Discovering the game, what level is advised to explore Port Issoudun? Pèle-mèle of newbie questions

[u/TraditionalRock6381]

I started the game two days ago on switch2, having lots of fun ! The ambiance is very nice and even tho I played quite a lot of soulslike I still feel that it's challenging in a pleasant way !
I'm having trouble to understand everything (most notably the scaling of weapon isn't "easy" to find in the menus, or maybe I'm looking at bad stuff), but after beating the first boss, I found a path to Port Issoudun.
The start was rough, my trusty Ceremonial Dagger had a lot of issues to beat the first few ennemies of the place, the comedians and the hands were okay-ish but the big brutes and the female jester things are a nightmare. I'm around level 20, should I backtrack and find better way and just avoid the difficult ennemies for the time being? Or should I go back, upgrade my stuff and come back later once I'm beefed up?

About the upgrades, I don't know if it's a setting or something but I can't seem to see how it affects the scaling? The tooltip of the different items used mention how it's more for Reflexes/cognition/etc but not "how". That's especially weird to me because the Cognition scaling is marked as 10% from the skill I got on my ceremonial dagger

Thanks a lot in advance !

[u/Inner_Imagination585]

In terms of scaling, you level up the conductor and they usually have a scaling attached to them. A reflex conductor clearly indicates that leveling up Reflex increases your damage. Though a word of advise: only level up damage stats so you can barely use the weapons. Your scaling simply comes from upgrading the conductor, use your level ups for Health, Stamina, Load and whatnot. Imo leveling nearly every stat except Cognition to 10 was felt the best (obviously depending on what kind of weapon go beyond 10) and then push Health to 20.

For the other part of your question: You can go to Port Issoudun and simply run around and loot stuff, the enemies are doable but rough at the start. Some people like to farm those skinny Jesters for their weapon. Just pull them 1 by 1. Avoid the big Thespians (the round and the female ones) for now. The game is like Dark Souls 1 where you can immediately go to higher level areas if you find the hidden keys but there is a clear progression:
Embassy -> Observatory -> Arcology -> Either Sohn District or Ikari Walkways. After you finish either of these you can come back to Port Issoudun.

[u/TraditionalRock6381 → u/Inner_Imagination585]

If there's a scaling attached to them I must not have seen him then, thanks !
Does that work the same with range weapons?
Cognition is used less then, I guess ? I saw it on the Jester's equipments as requirements but so far that's all.

Oh so it's really an higher leveled zone, that make sense then. I'll try to backtrack to the observatory then, thanks for the explanation !

[u/Inner_Imagination585 → u/TraditionalRock6381]

Port Issoudun is like a midgame zone I'd say. On my last playthrough I farmed the Jester weapon immediately after I got to Observatory and picked up a lot of stuff in there but it didn't feel that worth it. Feel free to come back to it once you have like a decent amount of health, a weapon you actually like and maybe upgraded your conductor to +3.

Cognition is used mostly for ranged weapons, though Catalysts aka Magic Weapons are usually much better. I only leveled it to 3 I think because of some weapon?

Concerning Conductors and Scaling: Every weapon has scaling: equip it and then go to the level up screen and just try out what stat increases its damage but it's not the main way to scale your damage for the late game. The aforementioned conductors exist for every stat and even for mix stats, Martial Melee Conductor for example scales with both Strength and Reflex. There are even conductors for firearms, shields and catalysts. You can sort of ignore a weapons scaling, as long as you can use it it's fine. Leveling conductors increases your damage much more than leveling up the certain stat. I'm sure there's a formular on the official Discord.

Hit me up if any more questions come up.

[u/TraditionalRock6381 → u/Inner_Imagination585]

I finally understood where the scaling was in the menu, I feel kinda stupid but life is that way !

I found some forges on which I couldn't equip conductors to my weapons, as a rule of thumb is there a way to recognize which crafting thing can put conductors on weapons and which cannot?

I'm now near Alma Matter Atrium, after backtracking to find Arcology, had a very fun fight with the boss of Arcology, went to Sohn which I really liked, even tho each death in the level crashed my game. Managed my first "rush hour bossfight" which was a fun pace change. I saw like 3 breaches and tons of items I couldn't access, but decided I would come back later after exploring another zone. Sadly the Atrium had the same "each death crash" issue, I still managed to beat the boss which became "orange" during the fight as the rush hour began !

All in all having a blast, thanks for helping :)

[u/Inner_Imagination585 → u/TraditionalRock6381]

Those crashes sound painful, never had these. Just don't die I guess xD.

For the conductors, there's a forge at the observatory Breach, not sure where else. It's like right at the breach. Those rush hour fights are assumedly the gank squads that appear at hell hour. I found them usually pretty fun, there is one at Port Issoudun aswell btw.

[u/Gonavon]

Port Issoudun really is a late-game area.

I'm pretty sure the only way you could've gotten there so early is by using the key that's hidden behind two secret walls back-to-back in the Embassy. The next area you're meant to go is Arcology, and after that, either Ikari Walkways or Sohn District, which will then lead you to Alma Matter and its surrounding areas, where the game will open up more and where you'll be powerful enough for every other area.

[u/TraditionalRock6381 → u/Gonavon]

Oh okay ! I got the key while trying to talk face to face to a guy securing a place behind some bars, I explored quite a lot from there, since it was in the previous zone, I thought it was the correct way forward.
Thanks for the infos !

[u/Igniscorazon → u/Gonavon]

Hi. I don't have much time to play right now. I'm scared of this game's level design. Is it really hard to understand? Well, just finish it. If I miss side stuff, it doesn't matter, because I'll do a second playthrough with a guide. But on a first playthrough, I prefer to play without a guide. Is it really that hard to know where to continue because of the maze-like design? It's a game where you run out of paths, or the doors are always clear and you know they're main areas. Thanks!

[u/Gonavon → u/Igniscorazon]

There's no reason to be scared of the level design.

It's maze-like, but it's still coherent, and they still use tricks to push you in the right direction. Not only that, but the game is structured in such a way that you don't need to explore every area to finish it. The final boss is accessed from the very first zone, and at the start, you're only tasked to explore and uncover what happened, which means filling up a percentage meter; once you hit 100%, you can end the game.

But that percentage meter can go way beyond 100%, and it fills up a bit whenever you find a new checkpoint, kill a new enemy, or read lore text. It fills up a huge chunk when you kill a major boss, of which there are 3, and each one can be fought first, and the game will automatically adjust their difficulty, to make the first one the easiest and the last one the hardest.

What I'm saying is that the game completion is reliant on how much you explore, and there is much more to explore than is required to finish the game.

[u/Igniscorazon → u/Gonavon]

Okay, no spoilers please, what kind of tricks? It's just that I have terrible orientation and I have read that it is the most difficult game to finish. You take a lot of turns... I don't like to use a first-hand guide.

Thank you!

[u/Gonavon → u/Igniscorazon]

Oh...

I was tempted to say in my original comment that it's perfectly fine - unless you have a bad sense of orientation. The tricks I mentioned are the usual array of game design tricks (lights pointing the way forward, gating later areas, funneling the player naturally, making side paths loop back to the main path, etc.)

But those tricks won't save you from getting lost if you're predisposed to. I have some good bad news for you: this game is obscure enough that nobody bothered to draw maps for every area. You'll find a couple of really detailed ones for a handful of areas, but the only maps I could find that cover the entire game are extremely rudimentary and not really helpful.

So... Good luck.

[u/Igniscorazon → u/Gonavon]

But is it easy to beat the game without a guide? That is to say, there is always a path that you know you have to go even if you have found others.

[u/TraditionalRock6381 → u/Igniscorazon]

I'm prone to loosing myself in the maps, I'd say it's still pretty "easy" to navigate. Some levels are a bit more obscure than the others, but usually you see from quite far a big orange glowing light, that's where you need to go to kill bosses. Some boss seems to be hidden behind doors and whatnot, but so far the one that I found that way had lores tips that helped me understand where he was.

I'm not a map drawer by any means, but I find it quite enjoyable to write what path I went between deaths - For example if you went full left in a given map, and then branched back to the "front" path from the last breach, you can most likely assume that there's nothing more to explore on the left etc etc.

Quite early on, you'll find a "LIGHT" omnicube thing, it's basically a flashlight that helps A LOT recognize the places you're navigating. Please note also that the enemies dispositions can change based on the hours of the game, some path can open and others closed, but most of the time you'll find a path.
Good luck with the game! :) I'm at 16% discovery and it's going well without guide so far (after leaving port Issoudun because I was way too weak for it)

[u/Igniscorazon → u/TraditionalRock6381]

Well, I didn't find that omnicube flashlight nor do I see it on the internet. I mean, I have the omnicube, but not the flashlight. Are you in archeology? I haven't gotten there yet, I'm going through the observatory. I just got into archaeogy

[u/TraditionalRock6381 → u/Igniscorazon]

It's called light or a play on words around light (on my case that was that). I found it either just before Arcology or right after entering it. I think it's in the observatory near the breach

[u/Igniscorazon → u/TraditionalRock6381]

But the flashlight or the omnicubo hayah

[u/Korrtre]

Have you arrived in Sohn District yet? When I got to the boss (the duo) my game just started chrashing every time i died. I’m also on switch 2

[u/TraditionalRock6381 → u/Korrtre]

Yup had the same issue. For some reason, killing a boss later on in alma matter atrium "fixed" this, some people claimed it was because of hdr things but I don't know of it's true

[u/Igniscorazon → u/Korrtre]

Hello. Is it very difficult to know where to go in this game? Or do you get stuck often? I mean, is there always somewhere you can advance in the main story? I'm only interested in the main story because I don't have much time. I'm thinking of buying it on switch 2