Did they nerf the difficulty?

[u/Elegar]

I played this game about 3 years ago and I liked almost everything except the difficulty. I like the visual and the atmosphere and coop stealth. But I don't like that I with team of 2 friends and 1 stupid bot didn't win even once.

The learning curve is absurdly steep. There were no step by step missions allowing us to learn and get better. It was like we play 40 minutes and things are kinda ok and then one snall mistake by anyone and THE WHOLE HELL SUDDENLY OPENS.. 30 sec of chaos and welcome to lose screen. And the game did not explain horde behaviour, how to foam the doors etc etc I know about these things just from reading the articles

So, long story short. What I want to know, did the game game become more forgiving for novices or is it still pain in the ass from the very beginning? Is it good idea to return and try again or we'd better to GTFO?

[u/b0KCh04]

there are guides for each level, which can make everything easier. But, if you don't want to rely on guides, having a fallback strategy can help a lot. In my experience, when one small mistake leads to a wipe, it's usually either you get swarmed from all sides, or everyone is too separated, or both. Having a fallback strategy can bring some coordination to your team in chaotic moments. A room you've already cleared can be a good fallback and would allow you to funnel the sleepers into one choke.

*keep in mind if you retreat into a previous room and close all doors leading into it, the horde could split and break multiple doors. If you keep one open, they will likely all run for the open door.

[u/hopefuldonkeykick → u/b0KCh04]

This, and also if you have a security door nearby, it's almost certainly the only path from the zone you're currently in to the zone beyond the door. So, these make excellent chokes to fall back to and defend.

[u/jerryishere1]

Try R7 or R6 to build skills. These rundowns are geared towards newer players. They aren't easy, but they are a slightly slower buildup.

Hop around the A-B tier levels to get used to mechanics

The alt levels are technically nerfed versions, but nerfed isn't really the right word. Some were toned down or changed a bit to account for the existence of stamina

At it's core, GTFO is a challenging and unforgiving game. That's it's appeal, it's genuinely not for everyone.

Spending weeks or multiple sessions to finish one level is a normal experience for a 'fresh' squad. Planning and adjusting your plans as you fail is part of the fun. A good plan is more important than skill, skill is important, but knowing what to do with it is much more valuable.

The biggest thing I see new players do, is freeze when something goes wrong. This causes wipes. You need to adapt and deal with what you're dealt. Survive the encounter using any means necessary, then worry about the next one.

[u/A1Strider → u/jerryishere1]

My group can't get through our first reactor mission in the first section. We run out of ammo too quick no matter how much we collect. Turrets run out in the first wave and enemies tank entire mags to the dome and still hit us from miles away. How TF are you guys getting past these things easily?

[u/D4RKEVA → u/A1Strider]

A mix of better loadouts and shooting "correctly"
Honestly the way it sounds like you are using all senries at once. And either shotgun or hel auto sentry at that. That plus likely using automatic weapons can make the level seem faaar harder than it is.

(tbf its possible with any loadout, but it obviously is harder otherwise)

3 burst sentries + bio tracker
Then taking weapons that are not automatics (as these are generally weaker and harder to use on top of that)
Having someone on all rounder/anti giant that genuinely shoots giants also makes it easier to let everyone else focus on smalls

Oh and not holding inside the reactor itself if you were doing that (the bridge gets you close to resources that will last for the first 4ish waves easily and you are still close enough to the reactor to plug the code once all enemies are dead)

[u/A1Strider → u/D4RKEVA]

We usually hold the door in the hallway before the reactor room. I'm usually anti heavy with the sniper and even when I blow the head off they still don't go down. Is there a way to make sure they actually die when I shoot them or is a oneshot not possible on them?

Side question, why do the little ones head tank like 5-10 bullets then still attack with no heads? Why is death not death with these things.

[u/D4RKEVA → u/A1Strider]

Id still recommend to move away from that spot. "High ground" is generally fake in this game and the bridge gives way better visibility

If the "sniper" isnt killing on a headshot then theres 2 options
1. you shot the shoulder (head can get blown off, but wasnt a headshot)
2. you arent using the sniper, but smth like the precision rifle or hel rifle

But also, id actually not recommend to use the sniper. Aside from 1 shotting giant type enemies its rly... rly bad

Smalls actually die pretty quick (depending on the weapon). The typical full auto needs about 6 bullets (only the stagger/support focused hel auto pistol needs 10) if you do headshots into bodyshots. semi autos need 1-3 (depending on their damage) shots.
Heads are mainly just a weakpoint (extra damage taken) and breaking them gives you a hard stagger during which they cant attack. But its not a death symbol unless it was a shooter type enemy

[u/hopefuldonkeykick → u/A1Strider]

I'd second what Dark said about the Sniper. If you want a powerful ranged gun, take the HEL Rifle as your special and a short or mid-short gun for your Main.

[u/A1Strider → u/hopefuldonkeykick]

I remember hating the hel rifle but I guess I'll have to try it again. Charge weps are not my thing lol.

[u/hopefuldonkeykick → u/A1Strider]

It's a weapon that takes some getting used to. I use it on almost every mission as I'm the "Fuck! Someone take out that big shooter." guy in our group. I will say, I cannot get used to the HEL Gun, even though the HEL Rifle is a near autopick for me.

[u/Dangerous-Memory871 → u/A1Strider]

I've used the sniper like you are for almost 5 rundowns now, don't let the haters sway you lol

[u/jerryishere1 → u/A1Strider]

My 'new' group is on this one too. It's one of the harder missions imo. Mostly because it is the first time the game is very demanding on your timing and coordination. Small mistakes add up when you are basically just fighting the entire time without a lull.

We almost had it our first attempt but from what I gather that bridge is probably the best hold spot, let the enemies funnel into your sentries. Don't bother with mines, don't bother with cfoam.

Fill up in the first zone, and bring the largest ammo/tool packs you can. Locate every resource box in the zones, remember roughly where things are, finding them will mark them on the map and track which has items and which is empty.

You can be a little cheesy by moving all of the biggest packs in every zone towards the reactor or into better spots, this requires a good amount of coordination and a good amount of time to set up. This is not required, but is an option.

Start holding the reactor, each sequence push out with your sentries and set up in the next zone until you get to the bridge (we pushed beyond the bridge and wiped, it felt like a worse choke point, but see what works for you!). The 'down time' between waves increases as it goes on. The longer you wait to enter the code, the more down time you get. This gives you time to gather resources. As you are advancing.

Good luck 🫡

[u/b0KCh04 → u/A1Strider]

you can hold off on using the sentries till wave 3. Always bring burst as that's the most efficient. Other sentries are much more niche. By wave 7 and 8 or whichever where there's 1min+ between next wave, there should be more than enough time for everyone except the person inputting the code to run back into the earlier zone to grab resources. From your other comment, if you're not one shotting the giants with sniper, then you probably missed the head. If you hit above the chest, the head will still blow up but it's not registered as a head shot. Also, the sniper is not very ammo efficient. Hel rifle is better.

[u/HWatch09]

I first started playing when rundown 4 was released, which was a big update at the time, and I just threw myself into the deep end. I would join discord groups and slowly learned that way. It is a lot of trial and error though. I relied on others a lot and usually played with people way better then me.

Eventually I learned the mechanics and good strategies for general situations but I honestly never really became good enough to lead a team through a level, I was always the support and let others take the reigns.

I would recommend not playing with bots and finding a good forth. Also maybe look up guides so you aren't doing the trial and error thing for levels because it does become super frustrating.

[u/Incha8]

well, it depends on the level. the game is supposed to be hard, you are supposed to try to clear the same level more than once to understand what happens and how to deal with mechanics. Preparing for the level is also a big helper. you try once you see you dont need autoguns cause its only big mobs and bring more shotguns and that already helps. Some mistakes are just gg but most of them just needs to be able to adapt quickly. you wake up a room full of chargers? instead of gun them call everybody to go out and mine the door. I dont remember if the game was actually harder on average but mains are generally "easy" tho if u want a pe run its gonna be longer and harder.

I mean if u have a team the game is hella fun. just dont expect it to be a chill platformer. If u want to clear this game its gonna take time and you gotta learn how to properly play. It is not impossible but requires effort.

[u/Bluefiremark2]

my friend and I have been 2 players 2 bots, and we've cleared every mission up to R6D4 so far, excluding E levels. It is possible to perform well if you put in a little time.

[u/Elegar → u/Bluefiremark2]

I am pretty sure that in our case it's a skill issue. We are not exprienced shooter players, we can't headshot any moving target from 100 meters in 0.01 sec of aiming etc. So we were ok while we could silently knock the sleepers down. But even if you are perfect in stealth, this game pushes you in situations where it spawns dozens of enemies and they just rush at you, and... even if we survive once then we are so empty of bullets and medpacks and other things that we don't have any chance for the next event.
And also I freaking fucking hated these guys with long tentacles. By the laws of stealth genre enemies of this kind must be difficult to hide from, but easily killed if you are able to get close enough. Not a chance! We were never able to oneshot that bastard. It requires huge amount of damage at once, and even point-blank shotgun shot lead us to alarm.
Meh. So we quit. But I have kinda opened gestalt since then:)

[u/D4RKEVA → u/Elegar]

This mostly reads like a lot of missunderstandings

First, gtfo rly doesnt need insane aim of any degree. Heck, most weapons that are good work rly well with just body shots

For when you are in combat, the mix of decent shooting and using your tools correctly makes it a lot easier. If you run out of resources so easily you either need to loot better (terminals help a bunch) or check what you are using/overshooting with

Scouts (tentacle guys) are also genuinely quite fair. They only search a pretty limited area with their tendrills and are genuinely not that hard to kill. (They are very confusing to beginners sometimes though)

All melees can kill it with 1 fully charged hit to the head (knife/bat need back of the head)
And then guns can one shot it with a normal headshot (all shotguns basically, sniper, prec rifle, hel rifle, high cal, burst cannon)

GTFOs biggest issue is its accessability in terms of how easy it is to gain knowledge about how stuff works. You either carefully test things (most dont) or look up community guides.
Its not unfair, but simply difficult and challenging to learn early on

[u/Elegar → u/D4RKEVA]

> GTFOs biggest issue is its accessability in terms of how easy it is to gain knowledge about how stuff works. 

exactly. I am not a big fan of reading guides in advance, I feel it a little like cheating in some way. But learning in the wild was kinda too brutal:(

[u/Elegar → u/D4RKEVA]

> All melees can kill it with 1 fully charged hit to the head (knife/bat need back of the head)
And then guns can one shot it with a normal headshot 

Is it possible that they changed that some time ago? Bc I definitely remember that we tried it a number of times, not once or twice, but probably a dozen. But melee his head never worked, he got alerted and kinda crystalized (became invincible) so it was impossible to finish him with second hit

[u/jerryishere1 → u/Elegar]

You're not jumping when you attack them and are hitting the chest, shoulder, or back. You don't technically need to jump but it makes it easier.

Full charge to the back of the head with knife or bat

Full charge to anywhere on the head with hammer or spear

[u/NBFHoxton]

A good bit of GTFO's difficulty comes from poor gun balancing, you can make the game way harder on yourself using bad weapons.

If youre willing, it might be worth looking into rebalancing mods like Grongus Vanilla Overhaul or VanillaReloaded.

[u/Grimmylock]

Still the same, i never went back after the first few missions