What parties do you guys have success with?

[spined_wurm]

So, I won 2 out of my first three runs. My party was Wynn/Davion, the Saboteur, and the Archon (the guy that shields and does aoe damage). I ended up recruiting the Commando and the Aegis for my two winning runs later, and had almost 0 trouble beating the game. However, after my second victory, the Saboteur became the final boss, making him unavailable. In the playstyle that I've developed, he's the most important character. In my limited experience, Blitz seems to be the best ability in the game, and Trick Shot gets you out of a lot of binds early game. Basically, when I play with him, every single one of my attacks is a crit, and I never have to worry about going after the enemies. From what I can see, there are no characters that can fulfill a similar role, though I still haven't unlocked any of the hidden ones. What are you guys having success with? Are there any other strategies besides the one I've stumbled upon?

[Garanoob]

I cleared my third run (against Saboteur) in harsh mode with this party if it can help.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/212529324300042241/754246250152329306/unknown.png

Marksman deals a TON of dmg (we're talking 900+), Archon can aoe stagger pretty insanely well with correct stagger items, Aegis is busted and Empath can give +50 shield to your whole party every turn with the right shield item.

I've had a lot of success overall with 2x support 2x tank and 1x damage dealer team setups.

[LoveTrousers]

Aegis + Marksman + Empath is a pretty good start.
Ideally you want items to let Empath stagger so that your Marksman can get his crits while Aegis defends everybody. Early game is a bit rough without super strong armor break but later on Aegis and Empath synergize really well and can carry awkward recruits that are either too slow or too squishy for what items you have.

[MidgetSpinner {ger}]

I had a really good run with Agis + Enforcer and Saboteur. I had a blast in the early game with enforcers cover fire and aegis guard/deflect... Sometimes you just dont need to attack yourself.

[KBTカイザー]

I pulled through with a Valkyrie/Saboteur/Endorcer start, picking up Archon and Marksman along the way. Got a bit dicey in a way that I only had 2 healthy out of 5 before last camp vs. a behemoth, but I scraped by on that one too.

[Dying ArchDevil]

Just need
1. A tank
2. A huge dmg dealer (sniper or enforcer)
3. A stagger dealer (commando or saboteur)

2 slots left can be varied depend on the item you got in the run.

[UMeffert]

I just did a full run with Valkyrie + Saboteur + Marksman + Empath + Commando

This party just powered through everything with almost no issue, after I got a rifle that allowed the Commando to attack the back row fights became almost trivial.
The amount of strong staggers between the Saboteur, Valkyrie and Commando is unbelievable.

From what I've experienced so far it is important to start the game with:
1. A strong Stagger (Saboteur)
2. A Health Damage dealer (Sniper)
3. An Off-tank with potential to strip armour (Valkyrie or Commando)

Especially in the harder difficulties, doing enough damage is far more important than consolidating damage (a Tank's role) as it tends to just prolong a fight which only hurts you more.

At the start prioritise items that boosts armour strip on attack and have at least one weapon that grants bonus damage to shields (Pulse).

[President Jyrgunkarrd]

I ran in with what I thought would just be a gimmick suicide team to gib a couple of the promoted Lts on my first planet.

But no. Turns out this is a 100% legit starting party that does extremely well:

Paragon + Sabo + Sniper

This is the team that actually makes the Paragon feel great as a character, too. Open the fight with Blitz on either the highest priority threat or the threat not targeting the Paragon, Kill Shot that threat, Defend with the Paragon. Next round, similar process except you absorb shields instead of guarding with the Paragon.

Things only improve from here as you pick up more damage on the Sniper, Riposte on the Paragon and Trick Shot on the Sabo to solve more complicated problems.

Behemoth #1 will shoot you a grand total of one time. One. You'll clear his HP bar so fast that he'll go into Reboot after you've spent your Trick Shot and you can just clear him out with Kill Shot and Thrown Blade.


I don't know how well the party will cope with Planet 2, but I have the option of grabbing either the Archon or Commando at this point so it looks like I have a pretty stable team going forward.

[BlackjackGT]

This thread is really helpful. Devs should sticky it imho :-)

I've had a rough time with Behemoth 1 (cleared only once, and then I felt near omnipotent on Planet 2). This threads giving me some constructive ideas to try, to see if I can get over the hump.

fwiw, my lone success was:

• Valkyrie
  
• Aegis
  
• Commando

I think the key was I'd developed a powerful Valkyrie-Commando combo, which did tremendous damage on the initial turn.

[Morihei]

They spiked up the 1st Behemoth difficulty, it used to be a LOT easier. My first run I stomped him, but now he was much harder, you really need armor breaking. I was using Aegis, Enforcer and Marksman, so it was hard to setup the sniping damage. I spent a lot of fury using wings to break armor. Oh, I had also changed to Hard difficulty, there is that... He had 40 armor total, which is harsh if you don't have early armor breaking.

[BlackjackGT]

I tried Aegis-Saboteur-Commando just now. While it was fun to use, we still got shredded by Behemoth 1. I can always get its shield down, I just don't understand how to get its 700 some odd hp down in a timely fashion. I never seem to be able to get a Duo combo by then, and for me that seems key.

Off topic, I also don't get why the Saboteur Trick Shot only seems available on the 1st turn of a battle. After that, it seems like it's always dimmed/unavailable. I guess I don't understand what determines its Availability.

So I never had any way to stun the B on this run.

[spined_wurm]

@UMeffert I'll try out your recommendation. My biggest gripe is that I'm used to not ever being in danger due to the speed of the Saboteur's stagger. While there are other classes that provide stagger, it's much more difficult when you're against fast enemies. I'm also thinking about running the Archon with a +stagger weapon to take advantage of the aoe stagger from Discharge, with the Empath to take on the shield regenerating role.

@Morihei

The problem with the first Behemoth is that in your first run, you have Wynn. She has Cleave and another attack (sunder maybe? I forget the name) by lvl 3 I believe, which do armor damage. Also, since you haven't unlocked any weapons by that point, it's very easy to get one of the weapons that has armor steal on hit. For these reasons, the first time around the first behemoth is much easier. However, when you play with characters that don't have armor stripping abilities and you dilute your item pool by unlocking more weapons, it's harder to get past it's high armor value. The fight was much harder when I had to use Wynn's brother (I forget his name) because his major damage dealing ability is a flurry attack. Doing 56x2 damage means that the armor reduces 40 damage per hit, making it an almost useless attack.

@BlackjackGT the stun abilities (Saboteur's Trick shot, Commando's Buck Shot) can only be used once per fight. In the case of the saboteur, I recommend using blitz to push the enemy back as much as you can. If you get a weapon or item that adds 5s to stagger, blitz is usually enough to break any enemy without stagger resistance. Just keep blitzing until the boss can't be staggered anymore, and then finally use Trick Shot. You'll be able to get like 2 or 3 free turns this way, if not more. Also, you gotta use armor breaking abilities to get rid of it's armor, or you'll do almost no damage. I think Wynn has a couple of attacks that do armor damage by level 3.

[spined_wurm]

I see that a lot of your suggestions include the Saboteur, but this is my problem. I think he's by far the best character in the game, and my issues arise from not being able to select him due to him being the boss after the 2nd time you beat the game. Again, blitz being an instant stagger that will break almost any enemy gives you soooo many options and gets you out of any sticky situation.

[metalvile]

Originally posted by spined_wurm:

I see that a lot of your suggestions include the Saboteur, but this is my problem. I think he's by far the best character in the game, and my issues arise from not being able to select him due to him being the boss after the 2nd time you beat the game. Again, blitz being an instant stagger that will break almost any enemy gives you soooo many options and gets you out of any sticky situation.

Commando is your best substitute for Sabo as they share similar roles (very high stagger potential). Commando's basic light attack has very good stagger, although it's not as quite as high as Blitz and isn't instant by default.

To compensate, focus on equipping him with items that increase stagger values and lower attack delays until you can't get his light attack to be instant (if you feel the need for an instant stagger attack).

Equipping generic stagger equipment can also be EXTREMELY powerful on Archon if you can get enough of it (20s+ worth). This will turn his basic aoe Discharge into an attack that will stagger ALL enemies for half the bar or more, completely breaking anything with a slower attack and letting the rest of your party focus down 1-2 enemies per turn.

This strategy is best supported by having another character with an aoe that also staggers. Paragon is the most reliable, although some of the Varangian's alternates are also strong in this role.

[Krag]

Just finished a run with Valkyrie-Enforcer-Commando-Marksman-Archon

[Halabaloo]

If you want stagger galore, Archon/Sabatour/Commando/Juggernaut, with the right gear, can all get high stagger at instant speed.

I had a run with 60 stagger on Archon, 80 on Commando, and 70 on Sabatour. I would get 1-2 full rounds with the boss not even being present on the time bar.