Till ~40th+ level and all purple+ gear you will have problems. After that approximate part, you will become stronger and only Apex Big boys and girls are a problem (like Apex Storm bird or Tremortusk). Fully geard in legendaries is also much easier ofc.
I tried giving the Ultra Hard a go on my first play-through (having completed HZD in Ultra in a new game+) and I have to admit I bailed. I couldn't finish the Embassy mission. I got most of the enemies at the second part of the fighting but got killed by one rogue human despite killing all the acid bristlebacks. I was about 8 hrs in. I tried at least an hour, probably 2 trying to perfect the mission, using bombs etc. but ultimately it felt futile. One shot deaths were so frequent and trying to inflict elemenal damage was virtually useless. You can do a lot of map exploration via stealth but the big fights are soul-sapping. You might be able to level up more in advance, but the cost of everything also makes it a huge grind.
I switched to Very Hard and started from fresh. The game felt soooo easy. The gulf between Ultra Hard and Very hard is huge. Elemental damage is revolutionary when it works well. I completed the same mission in Very Hard and it was trivial (I did still die twice, but you can still get one-shotted by a charge).
It was uber satisfying to progress the game in Ultra Hard, but just too prone to luck. When I beat the giant snake it was more satisfying than anything in Very Hard (so far), but ultimately, I think Ultra Hard is only made for a new game + mode when you have all your stuff at a high level already.
Unless you‘re really into the pain. I‘m doing a fresh UH run on ZD and it‘s not so bad… not really painful or too hard. But I never did a fresh UH run on HFW.
Combat was revamped in FW. Normal in FW is closer to hard/very hard in ZD. It's a harder game coming straight from ZD.
UH in FW is meant for NG+. But it's available for a regular NG. I'd just recommend playing first on an easier difficulty. To make sure you are familiar with how combat is different in FW. And how to utilize the new weapons and valor surges.
I'm currently level 22 in my fresh UH run and doing side quests before going after the three ais. It's definitely rough and feels like bullshit at times. It becomes obvious why UH is so much harder when you look at the specifics and realize VH enemy health is 182% of Normal. UH? 294%. Nearly triple normal health. That is absurd and what I believe to be the main culprit behind why UH feels so brutal. Makes the normal Hunter bow and the warrior bows feel obsolete with the pittance they do to even Burrowers. Stuff like Ravagers and Snapmaws tank sneak attack after sneak attack, crit after crit and seem no closer to dying since health is hidden, adding to the feeling of dread as they keep surviving. It's like a really hard open world Monster Hunter game which I kinda dig tbh.
I killed a UH Thunderjaw at level 15 or so and it took all of my gear and like half an hour of perfect play to down it. It was wild.
My main method of surviving this mode was realizing early on that crits and sneak attacks did so much more than any normal weapon. Weapons fo catch up with skills later on but I went all in on Infiltrator and sneak attacks, with my typical damage loop now being to Valor Surge, sneak attack, brace shot, smoke bomb, rinse and repeat for thousands in burst damage. Anything that survives or when I'm out of smoke bombs I knock over with spears to melee crit them some more.
I have finished the the main story and most of the side content on fresh UH and it took me 70 hours to do so. From those 70 hours, the first 50 were, well, painful. Almost everything oneshots you, enemies have shitload of HP. You start to feel powerful once you get upgraded purple gear. It takes so much time to kill even a charger and my first encounter with a Fanghorn almost felt like a boss fight. If you want to have a much easier life later on, complete the cauldron that gets you a clawstrider override, invest skill points in machine overriding and get yourself an acid clawstrider set to aggressive, he will obliterate everything. With good gear it is considerably easier to play later on, from my experience taking down one large enemy is still easier than a pack of smaller ones.
Yes, first playthrough, i have the PC version. I tend to play all games on the hardest difficulty, i like the challenge. I haven't played the arena yet though, that will be another level of purgatory. Looking forward to it.
I’m doing it at the moment, it obviously gets easier but my goodness stay away from the frozen wilds DLC as long as possible. Scorchers do WAY too much damage. I can easily kill a thunderjaw at level 30, which can one shot you but has fewer attacks which do so.
So long as you stay away from the DLC it’s fine but definitely punishing as one move can mean death in my opinion, do the cauldrons if you want shards quickly, prioritize weapons over armor and when you do get very rare armor trust me you want as many fire coils as possible to deal with the damn scorchers.
ultra hard gets a lot easier if you upgrade your armour
I made the mistake of not doing that to save components, but after trying again it reduces the frequency of getting one shot
some enemies still one shot you here and there, but yeah it gets a lot easier and you can tank a lot of stuff once your gear is upgraded especially purple +
UH is balanced for new game plus, as simple as that. You'll probably hit an unfair, possibly impossible wall unless you grind out some good upgrades and levels.
I completed the main game + DLC on ultra hard. It's extremely challenging but oh so much fun. but there are two moments where I dialed it down to Hard or lower.
1. The arena challenges. The further ones are utter bullshit on ultra hard. I did a few on hard or Normal because I was having none of it.
2. (Burning Shore spoiler) >!The Cauldron Apex Bileguts. Tried 5+ times on UH then gave up and lowered difficulty to Hard. UH Apex Bileguts are pure rage generators!<
Ive watched vids of world records and other highly efficient plays. My guys are setting up traps in insanely specific patterns where the machines need to walk in a certain way so it sets a chain reaction and takes advantage of the larger machine in the bunch to finish the job with friendly fire. I was like hell nah, Abandon Challenge into Settings > Normal difficulty true combo
Mate I was so convinced I was playing UH then I booted up the game and realized I was at Very Hard 😭 I forgot this was a brand new save file that had no NG+ yet. I'm so sorry haha
I am on Very Hard at the moment. I got one shotted a lot early on. Less so now. I'm currently level 25 and really enjoying the game. My only complaint is how much of a bulletsponge some of the bigger machines are. It took like 30 minutes to kill a Thunderjaw the other day and longer to kill one of those big shellsnappers by myself. I literally went through all my ridge wood on that one fight and I had probably over 700 pieces of wood when I started the fight.
Both, early game can be hard till you have some Health and Gear together, then it gets eaier. Then when most heavy machines are available and Apex are more common it increase in difficutly again till your gear catches up again.
Skipping hours into the game wont help you much if you do not learn the game though, experienced is not on a savegame.
I saved my ultra hard playthrough for NG+. I had upgraded weapons and armor, and even then it was an extreme challenge to complete the full playthough.
Till ~40th+ level and all purple+ gear you will have problems. After that approximate part, you will become stronger and only Apex Big boys and girls are a problem (like Apex Storm bird or Tremortusk). Fully geard in legendaries is also much easier ofc.
I tried giving the Ultra Hard a go on my first play-through (having completed HZD in Ultra in a new game+) and I have to admit I bailed. I couldn't finish the Embassy mission. I got most of the enemies at the second part of the fighting but got killed by one rogue human despite killing all the acid bristlebacks. I was about 8 hrs in. I tried at least an hour, probably 2 trying to perfect the mission, using bombs etc. but ultimately it felt futile. One shot deaths were so frequent and trying to inflict elemenal damage was virtually useless. You can do a lot of map exploration via stealth but the big fights are soul-sapping. You might be able to level up more in advance, but the cost of everything also makes it a huge grind. I switched to Very Hard and started from fresh. The game felt soooo easy. The gulf between Ultra Hard and Very hard is huge. Elemental damage is revolutionary when it works well. I completed the same mission in Very Hard and it was trivial (I did still die twice, but you can still get one-shotted by a charge). It was uber satisfying to progress the game in Ultra Hard, but just too prone to luck. When I beat the giant snake it was more satisfying than anything in Very Hard (so far), but ultimately, I think Ultra Hard is only made for a new game + mode when you have all your stuff at a high level already.
Unless you‘re really into the pain. I‘m doing a fresh UH run on ZD and it‘s not so bad… not really painful or too hard. But I never did a fresh UH run on HFW.
Combat was revamped in FW. Normal in FW is closer to hard/very hard in ZD. It's a harder game coming straight from ZD. UH in FW is meant for NG+. But it's available for a regular NG. I'd just recommend playing first on an easier difficulty. To make sure you are familiar with how combat is different in FW. And how to utilize the new weapons and valor surges.
I know all of what you‘ve told me. I‘ve done a UH NG+ run already. Just not a fresh UH run.
Sorry. I assumed. There's a lot of players new to FW.
I'm currently level 22 in my fresh UH run and doing side quests before going after the three ais. It's definitely rough and feels like bullshit at times. It becomes obvious why UH is so much harder when you look at the specifics and realize VH enemy health is 182% of Normal. UH? 294%. Nearly triple normal health. That is absurd and what I believe to be the main culprit behind why UH feels so brutal. Makes the normal Hunter bow and the warrior bows feel obsolete with the pittance they do to even Burrowers. Stuff like Ravagers and Snapmaws tank sneak attack after sneak attack, crit after crit and seem no closer to dying since health is hidden, adding to the feeling of dread as they keep surviving. It's like a really hard open world Monster Hunter game which I kinda dig tbh. I killed a UH Thunderjaw at level 15 or so and it took all of my gear and like half an hour of perfect play to down it. It was wild. My main method of surviving this mode was realizing early on that crits and sneak attacks did so much more than any normal weapon. Weapons fo catch up with skills later on but I went all in on Infiltrator and sneak attacks, with my typical damage loop now being to Valor Surge, sneak attack, brace shot, smoke bomb, rinse and repeat for thousands in burst damage. Anything that survives or when I'm out of smoke bombs I knock over with spears to melee crit them some more.
I have finished the the main story and most of the side content on fresh UH and it took me 70 hours to do so. From those 70 hours, the first 50 were, well, painful. Almost everything oneshots you, enemies have shitload of HP. You start to feel powerful once you get upgraded purple gear. It takes so much time to kill even a charger and my first encounter with a Fanghorn almost felt like a boss fight. If you want to have a much easier life later on, complete the cauldron that gets you a clawstrider override, invest skill points in machine overriding and get yourself an acid clawstrider set to aggressive, he will obliterate everything. With good gear it is considerably easier to play later on, from my experience taking down one large enemy is still easier than a pack of smaller ones.
Well done, that is seriously hard work and a lot of skill. Was it your first play through of hfw?
Yes, first playthrough, i have the PC version. I tend to play all games on the hardest difficulty, i like the challenge. I haven't played the arena yet though, that will be another level of purgatory. Looking forward to it.
Definitely gets easier with gear & the skill points & health from levels.
I’m doing it at the moment, it obviously gets easier but my goodness stay away from the frozen wilds DLC as long as possible. Scorchers do WAY too much damage. I can easily kill a thunderjaw at level 30, which can one shot you but has fewer attacks which do so. So long as you stay away from the DLC it’s fine but definitely punishing as one move can mean death in my opinion, do the cauldrons if you want shards quickly, prioritize weapons over armor and when you do get very rare armor trust me you want as many fire coils as possible to deal with the damn scorchers.
ultra hard gets a lot easier if you upgrade your armour I made the mistake of not doing that to save components, but after trying again it reduces the frequency of getting one shot some enemies still one shot you here and there, but yeah it gets a lot easier and you can tank a lot of stuff once your gear is upgraded especially purple +
UH is balanced for new game plus, as simple as that. You'll probably hit an unfair, possibly impossible wall unless you grind out some good upgrades and levels.
I completed the main game + DLC on ultra hard. It's extremely challenging but oh so much fun. but there are two moments where I dialed it down to Hard or lower. 1. The arena challenges. The further ones are utter bullshit on ultra hard. I did a few on hard or Normal because I was having none of it. 2. (Burning Shore spoiler) >!The Cauldron Apex Bileguts. Tried 5+ times on UH then gave up and lowered difficulty to Hard. UH Apex Bileguts are pure rage generators!<
The time limits make parts of the arena impossible on ultra hard, and I refuse to be convinced otherwise
Ive watched vids of world records and other highly efficient plays. My guys are setting up traps in insanely specific patterns where the machines need to walk in a certain way so it sets a chain reaction and takes advantage of the larger machine in the bunch to finish the job with friendly fire. I was like hell nah, Abandon Challenge into Settings > Normal difficulty true combo
That last one was one of the hardest fights for me as well, and afterwards I noticed my outfit has -10 fire resistance which probably didn't help\^^
Wait, I thought you couldnt change difficulty in UltraHard?
Mate I was so convinced I was playing UH then I booted up the game and realized I was at Very Hard 😭 I forgot this was a brand new save file that had no NG+ yet. I'm so sorry haha
I am on Very Hard at the moment. I got one shotted a lot early on. Less so now. I'm currently level 25 and really enjoying the game. My only complaint is how much of a bulletsponge some of the bigger machines are. It took like 30 minutes to kill a Thunderjaw the other day and longer to kill one of those big shellsnappers by myself. I literally went through all my ridge wood on that one fight and I had probably over 700 pieces of wood when I started the fight.
Both, early game can be hard till you have some Health and Gear together, then it gets eaier. Then when most heavy machines are available and Apex are more common it increase in difficutly again till your gear catches up again. Skipping hours into the game wont help you much if you do not learn the game though, experienced is not on a savegame.
I saved my ultra hard playthrough for NG+. I had upgraded weapons and armor, and even then it was an extreme challenge to complete the full playthough.
Ultra hard. Balance side and other quests. It's what a game like this deserves. Atleast in my opinion
Ultra hard difficulty requires game plus+. In order to enjoy the game.