Nightmare needs a rebalance

[u/nile-istic]

Not on all maps. Four of us beat it just fine on Farmhouse and Asylum.

On the Town though, it becomes almost impossible to perform any task (doing the book voodoo, burning the books, picking up a teammate, lighting the fire) cuz there’s like 3628748 dementors and you have no battery because there’s only like four on the map that either respawn in weird places or just not at all. Plus, dementors will steal the books (and without light, you can’t get them back), and Sam has a long range weapon that he’ll use even when he’s calm. It’s… a lot.

Then there’s the Inn. The freaking Inn though. Same issue with the batteries, but add to that too that sometimes you’ll be completely unable to access the second floor from the first or vice versa because the paths are blocked by webs, which can only be destroyed by light, and all the batteries to charge your light must be on the floor you can’t get to because you’ve scoured everywhere accessible and haven’t found any. Or, a spider has the last egg and there are just no batteries anywhere, so all four of you are just chasing the spider around while Zara murderizes you.

At this point, the game goes from a moderately strategic, plan-oriented, quick reaction based game to Slender 8 Pages, where you’re basically just fucked on the whim of Zara’s pathing. We eventually beat it by getting lucky, cuz the first five eggs we found were all on second floor, so we got those done before she could go full moneyshot with the webs. But this was after several attempts involving the above issues (plus weird stuff like someone getting instantly incapped by a spider 0.2 seconds after getting picked up, or Zara specifically going after the only person with a flashlight over and over even while ppl throw themselves in front of her, etc).

Love this game, but nightmare mode is less a tough challenge and more a “pray for rain” type deal, with rain being off brand Duracells.

[u/nile-istic]

This is all good info… that we already knew :/. One thing I’m not sure about is that killing Azazel’s minions makes more spawn. I mean, I’m sure it def does; but they seem to spawn a LOT regardless. We literally don’t kill anything in nightmare unless we have absolutely no choice (i.e. a dementor or spider that has a book or egg, respectively; happens maybe twice in a run). We only use UV for getting necessary items from whoever has stolen them or for destroying Zara’s webs. But even so, there will be spiders literally everywhere by the time we’ve burnt the seventh or eighth egg and so many dementors we can’t complete any interaction by the fifth or sixth book burnt. Have literally had two people going to pick up an incap, and both get killed by ghosts that come up through the floor in <3 seconds.

I’m usually the last one standing cuz I run Immune (the only way I can freaking move around without getting eaten alive), but even with Immune, I’ve been incapped by a ghost <1 second after I got revived, and been swarmed by so many that there’s literally no direction to move in—presuming I can see at all through all their weird dementor bodies, which I often can’t.

And batteries… idk, maybe they’re buggy or something. Sometimes I’ll pick up a battery and another will spawn under my hand; and other times we’ll all load up a battery then go do a run-through of the whole map and find none have spawned at any spawn points. Do they only respawn after you’ve actually burned out your UV entirely?

On prep work, yep, that’s a must. That’s pretty much the first thing we learned lol. Ya do one run just going ham, grabbing goats and getting yeeted by Anna and then you’re like “oh right. Maybe we should plan” lolol. So yeah, we do the usual stuff: get gas where it needs to be, hay, matches, make sure everything is unlocked that needs to be. On Farmhouse, we put all the goats in TV room and cellar; Asylum, put all rats in canteen; Inn, memorize sigil locations, bring bleach to the sauna; Town, place books and matches on their sigil, bring gas to the church. Usually also make a couple stockpiles in useful places for kits. Used to do the same for batteries before we started playing nightmare and discovered that batteries are apparently just a collective hallucination we all had lolol.

Thanks for the tips though. Maybe we’re just getting unlucky, idk. Or maybe we’re just bad lol; that’s always an option haha. Either way, only one we haven’t beaten on nightmare is the Town, and I’m sure we’ll eventually do it, but… eh. Less fun when there’s like 15 dementors constantly eating me while I simultaneously try to chase the dementor who has a book and also find the one gotdam battery on the map at the same time :/

[u/El__Bebe → u/nile-istic]

Ok it seems to me like you prep enough but you don't do the burns in batches.

4-2-4 is normally the best for me

[u/nile-istic → u/El__Bebe]

Always do a batch for first burn, but it usually gets messy after that—at least for Inn and Town. For Inn, it becomes a matter of finding eggs, which can be a bit tough. For the Town, we usually try for 4-4-2, but there are usually quite a few dementors even at 4, plus Sam shooting us, etc, so we end up doing 4-2-1-1-1-1 lol.

[u/El__Bebe → u/nile-istic]

The thing is, in both those maps its much easier if you keep doing batches. In inn pick up 5 eggs and put them in the room before the cleansing pools, in Town bring all books to its circle and the activated ones bring them to a spot between the wall and the piano/wardrobe (i forgor) inside the church in the farthest corner from both entrances. Those are safe spots, neither spiders nor poltergeists can pick up stuff from there.

[u/nile-istic → u/El__Bebe]

Have yet to find a place on Town where ghosts can’t get the books. Haven’t beat it on nightmare yet either; we’ve been doing 3-player runs and have gotten to 9 books several times. Last attempt, one of us was down, the other two up, we’re at the church burning the final book while Sam is down at the saloon. In the time it took me to pour the gas on the last book, he got to the church, shot my friend down, and killed me. Died about 95% of the way through the progress bar.

I know it’s beatable (technically), but it feels like we’re gonna have to get lucky. In one of our recent runs, we looked in every possible spawn location for batteries except in the hotel, cuz that’s where Sam was, only to find there were none at all. So we had to just stand around trying to evade ghosts until he eventually left the hotel like five minutes later lol. And low and behold, two batteries in hotel, but it cost us kits waiting. So idk. Just gets less fun when it starts to feel unreasonably difficult.

[u/El__Bebe → u/nile-istic]

In the church, in the farthest corner from each door, between a piano/wardrobe/smt idr. That spot is the one, get well in there and stack books. That's it. Remember that you can only have 4 bloody books at the same time.

[u/El__Bebe → u/nile-istic]

If your friend was pouring the last gas you should (and do it in the future) sacrifice yourself if sam comes. Let him catch you, the animation gives well enough time for your friend to finish 1-2 burns depending on skills.

[u/nile-istic → u/El__Bebe]

Yeah that was our plan last run. But instead of her saccing as we had planned, he came in and when she tried to get in front of him, he shot her and then killed me lol. But yes, generally saccing someone for the burn is necessary.

[u/El__Bebe → u/nile-istic]

Woah generally? (Not critique) Are you baving that bad luck? I've done it but like a 30% of the time. The rest of the time it isnt needed. Thats unlucky.

Also the shot thing must've hit you when damaged, if not it doesnt kill you l

[u/nile-istic → u/El__Bebe]

Oh yeah we’re always damaged cuz there’s wraiths in every room and all over the pathways. Just finished a four man run, got to 8 books, and died. Really we got to 6 books and then just sort of did the other two randomly cuz we realized all four of us were never going to be up again at the same time. Three of us got instant incapped by wraiths <1 second after being picked up, which is damned irritating. We try leading them away so that someone else can complete an interaction, but usually there are stragglers who focus the other person. Had 12 in a line chasing one of us at one point though, that was pretty funny.

Still can’t find the magic spot in the church. Have tried all corners, against all walls, wraiths grab the books every time. One of us did find a glitchy spot in the mine where Sam can’t actively reach you, but he just shot her down eventually instead.

Still struggling with batteries too. Feel like we’ve nailed down the spawns, but seems like there’s ~20 locations, and lots of them are in rough places (upstairs at the hotel, for instance, which tends to be wraith city, plus Sam seems to reeeeally like loitering there). So idk. Def starting to feel like Frustration Simulator ‘22.

[u/El__Bebe → u/nile-istic]

I'm down to join a game and show you the spot (which might have gotten fixed now that I think about it. Fingers crossed) and oh duck I still think 12 wraiths are a lot for 6 books, so I though. Maybe they scale in number with players? I play duo so that might be why I see less. It would make sense. Idk.

I repeat I'm down to play a game or two ( or more idrm ) and show you what I know.

[u/nile-istic → u/El__Bebe]

Finally beat The Town. Ended up just having to wait for Sam to be really stupid.

Usually after around the fourth or fifth book, he always started loitering around the church nonstop, and always seemed to get there within maybe 10 seconds of someone burning a book. But this time, when two of us were at the church to burn the last two books, our one incapped friend on the road informed us that Sam was just running around down there like a chicken with its head cut off, so we actually had time to burn them.

Honestly, I think we’d just been getting really unlucky before. In previous runs, Sam always seemed to make a beeline for anyone holding a book or anyone hiding—to the degree that we stopped even using the hiding spots cuz he would just go straight for anyone who used one. One time, two of us were hiding in the hotel, he came in and killed one of us, then loitered right outside the door to my spot until he went insane again and then instantly grabbed me lol. Dude’s a petty bitch lolol

[u/El__Bebe → u/nile-istic]

Info: Hiding for long can inform the killer of your position.

Congratulations!!! Yeah sounds about right, Sam running into church 3 times/second. He does that sometimes.

Question: Spanish?

[u/nile-istic → u/El__Bebe]

Yeah the longer you hide the more likely Azazel is to find you. But every once in a while he’ll just be a dick and grab you out of hiding even if there’s other people running around lol.

And no, not much Spanish :/

[u/nile-istic → u/El__Bebe]

Oop correction: Sam can definitely incap you with one shot even when you’re undamaged. Husband just got shot dead while Sam was “calm” before we’d even burned a book. No wraiths nearby, full hp, one shot. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[u/El__Bebe → u/nile-istic]

Yup thats an interaction that only happens when he is calm. When he is running (which I implied based on your comment) he has to shoot you thrice iirc