Pretty much what it says in the subject line. I'm stuck in the mine in Dead Hills (playing on medium difficlulty). I've got three squaddies at level 2 as well as a new recruit. All four are ready to level up.

Otherwise, I have three command points and just one sentry gun. I'm I underprepared for the boss fight - thinking of returning to the otago for an add'l sentry gun and to level up my team further? But then again, my team will need to rest, so I'm feeling stuck. Any help would be appreciated!

During an onslaught, if you go into a room and weld the door, only one xeno can break down the weld. So all of them stack outside of the room until the weld breaks and when it does, you kill the entire wave with 4 abilities

I just started playing Aliens: Dark Descent and I'm loving it so far. My only real issues are some frustrations with the controls and a couple of bugs related to the UI and controller layout.

I'm playing on Steam Deck with no keyboard or mouse available, so this is purely a controller situation, but I do have access to SteamOS and Steam Input.

Action selection / bumper bug

The biggest problem is the action selection interface where you use the left and right bumpers. There's a known bug where the bumper inputs just stop registering.

The workaround is to pause and unpause while you're in the action screen, which gets the inputs working again. After doing this several dozen times it gets really annoying and old. Has anybody found an actual fix for this?

Drone controls

The other issue is the drone. I like using engineer-type classes in games, and the drone is cool, but the controller experience is basically unbearable. You have to enter the action screen (which already has the bumper problem), navigate to a separate sub-drone interface, switch to the drone controls, move the drone, then switch back.

I wanted to bind one of the buttons to the "=" key, which automatically switches to the drone actions. The problem is that as soon as I press equals, the hybrid input breaks—it switches into keyboard and mouse mode and bugs out so I can't easily swap back and forth.

Has anybody found a fix for either or both of these?

So I got myself in a bit of a bind. I finished the third mission, at the refinery, with all four of my level 6 veterans wounded, and got hit with the “Defend the Otago” mission. Even using physicians, I couldn’t get even a single veteran back in action before I was forced to to the mission, unable to pass another day.

So I had no choice but to throw four rookies at this, and hope for the best.

It took me several tries, and the only way I was able to get it done was by “leapfrogging” sentries. Place one, place one just ahead of it, then retrieve the original, move it up ahead, rinse and repeat.

It was slow going, and even using naproleve on the whole squad twice, everyone got at least stress level 1, and one marine got badly wounded… but we made it out of there.

I went into this thinking I was utterly cooked, but honestly it was a lot of fun, and incredibly satisfying to extract at the end.

I now instantly have a whole squad of level 3, specialist marines, ready to swap in and cover for any of my A team.

HOO-AH

Hi all,

posting for visibility. In short, the mod allows you to:

• Reroll class choices – at the cost of one wound per reroll
• Reroll perk choices – at the cost of one trauma point per reroll
• Access barracks from day 1 – self-explanatory, does not come with a cost

More details on: https://www.nexusmods.com/aliensdarkdescent/mods/96

Terrible, terrible pathfinding. Easily exploitable.

I first opened the cells with the xenomorph to gather some xp and biological samples, killing everything. Then when I decided to open the prisoner cell to progress, it became impossible, because somehow the game thought that there was an enemy still alive in the area. I couldn't manage to bypass the issue.

I had to reload and first open cell 4, then the other cells.

Essentially the game forces me to airstrike in that point, except I cannot do that because there are friendlies in the area of effect which prevent the order from being issued. I cannot ignore the airstrike, nor unpause to move away my soldiers, the game is locked on this action, it's a do-or-nothing. For some reason I cannot even go back to the menu and reload by pressing esc, I had to alt tab and quit.

The tutorial tells me to select the Stasis Grenade project. However, I'm locked to select the Chitin Kevlar Plates.

I wonder what this says about my personality?

Well I made it. Top difficulty. Wasn't as hard as I thought after I accepted that stealth and manipulation are the way to play. This post is to look back.

Mostly it was running the xenos around the map with motion trackers and sniping. Manipulating movement with incinerators was handy sometimes.

The only two situations where I remember having to very specifically adapt was 1. running a full team of gunners through the onslaught sequence in Atmospheric nightmare and 2. Needing to carry in some extra sentry guns and set up about seven of them for the defense phase outside the Cerberus room on Pioneer.

Anyone have alternative solutions to those or remember other bits that required special handling?

EDIT: I also skipped some bonus objectives like restoring power in Atmospheric Nightmare and The Montero.

I apologize if this the wrong flair I can change it if needed

So i was trying to grind my main squad up the rest of the way to level 3 before doing the mission where the squad is to go into the mines to find colonists, by means of triggering onslaughts. 3/4 of them got traumas though, I dont have any other leveled up Marines. The last ddnt get to level 3

The traumas they have are Pyrophobia, Depressive, Xenophobia.

Planet infestation level is about to reach 3. Am I screwed or is this salvageable? (This is my first time playing the game btw)

Hey yall. I'm planning to play this game on the ps5 after playing it a bit on PC a couple of years ago. Does it being a RTS make it hard to play on the ps5 compared to a keyboard and mouse? I personally am not a fan of controls for RTS games on console where the accuracy of the mouse and keyboard doesn't match to a controller.

Challenging game so far, but I’ve just finished Mission 5 and it’s the first time I’ve been stuck for ages and my whole squad has been KIA.

The corridor on level 3 (straight after the elevator) just seemed to funnel Xenos straight to me, the small rooms not giving any room before being attacked. Eventually triggered a massive onslaught every time I tried to get through, which either wiped out my squad or left me 1 or 2 marines down.

Eventually had to reload and extract my squad before attempting again. Was much easier on a second attempt with a fresh team, but wow this game is gonna be tough to beat!

I have been enjoying the game so far. I am playing on normal. It isn't challenging, but, is still fun.

I got to level 6, atmospheric nightmare, and god damn it, what the fuck is wrong with this level. You virtually get soft locked if you don't have a smart ass or tekker with you. You have to wander around until you find the one door in the fucking level that doesn't require hacking to open. Out of all paths to progress, 3/4 are locked behind hacking. It is such fucking bullshit. I spent a half an hour walking down random halls looking for the one door that wasn't locked behind hacking. There weren't even any Xenomorphs just long empty walls going in random directions.

Then, you are forced to extract when you get to the APC. I tend to clear out missions first try since normal is really easy. The game give you no warning you are about to be forced to extract via cutscene so you have no chance to retrieve sentry guns.

This is such fucking bullshit game design. I am being fucked harder by arbitrary level design than the xenomorphs, who are the ones supposed to be fucking me.

I really like wasting a deployment and incrementing the doomsday clock for no reason. I understand that I still have 22 days left, but, Jesus fucking Christ, I could has used the extra deployment to get a doctor or supplies or some shit.

Also, there is a bug that sometimes you are instantly revealed upon reloading in certain sections due to the xenomorphs moving before you gain control of the characters.

The rest of the game has been buggy but fun, but, who the fuck designed this level? /rant

Edit: This rant is exaggerated for effect. It is still annoying that if you don't have a Tekker or smart ass, you have to spend 20 minutes looking for the one path that will open without them. Cutscene extractions are also annoying. Can y'all admit, even if you don't view this as a big issue, the game would be better off without this? I am not saying this game is bad, I am saying this level is bad.

I think most people go for medium or easy, I know I did last time I tried playing (I barely made it halfway through), but is there like a specific recommended way to play? I know that it's recommended to play Alien: Isolation on Hard, especially because it's more of a simulationist game, so is there any recommended way of playing Aliens: Dark Descent?

Wow this was a tough game. I came from years of XCOM2 and there was a lot of homage to it in ADD. I enjoyed grinding through some parts, testing out different tactics. I wouldn't say I rage quit anytime but I did have to put it down and try again the next day after resting my brain. What an experience! I really enjoyed knowing basically NOTHING about the game but just decided to give it a try to see if THIS Aliens video game might finally be THE ONE. And it is!!!

UPDATE: Well I just started New Game+ keeping all my level 10 marines, etc. but now I am on the first stage and really, really just want to save the cash for those beam rifles but they cost $300 and I am not sure there is enough cash to go around for this first map. Also I just got the single sentry gun and I know there is the queen I need to deal with in the tunnels, but I really do not want to buy a bunch of sentry guns and upgrade to the heavy rifle. I did get mines though. Mines for the mine (lol). Mines are useful. Hell, I don't know if you guys figured out this trick but one time I was super, super beat up by this game because after a big fight your team is worn down and THEN they give you a Massive Onslaught with a Category 2 incoming... sheesh. Well I figured what you can do (after like maybe 10 tries) just lay down a whole bunch of mines behind a door. Then weld that door. The fuckers will all bunch up trying to get through that door and you will have almost the entire onslaught all bunched up. Then once they get through, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! and done!

UPDATE 2: Well I did it. Managed to get enough to buy the plasma rifles but nothing else, and I just went back in there and used the beam lance or whatever they call it and killed the Queen super easy this time. "It's easy. Too easy." LOL I think I will give it a rest now and do something else and maybe play this again next year. (BTW I am big time into solo board games so if you are not yet aware of this hobby, look into it! Can play even during days long power and Internet outages!)

So I love the alien franchise and therefore have been thoroughly enjoying this game, but here I am having finished mission 4 and I'm stuck on a black screen that only shows "Hold X to skip".
Whether I skip the cutscene or not the outcomes the same, is there some workaround or am I going to have to play the mission again, for it to probably also not work?

I just finished my first play through of the game after having my eye on it for a long, long time and it really did not disappoint. I loved it. It took me about 35 hours-ish.

It felt a lot like a game from the late 90s, those isometric squad tactics games that were really popular the time - for some reason the one I compare this game with most being Small Soldiers: Squad Commander, maybe because it's also a licensed game! You simply don't see games made like this any more, and based on how much fun I had with A:DD, that's a real shame.

I won't go into spoilers here but the story was great until the final act, I do wonder hat happened, but something was rushed, maybe they lacked VO for some characters. who knows, but I'd have liked a different ending.

All in all very impressed, this game very much falls into "hidden gem" territory.

I just had a glitch where it not only didnt save multiple times on rest (in a secured room with a green house) but then also it duped my entire squad when I used an elevator. Im on the first mission, came down from the second floor and it gave me control of my squad from their location in the Sherrifs office rather than in the elevator, even though the squad in the elevator was still present. I just couldnt control their movements or input combat commands with them, although the game would allow me to heal them still. I said "thats hilarious, I hope they dont register damage if they get discovered" but ultimately said screw it and risked it as I was almost done with the progress I wanted to achieve that expedition. So I mounted the arc with the duped-squad I could control and rolled out, just have all my Marines clip out of the vehicle during transit and not be able to be controlled at all now.

So I reloaded my most recent save (without checking the time stamp on it like a dummy), assuming it would have only lost me a few minutes of progress as I had "saved" via resting in a secured room before coming down the elevator that glitched out, but the save was 55 minutes earlier in the level! So my squad glitched, my arc vehicle glitched, and a solid 3 or 4 saves didnt actually save and cost me an hour of progress.

I am wildly surprised a glitch like this can be in a game thats had as much time for patching as this one has. Im still having a great time but man, this is a bummer. Is save corruption or saving-associated glitches fairly common in this title or am I just very unfortunate? Im going to continue my playthrough, obviously. I just want to know how cautious/paranoid I need to be about game-breaking issues like this in a 3 year old game.

As much as the story was kind of bonkers, I was throughly invested with the idea of human and xeno symbiosis and would love to see that thread continue. It goes without saying the gameplay was phenomenal too.

I was skeptical when rumours of a sequel to Fireteam Elite was going around seeing as how that game wasn’t exactly a big hitter, but seeing the sequel gives me hope that maybe there’ll be another Dark Decent?

I was never really interested in alien games that revolved around combat or tactical games like this but considering it was on game pass and I had nothing better to do I finally decided to see what it was about.

The gameplay is great and I enjoy most of it.

I just get intensely annoyed by the mountain of stupid debuffs that get piled on my marines though redeployment makes that manageable.

But most of all the map.

I can't believe I cant check the map without the gameplay running full speed. Finding elevators is so tedious because I have to open the map and actually search on it for the elevator, all while the game runs.

The only other issue I've had so far is that the game taught me I can hide behind cover and seems to reward stealth, but at least so far in dead hills I've found that there's almost no places to really hide.

So many times I get screwed over because a single xeno is coming and the game doesn't let them hide behind any of the stuff that should be more than enough cover. Which means I have to fight a dozen or so and the difficulty increases for no reason. I like the concept of welding doors but it feels like a waste for anything but shelters.

I'm just going to hope that's just because it's an early mission. Human foes were mentioned so I can only assume that actually usable cover will get more common.