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Horizon Zero Dawn
- Thread starter polonyc2
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I'm pretty sure I did that Cauldron last, and I think I had the Shield Weaver by then. My advice for Thunderjaws is freeze using the sling, exploit weak points, repeat. First, tearblast the disc launchers off (ALWAYS do this first), then when you freeze it, use them against it. They do massive damage.
It's all about learning strategies and how each machine operates. If you don't care about some minor spoilers (not really plot related), there's a video of a guy showing how to kill each machine that I found helpful.
Keep in mind that Cauldrons are totally optional, too, and not really required for the story.
It's all about learning strategies and how each machine operates. If you don't care about some minor spoilers (not really plot related), there's a video of a guy showing how to kill each machine that I found helpful.
Keep in mind that Cauldrons are totally optional, too, and not really required for the story.
Ocellaris
Fully [H]
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Just finished the game a few days ago. I put the difficulty on Easy and blasted the shit out of everything with Tearblast arrows and the sling that launches AOE non elemental bombs.
I like the combat a lot, just found it somewhat frustrating when I missed a shit in normal difficulty and damn near every enemy rushes directly at you.
I like the combat a lot, just found it somewhat frustrating when I missed a shit in normal difficulty and damn near every enemy rushes directly at you.
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Not only is there Easy, there's also Story difficulty. Don't let the difficulty keep you from experiencing this awesome game.
Yeah you know your limit of difficulty/enjoyment! Worst thing to do is totally be turned away because of difficulty levels, especially while you could be enjoying a fun story and scenery to go along. This doesn't have to be difficult like BloodBorne or Ninja Gaiden game.
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I played through on Normal and that was definitely difficult enough for me. I don't really have any desire to go higher.
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Yeah, I played on Normal first and probably died more on Normal getting used to the weapons and learning the tricks against most machines than I did on ultra hard on NG+ with all of my weapons/armor from the first play through. The Storm Bird is probably the hardest enemy in the main game and the Fire Claw is probably the hardest in the DLC or maybe the whole game. I can take down Thunderjaws pretty damn easily with the DLC's upgraded charge shot bows (forgot what they're called now) equipped with a few damage mods and a handling mod, esp. if I go for their turrets and use them against themselves. Not sure why M76 couldn't kill them with the 6-12 shots you get from their turrets.. I don't remember it taking more than 6-8 shots from their own turrets on Normal difficulty, esp. if you hit them in the side after exposing their "heart" and hitting it, but usually I would just spam the turret shots at them and they would go down pretty quick regardless.
I didn't have much of a prob with any of the cauldrons either on either play through... well except for the Fire Claw in the Frozen Wilds. Took me a good hour of dying (again, on Ultra Hard) to take that sum'bitch down, lol. I read after the fact that there's flying drones with some kind of freezing material in them and if you hit them over the Fire Claw, it freezes him instantly, allowing you to unload whatever (blast bombs are probably best) on him while he's weakened.
M76
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For me one hit from its own weapon caused about 300 hp damage. Of course half the shots bounce off it's armor, and another half don't even hit, and after using up both of it's weapons, it still had half it's hp. I hate controllers they should all be put inside a volcano and melted with all the blueprints attached.
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Huh.. maybe they've tweaked the damage or health since my first play through.. they've done that with some other weapons at least during patching before. The shield weaver armor took a huge nerf in one of the first patches, but it still makes the game much easier (on Normal at least, on ultra hard not so much, heh) once you get it. If you get the shield weaver and put difficulty on the story mode, you're literally invincible, lol.
The only time I had a prob with the controls really was trying to find the right health or element defense booster while in the middle of battle. scrolling through items while trying to attack/dodge enemies is not fun or easy when you have to take your thumb off of the joystick to do it. Otherwise get the upgraded slow-mo and jump/slow-mo ability and bunny hop constantly while hitting weak spots and it makes the game considerably easier.
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My main issue was always just aiming precisely with a controller. I do agree that even on Normal the enemies do a shit ton of damage to you, even with what I would consider decent armor. Are you guys switching armor constantly? I've definitely used some elemental armors for specific enemies, but even with the max level of melee/ranged defense possible with mods I always felt all armor in the game was far inferior to the Shield Weaver. I mostly just use the Stealth armor to get the Silent Strike hits, and then switch to the Shield Weaver.
As far as the game not being that hard...I don't think they would have added Story difficulty if there weren't complaints.
As far as the game not being that hard...I don't think they would have added Story difficulty if there weren't complaints.
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Exactly what I did. I would only use the ice armor occasionally against the glinthawks, snapmaws, and ice claws because they can always hit you with their freeze. I tried using the fire armor against the fire claw at the end and it didn't really help a damn bit on ultra hard, because fire is only part of their attacks.. any melee damage from them would one-shot you pretty much still, so the shield weaver was best overall for fighting and would use stealth armor for running around everywhere.
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M76
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Can you get silent strikes in the open if you have stealth armor? I assumed you'd still have to be hidden and only able to use silent strike once on an enemy even if you have that. I never put any points into stealth skills because it's very easy to sneak up on machines. But sneaking is useless against anything that doesn't die by a 2-3 hits tops. Unless you want to override it.
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If you have high stealth, and some of the perks that let you sprint silently and whatnot...yes, you can run up and silent strike them as long as they are still unaware/not aggro'd on you (white or yellow circle).
And overrides can be really, really useful when you have more than one large machine to deal with.
Yeah those Storm Birds can eat shit and die in a fire, that one and the one that burrows suck. The Thunderjaw was nothing once I figured out a combo to use against it. I haven't played the DLC yet, been thinking of picking it up.
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Yeah the Rockbreaker is a fucking asshole. Best thing to do there is tearblast its legs off so it can't dig. Unfortunately it still moves really fast on the ground and charges you frequently. Those fights are kind of a slog.
The DLC machines are pretty brutal. Not only are they fast, but they do a ton of damage and also have elemental abilities. They do have weak points but they are generally shielded and take a lot of damage to destroy.
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Yeah, they're a close second to me for most annoying enemy. Once I saw this trick though, it made them a bit easier:
Kinda hard to time the shot as they dive still, but usually I can get beside them to hit the same spot before they dive too.
As mentioned before, freezing enemies and using blast bombs or targeted tri-shot arrows are pretty effective on any enemy though. Freezing enemies with freeze arrows isn't nearly as fast/easy as shown there on Ultra Hard though, so I used the sling with freeze bombs instead usually.
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M76
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I swear this game is trolling me. Or at least this quest is a troll quest. You know the "ancient armor" bunker. First I travel there when I found the first power cell, then it says you need another one to open the door, so you have to leave. Then I find the second power cell, I'm happy, I go back only for it to tell me: OK now find three more! What is this if not trolling?
BTW something is messed up with my difficulty settings. I changed it to easy, and then the thunderjaw cauldron became even harder! It spawned a bunch of watchers on top of the thunderjaw, on normal there were no watchers there for me. And it seemed to have the same hit points, and still could barely scratch it and the tearblast arrows worked even less effectively than on normal difficulty.
Then I set difficulty to story, but that's just stupid the game looses it's meaning because you can basically one hit kill anything even a deathbringer. And when you get hit you loose about 2 points of hp. But when you get hit on easy you loose 2-300 by to a larger enemy. I wish there was a difficulty setting between story and easy, about halfway.
For now I'll continue playing on easy, for the most part it feels pretty normal, this is what normal should be IMO. I defeated a deathbringer without much issue on the first try. Isn't the deathbringer the ultimate badass in the game? I though it should be harder than the thunderjaw, but it's easier to kill by a mile.
BTW something is messed up with my difficulty settings. I changed it to easy, and then the thunderjaw cauldron became even harder! It spawned a bunch of watchers on top of the thunderjaw, on normal there were no watchers there for me. And it seemed to have the same hit points, and still could barely scratch it and the tearblast arrows worked even less effectively than on normal difficulty.
Then I set difficulty to story, but that's just stupid the game looses it's meaning because you can basically one hit kill anything even a deathbringer. And when you get hit you loose about 2 points of hp. But when you get hit on easy you loose 2-300 by to a larger enemy. I wish there was a difficulty setting between story and easy, about halfway.
For now I'll continue playing on easy, for the most part it feels pretty normal, this is what normal should be IMO. I defeated a deathbringer without much issue on the first try. Isn't the deathbringer the ultimate badass in the game? I though it should be harder than the thunderjaw, but it's easier to kill by a mile.
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LOL...yeah it kinda is. You have to get pretty close to the end of the main quest to find all of the power cells. I would just consider reading a guide on how to get them. They can be easy to miss and backtracking to get them later is a hassle. It is super worth getting, though.
M76
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Then I think I already missed a few, as I found the first on top of the faro tower which I assume is not the first actually as I'm was 20 hours into the game at least by then.
M76
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Seems like the game is made up of 10 hours of grind for every hour of exploration. I started playing the expansion and so far it feels better than the main campaign, more balanced, and I wouldn't say more interesting, because the story is certainly not that interesting as finding out what happened, but somehow I Still enjoy the break from the main campaign as it was getting real tedious.
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I didn't feel the need to grind at all, though I admit I did do all of the collection stuff and many of the side quests, but because I wanted to, not because I felt like I had to. I guess if you just tried to power through the main quest you might feel underpowered.
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Hah.. I kinda thought the same thing when I went back to get the power armor after getting the 2nd power node. But then I noticed that it actually tells you that you need 5 nodes to get the armor in the side quest details for it. So it's only trolling if you didn't catch that, hah.
The watchers were in all of the cauldron boss arenas in my experience from playing through on Normal and Ultra Hard. They're in there before you even release the boss robot, usually just 2-3 of them circling right around the force field and I would always snipe them from the perch before I dropped down into the arena.
I'm not sure if the Deathbringer should be the "ultimate badass" or not, since they pretty much made them stationary tanks that once you overheat with fire ammo will pop out multiple weak points for you to destroy it with. Once you start the final mission though, you'll see that they kind of augment them a bit to make them a bit harder
. I always thought the Storm Bird was the hardest enemy in the game.. until I got to the Fire Claw in the DLC, hah.Most of the side quests usually led to exploration for me and farming other parts along the way to my objective, so I didn't ever really feel it was a grind, I guess. I actually enjoyed any excuse to wonder around the game, even if just to collect all of the Banuk trinkets and Metal Flowers. But it often took me much longer to complete any quest just because I would get easily distracted by some landmark along the way or pack of somewhat rare enemies to farm resources from. I'd say at least 50% of the time I've put into this game (about 150 hours, I think) was spent just exploring around instead of trying to complete an actual objective or at least on my way to one. I could understand if you didn't enjoy that aspect of it if you saw it as a grind, but I (and most reviewers apparently) didn't feel that way about it just because I found most of the areas of the game genuinely interesting and I never really grew tired of killing all of the machines.
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M76
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I haven't done any farming since the very beginning of the game. I always have more resources than I can ever spend just by killing the machines I must to progress in the quests. I had multiple inventory slots worth of almost every crafting material, had to turn them into shards more than once since I started playing. Thank goodness it's a little faster than in ME1, but it feels so similar. Now I don't even bother collecting most of the loot I only go for rare items. But still the biggest grind in the game is collecting herbs. I'm sick and tired of having to pluck every damn plant. You can buy 200 wood for very little from merchants. I wish I could replenish all health herbs by a single payment.
Initially it was fun to hunt them for sport but as it is pointless I stopped bothering with it, I just march past all machine sites, they stop following you soon enough anyway. Except glinthawks that have a very big range, and they're probably the ones I hate to deal with the most. So I just give them a wide berth. I don't want to deal with them I'd rather walk 3 times longer. The areas are good looking, but not interesting since there is nothing to discover. I wish there were voice recordings and audio logs scattered everywhere in the game world, or other easter eggs, and not just at a few key locations connected to the main quest.
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You should collect everything you can still, just to sell for shards the next time you meet a merchant. You make think you have more than enough shards too at one point, but the new weapons and armors in the DLC will kill your savings fast, and the new bows at least are worth it just for the charge shot damage bonus. You make a LOT of shards selling back the echo shells (used for terablast ammo, but I rarely used it so I always had excess amounts of it) if you pass them up from dead enemies. I always had a ton of excess resources as well, but even if you don't get much back for them, I would keep as much as I could and sell most of it off for shards. One nice new perk in the DLC too is the ability to break down anything into shards yourself without the need for a merchant, though only at half of the profit you would get from a merchant, it's still nice to have for times when your inventory is maxed out and you would forfeit any profit of not being able to sell it without that ability anyways. I had a shit-ton of skill points saved up after beating the main game twice, that I was able to unlock all of the new DLC skills immediately upon loading it up, hah.
Yeah, searching for med plants got somewhat tedious at times for me too, but usually I was able to stay topped off just from picking up plants on my way to somewhere else anyways. It was nice of them to add the perk/skill to be able to pick up things from your mount in the DLC too so you didn't have to dismount every time you needed to pick something up.
Yeah, Glinthawks are annoying too. The best way to deal with them is to shoot them down with fire arrows (usually only takes 1-3 arrows if you have at least one fire mod on your bow) and then kill them with your staff and then another set of fire arrows again if they try to fly away again and they'll burn to death at that point usually.
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One thing that annoyed me about the inventory in this game is that you end up carrying around a bunch of hearts and lenses that take up an entire inventory slot each, for usually like 1-2 hearts or whatever. Seems like they could be grouped better to avoid that.
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You can hold 5 hearts/lenses per slot. I always sold them all except for 1 though if I knew I would need one to buy something once I saved up enough shards.
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Yeah, I know...problem is you are not really sure which ones you will end up needing, so rather than sell everything and farm them again later, I ended up keeping a bunch and being low on space for a lot of the game.
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Yeah, I know...problem is you are not really sure which ones you will end up needing, so rather than sell everything and farm them again later, I ended up keeping a bunch and being low on space for a lot of the game.
Heh, yeah I did the same for a while, but then just figured I can always fast travel back to a spot to acquire one again if need be and only held onto a few more rare or hard to acquire hearts/Lenses like the Storm Bird's or Rock Breaker's.
I did feel there was a severe imbalance of the amount of shards you can gain throughout the game versus the amount of stuff you can purchase that is of worth. Getting the shard salvager skill and the hoarder are key in maximizing the shards...but again what would you spend them on really?
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Well, it does cost shards to craft arrows, so that is something. I never really felt like I had a crazy amount. When I got a lot, I would upgrade my pouches or buy armor and weapons and it all went away fairly quickly. Obviously after you have all of the best gear, you will start to build up a stockpile, but that is to be expected.
I haven't played NG+, but I guess there is upgraded gear there too, and it's fairly expensive.
I haven't played NG+, but I guess there is upgraded gear there too, and it's fairly expensive.
M76
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Finally I feel I'm getting close to the end of this game. I thought I'd finish it during the holidays, but I'm still going with it. I can hardly remember the beginning of the game by now.
I just want to see the end at this point, I've had more than enough of it It baited me into thinking that this game was about exploration, and cool relics from the past, but it's about 98% grind and 2% of the interesting stuff.
I just want to see the end at this point, I've had more than enough of it It baited me into thinking that this game was about exploration, and cool relics from the past, but it's about 98% grind and 2% of the interesting stuff.
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It's so weird how different an experience we had...I didn't feel it was grindy at all. If you try to just power through the main storyline I could see how you might hit a wall eventually, but doing all of the side quests and whatnot I never felt that underpowered, nor did I feel like I had to grind for XP or anything.
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Felt about the opposite for me, as I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay enough so that doing any of the side quests didn't feel like a grind to me and I welcomed any opportunities to kill and collect things. But as Maverick said too, at no point did I feel I was underpowered, even on Ultra hard, so I don't see how any grinding to get upgraded stuff is necessary either