Seeker Soldiers (What do you think of them?)

[Seal Darklight]

Now what do you think about Seeker soldiers?

For me, they are one of the most annoying damage sponge in the game currently especially early on. Why?

Because they take forever to kill and are tanky as hell. There easy to dodge and jumping on higher cliffs can make you escape better but when facing them head on, they take forever to kill especially solo and using any physical weapons take longer since there resistant to it. Now imagine a 1 or 2 star variant? Not only do they hit harder but also take even longer to kill.

You could parry them or get behind their backs though parrying them doesn't make them take full damage and getting their backs isn't easy when playing solo.

The only situation where Soldiers become easy is once you have magic staff like frost and fire and even then they still take a while to kill (plus you can upgrade staffs to level 2 only). Its just that its a lot faster to kill an abomination with fire arrows than its faster to kill these things.

The only situation where i recommend handling soldiers would be to just use a bow with frost arrow and aggro it away from your base so that it doesn't bother you, otherwise you might have to spend an entire day to just kill one (which also gives same loot aside the horn as regular seekers). Plus its not worth killing them.


I hope future updates will bring a really good weapon that can kill the soldier variant faster since they are stupidly tanky to deal with even with current elemental staffs and weapons.

[HangarPilot]

I think soldiers are "annoying" more than anything.

My chief grip about the Mistlands is how resource intensive it is because of the difficulty. If I can get to an advantageous position, I can take down a soldier with frost arrows to his butt. But I'll burn through 40 or more arrows doing it. It feels like I'm fighting the Elder again -- just chipping away -- not particularly challenging, just time (and arrow) consuming. Pretty soon it's back to base to re-arm.

Caught in the open, the Bonemass ability and Frostner works wonders ... but now I've "spent" my Bonemass ability so it's back to base to ... to ... I guess pet the chickens and kill time waiting for the cooldown timer to expire.

[rexpiscator]

HP sponges......

[RNG_Wizard]

Honestly I prefer soldiers over just about every other Mistlands enemies. Yeah, they're complete hp sponges, but they're loud, slow, easily spotted even through the mist, and pretty much the only enemy you can actually run from if things go poorly. They're one of few enemies with defined weaknesses to be played around.

They do probably take a bit too long to kill for how simple they are though, so they overstay their welcome. A slightly longer stun duration might help with that so that you can actually get weakpoint hits when you stun them. I also wish enemies didn't instantly turn to face you when you parried them. It makes flanking & landing weakpoint hits harder against the ground slam attack in particular and is just a bit jarring. Granted, Lox have that problem too. Trolls & Abominations do it too, though it's not as problematic on them.

But yeah, I'll take a soldier over a one/two star Seeker or a Gjall any day.

Two tips though. Bows are pretty weak against them unless you're landing weakspot hits, their dps just can't compete with parries and it shows on the Soliders. Also, when using staves, keep in mind that you can actually parry with them!

[Soulstinger]

Frostner is your best bet vs Seekers

[bacon]

2 star seekers and soldiers are tough. 1 star an no star are fine.

[Gregomoto]

Originally posted by bacon:

2 star seekers and soldiers are tough. 1 star an no star are fine.

+1
Especially 2star soldiers are a bit scary

[Rhapsody]

Higher rank versions of both types of seekers could use some tuning, reducing the regular "swarm" seeker's damage output slightly, and the soldier's HP, or prevent them from spawning in dungeons.

[bacon]

just put a video up.

did 2 in a row to prove it isnt a fluke. second kill was a one-cycle, meaning, kill from full health on a single opening parry.

soldiers are definitely the easiest enemies in mistlands. soldier makes a ton of noise, doesnt move quickly, and is easy to read. also has a weak spot.

seekers are much more janky, with harder to read attack patterns and the weird flying attack, able to reach roofs and cliffs. gjall is very destructive; a full fireball salvo can be devastating to structures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gra0rvnxvKo

[leogradance]

I'm still exploring them. I haven't unlocked the magical equipment yet, but I have the mistland bow (and fogsword), I carry around 100 wooden, 100 ice and 100 carapace/mosquito needle arrows.

The point is not that the Soldiers are strong: the point is that it is not necessary to fight everything in my path. Very often it is better to outflank an enemy than to confront him.
This was the case in previous biomes as well.
In the Mistlands it is simply more pronounced.
Someone said that once you use the Bonemass bonus you go back to base to wait for the cooldown. Sure having it ready all the time is useful, but I also can't use it EVERY time I collide with an enemy. I do it only and exclusively if I see that I'm in serious trouble, if I've already drunk my healing potion and it's on cooldown or I don't have any others, if my stamina is really low... then I use the buff as a lifesaver. Not as a basis for combat.
Soldiers just aim for the tail and the crit is almost automatic, plus with frozen arrows you slow it down almost to a stop.
They are powerful enemies.
They -must- be fearsome.
-You have to- ask yourself -every time- if it's worth fighting or bypassing.
This is the actual endgame, monsters have to be scary, tough and powerful.
I would have been very disappointed otherwise.

[Seal Darklight]

Originally posted by leogradance:

I'm still exploring them. I haven't unlocked the magical equipment yet, but I have the mistland bow (and fogsword), I carry around 100 wooden, 100 ice and 100 carapace/mosquito needle arrows.

The point is not that the Soldiers are strong: the point is that it is not necessary to fight everything in my path. Very often it is better to outflank an enemy than to confront him.
This was the case in previous biomes as well.
In the Mistlands it is simply more pronounced.
Someone said that once you use the Bonemass bonus you go back to base to wait for the cooldown. Sure having it ready all the time is useful, but I also can't use it EVERY time I collide with an enemy. I do it only and exclusively if I see that I'm in serious trouble, if I've already drunk my healing potion and it's on cooldown or I don't have any others, if my stamina is really low... then I use the buff as a lifesaver. Not as a basis for combat.
Soldiers just aim for the tail and the crit is almost automatic, plus with frozen arrows you slow it down almost to a stop.
They are powerful enemies.
They -must- be fearsome.
-You have to- ask yourself -every time- if it's worth fighting or bypassing.
This is the actual endgame, monsters have to be scary, tough and powerful.
I would have been very disappointed otherwise.

I agree with that heavily, its just that sometimes Soldiers can appear at your base (or at dungeons where you need to get pass) and you have to deal with them head on instead of it destroying my base so they are necessary to kill at times. Its just that while exploring, there usually the one enemy that i wouldn't bother killing due to high hp and resistances to physical and they drop almost same loot as regular seekers (except the horn) which are easier to kill.

Otherwise i have no issue with other mistlands enemies (even Gjalls or Swarms of seekers) since most of them are very easy to handle.

[Facewound]

Originally posted by bacon:

just put a video up.

did 2 in a row to prove it isnt a fluke. second kill was a one-cycle, meaning, kill from full health on a single opening parry.

soldiers are definitely the easiest enemies in mistlands. soldier makes a ton of noise, doesnt move quickly, and is easy to read. also has a weak spot.

seekers are much more janky, with harder to read attack patterns and the weird flying attack, able to reach roofs and cliffs. gjall is very destructive; a full fireball salvo can be devastating to structures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gra0rvnxvKo

Great vid
Doing same thing when fighing Gjalls atm - just spam spear's special attack, they explode in 5-6 throws

[Sono]

the problem is the terrain, its so hard to fight them here. My friends and I all agree the super craggy terrain is what makes Mistlands pretty unenjoyable, if just because the core flaw of not being able to adjust your hitbox to higher/lower elevation making you miss all the time is just readily apparent.

[killertowfoo]

I've had some luck with them by sneaking up and shooting them in the butt with the crossbow. Cuts health about in half. Then run away and repeat.

[Pobblebonk]

I think the soldiers are well balanced and should stay that way.
They are a tanky but slow enemy that hits hard but their attacks can be dodged quite easily.
If you wait for the stomp attack and then run behind them you can get 3 hits with a sword into their weak spot and kill them rather quickly.
Even if you just parry them (doesn't really work for 2 star soldiers) it doesn't take long to kill them.

[bacon]

Originally posted by Pobblebonk:

I think the soldiers are well balanced and should stay that way.
They are a tanky but slow enemy that hits hard but their attacks can be dodged quite easily.
If you wait for the stomp attack and then run behind them you can get 3 hits with a sword into their weak spot and kill them rather quickly.
Even if you just parry them (doesn't really work for 2 star soldiers) it doesn't take long to kill them.

you can parry 2 star seekers and soldiers with carapace buckler. i dont know about carapace shield or blackmetal shield, but buckler works. health and block level is a factor, so, it isnt a guaranteed breakpoint.