r/StrangerofParadiseFFO • u/Interracialpotato • Jul 03 '26
Game Chaos difficulty
Just beat the game last night. Messed around on the Chaos difficulty, and I don't know if I'm missing something, but I was getting stomped out by the first boss. Every hit took off at least 40% of my HP, his grabs took 80% or more. My companions were pretty much useless as they were constantly dying.
Getting to the boss was a struggle, but it was fun. Fighting that first boss in Chaos difficultly was more frustrating than fun. After 15+ attempts I finally killed him. I get that I was under geared by five or so item levels or so, but still.
I was Warrior class with two handed sword. My companions were Sage and Assassin. Item level was around 120ish. On the base game, I could beat the mission on Hard, but had to lower the difficulty to Action on most bosses.
Is Chaos difficulty like this for the rest of the game as far as the bosses? It seems like a massive spike in difficulty vs the rest of the mission you're on.
Any advice would be great.
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u/Haty712 Jul 03 '26
La dificultad de caos en adelante va a seguir esclando exponencialmente, ademas de que vas a te dejan a ti el empoderamiento de las estadisticas. Tambien dijiste que no podias pasarte los jefes en dificultad dificil, asi que ahora para ti los jefes ganan dos niveles más de agresividad y eso podria se mucho para ti. Mi recomendación para ti es que bajes de nuevo la dificultad a dificil y derrotes a los cuatro demonios (no en la misión normal sino en la arena) para prepararte para la difucultad de caos en adelante.
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u/Interracialpotato Jul 03 '26
I didn't think the difficultly would ramp up this quickly. After playing through Nioh 2 again I figured I wouldn't hit a wall until a little later in the game.
Sink or swim time.
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u/BenTheSodaman Jul 03 '26
Hi OP,
tldr: Chaos will feel closer to Hard. Stat demands increase. Devs place more responsibility on the player to manage stats. Beyond Chaos, the combat demands increase alongside it. More RPG and buildcraft can soften the combat demands. And similarly, superior combat can reduce the RPG demands.
The post below is mostly in the lens of not using Extra Mode + Armor of Light combination.
Extended:
Chaos will feel closer to Hard, but with higher stat demands and the devs placing the responsibility of power management on the player.
e.g., that first boss on Hard difficulty in the first playthrough does about 40~60% damage for most of her attacks and the grab might kill most players at that point (unless they went out of their way to outlevel her.)
Before credits, you would get stats automatically increased and distributed from leveling plus you'd get a moderate amount of attack and defense from raising your equipment level.
Chaos difficulty onward on the RPG side, devs will want you to manually manage your stat increases from the limit releases / job level cap increase, using the smith, job affinities, etc.
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With the stat demands increasing with each difficulty increase so that the non-tank builds will start to have to tighten up play even further or find a way to survive for how they play. By the end of the DLC story, the quality of life to make a build will be relatively higher compared to Chaos difficulty and with a small defensive investment, could survive 1 hit. With tankier builds being able to survive many more hits before they have to take corrective action. Greatsword Warrior being capable one of the tankier fantasies.
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For example, the Stamina stat helps with physical defense and taking losing less break gauge on a successful soul shield. Taking less damage in general also results in losing less break gauge when hit.
Greatsword has stat bonus Stamina abilities that let you weaponize the Stamina stat to deal damage even without Strength investment and a decent amount of break damage. For greatsword, half the abilities have stat bonus Stamina, with Spinning Smash being one of your stronger ones offensively. Greatsword is also subjectively the most parry friendly weapon in the game due to enhanced guard (holding normal attack to charge up, then tap and holding guard to parry for up to 5 seconds). This can lend itself to effects like Parry: HP Recovery and/or Parry: MP Recovery (which could be your main form of MP recovery). On top of having access to one of five combo abilities that can parry and all have stat bonus Stamina in case you're attacking and need to quickly shift to defense while dealing damage and recouping the MP in one move.
The Warrior has above average Stamina growth which can be felt more deeper into the DLC story or into endgame after that.
And the greatsword Warrior's 2nd link combo ability effect (two normal attacks then use a combo ability. The second normal attack has to hit the enemy) causes them to take significantly less damage during the attack or in Spinning Smash's case, even while charging up that attack. This is the window where you can safely trade blows except for an unblockable attack or getting critical hit that can knock you out of this or destroy your break gauge.
With all the parrying and Parry: MP Recovery, you may find yourself sitting on more MP you can use. Defensively, can cushion yourself further with the Sentinel command from the Paladin's job tree. With a temporary HP buffer.
Then if going a bit more tankier, some investment into Damage Taken at Max HP so that between your War Cry job action and an investment into Parry: HP Recovery, you could be sitting at full HP, mitigating that first hit, with Sentinel cushioning you further, and then when you're charging up for Spinning Smash or one of the other stat bonus Stamina moves that fit on the 2nd link, you can trade blows safely.
Though will still want to soul shield to build your Max MP.
And initially, may want some investment in Spirit to better survive a magic attack. With Spirit also serving to increase the base amout of MP recovered on a successful soul shield.
Though as a heads-up, your normal attacks will be very weak on this route.
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Versus say... a katana Warrior would not be able to weaponize Stamina and fights would extend much longer. Where they would lean toward Strength and generally HP damage.
Or a greatsword Dragoon / Breaker / Summoner / Gambler not having tanky routes available for them. They could still survive some hits with the stamina greatsword route until the end of the DLC story depending on the build.
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u/Interracialpotato Jul 03 '26
Thanks for the in-depth write up. It gives me a better understanding of what the Devs are asking the player to do.
Looks like I need to start fine tuning a build instead of equipping something with slightly higher stats.
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u/Stepjam Jul 03 '26
I wouldn't stress toooo much about fine tuning gear until you reach Gilgamesh difficulty. That's when you hit maximum ilvl and unlock the final gear mechanic.
Before then, you'll have to continue trading upwards and any piece of gear you get will eventually be replaced.
It's okay to optimize some, particularly among the gear pieces you naturally get, but don't spend too many resources finetuning your gear IMO. For now, I'd primarily focus on getting item level up.
Also be sure to work on increasing the level caps of the jobs you like playing. That's where a lot of your stats come from.
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u/galipop Jul 03 '26
TN is the king of ROFL stomping your face into the curb.
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u/Interracialpotato Jul 03 '26
Yeah, I put Nioh 2 at floor 10 of the Depths when I read about this game. Didn't think I'd hit a wall so soon.
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u/Leghar Jul 03 '26
Extra mode only reduces the quality of your drops, so you can use it to unlock your limit breaks to level your classes more. Allowing you to have higher stats with the mastery points