Anyone have tips for beating the final boss? Because for some reason, I can't beat it for the life of me; can't get the dodge timing down, and the boss does too much damage for me to deal with, currently. Also, the few times I managed to get to Phase 2, the boss doing it's little "swap" thing and shifting forms kept tripping me up, and the second phase having so much red and so much going on is not helping.
Granted, I'll be the first to admit, I'm not the best at the game; still looking to improve as much as possible. That being said; anyone got any tips for improvement? Any build suggestions?
I only beat it in co-op. But our pet-heavy party had problems until they switched. While Engineers turret is good, minions that move around just get confused and can't seem to keep up.
In co-op, we had the person it was attacking only dodge and heal, while everyone else burst it down until it switched targets. Doubt that will help in co-op, but a lot of the time it was suicide to try and attack and stay alive.
My co-op buddy and I were going back and forth after the ending, and more or less agreed that it would have been a lot better if the Ward was as fleshed out as it was in the first game. I couldn't give a leaping fuck about any of the new NPCs, and the old ones only got a pass via momentum - there was no discovery this time around in the Ward, just popping back on occasion to see if this gubbin or the other could make something decent at Grumpyface, what can you upgrade at Riggamus and maybe Goatman, and get back in the shit where something is at least happening (kind of).
Hell, have the Root be a Ward-specific problem, not a blatant whole-fucking-universe problem, and tie the world bosses into that; make it so that unfucking the other links in the World Stone has a notable effect on the Ward, clearing roots and shit out to open some new rooms with lore, or loot, or something. Maybe whoever's in charge has no goddamned clue why it's working, but it is, and you're the only one crazy/stupid/expendable enough to rub the big red rock and keep fixing things with bullets. The storyline probably would have been much better if you were just an interdimensional cleanup crew trying to save your own asses by playing Knights Errant with Machine Guns.
As long as it doesn't choke at the last leg, where some silly bitch opens the Ark of the Covenant and sucks the entire universe into a usb stick. Christ alive, that ending was insulting.
Edit: I screencapped some of a conversation I'd been having with another buddy a couple of weeks back, when that co-op run had just gotten to the last boss and bounced off its second form about a dozen times.
After another dozen or so the next day, we went and grabbed Enigma just to deal with the fucking beach balls.
I'll admit to still being residually mad about it. Trying to get Summoner unlocked pissed me off so hard that I just used Cheat Engine to force spawn a bunch of Blood Moon Essence, since the Blood Moon never decided to actually fire off.
Between the fight, the RNG bullshit, and the ending, I don't care what DLC comes out; once we go back and finish dealing with the world bosses in Yeezy and Lolcat (we're giving Nerd one last shot to see if we can't get the RNG combination lock to roll over for the Pulse Rifle), I'm washing my hands of this game.
As someone who recently managed to beat the game fairly recently - massive, MASSIVE thank you to @Asian tech support, your builds really did come through for this solo player - I want to post my two cents on Remnant 2.
After going through the main campaign, and making a number of runs through Adventure mode to unlock some of the other gear that I had missed, I honestly feel that this game just... isn't as fun as the first one. Not too sure why, to be honest; might just be some burn out, but I find myself really not wanting to have to run through the different worlds again and again to get the final few things that I was wanting to get.
I feel like it's the combat, personally; for some reason, the combat in this game just doesn't really feel as... entertaining as it did in the first game. It feels like you get swarmed with hordes of foes constantly, and it gets to the point where trying to explore just gets more exhausting than anything else. It also feels like your character is easier to kill than the first game was, and the game kinda forces you to use certain guns and builds - i.e., the Enigma - at the expense of build variety.
The final boss also feels like it wasn't really playtested properly; I mean, the first game's final boss was also shit, but at least it went down quickly once you knew what you were doing. Annihilation, on the other hand, feels like bullshit; as @Mooger Meng mentioned above, the random glitch crap and DPS orbs got frustrating, and it just didn't feel fun with how the second phase would just jump back and forth between the two styles. It's not the only boss, either; a lot of the other bosses felt more like tests of patience/sanity rather than skill. Still fun and workable depending on the build, but some like the Bloat King in Losom, where you have to deal with the platforming in addition to the boss, are annoying to fight.
Also, the RNG stuff and rather bizarre hoops you need to jump through to get some of the really interesting gear - farming Blood Moons on Yaesha and my current task of unlocking Archon come to mind - can get very annoying rather quickly. It is nice to have something to do, mind; I really do like a challenge sometimes, it's just that some of the hoops, like getting to Alepsis-Tuara in Ne'rud, often require a lot of time investment to get.
The story is the main issue of mine; I get that it's a blatant set-up for the DLC, but it honestly feels like a confusing kick in the teeth after all of this shit we went through, and it makes the events of the three games just feel like they were all for nothing. It leaves a whole bunch of shit unanswered; i.e., where the hell is Ford, what's the real story of the Root, where are we even supposed to go now, etc. There's supposed to be three DLCs for the game, but there's a lot of ground to cover:
As stated, where is Ford? His journal in Ward 13 confirms that he was heading off to find a way to kill the Root for good, but shouldn't he be on Root Earth somewhere, or at least in the Labyrinth? Is he looking for Navun, on Yaesha?
It's mentioned that there are at least 20 different Wards; what happened to them, and what worlds were they connected to?
The end of the game indicates that everything is one gigantic simulation; if so, is there a world outside of the simulation? What's going on with it?
Also, is Clementine really the new warden of the system? What happened with her, exactly?
During the ending, we briefly got to see our PC waking up on a field of green grass, before we unceremoniously get booted back to the main menu. Is that supposed to be the "reset" or purged world, free from the Root? What happened there?
What exactly really happened that resulted in the Root becoming a corrupting force? Some of the gear grabbed on Root Earth indicates that it was, originally, a benevolent and friendly creation; what resulted in it becoming this "world-ending corruption" that it was now? I swear, if it turns out that the people of Root Earth were somehow responsible, and the plot turns into some bullshit "humans are the real monsters" crap...
Mudtooth implies that the Iskal Queen and her cult is now on Earth; are we going to be going after her sometime? What happened to Corsus?
There was quite a bit of talk about Reisum, mostly in relation to Clementine; it's indicated that the world is still around, but how's it looking currently? It's implied that Sebum is still around, and/or possibly on Earth; where's he?
Slightly related to the above two; are we going to be seeing some more members of other races on Earth later on? Maybe getting them as NPCs in Ward 13? Would be cool, admittedly; Earth is the "core" world, after all.
The lore bits on Yaesha indicate that the Krell somehow managed to invade the world; after what happened in Chronos, it's all but stated that their world got fucked by the Root, but how did they invade Yaesha?
For the guy that gives us the Tarnished Ring in Ward 13; the fuck was going on with the rabbit woman? Was that just some trippy nightmare that he had, or is it foreshadowing to something?
And so on...
Now, despite all of this stuff that I just said; I don't hate Remnant 2, entirely. Yes, the game has a LOT of problems; the story is my biggest issue by far. However, I do think that this game can still be fun, at points; there's some really cool weapon options this time around like the bows, I'm planning to try and experiment with some of the Archetypes to see which ones I enjoy using the most, the "one world, two stories" design is a neat concept, and I really do like running around some of the different worlds. And hell, fairly certain my issue with the combat is due to me having to grind Ne'rud for a bit too long; once I get this bit with the black hole done, I'll head to the other worlds for a bit, see how things are there.
Overall, I'm really not quite sure how to feel about R2 at this point; there's some cool stuff here, but the issues I've got with it are also rather notable. I'm also hesitant about the DLC for the game; I mean, the DLCs for R1 were pretty solid, but A: there's a lot of shit that Gunfire is going to need to cover over the three DLCs, and B: with how current year shit tends to ruin everything, I'm seriously wondering if Gunfire will be putting any crap in the DLCs; we already got Cass in the base game, for instance.
What do you guys think about all of this? You feeling optimistic, or do you think that the game might get worse?
Hmm. Well, I do agree that there's a nebulous something that isn't as satisfying as the first game, but I can't really pin down what's making it feel like something's missing. There's no one big thing wrong - more like a bunch of little stuff that just wears on you as you go on, like the puke zone in Nerd that's infinitely more annoying than a proper wall, or how it feels like you're punished for trying to lean too much into melee, or that there are a few too many instances of "fuck you" instant-kill attacks, and so on.
For all the hand-wringing I've seen over the 65 point cap on traits, the only issue I have is that it's not a nice, even number, which gets worse depending on your main class' baked-in core traits. I feel like the traits themselves are a problem. Most builds will want to max out Health and Stamina, so there's anywhere between 15-20 depending on how many your class has by default, and then a bunch of really niche, but not exactly QoL, traits that are either absolutely necessary or utterly useless depending on build (Summon traits), some that are good but require you to do some silly shit for and might not even show up (Glutton!), and the class-locked traits that are also either useless or amazing but require significant investment. Shit like, why is the movement speed trait locked behind a class that you don't get until the end of the game, when the Challenger trait is objectively hot garbage? And why do you not get the EXP bonus trait until after beating the final goddamned boss?! Add in how much of a pain in the ass it is to completely rejigger your build (How dare you not play the way we wanted you to, peasant?!), and it's just unpleasant when you need to go back and, say, reallocate all of your shit just to fight a boss.
Outside of Annie, Destroyer of Fun, at the end of things, the only world boss that's given my buddy and I a ton of trouble was Black Hole Sun on Nerd, since he's just a big ol' fuckoff MMO raid boss that deals waaaaay too much damage with a tiny window to get in hits; of course, we've yet to deal with the other two world bosses on Yeezy (we got Moon Moon both times so far) or Lolcat (Two Face, haven't gone back yet). Moon Moon was a pain, but I think that was mostly because it was the first boss we'd dealt with and we didn't have much built up yet. The mob combat isn't bad, though, and I like that we can't completely no-brain through most fights going from one place to the next.
Related, I think there's something particularly grating about Nerd's overworld areas - it feels like you're doing a lot more nothing there than the other two with how open it all is.
On DLC, I'll admit I'm just a cynical fucker that fully expects it to be dogshit. It'll have to be absolutely amazing to get over the wet church fart that the main game has decided to end on, which I don't think they have the chops to pull off in light of the writing there. I know I'm missing part of the story, since I never played Cronus, but that doesn't really change that most of these people suck. Clementine spending so much of her energy arguing with and bitching about Ford wasn't endearing at all, it was annoying; Cass only got better once I didn't have to deal with her any more, and I never bothered to talk with her after the tutorial because who fucking cares; Goatboy just made me wonder why the fuck there was a Goat here and where was the Goat from R1; and my own cynical guess to the eternal "Where the fuck was Ford?" question has continued to be "lol, he's an old white man that the soopar-speshul diverse girlboss is mad at, fuck him, he don't matter", since these dickheads just couldn't help themselves in the goddamned intro with that shit thanks to Cass. I don't give enough of a fuck to see if they answer anything in the DLC; it's not going to patch over the fact that you guys kind of suck at this.
I'll say it again. When all the disparate parts of this game stop chuntering along and align properly, it's pretty good! But then something happens to ruin the rhythm, and it all rattles back into its component parts that just aren't that satisfying on their own.
Tbh, as with Remnant 1, I didn't pay attention to or put that much stock in the story. Think I mentioned it earlier in the thread about how I didn't understand shit about the ending and wrote it off as schizoshit. Most of the storylines on each world were ok, some better than others. The N'erud ones I liked, despite not liking the world that much. Unfortunately, I was left with more questions such as could the N'erudians at their full strength taken care of the Root on their own. The Red Empress storyline was ok but it got better if you get the secret dialogue about how the empress is fake and it's all gayfabe. The Asylum storyline is predictable but still neat. Really, the game needed another full area and to maybe ditch the main plot entirely, just telling stories of each world. I also mentioned it earlier how the game failed at it's promise of never telling the same story twice. While there's variation in how the worlds are laid out, since none of the worlds interact with each other (besides one specific interaction requiring the override pin AND the nightweaver's web. I still can't get this crap to roll and it takes completing an entire world and the labyrinth just to know if you got it) and the overall story is uneffected.
I do think the game will get better but the story/setting issues are unfixable due to a faulty premise and bookending. I had loads of fun with it as is and as long as I can dunk on more baddies, I'll come back for more.
For all the hand-wringing I've seen over the 65 point cap on traits, the only issue I have is that it's not a nice, even number, which gets worse depending on your main class' baked-in core traits. I feel like the traits themselves are a problem. Most builds will want to max out Health and Stamina, so there's anywhere between 15-20 depending on how many your class has by default, and then a bunch of really niche, but not exactly QoL, traits that are either absolutely necessary or utterly useless depending on build (Summon traits), some that are good but require you to do some silly shit for and might not even show up (Glutton!), and the class-locked traits that are also either useless or amazing but require significant investment. Shit like, why is the movement speed trait locked behind a class that you don't get until the end of the game, when the Challenger trait is objectively hot garbage? And why do you not get the EXP bonus trait until after beating the final goddamned boss?! Add in how much of a pain in the ass it is to completely rejigger your build (How dare you not play the way we wanted you to, peasant?!), and it's just unpleasant when you need to go back and, say, reallocate all of your shit just to fight a boss.
When the game launched, the trait cap was 60. They bumped it to 65 so players could theoretically cap out that last trait but fully capping one trait (under the best of circumstances mind you) doesn't really change a build. If they wanted to make somewhat of a dent, they'd have bumped the cap to 75 so players could have an entire extra full trait in additional to the other one.
The game needs loadouts and badly. The trait reset item used to cost 1000 scrap too.
@Mooger Meng: Yeah, how you get access to some of the traits is really messed up; not helped with how you have to re-do everything in case your build is messed up. As it's been stated; this game needs loadouts; would make trying out different builds FAR easier.
And yeah, Ne'rud's open world is a lot more annoying to deal with compared to the other places; the toxic fog border was just an awful choice, and it feels like there's just a whole lot of nothing going on. Neat aesthetic, though, even if it's the only world in R2 that I don't like playing.
Don't feel too bad if you don't play Chronos; there are a few lore bits in that game - i.e., the Dragon Heart came from the Krell world, some little lore tidbits about the Wards, the teleportation mirrors, etc. - but most of the really important/relevant stuff is already explained in R1 and 2. Still would like to go back to the Krell's world, though.
And yeah, you're right on the issues with the characters; Cass is a bitch who's just an annoyance (I've even seen people on Reddit freely admit to hating her), Dwell is interesting but lacks a general story, the loss of Navun is a very notable plot hole, Ford being missing is a seriously cheap plot hook for the DLC (his journal implies he's searching for someone who's also immortal like him, and had previously worked on the Ward project), and Clementine being rewrote into this girlboss asshat is seriously shit, especially since her issues with Ford (accusing him of not doing anything, running from problems, causing issues, etc.) are all things that also apply to her in R1 and 2; it's particularly grating since she was actually likable in R1, and the story of R1, while barebones as shit, was at least solid and workable instead of being... whatever the hell the ending for R2 was.
Quick question: what did you mean by "since these dickheads just couldn't help themselves in the goddamned intro with that shit thanks to Cass"? If you're talking about the others being distracted thanks to Cass being sick, then... yeah, I can agree. Was kinda annoying.
@Asian tech support: Yeah, the individual stories for the different worlds were a lot more interesting than the main one, I agree. I feel like the devs should just focus on making the stories for each of the individual worlds, instead of trying to focus on the big, overarching one; would probably be more entertaining, personally.
For me, personally; I'm just going to be grabbing what few things left in the game interest me - seriously considering giving Apocalypse a chance so I can grab the World's Edge - any just mess around with different builds for a bit, see what I find to be fun, etc. Other than that; I'm pretty much done with the game, and unless the DLC ends up fixing/addressing the problems that I and the rest of us have, then...
EDIT: Finally managed to get into Alepsis-Tuara; grabbed the Void Heart. Kinda shitty that you have to wait so long to get it; it's a cool item, but... I feel like there should have been more besides a single item and a (admittedly pretty cool looking) location to walk around in.
Ah, well. Onto Yaesha to unlock Ford's Shotgun. After that, grinding up the two Archetypes.
Quick question: what did you mean by "since these dickheads just couldn't help themselves in the goddamned intro with that shit thanks to Cass"? If you're talking about the others being distracted thanks to Cass being sick, then... yeah, I can agree. Was kinda annoying.
As was mentioned upthread, her second line is bitching about "old white men". That really said all I needed to know about her "character", even more than how they tried to clunkily shoehorn her in as your friend rather than having her act friendly; all tell, no show, like a lot of the main storyline.
One thing I will say is that, at least in her diary, Clem does admit (as bitterly as one can in written word) that she's acting like Ford did/does. So it's not like it went unnoticed by the team, they just didn't fucking fix it.
As was mentioned upthread, her second line is bitching about "old white men". That really said all I needed to know about her "character", even more than how they tried to clunkily shoehorn her in as your friend rather than having her act friendly; all tell, no show, like a lot of the main storyline.
Oh yeah, that part; to be honest, I kinda tried to blank that bit out of my memory. Nothing like a modern-day stereotype in a world that it doesn't belong...
Seriously, if it weren't for the fact that I had to talk to her for some consumables and rings, I'd just ignore the bitch; seriously, it's been 100+ years since the apocalypse happened in the 1960s, if Cass was acting like that, then that... really doesn't say anything decent about her, frankly.
Also, she replaced Ace from the previous game, who I actually liked; why couldn't Cass replace the angry mod bitch? Probably would have been a marginal improvement, at least...
One thing I will say is that, at least in her diary, Clem does admit (as bitterly as one can in written word) that she's acting like Ford did/does. So it's not like it went unnoticed by the team, they just didn't fucking fix it.
They REALLY dropped the ball on Clem this game; with how she was both a complete bitch early on, and how the end of the game went, I'm REALLY not looking forward to potentially dealing with her in the DLC.
Also, she replaced Ace from the previous game, who I actually liked; why couldn't Cass replace the angry mod bitch? Probably would have been a marginal improvement, at least...
It's strange; I didn't mind McCabe in the first game, since it was clear she was so engrossed in her job of unfucking the Ward's machinery that she didn't want to get interrupted. I can respect a goal-oriented autist who has gawful social skills.
In 2, they seemed to make her more of a bitch via sarcasm, while also trying to soften her attitude, by having her explain she's a goal-oriented autist with gawful social skills and leaving some notes in a journal or two along the lines of "she's not that bad, she's just kind of a bitch". Which, while perhaps true, is yet more telling rather than showing.
It doesn't quite work, but I don't hate her. She's just a chronic grump, and they couldn't write much of the Ward's crew very well this time around.
Seriously, if it weren't for the fact that I had to talk to her for some consumables and rings, I'd just ignore the bitch; seriously, it's been 100+ years since the apocalypse happened in the 1960s, if Cass was acting like that, then that... really doesn't say anything decent about her, frankly.
lol, I think I picked up one trinket from her in all of my playtime. Otherwise it's been Mudtooth and Reggie for the few consumables I bother with.
On top of being insufferable, her inventory rotates every 30 minutes based on the host's system time from a pool of random crap she might have. I still don't know who the fuck thought that was a good idea.
I tried this game but I quickly got annoyed by the main char being unable to shut the fuck up. I don't need them to say something every time a battle starts and ends
Also, she replaced Ace from the previous game, who I actually liked; why couldn't Cass replace the angry mod bitch? Probably would have been a marginal improvement, at least...
She stole McCabe's motorcycle and rode off into the sunset, blasting Root dinosaurs with an infinite-ammo crystal rocket launcher that the Wanderer found in a broom closet on Yesha. I'd be pissed, too. The bitch could at least write back every once in a while.
Yeah, yeah, she probably got got on a scrounge run and Grumpy is more upset about it than she wants to admit. I like my version better.
her inventory rotates every 30 minutes based on the host's system time from a pool of random crap she might have. I still don't know who the fuck thought that was a good idea.
Brother, I do not believe this 30 minutes rotation crap. I saw it mentioned somewhere that her inventory updateshas the potential to update after cleaning an area boss/area final event and I've had much more consistent refreshes when operating under that premise. It doesn't help that 99/100 times its just fucking lumenite. She should exchange the rare loot for simulacrums.
It's pretty damn funny that they made the DEI inclusion a massively annoying cunt who fails to perform her duty as a merchant. The more I think about it, the more I suspect someone was having a bit of fun.
You know what, fuck it, I'm bored and shirking off things I need to do already, so why not just brainstorm a few ways to make the game's story suck a little less? I'm a fucking fanfic-tier hack, and I bet I can at least outline a better idea than what we got.
- Scrap the tutorial, redo it entirely. Have the Stranger come in alone, like the first game, and if you must shoehorn Cass in, come across her in the field, injured, next to about five or six dead Root critters, maybe with a bad case of Root Rot. Movement and interaction tutorials are helping her through the derelict building/area, then shove her through a doorway and lock it for the combat tutorial. If you want, have a forced escape section while she leans out a window to pick off things chasing you; she's tough or just stubborn enough to keep her aim steady while hauling a big bag of junk and coughing her lungs out, but she won't make it back on her own.
- If we keep the "rescued by Clem and Bo" scene, make it quicker, even if Bo still comes over to heal the Stranger with the Dragon Heart. One of their own (Cass) and the random asshole that bailed her out need help; don't stand the fuck around, get in, get everyone moving, and get the fuck out. Hand Cass some Rootward Salve while the Stranger is still boggling over the Heart; it won't cure her, but it will get her moving fast enough so you all can fucking leave, now.
- Ford and Clem can still argue and be idiots, but once you get back to the Ward, Bo needs to take fucking charge. Ford's gone, it's time to level up from Mayor Nigglet to Boss Nigger.
- Related, make the Ward great again the central area, not the Labyrinth. We need to give a fuck about who's there, and that don't happen when the entire story is focused on the DM's girlfriend. Give us a reason to go back; give us a reason to CARE. Have vendors that are close to one another interact or interject while you're talking; Riggs has to gently remind McCabe that the Stranger doesn't know why she's so high-strung, or Cass mentioning that she's going to pack more medical supplies for her next run and maybe talk with Brabus about getting her piece of shit gun replaced, or ending a conversation with Reggie and/or Mudtooth with some friendly bickering over the details of something as you walk away.
- Find some way to keep the Ward's people relevant as the story goes on; maybe there's some key item contraption you recover from N'Erud that, say, you bring to McCabe to figure out which briefly shocks her out of her usual grumpy funk, which she has to open or figure out so that it's usable for the Guardian and Clem. Hell, Losmin's thing can be some tapestry you drag over to Whispers, and some tribal-era Pan relic for Dwell. It'd be a damn sight better than the Resident Evil-style interactable inventory items that only get used, what, two or three times over the whole game?
It's basic bitch stuff, but part of what made the Ward interesting in the first was the sense of discovery, at least for my buddy and I. There's absolutely none of that here, and it's a much less satisfying setting as a result.
Have they fixed the coop achievements completely yet? Previous patches never rectified the ones they missed and I don't feel like doing new characters runs with him.
I played coop as the host for a friend and he's missing around a dozen I unlocked in the same sessions.
I really wanted to like this game but the scaling system is just a deal breaker.
Played co-op with my brother but we had to stop at the final boss. The battle was just impossible because the game punishes you for leveling up and upgrading your gear. My brother was the host and solo he beat the final boss first try.
Decided to begin the game again solo. But it's so demoralizing having to delay upgrades until you are getting ass blasted so you can't delay anytime further. It's boring, counterintuitive and frustrating.
Whoever thought up the alternate kill for the Great Ghost Bitch in the asylum ought to be sodomized with a bowling pin. It's bad enough that it might take five fucking minutes of tumbling around like a sped before she deigns to spit crabs at you, but then you put in a Goldilocks DPS check on top of it, and she can just undo all that work in the second phase if things go wrong?
There is no possible way her drop can be worth all that trouble, unless it's something retarded like the foam finger gun from Dead Space.
I really wanted to like this game but the scaling system is just a deal breaker.
Played co-op with my brother but we had to stop at the final boss. The battle was just impossible because the game punishes you for leveling up and upgrading your gear. My brother was the host and solo he beat the final boss first try.
Decided to begin the game again solo. But it's so demoralizing having to delay upgrades until you are getting ass blasted so you can't delay anytime further. It's boring, counterintuitive and frustrating.
Some particularly stubborn autist over on the Steam forums keeps banging on about how the scaling system is built such that the enemies in your "expected" level range will usually take the same amount of time/hits to kill, which... is a fairly dumb way of doing things, if true.
It probably doesn't help that the last boss is poorly designed, either.
Whoever thought up the alternate kill for the Great Ghost Bitch in the asylum ought to be sodomized with a bowling pin. It's bad enough that it might take five fucking minutes of tumbling around like a sped before she deigns to spit crabs at you, but then you put in a Goldilocks DPS check on top of it, and she can just undo all that work in the second phase if things go wrong?
There is no possible way her drop can be worth all that trouble, unless it's something retarded like the foam finger gun from Dead Space.
The alt kill for the Nightweaver is the "Nightweaver's Finger", which is used to craft the Nightshade claws. They're a melee pair of claws with the special ability to turn into mist and provide a faster/longer dodge on neutral; if used successfully to dodge something, they grant 5% of the claw damage as lifesteal for 5 seconds, and Perfect Dodges double the time of usage to 10 seconds.
To be honest, it's kinda crap outside of melee builds; hell, even with melee builds, there's a few weapons that are simply better in some cases. Iit's fairly niche to begin with, and it feels more like a trophy rather than a weapon to actually use.
Ironically, her base drop, the Nightfall long gun, is so much better; mod for it makes it a full-auto, unlimited ammo, fast-firing laser rifle that grants lifesteal. Much better, in my opinion.
Some particularly stubborn autist over on the Steam forums keeps banging on about how the scaling system is built such that the enemies in your "expected" level range will usually take the same amount of time/hits to kill, which... is a fairly dumb way of doing things, if true.
It probably doesn't help that the last boss is poorly designed, either.
It certainly feels dumb; makes it to where you constantly get fucked no matter how high your gear is. Especially noticeable in the final areas.
EDIT: I will admit, it's certainly made trying to find a "fun" build - that it, basically just a build to run around and play with, rather than a meta build - rather difficult. I remember in R1 you could basically just play with anything; yes, certain pieces of gear and certain combos were much better than others, but at least you could basically takes what you want and still have fun with it. R2 doesn't have that; it feels like you're kinda forced into using certain builds in favor of survivability, forgoing fun and personalization in the process.
Part of me hopes that the devs can take these criticisms and work on them for the DLCs, but I'm not holding my breath in the slightest; I honestly think that the DLCs are going to make some things worse. Bit of a shame; R1 was a game that I would honestly just pick up for fun and run around on, but R2 just lacks that fun vibe the previous one had.
To be honest, it's kinda crap outside of melee builds; hell, even with melee builds, there's a few weapons that are simply better in some cases. Iit's fairly niche to begin with, and it feels more like a trophy rather than a weapon to actually use.
Compared to a real alternate drop like Stonebreaker, Nightshade is a big meh, although to be fair, World's Edge makes them all look like toys. Maybe if melee builds weren't a meme...
Ironically, her base drop, the Nightfall long gun, is so much better; mod for it makes it a full-auto, unlimited ammo, fast-firing laser rifle that grants lifesteal. Much better, in my opinion.
Room temperature retard gorilla take: Nightfall, Faerin's Sigil, and Hunter's Focus can carry anyone through the game. It's the best boss weapon relative to ease of use.
Some particularly stubborn autist over on the Steam forums keeps banging on about how the scaling system is built such that the enemies in your "expected" level range will usually take the same amount of time/hits to kill, which... is a fairly dumb way of doing things, if true.
If they didn't show the world tier, nobody would have noticed until they joined a multiplayer session.
They could have automated the scaling in a reasonable way: when in campaign and the player enters a world for the first time, take a snapshot of the player's gear, extrapolate progress, and generate leveled areas based on that calculation. Eliminate this for nightmare/apocalypse and just assume the player has maxed their weapon and subclasses.
Funny enough, we just got the alt kill last night. Hell, we only bounced off of it once or twice; once for kicking her ass too hard in the first phase, then again after we figured out how to slow roll our DPS but she snatched the heart back in the second. Third time lucky, and howdy hey. It's a shame the balance on melee weapons is so godawful - I loved the Knuckle Dusters, because punch faces in a shootan geam, but some of the boss weapons are so fucking useful that they pretty much invalidate 85% of the other hittin' sticks.
Of course, it probably helps that we're well into "fuck about" mode rather than running into her in the campaign, when we were still gathering gear and whatnot.
I will admit, it's certainly made trying to find a "fun" build - that it, basically just a build to run around and play with, rather than a meta build - rather difficult.
Just about of my personal "fuck around" builds have had summons in them. For some reason, I ended up gravitating toward them in R1 for most of our run. So far:
- Most of main game was Challenger main with Handler, Summoner, or Engineer sub. Weapons were in flux for a while until I mostly settled on the Lever Action, the Cube Gun, and the boss katana from Nerd with the super swirly sword storm backdash attack. Pile on the lifesteal and it was stupid fun for the most part (until bosses), since I could still melee shit that was in the air but dumb enough to hover close.
- Boss Masher was usually Engineer main with Summoner or Handler secondary, same weapon set. Minion lifesteal ring makes even the minigun turret heal you up stupid fast in a big fight, and throwing on Overclock gives a good window to just not die if you aren't getting combo'd into the dirt.
Now that we're just trying to see the last vestiges of the game, we're just screwing around:
- I've rolled a Summoner/Gunslinger set with the Coach Gun and Double Barrel for a laugh - toss on the ring that extends range so that the Coach Gun can actually hurt things outside of tickle distance, release the Bully Balls, and just go full hee-haw and shotgun things in the face.
- Right now, after having a third man jump in for a little a few days back, I'm running Handler/Summoner (both of them had Handler on, so for a laugh I decided we were going to have Maximum Bork). Auto Shotgun with the mag extender, Tec 22 with the +damage vs. bleeding, Krell Axe for a laugh, the 1/2 reload cost amulet, minion lifesteal ring, and some other stuff to manage recoil and reload times.
The intent for that was to use the shotty in case the Great Ghost Bitch pinned my buddy down, but we never needed it. Turns out that she's close enough to the ground for Officer Nibbles to bite her ankles and cause bleed procs. Then the second phase hits, I call up Dendroid Dan the Hatchet Man, buddy drops the thumper turret and starts hosing her down Ghostbusters-style with the Beam Gun and Enigma, and we were done with very little hassle.
We're going back through Yeezy now, and that setup's been working out better than I thought. It's amazing what kind of stupid builds you can enjoy once you've gotten most of the shit in the game, yeah? I was thinking about it before we logged off last night, and I've about figured out why Archon pisses me off so much: it's a retarded bragging rights reward, like fighting a superboss in some RPG to get the Godforged Sword of Infinite Anal Rending, then having nothing left to do but splatter weak-ass mobs and the final boss that you're now comically overpowered for.
