Weird Difficulty

[shawazi5]

I have been playing on Legend the whole time and only having a moderately difficult time. But now I'm up to chapter 6 and getting wrecked by the boss repeatedly. Not sure how the balance is that it jumped from not too challenging to nearly impossible. I've died at least 10 times and have tried a few configurations.

[shawazi5]

I did finally win btw, after buying many recovery items and reconfiguring, ironically, to some inferior weapons to change skills. I actually bought back the starter weapon.

[oxytone]

Probably this is because of latest update. They fixed the balance error: all difficulty levels (easy, normal and hard) were the same. So hard level was actually normal, not real hard. Probably this is the reason. Here is patch notes:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/804010/announcements/detail/1602633433361913677

[thefollowingcharacters]

Ow wow! No wonder I felt legendary was so easy. It kind of turned me off playing, I'm going to have to jump back in.

[shawazi5]

oh WOW

[Reianor]

Originally posted by oxytone:

Probably this is because of latest update. They fixed the balance error: all difficulty levels (easy, normal and hard) were the same. So hard level was actually normal, not real hard. Probably this is the reason. Here is patch notes:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/804010/announcements/detail/1602633433361913677

Nope, there's a very real difficulty jump at exactly that point. You steamroll chapter 5 and then chapter 6 steamrolls you.
They use a lot of arcane damage and one of them keeps your entire team permanently weak to it.
You DO have access to an item that improves your arcane defense, but you only get ONE.
On top of that you have to deal with roar and bird song.
You don't have access to ANY gear to help with those, and have only one card (2 copies of it though) that can help against bird song.
...So long as it's owner isn't the one under the bird song.
...Or roar.
...And so long as you draw it at the right time.
...And it's a long battle.
And the moment someone isn't in top shape... say hi to cull the weak.

The whole battle feels like a newbie player with 75% starter deck going against a seasoned collector that has had all the time in the world to build his deck just the way he wanted it.

I can in theory deal with most of their moves but only if I have the exactly right cards at the right time. And that isn't happening. Definitely not long enough to win this.

In theory I can provoke canary which should help with BS and cull the weak.
Buuuuut it's not happening in practice.
And that's the closest thing I have to a counter-strategy.
Can't keep it provoked 24/7. I end up missing cards or having roar interfere or just urgently needing to heal someone instead of dispelling and provoking because of the damn synergistic AoE spam (~60 damage per character from canary up to twice per turn, ~120 from dragon, iirc).
Or I just end up not having enough steam for healing.
Or one of my characters jumps from the point where it's to early to heal him/her to the point where it's too late to heal him/her during just one enemy turn.

Am I expected to fall back on heavy consumables use at this point or is there something else that I'm not seeing here?

[Alphanumerai]

Originally posted by Reianor:

Nope, there's a very real difficulty jump at exactly that point. You steamroll chapter 5 and then chapter 6 steamrolls you.
...
The whole battle feels like a newbie player with 75% starter deck going against a seasoned collector that has had all the time in the world to build his deck just the way he wanted it.

I can in theory deal with most of their moves but only if I have the exactly right cards at the right time. And that isn't happening. Definitely not long enough to win this.
...
Am I expected to fall back on heavy consumables use at this point or is there something else that I'm not seeing here?

You said it Reianor, I had exactly the same issues even on Knight, just couldn't keep up with the statuses, damage and debuffs. I could just about survive if I focused entirely on removing effects and healing, but I never would have taken down the boss. Took me some deck reshuffling, farming for gold for accessories and just dumb luck to do it.

Definitely a big difficulty spike around here, where you're dealing with stronger versions of two bosses at once who use attacks that complement each other. I ended up having Copernica and Galleo on defence with Mana Barrier, Taunt and healing, and Armilly on offence (being nearly dead half the time can work in her favour with Aspiring Hero and Fury).

[shawazi5]

I reconfigured after the difficulty was patched. I wrecked on the hardest difficulty until the end boss, which took me the most tries. The best character generally is mr fox face. Lower peoples lightning, buff his with lightning and heal with mr frog, save the gears, and wreck. Copernica was always on my team to boost the gears faster with nearly all gear skills. I only had to reconfigure against areas with lightning resist. mr frog had his gear saver. Or I would use Copernica's final blow (which I also used on final boss)

[Reianor]

Done it on legend with the following deck:

Copernica:

Arcane Detective
Focus
Mana Barrier x2
Electrolyse x2
Searing Lash x2 (Didn't have kilovolt, or this would be it)

Sparking Octavo
Blizzard Orb (Should have been Wind God's Drum, forgot to switch)
Silver Bracer

Galleo:
Fixer
Miracle Worker x2
Mend x2 (If I had to do this again I switch one of those out ...)
Provoke x2
Regeneration (… and switch in a second regeneration)

Hydro Gloves
Black Belt
Onyx Ring

Orik:
Bushido x3
Calming Wisdom x2
Fortune's favor x2
Inspiring Grace

Impaling Katana
Power Servo
Steel Bracer

The Bushido x3 and Inspiring grace I could probably do without but calming wisdom and fortune's favor were priceless.

The key idea behind this deck is to not get stuck with unplayable/useless cards which is a lot more likely to happen with all those status effects.
Copernica doesn't have a single skill card, and the only damage dealing skill in the deck is Inspiring Grace.
This ensures easier card rotation and keeps the team at high steam levels.

The deck is insanely defensive (which becomes painfully obvious after you kill Canary), but that's the kind of deck it takes to survive this.

Most of the staying power comes from Galleo+Orik tag team.
Keep Orik under Mirracle Worker, don't waste it on Galleo if Orik isn't already buffed.
Galleo's Mend under Mirracle Woker should be healing ~300 hp, which is an overkill.
You need to heal anyone who's down by 200, let them slip past that point and you just might regret it. Orik's healing is a lot better suited for those ranges.
Other than that, keep Canary provoked and Galleo shielded as much as you can.
Paralyzing Canary with Copernica's chain also helps, so try to do that whenever you don't need healing.
And needless to say, but your goal in this fight is to outlive Canary, Dragon alone poses no threat at all.