Spiral Knights - Well that was...underwhelming?

Well that was...underwhelming?

10 replies [Last post]

Thu, 03/22/2012 - 02:03

Tunher

So I've been playing Spiral Knights for about 80 hours, quite heavily at first then a big gap and now I'm back into it since I'm playing with a friend. He just got 3-star certified and I just got 4-star certified (although I wasn't using all the 4-star stuff for this run), and we just played through to the Core. It was...underwhelming. For some reason I had built up tier 3 in my mind as super insanely challenging, but it...wasn't. Granted we didn't use a gate that had Firestorm Citadel in it, but yeah.

My general gear: Ascended Calibur, Mighty Defender, Ash Tail Cap, Dusker Coat
His gear: Striker, the 3-star fire alchemer gun (which he used almost exclusively to varying effect), Skelly helm/suit, 3-star Owlite shield

I mean sure a hit from a Lumber would take 80% of our health bar, but between hearts and caps and not getting hit we managed okay. I can only imagine how easy it'll be when I finish my conversion to proper gear (aka Barbarous Thorn Shield instead of Mighty Defender [my mistake!], shadow/piercing/elemental swords, etc.).

Do most people play Shadow Lairs and find those really hard? As it stands I don't see a huge push to make 5-star gear since I thought the lower depths would be impossible without it. I guess the final fight in an Arena could be brutal, and like I said maybe Firestorm Citadel is the tough stuff. But in general I'm just a bit let down as I thought I'd be sitting on the edge of my seat barely surviving instead of actually making it to the bottom.

Oh well, still a fun game.

Thu, 03/22/2012 - 02:11

Aureate

Processing Thoughts of You Always

The Shadow Lairs are harder than anything else you'd find in t3. By the sounds of it, you managed to avoid most of the difficult parts of t3, but even so, it's possible for a reasonably skilled 4* (or 3*, in some cases) player to complete FSC without too much trouble or CE revives (although Vanaduke is quite difficult to fight).

Thu, 03/22/2012 - 02:35

Damienfoxy

Also, the more people in your

Also, the more people in your party, the harder it is.

Thu, 03/22/2012 - 06:55

Tom-Awsm

wat

Nvm

Thu, 03/22/2012 - 06:59

Trying

He probably went through a

He probably went through a beast stratum.

Thu, 03/22/2012 - 07:20

Demonicsothe

And kind of decent gunner can

And kind of decent gunner can avoid damage.

Anyone holding a calibur line has a failsave called a charge.

I'm not exactly sure what is hard if you have general dodging skills and those weapons.

Thu, 03/22/2012 - 07:23

Nordlead

go play a fiend or shock

go play a fiend or shock stratum with that gear. If you can come back and post the same thing then you are an uber gamer and you should go play something else since this game will give you no challenge.

Back before the big nerf, you used to fear for your life whenever you saw a retrode, alpha wolver, or zombies. Now, (since they don't track people) it is MUCH easier to dodge attacks by them.

Retrodes laser attack (or whatever you want to call it) is now essentially useless since you have WAY to much time to step out of the way, unless there are a large group of them in a confined area. When the time between tell and explosions were shorter the game was much harder.

If you want hard now, go play a fiend stratum. Even gremlins can be pretty deadly in the decon zones if they swarm you.

Thu, 03/22/2012 - 08:45

Tunher

Didn't mean to come off as a punk

Whoops, I didn't meant to come off saying "Oh man I'm so prostar, check me out!", it was more just surprise at the fact that I could survive at all. There was indeed only a mix of gremlins, wolvers, and a few jellies. I'm sure fiends will be tougher, as they were in tier 2. That and Firestorm Citadel, perhaps with a full group instead of just 2-man.

And yeah I never bothered with the Calibur charge might before, but it sure helped for mass gremlins.

Also Shadow Lairs still end up basically requiring real world money to get into, right? I mean I guess I could amass all that energy, but the general trend is to just buy CE and get them?

Anyways now to split my gear and get more modern/popular swords, and keep on plugging away.

Thu, 03/22/2012 - 09:14

Ubernerd

@Tunher

Shadow Lairs don't even require you to get a key if you can find someone who already has one and split the cost among the party (that's what most people seem to do anyway). Sometimes if you're lucky you'll find a really generous person who'll just let you tag along without even paying. Although, I don't know of many people who would do the Rabid Snarbolaxes with someone who didn't have full 5*.

Thu, 03/22/2012 - 10:50

Nordlead

There are definitely some

There are definitely some areas of the clockworks that are a lot easier than others. FSC isn't incredibly hard, but it does have its hard spots.

You only need 450CE for a shadow key (split 4 ways) and they have gone on sale before, so it could be even cheaper. You can easily earn 450CE within a single week, so shadow lairs aren't something you'll run daily, but they are easily accessible. I would only take a person with less than full 5* if I knew they played really well and they were really good friends. Ultimately, any time you use CE you are spending someone's $. So, technically no matter what the shadow lairs are pay to play. The question is if it comes out of your pocket or someone else.

Let's just say that I think I'm pretty decent at the game and we did the Ice Queen lair and it was WAY harder than I thought it would be. I think we used 6 energy revives among the 4 party members and we had a tiny bit of help from a GM. Without the GM's help we probably would have hit another energy revive or 2.

Other areas you can find harder difficulty is danger rooms which are randomly located on regular clockwork tunnels. I never shy away from a danger room, but I know plenty of 5* people that will walk right by. Some are easier than others, but there are a few danger rooms that can be a real pain.

Thu, 03/22/2012 - 11:03

#10

Sillty

Wait, do GMs really help you

Wait, do GMs really help you if an area is too difficult? Didn't know!

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Well that was...underwhelming?