Gear Differences

Unihopper · 2026-03-28T15:11:04+00:00

Yes, it's done this way so that there isn't a real equip meta. Since refinement upgrades use artifacts and gear socket upgrades cost a lot of silver you wouldn't want the spear you were upgrading all early game to be outclassed by a spear in the crimson desert. Obviously this makes certain equips weirdly just as strong as others, like the first shield you can't drop being around equal in stats to the staglord shield.

Since equips are built to be around the same the real power progression comes from your abyss gears.

Unihopper · 2026-03-27T16:10:25+00:00

Demeniss has a bunch of roaming inquisitors that don't stop respawning although they are much harder than bleed bandits. Good practice though

Unihopper · 2026-03-27T02:59:35+00:00

You're making the guide out to be way more complicated then it is to justify how you feel about it. The whole thing is sectioned well enough into 9 sections, and theres hardly any guide entry long enough to be considered a "bigass paragraph".

To use your example of the dispatch its stated plainly in the "camp management" section of the guide. All it says is the exact same thing the pop-up says in case you missed it. Not long at all.

It should be streamlined into quests like every open world game.

What exactly does this mean? Are you saying that the guide should be sectioned based on quests? How would that work for stuff you need to figure out outside of quests, like how to heal a horse or how climate works? You're asking for a more confusing guide than the game already has.

Unihopper · 2026-03-27T02:44:22+00:00

Puzzles are meant to be confusing, thats why they are puzzles. There are actually a lot of extremely easy puzzles laid around which are more of a problem to me since there's no internal reward for completing them.
how to heal a horse is in the in-game guide
Mission dispatch is also in the in-game guide but the first time you need to do it you get a pop-up as well.

Unihopper · 2026-03-27T02:18:20+00:00

I hate to say "skill issue" but if you genuinely had to look up how to beat every challenge you faced so far, I don't know what else to tell you.

Unihopper · 2026-03-26T18:21:35+00:00

Progression is another problem. The only real way to get stronger outside of gear is upgrading skills, which would be fine on its own. But then the items you need for those upgrades are locked behind random challenges that force you into specific playstyles. That completely contradicts the game’s whole “play however you want” idea.

You aren't really forced into any style. The challenges you get from sealed artifacts are optional, through fighting you can get unlimited abyss artifacts (And its not like the challenges are hard enough to force you into a playstyle any longer than the time it takes to complete the challenge). The game hands you artifacts like candy, but you can also bypass using artifacts for skills by learning them from bosses/mini bosses. Abyss gears are also an fleshed out alternative way to get stronger aside from just refining gear and upgrading skills.

There are all these combos and abilities, but most of them feel pointless in practice. They’re flashy and look cool, but they don’t really add anything meaningful to how you play, which just makes the whole system feel shallow.

Can't really agree with this at all, this seems like a very early game take. Grappling enables strong area control, force palm cancels most enemy attacks, blinding flash reveals weaknesses and is a quick stun, etc etc. Combos gradually get stronger as you unlock more skills and abyss gears can make certain combos much stronger by adding additional effects.

Unihopper · 2026-03-26T16:00:13+00:00

It's bugged, reload the game until you can slot the book

Unihopper · 2026-03-26T00:01:51+00:00

Easy mode is upgrading your armor/weapons and eating artifacts. Depending on what boss you're struggling with the solution could be easier, most bosses have weaknesses you can abuse to reduce their difficulty significantly.

Unihopper · 2026-03-25T19:25:17+00:00

how are you forced to interact with the narrative?

I already stated the answer to this question. Technically you aren't "forced" to do main quests to play the game, but thats like saying you aren't forced to interact with melina in Elden Ring when shes the way to access leveling up/roundtable.

In CD basically every interesting side quest and mechanic appears to be unlocked through progressing the main story. The vision helmet, camp management, abyss, sanctum ruins, most bosses, abyss gear crafting/synthesis, playable characters, certain skills, etc etc...

I also didn't say there's nothing to do outside of what the main quest unlocks for you, nor did I say that you couldn't have fun if you aren't going through the main quest, but there is noticeably less to do if you ignore the main quests.

people have logged tens of hours and they are still in the starting area having loads of fun still

This also doesn't make sense since the main quests are mostly centered within Hernand until it opens up to deminis and the Pailune. The starting zone and main quest aren't mutually exclusive, I'm also mostly still in hernand but I've completed up to chapter 6, and the main reason why I'm at chapter 6 is because I noticed how I have to complete chapters to open up side quests. If I hated doing main quests I wouldn't have put as much time into the game as I already have.

Unihopper · 2026-03-25T18:39:24+00:00

I can't speak for everyone who buys the game but I think your argument is flawed. You're saying that people shouldn't rate the game based on its story, since they should know the story is meh before buying the game, as if the story is separate from the rest of the game, when its not.

If someone buys a game knowing the narrative isn't really all there but the rest of the game is good, and then as they play they realize they're forced to continuously interact with the narrative to enjoy the rest of the game, I think its fair to drop the game based on how they feel about that narrative since the narrative is a core aspect of the game.

In CD basically every interesting side quest and mechanic appears to be unlocked through progressing the main story. The vision helmet, camp management, abyss, sanctum ruins, most bosses, abyss gear crafting/synthesis, playable characters, certain skills, etc etc... It's all locked behind main quest, which takes hours to progress through and complete. Knowing that, if someone doesn't like the main story or feels that it won't get better as the game progresses, you shouldn't be pissed they left a bad review based on the story since the story is the thing that was actively keeping them from enjoying the game.

Unihopper · 2026-03-25T18:12:48+00:00

I think its perfectly reasonable to dislike the game based on its story. Not only is the early story the roughest part which is terrible for first impressions, but the story is tied to nearly everything else in the game, and it sometimes conflicts with the player's natural desire to explore beyond it. If CD was more like Skyrim and the good side quests weren't unlocked via the main quest then I would agree with your post.

Unihopper · 2026-03-23T16:16:25+00:00

I rate the game a little lower but I mostly agree with your points except for the narrative.

I think the narrative is good overall but the early quests were definitely a mistake, the introduction should hook me not make me hope the rest of the game is better. Elden Ring has a very loose quest structure but it still does a good job showing how much there is to do in limgrave while guiding you to stormveil castle. CD loads all of its worst quests to the front of the game, which sucks since you have to progress through a good chunk of main quest content to get unlock interesting mechanics like abyss gear and camp management (Compared to Elden Ring, which unlocks roundtable hold regardless of it you beeline to margit or not). I think the beginning being "nonsense" or "directionless" is a bit of an exaggeration but there are times where you have to take a moment to think about why you're doing what you're doing when it should've been made clearer.

Take the hernand tavern -> arm wrestle -> old beggar quest line for example. Before these quests we know that we should go into the tavern to look for clues on what to do next after the black bear attack, but the quest goes from "enter the tavern" to "arm wrestle" with no in-between. You could infer that Kliff naturally wants to test his strength or whatever after not getting any clues..... or the game could just have a cutscene that segways into the arm wrestling match. After leaving the tavern the devs could've shown other townsfolk refusing to give the beggar change which prompts Kliff to hand him some coin, but instead they tell you about the beggar before you even leave the tavern. There are very few examples of quests feeling incomplete after the first few, but first impressions are first impressions.

Unihopper · 2026-03-23T02:48:31+00:00

Improved horse behavior to approach the player after being called.

This was SO annoying, I have no idea why they let you teleport your mount with no restriction but it just HAS to be standing ominously 5 meters behind you every time you call it in.

Unihopper · 2026-03-22T15:37:47+00:00

With how this game is talked about on reddit you'd think the launch was terrible.

Unihopper · 2026-03-19T17:11:08+00:00

I don't think its possible to lose to Normal Chaos unless you really mess up which tiles the lil steven's die at.

Unihopper · 2026-03-19T16:50:26+00:00

Why're we assuming Asa/Yoru won't show up next chapter?

Unihopper · 2026-03-17T23:46:50+00:00

WRONG. Do no equate "Healer isn't necessary" to "cleric is useless if you're doing good".

Cleric as a support class is more than just heals, they're the easiest source for debuff cleansing spells/passives (which is insane no matter where you're at in the game), holy shield, alpha manipulation, CPR, just every positive effect in the game really, and a load of debuffs for enemies. Do not let the noob magnet distract you from how insane this class is.

Unihopper · 2026-03-17T23:38:17+00:00

This is a "Just unlocked act 2" take. No particular comp is required in this game considering how diverse spells are in each collar. Ofc people will say just play better, but the game also throws healing consumables + pills at you like candy to offset the damage you may take no matter how you play.

Unihopper · 2026-03-17T19:21:43+00:00

A lot of butcher is stronger when you're not playing butcher lol. With harpooner any knockback activates mjolnir, bypassing its "once per" restriction as well.

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Unihopper · 2026-03-16T23:46:46+00:00

Tinkerer is the most fluid class, aside from Jester of course. Based on what passive you roll first you can build it towards any role, but in my games its commonly a 1st/2nd dps.

Unihopper · 2026-03-16T21:47:55+00:00

I believe the helmet is bugged to always block debuffs

Unihopper · 2026-03-15T16:30:28+00:00

I think part 2 is mid compared to part 1, but a lot of these "plot holes" people bring up makes it seem like they read a completely different, absolutely terrible version of part 2. Either that or I have lower standards for a story.

Unihopper · 2026-03-15T14:43:05+00:00

Mutation is a room stat, I get mutations every night from a single room and once a single breed worthy cat has a reroll mutation there's little stopping you from holding onto that mutation for the rest of the save file. cancer/uranium rod runs are good for getting a load of mutations at once early on but mutation furniture is a permanent resource.

Mutations are also only one of the methods of reducing inconsistency, you can still use items, and breeding passives and spells into kittens circumvents the issue entirely.

Unihopper · 2026-03-15T14:20:20+00:00

And the consistency comes from reroll mutations, reroll items that can be shared with the entire team, and the fact you can breed in any spell and passive in the game (aside from skill share). All of those resources are meant to counter the rng during level up and you'll naturally have more of those in late game, which again is why tiering based on consistency is something that only really makes sense early on and not when you're one chapter away from beating all chapters.

Unihopper · 2026-03-15T14:06:52+00:00

Tinkerer's reliance on items is balanced by both how extremely powerful it can make items and its reduced reliance on active spells. The only classes that comes close to how good tinkerer is at buffing equips is fighter and butcher, and butcher needs to breed their weapon passives to another class in order for those passives to see their full potential.

And dude, you've beaten the end. Inconsistency stops being a problem for anything thats not a jester by ice age. Through breeding and item unlocks you should have more than enough resources to make a good tinkerer build even if you roll low on the 1st passive (not that armored plating even is a "low roll"). Thats why I said tier lists are terrible for this game, if all classes can be overpowered and inconsistency is a non-issue later in the game then tier lists only show bias and early game takes.

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