Have you soloed + 5 skulled all the ...
Just curious how many of you out there have 5 skulled every level on nightmare by yourself.
Not trying to brag or anything. Just genuinely curious.
Finally got Finale tonight after 50ish tries or so. Been stuck on that one since around launch.
The only level I can't get is The Hive. I'm ranked 13th and I still can't do it. Does anyone have any advice, strategies, or videos that could help me out? This one is driving me insane. Solo normal isn't so bad for me, but my strat doesn't work for nightmare.
I love this game to death, but sometimes I wish it was a little more single player friendly like the first game. Some levels I can sleep through and some are so tough I want to cry.
Yes, I've solo'd everything in the game, the only times I got genuinely annoyed are the last 2 levels of the "are we theer yeti?" dlc, because there's no finesse or clever timing in them like every other maps in the game, these are just blunt, stupid, uninteresting "send everything at once from every rifts possible".
The hive gets easy (literally) once you get those 5 items: flame bracers with stun wall, floor scorcher with longer burn, missile launcher, archers & guardian trinket.
Make sure you spend 4000 in credits for archers and place them in the middle platform in a symmetric manner, then place some around the rifts as you rack in some cash they can single handedly remove the entire threat save for a few waves with heavy amount of lightning bat, dedicate a little bit more cash to one side for traps than another and use the flame bracers at the entrances.
You just gotta be careful about stragglers, but if you place a few archers around the rifts (I placed 5 each sides after placing 8 on the middle platform) it gives you some time to react if you hear your archers are going down or they're getting close to the rift.
You can make a more personal setup around those 5 items that go well with them, if goblins give you trouble, spacing the traps and / or taking a cheap trap (spike trap).
Surprisingly, paladins with the guardian trinket also work great in this map, especially when dwarves are helping them, but you can't rely on them to clear a wave, at least, not after the second or third one. (And remember - a goblin's role WILL switch to that of a kobold runner if there are not enough / no traps to sap.)
Really those 2 last levels are simply stupid, it doesn't asks for you to step up your game, it just makes you search for the tools that will hard counter the map.
Not yet, but I'm working on it!
Sorry for not noticing the nightmare 5 skull guide and breaking forum etiquette. :/
Just completed The Hive. Incredible how Arrow Walls made a 1000% difference. I'm not used to using Arrow Walls unless they are facing an incoming line of horde.
All levels are 5 skulled for me now. Just need to 5 skull 4 Endless maps now.
Please tell me there's more DLC coming! I'm still fired up!
I will admit "The Hive" has been giving me some trouble. I know of a few different ways to 5 skull it but was really searching for somethin all my own for my 5 skull video. I may give it a bit more work, I have just been really busy the last few weeks and have not had the time to put into games/videos. That will change soon!
I finished the entire of OMD1 using no more than 3 traps and a weapon per level. Those videos were removed with the release of OMD2 cause I didn't feel liek keeping the crap name I had on youtube.
If anyone's interested I may attempt NM OMD2 using the old 1 wep 3 trap challenge and see how it pans out. Though doing it with the sorc may be an absolute nightmare and swinging mace was a big part of it on most levels ...
Fryedegg, I wanted to thank you personally. Your videos helped me immensely months ago when I played the first game. I was brand new to the game and kept getting stuck. I remember showing my wife your Great Gorge video and telling her how insane your head shots were. “I'll never be as good as this guy!”
Now during OMD2, I'm developing my own strategies and seeing my scores competitive with you and Nananea:
http://i.imgur.com/przm0.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/VRqFJ.jpg
So once again, thank you. Keep doing what you do.
Yes, I've solo'd everything in the game, the only times I got genuinely annoyed are the last 2 levels of the "are we theer yeti?" dlc, because there's no finesse or clever timing in them like every other maps in the game, these are just blunt, stupid, uninteresting "send everything at once from every rifts possible".
Quoted for Truth.
It's so incredibly frustrating that I've stopped playing OMD2 almost completely. Even beating the Yeti levels gives me no satisfaction what-so-ever... just a feeling of wasting my time on something that wasn't properly playtested. And I'm not the only one -- my friends have stopped playing since getting the Yeti expansion for the same reasons and some of my friends won't be buying the DLC at all after hearing about the unreasonable difficulty.
There's a difference between "challenging" and "punishing" and the Yeti NM levels are clearly in the "punishing" category.
It's really a shame that the DLCs are becoming more difficult to appeal to the hardcore OMD2 fans rather than the casual fans that made the game a success. My friends and I definitely prefer campaign levels over Endless, so this is such a disappointment to us.
I love OMD2 tremendously, but frustrating weekly challenges and "ridiculously hard levels that make you hate the game" seems to be the future direction of OMD2; what was once a solo-friendly game has become a game where you practically need to play with a friend to win. For these reasons, my friends and I have decided not to buy any more future DLCs for Orcs Must Die 2. (not kidding).
-The Le
The Le. I realise a game company can't please everyone, but saying you'll never buy another DLC is like saying you'll never go see another football game because your favorite team lost.
Are we there yeti? was clearly a DLC for fans: skins based on prominent community members, guardian trinket, and (yes, it's been requested numerous times on the forums) harder difficulty than nightmare. Now they did not create a whole new super-mega-hellish-god-mode difficulty level; that may have involved a lot more work than a $5 DLC is worth. Instead they created yetis which are half ogre, half gnoll and half archer (snow balls), and the goblin sappers which create havoc in the traditional killbox.
Maybe it's time to think outside the box so to speak. Try some traps and weapons which aren't used as often as they should be (paladins seemed to have found a new life; they were being heavily criticised for being generally useless and overpriced). Layout your traps differently so sappers don't get them all at once.
If the key doesn't open the door, don't try the key again. There must be many ways to beat the maps, without advanced barricading, and without tearing your hair out. I've said it before and I'll say it again: people used to say the same thing of Finale and Great Gorge in OMD1. I haven't seen many videos yet. Fryedegg has yet to publish his take on this. I'm in the camp that says "robot wanted to make the fans think a bit, not just slap a 4x2 with tar and grinders", althought that's probably what Fryedegg is trying to do anyway ;-P
I'm coming back home Monday, and I promise you will be seeing some videos from me showcasing my strats for the new DLC maps.
The problem is so many people asked for more difficulty and once they got it - they cried about how hard it was. It's three maps total. If three maps after all the numerous other DLC's and the infamous guardian trinket is enough to turn you away from an amazing game perhaps it isn't the game at all. A lot of us do combo's simply because we find five skulling far too easy. Now that there is a true and rightful challenge and everyone is in the five skull how to boat the ones that complained that combo's aren't everything in this game seem to be bailing out saying it shouldn't be this hard.
Well .. there's plenty of information on how people are five skulling it up already. This is what the community is about; binding together and working on a common problem. If that's not what you're up to then perhaps OMD2 really just isn't for you.
Robot listened to their fans and gave them what they asked for. And for that I give them two massive /thumbsup.
Rogotin, I agree. I love that the challenge keeps ramping up for the most skilled players.
I also see TheLe's point.
This game's greatest strength is its greatest weakness: multiplayer. I loved that they've added it, but I'm not interested. The problem is that single-player and multiplayer aren't separate. I love the challenge and have solo 5 skulled every level on nightmare. But my low skill friends are absolutely turned off by this game because co-op feels mandatory and we're not interested in co-op.
Chilled Cavern is my favorite example. You basically have to cheese this map with nonsensical barricade placement to make it remotely possible for solo play. Even then, mobs will randomly destroy the barricades or ignore them completely and walk right past them. Success sometimes boils down to pure RNG and that's not really acceptable.
IMO this game should have had four modes - normal solo, nightmare solo, normal co-op, and nightmare co-op. Maybe have certain areas of levels removed or closed off for solo play? I know I couldn't touch Twisted Halls nightmare until Guardian Trinket and Missle Launcher flac simply because the map was way too much to handle solo.
I've 5-skulled all of the OMD2 campaign levels on NM, and all of the DLC levels prior to Yeti. I got the first Yeti level with five skulls on NM, the second with two skulls on NM, and the third with no skulls.
In the same term you have to know what player limits are though. And frankly; they didn't. They've been dishing out harder and harder maps and challenges but no one ever hit a real balancing point. Are we there yeti gives us that pinacle where challenge meets the true end game. But they can't have possibly known this without finally hitting that point. Immediately saying 'Oh the games clearly now too hard I'm bailing.' is just a pointless exercise. They can't possibly have known the degree in which players would be affected untill release, and to be honest this may just be newly foudn teething issues.
When the game was first released there was pages and pages of people crying and whining about the difficulty of the standard levels. The games too hard, its not omd1, they changed too much, the mechanics are impossible to understand. So I took the initiative of spear heading a bible that allowed people to understand all these mechanics and move up the games norm.
Are we there yeti is the first DLC that has proven a true challenge to all the players again. And again we have the issue of having to rethink our comfortable play style and alter our decisions to a different play style and trap design. It isn't for everyone obviously; but it does keep the game fresh. There are NUMEROUS other levels that can be played and replayed for higher score or five skull goodness; whichever floats your boat. But having a few levels for the true hard core of the game makes absolute sense.
Its three levels. And the only real problem is the nightmare aspect of the levels. It's ok to say 'I'm a casual player, and I want a casual game.' and I agree with that completely. But the moment Robot caters to the more hard core of the community all the casual players go into a tizzy and complain that it's too difficult. Adding more modes would be just as much of a problem. People feel entitled to be able to finish the game any way they feel fit; but they never take into consideration us hard core players that want a challenge. And when we do get one everyone wants it nerfed.
It's so incredibly frustrating that I've stopped playing OMD2 almost completely. Even beating the Yeti levels gives me no satisfaction what-so-ever... just a feeling of wasting my time on something that wasn't properly playtested. And I'm not the only one -- my friends have stopped playing since getting the Yeti expansion for the same reasons and some of my friends won't be buying the DLC at all after hearing about the unreasonable difficulty.
There's a difference between "challenging" and "punishing" and the Yeti NM levels are clearly in the "punishing" category.
It's really a shame that the DLCs are becoming more difficult to appeal to the hardcore OMD2 fans rather than the casual fans that made the game a success. My friends and I definitely prefer campaign levels over Endless, so this is such a disappointment to us.
I love OMD2 tremendously, but frustrating weekly challenges and "ridiculously hard levels that make you hate the game" seems to be the future direction of OMD2; what was once a solo-friendly game has become a game where you practically need to play with a friend to win. For these reasons, my friends and I have decided not to buy any more future DLCs for Orcs Must Die 2. (not kidding).
-The Le
Please keep in mind that the DLCs are completely optional and that they can be bought whenever you like. Your game works perfectly without the DLCs, and you don't have to buy the DLCs on the release date. If a new DLC is released, and you're sceptical about it, you can always wait a couple of weeks before you decide on whether to buy it or not. In the meantime you can follow the discussions on the forum and watch the gameplay videos on youtube. If you think you won't like it, don't buy it. Instead you can await the next DLC and hope that the next one will suit you better. If you dismiss the entire future of the game because one DLC didn't meet your expectations, you might miss out on the fun you could have had in the next DLC. ;-]
I think you're being really unfair about the weekly challenge, though. The weekly challenge was not a part of the game when it was originally released, but Robot Entertainment added it to the game free of any charge. It's a nice way of keeping the game alive, and the challenges force you to think differently. Not all of the challenges are equally good, but they are in general a very nice addition to the game. If you're quickly bored or annoyed by one of the challenges, just leave it uncompleted and wait for the next challenge. Don't forget that you get the weekly challenges completely free of charge.
I really love the idea of the weekly challenge, but every time I check it's basically "using this one trap and random weapons, defeat this level." I would much rather see "using this eclectic assortment of traps and NO WEAPONS, defeat this level."
As for the DLCs, I'm defintitely not saying that I'm not buying them in the future. For me though, they'll no longer be instant purchases as soon as they go on sale, and if they towards diminished trap use like the second and third levels of Yeti, I'll skip them. I'm happy for people who enjoy the types of challenges offered in Yeti, but I prefer different challenges, and I hope that RE doesn't repeat the design choices they made in Yeti.
In the same term you have to know what player limits are though. And frankly; they didn't. They've been dishing out harder and harder maps and challenges but no one ever hit a real balancing point. Are we there yeti gives us that pinacle where challenge meets the true end game. But they can't have possibly known this without finally hitting that point. Immediately saying 'Oh the games clearly now too hard I'm bailing.' is just a pointless exercise. They can't possibly have known the degree in which players would be affected untill release, and to be honest this may just be newly foudn teething issues.
There is a clear difference between a challenging map with clever timing on the waves, and raw "difficulty" which throws all the timing and finesse of out the window and just spawns loads and loads of enemies from all the rifts at the same time, that's not challenging, that's artificial difficulty, you can't 5-skull chilled cavern until you find the traps that hard-counter everything in that map, which are floor scorchers and flame bracers.
You're forced to use archers, because you're not allowed to place any traps on the ceiling, you can't come up with something risk-reward type, no, you just have to go with the setup that will crush it and spam it all over the place.
It's not an interesting difficulty, this dlc doesn't hit any balancing point, it shatters it entirely, again, there's no finesse in the wave length, no timing as to when the enemies arrive, it just spawns everything at once and say "good luck now".
5-skulling it wasn't hard, it was frustrating, because I just had to cycle through my spellbook until I found the one setup that just carried me, no other maps outside of the dlc forces me to do this, I finished every maps in the game on nightmare with different setups and it works, but this dlc, in term of fair difficulty, is garbage.
And it's really frustrating that the yeti and goblins, which are really interesting new monsters, appear in such poorly thought-out levels, because they're fun to fight against.
What I find frustrating about the Weekly Challenge is that the maps don't get added permanently. They're around for one week and then get replaced. If you missed one you wanted to try...tough luck. I guess you could recreate the challenge by reading about it and setting up your spellbook. Why not just keep adding them in to the level list? Would be a great way to add more content and farm skulls.
I just hope Yeti is the peak in difficulty. When the best players in the world are struggling, maybe that's a good place to plateau for future DLC. Again, having solo and co-op as separate modes could have solved a lot of issues.
<snip> ... I just hope Yeti is the peak in difficulty. When the best players in the world are struggling, maybe that's a good place to plateau for future DLC.
I agree completely. But they can't have known until it was released. That's what I am trying to say here; ok it's hard as hell. But up till now we've gotten great content; great upgrades and amazing traps and weapons which are also a part of the DLC. The only real 'problem' if you want to call it that is goblin sappers. Disabling your traps in a radius was a little overkill I must admit. I'd like to see them pulled back a bit to 1 trap disable rather than everything in the area.
But appart from that - the rest of the DLC is great. The levels are well designed and entertaining. The new monsters are as always graphically amazing and the waves are modified well and enjoyable. I think everyone is going a little overboard freaking out because of one new monster. I think reducing the sappers to disable a single trap rather than all the traps would definitely make it a great and complete addition to OMD2.
But appart from that - the rest of the DLC is great. The levels are well designed and entertaining. The new monsters are as always graphically amazing and the waves are modified well and enjoyable. I think everyone is going a little overboard freaking out because of one new monster. I think reducing the sappers to disable a single trap rather than all the traps would definitely make it a great and complete addition to OMD2.
Yeti has been my favorite DLC so far. I'm hooked on the Guardian Trinket and Missile Launcher. I can't put them down. The GT added new depths to Endless and made Nightmare a lot more forgivable. There's actually a choice between Archers and Ballistas now. The DML main is great for physics throwing, stuns for heavies, and explosive for elementals. The alt is nice for groups of fliers. It's a very well rounded weapon. The Yeti is a great mob. It's actually dangerous. It has the health of a heavy combined with the speed and deadliness of a gnoll, with a hard hitting snare, and potential to lose rift points. IMO the sappers were overkill. They should have had a smaller disable radius or a shorter disable timer. My two cents.
I hope this is not the last DLC. I have 170 hours (most I've ever put into one Steam game) I've solo 5 skulled everything except one Endless map and I'm still rabidly craving more content.
I have a trap suggestion. Something I feel is missing. I feel like there needs to be a floor version of the Dart Spinner or Haymaker or something similar. Maybe a series of spinning blades on a column that pops up, applies a bleed and a bit of physics. Would be nice for runners. Maybe there's a suggestion thread to put that into.
I've five skulled all Nightmare levels (including the DLCs, Yeti was a real challenge) with the bro-mage and the sorceress. The only things i have yet to five skull solo are endless levels:
- King of the Hill (they keep coming from too many damn directions)
- The Crossing (not enough trap space)
- Chilled Cavern (just haven't got to it yet)
Are we there Yeti? is hard but it's not impossible and while yeah it's clearly aimed at co-op play there is a unique micro-management challenge inherent in the two later levels.
While I think making all the DLC has hard as AWTY? would be a bad idea, I think it's good to have a hair-pullingly difficult level sometimes. Maybe once per DLC, or something. There's a certain segment of the fanbase that really enjoys that stuff, even if I'm not a part of it.
If it's confined to Nightmare as it was with Yeti (or were people having issues with this on WM as well?), I can live with it.
That's what this thread is for:
http://www.robotentertainment.com/forum/topic/Strategy-Guide-5-Skull-War-Mage-Nightmare-Difficulty#comment-101242
For The Hive, it is difficult, but very doable. Lining the walls with Arrow Walls or Acid Sprayers is more effective than you would think. However, the easiest strategy that I've seen in a video is Wyatan's: a controlled flipping the mobs over the edge.
Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/pobercraft?feature=mhee