So, which difficulty settings are 'essential'?

[Bowmangr]

I've been slowly progressing through the campaign, doing my side missions and having around 8 mechs Lights, Mediums mainly and a Dragon.

I've already noticed that the game seems a bit on the easy side. So I think I should raise the difficulty setting a bit but I don't want to mess my campaign up.

From what I gather reading other people posts, it seems almost too easy to collect lots of Heavy/Assault mechs, which personally I find completely ridiculous. How can I prevent this from happening?
I don't think that such rare beasts should be going around in packs. Posts like 'I have 4 King Crabs in my Lance and 15 Assault mechs in my mechbays' make me cringe...

So, which difficulty settings would you recommend in order to have a challenging campaign? Note that I cannot change a few of them (Ironman, parts required to assemble mechs and stock loadout) because they need a full campaign restart. Right now I decided to change both Salvage and Payouts to 'Stingy'.
I'm also considering removing special + and ++ salvage in order to make me search for them instead of cheesing my way into them.

I don't like Pilot Lethality because it's a bit too RNG based and I 'think' (not sure) that a certain Mechwarrior skill (Guts?) reduces the chance that your pilot dies when incapacitated. This ability will become obsolete. Correct me if I'm wrong here.

I also don't like Center Torso complete destruction. I prefer to have my mech neutralized because I don't have enough money to do CT repairs rather than pray to RNGesus to save my mechs from complete destruction. It will also make fielding lighter mechs very dangerous later on I think.

Mechwarrior progression and Rare Mechwarriors:
I have absolutely no idea what to do with these options. On one hand, it 'feels' like my Mechwarriors leveled up way too fast but on the other hand, I think that you need some skills ASAP in order to be able to win against larger enemy forces.
I also haven't reach the late game yet so I don't know how essential rare Mechwarriors are.

That's my analysis based on my preferences and experience with the game thus far. Any advice about difficulty settings is very welcome. Just keep in mind that I'm not one of those players wanting to play with ridiculous armies like 10 Assaults and 10 Heavies and so on. More believable things is what I want for my mercenary company so I'd like the game's difficulty to steer me in that direction and to challenge me. ;)

[Kurnn]

CT destruction = destroyed Mech, is a must.
The game is way to gimp without the remote possibility to loose a mech.

You can eject from a damaged mech to save it, which gives eject a new meaning.
Mechwarrior progression on low (not lowest) was huuuuge for me. All pilots every skill means alot not.

When you earn a mech, OF COURSE you shouldnt get the weapons which you destroyed in order to get the mech parts. So thats a must.

Its a whole new game with these settings.

Oh, I love the Ironman mode.

[Mistfox]

You kind of need to restart to really get a good difficult campaign going, those you mentioned, mech parts, ironman are really the key ones for a different campaign feel.

I would recommend
Mech Parts -8
Slow exp
Ironman
Stuborn Resistance
Stingy contract and salvage
Lethality
Mech Destruction

I just lost my first pilot a few hours ago, just bad luck, was in a Locust that tried to stomp a vehicle ...and missed. The vehicle made him pay for it. Slow skills also means that the argo's sim pods become more important and 8 parts means that salvage isn't as profitable any more and you get mechs easier from the stores.

It really is a different experience.

[wesnef]

Ironman seems totally un-necessary. Do people find it that hard to just NOT save-scum? Personally, I'll never volunteer to only have 1 save file.. I've had enough progress lost over the years to file corruption that being forced by a game to use a single save makes me nervous. It's not a difficulty setting, it's an 'ask to be screwed' setting.

I'd love to do mechs being gained empty, but until we get tutorial-skipping I'm not starting over again.

And the various "increase the grind MOAR!" options (more mech parts, lower salvage & credits, low XP) just seem like time padding. Sure, at the start where you have no cash, they're a challenge. But beyond that it feels like it's just a grind extender.

Don't think I've ever bought a 'rare' mechwarrior except for their callsign. You already have a 99% chance of a pilot dying when they get 'killed', so Lethality seems wasted. (or am I missing something there?)

I'll likely play around with mission difficulty. And maybe CT destruction. But that's it.


It'd be nice if the rare equipment setting was reversed - only getting rare stuff off mechs in the wild, not farming stores for it.

[Talys]

Originally posted by wesnef:

Ironman seems totally un-necessary. Do people find it that hard to just NOT save-scum? Personally, I'll never volunteer to only have 1 save file.. I've had enough progress lost over the years to file corruption that being forced by a game to use a single save makes me nervous. It's not a difficulty setting, it's an 'ask to be screwed' setting.

I couldn't agree more. Anyways, it's largely a single player game (since, in the multiplayer, everything that's not LosTech is available anyways). If you want to make stuff easier to get or harder to get just do it for your enjoyment. Nobody is going to care how much you enjoy or don't enjoy the game.

Originally posted by wesnef:

I'd love to do mechs being gained empty, but until we get tutorial-skipping I'm not starting over again.

I wouldn't bother even then. There aren't alternative plot paths, and getting my first shadow hawk for the second time just isn't the same thing as the first :)

Besides, of most of the 600+ weeks of game time was looking for more Exchanger++ and Heat Bank++ units, lol. I do not want to grind another 400 weeks of game time to get 3 more heat banks :D

Originally posted by wesnef:

And the various "increase the grind MOAR!" options (more mech parts, lower salvage & credits, low XP) just seem like time padding. Sure, at the start where you have no cash, they're a challenge. But beyond that it feels like it's just a grind extender.

Couldn't agree more. The game has the correct grind balance at the moment. That is, it's rewarding enough that there's something in it for doing missions. And besides, outfitting all your mechs with a full set of +++ gear the first time is not a super short exercise. Then, getting the ++ special equipment.

Just making it more grindy does not make it more fun.

Originally posted by wesnef:

Don't think I've ever bought a 'rare' mechwarrior except for their callsign. You already have a 99% chance of a pilot dying when they get 'killed', so Lethality seems wasted. (or am I missing something there?)

The ONLY reason I buy any mechwarrior is for their callsign :D The only "rare" mechwarrior I bought was Succubus, because her photo was kind of unique-looking.

Originally posted by wesnef:

I'll likely play around with mission difficulty. And maybe CT destruction. But that's it.

I set mission difficulty to Hard and the advanced mechwarriors to Often, CT destruction to On (who cares; I've never lost a CT ever). The game is a little harder, enough so that I might take a little structural damage if I'm not careful, but at least it requires that I be careful and think a little, instead of pound the crap out of the AI.

I also like that the AI will focus on a single mech more, now, though this is also exploitable because the AI isn't really smart about how it goes about doing it.

Originally posted by wesnef:

It'd be nice if the rare equipment setting was reversed - only getting rare stuff off mechs in the wild, not farming stores for it.

I agree. I also wish that in missions, there was a setting that says, "sell all common salvage" at the end of the mission. Because selling 400 heat sinks at a time and 200 medium lasers... only to have to reload because I clicked medium laser one time too many as I fell asleep and accidently sold something else I want to keep (but I don't know what) is not really fun.

I'd even take a 10% cut off the sale price as a convenience fee :D

A mechanic that would be better would be more expensive rare and super rare loot. The price difference between + and +++ weapons is not much, but the functionality difference is huge. Or, between a Rangefinder and Rangefinder++.

It would be kind of cool to have a mechanism to buy some of the really good items for an absurd amount of money, like 1 double heat sink for 100 million credits. Or, in the future, a quest chain to get a great item (do these ten 5-skull missions with zero loot, but you get a double heat sink at the end!)

[Coyote]

I dont see the point of heavier enemy resistance. It only makes your salvage better and makes it so you earn heavies faster and more often. Not really more difficult at all after hitting that threshold.

I go with ironman,pilot death,mechs get destroyed,slower xp gain... basically everything that gives more of a risk. So even easy missions are very thrilling.

[Myriad]

Originally posted by wesnef:

Ironman seems totally un-necessary. Do people find it that hard to just NOT save-scum? Personally, I'll never volunteer to only have 1 save file.. I've had enough progress lost over the years to file corruption that being forced by a game to use a single save makes me nervous. It's not a difficulty setting, it's an 'ask to be screwed' setting.

I Imagine it's not about save scumming for most people who like the Ironman mode. I don't want the option to reload to be there anywhere. It makes the game so much more real.

If I just start a mission and run into some serious bad luck where I accidently get visual on an enemy Mech on the first sprint of the first turn, iniatiating battle, because of the visual, and get that mech blown away by a few lucky shots from Mechs in the faster initiative phase, losing multiple +++ weapons and one of my favorite MWs, I'm going to reload whether I like it or not dammit!

Keep that Load button away from me! I love Ironman! I really do! I played Impossible Ironman on XCOM and, Commander was it, on XCOM 2. But if I get caught in some ridiculous mess, I would think it's just a waste not to reload.

If you have that willpower, all the power to you. But I need the Ironman mode to completely immerse myself in the intense life or death decision making feel of it.

[View The Phenom]

Lower mech pilot experience, harder opponents, and salvaged mechs not being automatically equipped with free gear.

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by wesnef:

Don't think I've ever bought a 'rare' mechwarrior except for their callsign. You already have a 99% chance of a pilot dying when they get 'killed', so Lethality seems wasted. (or am I missing something there?)

Chance of them surviving is their (guts skillx5)%.

[Talys]

Originally posted by View The Phenom:

Lower mech pilot experience, harder opponents, and salvaged mechs not being automatically equipped with free gear.

The free gear on salvaged mechs is pretty useless (except to sell) anyways, though. I mean, beyond the extremely early game, nobody is looking for stock weapons, and stuff like heat sinks and jumpjets you'll accumulate thousands of in the course of random salvage.

Originally posted by Mistfox:

Originally posted by wesnef:

Don't think I've ever bought a 'rare' mechwarrior except for their callsign. You already have a 99% chance of a pilot dying when they get 'killed', so Lethality seems wasted. (or am I missing something there?)

Chance of them surviving is their (guts skillx5)%.

Change of surviving = 100% regardless of guts as long as you don't take more than 2 damage :D

But Guts is a crucial skill to have, because +30 overheat is a massive buff. I will leave Gunnery between 4-5 and level Guts all the way to 9 before going back to Gunnery.

[Near Gravity]

I just checked and noticed, (sort of expected), that Ironman Mode and the settings I want are restricted to New Campaigns. I wasn't planning a Restart and had no reason to, but looks like I am anyway.

I don't really think the other settings are worth bothering with to be honest, unless maybe you just want the enemy to be more powerful, and it seems like the patch made enemy lances more powerful anyway, given they all seem to have more mechs. Haven't seen any vehicles on missions I would normall expect them on, but the number of Mechs seems to have increased by about the amount they're missing, and pilots seem to be btter.

Maybe they just made Default Normal the new Normal, and Old Normal the new Easy.

[AbsynthMinded]

I want the difficulty where after you get enough rep and fame, other merc groups come gunning for you in the middle of a mission to make their bones by grindding yours to paste and painting their mechs with it. I want the difficulty where the folks you've been on a 3-4 mission grind for clearing pirates turn on you in the end and want to keep all the salvage, and your mechs.

All this other stuff is pretty meh on the whole. Just giving you a blinder in which you can set the flavor of grind. Still the same missions over an over an over. Am I happy to see it, absolutely. Is it what I care about, not really.

[Bowmangr]

Based on your replies so far (thanks for taking the time to post by the way), I changed my mind on Center Torso destruction. I guess I'm going to switch it to ON.

I'm still not convinced that I want my Mechwarriors to die (Lethality) mainly because you confirmed that there is a whole ability that affects this (based on GUTS skill) and changing the setting to ON, makes it obsolete.

I'm still not convinced that reducing both mission rewards to Stingy is not essential and/or that it just prolongs the grind, mainly because I'm finding that the whole game mechanic of trying to 'float' cash, choose Morale affecting payments each month and so on is completely moot unless your cash flow gets lowered.
Right now, with my little experience with the game I really don't see ANY cash problems. I consistently choose GENEROUS each month, I have at least 6 months or more of cash to float around and I can repair all my mechs with ease. I'm also using only stock loadouts, never changed anything beyond removing a weapon to add its '+' variant.
I'd like the game to force me to spend money on making better mechs but so far, stock mechs can win anything the game can throw at them.

I'm also playing 'Honorman', never loading, save scumming and so on. I'm just using 'save & quit' and 'continue'.
I didn't even notice a 'load game' button until I read the patch notes about Ironman mode!

[Ryujin]

Not a masochist so my settings are based on what makes 'sense' rather than what makes it hard. So it's mostly default except:

Number of mech parts needed - 4 or 5 (up from 3). I just find it so odd that I can blow up a leg, and wipe either sides of the torso and their corresponding arms, get 3 salvage pieces and end up with a shiny new mech. With this change you'll need to bring together pieces from 2 mechs at least to come up with 1, which kinda makes sense

OpFor enemy strength = HIGH. Not really to make the game more challenging, but for the chance to get more salvage and possibly heavier mechs.

Mech unequipped - CHECKED. Same reason as f# of mech salvage setting. I find it silly that you can find a fully functional and equipped mech from piecing together blown up pieces mechs.

[Direbear]

Pilot should not be killed if CT is destroyed (because it destroys reactor but not cockpit). So lethality looks like bad choice. Also guts affect chance to stay alive and enabling lethality makes it worse.

[graystripe]

here are some things you can do to make it more challenging

1) make payments to "stingy" (this will increase dificulty a lot)

2) put the amount of parts to make a mech to "8" (this one, is a must)

3) make the salvage to "lowest" (same with the 1st one)

4) enemy strength instead of normal, put it to hard instead

just these 4 alone is more than enough to make it sounds like you playing "legend" difficulty in xcom 2.

and by doing all 4 of these, you will find yourself bringing more med mechs instead of heavy and assault mechs into the storyline missions instead.

since these 4 settings doesn't affect the main storyline missions at all.