Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden - catch all

Serengeti wrote:
Jonman wrote:

Well this game isn't f*cking about.

I picked the middle difficulty, and have savescummed at least 5 times on like mission 2, Hammon's Cabin.

Spoiler:

At least 4 of those were in an attempt to take out the Shaman before he'll summon more enemies, which you can't do as he'll call them in immediately after being hit. Once I'd learned that, and where they'd spawn, I got a good run at the combat going, only to balls it up by accidentally tossing a smoke grenade which i thought was a frag grenade, at the last remaining enemy, thereby making him un-hittable *and* putting out the fire that he was on. Then running Borman through the fire, just for good measure.

Spoiler:

Hog Rush the Shaman and you'll knock him out for 3 rounds, which should give you time to kill him before he can call for reinforcements.

Spoiler:

Except I don't have Hog Rush. I picked Run & Gun, and don't have enough points for anything else....It's fine, I figured out a plan on that last attempt that'll work out if I don't accidentally hand a the enemy a useful smoke buff.

Vector wrote:

-there are 12 artifacts in the game so plan out which skills from the bar you’ll unlock; personally, I plan on leaving the medic and downed skills as I have only used to med-kits and only let people get downed on he final turn

I've gotten 13 artifact points so far, and couple zones left to go, which makes me think I'll get 2 more and complete the artifact tree.

Serengeti wrote:
Vector wrote:

-there are 12 artifacts in the game so plan out which skills from the bar you’ll unlock; personally, I plan on leaving the medic and downed skills as I have only used to med-kits and only let people get downed on he final turn

I've gotten 13 artifact points so far, and couple zones left to go, which makes me think I'll get 2 more and complete the artifact tree.

Interesting, somewhere in the game I saw that I had something like 6/12 Artifacts.

There's lots of good advice here. I didn't realize I could silently Hog Rush a target if Bormin doesn't break through walls. Buying and turned weapons into weapon parts is really useful too. Wish I could turn old armor, mods, and grenades into scrap or weapon parts too.

Finished the game! Had an absolutely awesome time with it, so much so that I'm considering going back and doing it again on the hardest mode, just to try, though I'm not sure I'll get very far

I did end up with 14/15 artifact points. Must have missed one somewhere. Here are the ones I found:

Spoiler:

Boom Box
Far-Looker
Hipster Fruit Tester
Cold Box
Kommode 64
Defibrillator
El Generator
Melting Tool
Grogg Milker
Holy Book of Fixing +1
Lux's Lights

So it must not be a long game - which is no way a bad thing from my opinion. Many games try to pad out things way to much.

Vector wrote:

There's lots of good advice here. I didn't realize I could silently Hog Rush a target if Bormin doesn't break through walls. Buying and turned weapons into weapon parts is really useful too. Wish I could turn old armor, mods, and grenades into scrap or weapon parts too.

It's not silent, but it is "quiet" - you can still be heard if there are other enemies in close proximity, so go careful.

This game is very nearly Game of the Year for me - it's just so good.

Serengeti wrote:

Finished the game! Had an absolutely awesome time with it, so much so that I'm considering going back and doing it again on the hardest mode, just to try, though I'm not sure I'll get very far

I did end up with 14/15 artifact points. Must have missed one somewhere. Here are the ones I found:

Spoiler:

Boom Box
Far-Looker
Hipster Fruit Tester
Cold Box
Kommode 64
Defibrillator
El Generator
Melting Tool
Grogg Milker
Holy Book of Fixing +1
Lux's Lights

Spoiler:

There is a car battery (think it's called the power brick) on the sea titan. It's a bugger to spot though.

farley3k wrote:

So it must not be a long game - which is no way a bad thing from my opinion. Many games try to pad out things way to much.

17.3 hours played according to Steam. I'd rate that as great value considering how superb the game is. I definitely want more. I hope they make enough money to produce a sequel.

Just played less than an hour but hopefully when they introduce the new characters, there is still time to play with them and they are available your next play through from the start?

New characters are introduced with plenty of time to play with them, and the leveling system happens for the whole team, so when you get new characters, they'll have as many skill points to play with as the rest of your team does at that point. You can swap them in seamlessly.

There is no new game plus or anything like that though, so each playthrough will have you meeting the new characters at the same point.

Sounds good, glad there is time to try out new characters and the flexibility of new skills/load outs. Thanks

So, I'm playing through again, this time on very hard + ironman mode. Turns out I learned a lot about the game my first playthrough and I've made it through 6 areas now without taking a single hit from any enemy. This obviously won't last, but I figured I'd write down some of the most useful things I've been doing.

1. Scout, scout, and then scout some more. It's vitally important to know how many enemies there are, what type they are, and if they patrol off alone. If you overhear enemies conversing, there's a pretty good chance one of them will wander off when they're done talking, making him a great ambush target. If you're playing on ironman mode, it wouldn't hurt to jot down some notes about the enemies in each area to help with subsequent playthroughs after your inevitable death.

2. When silently ambushing single enemies, move close enough to get a 100% hit rate. They cannot alert their friends until after your ambush round is done, so moving closer to them has no downside. Also, don't worry about cover in this situation, as the encounter should not last past your first ambush turn.

3. Upgrade your silenced weapons as soon as you have enough weapon parts, even if it means heading back to town halfway through clearing an area. If an enemy has 10 hp, but your silent weapons can only hit for 9 without a crit, don't ambush him.

4. In conjunction with tip #3, do NOT upgrade non-silenced weapons right away. You get a total of 3 silenced weapons over the course of the game which you will not replace, so upgrading them makes sense. Your "regular" weapons are a different story and you'll replace them 3 times, so spending valuable weapon parts on the crappier weapons doesn't make sense. Upgrade them to level 2 once your silent weapons are fully upgraded, but don't bother with level 3 upgrades until the 2nd and 3rd replacements.

5. Don't be afraid to skip groups of enemies if you don't have the damage or skills to safely tackle them yet. Some fights can't be skipped, but you should be more than prepared for those. If a fight looks like too much for you to handle, maybe there's another direction you can go to gain a bit more experience, or find a better weapon.

More tips to come I'm sure.

Quote is not edit.

If I wanted to treat myself to a tactical game this Christmas, would you folks recommend this or Battletech?

kergguz wrote:

If I wanted to treat myself to a tactical game this Christmas, would you folks recommend this or Battletech?

Both.

Not the answer you were looking for! Both are genuinely excellent games and very different takes on the genre. You’ll get more time out of Battletech (took me a good 80 hours or more to complete the campaign, although I wasn’t rushing) and it’s got a terrific combat model. It is flawed though - there’s a lot of waiting around while you fly from place to place and some of the mechanics don’t really work. Still it’s not hard to look past those, and Flashpoint (probably going to be my Christmas present to myself) clearly adds a lot more. Sure hope they’ve made the ‘flying from planet to planet’ sequence a lot shorter though.

MYZ is much shorter (I’m in the final stages now and not even hit 20 hours) but it’s a more refined and crafted experience. I’m tempted to tell you get MYZ mostly because I’m desperate enough people buy it so they make expansions and or another one. Firaxis could learn a lot from how they’ve made the game to be honest, it’s beautifully balanced (once you are the through the initial stages) and you learn how to play it properly.

I am leaning towards MYZ, I don't think I have 80 hours. It would be nice to have something I can finish for a change!

I’m nearly finished with the game now (mild diversion caused by the Anthem closed Alpha at the moment)

However I’ve had a hard time with bugs in

Spoiler:

the forbidden city

- basically the game stops recognising hiding places, so I can’t hide and I’m always caught in the open. Bit of a nightmare really, anyone else having similar problems?

I just entered that area but haven’t moved beyond the entrance. The previous area, I had lost all ability to see or trigger prompts. Couldn’t hide, investigate, or collect anything. Saving, not even loading, would fix it, though.

Only three more areas to go, including the final location. It’ll be high on my GOTY list.

Vector wrote:

I just entered that area but haven’t moved beyond the entrance. The previous area, I had lost all ability to see or trigger prompts. Couldn’t hide, investigate, or collect anything. Saving, not even loading, would fix it, though.

Only three more areas to go, including the final location. It’ll be high on my GOTY list.

Yeah this is effectively what’s happening to me - I figured it might be a general problem will have to chalk it up to experience. I’m saving Practically every 30 seconds at the moment to compensate!

From what I can tell, it seems to be a specific interaction (well lack of) will cause it. In my case it was trying to interact with a monitor on the second floor of a bombed out building. Getting that interaction to work fixed it for the rest of the location.

Apart from not actually being able to launch the game on the first day of pre-release and one case of a character unable to move during combat, this is the only real bug I’ve encountered.

I’ve had two very fun fights this weekend.

1) Before fighting Lux, I fast traveled to the Ark and cleared out some other areas. Approached from the front and tried funneling him and his minions through the narrow entrance. Instead the majority got trapped behind the fence; running back and forth as I lobbed grenades and molotovs at them. Only time I’ve seen the AI noticeably broken and I’m very glad it worked out in my favour.

2) There’s a late-game encounter that consists of a med-bot, a big walker, tank, butcher, and a controller. I thought about how to approach this all day. I silently took out the med-bot, which triggered the big walker. My stalkers are still in stealth so Farrow, with a 50% chance of stunning, locked down while everyone plinked it with silenced weapons. Killing it didn’t trigger the final three so I was able to heal to full and reposition. Dux up high locked down the tank, Farrow threw a grenade, and Bormin knocked out the controller. A few crits with zone weapons two turns later left with Bormin at half health and everyone else untouched.

One more location to go. Love this game.

Finished the game last night and for me - it’s my game of the year. Typical hardly anyone else will play it but still!

I started a new game, hardest difficulty in Iron Mutant mode. In slightly less that 2 hours I have only been hit a handful of times, and I’m already at the sea Titan again. I’ve got more scrap than I know what to do with and I’m focusing in on upgrading silent weapons first. Not sure how much replayability it realistically has once this run is done though.

Finished last night. Came in at 22 hours and that was with me really taking my time. Wish it was a longer experience but was outstanding while it lasted. I hope they can refine some mechanics and provide a beefier game for the inevitable sequel in relatively short order.

What I'd Like to See From a Sequel/Expansion:
-greater enemy variety
-double the gameplay time (from 20 to 40 hours)
-two unique major mutations per characters (Bormin and Magnus have this but noone else does)
-greater attachment variety (currently, only two sight types and 3 damage modifiers)
-ability to "sell" armour, attachments, and grenades
-actual sidequests (Lux's quest is the only sidequest in the game)
-a medic in town to heal all for a price
-in-game notation system (see: Pillars of Eternity)

This game sounds pretty awesome. Wasn't on my radar until recently. I'm going to have to wait a bit since I spent too much on games over the last month or so. Seems like it has a lot of personality too.

Serengeti wrote:

5. Don't be afraid to skip groups of enemies if you don't have the damage or skills to safely tackle them yet. Some fights can't be skipped, but you should be more than prepared for those. If a fight looks like too much for you to handle, maybe there's another direction you can go to gain a bit more experience, or find a better weapon.

Hm I think this is the tip I'm looking for. I'm early on in the game, just got my 3rd companion, and encountered a group of level ~10 enemies that I have repeatedly tried and failed to take down. I wondered if the answer is that I should be heading back to previously explored areas to grind (I don't even know if that's possible, if enemies respawn in those cleared zones), or if I should explore some other area not in the direction of my objective, but it sounds like maybe I should just walk past this fight altogether.

Enemies that are killed are gone permanently, so there's no grinding as such, but you can probably move past that group and into other areas for a bit before you come back to them.

mrlogical wrote:

Hm I think this is the tip I'm looking for. I'm early on in the game, just got my 3rd companion, and encountered a group of level ~10 enemies that I have repeatedly tried and failed to take down. I wondered if the answer is that I should be heading back to previously explored areas to grind (I don't even know if that's possible, if enemies respawn in those cleared zones), or if I should explore some other area not in the direction of my objective, but it sounds like maybe I should just walk past this fight altogether.

The trick is to thin the herd before you tackle the main group. If you approach the main group but remain hidden you usually trigger a short conversation, after which one (or more) of them will go off on patrol. If you sit back and watch that patrol pattern, there is usually a point at which they are fairly isolated and vulnerable. Set up an ambush accordingly, and take them down with silenced weapons. You might need to make use of some of Dux’s and Bormin’s Mutantions to help you (anything that increases critical hit chance for Dux, Bormin has a ‘shoot twice’ skill that’s really useful).

Once you’ve scouted around and eliminated all the stragglers, you usually get a 2-3 harder enemies left to take on. For that you can ‘go loud’ and hit hard with grenades and your meatier, but noisy guns.

The fight on the high road before the road tunnel is surprisingly tough I think, but if you scout and watch you can make it a whole lot easier.

You can also skip the high road fight for quiet a while. Sneak one character up the left side while the shaman is on the right. Once you’ve reached the end of the level, you can freely leave with your squad.

Was about to buy this game on steam and retracted.... only to find this game appear on my XboxOne Game Pass subscription. Have played like 3-4 hrs and it is a great take on the Xcom strat kind, I always bounced of the Xcom series(dont know exactly why), and this game has the hooks on me, I like the dialog between characters in the missions, gameplay is superb(it hits you hard if you make a mistake), I think like this better then xcom because you can scout ahead and see the enemies, they dont pop up as you walk. This is a game of the year contender for me.

I am just happy people have reported it is about 20 hours long.

I can't do 30-40 hour games anymore. There is just to much to play and I get distracted so never finish. 20 hours is actually at the top of my range.

Damn it. Iron mutant playthrough has died at the sea titans thanks to the ‘twitch shot bug.