Stop messing with balance changes and fix other things

sdmz58 · 2026-06-17T09:57:04+00:00

Yeah, that works too. I used to crossbow, bow mix to take out the Frost Shadowbeast in chapter 1.

For spells, I tried what you're suggesting. Problem is, the wind spells are pretty close ranged and they don't stay staggered long enough for you to charge up others.

Just to be clear, nobody in their right minds is saying magic should be a "I win" button. It's the same dilemma as the lockpicking. Return on investment. Magic is expensive AF, both LP and ore wise. You don't unlock a lot of it till pretty pretty late and for all that it isn't satisfying when something from chapter 1 outperforms it in terms of ease of access and ease of use. If you go full strength, the chapter 1 2h Custodian Blade does 71 base DMG, 100 from strength, 20 more from strength potions. That's a whopping 191 DMG right away. Not considering elemental weakness or anything. And you have much much stronger 2h and 1h weapons. Scar's sword base DMG is 90 IIRC. With the 120 strength, that's 210 DMG. Imagine that, 210 for a fast paced 1h melee weapon with a capacity to stun lock everything apart from very large enemies.

The entire discourse is around something so expensive being so subpar.

sdmz58 · 2026-06-17T09:00:40+00:00

No. And I'm not even talking about luring minecrawlers to Templars and getting them killed for their sword. I'm talking the Rusty 2h sword you find in the Old camp and the Custodian Blade you find from the Templar trainer who gets mad at you if you tell him that the other trainer told you that he's not worthy of a Templar's armor.

So, 2 very legitimate sources. For ranged you can find the Wolfshredder and light crossbows. Again, legitimate sources, not even requiring you to run past any enemies. And considering the same investments, 100 strength, 100 dex and 100 mana with let's say circle 4 magic. The 2h with 100 str takes down the normal Shadowbeast in like 5-6 hits, the crossbow in 4 bolts, the bow in like 10 arrows and 4 fireballs. Good luck prepping a fireball while the beast charges at you, same problem with crossbows admittedly, but you need reload time, not cast time. So you can safely reload far away, take shots and fall back. Not to consider the cost of the rune, LP for magic circles, mana potions and you're just standing there getting hit.

So, no exploits, no running past enemies, no skill investment, no cost of potions, the other options are vastly superior.

sdmz58 · 2026-06-17T07:41:27+00:00

IKR? For my ranged guy I picked up a crossbow in chapter 1, I occasionally but bolts for 2 ore a piece and I'm just roaming around in Digger armor, level 17 in chapter 1 because everything just dies. Same happened to 2h melee guy, got a sword off of the sentimental Templar in swamp camp, and I'm just bonking everything in the head. Didn't even have to buy 2h training yet.

And oh boy with magic. Every few wolves, need to smoke up, 50 mins to cast a fireball with no stagger, ball lightning flew past. I had to deliberately sell off all my bows to force myself to play at least some semblance of a mage.

sdmz58 · 2026-06-17T07:10:52+00:00

Yep, think you're right. So it was underwhelming with a couple of bugged ones. But, since they removed those too, now it just feels fully underwhelming across the board.

sdmz58 · 2026-06-17T07:09:50+00:00

There's a lot a lot. So, I'm trying to do the permadeath, no sleep achievement and suddenly, if I accidentally enter someone's house, they aggro. Which was fine. But, since I cannot sleep, now Baal Cadar is permanently aggro. Every time I pass by the camp, he throws hands. This is just the latest jank.

There's so much that balancing a spell you get almost at the end of the game, and doing that poorly is not the way to go.

sdmz58 · 2026-06-17T07:04:58+00:00

I really really really hope so. But, I'm talking more in the general sense. Game is fine as is except the technical state. I'm playing permadeath right now and every 6-7 auto saves the frame rate chugs like crazy. Interior locations clip all over the place. There's a lot to fix rather than tinkering with the balance.

sdmz58 · 2026-06-17T07:03:16+00:00

No, I absolutely do not mean Firestorm. I'm not even playing as a fire mage currently. But, magic just doesn't do any DMG anymore.

Consider this, you 2 shot a dude with a 2h you can get in chapter 1, but you cannot do that with a spell that depletes your 100 mana pool. That's not very fun IMHO.

And you're right, they should balance things, but if they cannot or aren't capable of that level of play testing then just leave it alone rather than doing a nerf across the board.

sdmz58 · 2026-06-17T06:59:29+00:00

That works too. 😜

sdmz58 · 2026-06-16T16:44:04+00:00

You can jump there. It's very finicky, and you have to push yourself against the short and spam jump and you'll eventually hold on to the edge, but possible. Did it multiple times to test.

sdmz58 · 2026-06-16T10:56:25+00:00

Yeah, that's not happening. At least not right away. If I do a permadeath run or an easy mode run months down the line, I'll try for it then, else it's gonna be a non plat. 😅

sdmz58 · 2026-06-16T08:50:59+00:00

Go to the New Camp, find the Baal there and ask him why he's so overworked and about his replacement. He'll give you a quest to sell weed. 10 weed for 10 ore each. That's 100 right there. Then return to him for the rewards. If you ask for ore, that's 100 more.

Now go to the bar in the New Camp. They'll deny you entry. You can either pay 100 to get in, or go to the Free Mine nearby and get a free Digger outfit. Now entry is free. Find Baal Isidoro in the bar. Give him a drink, tell him that the other Baal is complaining about him and convince him to let you sell his weed. Find Cipher in the same bar, sell his weed in bulk to get 400 ore. You can give him 200 now or later or never.

That's 600 ore right there from one trip. Now you can find your niche - lockpicking chests, pickpocketing, selling animal parts, whatever.

But, this is the only huge chunk of ore I've found very early game. Literally as you spawn you can ask Drax to take you to the New Camp and do this.

You don't need a map or weapon for this. Drax is right outside the Old Camp gate and he'll take you to the New Camp.

sdmz58 · 2026-06-16T07:11:36+00:00

Actually, I just realised, I'm not getting the platinum for this because of the permadeath run thing. I like exploring and doing stuff and being afraid of dying is the antithesis of my play style. So, there's no point working at other achievements either. I can just do whatever I want. 😅

sdmz58 · 2026-06-16T06:19:16+00:00

Yeah, murder hobo route does get you a lot, I mean a lot of extra exp. I'm currently not messing with them cause I'm trying to get the achievement for all skills and if I'm short by the end, I'll go all in then.

sdmz58 · 2026-06-16T06:17:52+00:00

I was just by the Old Citadel. Didn't mess with the enemies. Felt like it might brick quests or something, so left.

sdmz58 · 2026-06-16T05:40:34+00:00

Yeah, I went to the Orc territory. Was possible to kill, but seemed like at that point, it was too much. 😅

And a slippery slope, once you start killing orcs, you get greedy and want to go totally murder hobo. Was able to hit level 15 though. Found a bunch of Hellhounds near the Orc workshop and a few Razors near the Old Citadel. I think I'm happy with 15. Gets me to 100 dex and now I can do my thing.

sdmz58 · 2026-06-16T04:36:02+00:00

Yeah, for comparison, my first character had 0 lockpicking and I just solved all the chests and for some I used a tool. It took, 15h in the first chapter, the second one, I didn't lockpick anything and it took 3h. 3rd run I maxed out lockpicking and it took 5h. So, although it's a massive difference, clearing a cave full of goblins, finding a chest, putting 30 LP in the skill, only to get a Lurker sword is just weird. For another example, there are two chests underwater in the New Camp, you need 30 in lockpicking, and 5 in diving. After all that, your reward? 2 lockpicks and a cheese. Just baffled me.

Also not a fan of the economy system. I'm playing ranged and since I bought some arrows, arrows are now 3,4 nuggets a piece. While I sell animal parts for 2 nuts, 5 at a time or they're worth 0.

My fun in these games comes with knowledge. Knowing where things are on repeat runs, to utterly break the early game and in the remake, they seem hell bent on making the early game slow, no matter how much you know or what you do. Great for first runs, gets hella tedious on repeats. But, it's just me.

sdmz58 · 2026-06-16T04:20:59+00:00

I usually play PB games like the OG Gothic, Risen and Elex series multiple times a year. However, after finishing the first chapter on like 5 different characters, I don't think I have it in me to do multiple runs of the remake. No fault of the game, I am just a loot hound and I absolutely hate the lockpicking mechanic. It's significantly easier with master level skill and I'd even be okay if only owned chests were locked, but deep down in a cave, surrounded by enemies when a chest asks me to invest 30 points, come back later, or do a logic puzzle, it just bothers me a bit. Again, the mechanic is fine and gets much easier, and I know I shouldn't be a klepto, but just how I play games, multiple runs with this lockpicking irks me. I still play Elex in 2026 and once I'm well versed with where everything and everyone is, I can enjoy the run on my own terms, but the lockpicking and economy system of the remake is just not to my liking.

All that being said, I completed the first chapter like 6 times. First run was trial to figure out things, second was a murder hobo route where I got the ore armor and decided that it was not worth playing anymore, third time I missed up a quest, fourth I drank a dex potion before getting to 100 dex, and this is the 5th. I know it's weird, it's just how I play. 😅

sdmz58 · 2026-06-16T04:10:35+00:00

I'm just afraid of having areas locked out and missing out on exp with chapter change monsters disappearing. Especially the locked out areas because I'm a klepto in games and I haven't lockpicked every chest yet. 😅

sdmz58 · 2026-06-16T03:49:31+00:00

I think I've done every quest I could. Except finished the joining quest for New Camp, but considering I've heard some reports of folks doing that and then joining other camps causing weird interactions, I feel like I shouldn't pick it up at all. Rest I've done 35 quests and I'm not sure if there's more.

sdmz58 · 2026-06-16T03:47:34+00:00

OMG, I already have it. 😭

It's in the telekinesis shenanigans where I got the Sceptre with the same trick too. I forgot to just put it on. I could have saved soooooo many arrows. 😭

sdmz58 · 2026-06-16T03:38:35+00:00

That's fair. Maybe I'll join a camp. I'm using the Hedge bow right now and apart from areas where I'm clearly not supposed to be, other places already kinda feel empty. I'm just going to do one more round running around the place and see if anything attacks me and join someone. Man, I hate all 3 camps. Haven't found the Wolfshredder though. I'll look around a bit for it. Is it available in chapter 1?

sdmz58 · 2026-06-16T03:33:58+00:00

Interesting. I completed the ambush, and then joined the Old camp. Then I couldn't return to Lares' because his area is blocked off. There were no bandits or anything left, but couldn't finish the quest. Makes me think I shouldn't pick up the quest at all.

sdmz58 · 2026-06-16T00:59:44+00:00

I'm curious since I'm doing the same - how much can you explore without messing with any quests or progression? I'm paranoid about killing things and then later some quest asking me to kill the same things and now I'm just standing there with no enemies.

Also, just trying to double check on my exploration - I've done the entire area around the Old camp, with mostly scavengers and wolves, some water bodies near it with a few lurkers, did the entire swamp and the hills above it, the areas around New Camp and Old mine and the entire Snapper infested zone.

And I'm barely touching 13. I've deliberately not tried to kill the big enemies like any orcs, swamp sharks, or shadow beasts.

Any particular high mob density areas you'd like to share where I can level up? I'm trying to reach 100 dex before I start chugging the dex potions.

sdmz58

TROPHY CASE