Insane difficulty, some thoughts

[olivier_sd]

Ok, so I've finally completed the adventure mode on insane difficulty. From what I read during the last announcement, only 8% of player chose this difficulty, so this thread may not appeal to everyone, sorry about that.

I must admit, I kind of cheated to get there, I mean I didn't level my heroes past level 2. It's the only viable way I found of beating the High Cultist. This guys and his summoner just bring TOO much skeletons in the game. (Oh and his elite sun demon chummy is kind of a miniboss in itself if you want my opinion lol)The game is still pretty rough, but it is manageable if you stay low level, for mainly two reasons:

1- The absence of perks (or deck-thinning) makes levelling up a hindrance, instead of a nice bonus. Enemies become stronger but your decks, and your caracter, doesn't. Leveling up in Gloomhaven has two parts, more powerfull card (most of the time anyway lol) and perks. Not having one of them is like growing up but your arms would stay the size they were as a baby.

2- Shields. It's a direct correlation with point 1 but without a better deck, shields becomes insanely strong. when half my attacks do -1, add 1 or 2 shield and most of my attack become 1 or 2 damage. throw in some healing (I'm looking at you skeletons) and those normaly pesky undead become true harbinger of death!

So, has anyone manged to beat the game playing the ''the way it's supposed to be played'' (by leveling up I mean) on insane difficulty?

Also, do we have any output on when the perk mechanic will be added?

Finally, I' m crazy rich, but I can't upgrade cards, do we know if card upgrade is coming anytime soon? I' ready to invest ahah!

[chuckberts]

I stuck with just hard and you pretty much summed up why.

The more you level up in this game the worse it is going to get and there isn't much you can do about it right now. Generally I can't shop (no stores at a lot of places), I can't enhance cards, and I can't improve my deck with perks.

So our only improvements are HP boost from level up, and new card upon level up which depending which class and what lvl you hit is quite varying on how much of an improvement it is. Anybody who has played the board game already knows that just isn't going to cut it when the enemies reach high enough level that they get the debuffs on all attacks.

I've been waiting for at least the perks to show up and I know they have mentioned those before but I haven't seen even a vague date listed. Enhance cards I haven't seen at all which is a big bummer since we really need to get those Blesses added to Cragheart.

[nohero79]

I beat 2-player insane some time ago. High cultist was difficult but not impossible.

4-player was even harder. I beat the High Cultist with levels 8/9/9/8 on my 4 chars and outlined some of the keys to that victory in the discord channel.

I was out of town for a week and didn’t have a chance to play since but I don’t anticipate the undead commander giving me any grief in comparison once I get around to playing again.

[Gloomhaven_Community]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the feedback! More content is on the way, and that's our priority right now. With each patch, the whole balance will be changing, so we hope to get updated feedback from you when the new version is out.

Take care,
Gloomhaven Team

[Mejud 13]

I play on insane level as well with Brute/Scoundrel (1st boss), Brute/Scoundrel/Spellweaver (1st boss). Right now, with all Brute/Scoundrel/Spellweaver/Cragheart done beat Bandit Commander (heroes was level 3's) and High Cultist (level 8 heroes). Since it is adventure mode with perk being our disadvantage, Its best to fight boss at your strongest level at each level sets such as 0 stay at level 0, 1-2 (all heroes at level 2 as strongest), 3-4 (level 4 heroes), 5-6 (level 6 heroes), 7-8 (level 8 heroes), 9 is 4.5 level round up into level 5 difficulty. Demonsgate is also required to visit before 2nd & 3rd boss fights. I was not able to fight High Cultist with all heroes at level 6's because I could not reach Demonsgate before leveling up into 7's. My next best chance was at level 8's to fight High Cultist. I believed that almost all of my heroes have 4 potions each but Cragheart at 3 potions. I beat High Cultist on 2nd try without having him summon anything rest of the battle. How the battle was set up was that High Cultist move toward us to make attack at first 2 turns which helps and his back was on the wall. I used Cragheart's rock slide to put 2 boulder between him, My Cragheart and scoundrel (ninja style with many invisibility) tanked him so there was not a room for summons. My Brute and Spellweaver focus on the rest of monsters as in group control until all is dead. Monsters did not step in to fight Brute at door but stay hex away from door. Brute step up and stun all 3 monsters. I only used Cragheart's attention onto High Cultist few times and primary focus on monsters group control. Scondrel done all the primary attention onto High Cultist. I am fighting last boss with level 9 heroes and realize that I would like to have 5 potions for each heroes but I cannot because I am able to only see 15 to 16 potions and cant scroll further down. It does not matter, I have only 10 gold left and Demonsgate only have minor potion left. My only option is to achieve with what I have left which is plenty I think (2x eagle-eye goggles, wand of darkness, jagged sword, cloak of invisibility, mask of terror, 2x boots of striding, 2x winged shoes, 2x warhammer, and 15 potions). I make sure my Scoundrel have 4 major power potions for +8 attacks so I can hit final boss with one time attack for 68 total out of his health at 85. I think its manageable, I just got to figure out how to not get too exhausted in first room. Need to figure out how to shut down 3 bone rangers elites who shoot 2 targets each. Probably will need to go through and make some change with cards such as bring Spellweaver's Elemetal Aid. With difficulty setting as 7 red skulls, the planning and execute of plans will have to be at "to kill for" which sum to overall grade A or better.

[nohero79]

Just got around to beating the 4-character party on insane today (all level 9 characters but without the latest cards added in the recent beta patch): https://monosnap.com/file/Pbjhu8XaX07Pkte4TM52PR25AAnu7K

Best piece of advice I have is to find the wandering merchant and get 4 permanent minor healing and minor power potions as soon as you can. If stock runs out, just sell your minor potions that have a shelf life and the wandering merchant will restock them as permanent versions immediately. You should always be able to get 4 of each (or however many party members you have).

Then you journey around Demon's Gate, opting for the path with the best high-durability items. Once you have your hands on 4-5 good items (Rocket Boots, Ancients Drills, War Hammers, Lucky Orbs, Blinking Capes, etc.) as well as a few hundred gold, stop in at Demon's Gate and buy both shops out of every item they have. You should be well-equipped for a boss fight as such.

Immediately go kill the next boss and then repeat the process if you're starting to lose some of your key items.

It's still not easy and will likely take a lot of luck, creativity, strategy and persistence.

Quick pointers:
-Abuse invisibility around fast/slow initiatives and while blocking off sections of the battlefield. It is the most overpowered mechanic in the game if you use it right.
-Abuse Rock Slide, it does true damage, shapes the battlefield to your design and prevents summoning.
-Piling good items on in one huge, AoE attack at the right time can clear 3-5 elite enemies in one shot. I'm talking Cataclysm or Frozen Night with Ancient Drill, 2 power pots & goggles.
-Not always obvious to everyone but don't bring your 8-10 "best" cards into a fight by default. Bring an equal number of cards you like to use for their top & cards you want to use for their bottom, even if some don't look like the overall best cards at quick glance. Even pair them up, most of my party members have 3-4 pairs of cards I almost always use together and I almost never up in a situation where I have 4 cards and none have good bottom moves, simply a waste.
-You're right about the lack of perks causing shield scaling to be a problem, play accordingly. Prioritize poisons, true damage, wounds, insta-kills, goggles, etc.