It's Winterfest! My first ever Winterfest. Never been online around december during previous years, so i never got to experience this.
It's a festive event which seems to be much bigger than the rest. It offers supply depot energy boxes with furniture, it has reskins, it has scarfs, snowflake eyes, a box full of frosty costumes, a box full of unusual frosty accessories, and even a box full of sweaters and onesies. That's great. Has variety, has cool interesting stuff, it's winter themed, awesome.
But why must it be so grindy? And frustrating?
I'm asking why, to understand. Not just pure whining, because at the end of the day, i know nothing will change, and at the end of the day, i'll still try to grind as much as i can to get the few things i really want from this event.
Having so many things offered is amazing, but at the same time, makes it hard on the players. Because some items are earned one way, while others are earned a different way. Besides that, to get any of the really cool items, you need to spend a lot of time.
But because there are multiple grinding paths, each earning you something different, your time will be split among them. Which sucks. It severely increases the amount you need to grind. I feel i'm sort of repeating, and i apologize for that. Was never the best with words.
Between reskins, scarfs and winterfest box (the one that gives onesies or sweaters), no matter how much time you put in to grind for one of them, you wouldn't have made any progress towards another.
But if let's say all could be earned with a single kind of token, if mid way you change your mind, your time wouldn't have been wasted. You made progress for whichever one you decide to go for.
Not saying the single token would be the right way, not at all. It was just an example.
Last but not least: it's the christmas season. People sort of have a lot of other things to do than just sit at a computer to grind in a game. They spend time with family, go out and have fun, shop for gifts, go to skate, etc. Wouldn't it be better to optimize such an event so they don't have to invest so much time in it? Not saying it should be effortless or something.
Now for the second part: Why must it be so frustrating?
It's supposed to be festive, it's supposed to be fun and enjoyable. Instead, it's also frustrating. Sure, going out with your friends and helping each other make progress in this event is a ton of fun. But the grinchlin assault mission is not much fun. It's very hard. Yes, with a full, coordinated team, it's easier and you feel so much better when you get to finish it. But 1) how many people actually have 3 other players to make a coordinated team with? 2) Yes, you've succeeded in the mission, but because it's so grindy, you have to go through it like 50 more times. (you need 200 lump of coal for every reskin)
And then there's the gift delivery mission. From what i understood, the course changes each day or so. Some days it's easier, some days it's harder.
Right now (or perhaps i should say yesterday) it's/was pretty hard. Greavers, devilites, slowing snow and freeze status in a race against time are not very enjoyable. In a game where your character's movement makes a huge difference, having slowing effects in the environment, among with freeze status which stops you altogether, not to mention the gifts which also slow you down, makes things frustrating. You end up not being able to control your character the way you'd want to.
It shouldn't be like that! The course should be challenging, but at the same time, enjoyable for the player to experience and overcome. These slowing mechanics are not enjoyable. At least not to me.
Plus you're not done after doing the mission once, or twice, or ten times. It's just as grindy as the grinchlin assault. Good thing you get progress towards all 4 colored tokens. It would have been a nightmare to get only one of them.
Welp, that's all i wanted to say. Blew some steam and i also mixed in some feedback. Let me know what you think about all of this.
Winterfest itself is pretty nice. We have a multitude of events to go after if one doesn't work for you. Having so many options means you can work towards something every winterfest instead of being lost next time it comes around.
The fact that you can get all the Save Winterfest mission rewards by collecting krogmo coins year round also helps diminish the need to grind during winterfest. However, the introduction of the blue winter wish has made farming times via that mission take nearly twice as long. It used to take about 8 hours of concentrated grinding of Save Winterfest to get a scarf of a specific type, and now it takes closer to 17 hours. 8 hours over the course of two weeks isn't too bad - 17 is really pushing it.
Save Winterfest itself is a bit like Apocrea - if you try to go as fast as possible, you'll get quickly swarmed by enemies and find yourself knocked down. The reason Save Winterfest becomes difficult is because people ignore the monsters, and thus can't push past them later into the mission. Try taking down a greaver/devilite or two on your way back to the presents.
The clockwork rooms are one of the better parts of the event. You can either cash out early on a frosty present (which only takes finding ~5 rooms in tier 3) or save up for the winterfest present (about 35 rooms in tier 3). You can easily get a winterfest present in a single day if the arcade gates are nice to you, and you could likely get several if you enjoy doing that.
Grinchlin Assault is made to be brutal, however if you aren't after the solstice rings then it isn't too hard to get the materials alone. Simply do the first floor's levels and take the rewards that you're most comfortable with. If you can't get past a specific room, you can still farm the materials by getting the loot from the prior rooms.
With a good team (and/or strategy - I've managed this solo with appropriate weapons, trinkets, and setup) Grinchlin Assault turns into a rather difficult but fun to run danger mission. Keep in mind, it is a danger mission, and as such, should be viewed similarly to Ghosts in the Machine, Compound 42, etc. Those missions are trivial with the right loadout, and Grinchlin Assault is no different.
It's a grindfest if you have very little amounts of time and want to do everything. Try to focus on the limited time stuff first (wishlists), and if you find a group of people to run Grinchlin with then go for that.