100%'d crab champions and I have some feedback. (mods and difficulty feedback) [Early access 2]

[The MLG Cat]

This game is really good.

Win conditions

The biggest complaint I have is that it's way too easy to get a god run. Below are a few win conditions that I feel are really easy to achieve:

If you get a the 5% dmg = crystals greed, you basically win.

With a few shop items and a good crystal making item, you basically get a free win.

If you get HP above 5k and you grab one armor plate you become basically unkillable.

If you stack shop items (such as Tony's and Delivery) among your friends, you can literally buy whatever you want and resell them to get more money than you paid. This leads to an insane amount of items that enemies don't get balanced against.

Mods that should be buffed

As for mods I think they are mostly well balanced, except for a few greed mods which are essentially a worse version of damage shot.

I think the multishot mods like X shot. arc shot, and triple shot should add addition shots rather than replacing shots. I know there is a gold mod that does this, but on weapons that multishot by default such as the crossbow and shotguns they are just a nerf to pick up.

Mods that should be nerfed

Homing shot should be toned down. If you get this mod you basically win because of how strong the homing is. it's basically a tier above gold(especially on saw).

The 5% of your damage turned into crystals greed, this item let's you get the aforementioned shop win condition even if it's your only item.

Difficulty

Even in nightmare, easily purchasing a bunch of mods from the shop pushes you very far ahead of the enemies that spawn.
To fix this, there should be harder enemy scaling. Unlike some other games (such as RoR2), enemy scaling doesn't account for your items, which leads to becoming untouchable around the 45 round mark or sooner.

Some of these are probably on the way already, but later tier elites that are much stronger. a few elite ideas are as follows:
Elite that has projectiles that pierce armor
Elite that has a projectile reflecting field around it (you must enter it to deal damage)
Elite that has a slow aura around it (not freeze)
Elite that has a damage aura around it (should have an activating animation and sound that warns you) perhaps just give fire elites this.
Elite that gains mods and becomes stronger the longer its alive (like risk of rain scavenger)
Elite that repells you away from it.
Elite that is extra fast.
Elite that deals %HP dmg

Additional harder difficulties/modifiers (such as locked slots)
I'd honestly really enjoy playing a 2x nightmare mode, but I wouldn't recommend adding achievements for it as it's a bit overkill.

Final thoughts

The game is in a really solid state right now if you avoid getting the easy win conditions mentioned. I'm excited to see where it goes. I also know that I missed a few mods that should be buff/nerfed, a lot of the mods with an internal cooldowns (excluding reload arc that was op) fall off pretty fast and become irrelevant because of the way their dmg stacks.

[SeymourDemonica]

Curious how you feel about the enemies' otherworldly ability to lead their shots. Several others have mentioned it as well. Can't tell you how many times I've fallen victim to their bulldonkey horsecrap!

[The MLG Cat]

Originally posted by SeymourDemonica:

Curious how you feel about the enemies' otherworldly ability to lead their shots. Several others have mentioned it as well. Can't tell you how many times I've fallen victim to their bulldonkey horsecrap!

Their aimlock is pretty tough to get used to. (pumpkin aoe is the worst), with snipers and shotguns attacks you can dodge by aim gliding. Aim glide dodge works because they don't account for you aim gliding and just aim based on what your velocity is and where you would be if you weren't aim gliding. I do rarely use this method because of how risky it is and normally just dash, double jump, to the side and snipe them instead of being really close.

[Melon]

I agree 100%, I completed the game as well and it really just feels way too easy even on nightmare. That greed perk should be nerfed all the way to like 1% instead of 5%. Homing should have a lower chance to proc (maybe like 1/3rd of what it is currently).

There is a new difficulty planned so I hope that it is actually challenging compared to nightmare.

[The MLG Cat]

Originally posted by Melon:

I agree 100%, I completed the game as well and it really just feels way too easy even on nightmare. That greed perk should be nerfed all the way to like 1% instead of 5%. Homing should have a lower chance to proc (maybe like 1/3rd of what it is currently).

There is a new difficulty planned so I hope that it is actually challenging compared to nightmare.

we'll just have to wait and see.

[TaxFreePwnage]

I found it strange that on less than my 10th run, I was able to take a run to level 150+ without much difficulty. It was literally my first ever run with the double shotguns, and I never came close to dying even once. Getting a large HP pool, some regenerating armor, I was un-killable.

I want to see what they do for damange balancing for other weapons, or especially once the co-op opens up for matchmaking.

[southpark172]

i had a run were i got a obelisk or w/e they are called that offered to completely re-role all mods i have now and i got a greed perk x2 that gave me with both 5000 crystals per island but lose 36% life and with all the hearts in chests and shops plus luck on healing i got to 1m crystals before even getting to the champion fight the first round, felt a little over powered but you do need healing to go with those so not sure.
im working on my next run thats already turning out op. ill have to post what i feel made it op and nerf/buffs.

[The MLG Cat]

also new recommendation, flamethrower unlockable weapon

[Bigo]

Since you 100% the game i was wondering how you managed to unlock Crab Champion III because i have gotten well over 5 wins on nightmare and still dont have it unlocked 🤔

[The MLG Cat]

Originally posted by Bigo:

Since you 100% the game i was wondering how you managed to unlock Crab Champion III because i have gotten well over 5 wins on nightmare and still dont have it unlocked 🤔

I don't know, I just got it when I got 5 wins. You can check the stat board (left of the cosmetics) to see total wins(for set difficulty). If you have over 5 and no achievement for it you could try and edit your save file and lower your nightmare total wins to 4 and then win again, and see if that works. I personally haven't edited my save file at all as it could corrupt, but if you make a copy it should be safe? You could also SAM the achievement and edit your save so it counts as complete for the cosmetic. I don't have SAM personally, but friends have used it.

[The MLG Cat]

Originally posted by Bigo:

Since you 100% the game i was wondering how you managed to unlock Crab Champion III because i have gotten well over 5 wins on nightmare and still dont have it unlocked 🤔

checked your achievements and you have a lot of normal wins and 3 different weapon wins for nightmare, so check the board and make sure

[Bigo]

Yea i have multiple wins with the same weapon, the board says i have 4 wins, which i am fairly certain is wrong, I will try to get another win to see if the board is updated once i get the win

[the Wanderer]

Yeah, the poison crabs almost home their shots. It is pretty frustrating

[The MLG Cat]

Originally posted by the Wanderer:

Yeah, the poison crabs almost home their shots. It is pretty frustrating

elite crabs do seem to have perfect aim calculation so maneuvering back and forth is essential. Kinda wish their aim was delayed by about .5 seconds like in risk of rain 2, so it felt more fair.

[Orzeker]

Fire crab hell wave is annoying to deal with, especially since they can even track you through covers, lightning one is also a lot to deal with.