I mean come on, who doesn't hate Graveyards? They are challenging,yes, but that is the only good thing I have to say about them. First of all there's the poison thorns. Why do the zombies always go there? And by the time you take out your gun or whatever, another one attacks you. At least there's no spikes,ugh. Then even worse are the phantoms. If I had 1 CE for everytime I should have killed one, I'd have at least 5000 by now. And to make it worse, it takes FOREVER to just stop them!! And they tell you to find the gate before the spirits come up to kill you, and every time someone passes a grave, a zombie comes up. Then you have the fact that the elevator takes forever to find most of the time. After endless fighting and running, you figure you should be at the elevator, and what do you see? Another group of graves. Just GREAT! Well those were some of my reasons. Tell me what you think.
Do you hate Graveyards too?
Just earlier today, me, my sisters, and a friend of mine were in a T2 Graveyard, everything went well for the first few minutes, but then the Phantoms kept respawning and railing on us, me and one of my sisters got killed, so i told my Friend and my other sister to find the lift as fast as possible, me and my sister who died were revived, so i ran straight for the lift, and when I got there I shielded and waited, after killing a few more zombies, the rest of the party got to the lift, and we left with fear in our hearts.
One of the few times I've actually been scared by a Video Game O_O .
So yeah, i hate graveyards.
Graveyards are a joke solo, even in tier 3 a phantom will go down in around 7 or 8 hits of a level 10 faust (which they obviously resist), and they can prove quite lucrative. In groups they begin to get more and more difficult. Not only does the number phantoms match the number of people in the level, but as with all mobs they all have their hp increased accordingly and you can easily find yourself in a situation where you are constantly dealing with a phantom, or find yourself against 3 phantoms that all decided you made a good target. So overall graveyards seem like more of a punishment if you are in a group, but if you go in with weapons that are super effective against undead you'll still probably be all right.
Only time I had real problems was when I was in a group of 3 in tier 3 and two of us were using fausts as our primary damage.
I am not a huge fan of them either, but there is no point in crying about it because half of the community doesn't mind them and that is too many to persuade change. The best way to handle these in my opinion is to just sprint through, everyone split up and run different directions looking for the elevator, when the icon pops up on the map everyone navigates their way to it, if they die then oh well not like sprinting through will net you very much heat as is so it's an acceptable loss.
They're not hard, they're just incredibly boring and repetitive. That's the worst thing about them. You have two monster types in the whole thing and one of them revives. It's just so monotonous... there have been times where I see it's graveyard and just go back to town and lose the 10 ce because I don't feel like wasting the next 15-20 minutes hacking away at zombies.
I enjoy graveyards, they are lucrative, and challenging. Mildly soul crushing in T3, but I more than appreciate the existence of hard challenges in the game. If it was all easy I'd quit playing out of sheer boredom.
The problem with graveyards isn't that they are hard, it's that it's easier to fight wraiths solo rather having someone help. I can easily take 4 wraiths on at the same time alone(in t2 anyway), while the others go clear the place, then the wraithkiller will catch up. The trick is NOT to run around with your head cut off, the trick is to have a plan. Decide who does what, and who will hold the wraiths (they are very easy to pull off other people, in comparison with other creatures.) Fight quickly, but efficiently, always having a fallback area, and don't panic when the wraiths come again. Also have sounds on for you will KNOW when the wraiths have just came back from the dead, and can plan accordingly.
I like soloing graveyards, but random group joiners tend to ruin them. I lock my party as soon as I get a GY floor.
Graveyards are the main reason I just crafted a Cold Iron Carver. I don't care about a few points of damage I lose against other mobs, I just want to kill me some phantoms! ;)
Graveyards are the main reason I just crafted a Cold Iron Carver. I don't care about a few points of damage I lose against other mobs, I just want to kill me some phantoms! ;)
Best weapon, by way of the way the combo works, to fight Phantoms is the Flourish series, not the Calibur series. Flourishes keep them out of counterattack reach while keeping you in combo reach. I've tried every style of weapon against Phantoms, and none were as easy to use(and easy to avoid getting hit with) as the Flourish line.
Just a suggestion if you have trouble with them still!
Graveyards vary for me. Some of them I don't mind, but then there's the ones that seem made to profoundly waste your time for little reward. Yes, every graveyard seems to reward good tokens, and that's great, but I swear i had a T3 graveyard that had me running down long, barricaded paths to find 4 tiny little heat bubbles. This wasn't just a one time thing either, it was the theme of the level. I know most Graveyards tend to be geared towards stalling you long enough for the phantoms to catch up (which, I'll agree with others, are more difficult the more people in your party). While I've never struggled too much with a Graveyard level, they are a notch above the other levels. The difficulty is welcoming, but the constant time-wasting strategies involved therein are sometimes more aggravating than fun.
In short: I'm all on board for difficult levels, but make sure the levels reward you adequately, and try not to design them around trying to waste players time.
If you don't have shadow defense phantoms can seriously punish you. There's some really good advice in this thread though. If your party communicates well enough, making one person stay behind as the wraith-killer / phantom-sitter (a la ZeekSFire) might be a very good idea. This of course makes the level that much more monotonous for everyone, but monotony often leads to safety in Spiral Knights (see guns vs swords).
Haven't tried out the Flourish yet. Am curious now though, it sounds good.
Freezing the phantoms really works miracles. They seem very vulnerable to it (and completely immune to fire). After freezing them you can go behind them and unleash the heaviest combo you have on them. Especially if you've first allowed them to do their charge attack, they'll idle a bit and won't retaliate you.
If freezing is not an option, then make sure to go (back!) into an area where you have more room to fight. Run around till they unleash their charge attack (and dodge it!) then all out attack while they hold off. Rinse repeat.
All I wish was that phantoms would drop some loot, at least the first time you defeat them. They're much tougher enemies than zombies. Currently defeating them only to have them come back to haunt you feels very anti-climactic.
Not particularly.I mean,only when the party has no idea how to handle graveyards.I was in a party with someone else like half an hour ago and we did just fine.I was also in a party with 2 other guys like 5 minutes ago and we got decimated.It was probably mostly the phantoms though.
Meh, my fav is grabyards. chalenging, and loads of loot. would like a phew changes, but what the hell, they got pretty close on a first try :)
I love graveyards as long as they don't go on for too long. I try to avoid them when there is a party of 4 though.
If I'm soloing, graveyards are pretty easy (any tier) with an elemental gun to kite with. I like the cryotech line, b/c you can freeze one or more enemies and focus on the others. Plus the bouncing shots are fun.
If I'm in a party of 3 or more on tier 3, graveyards are fun for a completely different reason. Because we just bolt for the elevator and it's an exciting and different experience from any other parts of the game. There are close calls, abandoning dead bodies ("sorry bro, you or me"), and screaming at teammates to get to the %#$@ing elevator.
Also, really decent drops/tokens.
Get a Prismatech/Cyrotech/Firotech/Voltech Alchemer(Cryo or Prismatech are the best) and learn how to kite. I've managed to kite three T2 phantoms without getting hit once. Just keep them busy while the rest of the group kills everything else first. :)
only when the party has no idea how to handle graveyards.
Too bad this happens more often than not.
Graveyards are my favorite level ever. When you get one and your party isn't good, just immediately Go Solo and collect your 600-1,000 crowns from beating up all the zombies. Carry a sword from the cold iron set for extra fun.
Soloing the graveyards is not too bad. I did a t3 one last night. Just move slowly and try not to wake up too many zombies at once. Just make sure when the red zombie comes out to move to an area where you can run around and avoid his charge atk. Got a few reaper rib drops :) I think its guarantee you get at least 3 grim sparks. It's too bad I can't find a place with forge sparks :(
I love graveyards - I go in with an Avenger (previously a Khorvod) and solo T2's np. Great place for heat + cash - just wish the treasure gates were worth it.
Actually I like graveyards (I used to feared them for a while though). I've just soloed my first T3 Graveyard with Volt Driver and no shadow defense so it can't be that bad.
Some useful tips for tomb raiders that I've posted in another thread recently.
Graveyards aren't as interesting as the strata where you have to move grim totems so they don't revive zombies. Grim totems require the party to actually work together.
I've seen a graveyard that had totems in it. It was pretty hectic
Actually, I jump for joy when I get Graveyards and sigh in disappointment when I get Vaults. I can waltz through them unharmed (provided I don't make a stupid mistake) and rack up crowns and heat, easily 1k of the latter and enough of the former to level a few items. I don't use Shadow defense armors either, because the key is not to get hit at all. The zombies's attacks are slow enough to be timed (with the Avenger or similar knockback sword you don't even need to block, simply hit them once and they'll be pushed out of range) and against Phantoms one should employ hit-and-run tactics, getting in a few strikes and then running around the area you fight it in. Make sure to get well out of attack range for the charge attack and stay behind a gravestone or something similar so the projectiles don't hit you.
Graveyards are only challenging in a group because Phantoms scale in number (which is a little silly). Solo, assuming you're competent, they're just fine. It'd be more reasonable if there were 1 phantom for every 2 members of the group (rounded up).
i haven't done a T3 graveyard, but graveyards in Tiers one and two have rarely even proven to be challenging, let alone difficult. The handful of times they were difficult it was because there were several people and, thus, several phantoms. Zombies are basically harmless, so you just have to watch for the phantoms and deal with them when they show up before going back to the admittedly repetitive process of turning zombies into loot.
T1 and T2 graveyards are fun for me. And profitable. But yea, as others have said already, it might be a better idea to solo than have a full party. Also, while this might sound foolish, I advice you to take your time, even if you're alone, even if you really just want to get out.
Yes the phantoms are a nuisance, but planning how many graves to upturn/when to upturn, especially when you're not ready/not expecting it, and you'll find yourself dead sooner than the red ball waltzing back at you.
That said though, I hate T3 graveyards....because the phantoms are tony hawks riding mecha gliding sharks with purple lasers.
the things that piss me off about graveyards is if you start with 4 people and they all bail on you, you still have 4 phantoms...
Volt/Hail Driver > Graveyard
With 3-4 it gets pretty tricky to fight all the phantoms, especially when some of your group members are terrible. Other than that, its one of the most CE -> crowns/heat efficient floors in the game. Love 'em.
Graveyards are pretty fun, if you know what your doing. But If you leave 15 of those purple ghosts to chase you in tier 3. YOUR DOOMED!
"Just move slowly and try not to wake up too many zombies at once. " -Aznguy82x
:D
First thing I do is disturb all the graves. Bombs ftw!
The trick to not getting hit after planting a bomb near zombies is to hold off priming a new one until you're out of swiping range. Then you're fine. They're so slow you can run circles around them while it charges.
Thanks everyone, for all the great tips and stuff I never really noticed before. I'm only tier 1, going on to tier 2, after all. You've given me a new strategy for graveyards, and you've changed my perspective of them. I still hate them though. Thanks anyway. Now, if only my frost gun could go tier 2 for me.
Get a Shivermist. It solves all the worlds' problems and cures cancer.
Only when there's 3-4 players because then there's 3-4 Phantoms and then you have to waste time killing non-loot dropping mobs instead of Zombies and then you realise that the non-loot dropping mobs counter the good loot dropping mobs.