Has combat gotten harder for solo characters? Hitting a wall pretty hard

[Nedobrak]

Now, I'm quite sure this is probably down to me not adapting to the changing meta. My last solo run was completed last winter...
Running a solo bladesman, tagging blade, evasion and crit, and now I'm stuck. Can't beat armory frogs, can't beat scav ambush or hargreave in MC, and can't beat the fourth courthouse fight. Using cloaking device, smoke, gas... still getting tons of interrupts from mobs and the grazes are tearing me down.

So if anyone can give me some tips on how to git gud in current game, much appreciated:)

[Pink Eye]

Originally posted by Marcos_DS:

I was inspired to try a solo blade mastermind due to this thread, but like the OP i hit a dead end: I cannot defeat the triple mind worms & frog encounter. I do have resources but even with zen stims my character is dead quite fast unfortunately. I defeated them already with a full party, but solo it seems almost impossible unless i'm missing something obvious... So i wonder, how do the single character (or party of 2) players solve this encounter?

Stats & equipment:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2809771741

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2809771710

yo yo yo yo give us your save file i just had blood work done to me and cant think straight so i cant give advice but i can play the file and share my thoughts when im able

[HuggyBear]

Originally posted by Marcos_DS:

I was inspired to try a solo blade mastermind due to this thread, but like the OP i hit a dead end: I cannot defeat the triple mind worms & frog encounter. I do have resources but even with zen stims my character is dead quite fast unfortunately. I defeated them already with a full party, but solo it seems almost impossible unless i'm missing something obvious... So i wonder, how do the single character (or party of 2) players solve this encounter?

Stats & equipment:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2809771741

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2809771710

I did it once with a similar character but took Slow Metabolism specifically for that fight and it was still a pain. You should wear the energy vest armor (to counter frog damage) since no one is attacking your torso, and the highest DR melee boots you can find to counter frogs. You need high Energy DR on Arms to resist the mindworm distortion shield feedback attack, ~7 dmg iirc.

I've seen two schools of thought on the fight. One is to eat a panic on turn one, then stasis grenade the mindworm trio to give yourself time to heal up the panic damage and kill all the frogs. This is still a giant pain to do with a solo character.

If you don't have or won't use a Stasis grenade then you need to rush by the bullfrogs, burn down the psyker frog and then start carving through mindworms while the frogs nip at your heels. It's probably doable for a character geared towards the encounter with Slow Metabolism and maybe Charger, but it would not be a fun fight.

I'm guessing once the full game is out solo characters will skip this fight and come back to Mission Control in Chapter 2 after getting some neural resist via gear, implants, mutations.

[Marcos_DS]

Originally posted by Pink Eye:

Originally posted by Marcos_DS:

I was inspired to try a solo blade mastermind due to this thread, but like the OP i hit a dead end: I cannot defeat the triple mind worms & frog encounter. I do have resources but even with zen stims my character is dead quite fast unfortunately. I defeated them already with a full party, but solo it seems almost impossible unless i'm missing something obvious... So i wonder, how do the single character (or party of 2) players solve this encounter?

Stats & equipment:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2809771741

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2809771710

yo yo yo yo give us your save file i just had blood work done to me and cant think straight so i cant give advice but i can play the file and share my thoughts when im able

Sure, i hope google drive works:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Tensd-ZklEgNnjzZ6URWh-TUKassFocH/view?usp=sharing

[Marcos_DS]

Originally posted by HuggyBear:

I did it once with a similar character but took Slow Metabolism specifically for that fight and it was still a pain. You should wear the energy vest armor since no one is attacking your torso, and the highest DR melee boots you can find to counter frogs. You need high energy DR on arms to resist the mindworm distortion shield.

I've seen two schools of thought on the fight. One is to eat a panic on turn one, then stasis grenade the mindworm trio to give yourself time to heal up the panic damage and kill all the frogs. This is still a giant pain to do with a solo character.

If you don't have or won't use a Stasis grenade then you need to rush by the bullfrogs, burn down the psyker frog and then start carving through mindworms while the frogs nip at your heels. It's probably doable for a character geared towards the encounter with Slow Metabolism and maybe Charger, but it would not be a fun fight.

I'm guessing once the full game is out solo characters will skip this fight and come back to Mission Control in Chapter 2 after getting some neural resist via gear, implants, mutations.

Thank you i'll try that tomorrow seems like very sound advice, i have 3 stasis grenades (one still on Faythe) to follow that strategy. Didn't know energy armor helps against mind worms, thought only neural helps and thats at just 2 (from the 2 mind worms).

When the full game is out i certainly will play full party to get full choice on possible content, but i thought trying a solo character would be a nice challenge while waiting...

[HuggyBear]

Energy Armor does not help against mindworms, the Energy Vest is amazing against frogs though since they don't target your torso.

[Pink Eye]

So the triple worm encounter is primarily a DPS race. You have to take the worms out before the fight gets dragged out. The longer it goes, the more of a disadvantage you are. I'm looking at your build and its solid, however, you're missing an essential - in my opinion - feat for this encounter, Charger. Getting to worms and taking at least of couple of them out on turn 1 is crucial if you hope to stand a chance. Charger facilitates no AP is wasted while you maneuver to them. Another feat that's super nice for this is Second Wind; I like it because it lets me kill psyker, get AP back, then move to worms in order to set up; but this can be a bad idea since you're on a timer with zen stim.

Anyways. Will try the fight now.

[Marcos_DS]

Originally posted by HuggyBear:

Energy Armor does not help against mindworms, the Energy Vest is amazing against frogs though since they don't target your torso.

Ah i see, i have misread that when you wrote "You need high energy DR on arms to resist the mindworm distortion shield." -> thats not about resisting their attack but their defense to avoid being zapped.

Originally posted by Pink Eye:

So the triple worm encounter is primarily a DPS race. You have to take the worms out before the fight gets dragged out. The longer it goes, the more of a disadvantage you are. I'm looking at your build and its solid, however, you're missing an essential - in my opinion - feat for this encounter, Charger. Getting to worms and taking at least of couple of them out on turn 1 is crucial if you hope to stand a chance. Charger facilitates no AP is wasted while you maneuver to them. Another feat that's super nice for this is Second Wind; I like it because it lets me kill psyker, get AP back, then move to worms in order to set up; but this can be a bad idea since you're on a timer with zen stim.

Anyways. Will try the fight now.

I will keep those 2 feats in mind if i try a new solo run in the future. I will propably use stasis as suggested by huggybear to divide & conquer (also to move in position).

Looking forward to how the fight goes for you, the strategy you posted for the OP was downright inspired :-)

[Pink Eye]

Arg. I just realized you have 8 DEX. Wasted all my AP trying to get to worms.

[Pink Eye]

That's not good at all. Charger is absolutely required for this. Ah well. At least I'll kill one of them before meeting my maker xD
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2809786477

[Pink Eye]

Yeppers. I've met a date with the nearest garbage recycler. Good runs. I don't want to try again, lol. Not having Charger is pain.

[Marcos_DS]

Originally posted by Pink Eye:

Yeppers. I've met a date with the nearest garbage recycler. Good runs. I don't want to try again, lol. Not having Charger is pain.

No problem & thanks for trying :-)

[Pink Eye]

Ya know I just realized you can use stasis, LOL!

[Elhoim]

Originally posted by HuggyBear:

I'm guessing once the full game is out solo characters will skip this fight and come back to Mission Control in Chapter 2 after getting some neural resist via gear, implants, mutations.

Yeah, that will be a bit of the idea with lots of the content there. Right now it's mostly designed to be doable at this point in the game, but we might re-balance things once coming back is possible.

[HuggyBear]

Sounds excellent, coming back and curb-stomping things you couldn't beat before is one of the great joys in gaming.

[Pink Eye]

Intradasting. Reason why I love Dungeon Rats is how tightly designed all the encounters are. Being able to come back and steam roll through enemies doesn't exactly sound fun to me.