Village of Shadows differences?

[Stargazer14096]

I'm just about to start my run on Village of Shadows difficulty. How drastically does it shake up stuff from Standard/Hardcore? Are there different item/enemy placements, and if so, how significant are they?

Edited May 12, 2021 by MDSP777

[MarcusPunisher]

I just started Village of Shadows myself and I got all the way to the castle. Nothing drastically different so far, except placing some armor lycans in the first wave where you have to survive and others in the castle.

I say it's pretty forgiving, cause the checkpoint system is still on in certain sections and you have unlimited amount of saves you can use. The best way is to have a grenade launcher as it will stagger enemy, but you have to be careful, as it usually takes 3 hits to take down a regular lycan. Fully upgrade your S.T.A.K.E magnum weapon and it should be easier. So far, I've died only once during the first lady Dimitrescu chase sequence, cause they put some regular enemies into it and you have no way of defending yourself in that section. 

[NathanielJohn]

I don’t think any item placements are different, but there are more enemies and they have an absolutely absurd amount of health. I absolutely hate some of the new enemy placements (e.g., the enemies in the Dimitrescu chase or the first daughter kitchen boss room that has no room to maneuver).

[JalXander]

The enemies also do an insane amount of damage. One hit from pretty much any enemy puts you in a critical state, and the second one is a guaranteed death. Some boss attacks pretty much one shot you - e.g. during the Dimetrescu final fight, I died in one attack when she lunged at me. I was at full health and played on NG+, so I had full health upgrades from the Duke.

[Stargazer14096]

Thanks for the responses. Just got VoS out of the way, and then the plat shortly after. Personally I found the Sturm fight to be the hardest part lol but I managed after a few tries

[JinjonatorX]

On 5/12/2021 at 11:24 PM, JalXander said:

The enemies also do an insane amount of damage. One hit from pretty much any enemy puts you in a critical state, and the second one is a guaranteed death. Some boss attacks pretty much one shot you - e.g. during the Dimetrescu final fight, I died in one attack when she lunged at me. I was at full health and played on NG+, so I had full health upgrades from the Duke.

I found that hiding away in one of those little towers left her entirely unable to hit me. Big help. 

[proud2bNs]

55 minutes ago, JinjonatorX said:

I found that hiding away in one of those little towers left her entirely unable to hit me. Big help. 

But you can't use that strategy the entire time. If you hide in the towers while she's on the ground, she'll destroy the towers one by one until none is left. Hiding in the towers while she's in the air and commands her insects to chase you is fine though. I just ran backwards in circles around the main tower and shot her whenever i got a chance.

 

You can check out the PowerPyx VoS speedrun video on YT for some nice tricks in situations where you struggle. The hardest part for me was the Chris section towards the end of the game until i saw the ladder trick in the aforementioned video :=)

Edited May 14, 2021 by proud2bNs

[JinjonatorX]

1 hour ago, proud2bNs said:

But you can't use that strategy the entire time. If you hide in the towers while she's on the ground, she'll destroy the towers one by one until none is left. Hiding in the towers while she's in the air and commands her insects to chase you is fine though. I just ran backwards in circles around the main tower and shot her whenever i got a chance.

 

You can check out the PowerPyx VoS speedrun video on YT for some nice tricks in situations where you struggle. The hardest part for me was the Chris section towards the end of the game until i saw the ladder trick in the aforementioned video :=)

Ah. I must've gotten lucky then. I did it in VoS and she never came in. 

 

Definitely dreading the Chris section though. 

[Cloudbahamut]

enemies are extremely fast and aggressive and some sections have more enemies and several of the harder enemies show up much sooner or in places where they don't show up on the other difficulties.

Also some encounters with Dimitrescu and Sturm have several zombie enemies added to it, making it significantly harder if you have to run away from them.

I felt that as soon as I reached the Factory the difficulty spikes enormously. the Sturm bossfight was an absolute nightmare because he takes FOREVER to take down and you die pretty much in 2 hits and he has a chance of gutting you if you block his charge attack and end up on the floor. Took me like 30 tries to take him down.

However it turns out Heisenberg is far worse. I tried like 100 times and I just can't survive the first phase because you die in 3 hits, he constantly seems to charge you and you can not heal even once. I never made it past that and to be honest I actually gave up.

[iliya0212]

On 5/14/2021 at 11:54 AM, JinjonatorX said:

Ah. I must've gotten lucky then. I did it in VoS and she never came in. 

 

Definitely dreading the Chris section though. 

 

Chris's section is the hardest in the entire game but it's still doable. Use ladder trick, shoot laser and get on the roof of the house with a red chimney, after lycans get on the roof back down to the ladder again, so they leave and circle around and climb back to the roof to use the laser. Just do that 3 times. Works like a charm  

Edited May 15, 2021 by iliya0212

[Dr_Rwede]

4 hours ago, iliya0212 said:

 

Chris's section is the hardest in the entire game but it's still doable. Use ladder trick, shoot laser and get on the roof of the house with a red chimney, after lycans get on the roof back down to the ladder again, so they leave and circle around and climb back to the roof to use the laser. Just do that 3 times. Works like a charm  

You have to get to that section first, which I can't so far. The lycans seem to be endless and they are a complete chore to kill, not to mention even trying to reach the checkpoint where Chris targets the first time... What did Capcom had in mind when they designed this passage ? Seriously, it's even worse than the Heisenberg fight.

EDIT : Managed to beat it -and the Urias fight after- after my 4th attempt. I literally ran for my life to get to the artillery checkpoint. This part is completely stupid. The characters move soooo sloooooooow it's a miracle they don't get hit more often... Jesus.

NG VoS is impossible, or so it would seem. I don't see anyone in their right mind even trying.

Edited May 15, 2021 by Dr_Rwede
Made it. Worst. Part. Ever.

[BestUsername----]

5 hours ago, iliya0212 said:

 

Chris's section is the hardest in the entire game but it's still doable. Use ladder trick, shoot laser and get on the roof of the house with a red chimney, after lycans get on the roof back down to the ladder again, so they leave and circle around and climb back to the roof to use the laser. Just do that 3 times. Works like a charm  

I would like to counter that and say that the Heisenberg section is definitely the hardest. It’s pure RNG on when he wants to charge you and if you’re canon is in cooldown it’s a free hit. Not to mention he charges twice at the beginning, giving you only a 2 hits to work with. He’s also faster than you, even when you’re not shooting he can close the space quickly. 
 

Chris’s section didn’t give me much trouble as I saved up my grenades to make light work of the triple big Lycan enemies during the laser fight (it takes about 3 so bundle them up) and kitting the small enemies wasn’t difficult either. During the boss fight if you crouch by his feet and to the side a little bit, he literally cannot hit you. All his swings miss. 

Edited May 15, 2021 by BestUsername----

[DividedByMankind]

On 14.5.2021 at 8:33 AM, MDSP777 said:

Thanks for the responses. Just got VoS out of the way, and then the plat shortly after. Personally I found the Sturm fight to be the hardest part lol but I managed after a few tries

Why? Flash him first(he gets dissoriented) then magnum his ass?? killed him first try.

Edited May 15, 2021 by DividedByMankind

[iliya0212]

3 hours ago, BestUsername---- said:

I would like to counter that and say that the Heisenberg section is definitely the hardest. It’s pure RNG on when he wants to charge you and if you’re canon is in cooldown it’s a free hit. Not to mention he charges twice at the beginning, giving you only a 2 hits to work with. He’s also faster than you, even when you’re not shooting he can close the space quickly. 
 

Chris’s section didn’t give me much trouble as I saved up my grenades to make light work of the triple big Lycan enemies during the laser fight (it takes about 3 so bundle them up) and kitting the small enemies wasn’t difficult either. During the boss fight if you crouch by his feet and to the side a little bit, he literally cannot hit you. All his swings miss. 

 

I mean, to each their own, but I honestly struggled with Chris's section more. I agree with the RNG on the Heisenberg part but at least there I knew what I had to do, on Chris's section before starting to do the ladder trick I was just dying constantly and couldn't do anything about it.

[Stargazer14096]

On 5/16/2021 at 5:29 AM, DividedByMankind said:

Why? Flash him first(he gets dissoriented) then magnum his ass killed him first try.

 

Lmao good point. Never occurred to me to use flash grenades ? oh well, managed to get him with just the Magnum anyway, so all good

[DivineAlice]

Nothing is too bad if you have all food from previous save you'll be fine with infinite ammo I found Chris's part easier than some of heseinberbs attacks with no healing even with blocking tbh