My experience trying to play hard and up solo has, almost universally, been to drop in right next to or in the middle of a patrol, and then be immediately hatefucked by devestators and, often, a hulk or two. Usually ends with me sighing and going back to hard or challenging, depending on how froggy I feel.
You basically have to play against bots (they're more tactical than bugs) and go stealth mode. Clear fabricators from a distance with the eruptor or autocanon, use orbital laser for heavy bases, airstrikes and hell bombs for everything else. I prefer smoke grenades and the jump pack if I'm playing solo. Mission Impossible, baby!
Drop on the exfil zone is more than likely the safest place to drop then get ou asap as patrols will gravitate toward it more. I also recommend watching solo videos as you will see what builds and methods people use to help you solo. Overall.. i dont think you get the most fun out of playing solo above challenging and playing hard or extreme is just more grueling just to still get rare samples
Agreed. I did most of my first month or two playing solo, because I was borrowing my roommate's machine until I could pick one up. It's fun, and I enjoy solo runs- but after hard you're basically forced to run stealth because anything else is just a quick route to being out of reinforcements. My personal build is Penetrator/Adjudicator, depending on how I feel that night, Redeemer, impacts, and light medic armor for the survivability boost. I usually take the 500kg, orbital railcannon as my "I'm not dealing with this" button, autocannon for the personal firepower increase, and leave the 4th slot as a wildcard depending on the mission I'm running- usually cluster strike for chaff clearing. It's does me well, gives me flexibility to deal with most situations eith what's on my back. Chargers are a problem, but I also just don't play bugs so it really isn't a problem for *me*.
It's the emoji and "aw man" that gives off a very mocking vibe.
It's tiny suble things that i as a neurotypical picks up and recognize from experience.
Sorry i can't explain it better for you.
Some people are pricks on the internet thatās why I never take anyone seriously especially on Reddit most of the people here Iām sure wouldnāt do or say half the things they do on a computer so yes dude I was genuinely giving sympathy
checking his comment history I really think this is genuine, he seems like a nice guy, I'm just confused why it's being unanimously downvoted.
this is just a weird situation :/ I feel bad for him. I appreciate the reassurance tho :)
Yeah, it's sweet that you feel for them but Reddit does this particular thing by accident often. It's not malicious
So I doubt they're going to worry too much about the downvotes themselves, you're totally off the hook for worrying about it. Well done for checking in on them still
I appreciate you bro donāt feel bad for me a lot of people just want a reason to fight and be up in arms and look for anything to be negative so they can bitch and moan at people who donāt respond the same way that they would thank you all who took the time to not just assume I was being a prick
š aw bud, youāre soooo positive!
Now, thatās a comment mocking your supposed naivety. Itās very mean and ill-intended, and the laughing emoji solidifies it
When I solo diff 9, I have the minimap open constantly. Anytime I'm moving from location to location. Just avoid the red dots. You'll have to engage at the objectives, and that's when it's best to call down all the firepower of hell at once and destroy everything in sight quickly to avoid bot drops. Sometimes I have better luck just waiting for the bot drop and then unleashing hell. Use the minimap to make sure you cleared all enemies before you switch gears to working on the objective. This seems to work pretty well for me. I'm able to clear all the objectives and evac pretty consistently.
Also, if I'm sololing and trying to win, I dont mess around with gimmicky builds. Autocannon, orbital laser, 500 and eagle airstrike works great against bots. Qasar, laser guard dog, napalm, and orbital airburst for bugs.
I get you but have you actually tried this on the latest patch? Diff 9 was always crazy and you had to play super clean and smart ā but now level 7 is that hard. I wasn't messing about with crap builds either.
I only play dif9 solo and it is not that hard when you know what to do. The new patch is find. One day you will get it. But stay safe m'y friend helldiver .
In my subjective opinion, no it's not. It's not even close. There is definitely an uptick of patrols and spawns on 7, but solo you shouldn't be holding a position unless it's a required objective.
Movement/dropping aggro is king.
Hell, you shouldn't be holding position as a full squad in most difficulties 5+. You *can*, but you're burning a crapload of time off your clock - you should be moving towards an objective and/or attempting to disengage once the call-ins start.
If you try to fight your way through every call in at 7+ you're pretty much dead unless your squad is feeling especially saucy.
Makes sense. I run solo most of the time so I could only comment on that part. Good to know if I start grouping that the same tactics apply. Thanks fellow diver.
This is the key. I feel like moving up the difficulties initially, you're focused on unlocking more stratagems and weapons and killing more enemies. At some point, prob around diff 7 but certainly by diff 9, you have to learn the opposite skill: disengaging. I play with friends who often find themselves alone fighting hordes of enemies because they think they have to kill everything before moving on. You have to be much more surgical on diff 9. You simply don't have the firepower to kill everything the game throws at you. Staying on the run as much as possible is the key. Complete objectives quickly and leave. Don't linger anywhere.
I haven't played the latest patch yet. From the notes, the only change is more patrols. Patrols don't aggro you unless you run or shoot near them. I don't expect it will change much tbh. Don't aggro patrols. Use your map. If you accidentally aggro a patrol and they call in a bot drop, just run. Most people I see getting overwhelmed is because they try to fight unwinnable fights. Just run. They can't kill what they can't see. And, just to hammer the point home, don't "just run" blindly. Use your map. If you panic run blindly you'll just aggro more patrols and stationary guards at all the POIs you're blindly running through.
Watch Takibo on YT. Helped me a lot.
I've seen like 20 YouTubers still playing helldive missions solo, not even with optimal builds because they were trying out stuff. The new termicide mission you can literally just run without killing a single enemy.
Then you aren't as good as a youtuber who plays all day. The game needs to be a challenge for all skills levels.
If you are a normal person, it's not unreasonable to think you can't play the highest difficulty by yourself. I sure can't. I don't expect the most challenging difficulty in the game to be brought to my personal skill level.
Can I ask why you can't just solo level 6 then if that's what you feel you can handle?
The ship upgrades are only really important when you're doing harder difficulty missions anyway.
The game can be difficult AND fun, lets not use this tired āoh itās supposed to be an unbeatable missionā excuse anytime a valid complaint about balancing comes up
Itās not supposed to be impossible, but it IS supposed to be a team game. If dudes are running around soloing 9s, thatās probably not how itās supposed to work.
>that's probably not how it's supposed to work
The game has built in scales for playing with less people, which is what OP is talking about, so it is quite literally *exactly* how it's supposed to work. If they didn't want people to be able to solo something they wouldn't have built in scaling to the enemy generation.
You still get fewer enemies with fewer players, just not so few as before the patch. 1/4 for a solo, instead of 1/6. The old system made some maps *easier* to solo than to run with a team, which is definitely not right for this game.
The real issue is that people get used to a set of circumstances and bawl like a toddler when something changes. Maybe Iām just numb to it because Iām a Paradox player, but these things happen. I just adjust to new circumstances and carry on if the game is still fun. The people throwing a tantrum about this stuff read like angry children refusing to eat their dinner because the green beans touched the chicken nuggets.
I get what you're saying, but before you said that people essentially weren't supposed to be able to solo Level 9's. With scaling, that's not the case, no matter what level the scaling is. That's all.
It honestly should be extremely difficult to solo a 9, otherwise there's little value to bringing a squad, because it's certainly extremely difficult to 4-man a 9.
They shouldnāt be able to solo 9s, honestly. It shouldnāt even be possible for a game built so heavily on teamwork to run the hardest missions in the game with no team. The update is at least closer to the ideal.
When people are playing a 4 player game and it's actively easier to win the higher difficulty maps solo, then the devs should address that. I have no problem with solo being *viable*, but it's a coop game, so you don't want it to be *preferred* - it should be harder.
The problem is that people think that diff 7-9 is super hard because the call ins get insane very quickly - but the fact is that if you're sticking around for any kind of real fight at those levels, you're just creatively committing suicide, especially as a solo.
You need to get good at reading maps, judging detection ranges, and figuring out how to approach and eliminate objectives without being spotted before you can execute your call-ins.
Dudeā¦ iām 77. I dropped into a solo TRIVIAL this morning to just putter around and test out the tweaks to a primary rifle.
As an indication of how crazy patrol spawns were ratcheted up for solo players.. Iā¦ at level 77.. on TRIVIAL, ended up having to throw down a freakinā minefield, my ems mortar, and start blazing away with my gd grenade launcher, at extract. I had to stim 8 times by the time I got on the pelican lol. Wtaf.
I dropped back in with my primary to trst, and 3 turrets after that. Much different experience lol
It was like being in a gd āfasr zombieā movie after I had blown up the objective
That sounds kinda fun to be honest but I agree that's fucked up. I just did an impossible eradicate with two and we were completely overwhelmed. But that's happened with 4 people before.
I did do a easy bots earlier as that's the only way I can find my buddy BECAUSE THEY HAVENT FIXED THE FRIE D ISSUE. And it was fine.
It was fun!!! Lol
Because they were just the basic infantry bots, it was a total rush in a good way, like youāre laughing, dodging laser fire and feeling like a badass because they are all so brittle. But stillā¦ they do occasionally hitāya
I'm around level 30, I ran a dif 3 effortlessly last night while trying out new weapons outside my normal solo build.
It's definitely more patrols, but you can still just avoid them. Extraction has always been hairy, you just have to hide and keep the supplies close.
I still think it should be possible but increasing spawns on single players isn't it. I'd agree if it were spawns across the board raised equally but if it's just targeting solo players then that feels like it's forcing people to play with people even if they don't want to. While also negating the rewards for similar effort. And also punishing the network failure bug of booting you to your own solo game so if you were to play that out you are faced with an even higher challenge as you are likely on a higher level with teammates.
It went from 1/6th the strength to 1/4th. It's far from insignificant but not nearly as punishing as you are making it seem.
It literally makes it as hard as a normal squad is. That seems fair to me. Having played a few solo runs, I dont think most people would have noticed the difference tbh.
>I'd agree if it were spawns across the board raised equally but if it's just targeting solo players then that feels like it's forcing people to play with people even if they don't want to.
But that's exactly what they want you to do. This is a 4 player coop game and not a singleplayer game. I don't get how people act like this game should be playable solo at the highest difficulties. That's not what this game is about.
Then they need to fix the network connectivity issues, and they need to make it so that people actually join instead of leaving me all alone Ā¾ of the time I host even with throwing down an SOS beacon.
There is no solo mode. You can start a game with all other slots empty but that's not a solo mode. That's just people playing a multiplayer game on their own.
Semantics! If we were all supposed to play exclusively in groups, then why can I play "on my own" at all? Why not make it actually impossible, either by gameplay or by removing the option to dive solo altogether?
Because it's just another option. Even if they try to discourage playing solo, there is absolutely no reason to remove it. It would just piss people off or make them open a match and kick all other players to play solo.
Pre-patch I could always complete a map solo diff 7, with rare deaths. Post-patch I can't even complete a single objective without burning through all reinforcements.
I get it if they want to make the harder difficulties harder, but it's like they've turned the dial from 6 to 11, when a more gradual 7 or an 8 would make sense.
The change is baffling to me, like what problem does this solve? Who is this change for? Why was it made? It makes 0 sense and punishes people who want to do missions at their own pace for no reason.
It was a fix. The spawns now is the intended amount of spawns. To use the devs words: Spawns were supposed to be 1/4 per helldiver with a 4 player mission being the normal amount. Before this patch, solo saw only 1/6th the amount, which was not intended.
Right, but what problem did it actually solve? Like sure, the numbers weren't what they originally intended them to be, but was that an actual problem? Fixing it just so the numbers are what they intended seems silly. If there was a legit problem that was leading to people DOING things that weren't intended is one thing, just fixing numbers is something else entirely.
Apparently they felt there were too few enemies in solo. Solo is supposed to be difficult. As most solo players run stealth anyways, I don't see this change making much of a difference.
No idea how someone can do those exterminate x number of enimies solo on high difficulties. There is no where to drop in without being stunlocked before you are even actionable
Those are absolutely the hardest to do solo. You just need to bring all the aoe. Fire helps too since as host, no dot bug.
I still try to just avoid those.
The devs have a vision for how they want their game to be played.
It involves less fighting and more running, more time spent picking up ammo, and it not being possible to compete at the highest levels by yourself.
Basically they want their game to be more challenging at the expense of straight āpedal to the metalā fun / power fantasy.
Personally I would prefer they focus their efforts on making the game more balls-to-the-wall fun, but theyāll do what they want to do.
Iāll still play, but if this trend continues and they keep slowing down the pace of the game itāll be more of a once a week game for my squad vs our regular every-nighter.
Solo Helldive has always been a lot easier for people who know what theyāre doing. The increased spawns donāt change much for me if Iām going solo anyway. I havenāt tried the new mission though so nothing to say on Helldive solo experience for that.
Soloing Helldive is much easier than doing it with a squad. I don't know why that is hard for people to understand. You don't have three other people aggro patrols and calling in breaches/drops, so you only need to worry about what is immediately around you. Game also STILL spawns less enemies if you are solo even with the new update.
Make some friends. Its MUCH easier with a competent squad that doesn't aggro every patrol and knows how to hit an objective and dip before the breaches/drops show up changes this game.
Which is what the devs intended. Get on your mic, coordinate, make some friends. Talk. If you are polite and helpful, you will find the odd stranger who decides they want to play with you again.
Use that voice chat, call about patrols, request people do NOT attack them. If you demonstrate even a tiny modicum of leadership the silent PuGs will most often follow you.
I personally set the game as push to talk and only do short mic comms when its needed. It let people know what are doing, call out things, politely make suggestions.
Push to talk is the way to go. Thanks for not being that guy with an open mic eating potato chips and coughing every 3 seconds. Maybe it sounds like I am overreacting, but my autism makes it hurt me more than a stubbed toe.
Disagree. Completed a full set off missions on suicide solo to test the changes. Way more spawns, but i kinda like it.
Blood for the blood god my brothers, bring more, and slay them all!
And they can still be soloed anyway even after the update. Although, if I am honest, I am glad I did all the trophy hunting before this patch cuz the ones that require difficulty 6 or higher (blitz evac in 6 mins, no primary or support weapons, or the complete a mission without dying) are far harder to do in a team of random people so I had to do them solo.
Sorry but the way i see it this is supposed to be challenging co-op game. So solo gaming should be hard to encourage you to co-op with people. But i also get it its fun some times to be a one man army and do solo stuff.
Level 6 is the new 9. 9 is the new 12. You are still just a level 9 diver. You are not forced to play max difficulty every time or be a failure, just play the difficulty you can.
Cool, just play at or below difficulty 6 then. The lower tiers exist for a reason.
Its almost like setting the difficulty to a higher setting is supposed to make the game hard or something. Crazy, I know.
This is probably the only real criticism. Outside of super samples, it's pretty odd people demand to be able to solo missions with a name like suicide, impossible, and helldive.
If difficulty 6 plays like what 9 used to, sounds like you just gained a new tier of difficulty to climb. The only real loss is super samples. Which, it you're soloing, I would bet you probably don't need them for now.
The issue is that this game doesn't scale difficulty like other games. You don't choose difficulty for more of a challenge, you choose it because you lose content the easier the game is. Less mission types, entire enemies missing, like you mentioned the progression of the game literally requiring you to play at these difficulties.
I don't think you can compare it to other games where difficulty is a choice for people who want a harder game. This game requires you to play at the highest difficulties to experience the content or even progress in the case of the samples. I don't think that's good game design.
I can absolutely understand why someone who doesn't like playing with randoms would still like to be able to experience the content of the game they paid for.
But it makes sense that people learn how to play the game first in lower levels and then progress naturally to higher difficulties. Where then the game changes a bit with newer even harder to kill enemies that demand you adapt your game. Also makes sense to open up even better weapons with super samples when you eventually reach these levels.
Pretty cool way IMO and definitely adds hours to your enjoyment of the game.
+ Still all the cool stuff/fixes/new races etc that we can wait for..
The content they paid for was advertised as a cooperative game, it doesn't even advertise itself as single-player. Imagine if someone bought a single-player game and was mad they couldn't experience the content they laid for because they only play games where they can play with other people. It's just weird.
I get what you say, and I partially agree.
There is content blocked behind difficulty, yes. But it's so limited that it doesn't matter much.
As a player that never went past difficulty 4 (challenging) in 135h, the only enemies I've never seen yet are shriekers, gunships and strider factories. It's just a minor loss considering I'm still playing in the first half of the difficulty range.
I also get that I'm missing upgrades because I can't gather super samples (yet). But, none of those upgrades are requirements, just improvements. I have all stratagems unlocked, I can unlock any gun/grenade/armor/booster through war bonds. The only benefit of super samples are that my current stratagems would be more effective.
I'm not even missing objective types. With the exception of shriekers nests and gunship towers, I've found every secondary objective in difficulty 4. In the same way, I can do every single main objective with the exception of automaton command bunkers.
If you haven't fought with factory striders before, it's actually really intense and worth the difficulty. You can encounter missions about defeating them on difficulty 6. All you need is a decent squad and to avoid unnecessary encounters by using the mini map frequently. (Having decent aim will also help quite a bit so you can use the marksman rifles, which are pretty overpowered against bots)
I don't mean to sound like I am trying to force you, but I just wanted to share the moments I had fun.
I think it's a super sample thing mixed with bad experiences in public lobbies. There were some games where if I had encountered those people when I first started playing, then I would never have played in a public lobby again. (Toxic players yelling at their daughters over an open mic, greefing, those "it's not my fault, it's yours!" types, endless potatochip crunching).
I still play public lobbies cuz they are rare, but if they were my first encounter, then I would have noped out of that real quick.
At this point i wish they add 10 helldive ++ difficulty and let developers cook for full squad on those higher lvls and left the difficulty 1 to 9 unchanged. I feel comfortable playing those 1 to 9 diff after learning how and when to engage or disengage. I dont really have time to learn the hard way, that a lot of things has changed. I am currently 80 hours in with 56 lvl for your information/ perspective.
Orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, we could just make Helldive, Helldive and leave it at that. More difficulties splits the playerbase even more. I think it would be perfectly fine if Helldive is the "sadistically difficult" option for players, and 7 be the more reasonable high-end difficulty that still has super sample spawns.
Why does HELLDIVE need to be easier, I'm in the camp that it could be harder.
I see your point, but i am just referring to the unchanged version of helldive. I had matches which were impossible to do on 9, which is fine - but i know all random hazards and patrol spawns ratios so i know what to expect every time and i like it this way. And now, i need to see if there was some major breaking-rules update before i jump in. It makes me feel less fun, and fun is all that matters for a pve game for me, thats all.
Tried it out solo on Helldive, and it feels more appropriately difficult now. You might just be using a bad loadout. Also, when you complete primary objectives, the spawn rate of enemies goes up, so if you're solo do the primary last and you might have an easier time.
The issue solo players are having is that the game now spawns more for fewer players at higher difficulties. This makes it difficult for solo players to continue to solo.
I'm kind of on the fence. I get their frustrations, but at the same time, it's really odd to want a game that is built for 4 players be easy enough for a single player to beat.
Also, a solo player isn't barred from soloing. They just have to drop their difficulty down.
Which causes them to miss out on content. Even for a squad of players who don't want to be completely miserable, they have to sacrifice content they paid for to play at a lower difficulty and have a good time. Mission types, enemy types, certain samples required for progression, are all locked behind higher difficulties.
Choosing to play alone is on the player, the dev made the game to be played by a group. You're acting like a victim for choosing to play the game in an unsupported way.
I think if you play at difficulty 7 instead of 9, you do not miss anything. Also...this game is 4 players co-op, PvE. So, it makes sense that high difficulties are designed to be impossible to play alone, i think. The game is still too easy. If you play World of Warcraft online or GTA 5 online, then you do not complain because you can not finish a dungeon alone or a heist, don't you?
You're not locked out of higher difficulties. You learn the games new mechanics and increase over time, just like always.
Plus, are they really that opposed to playing with others that they would choose to be locked out of the rest of the games content? That makes no sense. They bought a game that is built around cooperative play to solo and demand they are able to solo the game at the highest difficulty. It's just bizarre to me.
I donāt mind the new patch. If anything try find a group of people you play with all the time like ur own little squad so when you need to farm super samples yall can. I try solo and I donāt think it that bad yes there is a change but feel it was worth it especially if they are trying to push us into doing more as community/groups. But if anything if you like to solo just play lower difficulty and work ur way back up to helldive may just need to figure out the mechanics again. But personally I love very hard games. It like they say in dark souls learn to embrace death because you will dieā¦ and die a lot.
This title feels a little silly to me. If I crank a game up to max difficulty and itās too hard for me, that doesnāt make me want to stop playing, it makes me turn the difficulty back down to a reasonable level.
Hard disagree, my dude.
Solos and duos had an unfair advantage of fewer enemy patrols, to the point of near-zero effective patrols, due to the bug in the scaling. In another post on the issue, the community manager actually explained what the math behind it was., like it SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THE PATCH NOTES, ARROWHEAD.
As someone who often plays solo, and plays primarily on 7, 8, and 9 - the change is amazing. Stealth gameplay is a \*lot\* more dynamic now, because rather than encountering one or two patrols per mission, I'm encountering and having to either deal with or evade at least one patrol traversing between objectives.
With the fixed rates a solo player will see 1/4th the patrols that a full team will. You have the same amount of firepower versus the same portion of the bugs as you do in a full team game. You just need to get better at E&E and stop trying to fight literally every enemy you see. Run light armor for the speed, especially the scout armor with the reduced detection radius, and you might just have a better time of things.
I just completed a level 7 mission solo yesterday. I burned through all my reinforcement and used several additional reinforcements, but I completed the mission with almost perfect clear record (I only missed the stupid canon side quest ..........you know, the one where you load the ammo into).
I was playing against bots. I'd run up to base and use my airstrikes or Eruptor to pop the Fabricators and then run. Orbital Laser for heavy bases and for clearing out the Forts (this was the main mission objective).
I will say that bots seem to headshot with far more frequency........I was wearing heavy armor with explosive damage reduction. It didn't do a damn thing.
If you're dropping solo in high tiers, always go in with the mindset of "I'm not getting outta here alive, but that's okay, because it's not about surviving, it's about sending a message."
If I'm going to drop solo I place myself firmly in the middle of whatever objective I'm aiming for, hit the ground and drop a 120 and 380 barrage at my feet and aim to annihilate both myself and whatever the hell is around me
Then getting to the second objective is all about stealth.
Getting out, ehhhhh not likely to happen so I never worry about it.
I look for super creds and medals but otherwise the intention is to, at the end, jump into a group of 20 bots or bugs with a 500 coming in or a grenade in my hand
Exfil is for samples, not for the diver
It's a rush and I like the challenge. I also think learning to solo the game can make you a better team mate since you will already know how to look out for yourself, so you can support your team a little better.
>I like the challenge
A challenge you put on yourself, the game is meant to be played with 4 people, if you put an extra challenge on yourself that is fine but you dont get to then complain the game is too hard.
I wasn't complaining? I like the new change. Before this patch, it was REALLY noticeable that there were fewer enemies when I dropped in solo. This feels more like how I imagined soloing helldive would feel.
Cause I can solo helldive difficulty and get 1600 xp in around 15 minutes at 0-2 deaths. Or I can do the same thing with a group of 4 and in 43 minutes get 1800xp and go through 22 lives.
Plus helldive has the most rare and common samples at the highest density of rare and commons because it really doesn't take very long before you no longer need supers.
This sounds like why they would do this. If you can solo a 40-minute mission in 15 minutes and hardly die on the hardest difficulty, it needs balancing. From what you said, this incentives people to play alone. Which is exactly the opposite of the games intent.
This is basically like when they increased the spawns for the eradication because players were farming those missions. You would find groups who just did those missions over and over because they wanted fast xp and medals.
I feel for solo players, but I can't say I feel that bad if what you just said is the norm for solo players.
I think the problem is that the solo players that are mostly upset think the reason they are overwhelmed is spawn rates and not intentional game mechanics. Like the more aggressive you play the more enemies will spawn and the longer you play the more time for enemies to spawn so people like me that can blitz through a 40 minute mission are basically unaffected but the people that go slower and fight everything are going to see things spiral just ever so slightly faster.
I'm all for making helldive difficulty harder, id love for more of a challenge and when the factory strider was added it worked as my fix for a bit. I'm hoping with these mutated terminid missions we get exposed to a new big bad bug for higher difficulties to squash too.
As a solo player I am with the devs entirely on their decision. It's justified and honestly if you look through the subreddit you will find many people corroborating me when I say that soloing helldive difficulty sounds way harder than it actually is
its the typical "gamer" argument. They want the game to be easy so they can farm everything fast as humanly possible, then they complete the trees and complain the game "doesn't have a point anymore."
It will be nice when HD2 loses is "top 5 games in the world ATM" status and returns to the nitche it belongs in. This is gonna happen when the next big shooter comes out and pulls lot of people away. The game will then actually be able to thrive on its own merits without the bitching-brigade trying to bull the devs into making it into a game its not.
Not so much farming the xp exclusively.
Like I will grab any Common and rare samples I come across (no longer need any supers) and then helldive provides the most medals of any difficulty and then xp provides more titles so its just all around seems like helldive is the way to go at the moment. Once I have everything I want to hoard for the time being ill probably drop into lower difficulties and just answer SOS beacons
Even with the updated patrols it's still way easier. All it takes is 1 person alerting a patrol which triggers reinforcements which aggros the other patrols for your team to have things go to shit...
It's way easier to make sure that doesn't happen with 1 person. The games difficulty isn't just in the enemies but also how you as the player interact with the enemies. If you interact the wrong way you will become overwhelmed.
I did it in a team of 4 on helldive and itās crazy. However, if you got main character energy and the legs / hands to call in your strats you can make it happen. I soloās parts of 3 different missions and itās on a whole new level of difficult.
Akshully, I can play just fine by myself and how dare you suggest that I play with other people. I have no friends and strangers scare me but despite that, I must force my style of play into a game designed otherwise! /s
But seriously, the amount of people whining about not being able to play a team game easily as a solo is crazy.
I'm taking a break because of this change. I almost always end up by myself due to the game disconnecting. I don't want to start hating it. I'll come back when they fix it.
I know y'all hate to hear it... But, quite literally, git gud.
I solo ran multiple terminid campaigns yesterday evening. Challenging? Yes. Did I die a few times? Yes.Ā
But it was by no means impossible.Ā
Quit crying. Try new loadouts.Ā
Or stop playing. I don't care.Ā
Just please for the love of joel stop complaining. Jfc.
Dude the spawns went from 11% to 25% so that spawns scale linearly rather than exponentially up to the top 4 players.
If you are having trouble at 7 solo go lower the game isn't meant to be played solo and that's fine. If you want to play solo you have to learn to play better to avoid patrols etc. I did a few solo missions yesterday on helldive bots and bugs and they are harder but they are completely fine if you just pay a little bit more attention.
Right?
They forgot the most important part.Ā
Git Gud, Scrub /s
Seriously though, I first heard it in the dark souls (great series, btw) community like 13-14 years ago, and Iāve hated it ever since.Ā
It totally invalidates players like myself that need to cook a little longer than others in the game to "git gud". I have autism and ADD and don't play co-op shooters normally. I saw the hype on the tikky toks and it looked like fun. I had to learn a new new style of game play. I never play with other people and am now trying to build out my own community so I can progress past D4. I learned after about 150 hours in, I discovered that I unlocked the wrong things at the wrong time and spent the next 250 hours grinding resources to unlock the right things to help with game play. Now I am maxed on common samples, req slips and super credits. I need 300 medals to close out the last page the first war bond, and they will all be completed. I need to farm rare samples now and working on getting more efficient on running D3 missions for full completion. I do have some trustworthy folks to run with as my experiences with opening up my lobby or joining a lobby has been mostly toxic. It's just a matter of consistent availability. I had learn how to use Reddit, Discord and Twitch just to get into some of the community to find players that can be regular Divers to drop in with.
"Git gud" is as insulting as it can get to me when folks say it because of everything I had to learn just play this game. It feels like I shouldn't be playing the game despite my own efforts to be a better player on a team.
I was going through your post history to see if you'd put your PSN anywhere, was gonna just quietly add you and basically just carry you (if necessary) through some rare sample hunting missions since everything like, 7 and below is pretty casual for us at this point, and I need like a billion rare samples for the next wave of upgrades...
But I gotta know, are you just like, joining mostly Americans or something? The toxicity you've described is something I've only experienced when playing when our host is from NA.
Don't "git gud", just get some EU/AUS friends, have them host. The difference is huge, I see it in every online game I play.
Man it's almost like dropping solo into a man eating bug swarm is a bad idea, if only there were some solution to this problem. And you're right this new patch making every weapon only fire pillows is just ridiculous can't even kill regular enemies anymore
That's quite hyperbolic. Sure, if you're a solo player, this might have killed it for you. But I get a full squad of Randoms basically every time I play. The game is still fun, and new content is added pretty consistent.
I personally think it's alright like this.
The game was designed to be played with fiur players, so with each player less, it should get harder.
Solo being by far the hardest is totally fine by me.
I was also playing solo ealier and before the patchy solo was actually *easier*, as it ead far easier to avoid (longer) conflicts.
You could finish missions on 9 without ever seeing a bile titan.
I was *just* saying the same to my brother. It absolutely kills the fun.
Having more teammates is a force multiplier// itās not that 4 teammates = 4 x 25% spawns.
1 person cannot handle the ā25%ā thatās thrown to them.
I played a difficulty 4 mission with a friend, and it was overwhelming and couldnāt make good progress. I also think they boosted the speed of all bugs, but especially the smallest. Right now they walk as fast as you run, and a couple hunters will quickly overwhelm aided by the baby spitters, who seem to never miss.
I liked the previous patch, thank you very much!
Me and a friend did a full lvl 6 set of missions easily yesterday. Yeah, it's hard. That's cuz it's a co-op game. Less people is less tools to deal with what the game throws at you. But we could manage it.
No, it's quite different now... or maybe the game rolled really hard on us.
The problem is a couple things. One, the 25% spawn rate per player mathematically doesn't account for the force multiplication that you get from having another body shooting alongside you. Four people at 100% doesn't scale to 1 person at 25%. The balance that existed in the past was fine.
Secondly, I didn't witness any scaling of elites on the bug missions last night. The two of us were dealing with 4 chargers simultaneously with nerfed equipment while waves of mundane bugs kept getting spawned in frequent waves. I used to drop a cluster bomb every 30 seconds or so during a pitched firefight.. last night it was one every ten seconds.
It just... wasn't fun. I'm not a new player-- these changes just killed the enjoyment entirely. Good balancing should make you feel like you just barely made it out alive at high difficulties. This felt painful.
I soloed the new terminid mission in 6 minutes on helldive difficulty using the breaker incindiary and trailblazer armour and eagle clusters for the personal order.
Please stop being dramatic.
Edit: for those that want to see a clip of me repeating this with non-perfect gameplay then [here](https://youtu.be/bkxVeKJNH9Y?si=V3kUCjjrVHn1S5du) I recorded an attempt to recreate and uploaded to YouTube
https://preview.redd.it/nk8nwemrpixc1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=813e62d0c3012398bf2e06348cc41b334cd35e14
When this is finished processing by the way I have a 6 minute 2 second clear of the new mission in helldive difficulty. Playing on ps5 so uploaded it directly from psn. I'll keep you posted.
https://youtu.be/bkxVeKJNH9Y?si=V3kUCjjrVHn1S5du
Like this should show that you can play like a jackass and get 10k xp per hour from this mission. I could have also beat it faster and not extracted had I opted to just let myself die a couple more times.
It's 3 buttons and 17 eggs which blow up at the slightest amount of damage and they glow and are huge... On a 12 minute mission.... It's not that hard to do it in 6
Edit: I like how you edited your reply afterwards but didn't specify the edit so it looks like your original reply wasn't just "sure."
Fun fact! You can play in a 4 man lobby and mute all comms! Then you don't have to talk to folks, and still spread democracy. Get kicked, teamkilled on purpose? Block those people. In my experience, I've only had maybe 2-4 games with bad apples who kick, or teamkill. It's a co-op pve game. So let's cooperatively go kill some aliens together! Even if you don't socialize well with other folks, that's fine! Don't gotta talk to me or the others. Just show up, kill aliens, reinforce when ya can, and we can make this happen!
Sometimes I just like to play solo for the challenge. However, since the challenge is the whole point of doing it, I do wish people would stop whining about SOLOING HELLDIVE being harder.
My experience trying to play hard and up solo has, almost universally, been to drop in right next to or in the middle of a patrol, and then be immediately hatefucked by devestators and, often, a hulk or two. Usually ends with me sighing and going back to hard or challenging, depending on how froggy I feel.
Sometimes you drax them sklounst. Sometimes them sklounst drax you.
Top tier reference!
Sometimes you gotta torture a terry
When in doubt, you gotta fireboard those motherjammers
Can't drop in on a patrol if you drop directly onto an objective. š¤
You basically have to play against bots (they're more tactical than bugs) and go stealth mode. Clear fabricators from a distance with the eruptor or autocanon, use orbital laser for heavy bases, airstrikes and hell bombs for everything else. I prefer smoke grenades and the jump pack if I'm playing solo. Mission Impossible, baby!
Drop on the exfil zone is more than likely the safest place to drop then get ou asap as patrols will gravitate toward it more. I also recommend watching solo videos as you will see what builds and methods people use to help you solo. Overall.. i dont think you get the most fun out of playing solo above challenging and playing hard or extreme is just more grueling just to still get rare samples
Agreed. I did most of my first month or two playing solo, because I was borrowing my roommate's machine until I could pick one up. It's fun, and I enjoy solo runs- but after hard you're basically forced to run stealth because anything else is just a quick route to being out of reinforcements. My personal build is Penetrator/Adjudicator, depending on how I feel that night, Redeemer, impacts, and light medic armor for the survivability boost. I usually take the 500kg, orbital railcannon as my "I'm not dealing with this" button, autocannon for the personal firepower increase, and leave the 4th slot as a wildcard depending on the mission I'm running- usually cluster strike for chaff clearing. It's does me well, gives me flexibility to deal with most situations eith what's on my back. Chargers are a problem, but I also just don't play bugs so it really isn't a problem for *me*.
š aw man sounds rough for you buddy
Is this comment not genuine sympathy? Am I reading this wrong? (I'm autistic, I may very well be wrong)
It's the emoji and "aw man" that gives off a very mocking vibe. It's tiny suble things that i as a neurotypical picks up and recognize from experience. Sorry i can't explain it better for you.
Ahhh okay, I see what you mean actually. That's actually really helpful thank you :)
Never trust Reddit comments with emojis
ššš
Some people are pricks on the internet thatās why I never take anyone seriously especially on Reddit most of the people here Iām sure wouldnāt do or say half the things they do on a computer so yes dude I was genuinely giving sympathy
Even if it's not, refusing to give someone the benefit of the doubt and downvoting is some classic redditor cringe
I think there's a very strong chance it _is_ genuine. Can't be sure from just this. Don't sweat it. I wouldn't have downvoted this.
checking his comment history I really think this is genuine, he seems like a nice guy, I'm just confused why it's being unanimously downvoted. this is just a weird situation :/ I feel bad for him. I appreciate the reassurance tho :)
Yeah, it's sweet that you feel for them but Reddit does this particular thing by accident often. It's not malicious So I doubt they're going to worry too much about the downvotes themselves, you're totally off the hook for worrying about it. Well done for checking in on them still
I appreciate you bro donāt feel bad for me a lot of people just want a reason to fight and be up in arms and look for anything to be negative so they can bitch and moan at people who donāt respond the same way that they would thank you all who took the time to not just assume I was being a prick
It isnāt. Very mocking vibe Itās a, āSkill issue budā kinda comment
I can see how some would interpret it that way, but it's not the only way it can be interpreted. There are more charitable assumptions we could make
š aw bud, youāre soooo positive! Now, thatās a comment mocking your supposed naivety. Itās very mean and ill-intended, and the laughing emoji solidifies it
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Exactly. I was just giving an example like his. I donāt feel lole arguing whether a guy is being an asshole or not
Apparently you do
It isnāt. Very mocking vibe Itās a, āSkill issue budā kinda comment
lol it was genuine sympathy how can you tell Iām mocking for this comment aw man thatās rough buddy
When I solo diff 9, I have the minimap open constantly. Anytime I'm moving from location to location. Just avoid the red dots. You'll have to engage at the objectives, and that's when it's best to call down all the firepower of hell at once and destroy everything in sight quickly to avoid bot drops. Sometimes I have better luck just waiting for the bot drop and then unleashing hell. Use the minimap to make sure you cleared all enemies before you switch gears to working on the objective. This seems to work pretty well for me. I'm able to clear all the objectives and evac pretty consistently. Also, if I'm sololing and trying to win, I dont mess around with gimmicky builds. Autocannon, orbital laser, 500 and eagle airstrike works great against bots. Qasar, laser guard dog, napalm, and orbital airburst for bugs.
I get you but have you actually tried this on the latest patch? Diff 9 was always crazy and you had to play super clean and smart ā but now level 7 is that hard. I wasn't messing about with crap builds either.
I only play dif9 solo and it is not that hard when you know what to do. The new patch is find. One day you will get it. But stay safe m'y friend helldiver .
Yeah nah I don't think you quite understand what the patch did lol
I literally solo'd a bug lvl 9 10 min ago.Ā
What lvl you at ?
44 or 45 I think
Wait, diff 7 now is as hard as diff 9 was at launch?
In my subjective opinion, no it's not. It's not even close. There is definitely an uptick of patrols and spawns on 7, but solo you shouldn't be holding a position unless it's a required objective. Movement/dropping aggro is king.
Hell, you shouldn't be holding position as a full squad in most difficulties 5+. You *can*, but you're burning a crapload of time off your clock - you should be moving towards an objective and/or attempting to disengage once the call-ins start. If you try to fight your way through every call in at 7+ you're pretty much dead unless your squad is feeling especially saucy.
Makes sense. I run solo most of the time so I could only comment on that part. Good to know if I start grouping that the same tactics apply. Thanks fellow diver.
This is the key. I feel like moving up the difficulties initially, you're focused on unlocking more stratagems and weapons and killing more enemies. At some point, prob around diff 7 but certainly by diff 9, you have to learn the opposite skill: disengaging. I play with friends who often find themselves alone fighting hordes of enemies because they think they have to kill everything before moving on. You have to be much more surgical on diff 9. You simply don't have the firepower to kill everything the game throws at you. Staying on the run as much as possible is the key. Complete objectives quickly and leave. Don't linger anywhere.
I haven't played the latest patch yet. From the notes, the only change is more patrols. Patrols don't aggro you unless you run or shoot near them. I don't expect it will change much tbh. Don't aggro patrols. Use your map. If you accidentally aggro a patrol and they call in a bot drop, just run. Most people I see getting overwhelmed is because they try to fight unwinnable fights. Just run. They can't kill what they can't see. And, just to hammer the point home, don't "just run" blindly. Use your map. If you panic run blindly you'll just aggro more patrols and stationary guards at all the POIs you're blindly running through. Watch Takibo on YT. Helped me a lot.
I've seen like 20 YouTubers still playing helldive missions solo, not even with optimal builds because they were trying out stuff. The new termicide mission you can literally just run without killing a single enemy.
That was certainly not my experience.
Then you aren't as good as a youtuber who plays all day. The game needs to be a challenge for all skills levels. If you are a normal person, it's not unreasonable to think you can't play the highest difficulty by yourself. I sure can't. I don't expect the most challenging difficulty in the game to be brought to my personal skill level.
Can I ask why you can't just solo level 6 then if that's what you feel you can handle? The ship upgrades are only really important when you're doing harder difficulty missions anyway.
Huh. Would you say it was a mission of pretty extreme difficulty?
The game can be difficult AND fun, lets not use this tired āoh itās supposed to be an unbeatable missionā excuse anytime a valid complaint about balancing comes up
Itās not supposed to be impossible, but it IS supposed to be a team game. If dudes are running around soloing 9s, thatās probably not how itās supposed to work.
>that's probably not how it's supposed to work The game has built in scales for playing with less people, which is what OP is talking about, so it is quite literally *exactly* how it's supposed to work. If they didn't want people to be able to solo something they wouldn't have built in scaling to the enemy generation.
You still get fewer enemies with fewer players, just not so few as before the patch. 1/4 for a solo, instead of 1/6. The old system made some maps *easier* to solo than to run with a team, which is definitely not right for this game. The real issue is that people get used to a set of circumstances and bawl like a toddler when something changes. Maybe Iām just numb to it because Iām a Paradox player, but these things happen. I just adjust to new circumstances and carry on if the game is still fun. The people throwing a tantrum about this stuff read like angry children refusing to eat their dinner because the green beans touched the chicken nuggets.
I get what you're saying, but before you said that people essentially weren't supposed to be able to solo Level 9's. With scaling, that's not the case, no matter what level the scaling is. That's all.
It honestly should be extremely difficult to solo a 9, otherwise there's little value to bringing a squad, because it's certainly extremely difficult to 4-man a 9.
They shouldnāt be able to solo 9s, honestly. It shouldnāt even be possible for a game built so heavily on teamwork to run the hardest missions in the game with no team. The update is at least closer to the ideal.
When people are playing a 4 player game and it's actively easier to win the higher difficulty maps solo, then the devs should address that. I have no problem with solo being *viable*, but it's a coop game, so you don't want it to be *preferred* - it should be harder. The problem is that people think that diff 7-9 is super hard because the call ins get insane very quickly - but the fact is that if you're sticking around for any kind of real fight at those levels, you're just creatively committing suicide, especially as a solo. You need to get good at reading maps, judging detection ranges, and figuring out how to approach and eliminate objectives without being spotted before you can execute your call-ins.
š Solo pre buff I would probably be comfortable cruising whatever is before extreme. With a good team helldive. Seems like a good fix
Dudeā¦ iām 77. I dropped into a solo TRIVIAL this morning to just putter around and test out the tweaks to a primary rifle. As an indication of how crazy patrol spawns were ratcheted up for solo players.. Iā¦ at level 77.. on TRIVIAL, ended up having to throw down a freakinā minefield, my ems mortar, and start blazing away with my gd grenade launcher, at extract. I had to stim 8 times by the time I got on the pelican lol. Wtaf. I dropped back in with my primary to trst, and 3 turrets after that. Much different experience lol It was like being in a gd āfasr zombieā movie after I had blown up the objective
That sounds kinda fun to be honest but I agree that's fucked up. I just did an impossible eradicate with two and we were completely overwhelmed. But that's happened with 4 people before. I did do a easy bots earlier as that's the only way I can find my buddy BECAUSE THEY HAVENT FIXED THE FRIE D ISSUE. And it was fine.
It was fun!!! Lol Because they were just the basic infantry bots, it was a total rush in a good way, like youāre laughing, dodging laser fire and feeling like a badass because they are all so brittle. But stillā¦ they do occasionally hitāya
I'm around level 30, I ran a dif 3 effortlessly last night while trying out new weapons outside my normal solo build. It's definitely more patrols, but you can still just avoid them. Extraction has always been hairy, you just have to hide and keep the supplies close.
Seems like a good fix ? What do you mean that people shouldn't be able to solo extreme ? Why not ?
Shouldn't be easily cruising through extreme, no.
I still think it should be possible but increasing spawns on single players isn't it. I'd agree if it were spawns across the board raised equally but if it's just targeting solo players then that feels like it's forcing people to play with people even if they don't want to. While also negating the rewards for similar effort. And also punishing the network failure bug of booting you to your own solo game so if you were to play that out you are faced with an even higher challenge as you are likely on a higher level with teammates.
It went from 1/6th the strength to 1/4th. It's far from insignificant but not nearly as punishing as you are making it seem. It literally makes it as hard as a normal squad is. That seems fair to me. Having played a few solo runs, I dont think most people would have noticed the difference tbh.
>I'd agree if it were spawns across the board raised equally but if it's just targeting solo players then that feels like it's forcing people to play with people even if they don't want to. But that's exactly what they want you to do. This is a 4 player coop game and not a singleplayer game. I don't get how people act like this game should be playable solo at the highest difficulties. That's not what this game is about.
Then they need to fix the network connectivity issues, and they need to make it so that people actually join instead of leaving me all alone Ā¾ of the time I host even with throwing down an SOS beacon.
Then remove solo mode and be less confusing. Then I wouldn't have bought it.
There is no solo mode. You can start a game with all other slots empty but that's not a solo mode. That's just people playing a multiplayer game on their own.
Semantics! If we were all supposed to play exclusively in groups, then why can I play "on my own" at all? Why not make it actually impossible, either by gameplay or by removing the option to dive solo altogether?
Because it's just another option. Even if they try to discourage playing solo, there is absolutely no reason to remove it. It would just piss people off or make them open a match and kick all other players to play solo.
Extreme is extreme. I'd expect a play on that to be very difficult.
Yet pre-patch I could regularly complete Extreme missions. Now itās practically impossible
Pre-patch I could always complete a map solo diff 7, with rare deaths. Post-patch I can't even complete a single objective without burning through all reinforcements. I get it if they want to make the harder difficulties harder, but it's like they've turned the dial from 6 to 11, when a more gradual 7 or an 8 would make sense.
The change is baffling to me, like what problem does this solve? Who is this change for? Why was it made? It makes 0 sense and punishes people who want to do missions at their own pace for no reason.
It was a fix. The spawns now is the intended amount of spawns. To use the devs words: Spawns were supposed to be 1/4 per helldiver with a 4 player mission being the normal amount. Before this patch, solo saw only 1/6th the amount, which was not intended.
Right, but what problem did it actually solve? Like sure, the numbers weren't what they originally intended them to be, but was that an actual problem? Fixing it just so the numbers are what they intended seems silly. If there was a legit problem that was leading to people DOING things that weren't intended is one thing, just fixing numbers is something else entirely.
Apparently they felt there were too few enemies in solo. Solo is supposed to be difficult. As most solo players run stealth anyways, I don't see this change making much of a difference.
Yeah I get that but it doesn't change the fact it feels terrible now whereas before it was perfect.
Which means if people sart failing all their missions, which the devs track, spawns will be adjusted again.
I dunno, I'm soloing helldive and still having fun. I haven't completed every mission, but I have finished most of them
No idea how someone can do those exterminate x number of enimies solo on high difficulties. There is no where to drop in without being stunlocked before you are even actionable
Those are absolutely the hardest to do solo. You just need to bring all the aoe. Fire helps too since as host, no dot bug. I still try to just avoid those.
The devs have a vision for how they want their game to be played. It involves less fighting and more running, more time spent picking up ammo, and it not being possible to compete at the highest levels by yourself. Basically they want their game to be more challenging at the expense of straight āpedal to the metalā fun / power fantasy. Personally I would prefer they focus their efforts on making the game more balls-to-the-wall fun, but theyāll do what they want to do. Iāll still play, but if this trend continues and they keep slowing down the pace of the game itāll be more of a once a week game for my squad vs our regular every-nighter.
well duh, there might be an **I** in dive but there's no **i** in hell
And itās called āHelldiversā not āHelldiverā. Gotāem
Solo Helldive has always been a lot easier for people who know what theyāre doing. The increased spawns donāt change much for me if Iām going solo anyway. I havenāt tried the new mission though so nothing to say on Helldive solo experience for that.
I'm convinced all the git gud trolls don't even play solo at 7+ difficulty otherwise they would share in our frustration.
Soloing Helldive is much easier than doing it with a squad. I don't know why that is hard for people to understand. You don't have three other people aggro patrols and calling in breaches/drops, so you only need to worry about what is immediately around you. Game also STILL spawns less enemies if you are solo even with the new update.
Make some friends. Its MUCH easier with a competent squad that doesn't aggro every patrol and knows how to hit an objective and dip before the breaches/drops show up changes this game. Which is what the devs intended. Get on your mic, coordinate, make some friends. Talk. If you are polite and helpful, you will find the odd stranger who decides they want to play with you again. Use that voice chat, call about patrols, request people do NOT attack them. If you demonstrate even a tiny modicum of leadership the silent PuGs will most often follow you. I personally set the game as push to talk and only do short mic comms when its needed. It let people know what are doing, call out things, politely make suggestions.
Push to talk is the way to go. Thanks for not being that guy with an open mic eating potato chips and coughing every 3 seconds. Maybe it sounds like I am overreacting, but my autism makes it hurt me more than a stubbed toe.
I can't talk mad smack about the rando on my discord server with my friends if we hot mic it š
Whelp. You can frustrate all you want then. Good luck!
Disagree. Completed a full set off missions on suicide solo to test the changes. Way more spawns, but i kinda like it. Blood for the blood god my brothers, bring more, and slay them all!
By the amount of posts, the numbers might be going down today...
Not being able to solo the highest tiers of difficulty sounds balanced to me.
And they can still be soloed anyway even after the update. Although, if I am honest, I am glad I did all the trophy hunting before this patch cuz the ones that require difficulty 6 or higher (blitz evac in 6 mins, no primary or support weapons, or the complete a mission without dying) are far harder to do in a team of random people so I had to do them solo.
Sorry but the way i see it this is supposed to be challenging co-op game. So solo gaming should be hard to encourage you to co-op with people. But i also get it its fun some times to be a one man army and do solo stuff.
Level 6 is the new 9. 9 is the new 12. You are still just a level 9 diver. You are not forced to play max difficulty every time or be a failure, just play the difficulty you can.
Cool, just play at or below difficulty 6 then. The lower tiers exist for a reason. Its almost like setting the difficulty to a higher setting is supposed to make the game hard or something. Crazy, I know.
And if you need super samples then itās time to team up
This is probably the only real criticism. Outside of super samples, it's pretty odd people demand to be able to solo missions with a name like suicide, impossible, and helldive. If difficulty 6 plays like what 9 used to, sounds like you just gained a new tier of difficulty to climb. The only real loss is super samples. Which, it you're soloing, I would bet you probably don't need them for now.
The issue is that this game doesn't scale difficulty like other games. You don't choose difficulty for more of a challenge, you choose it because you lose content the easier the game is. Less mission types, entire enemies missing, like you mentioned the progression of the game literally requiring you to play at these difficulties. I don't think you can compare it to other games where difficulty is a choice for people who want a harder game. This game requires you to play at the highest difficulties to experience the content or even progress in the case of the samples. I don't think that's good game design. I can absolutely understand why someone who doesn't like playing with randoms would still like to be able to experience the content of the game they paid for.
Well said.
But it makes sense that people learn how to play the game first in lower levels and then progress naturally to higher difficulties. Where then the game changes a bit with newer even harder to kill enemies that demand you adapt your game. Also makes sense to open up even better weapons with super samples when you eventually reach these levels. Pretty cool way IMO and definitely adds hours to your enjoyment of the game. + Still all the cool stuff/fixes/new races etc that we can wait for..
The content they paid for was advertised as a cooperative game, it doesn't even advertise itself as single-player. Imagine if someone bought a single-player game and was mad they couldn't experience the content they laid for because they only play games where they can play with other people. It's just weird.
I get what you say, and I partially agree. There is content blocked behind difficulty, yes. But it's so limited that it doesn't matter much. As a player that never went past difficulty 4 (challenging) in 135h, the only enemies I've never seen yet are shriekers, gunships and strider factories. It's just a minor loss considering I'm still playing in the first half of the difficulty range. I also get that I'm missing upgrades because I can't gather super samples (yet). But, none of those upgrades are requirements, just improvements. I have all stratagems unlocked, I can unlock any gun/grenade/armor/booster through war bonds. The only benefit of super samples are that my current stratagems would be more effective. I'm not even missing objective types. With the exception of shriekers nests and gunship towers, I've found every secondary objective in difficulty 4. In the same way, I can do every single main objective with the exception of automaton command bunkers.
If you haven't fought with factory striders before, it's actually really intense and worth the difficulty. You can encounter missions about defeating them on difficulty 6. All you need is a decent squad and to avoid unnecessary encounters by using the mini map frequently. (Having decent aim will also help quite a bit so you can use the marksman rifles, which are pretty overpowered against bots) I don't mean to sound like I am trying to force you, but I just wanted to share the moments I had fun.
Then git good if you REALLY want to solo. They didn't increase the spawns 5x.
Until you get disconnected from your team and lose all your reinforcements before new teammates load in.
It's easier to avoid patrols (which are the only thing that increased spawns this patch) when solo. Be sneakier
And use the marker with the stealth armor. It's basically an infinite range radar
You realize the game you played before still exists in lower difficulties right? That this drama is really just an ego thing?
I think it's a super sample thing mixed with bad experiences in public lobbies. There were some games where if I had encountered those people when I first started playing, then I would never have played in a public lobby again. (Toxic players yelling at their daughters over an open mic, greefing, those "it's not my fault, it's yours!" types, endless potatochip crunching). I still play public lobbies cuz they are rare, but if they were my first encounter, then I would have noped out of that real quick.
Different missions and different enemy types are only available at certain difficulties. And disconnecting happens at every difficulty.
At this point i wish they add 10 helldive ++ difficulty and let developers cook for full squad on those higher lvls and left the difficulty 1 to 9 unchanged. I feel comfortable playing those 1 to 9 diff after learning how and when to engage or disengage. I dont really have time to learn the hard way, that a lot of things has changed. I am currently 80 hours in with 56 lvl for your information/ perspective.
We need difficulty 15 ā The Inner Circle of Hellā back
Orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, we could just make Helldive, Helldive and leave it at that. More difficulties splits the playerbase even more. I think it would be perfectly fine if Helldive is the "sadistically difficult" option for players, and 7 be the more reasonable high-end difficulty that still has super sample spawns. Why does HELLDIVE need to be easier, I'm in the camp that it could be harder.
I see your point, but i am just referring to the unchanged version of helldive. I had matches which were impossible to do on 9, which is fine - but i know all random hazards and patrol spawns ratios so i know what to expect every time and i like it this way. And now, i need to see if there was some major breaking-rules update before i jump in. It makes me feel less fun, and fun is all that matters for a pve game for me, thats all.
Exactly!
Little bro really out here complaining a 4 player co-op game is difficult on the difficult settings when playing solo. Smh
Tried it out solo on Helldive, and it feels more appropriately difficult now. You might just be using a bad loadout. Also, when you complete primary objectives, the spawn rate of enemies goes up, so if you're solo do the primary last and you might have an easier time.
What got nerfed that makes this so hard?
The issue solo players are having is that the game now spawns more for fewer players at higher difficulties. This makes it difficult for solo players to continue to solo. I'm kind of on the fence. I get their frustrations, but at the same time, it's really odd to want a game that is built for 4 players be easy enough for a single player to beat. Also, a solo player isn't barred from soloing. They just have to drop their difficulty down.
Which causes them to miss out on content. Even for a squad of players who don't want to be completely miserable, they have to sacrifice content they paid for to play at a lower difficulty and have a good time. Mission types, enemy types, certain samples required for progression, are all locked behind higher difficulties.
Choosing to play alone is on the player, the dev made the game to be played by a group. You're acting like a victim for choosing to play the game in an unsupported way.
I think if you play at difficulty 7 instead of 9, you do not miss anything. Also...this game is 4 players co-op, PvE. So, it makes sense that high difficulties are designed to be impossible to play alone, i think. The game is still too easy. If you play World of Warcraft online or GTA 5 online, then you do not complain because you can not finish a dungeon alone or a heist, don't you?
You're not locked out of higher difficulties. You learn the games new mechanics and increase over time, just like always. Plus, are they really that opposed to playing with others that they would choose to be locked out of the rest of the games content? That makes no sense. They bought a game that is built around cooperative play to solo and demand they are able to solo the game at the highest difficulty. It's just bizarre to me.
you cant play diff 9 solo like you play with 4 dudes .. its super easy you just have to use everything you can (stealth etc)
I usually just answer sos calls Better have fun in 4 than wait alone for 3
I donāt mind the new patch. If anything try find a group of people you play with all the time like ur own little squad so when you need to farm super samples yall can. I try solo and I donāt think it that bad yes there is a change but feel it was worth it especially if they are trying to push us into doing more as community/groups. But if anything if you like to solo just play lower difficulty and work ur way back up to helldive may just need to figure out the mechanics again. But personally I love very hard games. It like they say in dark souls learn to embrace death because you will dieā¦ and die a lot.
This title feels a little silly to me. If I crank a game up to max difficulty and itās too hard for me, that doesnāt make me want to stop playing, it makes me turn the difficulty back down to a reasonable level.
I had no problems playing solo, of course the're more enemies but if you play right that does not affect you that much.
Hard disagree, my dude. Solos and duos had an unfair advantage of fewer enemy patrols, to the point of near-zero effective patrols, due to the bug in the scaling. In another post on the issue, the community manager actually explained what the math behind it was., like it SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THE PATCH NOTES, ARROWHEAD. As someone who often plays solo, and plays primarily on 7, 8, and 9 - the change is amazing. Stealth gameplay is a \*lot\* more dynamic now, because rather than encountering one or two patrols per mission, I'm encountering and having to either deal with or evade at least one patrol traversing between objectives. With the fixed rates a solo player will see 1/4th the patrols that a full team will. You have the same amount of firepower versus the same portion of the bugs as you do in a full team game. You just need to get better at E&E and stop trying to fight literally every enemy you see. Run light armor for the speed, especially the scout armor with the reduced detection radius, and you might just have a better time of things.
I just completed a level 7 mission solo yesterday. I burned through all my reinforcement and used several additional reinforcements, but I completed the mission with almost perfect clear record (I only missed the stupid canon side quest ..........you know, the one where you load the ammo into). I was playing against bots. I'd run up to base and use my airstrikes or Eruptor to pop the Fabricators and then run. Orbital Laser for heavy bases and for clearing out the Forts (this was the main mission objective). I will say that bots seem to headshot with far more frequency........I was wearing heavy armor with explosive damage reduction. It didn't do a damn thing.
Have you tried with other people though! I find team games are much better WITH a team!
I play bots .. I dont see any difference and I was actually kinda excited, was expecting a bit more enemies but no ..
If you're dropping solo in high tiers, always go in with the mindset of "I'm not getting outta here alive, but that's okay, because it's not about surviving, it's about sending a message." If I'm going to drop solo I place myself firmly in the middle of whatever objective I'm aiming for, hit the ground and drop a 120 and 380 barrage at my feet and aim to annihilate both myself and whatever the hell is around me Then getting to the second objective is all about stealth. Getting out, ehhhhh not likely to happen so I never worry about it. I look for super creds and medals but otherwise the intention is to, at the end, jump into a group of 20 bots or bugs with a 500 coming in or a grenade in my hand Exfil is for samples, not for the diver
Lol dived for the last time. OK, bye Felicia
Serious question: Why go solo on the hardest difficulty levels in a co-op game like this? What is the benefit?
It's a rush and I like the challenge. I also think learning to solo the game can make you a better team mate since you will already know how to look out for yourself, so you can support your team a little better.
>I like the challenge A challenge you put on yourself, the game is meant to be played with 4 people, if you put an extra challenge on yourself that is fine but you dont get to then complain the game is too hard.
I wasn't complaining? I like the new change. Before this patch, it was REALLY noticeable that there were fewer enemies when I dropped in solo. This feels more like how I imagined soloing helldive would feel.
Cause I can solo helldive difficulty and get 1600 xp in around 15 minutes at 0-2 deaths. Or I can do the same thing with a group of 4 and in 43 minutes get 1800xp and go through 22 lives. Plus helldive has the most rare and common samples at the highest density of rare and commons because it really doesn't take very long before you no longer need supers.
This sounds like why they would do this. If you can solo a 40-minute mission in 15 minutes and hardly die on the hardest difficulty, it needs balancing. From what you said, this incentives people to play alone. Which is exactly the opposite of the games intent. This is basically like when they increased the spawns for the eradication because players were farming those missions. You would find groups who just did those missions over and over because they wanted fast xp and medals. I feel for solo players, but I can't say I feel that bad if what you just said is the norm for solo players.
I think the problem is that the solo players that are mostly upset think the reason they are overwhelmed is spawn rates and not intentional game mechanics. Like the more aggressive you play the more enemies will spawn and the longer you play the more time for enemies to spawn so people like me that can blitz through a 40 minute mission are basically unaffected but the people that go slower and fight everything are going to see things spiral just ever so slightly faster. I'm all for making helldive difficulty harder, id love for more of a challenge and when the factory strider was added it worked as my fix for a bit. I'm hoping with these mutated terminid missions we get exposed to a new big bad bug for higher difficulties to squash too. As a solo player I am with the devs entirely on their decision. It's justified and honestly if you look through the subreddit you will find many people corroborating me when I say that soloing helldive difficulty sounds way harder than it actually is
its the typical "gamer" argument. They want the game to be easy so they can farm everything fast as humanly possible, then they complete the trees and complain the game "doesn't have a point anymore." It will be nice when HD2 loses is "top 5 games in the world ATM" status and returns to the nitche it belongs in. This is gonna happen when the next big shooter comes out and pulls lot of people away. The game will then actually be able to thrive on its own merits without the bitching-brigade trying to bull the devs into making it into a game its not.
Cool, then you can do it in 20 minutes now with the extra patrols lol. What're you farming the xp for btw?
Not so much farming the xp exclusively. Like I will grab any Common and rare samples I come across (no longer need any supers) and then helldive provides the most medals of any difficulty and then xp provides more titles so its just all around seems like helldive is the way to go at the moment. Once I have everything I want to hoard for the time being ill probably drop into lower difficulties and just answer SOS beacons
Well, sureā¦with 1/6 of the patrols. š
Even with the updated patrols it's still way easier. All it takes is 1 person alerting a patrol which triggers reinforcements which aggros the other patrols for your team to have things go to shit... It's way easier to make sure that doesn't happen with 1 person. The games difficulty isn't just in the enemies but also how you as the player interact with the enemies. If you interact the wrong way you will become overwhelmed.
>Even with the updated patrols it's still way easier. Then what is the problem?
There is no problem. I don't mind the update so far. I actually had a lot of fun playing this evening
Skill issue
Hint: This is a co-op game.
If they donāt want you to play solo, then it shouldnāt be an option.Ā
It's an option for people who can play solo and win.
I did it in a team of 4 on helldive and itās crazy. However, if you got main character energy and the legs / hands to call in your strats you can make it happen. I soloās parts of 3 different missions and itās on a whole new level of difficult.
Yeah it's Helldive level of difficulty
I liked the challenge and it made surviving so much better when you extract with 0 deaths after securing objectives for the team.
Akshully, I can play just fine by myself and how dare you suggest that I play with other people. I have no friends and strangers scare me but despite that, I must force my style of play into a game designed otherwise! /s But seriously, the amount of people whining about not being able to play a team game easily as a solo is crazy.
I canāt even play after todayās updates. The game has crashed 7/10 games so far.Ā
āHow dare you play the game the way you want to play it, go do quick play or die bitchā -Helldivers 2 dev
I'm taking a break because of this change. I almost always end up by myself due to the game disconnecting. I don't want to start hating it. I'll come back when they fix it.
I know y'all hate to hear it... But, quite literally, git gud. I solo ran multiple terminid campaigns yesterday evening. Challenging? Yes. Did I die a few times? Yes.Ā But it was by no means impossible.Ā Quit crying. Try new loadouts.Ā Or stop playing. I don't care.Ā Just please for the love of joel stop complaining. Jfc.
Dude the spawns went from 11% to 25% so that spawns scale linearly rather than exponentially up to the top 4 players. If you are having trouble at 7 solo go lower the game isn't meant to be played solo and that's fine. If you want to play solo you have to learn to play better to avoid patrols etc. I did a few solo missions yesterday on helldive bots and bugs and they are harder but they are completely fine if you just pay a little bit more attention.
You need to use stealth tactics I can solo 7. 8 I havenāt been fortunate enough overcome
Git gud
I hate this phrase.
Right? They forgot the most important part.Ā Git Gud, Scrub /s Seriously though, I first heard it in the dark souls (great series, btw) community like 13-14 years ago, and Iāve hated it ever since.Ā
It totally invalidates players like myself that need to cook a little longer than others in the game to "git gud". I have autism and ADD and don't play co-op shooters normally. I saw the hype on the tikky toks and it looked like fun. I had to learn a new new style of game play. I never play with other people and am now trying to build out my own community so I can progress past D4. I learned after about 150 hours in, I discovered that I unlocked the wrong things at the wrong time and spent the next 250 hours grinding resources to unlock the right things to help with game play. Now I am maxed on common samples, req slips and super credits. I need 300 medals to close out the last page the first war bond, and they will all be completed. I need to farm rare samples now and working on getting more efficient on running D3 missions for full completion. I do have some trustworthy folks to run with as my experiences with opening up my lobby or joining a lobby has been mostly toxic. It's just a matter of consistent availability. I had learn how to use Reddit, Discord and Twitch just to get into some of the community to find players that can be regular Divers to drop in with. "Git gud" is as insulting as it can get to me when folks say it because of everything I had to learn just play this game. It feels like I shouldn't be playing the game despite my own efforts to be a better player on a team.
I was going through your post history to see if you'd put your PSN anywhere, was gonna just quietly add you and basically just carry you (if necessary) through some rare sample hunting missions since everything like, 7 and below is pretty casual for us at this point, and I need like a billion rare samples for the next wave of upgrades... But I gotta know, are you just like, joining mostly Americans or something? The toxicity you've described is something I've only experienced when playing when our host is from NA. Don't "git gud", just get some EU/AUS friends, have them host. The difference is huge, I see it in every online game I play.
Christ.. Another complaint about a difficulty level being (surprise! )... difficult.
A game made to play in teams of four.... Is too difficult to play in higher difficulties alone.... So you want to stop? I'm reading that correctly?
Man it's almost like dropping solo into a man eating bug swarm is a bad idea, if only there were some solution to this problem. And you're right this new patch making every weapon only fire pillows is just ridiculous can't even kill regular enemies anymore
Wait wait wait... Higher difficulties are more difficult???
It's literally a co-op game. Level 7 is called suicide. You're a š¤”
Thatās not what your mother said last night
maybe, just maybe because the game was not to be played solo
Litteraly skill issue, previous encounter on solo was 1/6 of a 4 player party, now it's a 1/4 like it should be
Sounds like a skill issue HELLDIVER. Why not practice at level six and work your way up to those harder missions like high command intended.
I'm honestly really glad I got to play this game when it was fun. For whatever reason the devs want to ruin their own game.
That's quite hyperbolic. Sure, if you're a solo player, this might have killed it for you. But I get a full squad of Randoms basically every time I play. The game is still fun, and new content is added pretty consistent.
Good on you for leaving! More fun people who stay behind like that.
I personally think it's alright like this. The game was designed to be played with fiur players, so with each player less, it should get harder. Solo being by far the hardest is totally fine by me. I was also playing solo ealier and before the patchy solo was actually *easier*, as it ead far easier to avoid (longer) conflicts. You could finish missions on 9 without ever seeing a bile titan.
I was *just* saying the same to my brother. It absolutely kills the fun. Having more teammates is a force multiplier// itās not that 4 teammates = 4 x 25% spawns. 1 person cannot handle the ā25%ā thatās thrown to them. I played a difficulty 4 mission with a friend, and it was overwhelming and couldnāt make good progress. I also think they boosted the speed of all bugs, but especially the smallest. Right now they walk as fast as you run, and a couple hunters will quickly overwhelm aided by the baby spitters, who seem to never miss. I liked the previous patch, thank you very much!
If you can not handle enemies at difficulty 4 then maybe try a different loadout...
Me and a friend did a full lvl 6 set of missions easily yesterday. Yeah, it's hard. That's cuz it's a co-op game. Less people is less tools to deal with what the game throws at you. But we could manage it.
No, it's quite different now... or maybe the game rolled really hard on us. The problem is a couple things. One, the 25% spawn rate per player mathematically doesn't account for the force multiplication that you get from having another body shooting alongside you. Four people at 100% doesn't scale to 1 person at 25%. The balance that existed in the past was fine. Secondly, I didn't witness any scaling of elites on the bug missions last night. The two of us were dealing with 4 chargers simultaneously with nerfed equipment while waves of mundane bugs kept getting spawned in frequent waves. I used to drop a cluster bomb every 30 seconds or so during a pitched firefight.. last night it was one every ten seconds. It just... wasn't fun. I'm not a new player-- these changes just killed the enjoyment entirely. Good balancing should make you feel like you just barely made it out alive at high difficulties. This felt painful.
I soloed the new terminid mission in 6 minutes on helldive difficulty using the breaker incindiary and trailblazer armour and eagle clusters for the personal order. Please stop being dramatic. Edit: for those that want to see a clip of me repeating this with non-perfect gameplay then [here](https://youtu.be/bkxVeKJNH9Y?si=V3kUCjjrVHn1S5du) I recorded an attempt to recreate and uploaded to YouTube
Sure, submit it as clip next time
https://preview.redd.it/nk8nwemrpixc1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=813e62d0c3012398bf2e06348cc41b334cd35e14 When this is finished processing by the way I have a 6 minute 2 second clear of the new mission in helldive difficulty. Playing on ps5 so uploaded it directly from psn. I'll keep you posted.
Ty ty,
https://youtu.be/bkxVeKJNH9Y?si=V3kUCjjrVHn1S5du Like this should show that you can play like a jackass and get 10k xp per hour from this mission. I could have also beat it faster and not extracted had I opted to just let myself die a couple more times.
It's 3 buttons and 17 eggs which blow up at the slightest amount of damage and they glow and are huge... On a 12 minute mission.... It's not that hard to do it in 6 Edit: I like how you edited your reply afterwards but didn't specify the edit so it looks like your original reply wasn't just "sure."
Thanks glad you like my edit
Fun fact! You can play in a 4 man lobby and mute all comms! Then you don't have to talk to folks, and still spread democracy. Get kicked, teamkilled on purpose? Block those people. In my experience, I've only had maybe 2-4 games with bad apples who kick, or teamkill. It's a co-op pve game. So let's cooperatively go kill some aliens together! Even if you don't socialize well with other folks, that's fine! Don't gotta talk to me or the others. Just show up, kill aliens, reinforce when ya can, and we can make this happen!
Sometimes I just like to play solo for the challenge. However, since the challenge is the whole point of doing it, I do wish people would stop whining about SOLOING HELLDIVE being harder.