This is a thread aimed at not sidetracking someone elses thread with our off topic ranting about how compounds is easy/hard.

Start of discussion: http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/106074#comment-959681

Anyone can follow along if they really want to.
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Brandishes get ruined by gravestones, bombs have no good elemental choice, and bullets get lost in the masses of zombies.

People need to get over the fact that there can and should be parts of the game that aren't solved by the acheron+combuster combo, especially when their situation can easily be solved with a third brandish that does effect phantoms, glacius. These are already exceptionally useful weapons that ramp up in damage very quickly due to the nature of split damage, and there is really no reason for them to bypass the gravestones and become even stronger. Honestly, and especially because of the fact that you can just aim your brandish charges down the isle of graves as opposed to having it do nothing, I don't think that it's such a problem.

Bombers have one very good resource in the haze bombs in this situation- neutral status enemies that are weak to fire and shock litter the floor, and phantoms are weak to the freeze and stun statuses, while zombies are immune to neither. Since every good bomber by this point in the game probably has access to at least the 4* shivermist buster in their quest to conquer FSC, a support loadout consisting of nothing but 2-4 of the appropriate haze bombs would easily allow players to deal with most numbers of phantoms while still hitting the zombies for good damage. Dark briar barrage and the other blast bombs are good resources for bombers that want to deal tangible damage. The deadly crystal bomb WOULD BE incredibly useful as well, if it could hit enemies without doing nothing after the first couple of hits.

I'm not certain why bullets getting lost in the zombies is a bad thing however. Typically, I want my bullets to get lost in the zombies. If I'm trying to get hits in on the phantom, there is nothing stopping me from either clearing the zombies out first or backing up slightly to take on all of the zombies.

why not put it in certain missions?

Because then it becomes like all of the other mission exclusive content- something that I only see whenever I decide to go there. When do I decide to go there? I don't because I don't get anything worthwhile from it that I wouldn't get more of elsewhere. I'd never voluntarily go to a graveyard level in a mission either, unless it was for some sort of event-- that's because you're not supposed to want to go to graveyards. They're intended to be poor levels to balance out treasure vaults.

something that empties your party when you get there

I mean, people can do whatever they want, but if they ditch out on compounds they're not going to get to go on in the run. They're effectively throwing so that they can join to some place else... but what if there was a guaranteed arena after the compounds or graveyard? What if there was one at D28 that they were going to? That's the motivation for going on. Of course, compounds is NOT a level designed to make people feel bad, and should give them boxes or have a danger room chance or do something useful because right now it's a relatively unpleasant level with no real payout.

remove their curse status

Curse is seriously the joke status of Spiral Knights, and the only reason people think otherwise is because the game puts it out there as some world shattering effect that means instant death to anyone that comes within a 5 mile radius of it.. but it just isn't the case.

The curse status can be dodged easily by anyone with resistance. How much resistance? 5 points of resistance, or no points of resistance and a third weapon slot. If you know, and the player always knows, that curse is going to be a problem, then you can plan ahead and get out of being cursed for too long.

By this point in the game, I would expect the player to have enough 4* armor to resist all of the things they need to resist, and a large number of weapons to boot. Say, 3-4 sets of 4* armor and 5-6 4* weapons. If people are unwilling to craft and use these things, despite being forcefully handed crafting materials and told that they should craft more than one set, then that's on them. There's not much more we can do for them.

Finally, even if they don't have the ability to get +5 curse resistance or a weapon slot, they can wait. For 43 seconds, they can goof off with their one free vial slot. That's all they have to do. Run around and mess with fire pots and vials, distract stuff for their team.