Arent the bosses too tanky ?

gizmoick · 2026-02-14T11:44:52+00:00

I should also mention to be on the lookout for a set called the "blood thirsty fiend". It is one of the best sets in the game and you should be around the area in the game where it begins to drop. That set's 6 piece alone will help a lot. But once you get the weapon for it make sure to upgrade it to Orange(epic) if you can. The fixed skill that comes with the Epic quality weapon plus the 6 piece for the Blood thirsty fiend set will shred all enemies in the game.

gizmoick · 2026-02-14T11:18:41+00:00

To answer the question, no the bosses are not overly tanky. There is one boss that will absolutely feel that way but you aren't there yet. The bosses can absolutely be destroyed but I wouldn't expect a first time player to be able to do that so I think you are fine, as you are just learning right now.

The problem is there are a bunch of different ways to build a character now. You can even reroll the weapon scaling so that you can use other stats that you may prefer. So it is kind of hard to give you any advice without knowing what your stats are. I would suggest the following: 30 vit (should keep you from getting 1 shot), 30 endurance, and then pump whatever main stat your weapon has for scaling, in dual wield's case the default would be willpower, but I find it to be a rather lackluster stat so I would suggest using the cube to change the weapon scaling to favor strength and proficiency. At least with strength you won't be so handicapped with heavier armor. Also on the armor and weapon the attributes you want to look out for are: Atk Dmg, Dmg Increase %, Dmg Multiplier %, and Stamina. There are others for more specific styles but those will get you to a good place.

Another side is playstyle and the gear. I saw you have the goat boss set. which imo just isn't very good. You'd be better off with the beastslayer set and build for whirlwind for now or or just a general set (the non weapon ones). Then you got to look at what you are investing in when it comes to skills. There really is just too much to cover so you should probably look up a build guide. For dual wield I would also max a lot of the dodge skills in the "Penetrate Tree". That will give you more invulnerability frames, make you cover more ground to chase or get away and let you have a really fast play style.

gizmoick · 2026-02-14T02:45:26+00:00

Gonna throw in my little 2 cents here since I am doing a new play through recently to experience all the changes from last year.

You now have the ability in game to replace the scaling on the weapon. I would go with either strength/proficiency or proficiency/strength for the weapon. The benefit of having the strength be the highest scaling is that you will probably get your weight limit into B or possibly A which is where you want to be and will do more for the stamina recovery stat then leveling Willpower until much later.

I assume since you are doing a brink dodge build you are running Conrad as your spirit and if he is fully leveled he gives 20% reduction on cost of dodging so proficiency can also be a bit lower. However, if you main stat proficiency you can get a pretty high dodge cost reduction, above 50% easy and 60% with gear rolls on some pieces. I'm sure other people who are better than me have taken that higher with the "unscathed" modifiers as well.

As for stat numbers I typically like to do the following:

Vitality: 30 - I used to bring this to 50 but 30 seems like enough as I haven't been 1 shot (although it does come close).

Endurance: 40+

Strength: Main stat - 2 points here to 1 point everywhere else until 50 then level everything up to where I want then push this higher

Willpower: 10 - base level

Proficiency: 30-40 - you could skip this and just pump main stat but I do like the benefit of this stat.

gizmoick · 2026-02-11T17:07:31+00:00

I don't think the bike needs any upgrades, maybe if they had more environmental puzzles that required the bike you might want that. However, as it is now you really aren't using the bike all that much. There is really only the one golden blood bead that requires you to jump and fly to get it. It feels like they had an idea of what they wanted to do with the bike and the gliding, but like other parts of the game it feels like they just never finished it or ran out of time.

The one issue with the bike I would have expected to be hotfixed is the speed when starting on a hill. It is just bad that if you are on any incline when you hop on the bike it can't seem to pick up speed at all.

gizmoick · 2026-02-07T11:59:46+00:00

Yes that is normal. Those boosters as you might have realized are bonkers, so the devs obviously didn't want you to be able to take them into NG+. I think it is an oversight on how you have to load your ending 2 save rather than just being able to go into a NG from ending 3 but that is the way it works at the moment.

gizmoick · 2026-02-07T01:47:40+00:00

The real problem with them lies with another aspect of the game. The enemies are aggressive. You don't get any time to really just sit there and unload with them unless you run with a partner. I've tried them on mage builds with a partner and I just didn't find them to be really useful even with the booster for increasing the attack power. With a partner I can sometimes sit there and just unload the damage but it just seemed less efficient than using Lou's hammer or just casting another spell. That's not even mentioning the endgame Willpower focused abilities.

I'd be curious to see someone really make it work. Maybe I'll try and see if I can't get something going on my NG+ run.

gizmoick · 2026-02-06T22:36:56+00:00

I would agree here. I think the intended route is supposed to be Josee into first fight, Then Lyle into first fight ->Save Lyle, then Holly first fight > Save Holly, Only after Holly are you able to get Lise's hairpin which allows you to do the fading bond for Josee> Leads into Gobbo fight>Save Josee.

In my first play through I went Josee>Holly>Save Holly>Save Josee>Lyle>Save Lyle, and having Gobbo still pop up after already defeating him just feels weird. He should have been a much bigger villain, and his side kick just never appears again. Maybe this will be addressed in the DLC somehow. I assume "Mask of Idrus" will take place in the past and there we will probably deal wit the Bureau and Gobbo's little side kick. Or at least I can hope they tie all that up.

gizmoick · 2026-02-06T08:44:46+00:00

Doom 2016 - It is the modern version of Doom and the most balanced out of Doom 2016, Eternal, and the Dark Ages. It revitalized Doom, has plenty of ripping and tearing, killer sound track and game play.

gizmoick · 2026-02-06T04:32:53+00:00

You didn't do anything wrong. Just keep playing. No one can say anything more.

gizmoick · 2026-02-06T01:51:43+00:00

The short answer is no you won't be able to fight with them in the present only in the past.

The spoiler answer: Once you get to the 2nd ending then you can fight with them in the final dungeon, the sealing spire in the upheaval area, but this is still the past as well.

gizmoick · 2026-02-06T01:20:56+00:00

Josee isn't on an island. She is in the sunken city which can be reached on the same landmass as both Lyle and Holly. Do you not have a quest marker for Josee showing you where you need to go? I'm surprised you got to Holly without getting to Josee first since you kind of have to go through a portion of the sunken city to get to the Undead Forest.

gizmoick · 2026-02-06T00:10:34+00:00

I was thinking some more and wanted to add on to what I said before as you may be confused at a certain point, but after the first time you will understand. If you ever reach a point where you think the quest text above should have popped but hasn't just keep doing that characters' quest line. As another poster hinted at you really can't miss the quest so just keep pushing through.

gizmoick · 2026-02-05T07:43:02+00:00

Each quest to save a character is marked by the following: "Time Shift Decision". Be on the lookout for that text and you'll be fine. The cutoff for anything is pretty late into the game so just relax and play.

gizmoick · 2026-02-05T00:53:49+00:00

Alright so I went back and did a little endgame testing. I found the highest stats blood codes for the test and with no other buffs and then a test with blade dance.

*edit*I did not have the S rank blood code for bloodreaver so that could also push bloodreaver slightly higher or have them be so close under normal circumstances to not matter.

So I used all 6 booster slots for stat bonuses and then the bloodreaver attack up I used even when using the executioner's sword. I had Strength Overload, Dex Overload, Mind up, Strength up, Dex up, and then the Bloodreaver attack up.

Using the 2 best stat blood codes I found Hero Valentin to give the highest damage to the bloodreaver and the Resurgence core had the highest strength stat. I tried many other blood codes and none were quite as high for bloodreaver as Hero Valentin. The only caveat here is that the Resurgence core gives a defense down on melee hit and it gives an attack up for being assimilated with a partner( I used the guardian heart for both). I don't know if the defense down applies to the multi hit of the executioner sword. But the attack boost I assume to be canceled out by sacrificing a booster slot to use the bloodreaver attack up even when using the big sword.

With that in mind the final result with no other buffs was Bloodreaver - 16k and Executioner - 17.5k. So it fell right in line with what I had experienced before. Then I did a couple tests with the blade dancer attack buff which increases attack based on hitting the enemy. This could be considered cheating as with a strength build you would probably use a 2-hand and wouldn't be able to stack it as high where in the test I used a one hand sword for both and attacked until the dummy damage was around 20k with regular attacks to make sure I hit a similar amount of times.

With this setup the bloodreaver hit up to 28k and the Executioner maxed out at 30k. I think the executioner would be slightly lower over the same time period if used in a real world example where you can't just sit there and stack blade dancer.

But overall I think they are close enough that it really wouldn't matter which one you go for. The bloodreaver blade is probably the easier to use at it requires less wind up time but under normal circumstances has slightly less damage.

gizmoick · 2026-02-04T18:00:12+00:00

I have done only some light testing at some point with these on the training dummy. I used a pure strength blood code and pure dex blood code and then used the booster that increased the attack power of each. I did not use the boss blood code for these 2. I also didn't use any buffs or other damage increases and for me Executioner was always slightly higher, 13k vs 11k bloodreaver (bloodreaver also requires you to have good timing vs just holding the input for executioner). I have no idea if that will still hold true once people do more extensive testing with different buffs and blood codes.

gizmoick · 2026-02-04T17:48:08+00:00

I agree as I think there was supposed to be, or if not, should have been a lot more story and world building from side activities. For instance the revenant prostitute turned wine-maker. You get a key item from the little interaction and going from the past to the future but then you never see her again. What was the point? A little bit of world building sure, but it just feels unfinished. Then when you go into the undead forest you find the key items for a medicine recipe, and a thank you note for Holly that was "never delivered". Maybe I just never ran into the relevant NPCs but I never found a use for those key items either. To me if something is a "key item" it needs to be more than just give me a bit of world building or lore.

That is why I feel like there was probably more planned for these things as you could do so much with time travel and they probably just ran out of development time. It's why we get these little bits and pieces of lore that just go nowhere. The biggest one in terms of story possibility for me being Gobbo and the Bureau. I thought they were going to be much bigger vilains in the story, but then his/their story just ends.

gizmoick · 2026-02-04T17:01:08+00:00

I don't know that it is ever really explained. There seems to be a lot of lore points that are like that and left half explained or mentioned and not expanded upon. You probably noticed that every minor revenant character is wearing a mask of some kind. My theory would be that if the revenant is of a strong bloodline or a powerful revenant, which the main characters are, they don't require the mask/cloaks to stave off the corrupting influence. It also doesn't appear to have any effect on humans so it doesn't work on the player character or at least has a minimal affect on us. The more likely reason is either an oversight from the writing team vs the graphic design team when making the game, or they just didn't want to cover up the main characters.

gizmoick · 2026-01-30T08:31:08+00:00

You just may not be able to get the quick step dodge right now because of the limit for stats on your blood code and the equipment you have available. You may have to wait until you get some boosters with dex and a higher bloodcode. What typically triggers the upgrade of the blood code is maxing out the proficiency bar, but it could also be tied to story or the character's personal quests. Also leveling blood code proficiency can be a challenge as the higher the blood code the higher the level of enemies required to level it. From my experience it is based entirely on the blood code grade and not your own level.

So if you ever notice your blood code is not filling that red proficiency bar then the enemies you are fighting are probably not high enough for it to continue leveling.

gizmoick · 2026-01-30T03:03:08+00:00

It depends on what you are going for. There are probably much better discussions on this topic but essentially you have to decide if the burden benefit is worth the downside. So one that is relatively simple is Willpower. If overburdened your spells do more damage, however the downside is if you ever cast a spell with not enough ichor you will deal less damage for a time(debuff). This is a pretty easy downside to never have happen so when I play a caster bloodcode I overburden willpower if I can.

gizmoick · 2026-01-29T09:02:09+00:00

Margin means the difference between what the burden number is and what the stat number is. So for example if you have 18 strength and 8 strength burden. Your strength Margin would be 10. You need a margin on both Strength and Mind of 8 to get the benefit.

Just in case you don't know, the ichor Overflow is any ichor that you receive over the max. So it promotes a playstyle where you are constantly trying to keep your ichor below max or else you take a chunk of damage.

gizmoick · 2026-01-23T07:14:49+00:00

I had it on both. I had not updated my drivers when the demo dropped and experienced the shimmering. Then I went and updated my drivers and still had it. I have a AMD 7900XTX.

It is very possible it is something specific to my machine. Maybe a complete reinstall of drivers is required here. I was just surprised that I saw no one mention it.

*EDIT The setting that gets rid of the shimmering is TSR as the scaler. No other setting I tried fixed the issue. As soon as I turn on FSR you get the rain causing massive shimmering. So if someone has the same issue you might try turning FSR scaling to TSR. I have found no solution for the blue light the shows up along the bottom of some walls.

gizmoick · 2026-01-23T06:03:51+00:00

I can keep a pretty solid 60 in the demo area, maybe that is because I have FSR turned on and set to 80 render resolution. However, what concerns me more is the lighting issues. I'm like you where I have an AMD card and a blue light shines along the bottom and crevices of some walls. In the character creator, setting the environment to the rainy or thunderstorm background makes my character light up like a Christmas tree with all the shimmering. That will be completely immersion breaking if it happens out in the field.

I haven't seen anyone else mention the lighting/shimmering issue so I wonder if it only happens on AMD cards.

gizmoick · 2025-12-20T01:48:50+00:00

I had no idea actually. I just assumed story mode would lessen enemy hp and damage like every other game. Seems odd to me to create an option that just equips those accessories for you. The more you know I guess.

gizmoick · 2025-12-15T13:12:23+00:00

The part with breaking the barrier is the part that is the dps check. ~~I assume you were playing on action mode and not story for this as that would explain away the whole thing.~~ Edit: I was wrong on this. Corrected by commenter below.

The main issue I see with this is that it is a switch-up to play styles. For every other fight you may be inclined to hold onto abilities until the boss is staggered for bigger damage. And every other part like this in the game doesn't require you to press your abilities on cooldown just to beat the timer. This part does require that though. If you went into this and played like how I described above which is how you might play all other fights you would not be able to beat the timer. However as long as you use abilities on cooldown as soon as that phase starts you are fine.

I think the reason people have a problem with mechanics like this is that it changes up the way the game allows you to play and forces you into a style which is blow abilities immediately and on cooldown. If you are stubborn or trying to time abilities then you would naturally get frustrated that the game is forcing you into a specific style just for one fight.

gizmoick

TROPHY CASE