I don't think 20hrs+ is really cutting it, but I've gotten the hang of it so much so that I'm taking on mammoth size enemies, in large numbers, and complexity of the missions evolved. We're not in Kansas anymore, no, it's the hotspot of Hurricane Milton.
Utter purgatory when you take all three factions on at extreme difficulty (level 6). I'm just a few big arsenal away from taking on suicide and impossible. The other two, obviously requiring friends to play with. But the wiggle room is plenty when you get so much to do from mission objectives, findings in explorations, and samples. Lots, and lots of samples, playaaaa.
It's all the same, yet occasionally I stumble by forgetting to take boosters before dropdown. Having the right Stratagems and equipment can mean big differences between life and death. Like, take Termites nests for example, they're almost everywhere in ICBM or nest clearance missions.
The best way to close those are using Eagle ordinance, throwing explosive grenades, and better yet, special weapons like grenade launchers. Which I finally acquired. Also, I farmed and saved up enough to get future ones, just around 4 levels behind before I get that giant mech unit to cruise around with. There's more, but I'm becoming particular to a few.
I'm also realizing that maybe doing the extra missions and staying around longer before extraction helps to get points for unlocking ship modules. Important stuff, like this, allows more things to do. Extra ammo, reducing the Eagle Strikes cooldown, Orbital targeting, increasing stamina, and so much more. Yet they're kind of difficult to obtain.
So many oranges, and I have not a clue what the heck I'm even doing. Most of these are obtained from sample collecting. Hey, we're back here all over again. Which, to my surprise, turns out not many players go to look for. Especially when we've updated our mission map.
Like I said, more enemies, right? It's a whole other FUBAR situaton, especially with Automatons. All our Eagle Strikes, and Orbital bombings were so close quarter, we were losing Stratagem points for reinforcements. I also blame other players for not knowing what the heck they're even doing, or trolling in the game. Which is kinda rampant nowadays.
Even worse the situation gets, when you have swarms of Termites coming here and there, I get so preoccupied with placement and taking down their numbers. I also have trouble with the button prompts before using Stratagems. The bugs are even crazier with the nests.
This is why I've stated, it's important to work out the right choices before dropping in. Sometimes unlocking the more powerful stuff, and saving Requisitions to purchase stuff I need the most. There are so many options to pick, yet also a lot to grind for.
Alright, this isn't entirely late game, but I'm close to it now. I made the dumb mistake of buying stuff from the Acquisitions individually, like equipment gears. I got too excited without realizing how Warbonds work. Another 5hr or so grind, missions do give credits if caches are found.
Oh right, I forgot to mention, you hate tremors? Well, you'll have to deal with that spontaneity as well. Don't forget dropping in the middle of rocket launch defenses. Attracting the Illuminates, while every one of our gates are destroyed, and area is breached. With only the generators intact. Thankfully, the A.I. is stupid, and my commando launchers took out those tripods.
But this is all in extreme, I haven't touched the more difficult stuff yet. I hopefully will. But yeah, 20hrs overall playtime, and few more grind to unlock the Urban Legends Warbond. That sweet anti-tank placement, gun strapped buggy, and some cool cosmetics if you have the medals saved up as well. Sadly, I wish more were true for my regular equipment.
Some of the assault rifles are stupidly basic, even if they're good, they run out of ammo too quick. Other times, pistol's shoulder aiming is garbage against a bunch of chainsaw raving bots coming at me. I can't duck, dive, and dash out of the way everytime.
Missions definitely gets more complicated, and involves more than aligning some radio dish or loading up munition to activate an artillery site. You have to drop and detonate Hellbombs to eliminate strategic enemy structures, hack into their bases, carry devices from one place to insert in another. You cannot do anything while holding them.
But hey, you love democracy so much, you get to finally choose what planets to takeover, contribute resources towards actions, like you finally have something to say and do with all the stuff you saved up. Hopefully, not the common sample points since I keep running out of that one.
I also like being envious of other veterans, because I get to see them using all the fancier stuff, doing most of the legwork, while we screw around. I have a weird ADHD thing going on at times, I even stay a few steps behind my squadmates.
Yet getting around the dumb A.I., having the right means of tackling the surplus amount of enemies can probably let me do the extra stuff in the map, before we all get to the main mission objectives, finish up, extract soon as possible. Because remember, soon as mission time is over, every single Stratagem, and support stops. That is a literal doom scenario.
