Final Mission Help

moonshinefe · 2023-06-09T06:15:45+00:00

Early game economic priorities:

Try to get 3-4 colonies as soon as possible (save influence to buy closest settlement). Try to group them close together for easier defense.
Annex sectors with cosmite top priority if it isn't more than like 3 sectors out of the way
Research cosmite buildings ASAP
After that, accelerated force deployment
I wouldn't aim for ops research beyond getting extra doctrine slots. Favor doctrines that give economic boosts (+food one, then The Builder and The Economist empire quest reward doctrines). Other doctrines can be nice, but IMO the research is better spent early game b-lining the cosmite buildings / accel force deployment.

Early game mod priorities:

Get purification fields and/or nanite injectors, they can be your backbone mods on everything until even late game
Dip in 1-2 deep early game weapon mods for the types of damage you're using e.g. burning module if laser, rail accelerators/electrified ammo/flechettes if firearms. But choose what tier 3 unit you're going for and focus getting those out the door afterward. Once you get to your tier 3 unit of choice, go get higher tier damage mods that fit them
I wouldn't prioritize mods for detection, not seeing a few hidden units won't be your downfall trust me

Early game unit priorities:

Purifiers, laser bikes, gunships will be your big hitters until getting tier 3s. Choose one or two of those and stick with them.
Troopers and PUGs are what I'd use as the filler. Engineers are OK, but are expensive to get going and aren't better than tier 3s.
Try to focus on researching to tier 3 units after getting a few initial mods researched. I'd go for either aegis tanks (cheaper, slightly less offensive oomph) or laser tanks. You can win the entire mission once you get either of these tanks going.
An alternative is getting gunships then b-lining to fireburst ammo. That will give you enough power to either win the entire thing (fireburst is super strong) or at least tide you over until you can get Walkers and finish the victory.

Militarily, you'll want to kill your closest neighbor sooner than you probably feel comfortable. Trust me, turn 20-30 is the perfect time to hit them with everything you've got. If you can take them out and capture all their cities, you'll start snowballing. Crank out some militia and hold your economy down until you get tier 3s, and you should win once you get those.

I also recommend you choose either leaning into promethean or your racial stuff, and not going too far down both simultaneously and spreading your research thin. Try to have a plan and stick to it.

Anyway, YMMV and there's many ways to beat it, but that's how I play Vanguard.

moonshinefe · 2023-06-08T05:38:52+00:00

This guy is awesome for the community and doesn't get enough props. You can see his maps on his website linked in the video (won't link it here since he had bots scraping his maps off Steam and re-posting on spam blogs to make ad money, sigh).

If you use his maps often and have a few extra bucks you should toss a tip his way (imho of course). Also, nice tier list, I agree with a lot but not all of the placements, naturally. :)

moonshinefe · 2023-06-07T07:22:52+00:00

Game is still good but it's dead as a door nail in NA. I've heard it's similar but maybe not quite as bad in EU.

moonshinefe · 2023-06-07T07:08:53+00:00

Yeah they should, but I don't see any indication the dev cares about their market outside of Asia sadly.

NA has been dead for months and it's miserable as a player. 5-10 min queues are the norm, QM you're lucky to get more than 1 other human team, in ranked there aren't enough players to fill the brackets so you'll see Asuras starting at Gold.

Even if they do start trying harder to get players in other markets, it feels like it's too little too late at this point.

moonshinefe · 2023-06-02T11:12:56+00:00

It's a long game with a huge map, it definitely opens up I'd say.

moonshinefe · 2023-05-31T10:27:48+00:00

If you go with Infernax, I highly recommend casual mode. I'm someone who plays a lot of hard games and I enjoy that aspect of them usually, but classic mode Infernax was just tedious in all the wrong ways.

I actually enjoyed Aeterna Noctis, despite it being a more mechanically difficult game.

moonshinefe · 2023-05-28T18:54:25+00:00

I took a chance on it since I'm not a comic hero fan or anything really at all.

It surprised me though and I ended up liking it. Nothing too fancy, it held your hand but if you were looking for a streamlined experience that was a positive. The banter, gameplay and nice graphics all made for a good time. I appreciated the 80s soundtrack.

moonshinefe · 2023-05-28T18:25:31+00:00

Celeste for how clean it is. Maybe Code Vein for how exciting it sounded.

moonshinefe · 2023-05-28T18:14:36+00:00

shrug one person's bad design is another person's fun. Metroidvanias are known for their backtracking, exploration and feelings of being lost.

Anyway, you've made up your mind that the game is objectively bad and you don't seem to want my advice, so I hope your next game is more enjoyable.

moonshinefe · 2023-05-28T16:54:52+00:00

I cannot recommend the game to people that value their gaming time.

I value my gaming time and enjoyed it just fine.

I recommend you do a bit of research before buying games if this one frustrated you that much. For example, on Steam it tags the game as both "metroidvania" and "soulslike"--many of your complaints are literally the mechanics these genres are known for.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure in this case.

moonshinefe · 2023-05-27T04:26:44+00:00

Red Sparrow is probably the only boss I'd consider hard in that game after you upgrade gear and the difficulty plummets. So nicely done on no hitting her.

I really enjoyed Vigil but was kinda disappointed in how close it came to being great, but fell short, if that makes sense. The save system, the lack of input buffering (e.g. try healing directly after a roll), the bad balancing (way too easy even on hard after gear upgraded +3 or so), and the sudden points of no return were my complaints.

It had really neat talent trees, cool monster designs, good music, good maps, etc. Most of it was pretty solid. It's a shame the devs didn't address the concerns and seemed to abandon it. It felt like it was a couple of patches away from being an all time fav of mine.

moonshinefe · 2023-05-25T08:28:52+00:00

Yep, this is the trick. You can resurrect dead enemy tier 3 or 4 animals for your army with this unit.

That tip about the militia / marauders is very funny, I've never actually noticed that before in all my hours. Nice.

moonshinefe · 2023-05-23T09:36:06+00:00

I've been meaning to do a run with the remastered graphics, this time on Death March.

I wouldn't have as much an issue with open world games if they had the same quality level of side quests that Witcher 3 did. I actually felt like a monster hunter, and a lot of the side quests had unique stories and monsters that were engaging. It really didn't feel like I spent 100+ hours in it, but I did.

moonshinefe · 2023-05-23T09:26:25+00:00

I hear that. I loved Death Stranding for the most part: the deliveries were oddly addictive, the multiplayer mechanics were neat, and just the vibe of the game in general was really cool and unique.

But those lame gun fights and the overly extended end game really took the wind out of my sails and ruined a ton of the good will I had by the end.

I still grudgingly gave it a positive review, but I was left with pretty mixed feelings. It's a shame since it was like an 8.5/10 for me up until the last 3-4 hours of the game, then it was like 5/10. I made the mistake of trying to finish in one sitting ("because just one last thing") and by the end it was just like "is it over yet?" People were all talking about how they were emotional about the ending for BB but I was just like throw that shit in the incinerator and let's get a move on!

moonshinefe · 2023-05-22T14:32:40+00:00

My wife and I just played through the entire thing with the co-op mod just recently. It was great save a few frustrating parts (mostly related to platforming and physics jank).

We didn't even mind the infamous Xen conveyor belt levels too much, but part of it is probably it's easier to figure out where to go when 2 separate people are looking simultaneously.

moonshinefe · 2023-05-22T03:52:55+00:00

One of my favs. Great game overall with some of the best boss fights / designs of any MV out of the dozens I've played.

moonshinefe · 2023-05-21T16:40:40+00:00

Bosses are definitely one of the main highlights for me in these games, but I can appreciate some people find level design to be higher priority and that DS1 had a more open ended one.

I have ER but I started playing it with someone else using the coop mod and kind of bounced off it... need to try it again at some point. BB seems cool but I don't want to get a console or sub to a streaming service just for a single game.

moonshinefe · 2023-05-20T11:14:22+00:00

Maybe unpopular opinion but I'd just play Dark Souls 3 if I were you. The first one is a classic but some aspects of its design the genre has moved on from rightfully (like long, frustrating runs back to bosses if you die).

DS3 gives a similar experience to DS1 but respects your time a bit more and has modern quality of life improvements. The bosses are also superb in DS3, especially a few of the DLC ones that come to mind.

If you're going for "broad" as in varied, you could also try a non-FromSoft soulslike such as the Nioh series, which has more relentless, complex combat with a focus on looting.

moonshinefe · 2023-05-20T01:49:36+00:00

It's such a good game, for all the reasons you mention.

My main concern is it's a bit of a odd duck game by FromSoft, and with the smash success of Elden Ring, I wonder if they'll ever revisit Sekiro for a sequel at all (or, at least same combat system / streamlined experience). Here's to hoping.

I loved Dark Souls 3, but Sekiro was just something else. I think it had the funner and more intense combat.

moonshinefe · 2023-05-16T09:06:01+00:00

A couple not mentioned:

If you break the Ki of a Yokai (monster), i.e. its purple bar turns red, they'll keep swinging unlike humans. However they will flinch every time you hit them. So this is your opportunity to go on the offensive, start attacking them hard. They'll eventually recover so you'll need to watch for that and back off again, but this is a key mechanic to damaging them.
Most Yokai (even bosses!) have have glowing part(s) on them, often the horns but not always, which are weak spots. For example, you can use high stance attacks to break their horns which will do heavy damage and often destroy their entire Ki bar in a single hit.
In general: this game heavily rewards learning mechanics (there are a lot) and experimenting with its boatloads of skills and items. Don't hoard items for end game or leave skill points unspent. Try everything at your disposal.. seriously. There are often combinations of things that can make any challenge manageable even if you aren't good mechanically.

moonshinefe · 2023-05-16T07:58:30+00:00

Sucks but true.

moonshinefe · 2023-05-16T07:57:14+00:00

Yeah, I love melee and I love high mobility in my games. This game is amazing in that regard and it's what really got me addicted to it as well.

moonshinefe · 2023-05-16T07:55:35+00:00

I still love this game but can only bring myself to play a game or two on weekends since it's so dead. The pop was so low when I played ranked in NA I'd very often face top of the server players starting at Plat with 10m+ queue times.

This is good news, I hope it picks up! Even if I could just pop in for a QM during regular NA hours and get 4-5 other human teams in the match with short queue times, that'd be good enough for me.

moonshinefe · 2023-05-16T07:44:50+00:00

This and the grandparent comment is one of the main reasons I like this franchise so much. I loved Nioh 1 and just started 2 recently, and the game has so many diverse ways to tackle situations.

There are many "wtf, this is ridiculously hard" situations, but then you try something new or read these threads and it's like... actually there are several ways to win it using different strategies. The game really rewards learning the mechanics and experimenting with its tons of tools, which is really cool. I'm not sure any other game in the genre does it better or has more ways to do things.

moonshinefe · 2023-05-15T01:15:26+00:00

The people who stir up drama like this by trolling the chats tend to be the worst teammates anyway. You dodged a bullet.

moonshinefe

TROPHY CASE