help with understanding combat

[Eagles_Numba_One]

I played HZD and enjoyed it, but in this game the enemies feel so much more tanky, bullet spongey, and so much more aggressive. It also feels like aloy doesnt do any damage to enemies. I have got upgraded weapons and armor, i know about hitting weak points and tearing off components. Human enemies kill me in one to two shots and the only way to hurt them is with perfect headshots, and machines are so fast and i cant even take time to shoot because im constantly dodging. Is there anything i can do to make the combat more enjoyable because right now it feels overly difficult even just on normal.  

[Akrioz]

19 minutes ago, Eagles_Numba_One said:

Is there anything i can do to make the combat more enjoyable because right now it feels overly difficult even just on normal.  

I am in the same boat as you. The only solution I can offer is to lower difficulty. That still doesn't make the game pleasant because Aloy still constantly tumbles and falls down at every opportunity. But at the very least the combat encounters get shorted.

[Sikutai]

1 hour ago, Eagles_Numba_One said:

I played HZD and enjoyed it, but in this game the enemies feel so much more tanky, bullet spongey, and so much more aggressive. It also feels like aloy doesnt do any damage to enemies. I have got upgraded weapons and armor, i know about hitting weak points and tearing off components. Human enemies kill me in one to two shots and the only way to hurt them is with perfect headshots, and machines are so fast and i cant even take time to shoot because im constantly dodging. Is there anything i can do to make the combat more enjoyable because right now it feels overly difficult even just on normal.  

 

Lower the difficulty, it's not you, it's the game. I played HZD on normal, but HZD FW on the easiest difficulty. If you lower the difficulty it doesn't mean you are bad. It means you are having fun.

Edited August 17, 2022 by Sikutai

[joho_beast]

I literally just beat this game and got the plat at the same time on Sunday. This game was amazing. I played on normally difficulty and at times I felt like the game was very difficult. Once I got the hang of it though it made the game a blast. Before each combat I would scan the machine and go into the notebook to look at weaknesses and what elemental canisters the enemy had, then I would adjust my weapons accordingly. I would usually start off tear blasting anything that was detachable but then I quickly ran out to echo shells so I had to switch up my strategy. I discovered the advanced hunter arrows did quite a bit of tear damage and only took wood and metal shards so I abused the crap out of those cause I had a ton of those ingredients all the time. Always go for any heavy weapons and grab them cause those do a ton of damage. Abuse concentration cause it lasts a while and refills pretty quickly. If the elemental canisters were easily exposed I would always go for those. If any of them were hidden I would usually ignore them. Then I just start pelting them with whatever they are weak against. For example, if something was weak to plasma, I would always bust out the boltblaster with plasma ammo until the plasma bar was full then switch to explosive spikes or the shredder gauntlets to do as much damage as possible. I never used any warrior bows the entire game as I did not like them. There are tons of different weapons, experiment with all of them and see which ones you like and which ones are effective. Don't be afraid to take a few hits cause by the end of the game I had over 3,000 medicinal berries, so running out of healing items was never a concern for me. Just constantly be picking them up as you run around and you will be fine. Human camps I tried to do mostly stealthy. If not, the shield breaker combo (R1-R1-R2) followed by a charged heavy, followed by a critical strike killed just about everyone. I recommend not lowering the difficulty, as I feel like that takes away from the experience. I hope any part of this incoherent rambling is helpful and that you keep trying because this game is so much fun once you get the hang of it!

[Taliesin_2943]

For the smaller bots use a blast sling, for the bigger bots blast sling or hunter bow , for enemies with built in weapons shoot off their weapon and use it against them they take massive damage from them. Humans just blas sling them or flavored arrows

 

But the whole use bots weapons against them is over kill even on ultra hard if u can get there weapon they just melt like butter in a fire it's rediculous

 

But yeah best weapon is the blast sling not much beats exploding stuff and a good hunter bow for taking off specific parts

Edited August 17, 2022 by Taliesin_2943

[Boorish]

The general way I like to tackle the combat is, freeze the machines (x2 damage) and use a sharpshot bow by fully drawing it back completely (extra damage) and calmly using concentration to hit the weak points. I use double notch and braced shot a lot. I also like to exploit the elemental weaknesses and blow up all canisters there are on any machine. You can also use a high damage hunter bow build if this feels too slow to you. You will be compromising on damage but you can spam arrows faster with the hunter bow. Also upgrading gear and weapons as well as using good modifications by doing side content helps a lot. I can see the weapons and gear in this game being needlessly excessive and complicated. So I would suggest sticking to one sharpshot bow at a time, since the upgrade can be pretty grindy, and buy a new one once a blue one is available and then eventually a purple one.

[coldish-pride5]

Try changing the video / graphic settings, that worked for me, or maybe I just beliieved it did?, try the default settings, you’ve nothing to lose

[zXShermanXz]

This game was definitely harder, but I think it was a change in game mechanics more than anything else. 

 

For instance, elemental weapons were heavily neutered in this game. Fire didnt do jack, even to human enemies and machines that were super weak to it. Adhesive and whatever the purple one was were absolutely useless. I used corrosion quite a bit but not sure how much it actually helped. I would give a little consideration to electricity since it will actually stun an enemy, but I used ice WAY more than anything else. Also, explosions, explosions,  explosions! Absolutely should be your best friend for the whole game, period.

 

To start a fight, especially against big enemies, get the best heavy arrow bow you can and stack stealth buffs to get off a big first shot. After that go to tear arrows and take off all of their main weapons. Freeze them and beat them down with blast slings and the explosive javelins. Then go back to heavy arrows if needed. If you can pick up the weapons you tore off, use them.

 

For human enemies I honestly felt like just going with your spear was the best option. Use the invisibility skill and stealth kill as much as you can. Once you are spotted. Pull back and try to string them out 1 or 2 at a time. Prioritize stealth killing the shield guys because they are the ones that will kill you. 

 

Boost your blast sling with only explosive damage perks. Boost your heavy arrow bow with stealth damage and long shot perks to boost that early hit. Dont worry about weak spots so much because you likely will never be in a position to hit them. At least I never was after the opening shot. 

 

I found this game just took a lot of combat options away from you, and that was what made the first game special. I found tripwires useless. Turning an apex machine to fight for you was more of a chore so I never bothered. Didnt find much use for the bolt blasters (but I did see some promise with them) or the little throwing cutter wheel things. 

 

For survivability dont forget about your health potions when you get in a pinch. Not much you can do about defense as the armor coils are very limited and mostly useless. This version is very much more about cranking out dps so just tune everything you can to that. Kill them before they kill you kind of thing.

 

You are still going to die...a lot. Just get stubborn and convince yourself that it's a game and it can be beaten. Find something that kind of works and you feel kind of good with and build from there when entering a hard fight. Sometimes it's just hit and run tactics until you finally wear them down. 

 

Hope this helps someone out there. It definitely wont hand it to you but I promise its doable. 

 

TL:DR - Ice, explosions, stealth. Still going to die but hopefully a little less.

Edited August 24, 2022 by zXShermanXz

[yoda_squad]

I used weapons with high tear rate coils, and generally stayed either in cover or at some distance. 

 

You can get a few decent Shatpshot bows, and I found one Shatpshot coil that did 100% tear damage. That was pretty magnificent at taking down enemies from distance, and would one shot kill most smaller machines, some medium machines and human enemies.

 

You can also lure enemies close to grass and the silent strike them.

 

And then there's the boltblaster / spike throwers that completely decimate everything you encounter. 

 

Just Max out every rare and rare + weapon with upgrades and wrap them with tear damage coils. I had the Sun Scourge bow with two 15% tear coils, the Cleaving and Glowblast Shatpshot bows with 100% tear damage and 15% tear coils, plus the Glowblast Spikethrower with tear damage.

 

Couple with a high end Hunter bow and Warrior bow and you'll be golden.

 

The only PITA is hunting down the machine parts to upgrade weapons. Particularly the Apex parts like sac webbing etc that you can easilly destroy. Apex fireclaws and Apex Tiderippers were the only machines to take more than a minute to down ?