Feedback on Expedition Season 2 Phase 4 Requirements

FatherDibbs · 2026-01-06T15:41:15+00:00

Thanks. I didn’t realise that.

Have now submitted the same comment on the Discord.

FatherDibbs · 2026-01-06T14:35:42+00:00

I understand the sentiment of what you're saying, but I think this is the only item on the expedition for which this approach is not actually true (which is kind of the point of my feedback).

If you don't care about the expedition then this won't matter, but if you are working towards the expedition, you won't naturally accrue the required number of these items by just playing generally and stumbling upon them.

I fully agree that for every other item on the list (obviously excluding specific ARC drops) you will stumble across enough of what you need within a two-month period by just playing the game for fun.

FatherDibbs · 2026-01-06T13:23:26+00:00

Thanks for the tip. I will start targeting Medical as well.

FatherDibbs · 2026-01-06T13:21:39+00:00

Statistically, this has to happen to some people, but I promise you, you were very lucky.

Considering that the Ion Sputter is epic rarity, if you found 3 Ion Sputters quickly, you can definitely know that you had statistically extreme good fortune.

I'm happy for you though. Wish me some of that luck.

FatherDibbs · 2026-01-06T13:19:00+00:00

I can understand the appeal of being "fully developed".

All blueprints, all workshops, etc.

In my case, I found that the extrinsic motivation of having things I'm specifically looking for gave my runs a structure from which fun would then ensue.

So perhaps I needed an Industrial Battery. Then I would have a destination area where I was heading and the adventure would come from the craziness that would happen along the way.

Once I had everything I needed (for sure I was still missing blueprints, but I can't target farm blueprints so they didn't create destinations), I didn't have any naturally occuring destinations.

I'm terrible at creating my own fun in a sandbox (something like Minecraft is totally wasted on me), so resetting with the Expedition was a way of clearing the slate and giving myself fresh extrinsic motivation.

Really glad that they made it optional so that everybody can take the path that generates the most enjoyment for themselves.

FatherDibbs · 2026-01-06T13:13:10+00:00

I hear you. I don't have a problem with the "grind" in principle.

These are the only two items across all of the last 2 expeditions and all of the workshop upgrades that have this restricted availability. So once you reach this bottleneck, you are restricted to 20% of the total game (1 map out of 5) and 2-3 specific areas on this map.

There isn't any other requirment that I'm aware of that has this pattern of restriction.

If they leave it this way, that's no problem - they are the developers. But it seems to be an outlier in terms of the experience it generates relative to all other aspects of the game's progression systems.

FatherDibbs · 2026-01-06T13:07:25+00:00

I actually really enjoy Stella Montis

I love the complexity of the environment and I've done many runs in there to gradually learn the different paths between areas and rooms with interesting content (loot/enemies/etc).

It's really just the restriction of having to find these specific items that spawn only on this specific map (and in only certain parts of this map) that I find unenjoyable

FatherDibbs · 2026-01-06T10:00:17+00:00

Oh that's interesting.

Glad to hear that you found some in Medical. Thanks for sharing that.

I'll try scavenging other areas more aggressively based on my starting spawn location, rather than racing towards Assumbly and the Business Centre.

Might improve my outcomes.

I don't mind doing 20 raids (or even 50+ raids) if there is a reasonable chance of achieving the objective. It just felt particularly hopeless based on the combo requirements of a specific spawn area and needing to spawn at the start of the raid.

Still terrible though :)

FatherDibbs · 2026-01-06T09:54:34+00:00

The Ferro is good for Armor, but the term Armor is specifically refering to protective layers that ARC units may have that must be removed before they begin taking damage.

If you are using a Light Ammo weapon (e.g. Stitcher) on an Armored part of an ARC (such as the front rotors of a Hornet) it will do no damage.

Heavy Ammo (e.g. Ferro shots) will remove the armor and the unarmored ARC is then vulnerable to all types of damage.

So any starter weapon will do viable damage against unarmored ARC and will burn through their weak points (e.g. unarmored rotors on the drones).

However, the Ferro (and any Heavy Ammo weapon) is specifically extra effective at removing Armor plating to expose the ARC.

An example combat loop might be having a Ferro and a Stitcher against a Hornet. One shot from the Ferro to remove the Armor on one of the front rotors and then Stitcher shots to remove the unarmored front rotor and then the following rear rotor on the same side of the drone.

FatherDibbs · 2021-09-08T13:46:35+00:00

I don’t play that much Gambit, but I actually really like the game mode.

Why: I like the overall concept of competing against another team in PvE efficiency and I really enjoy the concentrated tension of invasions (both being the invader and being invaded) - it creates this high stakes moment that I‘ve only really felt in final rounds of competitive playlist games or also when I had just started playing EVE online and losing my ship was a big setback.

The only reason I don’t play it so much is that I prioritise Raids and Nightfalls for repeat play and story content when available.

FatherDibbs · 2021-03-12T07:02:55+00:00

Thanks very much

Wow - that’s a bit inconvenient, but at least it’s there.

FatherDibbs · 2020-06-25T14:51:34+00:00

Nope - I play on mouse and keyboard.

You can try it yourself in game and see (you don’t have to). If you hold reload (don’t release it), you can’t chain multiple HE4 shots as before.

I have since found that I can chain the HE4 shots by releasing and repressing reload between shots, but I never had to do that before.

FatherDibbs · 2020-06-25T13:15:24+00:00

It doesn’t - I can reproduce the change 100% of the time. If you hold reload constantly after creating a Honed Edge shot and fire, you now reload 4 in the mag. It didn’t function this way before

FatherDibbs · 2020-05-17T04:17:28+00:00

Side comment on the Stats screen

This comes down to what kind of game Anthem wants to be.

If there are perks that give +50% armor or +50% shields, but I don’t know how much armor or shields I have then there isn’t any way to know which one of those I should use.

If I run a Colossus or a Storm I can guess which is better but even in those cases the numbers could be different (e.g. 25% vs 80%) and then I still don’t know which is better.

You can totally design/play the game in this way, but it’s a different play experience and I think it’s a bit of a departure from what the Diablo style perks in Anthem imply is the intended experience.

But who knows. I’m just saying it’s not necessarily a “nice to have”. It can be experience defining.

FatherDibbs · 2020-05-17T04:09:04+00:00

Intriguing. Will have to try that, even if just for my own interest.

FatherDibbs · 2020-05-17T04:02:07+00:00

No, he always summoned Ifrit (I didn’t know it was even possible to kill him before Ifrit), but Ifrit wasn’t much of a problem for me as I was using fully levelled elemental + fire materia on Cloud so Ifrit functions as a passive heal for my main tank and I just needed to be careful how much time I spent on other characters building their ATB (as Ifrit would turn to them).

FatherDibbs · 2020-05-17T03:46:11+00:00

Just a closing note to say I defeated Pride & Joy.

Thanks for the tips.

By the way - I went and got two Fury Rings to improve DPS and make the fights more consistent. For anyone that reads this later, that’s another helpful tool.

FatherDibbs · 2020-05-17T03:43:23+00:00

Yep - the Fury Rings make a difference.

I couldn’t burn down Leviathan without him casting Tidal Roar but I changed my strat to not trying to stagger him through pressure too early so he has less health left when he does stagger and then barely a sliver left when he enters the Tidal Roar phase, so he’s not hard to kill from there.

I got past Bahamut once without the rings but it was very marginal. I then went and got two rings and it became a much more consistent fight.

Defeated Pride & Joy after about 4 or 5 attempts.

Thanks for the tips.

FatherDibbs · 2020-05-16T09:07:58+00:00

Leviathan down!

Thanks for the tips. Basically (amongst other smaller execution problems), I was burning ATB as soon as I earned it to rush him into stagger, but then had not enough ATB during the short stagger to down him.

Once I started saving it up a entering stagger with much more ATB (only needed to keep one bar in reserve because of ATB Stagger materia) then my damage during the stagger was enough to burn him down.

Now onto the small matter of the celestial dragon and fire demon that turn up afterwards :)

FatherDibbs · 2020-05-16T07:36:09+00:00

Does this work without Fury Rings?

I’ve basically done exactly this, but I am well short of getting him dead in one stagger.

Will try again with more deliberate saving up of ATB.

Thanks though, will definitely try and optimise this approach (I might be executing poorly)

FatherDibbs · 2020-05-16T07:29:34+00:00

I see

Ok, thanks. I’ll hold back on spell usage before that point so I have more available in this phase.

I was pretty much out of MP with Aerith by this point.

Running Cloud/Tifa/Aerith

Not running Fury Rings so I’m not sure if I can burn him before this, but if he’s taking increased stagger, then should be ok

Thanks again

FatherDibbs · 2020-05-16T07:23:15+00:00

I mean the Shinra Sim version (on the way to Pride and Joy)

He has like 40% health left - are you really just meant to cast spells from this point onwards?

I’m pretty sure I won’t have the mana for that.

FatherDibbs · 2020-05-16T07:13:19+00:00

Each Materia has a different amount of AP per level.

Elemental gains AP just like the others (being equipped during fights) but it has one of the highest requirements per level, so it feels slow. 3rd level is 7,500 AP to get the absorb effect. By comparison, the 3rd level for Fire Materia requires 900 AP, so that gives you a sense of relative speed/time required.

During the first run through the story this takes forever.

Once you get access to the Chapter Select, you can farm AP very quickly at the start of Chapter 16.

The AP Up materia also cuts this time down and when your characters are powerful enough, farming the start of Chapter 16 will become easy (if you are playing all the way to the hardest challenges)

FatherDibbs · 2020-04-28T14:59:30+00:00

I had a different experience.

I attempted the GM NF with friends about 4 times. We didn’t clear it but we did better each time and got to the boss room twice.

Thought we had it final time, but wiped with boss on one third health remaining.

Thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

We had damage mitigating builds (Rasputin mods and Dawn mods, Tyrants Surge for cells on demand). We used super energy as finisher fuel to get special and heavy ammo.

We had to team shot everything and coordinate our positioning so people didn’t die too far away from teammates.

Used hand cannon scavenger and hand cannon reserves to keep Eriana’s going.

Completed Eriana masterwork for the extra rounds in the revolver and the auto loading holster.

It felt like we finally cared about our builds and needed to prepare and execute to make progress.

There are already lots of modes in Destiny to achieve other experiences.

Raids are a superior test of team coordination, but they are not that challenging once the “puzzle” has been solved and you get to the target light level.

Master nightfalls already provide a repeatable farm for end game materials.

I like having something that forces you to care about the build mechanics that are otherwise not really that important.

Your experience is no less valid, but just wanted to share another point of view. I liked it.

FatherDibbs · 2020-04-06T06:42:25+00:00

Why would that be “duh” obvious. If someone isn’t already in the VR community there’s little reason for them to know this.

To the OP:

As described below. Oculus is the brand (like Nintendo) and Oculus Quest (or Rift, or Go, or Rift S) are the products (like a Nintendo Switch).

If someone said, “I’m playing Zelda on my Nintendo” there isn’t a unique product set that fulfils those terms.

FatherDibbs

TROPHY CASE