Mindthief Nest Mission?

[Undecillion]

It's the only open story quest, am I supposed to do it now or save it for later? My team are level 2 and I'm playing on hard, but this mission is well beyond hard, in my opinion.

I'm supposed to kill four guards and they don't even spawn till half way through the mission, meanwhile wolfs and archers pick away at me.

Is this a "fixed" difficulty mission that I should try later on after my guys are leveled up? I don't see any indicator of the difficulty other than being handily wiped by it each time I try (only tried twice, but it wasn't even close either time).

My frustration with it is that if I really don't stand a chance don't waste my time with it, unless you can provide an obvious clue to the missions difficulty.

[overmind]

you can do it any time, it is one of the most difficult scenarios in my opinion, I did it with a 2 character party, mindthief and brute, I used the brute to tank until they died, and afterwards I used into the night and long/short rests to stay invisible while I killed the last bandit guard

[Palanthis]

I agree, this mission's difficulty doesn't seem right, even though it's supposed to be the first step of a merc mission. My run (on normal) is not very difficult and i never lost a scenario so far. My mercenary almost never die.

Well, i tried this nest mission and lost. Badly. Three times in a row. I think i'll wait for a patch before trying again.

The number of ennemies and their strenght doesn't seem balanced with the other scenarios, imho. I guess it has to do with the time it takes for all the bandit guards to appear. Moreover, they spawn all over the room so you have t move a lot to get them.
All in all, killing the last one has always been impossible for me, i was exhausted by then.

I think the "survive" type missions, where enemies spawn endlessly, are really difficult, compared to other types of scenarios.

JJust take the Cragheart first mission to compare : it's really easy. The mindthief one is brutal, just because it's a spawning mission, and these missions aren't balanced so far.

[[OTG]teuchy]

I saw some guidance on Reddit for this one - basically use invisible cloaks and the MT's invisible skill. Recommended party was the MT plus the Brute. I haven't tried that strategy yet as I don't have enough gold for 2 invisibility cloaks yet.

...but, yeah, massive spike in difficulty compared to the other missions at this stage in the game. It should be re-balanced IMHO. The luck aspect in terms of when the guards spawn also doesn't help.

[TowerWizard]

I'll just confirm that this is the most difficult mission I have come across so far. It is also confusing, in that in other missions it clearly states if elite versions of enemies are present, and yet Hound Elites appear, even though it does not say that they will.

I have tried it three times, and never got close. If you NEED an Invisibility cloak on a BRUTE to finish this mission, then something is seriously wrong.

The problem, just like Palanthis says, is that the target enemies take too long to appear, which means that there are too many other enemies, and you just get swarmed. It does not help that the hounds have retaliate either, or that they get bonuses if they attack enemies next to other friends. This is why you just cannot handle the damage they deal without Invisibility cloaks.

Either make the targets appear earlier, or make less other enemies appear before the targets. Right now, it is not a fun mission at all. Also, why does the targets have to be Elites, when the objectives does not specify Elite versions to kill? That is just adding insult to injury, in my opinion.

[stevecbartlett]

I agree this is hard, but its not impossible. I have just succeeded with Mindthief(2), Scoundel(2) and Cragheart(1) on normal difficulty. Made it "just", with the Cragheart exhausted, Scoundrel on zero cards at the end of the round (after discarding to prevent damage), and the Mindthief almost out of cards after killing the last Guard. No Invisibility cloaks taken, and the Brute stayed at home.
Focus was on killing the Guards, and reducing damage from the rest as much as possible.

[TowerWizard]

Yeah I too got it now. Brute level 4 (no cloak), MT level 2 (had Cloak of invisibility, but did not need to use it, and used the Ability card to become invisible instead), both bought blessings from the temple, I got an event that made both start with Strengthen (which allowed me to kill one enemy in round one I would not have killed otherwise), and I got lucky with placement of obstacles in relation to spawn points (so enemies had to go a long way to reach me), and where the targets spawned (the second spawned right next to me). All in all, it seemed I won because of luck more than anything.

[Ulysse]

I had some trouble with the mission but i figured the level of my character had something to do with it... The game gets harder when you are fresh into a new "team level". So i replaced my lvl 2 teammate (spellweaver) by a lvl 1 one (tinkerer) and it make a large difference (made my team a lvl 1 team). I also had to bum rush the second guard and into the night the end of the last round...

[sashman]

Was able to do this one on insane with Mindthief and Scoundrel around level 3. Trick is that you can do quick short rests to get stay almost perma-invis with the invis bottom cards that Mindthief gets from the start and Scoundrel gets at around level 3. Once there are too many monsters, start going early init invis and then next round go late as you can. This gives you effectively 2 rounds where the monsters can't do anything to you. Add in a cloak of invis on each and you get another 2 rounds. Then you do a short rest, burning a card to get the invis back. Play it again and rince and repeat. You won't take any damage and you still end with quite a few cards after killing the guards. It's a fairly cheap tactic.

I was also able to do it on insane with the brute/mindthief. Was lucky to find a hidey-hole where only 2 monsters were able to attack the brute and just went a lot of armor. Mindthief did attack+heals and always went after the brute on init. Was close and took some time because it was hard to maneuver over to the last guard, but eventually he came over and was able to kill him.

[ecla]

Originally posted by Undecillion:

It's the only open story quest, am I supposed to do it now or save it for later? My team are level 2 and I'm playing on hard, but this mission is well beyond hard, in my opinion.

I would give this mission a rating of very hard that requires an 'expert' level of player skill as well, since there is little room for sub-optimal turns. Some good luck in your card modifier draws help, and if the bandits are constantly drawing the shield buff cards that makes a large difference as well!

I'd save this one for later, when you are feeling like you are breezing through everything else ... then this will be a good challenge :)

[derscheid]

This mission was really hard. I brought a level 2 Mindthief, a Cragheart leveled up enough to have Rock Slide, and a Scoundrel high enough to have Burning Oil, plus a lot of perks. Never used any Invisibility Cloaks.

[Undecillion]

I'm still floundering on this. Playing on hard, tried 4, characters, 3 characters, 2 characters - it didn't matter. I don't come remotely close. I sometimes die before the last guard I'm supposed to kill even spawns. I haven't tried the invisibility cloak thing, it sounds super gimmicky and not intended. If I find the ambition I may lower the difficulty to normal and try.

The breaking the siege quest at the bridge was another similar type quest that also felt over tuned and I think I bombed that badly twice.

[TowerWizard]

I beat it on Normal, if you want to know. No need to make it more complicated by playing on hard or insane. I don't like the easy difficulty; if feels like cheating since in the digital version it changes more than the table top game does about the gameplay. But, if this one scenario is too hard to beat because the developers messed up, then maybe two wrongs make a right?

[moozzie]

Did the developers see this thread?

[Jo]

I don't see the problem in having different scenarios offering a higher challenge despite the game difficulty setting remaining the same.

Noob here so played with a friend a 4 mercenaries campaign (still not finished) on normal and this mission was indeed difficult. After trying twice in a row, we proceeded trying it once a day at the start of our session. Day 4 we beat it. Brute, mind thief, rogue and tinkerer.

The mission is not preventing progressing elsewhere and is also not limited in time.

[TowerWizard]

It is more difficult than the other starter missions for the other characters. Enough said.