Walkthrough My Initiation With a Game Called Remnant II

[Frag Maniac]

I just started playing Remnant II yesterday. This is dubbed a "Souls With Guns" type game, so I was a bit intimidated, as Dark Souls is not my type of game at all. I'm playing as a "Handler" archetype, and although I play it solo and the canine companion's main skill minimizes the effects of friendly fire (so is useless to me), I find the dog is pretty effective at both distracting and killing enemies that would otherwise relentlessly swarm you. He has his limits though, for instance if you go down near an AOE, there's a good chance he'll get stuck in it and die and not be able to revive you. And you can't let him run willy nilly among several foes and take cover to reload, heal, etc, if the spot he's in is not approachable from where you're taking cover (such as dropping down off a ledge that can't be mantled). That's really only a problem if you need his help from where you take cover at, as when you move farther forward, he'll eventually warp to you anyway, even if he's gone down.

There's a lot to this game though as far as it's game world and gear and upgrades. It has sections of it's game world you cross into which are procedurally generated, so there's no telling how your playthrough will progress or compare to that of others, or even your previous playthroughs. There are a few key sub worlds, as well as key chests and items in them, but that's about all you can count on. That aspect of it even has some whom are exp
erienced at playing it misleading others as to what items you can find and where. For instance one YTer, who's video I saw, insisted the Vengeance Idol, an amulet that buffs your damage output 30% when your health is below 50%, can be found in The Twisted Chantry, but I didn't find it until I went to Endaira's End just after.

Even beyond that, each sub world can appear different for some as it does for others. It will look for the most part the same as far as the enemies it contains and the features of the environment, but the layout will be different. This means using the map to navigate and even the means to get to secrets can be quite different. I was seeing YouTube vids of The Twisted Chantry showing access to a lower area by means of passing through a surface that looked like a wall, but was immaterial. For me the method was to jump off a ledge in a spot where it's rock wall was broken, down into a large coffin. It was not easy to find because you could not see from above that the coffin had an opening at one end you could get through via crouching. Right behind the spot where I jumped off the ledge was a locked door, so I'd spent a fair bit of time looking for a key, as it's often times the way through them.

The story's premise isn't as well presented as it could be, and the archetype you play never speaks except in cutscenes, remaining silent when choosing dialog options in conversations with NPCs, and your dialog choices don't seem to change anything as in full on RPGs. At best asking certain questions has NPCs referring you to someone whom can help you with what you're seeking, whether it be how to get somewhere, or some of your gear needing upgrading. The story is based on plant based creatures trying to take over everything, but some of the enemies don't look anything like a tree based species. There is however an effect called root rot that can sicken you and slow you down during combat if you don't use the cure for it.

Combat, world, and puzzle wise it's very well thought out and very engaging and immersive. I can see too that it's likely to have tons of replay value due to the several archetypes and gear builds you can go with, and where the game randomly takes you environment wise. It is pretty tough to play solo though, even if starting out on the lowest difficulty like I am, Survivor mode. It kind of lulls you into thinking you'll be fine, but when you encounter more aggressive enemies, mini bosses, and especially main bosses that have a ton of health, it can easily take several tries. I find the dog really helps as long as you can manage to circle around and use cover here and there while he distracts them, but there are times that is not viable.

The checkpoint system is large red crystals here and there that pop out of the ground when you get near them. The plus is, when you interact with them by touching them, they fully replenish your ammo, health, and health packs called Dragon Hearts. The negative is, doing this also resets ALL the enemies in that area. So if you think you can use them to backtrack, restock, and go back to where you were, you'll have to either fight through all those enemies again, or get lucky running past them. I've tried the latter more than once, and even with my trusty dog distracting them, yet still catching up to me, I died every time. This is because if you try to disregard the enemies it places in front of you, it adapts and places more (and tougher ones) in your path as you go. Dying takes you back to the last checkpoint you activated, with, you guessed it, all enemies present.

The checkpoints however DO serve both as a means to perfect your attempt to get through an area via retries, and are also a means to fully restock once you clear an area, as each new area tends to have another checkpoint at the start of it. The game encourages you to be aggressive, as killing enemies will reward you with the type of ammo drops you need. You DO need to use it carefully though, as you aren't given an abundant amount, even on the lowest difficulty mode. It also encourages you to explore a lot, as various crates, chests, and coffins have valuable items that can be very useful.

The dog and careful use of melee can help you prepare for boss fights when saving ammo is a priority, as ammo drops don't happen with every enemy gunned down. If it feels you are stuck trying to find the way to your objective, stick to the sub worlds marked with a (!), and look for edges of it's map that look feathery, without a well defined outer edge. That's a sign it will lead you to unexplored parts of it. However there are parts of certain maps, such as the Ward 13 base, which are unreachable until you progress a certain ways into the story. There's no New Game + in this game, so the only way to start a game with all your gear and upgrades is to grind to get them, then jump in with someone else at the start of their game in coop. However, since I tend to often task myself with solo challenges, it makes me want to instead try to perfect my gameplay and become more efficient.

I have a couple videos forthcoming, one of the mini boss called Rot at that aforementioned secret area of The Twisted Chantry, and one of the boss called Mother Mind at the end of The Nameless Nest. I also beat the main boss called Legion at the end of The Twisted Chantry, and he's definitely tougher than Rot, but unfortunately I did not capture it.

Here's those videos I mentioned. There will likely be more added as I progress through the game.

The Twisted Chantry - Rot

This shows how you need to refight all enemies that respawn if you choose to restock health and ammo with a checkpoint.

The Nameless Nest - Mother Mind

It can be hard to dodge attacks in this fight, as you need to run like hell to get to safe ground, or you'll fall to your death.

 

[Frag Maniac]

OK, here's those latest videos I promised. Some of the worlds are now lavish indoor environments, and one is a quite unique hub of all others. There was a brief moment of buggy enemy spawns in one of the indoor environments, but nothing game breaking. More concerning was a momentary bug in one boss fight where my weapon wouldn't fire. I've read of this happening in Remnant 1, and it is said it typically happens after doing something like reloading, healing, etc. Along the way I picked up a new weapon and armor.

Forgotten Field - Defiler

This is the boss fight at the end of Forgotten field, which starts by freeing a friendly from entanglements.

The Great Bole - Corruptor

This is the boss of all of Yaesha, which comprises everything above I've explored thus far. This is why when you beat it you earn the ability to reroll Yaesha via Adventure Mode, which helps you find better items you've not yet encountered. Here is where I had that dreaded weapon wouldn't fire bug, right after I healed. It had to happen against the toughest boss in all of Yaesha! 🙁 There was also right after that a moment where my hits weren't landing as the reticule was stuck white, even though I was clearly aiming at his head.

It took me a little while to realize the biggest threat is not Corruptor itself, but what it corrupts, a big multi blade wielding robot looking thing. You need to stay on the move and avoid it's charged blades by shooting them, and stay out of the way of it's devastating jump attack. Near the end I actually got the boss to finish off this nasty contraption. 😆

The Labyrinth - Master Portal Key Fight

It's really too bad this fight had no official named boss, like Keymaster or something. All enemies in The Labyrinth are stone based, and this is the first fight there that involves taking on multiple heavies at once, which can do AOE attacks.

The Labyrinth - Sentinel

Well, this one DOES have a boss name, and although it's much harder and more interesting than the Master Portal Key fight, what you fight feels more like machine than beast, and it does little to aim attacks directly at you.

The Labyrinth - The Keeper

Be forewarned that there are story spoilers here. There's not much combat here, but it reveals...

Spoiler

...where Clementine is, and finding her is the main objective through all of Yaesha. She is with The Keeper, whom says the Labyrinth is the hub of all worlds, and that his task is to maintain all the worlds. He also says he as well is fighting the Root.

Beatific Palace - Magic Quill

This is one of those lavish indoor environments I spoke of, and this one is a sort of hub to many other worlds. You must first however find that Magic Quill.

Postulant's Parlor - Royal Hunting Bow

Another indoor environment that's fairly lavish, and was my first in the world of Losomn. It has no passages to other worlds, just back to Beatific Palace. There are only items to collect here via a mini game. It's geared more toward coop, especially if you want to get one of the main 3 items, a ring that divides healing among allies. Since I play solo, I sufficed without it. I DID however get the Royal Hunting Bow and Fae Royal Armor set, but I only show the bow being obtained. The bow is fairly powerful, but unfortunately too slow for groups of enemies.

Shattered Gallery

This is another indoor environment, but more dark and gloomy. The enemies are a bit more formidable here, and there are signs a battle took place. This is my 2nd trip through it, as I was ill equipped with the non modable weapons I used in The Labyrinth. I decided to go back to Ward 13 and upgrade my modable weapons instead. This is also where that momentary bug happened with enemy spawns.

Shattered Gallery - Magister Dullain

This is the boss of Shattered Gallery, and he looks rather nasty. He was fairly quick work with my upgraded weapons though, and this is the first boss fight where I made good use of weapon mods.

 

[Frag Maniac]

OK, I have a couple more vids for you. There's just two this time because they total nearly 2 hrs of gameplay. These are also similarly themed in much darker maps. They pick up where I left off after the Shattered Gallery boss, which dumped me back in Beatific Palace.

Ironborough - Harvester's Reach - Barghest the Vile

So after a quick bit of fighting through the palace to get to the next objective marked by an (!), I wound up in Ironborough. This is a bit of a crazy town type setting full of narrow streets and town folk whom attack "outsiders' on sight with melee weapons, guns, and Molotov's. There's the occasional axe wielding Brute, as well as a new enemy, the Dran Demolisher, a heavy with a weird gas powered triple circular saw gadget. His weapon now and then dies on him, and he has to stop and pull start it like a chainsaw. He's also got an interesting death animation where his own weapon does a number on his head when he goes down.

These areas, mostly the Harvester's Reach dungeon portion, also usher in a new creature called the Harvester, including one that is the boss. He has abilities called Thick Skin and Displacer, meaning he takes a fair bit of damage, and can teleport you to him, or him to you, when you try to escape his lair to fight him in open ground. There's also a small side quest here where a sobbing man asks you to look for his wife Dria. Little did I know I got what I needed (her anklet) after the boss fight, and only had to give it to him to get his reward, which I later came back and got off capture. However this oversight lead me to find a new area I might not have otherwise.

The Great Sewers - Bloat King

Now we've ventured into an even darker, more dank place, the sewers, which has more town folk, and a lot of regular and shock slug type creatures. There's also one Harvester here that catches you by surprise if you know where to look for him, whom drops a ring when you kill him. Another hidden gem in this area is a safe, that involves a puzzle to find it's combination.

The boss is a bit tricky and not as creepy as you might imagine a sewer boss to be, but if you fall and get stuck in the water with lots of shock slugs around you, chances are it won't end well. You CAN however if you're quick and find your way to the ladder, slither between the slugs relatively unscathed. However far too often I accidentally engaged with that ladder while atop the stone platforms, which slows you down considerably and makes you a sitting duck for the boss' shocking orbs he throws at you.

This dumped me out into a place called Malefic Palace, but at some point I need to go back to Beatific Palace to see what other realms it leads to. I'm pretty sure it had at least one more of those Magic Quill doors. Ironborough also has a place in the middle of it I want to get back to called Hewdas Clock, which is a big clock tower puzzle. I suppose I could have done it while I was there, but that realm was already taking a really long time to get through.

 

[Deleted member 2731765]

Good description. To avoid any early suspense, spoilers, I'm gonna watch some of the videos later on.

I bought this game and few others last week. Completed the Prologue, and the first boss, Root Mantis ! I have chosen Challenger as the "archetype". I think we can change and swap these classes/builds/archetypes later on in the game of course after unlocking them/10 Trait Points.

BTW, I think I made a mistake by choosing Challenger as the archetype, since it focuses more on close combat. I'm gonna restart the game from the beginning starting with the " Gunslinger" archetype.

Everything is quite random in this game it seems. Maps are randomly generated. Enemies are randomly placed. Item drops and treasure chests are random. Even the starting world is random, IMO. Just gonna buy some weapons in Ward 13 after the first boss fight though.

I just bought an RTX 4060 8GB variant GPU and started gaming again. Despite the lackluster paper specs, the card is still heaps faster than my previous AMD RX 480 GPU. For 1080p gaming, it's a good option. And 8GB VRAM is more than enough for me, given the type of games I mostly play these days.

The checkpoint system is large red crystals here and there that pop out of the ground when you get near them. The plus is, when you interact with them by touching them, they fully replenish your ammo, health, and health packs called Dragon Hearts. The negative is, doing this also resets ALL the enemies in that area. So if you think you can use them to backtrack, restock, and go back to where you were, you'll have to either fight through all those enemies again, or get lucky running past them.

That sounds similar to Elden Ring, and Dark Souls checkpoint system. Even 'Lords of the fallen' has it, and it can become a bit annoying because it will RESPAWN all the enemies in that particular area. But for fast travelling these checkpoints need to be activated.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Good description. To avoid any early suspense, spoilers, I'm gonna watch some of the videos later on.

I bought this game and few others last week. Completed the Prologue, and the first boss, Root Mantis ! I have chosen Challenger as the "archetype". I think we can change and swap these classes/builds/archetypes later on in the game of course after unlocking them/10 Trait Points.

BTW, I think I made a mistake by choosing Challenger as the archetype, since it focuses more on close combat. I'm gonna restart the game from the beginning starting with the " Gunslinger" archetype.

Everything is quite random in this game it seems. Maps are randomly generated. Enemies are randomly placed. Item drops and treasure chests are random. Even the starting world is random, IMO. Just gonna buy some weapons in Ward 13 after the first boss fight though.

I just bought an RTX 4060 8GB variant GPU and started gaming again. Despite the lackluster paper specs, the card is still heaps faster than my previous AMD RX 480 GPU. For 1080p gaming, it's a good option. And 8GB VRAM is more than enough for me, given the type of games I mostly play these days.

That sounds similar to Elden Ring, and Dark Souls checkpoint system. Even 'Lords of the fallen' has it, and it can become a bit annoying because it will RESPAWN all the enemies in that particular area. But for fast travelling these checkpoints need to be activated.

Congrats on finally getting that much needed GPU upgrade, you now have a GPU roughly 18% faster than my GTX 1080! I'm currently in a situation where needed truck repairs are putting my PC upgrade on hold.

Funny you say you tried the Challenger archetype and are now planning to restart as Gunslinger due to forced close quarters combat. That was the main reason I opted to not play as a Challenger. If you have any problems with Gunslinger you may want to try Handler, as the dog helps a lot, especially when he advances in skill. You can still buy any weapon you want.

I actually use weapon mods more than archetype skills anyway. I have Tremor on my rifle, and Hot Shot on my pistol. Tremor gives you an alt fire that lobs mines that do LOTS of damage. When the enemy trips them they do tons of damage AND slow them down. Hot Shot makes your projectiles incendiary, which is very effective as well.

Yeah the game relies heavily on procedural generation of random maps and enemies. I caught hell from one guy on another forum just for calling it a procedurally generated game, even though I made it clear I was not talking about the original meaning of the term where the entire world of the game was generated on the fly to avoid load screens and LOD problems from massive content loading.

I think Gunfire Games has done an incredible enough job with just the procedurally generated part of this title though to justify describing it as the main focus of the development, because clearly that's the most interesting thing about the game and what sets it apart from most game worlds. Kind of silly to mince words over one calling it a procedurally generated game, especially considering how much procedural generation has evolved over the years.

Have you played Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and Lords of the Fallen, or are you just referring to what you've read/heard about them? I never play those types of games because I find the boss fights to be a very tedious, difficult grind. I do not do well in general in melee based games where you fight bosses with a HUGE amount of health and precisely timed counters, dodges, and attacks are necessary. That's why I had a lot of trouble with the Valkyrie Queen in God of War 2018. It was mainly because some of her attacks were so quick and hard to see coming, but that game on KB/M also requires you to double tap to dodge, which wastes too much time.

 

[Deleted member 2731765]

Have you played Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and Lords of the Fallen, or are you just referring to what you've read/heard about them?

Yes, I have played them but only casually.

But Dark Souls series not that much, mostly Lords of the Fallen/LOTF and some levels of Elden Ring. Even I suck when it comes to close/melee combat, and these games really have punishing difficulty, especially the Boss fights. Perfect timing for block/parry and dodge/roll is required.

But contrary to the Dark Souls series, LOTF was a bit easy to beat since the enemies are not that powerful in this game, and most of the enemies are just plain dumb and stand still unless you approach them very closely. Elden Ring is kind of tough though, and even I can't beat the game without using any cheats/Trainers.

But I know using a trainer would defeat the whole purpose of the challenge and gameplay, but it's fun to beat big bosses without taking much damage, hehe. Never played God of War 2018 properly, but I know some of the enemy encounters are tough in this game as well.

It's in my backlog/pending list, along with Days Gone, Dying Light 2, Dead Island 2, RE4 remake, AC: VALHALLA and few others. Now it's time for me to replay other games as well, since my new GPU is much faster and provides a better gaming experience, and a fluid gameplay, with less performance drops.

Also planning to get 'Callisto Protocol' as well, but not sure whether this is as good as the "Dead Space" series though.

 

[Deleted member 2731765]

Congrats on finally getting that much needed GPU upgrade, you now have a GPU roughly 18% faster than my GTX 1080! I'm currently in a situation where needed truck repairs are putting my PC upgrade on hold.

Thanks btw. Yes, the 4060 is damn fast than my previous GPU, and I can already feel the difference in gaming. AC: Valhalla now runs much smoothly on max settings and so does Far Cry 6, Atomic Heart and other AAA games, despite some slight bottleneck due to my current CPU.

The card also sips very less power and is efficient as well. We have actually reached a peak of technological advancement in the last few years in Computer hardware, Electronics and Smartphones etc.

Today's Core i3 quad-core 13'th GEN Intel CPU easily beats my 4'th gen core i7 4790 processor as well by a reasonable margin, while costing less.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Thanks btw. Yes, the 4060 is damn fast than my previous GPU, and I can already feel the difference in gaming. AC: Valhalla now runs much smoothly on max settings and so does Far Cry 6, Atomic Heart and other AAA games, despite some slight bottleneck due to my current CPU.

The card also sips very less power and is efficient as well. We have actually reached a peak of technological advancement in the last few years in Computer hardware, Electronics and Smartphones etc.

Today's Core i3 quad-core 13'th GEN Intel CPU easily beats my 4'th gen core i7 4790 processor as well by a reasonable margin, while costing less.

Those are some of the games I plan to get and play, not sure on Dead Island 2 though. I have read Calisto Protocol used to be a real pain to play at the start due to very limited ammo and difficult melee combat. They updated it to be more forgiving though due to many complaints. Two of the most common complaints were ridiculously slow reloading, and very slow healing. Most say it's much more playable now.

I definitely want to play Atomic Heart and Dead Space Remake as well. 👍

 

[Deleted member 2731765]

Atomic Heart is a nice game. Great voice acting, story and satisfying combat. The game is a bit demanding on the hardware though, and the visuals/graphics don't fully justify the high system requirements.

But despite that, the environments still look amazing, and Mundfish has used numerous high-quality textures. The game can also push a lot of characters on screen with ease. My only gripe with Atomic Heart is its limited draw distance. Even on Max Settings, the game has noticeable pop-in issues (for both characters and environments).

Sometimes the pop-in can get a bit annoying/distracting. But despite using Unreal Engine 4, the game does not suffer from any major stuttering issues though.

Btw, I will get Dead Island 2 first, instead of "Callisto Protocol" if the game is too tough to beat even in the early levels. I don't like a very challenging gameplay/combat, and where the resources are also scarce.

A quick google search reveals that the game is indeed tough to beat, and it hasn't received much positive feedback from gamers and reviewers overall as well.

I almost rage-quit The Callisto Protocol — until I changed this one setting

PSA: Play The Callisto Protocol on easy mode

www.tomsguide.com

 

[Frag Maniac]

A quick google search reveals that the game is indeed tough to beat, and it hasn't received much positive feedback from gamers and reviewers overall as well.

Be careful to note WHEN those reviews were made, because they probably came out when the game released, not after it was updated to be more playable. Search YT for reviews made AFTER that update. I've seen one that even compares the before and after. Like I said, most say it's MUCH more playable now, especially the beginning.

 

[Deleted member 2731765]

Be careful to note WHEN those reviews were made, because they probably came out when the game released, not after it was updated to be more playable. Search YT for reviews made AFTER that update. I've seen one that even compares the before and after. Like I said, most say it's MUCH more playable now, especially the beginning.

Oh yeah, I realized that afterwards, after reading the review's date. You are correct. Anyway, it now appears that the latest game updates have indeed changed the perspective for this game. They have taken care of the difficulty level it seems.

Might give it a try then. But before that I'm gonna watch some gameplay videos, and read some more reviews and forum topics.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Well, I was going to wait until I'd captured the final boss fight in The Forgotten Kingdom DLC, but ShadowPlay stopped working, and I have yet to get a response on a problem I'm having with OBS in a thread I posted on a few forums. So for now, I will just post the videos I have thus far.

These are all on Veteran, as I started a new playthrough and decided I'd bump up from the lowest difficulty (Survivor), to the 2nd one, which is Veteran. I'm still playing as a Handler with the Dog. The Dog is usually great, but in the final boss fight of TFK he is little help, as the boss is airborne.

I kind of went crazy on one boss, going back to the Ward 13 hub and buying and partially upgrading two other sets of weapons, as the first weapons you're given as Handler were not getting it done. One short gun I bought worked out well for one boss though, and a change of tactics for the other boss.

Forgotten Prison - Tal Ratha The Metaphysical

This is the tail end of a quest to fetch the Soul Spark Cylinder, which can be a bit tough to find. Once you bring it to Tal Ratha, you have a few options via dialog, and depending on your dialog choices, you end up fighting his normal appearance, or the metaphysical one, the latter being harder. I struggled a bit when first trying this fight, as it requires a lot of well timed dodges.

The Labyrinth - Master Portal Key

This is a fight I posted already on Survivor mode, but the tactics differ slightly on Veteran, where you need to take cover more against the tougher enemies that have powerful attacks. The Dog is still a beast though, he's like "Harder mode, what do you mean? I still have the chomps for it",...and he quite literally does.

The Labyrinth - Sentinel

This is another fight already posted on Survivor. The only real reason to post this is to show at least SOME fights are almost identical on higher difficulty modes, as long as you get the tactics and timing right. The stones, projectiles, and big energy waves definitely do more damage though, so you need to limit contact with them.

The Great Sewers - Bloat King

Yet another fight already posted on Survivor, but here, your tactics need to be more precise and well thought out. Well timed dodges of the energy beams, and running and jumping to other platforms to avoid the large beam it tracks you with, and keep your distance from the boss, are key. And when stuck in a spot where I could not make such a jump, I found dropping down near a ladder, then climbing right back up avoids two problems, getting zapped by the shock slugs in the water, and getting hit by the boss' minor (or even explosive) orbs if you take too long to get to a ladder, which can be hard to find in all the chaos.

Shattered Gallery - Magister Dullain

Again, another boss already posted on Survivor, but he is definitely a bit more aggressive on Veteran. He can rush you pretty quickly to try and catch you with his spear-like tongue, I narrowly avoided it at least once. He also does multiple tosses of creatures and toxic blobs at you, so you have to keep more distance. As always with ground fights though, the Dog is great for distracting the boss and his minions, and doing some damage to him.

Morrow Parish/The Tormented Asylum - The Nightweaver

This is a segment I'd not played before, and it has a pretty good mood setting look to it, and a great boss fight. It took a little longer than maybe it should have to find the realm the boss was in, due to my overlooking where the objective point was, and not realizing I already had the key to open it.

This is the boss I was referring to where one of the short guns I thought was a wasted purchase, turned out to be quite useful. It's called the Enigma, which is a shock weapon. It will lock onto multiple enemies at shorter ranges, and fire tether spikes in mod mode that chain powerful shocks to the enemy. You must fire one spike on the enemy, and another nearby.

That isn't to say precise dodges aren't key as well. She has a very powerful follow up slam after swooping toward you, as well as some very damaging stars she throws, and a small airstrike barrage. There's some little critters she sends after you as well when she's recovering, but if you just hold down your Enigma trigger on regular mode, it easily wipes out all of them.

The 2nd phase is actually harder, as it takes place indoors with less space, and she can appear in many places and ways, through various spots in the walls, floor, and ceiling. She is crawling at this point for the most part, but she has a very quick and powerful attack where she stands up and throws stars at you. For this reason I used a stick and go tactic, vs round a small pillar.

The Labyrinth - The Keeper 2nd Segment

I know I showed an encounter with The Keeper before, but I think it was the 1st one. This is the 2nd one, where Clementine is now more in tune with the realms and her purpose. It also shows how nasty some of the tougher stone enemies can be in this realm as I try to leave the place.

Deserted Atelier - Cinderclad Forge

This is a segment I've not played before, with a large mechanical boss you fight in a confined space, that sprouts a very large tree trunk looking appendage at one point. Frankly I was struggling with this boss until I started using the Nightfall long gun, which is a reward for beating the Nightweaver boss. It has a great mod mode where it fires continuously without needing to reload, and grants you invulnerability to most attacks while moving and firing it, and can even heal you back to full health.

This segment has some tough enemies along the way, one of which in particular was very hard to deal with. It's a flying creature that's green. It darts around very quickly, so is hard to target, and it can swoop down at you quickly and let out a shriek that stuns you. If you manage to find a good place to lure it into a choke point, it goes down fairly quickly, but I've died from it several times, and in this run after respawning, it did not appear.

There is also a large creature called the Living Plant, which stalks you slowly, but can sprout several flower looking creatures at some distance, which act as sort of "Bouncing Betty" mines that detonate on time release. So you really need to retreat and shoot it from a distance, unless you have a good weapon mod charged up. Two others that are menacing are a smaller mobile version of the boss in this segment, which shoots fireball mortars at you, and an archer that can summons minions with his arrows he shoots straight up.

Ancient Canopy/The Bloodless Throne/Luminous Vale

These are just 3 connected areas (all new to me) that you travel through on your way to getting something for Lydusa, the main boss of The Forgotten Kingdom. To ensure you bring her what she wants, she casts a spell on you which makes you turn to stone when you die. The aforementioned green flying creature shows up here as well, and this time I did capture it twice at the 8:10 and 24:30 marks. I've yet to find anything that says what it's called.

Earthen Coliseum - The Stonewarden

It becomes obvious at the end of this segment why it's called Earthen Coliseum, as the boss fight takes place in a square coliseum type setting. This boss, The Stonewarden, is fairly formidable, his attacks are pretty powerful, and you need to make many dexterous dodges. It's a bit of a poetic dance, hence the consonantic rhythm. The "audience" of this coliseum are numerous of his fellow warriors. These lower level enemies participate to some degree as the boss is recuperating. Their participation is more like being part of a sliding mechanism though, and if you manage to setup quickly in spots to avoid it, you can get extra damage in on the boss.

 

[Math Geek]

i have to say i'll never myself play such games, but it sure is fun watching you fight a boss or 2. the game itself is really good looking as well.

enjoy the rest of the game

 

[Frag Maniac]

i have to say i'll never myself play such games, but it sure is fun watching you fight a boss or 2. the game itself is really good looking as well.

enjoy the rest of the game

Well thanks for watching, and the kind words. I often find myself marveling not only at the quality of the graphics in the game, but the creativity of each realm and it's creatures. May your gaming adventures be enjoyable too. 😉

 

[Frag Maniac]

I ended up posting for help setting up OBS on the OBS Forums, and although I found my solution via a search on YouTube, I'm sure someone there would have helped me to fix the problem I was having. OBS has a log generating feature, and they ask you to post the last one you generated. The problem was simple, I just hadn't selected Game Capture as the source. OBS is a very good tool I'm finding, I was using it for real time capture via GPU hardware encoding using Nvidia's NVENC HEVC codec, at a bitrate of 35,000 Kbps, and there was zero lag. It's also quick and easy to Alt+Tab into OBS, and select Show Recordings and delete any captures that resulted in death or for any other reason. So I'm not really missing ShadowPlay's cached recording, especially since it's been so buggy at times.

Luminous Vale/The Bloodless Throne - Lydusa

This picks up where the last video with the Stonewarden boss fight left off, and it's not just to make a seamless transition from the last video, as it shows how to get the item Lydusa tasks you to get for her. You can actually choose to avoid this boss fight via a dialog option or something, but you know me, even if I struggle to find ways to beat a boss, I will eventually prevail, so I opted for the battle.

I ended up switching my short gun to the Western Classic, which is a six round revolver. I used mostly the Nightfall rifle though, and found the trick to beating her with this loadout is actually using the Nightfall mod power frequently to deal with the AOE damage, which allowed me to last well into the final phase of the battle before needing healing from the Dog. In fact I was able to use the mod power a whopping total of 4 times, with the 3rd being just prior to the final phase. That works out to be roughly once every 45 sec.

Prior to this tactic, I worried if I used the Nightfall mod power too much, I would not have it charged and ready for the very end of the final phase, which I knew I'd need it for. Quite frankly, the Western Classic wasn't much help, it does a fair bit of damage, but requires reloading too often, and is slow to reload. I had to pet the Dog to thank him for the healing, but the ferocious beast was harder to track than the boss!

This is a mix of ShadowPlay and OBS clips, and thankfully there's no discernable difference in quality where they come together, which is when the fighting of the boss actually starts. I still do my editing with Avidemux though, as I found out you can't use OBS as a video editor.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Here's 5 more vids, which took me to what is said to be the penultimate boss fight. I unexpectedly had a problem with a few of my captures not filling the screen entirely. Adjusting OBS' preview screen to fill the entire preview window fixed the problem, but I'm still a bit confused why it happened, as I never made such an adjustment initially, and most clips were fullscreen. Also, once again Avidemux allowed me to use the clips that weren't fullscreen via it's Auto Crop option, which took a little time encoding the clips before being able to use them, but it wasn't too bad.

Ashen Wasteland - Cancer

This picks up where I left off after the boss fight with Lydusa, which took me to Root Earth, a realm that is basically Earth burned to a crisp. This is also ground zero of the Root race in the game. This realm has small, tailed 4 legged creatures that are weak, but quick to dodge and attack. Some of these can burrow just under the surface. For those I usually send the Dog, then zap them as they emerge. There's an enhanced version that has an upright tentacle it can hit you with, as well as an AOE mortar attack that leaves a dark cloud that drains your health.

Midway through there's a big fight with more of the above mentioned creatures, as well as what looks to be a smaller, brute version of the Living Plant. This one however instead of turning small plants into mines, tries to run straight into you with a rush attack. A Root Knight also appears, but unfortunately via no intention of mine, it got hung up on a rather gnarly looking tree.

The boss, called Cancer, is a large old tree that looks to be dead when you first see it. It tries to trap you by surrounding you with roots it springs up from the ground around you, and has very powerful swat attacks. It's most dangerous attack is a huge leap, which ends with a massive shock wave when it lands. I used the Monolith rifle here, which has a mod power that launches a small swirling sand storm. This storm tracks the enemy while active, but it must be shot accurately.

Corrupted Harbor

A little ways into this segment, you encounter a tall, 3 legged beast called a Bane that vaguely resembles the Strider from HL2. They can summons the first 3 small creatures mentioned above, and have a powerful stomp that can hurt you a lot if hit by the shock wave, as well as a loud scream that can stun you. They are best taken out as quickly as possible. There's a particularly difficult spot in a large cave where there's 2 Banes, and a Root Knight. Root Knights with their Corruption Slash, Tremor Strike, and Root Magic are a handful themselves, especially since they are quite often airborne. When you add that to 2 Banes summonsing creatures all around you, and hitting you with stomp shock waves and stuns, I chose to make a mad dash for it. I just equipped Stone Mist, a power from my 2nd Archetype Alchemist class, which protects you with Stone Skin for 15 sec.

I was also planning on using this as a way to take these 3 enemies out piecemeal after circling back from a checkpoint. I was able to defeat the Root Knight this way, but the Banes were no longer there. In the second half there's a room with more of the small creatures and 2 Living Plant Brutes back to back.

Never mind my Dog sparking at times, he's just doing his Flash impression, such a ham. I might start calling him Sparky.

Corrupted Harbor - Venom

This is a Root Knight boss, which is a very enhanced version that has a huge axe instead of the usual spear. He is almost always airborne, and can cast a circle of Corruption above you that damages you if you walk under it, as well as a powerful series of jabs with his axe, which has a sharp spear tip on the end of it. He can also cast mortar shots at you, and throw his axe from great distance, which travels super fast in a straight line. If you so much as peek to see where he is at the wrong time, you better have quick reflexes. Lastly, when down to 1/4 or less of his health, he unleashes a very power AOE ground attack, that starts out with red circles, then they explode into huge powerful beams (instant death if caught in one).

This fight took many tries, I started out with the Nightfall and Enigma, but settled on the Monolith and Enigma. I had to go back to Ward 13 and add a few more upgrades to the Monolith, and I missed a couple back to back mod power shots with it, but I was able to prevail. It would have probably been a lot faster had I not missed the mod power shots, but this fight is as much about using cover well, and knowing when to cut and run. The Spirit Healer Mutator I have that boosts health a bit every 2 sec when using mod powers meant I could enable the relic that boosts mod power by 500, vs healing. I also had Challenger set as my 2nd archetype, and used it's War Stomp every time the boss touched down to the ground near me.

These last two are a reroll via Adventure mode, which include a new boss, and a trip back to Morrow Parish to solve the Hewdas Clock puzzle. They were basically part of my search for Engrams, which when found can be given to Wallace at Ward 13 to get various Archetypes unlocked.

Cotton's Kiln - Gwendil The Unburnt

This is a strange, atypical boss fight against a regular person, who's perched above you in a spot you can't get to, and tosses fire grenades at you. She has others up there with her, and there's a few burning zombies at ground level as well. The main danger here is the fire, as it is very progressive in how it drains your health once on fire. Other than that she's not too hard to beat. I unfortunately had a audio bug happen, which seemed to be caused by having used the Enigma in a spot just below her.

Morrow Parish - Hewdas Clock

This is just the final part of this puzzle, where you climb up the clock to start it, after acquiring the missing gear for it.

Since there's only one more boss, I will likely continue finding more Engrams to unlock more archetypes before taking it on. This is as much to prepare for harder difficulty modes as it is for curiosity sake. I must say though, every time I encounter new realms, enemies, powers and weapons, I'm like a kid at Christmas. 😍

 

[Frag Maniac]

As mentioned, I've taken a break from the main campaign to unlock new archetypes and fight some battles along the way. So far I have a total of 7 archetypes. There are 13 total, which includes 2 for the DLCs. Besides my default Handler class, I have Hunter, Invoker (The Forgotten King DLC), Medic, Challenger, Alchemist, and Engineer.

I have tried to get Summoner as well, but it's proving difficult to get a Blood Moon to appear in the worlds of Yaesha where it occurs, via rerolling.

Pathway of the Fallen/Walk of Remembrance - Wraithliege

This was a frustrating venture, as it left me not able to find a key for one of the two buildings I encountered, as well as no way I could find to get through the final gold gates. I saw a video where someone stopped where I had gotten to regarding the latter. I also wonder if you're only supposed to be able to choose one of the buildings I encountered, as their key slots were same in size and shape, but the key disappeared once I used it.

The boss in this area, the Wraithliege, is know to teleport at will without warning, which was causing me LOTS of damage when he kept teleporting near me. So I sent the dog in and took cover while he wore him down an bit, then used a stick and go tactic, retreating each time to prepare for him teleporting. I did the majority of the damage to him, but my Dog finished him off while I was reloading. Time for Sparky to get his official Warrior merit badge!

The Expanding Glade - Shrewd

Whereas the Wraithliege is a full on wraith, Shrewd is like half wraith, half Banshee. He'll try to intimidate you with a shrill scream, then disappear into the ground with a back flip, then slash at you 3 times after teleporting nearby. It's a fairly easy fight once you get in the rhythm, but at any time he can teleport back to the ledge he started at. At that point if you aren't behind the only cover, a big tree, he can damage you quite a bit casting ranged effects.

Faithless Thicket - Root Nexus

I can't help but think this is meant to be a prelude to accessing Yaesha's World Boss. It's basically a huge tree with a bulging root structure at the bottom that widens considerably at it's base. In between the roots it glows red, as if it's the beating heart of the Root creatures in Yaesha. When you damage it a certain amount, it spawns various types of Root creatures. So this is basically a wave attack fight, and you control when the waves come.

Endaira's End - Fester

This is an indoor area, with mostly Root Snipers. The real danger though is when the Root Horror and another boss of similar level appear. Root Horrors slash with an axe, and have a longer melee attack with a tentacle arm. They also cast a mine that explodes when near it. I have no idea what the other one is called, but it has splayed out roots on it's head, and fires a big cannon that launches a projectile that seriously damages you and gives you Root Rot pretty bad. I used the Monolith mod on him.

Another tricky thing about this area is when you advance to a certain point, several Snipers will spawn behind you as you're fighting other Snipers in front of you. At this point one of the aforementioned mini bosses will usually also spawn in either in front of you, or behind you. If you aren't ready for these scenarios, things can go very badly.

Not to belittle as well that my Dog killed a mini boss called the Plaguebringer all by himself. This is a creature that is even harder to track than a wraith. I didn't even know he had killed it until I turned around to see what made a popping sound, which was the burrowing beast dying, way to go Sparky!

At the end you get to a rest point, and Fester, a zombie-like boss that is behind one of several stone gates that rise when you step on a pressure plate. Actually, IMO the mini boss fights are more interesting, engaging, and challenging.

Ravager's Lair - Corrupted Ravager

And here we have the Yaesha World Boss, Corrupted Ravager. This is a much more cinematic fight, including the intro leading up to it, which involves a conversation and mini tour with this huge Wolf-like beast. He asks you to make a choice, and I will leave it at that. There's a bit of a brief, awkward edit early in the fight where I accidentally brought up the map.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I'm not sure why, but the videos just happen to come in sets of 5 lately. These are mostly from the Awakened King DLC, except for one. I have 10 Archetypes unlocked now, and had to stop there because the last two can only be gotten by completing the game. From what I've heard, the final boss fight is quite difficult. This means, as usual, if you miss too many dodge cues, you die. So I may do some more rerolling in Adventure mode just to build up the archetypes, weapons, and traits. I've gone to calling my Root Tumblers, or "Hollows" as they're called, Meatballs. So with the Dog and them combined, it's team DogMeat, and no, that's not an homage to Fallout 4.

The Twisted Chantry - Legion

This is not part of the Awakened King DLC, and is a video I wanted to include with my very first set, but I think I was having problems with ShadowPlay. Legion is more like a static medallion than a creature, except halfway through the battle when it starts floating forward in the room. It goes back and forth between being dormant after it summonses minions, and glowing red when it sends a volley of damaging red orbs at you, and a very damaging shockwave. If you look at it while it's glowing red, it inflicts Madness in you, which takes your health down slowly and starts turning the whole screen red.

So the key here is to duck in and out of cover, avoid the minions, side step the orbs, listen carefully for the cue to dodge the shockwave, and do a heavy attack that follows it when it's moving, which the Monolith mod power shot is very suitable for (if you can manage to land it).

Forlorn Coast - Ragged Poppet

This is the start of the Awakened King DLC. Honestly though, it's after I had explored much of the area, and certain mini bosses do not spawn after they're killed. I was having trouble finding my way through this map. So I decided to start over here, and get my bearings. I finally found where to get the Ritualist Archetype, which requires the Ragged Poppet. I need to spend more time building that archetype though.

The Forgotten Commune/Forlorn Coast Part 2

This is more difficult exploring, with battles here and there. I had even more trouble finding my way in this map, and fell to my death more than once where there were high, narrow walkways where battles were. That was one of my main reasons for starting the capture of the entire DLC over from the first checkpoint. In hind sight I realize I should have just rerolled the DLC.

Glistering Cloister - Bruin, Blade of the King

This takes place inside, with many Fae enemies. Once again, it's a long exploratory slog, but the fight against Bruin is a pretty good one. He comes at you all cocky, with reason to be. He has a very fast spear attack that needs careful heeding of a metallic sounding cue to dodge. If not, he instantly impales you on his spear, and leaves you hanging from it after jamming it in the ground.

Once you damage him a fair bit, he retreats far away up high, then summonses flying Fae while throwing numerous spears at you, then does multi spear volleys, each ending with a powerful explosion. I died MANY times at the very start of the fight by not timing the spear dodge well, so it was a relief to get this one done. It's really a pretty good fight once you get the rhythm right.

Palace of the One True King/Chamber of the Faithless - The One True King

Once again, another long exploratory slog. This time however we come upon Nimue, goddess of the Fae, and former counselor to the One True King, until he went mad and shackled her in a cave (which is where we find her). The outskirts of this area is also where you can find the Misplaced Memoir (as well as other places), a book which contains the Bookbound Medallion. The Medallion is very useful, as it unlocks a door to a room that has the Paper Heart, a relic that, among other things, heals you 100%.

Leading up to this fight I was frankly a bit worried I was under equipped. There are several Dual Wielding Fae, whom rush you with instant left/right dodges that make them hard to shoot, and just before encountering the boss, there were two at once. The One True King though was actually a bit disappointing. His attacks aren't terribly hard to dodge, unless you stupidly turn your back to him like I did once, but even then, I beat him first try.

What's funny is he is just sitting on his throne when you first encounter him, going on and on about how you're a pathetic mortal interrupting his solitude, and calls you a mouse at one point. So before I killed him dead, I summonsed my Meatballs, let them nibble on his toes to finish him off, and shouted, "How do you like THOSE mice big guy!" Overall I'd have to say I was a bit disappointed with the Awakened King DLC. The fight with Bruin is pretty good, but the Dual Wielder Fae are tougher than the "King".

 

[Frag Maniac]

Well, finally broke out of the 5 set trend, as there are just 3 vids this time. It's largely due to taking longer to get my mt bike running than I thought, but also the NFL season starting up. I have greatly enjoyed watching my Seahawks under an entirely new coaching staff win their first two games, not to say it hasn't been frustrating at times due to costly penalties and other mistakes.

These 3 are a continuation of my rerolling to find new weapons and armor.

Goddess's Rest - The Bloodless Heir

This is a new place and boss I encountered, but it also happens to be the resting place of Lydusa, and where you can choose to revive her vs fight her if you have the right item to offer. If you've already acquired the Cherished Fracture Lydusa asks you to retrieve (by killing the Stonewarden boss) The Bloodless Heir will not appear. Otherwise, he will appear when you interact with the offering bowl.

This boss can appear with different modifiers and skills, when I fought him he had Unstoppable and Sand Guards. With this set he is immune to staggering, so will not slow his pursuit, and can cast shock waves with his spear, and summons airborne minions that cast fire balls. He also has a pretty devastating lunge attack with his spear, as well as a swirling attack. I found the best way to deal with him is to take cover behind the pillars, moving to the one on the other side as he approaches.

I used mostly the Enigma, but also had a new weapon in toe I had not effectively learned how to use yet (more on that below). I also had the Let Mark II armor set, which is a heavy Knight-like armor. With this armor if I don't use Leto's Amulet, which buffs endurance, I flop on the ground vs being able to dodge. 🙁

Kaeula's Rest - Kaeula's Shadow

This is a boss in Kauela's Rest I did not capture the first time I was there. Here I still had the Enigma hand gun, but also that new weapon called the Twisted Arbalest. The Twisted Arbalest fires energy discs that ricochet, but when it's mod power is charged, up to five enemies you shoot the discs at (or all 5 in one enemy), will glow red, at which point using the mod power will activate Guardian's Call, a giant energy sword at each disc, which strike from above. I had still not used it as effectively as it can be here, largely due to this boss and the tentacles it summonses, being hard to deal with in the swamp-like conditions. None the less, I beat it first try as I did the first encounter with it, scrappy but effective, like my Seahawks. 😎

The Chimney - Heart Seed

This is more of an enviro puzzle that spawns numerous Root Zombies, and several Rot Warts as you descend it's stairs after activating it. The Rot Warts explode when near them, leaving a cloud of Root Rot gas, so have to be dealt with carefully. I found that shooting the crystals on the stair railing, which interacted with the arcing electricity, to some degree seemed to amplify the power of the energy discs, as well as minimize the danger of being struck by the electricity (which is insta kill). You also have to hasten your pace to avoid the electricity descending on you from above, but also slow up a bit near the bottom, as if you move too quickly, there will be electricity below you that you have to wait to descend.

So I by now had the use of the Arbalest pretty much figured out and got in some good Guardian's Call attacks with it. I also had the Battle Armor from having just earlier made it through the Proving Grounds, where you have to survive a lot of traps and enemies.