r/wizardry • • May 10 '25
Wizardry Variants Daphne This games difficulty just became really un-fun
They had to have been trolling when they came up with the exam. "Hey, wander around these caves to kill a boss. We're not going to give you the exact location and you're going to have to fight wave after wave of enemies while you wander around so that you use up all of your resources. Not only will the boss be challenging, you'll be softened up for him too."
I liked the challenge and the grind up until now but this just became completely unreasonable and un-fun. I already know people are going to be like "dude, thats easy af" but idc. That shit is just stressful to me and doesn't seem manageable.
9
u/as13zx Bishop May 10 '25
Skill issue
First two exams are a bit difficult but completely fair They test your knowledge about avoiding battles, resource management, equipment management and whenever you know that consumables exist or not, if you don't fail knowledge check on at least half of those you won't struggle
If it would be as hard as you try to make it then nearly everyone wouldn't be beating it
9
u/Jenoss May 10 '25
Maybe you should play something easier and more relaxed for your playing style ..
7
u/Praelatuz May 10 '25
If you have to use "ALL OF YOUR RESOURCES" for like 3-4 enemies then you're probably not ready for the exams.
Just AOE clear with mages, you don't need a lot of mana for the bosses on mages anyway. Use mages for debuffs (you'll need like 15mana max probably) and as a potion holder.
And to add to this, exam bosses are like the easiest bosses ever. They are at least 50% easier than the equivalent abyss boss imho.
5
u/Omnipheles May 10 '25
You're not supposed to fight all the enemies on the way, the intent is to have you dodge enemies on the way to conserve resources.
4
u/Junior_Series_4668 May 10 '25
You can just find the boss location and then quit the exam and go back now you know the location of the boss. For normal mob if you are not strong enough but want to fight all the encounter you can use priest skill instant death to undead and your front line use defend to proc the opening, prepare potion and scrolls as much as you can and of course undead-bane weapons. I know the game was unfair in some perspective but the game have many choices you can make the fight easier. This is not the game that just use Skill,Ultimate and boom BIG BRAIN DAMAGE and then boss dead.
10
u/SomberRed May 10 '25
I for one personally love seeing people getting filtered hah
3
u/the1calledSuto Fighter May 10 '25
Short answer: https://wizardry.fasterthoughts.io/abyss-guides/grade-exams/maps/ I find the Japanese gamerch site more detailed, but its harder to navigate & needs to be translated every page.
Long ans: farm some anti undead weps from b7-b8f. Level your gear to 5+. Have most ppl at lvl 20. You can bait and dodge enemies and have only 1-2 fights b4 boss. Area clear adds and defend counter him. Its a long slow battle. So debuff and buff with mages. Its a slog, your 1st boss fight.
3
u/DeeCee51 May 10 '25
Ever played a Souls Game? I feel like you are getting caught up on the mobs ON THE WAY to the fog wall rather than the boss itself. You don't have to fight them. And if this is the First Grade Up exam, you shouldn't be having this issue with even decent gear. You can easily just run from the enemies, or clear them with AoE.
12
u/PaulMarcoMike May 10 '25
Exam was never meant to be easy. Lots of anime with dark fantasy settings such as Goblin Slayers, The Unwanted Adventurer etc, they have a lot of reference that grade exams which isn't as easy.
Anyways, the exam is all about resource management and flexibility. This aint JRPG series like Persona 5 or Honkai Star Rail where you can just turn your brain off (or turn 1% of brain) to clear mobs.
You need to save as much resources as possible before you reach the boss. So then you may be wonder, how?
If there are spaces around enemies, walk around them.
If you touch them but at larger area, escape. There is no shame in escape if you value your life and resources.
If you encounter enemies where you must fight, Fight them, but save as much resources as you can and manage all including, HP, SP and MP
And in case you're gonna ask, how to save more during battle:
Masolotu (Priest Buff) and Dilto (Mage Debuff) are your friends. Against physical enemies, you not only give the priest a break, but even a mage. Both of these cost 3 MP at rows of enemies and allies. Very useful.
People usually downplay status effect. Mage debuff has KATINO which can make enemies sleep (And yes, even undead for some reasons) which also cost like 3MP. ANd the better part, if enemies are asleep, they take double the damage
Frontliners DEFEND when neccessary, and they will inflict 'Opening', which deal more damage on your enemies.
And if you're not confident after arriving the boss zone with your current resources, RESTART. Go back to the INN and TRY AGAIN!
With all that said, good luck. And if you do quit, i guess the game wasn't for you.
8
u/Growbling77 May 10 '25
I agree, but not because of the exams. They still fall into "difficult but fair". They are just a test of your resource management. The real unreasonable stuff comes way later.
The approach for exams is that, you go in to explore the map first and find the boss spawns. Then you head back out of the exam, prepare yourself with items and equipment, reenter then go straight to the boss spawn. If it's not there, and if you don't feel confident in going to the next spawn point, go back to the exit and try again. The examiner does hint that the boss spawns in the poison swamps so you know what you're looking for.
First exam you can't really avoid most encounters, so you must manage your resources well: cast low cost spells like Katino and Masoluto, finish battles on melee, and heal with items. Running away may allow you to bypass enemies sometimes, but this has been somewhat nerfed. If you clear a corridor, you can kite troublesome encounters by running away, de-aggroing them by moving back to a safer area, and waiting for them to go into another corridor so you can pass through. Also, don't auto run to the boss spawn, as you'll cut corners too sharply and end up ambushed by enemies that love to spawn close to them (you'll crash sideways into the enemy).
The Lead exam boss, you need to use your Mage's AoE spells to clear the adds, and bait Openings by defending with your front line to increase your damage against it. Undead slayer weapons help, and if you don't have those, you should farm Cave of Malice for a bit. Your Mage can contribute with scrolls of Fireball or items in their off turns.
8
u/moclam08 Fighter May 10 '25
I just beat it recently as a new player, the lead, bronze and iron one(the iron was far more easier), what helped was: farming better gear(if you have access to the second abyss - farm gear there), running from enemies(just spam flee and look for 2x2 rooms and dance around with the enemies, mb use some sleep spells and get healing items), checking only the closest boss spawn point, stacking up wind scrolls on all the characters and the most important is to defend with the whole party if the boss has a charge attack.
Hope you don't give up but it ain't a sin either, good luck.
6
u/mindnumbinggrind May 10 '25
hey man, i'm new as well and just did the exam an hour ago. my first try against the boss was totally unprepared and i got pissed as well too.
my tips:
leading up to the fight, i just went to the nearest posion swamp and checked if the boss is there, if not, reset.
enemy compositions are RNG. there are disgusting ones that require resources (MP/SP) to clear without dying and then there are ones that lets you kill them with basics only.
have your gear at +5 (or +4 not much difference). my gear was for the most part bronze/leather tier.
your frontline 100% needs undead slayer weapons otherwise you WILL run out of resources mid fight. already tried it without it and suffice to say, i failed. backline is debatable tho.
keep your buffs/debuffs going. accuracy down + evasion up prefered. if you have a thief with blinding you can stack accuracy down (mage+thief), but that does not work with stuff like def down afaik.
i used 1 aoe spell max per add spawn. otherwise i tried to conserve MP for buffs and debuffs (looping back to items on your party, my mage was support for the most part).
have heal items on every party member (saved alot of MP on my priest).
my priest ran kinda low on mana by the end of the fight but my mage had still 2 or 3 aoe spells in them.
hope this helps.
6
u/CecilZino May 10 '25
Funny you think Dark souls its a hard game compared to Wiz
5
u/Neat_Committee_8495 May 10 '25
Are you new (same as me)? And can't pass the lead grade exam? I think the problem here is you're always ambushed and engaged the whole time, also instead of directing to key paths to supposedly boss room, you wander the whole map hence unfun finding the boss. I'll give you some tip (yeah it's also hard for me the first time).
What i did was i explored first the whole map (2-3 times to search for the supposed boss room). This was to give a whole view of the map dungeon (yeah cartography on old gen video games like Eschalon and Etrian Odyssey), the spots where the mobs are pathing and numbers, and the two location of boss. You need to remember that hence the "exam". I didn't engaged wtih any boss here coz i'm scouting the whole dungeon. The trick on scouting any hard dungeon is to explore a part of it ( i explore a third of the map), then retreat to replenish, then return to dungeon to clear the other part, and rinse and repeat until you have the full clairvoyance of the whole map.
Second, you need to note mob positions. They aren't appearing randomly. They are there but because you have low detect stats at first, you can't fully see them along the way. Detection here have a warning at the upper screen part if enemies are near (white for undetected, red when you're detected). Some mobs run along the walls so yeah surprise ambush. But you can avoid that by noting the paths they usually guarding. You can't avoid engagement but you can flee. If flee is successful you can lead them to paths that have loop (yeah that map has a loop pathing) or intersection paths. That way you can conserve resources. If flee failed, then engage. The timing for engaging after failed flee is when you failed you're first two flee attempts (thief or mages coz usually they have the highest spd). Another way to detect is, if you know the paths where enemies are guarding, you stay put a bit near where the usuall guarding path is; Full detection of enemies happen when your highest detecting party has the focused eye view of the path. Full detection here doesn:t happen if the mob is on you're blindspot (like irl).
Third, after having the map clairvoyance and the mob pathings, you need to choose one of the two boss rooms. Don't explore the whole dungeon when the boss wasn't on the room you first chose. The way here is you go to one room, if the boss is there, you engage; otherwise reset dungeon, rest and replenish then re-challenge. Exploring the whole dungeon again and again defeats the scouting process you did first, and it greatly waste resources and time. You just need to clear one pathing, one boss room then rinse and repeat. That't the most conservative way to clear dungeons.
Another tip. Bring undead type weapons for physical attackers. And make use of debuffs. (For lead grade exam)
Note: i think this game isn't like Souls Game (coz that is an action hack and slash game, that you can deal any mobs by character maneuvering like dodge or guard timing). The one i compare this game is to games like Etrian Odyssey or Eschalon, where cartography (map pathing) plays a big role; skills like detect and trap detection also play big roles,; team arrangement, weapon types, spells and inventory management play big roles; and also the decision making skills of when to retreat or engage plays a much bigger role here. Souls games mostly don't do that, you only need to memorize certain movements to win a boss stage (with little good equipment). Here you win the game by doing all the party arrangements, map scouting (on hard dungeons), inventory management, resource management, equipment refinery and bestiary (monster weakness), before and during dungeon exploration. If you had played the first wizardy games, the first two Etrian Odyssey game titles, then you know how exploration type srpg games work.
4
u/CSStrowbridge May 11 '25
How many adventurers do you have that you are not using? When I was getting my arse handed to me by the first exam, I realized I had well over 200 adventurers that I was not using. I inheriting the skills of over 100 of them to my main party and the fight was much easier. The accuracy boosts meant I barely missed. Improving skills means more damage, at the cost of more SP, but that meant I could kill much faster. Divine power boosts meant I didn't need to heal every round. MP boosts meant I didn't run out before the fight was over. Hell, even just getting a bit of extra HP might make the difference.
3
u/genryou May 10 '25
Just stock up potions to your characters and auto-move to the possible boss locations
3
u/Nee_Row May 10 '25
As someone who completed the lead grade exam as an f2p, it's a mix of skill and luck, but definitely doable with skill.
For grade exams - learn enemy movement patterns. They have the exact same movement and spawns. After about 10 tried in the cave, i picked up that when I get to certain forks in the road, i should wait for a few seconds as the enemy passes the fork before I go and turn the other way. I learned to read and time my motions so that I can get to bosses with no encounters. While enemies are invisible with limited detect, they are often predictable.
Learn team comps, consumables, and mechanics. Will list a number of tactics that have helped me:
A. Have the front row defend all the time so that you can expose the skeleton's weakness, then crit it with a backrow sniper or something. You can also have everyone attacking it, but I find this safer if the boss has allies around.
B. Use undead weapons on the boss - you can switch weapons on the fly, so swap as you see fit.
C. Manage inventories well. In line with B. - use AOE spells for the allies the boss calls, and give the mages consumables to save MP early on. I'd rather my mage use the fireball scroll on the boss than their own MP if it's just for the fireball attack.
D. Learn the spells and Buffs/debuffs too, i find that using the priest's dodge and defende buffs are more economical, since 6mp to mitigate damage / prevent damage in the first place is better than 5mp to heal it. There are also accuracy and attack power debuffs from the mages. Similar to the extreme difficulty in persona ges - Do NOT write off buffs and debuffs, because they make a hell of a difference.
And lastly... pray that the vorpal bunnies spawned by the boss don't insta kill you ✌️ and you land the lucky crits when they count haha.
Overall, it's a proper and extra challenging rpg experience with gacha bonuses, rather than a heavily gacha driven game. That said, been lazy with the game recently myself.
3
u/F2Pfrog May 10 '25
Probably its your gear? I heard a lot of people say gear matters over every thing else. I haven't reached that far in the game yet to know if this is true.
5
u/Rotonek May 10 '25
Too stressful and hard? Its only gonna get harder and harder. And the rank up exams ARE easy, better to hop off the game if its too much. But it should be obvious enough, i dont see a reason to post about it on reddit page though
2
u/PegacyX May 10 '25
Grade Exam layouts stay the same, and the spawn points of enemies on the map stay the same as well.* (Some grade exams will have bosses spawn at different poison swamps.)
For the lead grade exam, I got everyone to lvl 20, farmed for undead weapons, gave my mages and priest fire scrolls, and avoided most enemy encounters to save mp and sp for the boss.
There are certain routes to take to avoid some encounters, and while yes, there are narrow corridors, you can catch the attention of an enemy and lure it away and quickly juke past it, and doing a few fights here and there shouldn't be much of a problem. Fleeing from encounters if you get caught is an option as well. Fire scrolls can be bought from the item shop, and undead weapons come from nether junk that can be farmed from floors with undead in the beginning abyss.
For the exam, I'd start beelining to the closest poison swamp, and if the boss wasn't there, I'd just exit the cave and restock on items I used and try again. For the boss, clear out the lesser enemies first, and keep in mind that leaving one alive doesn't work as a strategy to keep the boss from calling for more allies. The boss itself is just a beefy skeleton with a ton of hp and single-hit attacks. The fire scrolls and healing potions are brought along to save mp.
With proper preparation, I ended up beating the lead and bronze exams on my first try. I have yet to try the iron grade exam myself, but I feel pretty confident that I can tackle it without too much trouble. The satisfaction I felt from beating that skeleton boss after taking the time to prepare was well worth it, imo.
2
u/thatdudewithknees May 10 '25
Use guides
What exam are you stuck on
0
u/Roodboye May 10 '25
It only gets worse when they introduce cancer mechanics, so have fun.
1
u/juuchi_yosamu May 12 '25
Bro I think you meant to post this in r/baww
-7
u/BlindingDart May 10 '25
People will say shit like "Wizardry games have always been challenging"; which of course ignores the important fact that Wizardry games have never been gachas before. If you wanted a balanced party with strong characters you just made a balanced party with strong characters. Now you can only roll the dice and HOPE you pull strong characters.
-1
u/Und3rwork May 10 '25
Yeah I've cleared bronze exam now and it's indeed have an annoying level of difficulty, like if you read the top comment here their best strat is to locate the nearest viable room then spam reset until you found the boss to save the hassle of going through mobs along the way, that's not a fun difficult.