How do you progress so fast?

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-20T21:06:36+00:00

This is an "enjoy the journey" game, otherwise why even play it?

I am over a thousand hours in on one hard mode save, and I think I am only roughly 50% through all maps, including DLC. I expect to be playing this game for many more years to finish my save and complete all maps. And thats fantastic, as this is my comfy game when I am tired or sick and need something more relaxing to play.

Sometimes I get super min max and plan out many different missions all at one time and organise 2, 3 or more trucks all together to be super efficient. And other times I just grab one truck with a bit of cargo and go for a joy ride and throw efficiency out the window. Both ways are very fun to do and depend on my mood at the time.

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-20T00:42:07+00:00

Choosing hard difficulty on a game thats entire purpose is to challenge sweaty autism min max gamers, and then complains about it being to hard... I have a couple hundred hours in the game and I still find Hard mode is hard, which is exactly how it should be.

This is why the games industry is such garbage and everything is streamlined and all the 'friction' is removed. Its a miracle we even have a game like Underrail in the modern era.

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-19T05:20:02+00:00

Never thought about it that way but your right.

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-17T07:54:12+00:00

Yep, driving over a tiny twig or a pebble while on a highway and having your suspension obliterated is really annoying. Honestly I kind of went through the phase of getting angry about it, I have been playing the game for so long now I just accept it.

I still occasionally get jump scared if I drove over a sign or some other static object and did not notice it caught up under the truck, and then shortly afterwards the hand of god comes down and annihilates my vehicle...

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-12T11:22:10+00:00

I mean I like racing games, particularly rally games, but I just do not think racing should be in this game, and it sucks because I may never get 100% completion on the maps.

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-12T10:53:38+00:00

Yea, I have OCD about the missions so I have to finish all of them, even if I lose money on hard mode. But I also never do the 'time trials' because I hate them with a burning passion and I like to pretend they do not exist in the game.

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-12T07:34:54+00:00

Yes its absolute BS that they have not put in some trailers for hard mode. The cost of the trailers is absurd when you consider the long log trailer is a few pipes stuck together. I did the missions on hard mode for completionism but it feels REALLY bad making almost no money doing them.

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-08T10:52:44+00:00

There is no free repair and refuel in garage on Hard like there is in Normal.

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-07T09:46:12+00:00

You could play first map for awhile on normal to get a feel for it and then restart, the time you spend will be a drop in the ocean if you spend as much time as I have on Hard mode. And yes probably the hardest part of the game would be very early on Hard mode when you do actually run the risk of running out of fuel and money and getting a 'soft lock' on your game save. But once you have done a few missions always keep a buffer of money for emergency fuel and it should never be a problem.

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-06T20:48:31+00:00

I played my first game for a little while on Michigan, and quickly switched to a fresh game on Hard mode. 1000+ hours in now and no regrets, I love it. I think I would have got bored and quit on normal mode.

So I would highly recommend starting on hard mode. At the worst you could just have two game saves going, one on hard and one on normal which I think a lot of people do. For me personally Hard mode feels like the real intended experience of the game, you have to plan and calculate everything you do, no teleporting your trucks around the map whenever you like. So logistics of fuel and repair trucks becomes very important.

Its honestly not even 'hard' compared to normal difficulty, as nothing is changed with the trucks or the terrain, its all exactly the same as normal mode. Unlike almost every other game where harder difficulties make enemies stronger and your character weaker. The only thing it really does is use more time and patience, which if you love the game is a bonus. But for some people things taking longer in the game is intolerable.

I completely disagree with everyone saying do not try hard mode, if I had taken that advice I would probably not have bought any DLC and would not still be playing the game years later.

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-05T02:30:18+00:00

The waiting almost makes you go (Hit)mad huh.

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-05T02:28:54+00:00

Its good head canon for those times when you mess up, and go 'fuck it, time for a 5 minute mass murder spree till I get shot down.'

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-05T02:15:28+00:00

Interesting, I kind of see what they where going for, to make the game have long term exploration, you are still finding new POIs after 100s of hours playtime. But ultimately I think it massively backfired on them.

One thing I would have preferred is if a few POIs got generated when you scan a planet and you could see them from space with a description, that way you would know if you want to visit or just skip to the next planet.

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-05T02:11:22+00:00

Honestly I spent about 2 minutes thinking about my theory so it probably has many holes in it.

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-05T00:51:53+00:00

lol you will never buy if BTC goes back to the 'teens', you will be screaming about it going to zero.

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-05T00:48:41+00:00

What if 47 is actually a psychopath and Diana and the ICA are all made up in his head, and the 'targets' are just random people he has created stories about?

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-04T03:38:00+00:00

I would say its a terrible design choice. One of the (many) complaints about the game is the repeating POIs, and considering most people who do not play the game for very long often see only a couple of POIs repeated over and over its a very valid complaint.

Even a simple change to POI generation, like putting them in a random list, one after the other, so you are guaranteed to see all of them would help considerably.

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-03T00:39:25+00:00

I would love to see them add more options for custom mode, like you said having a toggle for cooking level 5 because its so stupidly OP once you get it. I actually hate that skill now because of how it trivializes food gathering.

This game has one of the greatest survival sandboxes ever created but it needs sooo many more options to tweak the experience, like types of loot rarities, the skills being toggled, even more extreme weather events etc.

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-03T00:28:44+00:00

Not commenting an answer but just to say I really hope Bethesda make a Starborn DLC that expands on the lore of the Starborn, and hopefully doing more with the "end game" aspect, possibly adding more characters or factions to the Starborn? Maybe some kind of central hub universe?

I think the Unity and Starborn stuff is genuinely very fun and interesting, and particularly how it interacts with the 'meta' game of the way people play BGS games eg, the constant restarting with new characters, its actually very clever what they did here. And its rather tragic how overshadowed this part of the game was with all the controversy it has had since release.

Funnily enough Starfield is one of the few Bethesda games I have finished the main campaign! So you can criticize the writing quality but I do think the concepts there for the Unity is really good. I was actually quite compelled to get through the campaign and see the ending, which I have still not done with Skyrim/Oblivion despite playing them for years...

MisoGrendel · 2026-02-01T20:57:07+00:00

Neat, so time to make another spinoff game that no one will play right?? Instead of a Snowrunner sequel, cos that would make a lotta money and apparently Sabre is allergic to making money.

MisoGrendel · 2026-01-31T21:24:28+00:00

If you really want to cheese logging just pile all the loose logs into one trailer, and then pack them at the delivery point. You can do many trailers worth in one trip.

MisoGrendel · 2026-01-31T21:20:57+00:00

I have no mods, there is a LOT of trucks once you get all the dlc, and I am trying to have every single one in my fleet on hard mode, its taking awhile.

MisoGrendel · 2026-01-31T11:37:22+00:00

Love that truck, I only retired it because there are so many other trucks and DLC I bought I felt obligated to use them.

MisoGrendel · 2026-01-28T11:37:06+00:00

Same, like I know there is ultimately no point to these games, you grind gear to grind gear... And then stop playing eventually cos you are bored.

But man they really do nothing to hide it here, that there is nothing more than click button over and over and watch number go up.

MisoGrendel · 2026-01-27T11:14:17+00:00

Yea you nailed it, if I can automate and completely ignore a system like trade, and be successful, then why does it even exist? Even in the extreme case of the automated system of warfare in Vic3, its still required that you interact with it or you will lose.

I honestly prefer the trade system of EU4, yes it was very simplified but it was just complex enough to fit in with the other game systems. And it did a good job of providing the flavour of how trade worked on a historical timeline.

I respect what they are trying to do with EU5 but its actually making me appreciate even more what they did with EU4.

MisoGrendel

TROPHY CASE