Graviton vortex + Triglav charge = Compounds win

But by golly are they annoying. Of the three types of compounds, those give me the most trouble because I don't have a good bomb to counter them.

But when the gunner update comes out, that grim repeater will be my gun of choice for those levels.

Ok, call me a noob, but my only 4* swords right now are a venom striker and a khorovod.

Cutter lines on those things is just... you can imagine. The huge lack of knockback means that you can only hit once then you have to back off and hit again later. Extremely slow to the point where you'll probably die just due to you're not killing anything.

Then comes the Khorovod. "Oh, well that's got lots of knockback and a huge AOE, it should be fine!"
Ehm... A lot of dodging these things relies on mobility. Not a heavy sword's strongest point. Also, unlick other enemies in the game, these slimey blobs have no physical hitbox for you to run into when they're all spiky and evil. Or at least it feels that way. Using the charge launches you forwards, and in a confined space such as most of the compound's final sections, it's extremely difficult to actually hit things without stepping on them and dying first.

(Oh, I do have a Graviton bomb, but because of the slow walking speed I often get hit while charging it, which puts the fuse down, so I have to charge more, and get hit again, and it doesn't end well.)

To me, success in compounds seems mostly due to having one of a set of weapons that simply works. If you don't have one of those weapons you're probably not going to do so well.

I wouldn't say remove them, but I think they need a change. The thing that sets the drops apart is that they're constantly attacking... There's no "charge up" as such, they just have a long period of time where if you touch them you take damage. Same as the scarabs, but scarabs fly in a straight line, so you can dodge them. In a confined space it's pretty damn difficult to dodge blobs, for idiots like me at least.

If they only moved in a straight line or their turning speed was reduced dramatically, I can see things being quite a lot less annoying.

TL:DR weapons you need are too specific, confined spaces are difficult, nerf heat-seeking turn speed or make them straight line attackers.

Sorry if this annoys someone (It probably will)

I duno.. not gona brag, but it's doable with a variety of items. Just takes practice and a lot of patience - best to stay alive
Just some simple weapon combos:

Graviton + triglav charges (already mentioned)
Switch shooting status alchemers
Leviathan blade charge
Sentenza, random alchemer, toothpick - basically run this loadout all of clockworks
Nitronome with ctr max - this thing is just TOO good.
Brandish charges
Other status bombs
DA/GF and Valiance

I agree that the venom striker is probably the worst option here, just place a bomb before you agro the enemy, make them walk into it, and double swing if you don't have enough CTR

Just tryin to throw some ideas your way

Dark Retribution

Why shouldn't they use graviton or electron? Both are fantastic against minis.

You need to use it before you're swarmed. With enough experience, you know where enemies will spawn so you prepare bombs and drop them when the enemies spawn and follow up with a Troika or something. Since the minis have little health, the explosion of the bomb should kill them if your combo does not.

At giving us something we cannot breeze through, as response to "it's too easy" remarks, hiss. I think.

It seems petty to ask them to make the only challenging content we have outside of ultimate vana easier, when the rest of the game is a cakewalk.

My reaction was this:
....

Compounds.

They should be the ones getting to you.

(Or wait, maybe I'm being stupid.)

:P

Chaotic Haze.

The issue here isn't the minis, its that the level has literally only 4 treasure boxes, and is far harder than a 4 box level. The bottom line is that a standard clockwork tunnels level has 10 boxes on it in two treasure spots AND a chance at a danger room, an additional 10 boxes if you pay and why wouldn't you?

I say buff the pay- it is objectively harder than clockwork tunnels, so why not add an additional 6-8 boxes at the end?

Replace those dropped crowns at the end with prize boxes. Bam, no issues here.

Then 80% of the boxes are vials.

Naw..

I generally leave the clockworks when compounds come up. They are just too annoying to play through. If you bring the wrong weapons, whihc for me it happens a lot, you will not have fun. If the beginning of the level showed what was coming up, it would be soooo much better. The worst for me are those annoying little glop drops... I hates them! There is NO WAY to shield against them! They just spike me. every. single. time. aaaahhhh!

glop-drops, glop-drops, I hates them, precious! Nasty, wicked compoundses!

The color on the gate tells you what's inside the compounds, and the name of the level tells you what minis you'll be up against.

For example: Blighted Colony, Creeping Colony (and the color of the positive space on the icon being orange) means you will be in a poison compound with slime minis, and gremlins inside the structures. Here is the wiki page for compounds.

The levels themselves are different, and you can't run in with your sword and expect to escape without a scratch - those buggers bite! I would recommend a bomb for compound levels.

@Annilaton: Must. spam. Polaris.

@Fangel
Wow, I looked for that a while ago, is that page newish? It's certainly very helpful, but who wants to go to that page before every single floor? I'm certainly not going to memorize it...

This game requires like 30 print-outs sitting on your desk at all times... but who does that? I feel nerdy enough just having the enemy damage and vulnerability sheet on my desk. If we have to spend 5 minutes preparing ourselves for the next level, when will we have time to actually play?