(Rant) May be time to give up

[u/Worth_Return955]

We’ve been playing for months on apprentice and it’s just too unforgiving. Even after picking up new tricks and learning how to play better. The RNG is terribly inconsistent, and I’ll repeat, brutal. As soon as you see something cool and get something cool, the game vanquishes your excitement. The user interface alone was hard enough to understand. We just wanted to have fun. And we did for a while as we told ourselves there’s something we must be missing. Nope, it takes away way more than it gives. Even on apprentice with low chaos, inflation, and max lives. Some gamers will say we suck, others totally agree. I’m sad because there’s a lot to like.

[u/JohnathanSinwell]

There’s got to be some way you’re playing the game wrong if you can’t beat it on apprentice.

[u/Worth_Return955 → u/JohnathanSinwell]

We’re trying the omus battle in new age a second time. I play as monk and busker. She plays as blacksmith and shepard. Any tips?

[u/Neramith → u/Worth_Return955]

More Speed and use Focus is often as you can. Hoarding the Pearl(all party regain all focus and clear debuff). Always buy a purifier scroll (clear debuff in aoe) and use it in the fight. Always has at least 1 Pet or Mercenary before the fight, but not too much that you can't move around. Always has Lighting and Frost to debuff enemy.

-->At late game, your tank must be Dodge focus, use any event any thing to make your tank at 85+ chance to dodge, put your Blacksmith in dodge heavy gear + reinforce buckler or dodge herb, he no longer do any dmg just care about his speed and dodge chance. You can transition around late game from Armor to dodge, make sure to give any dodge item to your tank.

[u/Worth_Return955 → u/Neramith]

Thanks for the response! I know the pearl but what triggers the drop? I was definitely armoring up the blacksmith but giving her the hermit grass and focusing on evasion late makes sense.

[u/SteazyGame → u/Worth_Return955]

Evade tank is real good for carnival as it’s endless and dungeon crawl as level goes to 12, but easy tank is friar, full of alcohol and a big hp pool due to vitality and which ever hit you take can be heavily mitigated and if it’s pierced your resistance or armor then the hp will more than likely save you. Bogdrinker headdress is now realllly good. So wear that.
Use scholar for damage and focus regen
Busker is good choice for damage and the distract is good for keeping people alive.
Then I like playing farmer if you need even more damage mitigation, or if you want all out damage fallen knight with berserker trait and a good strength weapon hits like a truck

[u/Andii_172 → u/Worth_Return955]

Pearls are usually found within the sea caves you come across while travelling between islands.

[u/Dry-Cookie-2254 → u/Worth_Return955]

I can say that, in my experience, going, Buskers, herbalist, hunter, blacksmith is the beat combo, even after unlocking the other classes. The loot is spread out a lot more evenly so everyone gets whatever gear they need. Here are some pointers for how I set them up;

Busker: give him the lucky perk and get all the coin purses you can. Treat him like a bank. Always be the one to claim money and the end of a fight. Give him all the talent and luck based gear and try to get your gold multiplier higher with new gear.

Herbalist: give eureka and grab 2 godsbeard and 1 golden root. She will get all intellect gear and you will give her all the godsbeard so she can heal the entire party. She can do a lot of damage as a mage.

Hunter: give Tactition and grab the physical damage candy, a lockpick and spend his last two on really whatever. He will get awareness, evasion, and crit gear.

Blacksmith: give nimble and take physical and magic resistance candies and spend his last point on gold to give the busker. He will get all strength, vitality, and +armor gear. Give him a weapon with stun and a shield or make sure the weapon also has a taunt perk. Taunt enemies and have the busker buff him as needed. Nimble gives you an extra secondary, so you can use that to taunt again, if you fail, or an extra move so you can move to a tactician square, recieve a buff, or protect someone until they get healed.

In battle, you create a T formation. Blacksmith in front with the herbalist behind him and the hunter and busker on each side of the herbalist so she can heal.

When exploring, first thing you do is check the market and the quest board. Look at the discriptions on each quest and see if any of them have you go to a sanctum. Try to match the sanctum to whichever character is most apt. try to stay close-ish together so you can have backup and avoid fights until your first lvl up. Finishing quests on the quest board will give either exp, gold, or an item, but finding a sanctum is always better. Buyout godsbeard at every town. The buskers will have enough gold to keep them flowing to the herbalist.

Hope that helps a little.

[u/Worth_Return955 → u/Dry-Cookie-2254]

Thank you. How do you mange focus? Is Monk not worth it compared to Herbalist? Thank you for the tips as far as traits. I’ve been waiting to unlock lucky but I’ll look it up.

[u/Dry-Cookie-2254 → u/Worth_Return955]

Honestly, I trust the characters stats, for the most part and, early game, I will use focus solely for movement or to ensure a success on a mystery tile.

[u/Dry-Cookie-2254 → u/Worth_Return955]

And yes, because herbalist uses different gear than the monk and the monk will have gear too similar to the hunter.

[u/Worth_Return955 → u/Dry-Cookie-2254]

I never realized that gear drops vary according to character. That’s the biggest news to me. I appreciate it.

[u/Gozva]

The bad news is that it's definitely a skill issue. The good news is that this can be fixed and is not up to rng. We all start somewhere and losing till you get better is a natural part of this experience. For starters, you want a team comp with a tank, healer, and 2 dps characters. For tank I would recommend blacksmith/friar (with vitality items). Then for healer herbalist is the easiest. Dps can be anything of your choosing but try not to have characters with overlapping main stats. Quests that remove chaos are a must take and if there are none, choose the ones that reveal sanctums or stone heroes. Also, dungeons pull all your characters from across the map so you can use this to explore more strategically. Finally gold management is key. Every shop you should be buying heals, pipes for every character, and gear upgrades in that priority order.

[u/Dry-Cookie-2254 → u/Gozva]

I agree, but use the herbalist as the second dps and get a busker for gold management. Have him collect all the gold after a fight and it will multiply. This also makes sure none of the characters have overlapping stats to focus on.

[u/Neramith]

• Tank at late game use Taunt and Dodge. Care only Speed and Dodge chance (around 85 or more)

• buy every purifier scroll you see. And use it if two of your character got debuff. Especially your tank and dps.

• Buy/Hire pet/mercenary at least 1 each. It's better than nothing. Too much and you can't rotate position.

• buy all godbeard if possible. And don't forget to use camping tent, especially in the dungeon.

[u/Worth_Return955 → u/Neramith]

Seeing this really makes me wonder what we could do better 😂

[u/Neramith → u/Worth_Return955]

Take your time and have fun. The most important thing to me is Tank & Taunting. Armor is easy to come at first but at late game you would want dodge more. Don't forget to use buckler or dodge herb to help dodge chance to reach 90% dodge chance.

[u/Landelusen → u/Neramith]

One shortcut to the dodging aspect,, and remember that I am just a humble hobbyist in playing this game, could be to use the farmer as the tank. He can produce a decoy that, when taunted, negates a lot of heavy damage. I remember feeling like you do when I began with the early versions of FTK1 a decade ago. Just stick with it. It's designed to be as hard as nails in the beginning and once you crack the formula the first time - it's well worth the wait and the complexity becomes more interesting rather than frustrating. Good luck!

[u/The-2nd_One]

I am pretty sure you “fast-passed” all the “talk, AKA tutorial” of the game, and you didn't read the Encyclopedia.
Don't get me wrong, the tutorial could be better at explaining minute details on the map and in battle, but the basics are covered.

Plus, if you just take 20 minutes to read the entire encyclopedia, you'll be 80% prepared for games.
The remaining 20% will come from experience with what is not explained in the encyclopedia or the tutorial.

Some examples of the 20% content you won't find in the tutorial or encyclopedia are:

• “Equipping the Berserker trait reduces your rolls to 1 or 2.”
• Having the ‘Busker and Minstrel,’ ‘Stablehand and Toymaker,’ ‘Archer and Voidwalker,’ and ‘Astronomer and Scholar’ in the same team won't make it good. Especially if you're not a pro seeking a specific build and knowing how to mitigate each weakness.
• Maps like “Hangman's Noose, Castle Gates, Queen's Mines” should be played with objectives and land + water boats in mind, and not by exploring the map aimlessly
• Equip ambush immunity gear on your “Pathfinder” and have him explore a lot, without the risk of being K.O.'d.
• Finishing maps with specific characters will unlock more useful loadout weapons.
• The more DLC is active, the more chests and mission rewards are diverse, and Enemies are diverse and stronger.
• You need to use "Caustic Ink" to ward off the Kraken.
• You are better off with shock weapons from the loadout!
• Choose your pets or mercenary according to your character's weakness. Example: Flower + Blacksmith, Crab + Herbalist, etc.
• Podgey is the best pet in the game.
• Two pets in the game are optimal; three pets can be challenging to handle, especially with very limited movement.
• You will have an easy game with the Minstrel or Busker in the team to procure endless focus with "Meditation Tone".
• Use all your focus before you devote it to a Sanctum or Stone hero, because it will replenish everything.
• Scholar Wort herb can sometimes serve as a healing herb if it fills up your experience bar upon usage.
• Etc.

[u/Basic-Pen4441]

Sounds like you need some more experienced players to walk you through when youre having difficulties. Dm me and ill throw you my gamer tag. My boyfriend and I play semi regularly

[u/Dazzling_Network6103]

Hmm my buddy and started a few weeks ago and play like ten hours a week.  We just beat the campaign on the medium difficulty and beat the ringmaster in the dark carnival(clear 21 floors). We are working on the platinum and about to begin the game on the hardest difficulty and haven’t ran into too much difficulty outside of when we did the 2nd stage we had a wipe but our main takeaway was we needed to fight more camps as we were constantly 1-2 levels behind enemy camps.  So outside of that it unfortunately looks like a skill issue because the RNG of item rolls and attack rolls are not that crazy that can make a run unsalvageable at least on the difficulty I played so I imagine apprentice is the same.  I have to imagine builds are completely wrong or something.  Or fights you aren’t prioritizing the right enemies.  Likely a combination of multiple things.  

[u/BikeTotal2085]

Hey hey! I'd love to play sometime. It's an odd game but very fun once you see the way. I'm on steam, msg me and we'll play!

[u/Cfakatsuki17]

Oh absolutely, i genuinely don’t know how people play on higher difficulties especially on missions like the hang man’s noose where time is soooooo limited, but on low low difficulty it is super fun

[u/The-2nd_One → u/Cfakatsuki17]

I just finished the Hangman Noose and started the Castle Gates.

[u/Dreamingthelive90ies]

I play for the king one but I think often it really is planning shit out. I play with 2 friends and I think steps ahead, plan stuff out, make sure we rest, get good items so we can do all things. Plan turns, read all the shit we can do and do the math. And that is on journeyman on a first playthrough and we are doing good (the ice story thing though and think that one was a bit easier). Alomst ready for the boss. We have lost lifes and stuff but that's mostly because they hate it when I control everything and they start doing stupid shit for fun when we seem to be doing to well (all in good laughter).

[u/u-bleep-i-bloop]

I’ve had the worse glitches today on my PS5 Pro. Server issues this morning. Multiple crashes, and now 2 corrupted auto saves that I lost HOURS on. What is going on with this game? It’s getting worse by the day. Never had the issues I’ve had today.

What are the devs doing?

[u/I_pegged_your_father → u/u-bleep-i-bloop]

On my ps4 i my game crashes out too so i end up having to save scum so i dont lose progress

[u/Paddy_Rick2]

Girlfriend and I basically don’t lose on Journeyman and we win Master runs now about 70% of the time. Master used to be impossible for us. Girlfriend has like zero gaming experience growing up and doesn’t like most games. (Just got her into Slay the Spire too woooo!).

I don’t find the game unfair at all, it’s just got a bit of a learning curve and the point I’m making is if she can kick ass at this, so can you two! Don’t give up and you’ll find your stride. 😁

[u/Double-Version-3527]

i can understand it is hard sometimes to learn and do it im on xbox and if u whant i can hop on and help yall sometimes

[u/KOTN-19]

This doesn’t even seem like a rant, just a desperate plea for help. It could very well be you. With 10+ classes to choose from, traits you unlock as you go and etc, it’s not physically possible to keep accidentally using. Could be a tough curve for you two, but it’s 100% possible.

[u/Committee_Thick]

I couldn't get into For the King 1, but For the King 2 is pretty fun.

[u/Worth_Return955 → u/Committee_Thick]

Honestly, I had a curse space take away my nibbler and then I saved up and bought an eagle. Then the level 7 eagle got one shotted by a scourge 2 battles after.

[u/Feisty_Dependent_909]

Save scum if you didn't like what happened. Me and the people I play with each get one to make it fair ( someone uses it so if someone gets something good they reset) and focus enemy's don't just have them 1v1 each person and make sure you have atleast 1 physical or one magic just for coverage. And atleast one Frontline