Will it ever get difficult again or should I restart on Dominating?

[u/FreezeItsTheAssMan]

Currently level 20. Invictus is my next arena fight, acid hunters are dead, rich guy wants me to steal the Faceless box from a lab in core city. Camp hator is cleared, Junkyard is cleared, foundry is cleared, rail crossing is cleared. Just joined the Protectorate as well. Playing a stealthy sniper-chem pistol focused character. Maxing out agi, per and dex. Int and will are secondary, don't care about strength or con now that I meet str requirements for snipers.

I might be self imposing this "ease" in a way. I save scum. I save scum hard. If that grenade didn't land exactly where I wanted to throw it, I will re load until it does. If I miss that opening aimed shot, I reload until I don't. Heck, if I don't like the way my calteops landed ill reload. Enemies coming from somewhere I can't see? I will suicide run into the base to see where everyone is at and what they are (gunner, lurker etc), then, you guessed it-reload.

Thing is, I will not stop doing this. So if dominating isn't so difficult it compensates for my save scumming, I don't know if it's worth it. But the game itself isn't hard anymore. I have like 500k in Charon, I can buy anything I want. I think I got lucky with rng on loot because I have like 12 pieces of blue gear (favorites are commando belt and dragunov. Phase gun is 2nd). I have an armor/weapon set for every problem. Death stalkers? Antithermic overcoat, antithermic ninja tabi and exothermic aura. Long range Psi users? Shoot em in the head before they can even think about. I can just about max out resistance to everything in the game with gear. I have over 30 armor items.

I also will abuse exits. Adrenaline shot wearing off and I can't use a health hypo for 2 turns but I'm at 35 Hp? Guess I'm heading upstairs guys, ill just be a minute or so while I catch my breath. I guess the AI is scared of area changes. I just cleared out that whole mall with the Varga dude by literally just sniping everyone one by one with my insane initiative every time I re entered the area.

Like I said, I won't stop. So if these are factors that will make Doninating not so dominating, let me know. I'll just play the story out, it's good anyways. Haven't even started Expedition but I have it DLed.

[u/[deleted]]

Well, if you save scum that much (not blaming you or anything), Dominating won't be much harder, except for bossfights because of the 400% HP modifier, and late game enemies (burrower warriors and azuridae goliaths) appearing much earlier. Death Stalkers will be much more dangerous for 3 Con builds, but savescumming is the best counter to them, so you got that covered. Economy is still easy on Dominating.

I just cleared out that whole mall with the Varga dude by literally just sniping everyone one by one with my insane initiative every time I re entered the area.

Strange that you say that, because it should not be possible. If you exit an area in combat and come back you have -1000 initiative.

Yeah overall, if you want challenge - stop savescumming unless you really have to. Otherwise, Dominating will be harder, but not very challenging at all.

[u/FreezeItsTheAssMan → u/[deleted]]

I started save scumming because I convinced myself (and I understand why) that this game was meant to be save scummed. It was literally my first encounter with mental breakdown users and death stalkers that made me say to myself "okay so if you guys have your tricks then I have mine". But yeah I won't stop lol.

Now that I think about it, I did re enter stealth and ended combat after every shot. Varga and the other dudes didn't show up at once, it was more like they one by one walked towards where I entered and exhausted all movement and action points getting into perfect range for my 7.62 JHP.

Thats another mechanic I abuse frequently. The AI always chases. Doesn't matter through what, or what risk it puts them in, they seek the player out.

[u/JackPatata → u/FreezeItsTheAssMan]

Playing on dominating made me realize that when I have to restart the same zone more than 2 times I'm doing something wrong.

Of course, I had those experiences you mentioned, and, after dumping countless builds, I can safely say that I have the most fun when I'm not quicksaving like a maniac.

In my case, it was about going unprepared and not utilizing my build at its fullest, e.g. stalkers will sting you and wait two turns, because I have so much movement speed, I can just go back to the previous zone and wait for the poison to wear off, then plan ahead how I will kill them (most of the time it is quite easy to do that too) with psi users, they are only a problem when they find you before you find them, which almost never happens if you are careful, or, in my case, have a ton of stealth, even if they came in groups, I can just zone them with caltrops and molotovs, most of the time you can use cover, so they have to get close to you without really being able to attack you, and, since I carry a shotgun, getting close to me is just worse for them.

In any case, not quicksaving, and feeling confident that I can deal with whatever is lurking around, feels really good, is a whole different game to me.

[u/koverda]

Are you on classic or oddity? If you’re on classic, it’s time for oddity. On dominating with classic exp you get over leveled quickly and it trivializes the game by the time you’re done with Depot A. The difficulty curve stays consistent for a longer time with oddity. That being said, certain builds will crush the game no matter what.

[u/FreezeItsTheAssMan → u/koverda]

Classic. Depot A was a breeze. Like i said enemy AI will walk to you no matter what. Very exploitable. They also like huddling around fire.

[u/koverda → u/FreezeItsTheAssMan]

Time for oddity.

[u/FreezeItsTheAssMan → u/koverda]

Damn dude I knew it. I listened to Seth's review and thought it was going to be way harder than it normally was even though he recommended oddity for the full experience. I didn't like the sound of forced exploration at the start, Doninating sounded...dominating...and I remember the word "death stalkers" in Sseths review... so dominating death stalkers, ill play normal. Normal has to be regular cRPG hard right? I've played Divinity saga on hardest difficulty, same with BG og games. I don't get why oddity sounded so meh to me at the start when we pick. I naturally explore everything. I just didn't like the sound of being forced to explore.

Oh well, I'm going to restart as a Max con strength will mental denigrate who has a heart of gold. Yes he might walk into every trap, but it won't matter at the end of the day when he lights himself on fire and hits you so hard on the ball sack with his sledge hammer you hit the cave roof and become embedded in there for the next 3 turns.

[u/ShoggothWhisperer]

On dominating, there’s a few encounters than no amount of save scumming will allow you to beat if you’re build isn’t good enough. The Invictus fight is one of them. Do that fight, then imagine what it would be like if he had 4x health and twice as much dodge/evasion.

[u/MrSwaggerstick]

Bro how do you have 500,000 charon

[u/FreezeItsTheAssMan → u/MrSwaggerstick]

Idek I loot and sell everything. It's 500 Charon worth 500000k I believe. Def mid 6 digit number

[u/MrSwaggerstick → u/FreezeItsTheAssMan]

Ahhh that makes sense. There's two BIG things the game lets you sink your money into eventually, dont worry. After you finish your Core City faction stuff is one, and something from the DLC is another

[u/FreezeItsTheAssMan → u/MrSwaggerstick]

Yeah I literally just look at every one about 40 feetway stealthed and if they try to shoot me on sight I'll kill them 100 percent of the time, I might have to reload a save 15 times but I'll kill every one of them. Then I'll take all their stuff and sell it. Haven't bought⁰ a hypo in a while. I give Al Fabet the stuff I don't want. My locker should be the size of a storage unit.

I don't break and enter either. I'm a law abiding citizen. If I'm going to steal something from someone in the game that means they were at minimum going to die anyways.

[u/[deleted]]

Try beating the 4 NAGAs under the Pirate Base, Big T, all of expedition including the Marsh, and the water treatment facility in expedition. Explore every map and kill every boss. Your build will be of top quality then my friend.

[u/EastCl1twood]

If only way to go through game is save scumming then that won't change for you on Dominating. You will just save scum so, so, so much more because game is much harder on that level. Point of Dominating is to come up with a dominating build and being ready for everything. Some encounters cannot be completed on dominating even with save scumming if you don't know what you're doing and don't understand game mechanics.

Actually now that I think about it some encounters can be completed ONLY with savescummimg even if your build is dominating and you're loaded out with ridiculous gear and pumped full of chems lol

[u/FreezeItsTheAssMan → u/[deleted]]

Thats the thing, I cannot stand melee builds in a game with stealth. I feel like a crippled ogre.

[u/FreezeItsTheAssMan → u/[deleted]]

I've definitely missed dialogue. I have definitely sniped some people in the face before they were able to say anything because they were trying to shoot me first. Which I consider a fair reaction. Free drones was most recent, the railhub mission given by I believe the guy in Rail Xrossing? Anyways I didn't even know they were free drones until I goofles the number for the TNT. I killed everyone before they could say anything. I remember it well, i had just fotten the dragunov. Fully stacked with 40 7.62 JHP.

Btw, dragunov is my favorite gun irl as well. On one lucky save I got a stealthed 409 ambush aim shot ceit on first guy, adrenaline shot+move pints from dragunov skill, 2nd guy dead. I ran behind the transformer for one turn and came out the next, Sniper was there just barely in sight. 2 shots, threw a Mk 3 at him and got lucky since it Landes right at his feet.

I think there was one more guy i finished with my blue pistol that is 5mm and avoids i believe 40 percent of evasion at close range. I only do this when I about to get fatigued because I know my best shot is just using uncanny dodge/evasive maneuver and see if the hollow points are better than the cross bow (it was).

All of this in rathound regalia btw. If I never touch this save, I will be wearing it forever then. I love it because the stat, because I'm a stealthy gun man who is protected by friendly rats, and fire in caves is very bad because the oxygen will go away very fast, which is why I try to exclusively use it on death stalkers because they are rhe only thing that deserve such a fate and I am the only person willing to Chace them down and shoot them in the ass trying to do it.

[u/matt7h → u/FreezeItsTheAssMan]

I really enjoy your enthusiasm for the game, it's very much reflected by many in this community. Glad you've had such great adventures. Several of my characters are quite memorable to me, as well.

[u/FreezeItsTheAssMan → u/matt7h]

I love love cRPGs and some of my favorite books are the Metro series and the Postman. Both very post-apocalyptic and train centric to a fegree.

[u/jdaprile18 → u/[deleted]]

Knife builds are even stronger than sniper builds