fact I just unlocked the engineer) and 12 hours to start completing stage1 reliably on drizzle. And I think I had huntress/MulT unlocked from probably before they fixed the bug the other mention.

And then again, I feel like I was mostly lucky with my items and chest placement in those last runs. because I don't feel like I had to apply most of the tactics to clear most bosses.

This game is much more luck dependant and harder than RoR1.

[Mamoka]

"the game has gotten harder through development"

absolutely, very much agree about the scrappers, really 1.0 added a wealth of new problems and for some reason they don't seem to think their game is unfinished when it is, it is very unfinished, they need to pay attention to their changing design closely

[Senki]

That's probably the commando's fault if anything. He's pretty much the worst character and his low damage output can make levels last 6+ minutes even when you activate the portal at min 3-4 because he just can't clear enemies and bosses as quick as basically everyone else.

[Mamoka]

I have seen the Commando be called into question numerous times, as of lately, and overtime in early access I have heard much the same , I do think he is overdue for some type of small improvement or tweak, which I'm hoping will be some focus on his consistency in survival and damage output, aswell modders have improved class balance on their own by tweaking numbers themselves and also some have even shown that mathematically the Commando is at a disadvantage to others which suggests a problem that should be dealt with, I do think some items are dysfunctional to them as you are severely punished for not exclusively stacking Bleed or Crits.

Their argument as Devs for the Guillotine is similar to the Commandos problem, he needs the items instead of the items needing him, it doesn't make sense that you "need" the Guillotine, likewise the Commando should be able to take care of himself, and more variety could be had.
And when I see MulT getting a buff I think not buffing Commando is a mistake.

[Senki]

Originally posted by Zalku:

I have seen the Commando be called into question numerous times, as of lately, and overtime in early access I have heard much the same , I do think he is overdue for some type of small improvement or tweak, which I'm hoping will be some focus on his consistency in survival and damage output, aswell modders have improved class balance on their own by tweaking numbers themselves and also some have even shown that mathematically the Commando is at a disadvantage to others which suggests a problem that should be dealt with, I do think some items are dysfunctional to them as you are severely punished for not exclusively stacking Bleed or Crits.

Their argument as Devs for the Guillotine is similar to the Commandos problem, he needs the items instead of the items needing him, it doesn't make sense that you "need" the Guillotine, likewise the Commando should be able to take care of himself, and more variety could be had.
And when I see MulT getting a buff I think not buffing Commando is a mistake.

Yeah he's the only character with no AOE that's the main issue for him. All they need to do is make his secondary R ability better and maybe some other small buffs somewhere else.

[Dante]

Originally posted by MajorTom:

If it makes you feel any better, you're not alone. It took me probably 50+ runs (judging by the fact I just unlocked the engineer) and 12 hours to start completing stage1 reliably on drizzle. And I think I had huntress/MulT unlocked from probably before they fixed the bug the other mention.

And then again, I feel like I was mostly lucky with my items and chest placement in those last runs. because I don't feel like I had to apply most of the tactics to clear most bosses.

This game is much more luck dependant and harder than RoR1.

On drizzle. Really? You're having trouble on drizzle? I absolutely do not believe that unless you're spending 20 minutes on the first stage.

[xenoonex369]

Difficulty is spot on, Play Rainstorm.

[darth.crevette]

Originally posted by Dante:

Originally posted by MajorTom:

If it makes you feel any better, you're not alone. It took me probably 50+ runs (judging by the fact I just unlocked the engineer) and 12 hours to start completing stage1 reliably on drizzle. And I think I had huntress/MulT unlocked from probably before they fixed the bug the other mention.

And then again, I feel like I was mostly lucky with my items and chest placement in those last runs. because I don't feel like I had to apply most of the tactics to clear most bosses.

This game is much more luck dependant and harder than RoR1.

On drizzle. Really? You're having trouble on drizzle? I absolutely do not believe that unless you're spending 20 minutes on the first stage.

I'm not who you were replying to, but I've been trying to do the "complete the first teleporter event before 5 minutes" challenge, so on the contrary I'm rushing the map... and so far it seems almost impossible with the Commando. It feels like I'm not doing any damage to the boss and always end up being swarmed by other enemies, including lots of Elites (that's in the first couple of minutes of the run, in Drizzle).

Other characters fare much better, so while the difficulty may be fine, the Commando definitely isn't, especially as a starter character.

[Katitoff]

Well, there was a bug back in the day that allowed much higher natural health regeneration on monsoon then intended.

[Zeddy]

Originally posted by darth.crevette:

I'm not who you were replying to, but I've been trying to do the "complete the first teleporter event before 5 minutes" challenge, so on the contrary I'm rushing the map... and so far it seems almost impossible with the Commando.

There's definitely a trick with that one.

5 minutes is actually a lot of time, more than you normally want to spend, so you really don't want to head straight to the teleporter at level 1 with no items. Instead, go for xp and items and try to hit the tele at around 3 minutes. The most important thing for you to find is a healing drone.

I belive they changed godspeed so you get the achievement the moment the teleporter is charged.

Now you just spam runs until you get Stone Titan, the safest boss to fight (beetle queen is also okay, but you might get shotgunned) , and just get into melee range because you're playing a short ranged survivor. Stone Titan will never fire his laser if you're at close range, so just use him for cover against other enemies and chip at his legs while he can't fight back.

Keep in mind that Godspeed is possibly more difficult on Drizzle because enemies spawn in slower and therefore you'll gain xp and gold slower. Rainstorm is recommended.

[TrueEvil]

The advice that you need to clear stages in 4 minutes is crap. Hands down.

The reason that the "5 min/stage" rule was conceived was the guaranteed green item you can get after teleporter event.

What matters is your item gain against the difficulty scale. It's not a matter of stages vs. time.

Difficulty is determined by time AND stages completed. If you can complete 2 stages with 8 items or complete 1 stage with the same amount, you will always want to finish with 1 stage.

Monsoon Solo, 9 mins, 2 stages complete: coeff = 3.13

Monsoon Solo 9 mins, 1 stage complete: coeff = 2.72

Considering that the stage aspect of scaling difficulty is exponential, the gap will only get worse as this continues.

As long as you can loot efficiently, time constraints are meaningless. Don't catch yourself running back across the map for a single chest. But don't be worried about grinding out the money required to loot the two large chests 20m away.