Is this game very unbalanced?

[Niiai]

I played the game for the second time now. When I get to the derelict that is level 4 the dificulty just spikes enourmusly. Both my parties died there. The second time I even spend a long time farming me up a level before going there.

I also saw another thread posting that they never had any problems in the game playing the miner. Is the game just very unbalanced?

Now I had a doctor and a telepath. The few telepath cards that where where really good, but there where so few of them. The doctor was good at heaing himself, but nothing else.

[Protectron]

I'll point towards my "unofficial strategy guide" thread, where I (and others) write and discuss about how to approach the game to stay competitive.

When you know what you're doing, by the level 4 derelict you should begin outpacing the enemies. The path towards getting to know what you're doing is the best part of the gaming experience.

The miner can become very powerful yes, but I have twice finished the game with a team consisting of 2 Techs and 1 Medic, so this means that ANY party can beat the game.

The Medic's "healing" ability is extremely underwhelming, as it's just temporary health for the most part. Why would you spend turns preparing for a possible health loss that may or may not come, when you could damage the enemy or boosting your teammates instead? The same thing goes for the Tech's temporary shield boost which only works when the shield is at max power. That's literally a waste of a turn. Using these instead of dealing damage or doing other useful stuff is literally what causes their use to be necessary...

So not all abilities are good. I'd say that most of them are either meh or downright bad.

[Ash]

> it's just temporary health for the most part.
That is not the case. Only overheal is temporary, the part of the healing that goes to replenish HP to max is permanent. (Example: a character is at 55/60 hp, character uses Stabiliser for 10 hp heal, now a character is at 65/60. After the battle 5 overheal hp are lost, character stays at 60/60 as if healed at station).

Shield boost does not need shields to be at max to apply overshield. Just tested: my tecnician with 44/48 shields used Shield Boost and got himself 61 shields.

[Ash]

@Niiai
Is this lvl4 derelict a Ghost Ship? If yes, it is not a surprise that you're having troubles - enemies on ghost ships are especially nasty and are 1-2 levels higher than derelict level (with corresponding stat and ability buffs).

Try to get heavy-hitter like a miner, bruiser or tracker. Pump initiative on your medic and leader with gear, abilities and/or implants (if you have DLC). Ideally medic should have highest initiative, folloved by leader. Pour skillpoints in Adrenaline Booster and Inspire, they are your bread and butter. If you don't have skillpoints - make a respec at the station. Try to keep your decks lean, maybe even take off all weapon cores from medic and leader (as a psyker, leader does not need weapons to deal damage anyway, so weapons could be used if you're in desperate need of stat buff like initiative).

Then it boils down to simple routine: medic energises himself, leader and then heavy-hitter with Adrenaline booster, Leader Inspires the rest of the team, giving them extra cards to draw and play (and maybe debuffs enemies with Rakhar Growl or Mental Assault), heavy-hitter wrecks the enemy.

Oh, and maybe respec Mental assault into Mind Scrambler later.

[Protectron]

Originally posted by Ash:

> it's just temporary health for the most part.
That is not the case. Only overheal is temporary, the part of the healing that goes to replenish HP to max is permanent. (Example: a character is at 55/60 hp, character uses Stabiliser for 10 hp heal, now a character is at 65/60. After the battle 5 overheal hp are lost, character stays at 60/60 as if healed at station).

Shield boost does not need shields to be at max to apply overshield. Just tested: my tecnician with 44/48 shields used Shield Boost and got himself 61 shields.

Well, a shield boost given to a depleted shield is far less effective than a shield boost given to a strong shield. My point was that in order for a shield boost to be worthwhile you have to give it to a shield that is not depleted or very low - preferably full. That is still a waste of a turn even if you go from 44 to 61 (why would you?). Shield boost is therefore useless in a well-tuned small deck.

As for the medic healing ability, the last time I used it it didn't do what you say (iirc). That makes it much better, but you would still not want to use it until your team is losing health, which shouldn't happen too often, making it a dead card in most battles as you should not plan for losing health. While having a couple of them just in case could be nice in the early game, a fine-tuned end-game deck should not have dead cards.

[WindsorW]

I am playing this game for the first time, and I agree with the OP that there seems to be a BIG spike in difficulty with the level 4 derelict. The level 3 derelicts were tougher than the earlier ones but the increment was modest. First visit to the level 4 and suddenly enemies are WAY more powerful, with 3x-4x the health and lots more special abilities. It is a very large step up in difficulty.

So far my team has been able to handle it, barely. But the sudden spike in difficulty was blatant, while loot and drops seem not to have improved much.

[Protectron]

Which enemies were appearing there that you had not encountered before?

The Skinks come with a couple of spellcasters (support) from around level 4 derelicts, for instance. They are primary targets, so what specifically changes is that before this it was probably best to kill the weakest enemies first. From level 4 derelicts onward, you need to kill their buffers and debuffers first instead.

Buddynauts, Juggernauts, Mawurms and Serpentwurms may take time to kill and may hit hard - it's useful to be able to disrupt their moves or shut them down entirely while you concentrate the damage on the others.

So yes there is a change that happens around derelict level 4. On the other hand, your characters should be pushing level 6 and start having rather synergistic decks themselves.

The game is unbalanced in the meaning that certain builds will wreck everything before the enemies even get their turn, from the mid-game and onwards. At the same time, enemies gradually appear that can permanently lock your entire team down so you can only watch them die. Knowing that first-turn wipes of any enemy team is possible with many class combinations, and knowing that the enemy can do almost the same to you if you allow the to (from the mid-game onwards), this should be enough to realize the importance of going first and having sleek decks.

The thing is, none of this is known to new players. The nature of the game is therefore that you are going into the unknown, into uncharted, dangerous territory. You cannot be prepared for specific enemies and their strengths and weaknesses until you have encountered them. What you learned when you had your team killed because you literally couldn't deal damage to a Buddynaut, is that you need a way to remove Armor and Damage Resistance. Back to the drawing board you go, then.

[[JdG] Pejman]

the game is "easy to break" though, with the right builds you can faceroll the game VERY easily. heck you can even have a VERY CHEAP build that will allow you to OS anything (or almost anything) that can be made from level 1
(you just need a guy who goes first that uses maintain and then the guy who goes second has a deck with a LOT of "craft supplies" and a scrap bomb, you just draw craft supplies with craft suplies and get +20% damage for each one that gets recycled thanks to maintain, then you drop a scrap bomb for 100+ damage to 3 enemies)

I guess being a "veteran" MTG player just makes me want to break every card based game I play :O



TBH I think I'll make a guide on how to break the game seeing that people have issues, heck my biggest issues are terrain effect when I don't have the item to protect myself (well the "sun" one which burns a lot, most others are not an issue)

[WindsorW]

Maybe a lot of these strong options are from the expansions? Maintain, craft supplies, scrap bomb, implants -- never seen any of them even mentioned in game.

Also, pushing level 6 by the time you reach the level 4 derelict? My team was level 4, after doing 100% exploration and all contracts on the earlier derelicts. Seems like I am missing something fairly fundamental somewhere.

The first buddynaut I encountered was pretty nasty, yes. My team did defeat it, but it was a BIG spike in difficulty from anything before it. The first big worm was trouble, too. It just seems like the enemies are scaling much, much faster than my team. Another level of shield cores offers maybe 2-3 points of additional shields, another level of weapons maybe 1-2 points of additional base damage, while the enemies' health and damage are increasing by 50-80% or even more.

[[JdG] Pejman]

these are scavaneger type tool cards, doubt they are from DLC, heck craft supplies is the card on the starter scavenger tools.

also enemies respawn you can run around and keep killing them (best way is to use portable generators as it will make running around free in their range, unless you have a technician that can provide unlimited power that is)

[Protectron]

Originally posted by WindsorW:

Maybe a lot of these strong options are from the expansions? Maintain, craft supplies, scrap bomb, implants -- never seen any of them even mentioned in game.

Also, pushing level 6 by the time you reach the level 4 derelict? My team was level 4, after doing 100% exploration and all contracts on the earlier derelicts. Seems like I am missing something fairly fundamental somewhere.

The first buddynaut I encountered was pretty nasty, yes. My team did defeat it, but it was a BIG spike in difficulty from anything before it. The first big worm was trouble, too. It just seems like the enemies are scaling much, much faster than my team. Another level of shield cores offers maybe 2-3 points of additional shields, another level of weapons maybe 1-2 points of additional base damage, while the enemies' health and damage are increasing by 50-80% or even more.

Implants and the ability to craft weapons and tools is from the Station Life DLC yes. The cards mentioned in here have always been present. The guide thread on page 2 or 3 of this forum was started before the Station Life DLC was released, so it's only the two last pages of it that is with that DLC.

To get to level 5 before entering the level 4 derelict, and to level 6 in that derelict, you have to attack and kill all hostiles in all 5 derelicts before it (there are two level 2's and two level 3's). You should also attack and kill the settlements on each derelict after you have helped them with some missions if available. I usually avoid attacking the government agents and rival scavengers roaming about, though.

Being at the same level as the enemy by the mid-game makes the game a little bit harder. I don't understand how you manage to not stay a level ahead because when you are at the same level as the enemies you get more influence than if you are a level ahead. Are you sneaking around hoping to avoid fights?

[WindsorW]

I will take a look at some of the guides, thanks.

I have 100% exploration of all the lower level derelicts, and have fought everything I have run into except for one rival scavenger team. I have not spent extra time just wandering around hoping for encounters.

Settlements? Another thing I am not aware of. Offering contracts sounds promising, the extra credits from contracts at the hub have been very helpful but there are not very many offered per derelict.

Thanks for the advice. I like a lot of things about the game, it just seems like maybe I am not approaching it the right way.

[Protectron]

Originally posted by WindsorW:

I have 100% exploration of all the lower level derelicts, and have fought everything I have run into except for one rival scavenger team. I have not spent extra time just wandering around hoping for encounters.

You should reach level 3 before the end of the first level 2 derelict. Then the second level 2 derelict is played with an xp penalty so you might not go to level 4 before the first level 3 derelict. When you have finished the first level 3 derelict, and is at level 4 and have picked a specialization for each character, go back to level 1 and wipe out the settlement there (a house symbol surrounded by red locked tile symbols). Do the same to all the other previously visited derelicts.

This should boost you to level 5, and if not, the second level 3 derelict should do that job. You should now go to level 6 before having cleared the level 4 derelict. The reason I don't recommend attacking the settlements before you have specializations is because of a likely lack of synergies in your team. You could and should manage to clear them as you go, but several waves of humans can be challenging early on. Edit: another reason is that some settlements give you a mission to procure hazardous environment kits, which doesn't appear in the starbase store until you're level 4 iirc.

Edit 2: a possible reason that you're not 1 or 2 levels ahead by derelict 4 is that I play on Hardcore only and this maaaybe boosts XP rates. I haven't played non-Hardcore for years so I wouldn't know.

[[JdG] Pejman]

settlments are from DLC if I remeber well

Being able to cradft your stuff is quite OP though, it's much easier than looking for the right piece in a derelict. I guess if you need to LOOT your stuff it's much harder to make a sensible build (the same way if you are playing a card game and have to only rely on cards found in boosters VS buying specific cards in a shop)

anyway

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2563196812


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2563196912


scrappy for the win

[Protectron]

Originally posted by JdG Pejman:

settlments are from DLC if I remeber well

Being able to cradft your stuff is quite OP though, it's much easier than looking for the right piece in a derelict. I guess if you need to LOOT your stuff it's much harder to make a sensible build (the same way if you are playing a card game and have to only rely on cards found in boosters VS buying specific cards in a shop)

anyway

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2563196812


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2563196912


scrappy for the win

Hey, I haven't covered "infinite combos" like this one in my guide thread. If you want to, you are free to add a guide to build this scrappybomb combo deck and others to that thread. After all, it's a discussion thread so that's kind of the point.

[[JdG] Pejman]

I went and made a (♥♥♥♥♥♥) guide, i guess it's easier to find for people who are stuck and need some game breaking advice :O

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2564198056