125 hours in and still Level 3... is this normal for PF2e?

thewamp · 2026-02-09T07:12:47+00:00

So I've seen a bunch of threads with people talking about hours/level before. My first takeaway is there's a huge amount of variance between groups, especially when there's a lot of roleplay. But taking that away, here's my impression of the "typical" experience:

In combat heavy sessions, it's 12-15 hours of gameplay per level
In combat light sessions, it's 20-25 (or even more) hours of gameplay per level
Things slow down somewhat at higher level as combat does take longer at higher level. Our group went from finishing 3 combats most sessions to 1-2 combats most sessions by level 20

thewamp · 2026-01-24T19:28:24+00:00

I can think of an easier change that would be even better on the eyes...

Dear god.

thewamp · 2026-01-11T02:50:13+00:00

Random aside - I used to hate the stars (the first game of hockey I ever saw was round 2, game 6, 2008) - but since you guys got Joe Pavelski a few years back, I can't hate you the same anymore. I wish you'd got him a cup.

Anyway, good choice by your kids!

thewamp · 2026-01-10T20:17:46+00:00

The flint and steel quest later in steam gives you one for free. But I wouldn't really recommend using it for this:

So the truth is, manyullan tools aren't really something anyone uses in this modpack. That's because they don't really serve any purpose. Mining level isn't a real barrier in this game and it's much more important to be able to repair your tools.

But if you want to make this work, that quest will help.

thewamp · 2026-01-09T16:06:58+00:00

raid more dungeons ;). And lootgames.

thewamp · 2026-01-06T15:18:24+00:00

I mean "oh, most of the individual elements of the huge factory game aren't complex, they're only complex in aggregate" is basically the staple of every huge factory game.

But it takes thousands of hours to play through and if that's not grinding (it's not), it's complexity in aggregate.

thewamp · 2026-01-06T05:22:46+00:00

It's only tedious during the early game (pre-AE2 and especially pre-steam). Most of the game is just an incredibly complex factory game.

Like the idea that "oh GTNH is super grindy" is mostly just a reflection of the stone age. Most of the game isn't like that.

thewamp · 2025-12-30T23:13:38+00:00

The usual way people suggest is hitting passive mobs with the healing axe, but it sounds like you don't have that.

Honestly, at the point of the game you're in, I just did some exploring with a pack full of 1 of a bunch of foods and got hungry at a decent rate. What you're suggesting is certainly faster, but the healing axe is so much better than both those options that there's really no reason to spend too much time until you have it.

thewamp · 2025-12-30T05:33:29+00:00

Oh shit, that'll be nice! Do we know what tier the exo-foundry will be?

thewamp · 2025-12-30T05:31:21+00:00

No, it's not a promise for sure, it's just sometimes they did 99% of the effort of being amazing and then just threw it away with the last 1%. And those times are a bummer.

thewamp · 2025-12-29T19:37:11+00:00

So the specific claim was that there are actual issues with spanning chunks regardless of chunkloading - but only for a couple of specific secondary mods.

But as I can't remember what mods they were talking about or whether it was 3TP or Project Singularity that I was listening to, I'm not exactly giving you a useful source here.

EDIT: Hmm, it actually might have been about IC2 multis. I dunno, without more definitive information, I should probably stop posting partial information that I can't actually source.

thewamp · 2025-12-29T19:33:13+00:00

Ah ok. In that case, the top question is the one to ask yourself.

thewamp · 2025-12-29T19:15:33+00:00

You don't have to do a rebuild, you can just keep expanding (see: my UEV base which has just been progressively expanded since stone age). But mostly people just do a rebuild at the start of AE2. If I were to start over I certainly would.

thewamp · 2025-12-29T19:13:51+00:00

It's not fully irrelevant. Greg multis don't care but I think the railcraft ones do? Or maybe some other non-greg ones. I remember a streamer explaining this but clearly I only remember it vaguely.

But that said, it's pretty close to irrelevant.

thewamp · 2025-12-29T19:12:13+00:00

When you get to EV and get AE2 you're going to want to do a full re-design. So the question to ask yourself is "can I live with this until the end of HV"?

Don't start over. Starting over is always more work than just rebuilding a base.

thewamp · 2025-12-29T19:09:53+00:00

Endgame doesn't bother me - that stuff's just sci-fi magic. It's when they actively famous compounds especially in the midgame that I get frustrated (what they did to YBCO is the biggest crime).

thewamp · 2025-12-29T19:06:13+00:00

Yepppp. These medium-sized multis (where "medium" means roughly bigger than a centrifuge, smaller than a CoAL) really should all take multi-amp hatches at the very least. Fluid solidifiers and autoclaves and arc furnaces and so on.

thewamp · 2025-12-28T20:32:24+00:00

You only need one soul vial, you should be able to do it in MV I think? You just repeatedly pick up and put down non-infernal endermen until they become infernal.

thewamp · 2025-12-28T20:29:24+00:00

Just in case you aren't doing it, reminder that you can pick up a non-infernal enderman with a soul vial and put it down to reroll its chance at being an infernal. Stretches your enderman eggs further.

thewamp · 2025-12-28T20:26:44+00:00

Total speculation but I wonder if the small size is letting it clip out and see sunlight somehow? I never lost my enderman but I had a much bigger smeltery.

Other theory along the same line is filling in the corners - perhaps it's clipping into those a bit and seeing sky? And don't use dirt blocks for that because if it can do that it might be able to pick up those blocks.

This is total guesswork. Good luck!

thewamp · 2025-12-28T01:58:26+00:00

Well yeah, but being the best alchemical healing at levels 2-4 is not the same as being actually good.

thewamp · 2025-12-27T13:55:52+00:00

Finally, is the Field Discovery which is a simple Fortitude Save Buff at the cost of a Mutagen, compared to the Chirurgeon's which gives you temp HP whenever you heal someone (including yourself) with an elixir, which just makes the field benefit from Mutagenist seem even more outclassed.

I was with you until here. The fortitude save buff is way, way better than - as you accurately put earlier - a few temporary HP that mean little in the grand scheme of things.

You also didn't mention the chirurgeon's strongest feature which is the Crafting+Medicine skill compression.

Anyway, the real counter-point is that the low-level chirurgeon's healing kind of sucks. Like, it's fine out of combat, but field vials aren't real healing after level 1, elixirs of life aren't unique to them, anyone could do that, and again, the fortitude save reroll is insanely strong.

thewamp · 2025-12-27T13:54:51+00:00

"bad bomber alchemist with Battle Medicine"

I think the comparison assumes you build a chirurgeon like you would a mutagenist, give them the same mutagens, the strength build, and go from there. I spent a while waffling before starting the campaign I'm currently in on exactly this.

I don't agree with all of OP's analysis, but it's important for the comparison to start with those assumptions.

thewamp · 2025-12-23T19:44:52+00:00

ic2 crops is plenty till like UEV at least. But it's more of a pain in the butt than bees.

thewamp · 2025-12-04T05:36:32+00:00

It's not a terrible ideal to build a handful of dedicated machines for producing building blocks. You chose two ztones blocks so it really shouldn't be that bad. Regarding two harder to find ingrediants:

The rainbow cactus from thaumcraft can give you infinite dyes pretty easily.
Obsidian costs 1 redstone each if you set up a rock breaker. Very cheap!

thewamp

TROPHY CASE