Devs, you just put the game out of reach for many players. I like a challenge but...

[Rayn13]

This difficulty level is freaking ridiculous. I just finished the normal level of night city and I was lucky to be able to finish. Granted the Charlotte helped, but I am not one of the lucky ones that actually got her.
20000 plus extra HP on pretty much all the enemies on the normal level is crazy. I just made it to the hard level and the enemy has 35000 extra HP?!? On Hard ?!?

Thank you for making the game truly pay to play.
I looked forward to Night City for seemingly years to get this bull shit?!?

Not sure how much longer I will be playing and I am sure I am not the only one.
I have played since just about the beginning and refuse to pay. Thanks for squeezing the ones like me out.

[Shifty1050]

Agreed it’s a struggle, I’m only half way through the Normal level and struggling.

[Rigo]

+1 Agree....

[scott-5496]

Guys - it needs to be a challenge or why do it? A lot of the old timers on here need this to keep things challenging. My kids love the new levels but are also struggling as they don't have my roster - but they are really enjoying it. So far I am really pleased with the levels, difficulty (Assassin only on Lord of the Flies is a tough one!)

[Yup]

It is indeed quite a step up in difficulty.. but.... well.. I'm done with it.. Most difficult battle.. (Madness) All Sentinel against 2 Warrior Death Dogs... the dogs heal each attack and Sentinel characters aren't strong enough most of the time to do enough damage before they heal.. and twice because the revive automatically. Finally worked it out stunning them with Horus.

I would like to know what's up with the W Death Dogs and dealign massive True Damage to Doomsday though. They were hitting him for roughly 15k Physical damage then a whopping 40-50K true damage. Doomsday had no buffs or anything which would trigger MORE damage on just him. None of the other (Gunner) allies were taking that much damage.

The associated Skull Quest is probably the hardest battle out of all Night City. And it's 2 days between runs.. but it gave a Legendary soul, Frontier coins, a Skill Shard... great rewards for a Skull Quest.

The Killer seems more powerful than Killer Ed... Ed is a 4 star.. The Killer is a 5 star. Abilities kind of seem, well, backwards between the two characters to some degree. Already had some favorable usage of The Killer in PvP against the Hallowed/Alchemist teams. Killer Ed is as underwhelming as Hallowed Ed was before he was revamped... all attacks are single hit.. and not that powerful. But looking at him compared to Wicker, Soldier, GRE.. he's in line with those I suppose for Eds picked up through the story.

Shame Night City gives really shitty gold rewards everywhere. Not a single battle above 4-1/2K gold. Looks like NOTB is still the best place for Gold.

New talisman drops are nice. I seem to have gotten a lot of Mystic and Onslaught though. Prefer the actual attack oriented talismans.. oh well.

BUG Can't sell talismans from Satellite 15 pop up any more.... Hold and sell window appears, but can't tap the actual "sell" button.

Also seems Doomsday's fury is NOT removing all opposing team buffs. It's removing some, but not all.. Endure, Invincibility, and sometimes a gold bug will stick around after his fury goes off.

I've picked up a few of the new characters.... we'll see how long they last before hitting the barbecue :)

Even though I've completed Night City, and unlocked the skull quest, I'll still be running it regularly due to it's difficulty specifically. No better place to test character to se just exactly how strong they are.

There are a couple placed that could be "turned down" a bit.. the 5 Assassin dogs.... The 2 Assassin Hellboys with revenge active... .. Most of it is fine, but there are a few battles that are REALLY stacked in favor of the AI. I got past them after a few tries and swapping characters around.. but they were horrible when trying to get the 3 skulls.

Most, if not all battles can be won with the Baroness, Doomsday, and Osiris. (Full power, full skill shards) Practically on autoplay. Used in a specific order, each battle can easily be won.. Doomsday basic, Osiris basic, Baroness power (grants extra turns) so.... Osiris basic, Baroness basic (if needed to fill fury), Doomsday Fury.. done. Destiny talismans on Baroness, Energy talismans on Osiris to gain power, Angel talismans on Doomsday to cleanse him.

It's really hair pulling when completing the skull achievements though. Or when you are FORCED to use Charlotte, who is weaker than anyone else on your team.

[TheDawnPatrol]

Scott, I am also an old player, having pretty much all the good characters and talisman sets maxed out and I get my team destroyed by 2 hits from a Hellraiser... I like challenges but this isn't challenging, it's just plain stupid. If the developers wanted us to get smashed by shitty characters so badly, they should have used Meatheads and Sandworms with ridiculous stats and unjustified stats as well.

I get it that this world is meant for older players, but if you missed some of the Gods and some good talisman sets you have little to no chance of completing Night City on all 3 difficulties...

[scott-5496]

Scott, I am also an old player, having pretty much all the good characters and talisman sets maxed out and I get my team destroyed by 2 hits from a Hellraiser... I like challenges but this isn't challenging, it's just plain stupid. If the developers wanted us to get smashed by shitty characters so badly, they should have used Meatheads and Sandworms with ridiculous stats and unjustified stats as well.

I get it that this world is meant for older players, but if you missed some of the Gods and some good talisman sets you have little to no chance of completing Night City on all 3 difficulties...

It is tough for sure - some of the challenges are really difficult but it has to be that way. Again, I always say this but it has to be a challenge - that was what was annoying me before - nothing new to do and you can auto it all.

My team was nothing major or special I don't think - Charlotte had to be there, my Cyborg is maxed out and has primordial and the Icarus has destiny - most folks who play a lot have all of these I would guess. Anyway, it seemed to work for me - maybe I have a lot of relics as well and that must help I suppose.

[Ip4]

DDE,Horus and Prisoner for all 3 levels

[scott-5496]

DDE,Horus and Prisoner for all 3 levels

Yeah Prisoner is really useful. Any particular tallies on your team Ip4?

[Blade]

...

Good post, and thanks for the insights into the new chars yup! Some remarks:
- I also find the Talisman interesting but apart form Nightmare they aren't that great I think. I was hoping for some of the other new ones like redemption, avenger, warlord etc.
- The gold returns are really disappointing, thought they would start somewhere where Underworld stopped...
- I have the same bug for selling from satellite
- Doomsday's fury was nerfed by the update, so this might be the reason (can still be buggen though)
- please don't recommend team setups with a character that only ~5% of the players own you lucky sh!t ;)

[Ip4]

DDE(immortal/fate)Horus(eternal)Prisoner(primordial)

[Banished]

I'm happy with the new world and I'm glad it is difficult. Where there is no challenge, there is no pleasure.

My concern is that it seems that in LotB, in this new world or with the weekly events, YOU MUST HAVE THE PRISONER or you are in a big mess. Well, I don't have prisoner, it escapes me for a long time and I guess it will continue. ok, there are other characters to disable passive but Prisoner still remain a must have.

So annoying...

[Killer-Frost]

Guys calm down. Stadegize. It's easy, I already beat all 3 difficulty with 3 stars on EACH MISSION. And it's only been 1 night. I'm literally done with night city. Think. Strategize. I believe in you all

(I used doomsday eddie with eclipse, horus with energy and future, and prisoner with primordials for the most part. For sentinels only, I use visions and horus for the shatter stun combo, and for the assassins only, I use rainmaker eclipse, child of the damned assassin with marks n energy, and hellhound assassin with tranquility and destiny. I swear I killed the boss on the first turn. Mark automatically puts 3 marks on it, just use rainmaker's rain to double the marks, then assassin hellhound to consume each mark, thus earning a killing blow regardless of the health level. Look at your inventory and strategize. It wouldn't have been worth it if it wasn't hard.

[scott-5496]

Guys calm down. Stadegize. It's easy, I already beat all 3 difficulty with 3 stars on EACH MISSION. And it's only been 1 night. I'm literally done with night city. Think. Strategize. I believe in you all

(I used doomsday eddie with eclipse, horus with energy and future, and prisoner with primordials for the most part. For sentinels only, I use visions and horus for the shatter stun combo, and for the assassins only, I use rainmaker eclipse, child of the damned assassin with marks n energy, and hellhound assassin with tranquility and destiny. I swear I killed the boss on the first turn. Mark automatically puts 3 marks on it, just use rainmaker's rain to double the marks, then assassin hellhound to consume each mark, thus earning a killing blow regardless of the health level. Look at your inventory and strategize. It wouldn't have been worth it if it wasn't hard.

Some really nice combos there KF! Prisoner is indeed the most useful guy to have on your team.

[Sag7272]

Agree difficulty level step awkwardly between Underworld & Night City...
Have nothing against, great to have some challenges & won't be farming most of that anyway..
Just imagining flowing through game as a non end game guy & it breaks the storyline having to go full PvP/gauntlet for awhile before taking on NC... Like if there where a missing level in between, maybe it's just an impression..

Love it tho... But for that Charlotte you have to carry along, she's such a burden..

[julesawdupin]

change in difficulty is just insane. Just compare Beast on madness level to any normal level character in Night City. 2.5k attack on first level? Normal should be normal

[Zugzwang]

I’m purposely only playing a few levels each day. I refuse to finish Night City so fast. What’s the rush? I add it to my daily playing. I’ll probably finish it by the weekend.

[Cefiar]

I pretty much completed everything (on Normal) using either PoM, Clansman, Doomsday or Beast Eddie and Sentinel Corrupted Rescuer with 6x Health talismans (10880 + 38865 HP), tho you could probably use Eternals if you like instead. I used variuos other characters until I ended up with Charlotte riding along.

For a lot of the later levels, I found any more or Talisman that strips off opposing beneficial effects (particularly Endure) to be really useful, and is the sort of thing I'd throw Charlotte's primary attack at (ie: whomever had Endure and was the most annoying opponent at the time).

Also, for the later levels, something that prevents being stunned is probably a good idea.

[Daviangers]

I guarantee you itll be like BNW, stop freaking out. Remember how damn hard the max was back in the day esp garden of fear? Just wait out for the next patch itll be fine

[tbartz]

I agree the difficulty spike is insane

[Rory]

I have been playing the game for a while, but I don't have a lot of the rarer characters or talismans that were available in events, and those I do have, I have not yet been able to upgrade particularly far. (Don't have the Prisoner for example, and they're one of the most recommended for night city it seems). Don't have a lot of relics either.

So, I was struggling to complete the Normal campaign. But I did manage to complete it, although spent 150 or so ironite on revives to do so.

Although it was very difficult for me, I enjoyed it, because I was having to really think about the order in which I should use the characters on my team, and which characters to put on my team. Had to think a lot more about which combinations of characters work well together, which talisman sets to put on them as well.

Some battles were easier than others, and I am thinking that it was because Night City isn't as "one-size-fits-all" as the other worlds, and you'll get better results with different teams in each battle, rather than developing just one setup to take everything on.

I think it's going to take me quite a while to complete the hard and madness levels, but it gives me something to work towards, a challenge to overcome.

[mogsi0]

Imagined the spike in difficulty given the fact that every minor update was aimed toward players that reached the post-game already; the first play through was a disaster. Really liked the single class challenges, surprisingly Lord of the Flies was the easiest. Great update.
Currently 72/72, 61/72, 50/72 skulls wise, you guys?

[rags-6094]

Imagined the spike in difficulty given the fact that every minor update was aimed toward players that reached the post-game already; the first play through was a disaster. Really liked the single class challenges, surprisingly Lord of the Flies was the easiest. Great update.
Currently 72/72, 61/72, 50/72 skulls wise, you guys?

Mogsi is that you? From the higher end of arena? Good to see in here man!
I still don't know how many of the high end got through NC madness, I think I'm half way through? Trying to clear every skull quest on the way, I've spent a fortune in ironite and am still struggling... I kinda thought of myself as well, let's just say able to tackle this one without too much difficulty.. but it caught me napping I guess, Idont have every important toon but the ones I believed made a difference I do have and still cannot seem to work out a good combo to get the job done!

How anyone moving up in the ranks or newbies tackle this one I don't know...

See you in the arena I guess cheers!

[mogsi0]

Mogsi is that you? From the higher end of arena? Good to see in here man!
I still don't know how many of the high end got through NC madness, I think I'm half way through? Trying to clear every skull quest on the way, I've spent a fortune in ironite and am still struggling... I kinda thought of myself as well, let's just say able to tackle this one without too much difficulty.. but it caught me napping I guess, Idont have every important toon but the ones I believed made a difference I do have and still cannot seem to work out a good combo to get the job done!

How anyone moving up in the ranks or newbies tackle this one I don't know...

See you in the arena I guess cheers!

Yo! I went through with MLilith, Cyborg Eddie with Primordial and the Alchemist for the most of it, basically trying to spam Last Rites as much as possible, you can bi-shot the Killer Beast if you have crits on with it. Got Killer Eddie and then went back to do the challenges, especially the "basic abilities only" ones, with him. Used ironite only if I was already on the last wave.

[Waffen]

I agree with everyone that it not worth it if it’s not challenging. I barely started playing couple months ago and I don’t have any of the OP gods like Horus, Osiris etc, neither do I have the OP talismans like primordial, destiny...

But I was still able to beat all the difficulty levels with strategy and a little bit of ironite. It was really fun for me.
However, now I am trying to finish the skulls on madness (done with all the normal and hard challenges) so I can unlock the skull quest. I don’t think it is possible to finish some of the challenges like use basic abilities only or finish in 6 turns without the OP gods and talismans.... still got 15 skulls to get to 927.

Sad part is that it takes several months to get enough FC to buy Osiris and Horus and it’s not funny. I wish I had the glitch like other players who were able to get into the skull quest by just completing NC on hard lol.

[Waffen]

So I was trying to finish one of the challenge on madness earlier where I have to use basics only. I was using DDE (eclipse talisman) and I had to revive couple times (100 ironite) before the game decides shroud should no longer work. Got 2 shotted even though shroud was active.

Refused to spend another 50 ironite on a lost battle. Guess I should wait another 2-3 months until I get some better characters and talismans. So much for trying to unlock the new skull quest :(

[julesawdupin]

I've been playing the game since its out and my characters gets killed in one hit on normal level. maybe its time to stop playing

[Muzzleloader]

Warffen, I used DDE( angel/nightmare), prisone(primordial) and horus ( energy/power), that was my standard NC team. I tried to keep the enemy permastunned. You have DDE and prisoner, maybe you could try with a third mult hitter with nightmare or paralysis. Prisoners passive is important on my team.

[Olevipoeg]

So I was trying to finish one of the challenge on madness earlier where I have to use basics only. I was using DDE (eclipse talisman) and I had to revive couple times (100 ironite) before the game decides shroud should no longer work. Got 2 shotted even though shroud was active.

Refused to spend another 50 ironite on a lost battle. Guess I should wait another 2-3 months until I get some better characters and talismans. So much for trying to unlock the new skull quest :(
Assassin Chopper basic move Violet Swings has 25% chance to remove perfect immunity, perfect immortality and .... shroud. 2 hits per attack.

[Waffen]

Assassin Chopper basic move Violet Swings has 25% chance to remove perfect immunity, perfect immortality and .... shroud. 2 hits per attack.

True. But it was derby demon magus that killed me. This was on the second stage of “the banshee” map so it doesn’t have chipper. Also earlier, crave was not working on derby demon sentinel. And no, it was not cleansed. The game showed the crave effect on them but they were still getting healed instead of taking damage. Restarted the mission and it started working fine.

These bugs are not a big deal in other worlds as we just overpower the enemies. But in NC where one wrong move can prove fatal, it’s quite annoying. Especially after you spent ironite to review yourself.

I know I am posting these in the wrong thread lol. I will report these in the bugs thread later.

[Waffen]

Warffen, I used DDE( angel/nightmare), prisone(primordial) and horus ( energy/power), that was my standard NC team. I tried to keep the enemy permastunned. You have DDE and prisoner, maybe you could try with a third mult hitter with nightmare or paralysis. Prisoners passive is important on my team.

I don’t have angel and primodials. Will get angle from gauntlet after tomorrow’s reset though, I’m exited.


I was lucky enough to pull prisoner and that is probably the only reason I was able to complete NC on madness lol. I figured stun lock is the only way to beat NC madness, so I used sentinel Shinobi for stuns due to lack of Horus. Took me about 10-15 minutes for each run though lol.

But the problem I have is with the challenges that require me to use basic abilities only or complete in 6 turns. I have been using hallowed Eddie for basic stuns but even with echo talisman on him I am unable to keep them stunned. And if I do manage to get lucky enough to stun them all, I don’t have enough dps to melt them before their passives kick in.

So yeah, I am just gonna wait till I get Horus lol.

[Iced_Earth]

Use Corrupted General with Paralysis and freezing talis, gg.

[LotBTrooper]

I've been a bit slow getting into it, just finished normal (albeit need to replay for a few skulls). I actually found most levels very easy, combination of iron Eddie's 'burning fires' move and Assassin demon spawn auto crave meant most enenies were stunned and quickly destroyed by toxic burn.

[Zantarath]

Phantom eddie is very good for warrior only quests- his very high chance to sleep helps a lot as long as u land his future basic attack after ur allies, the vanish and perfect sleep is like a double gate to suriving/dominating

For sentinel quests- alliance general with quake talismencan can pop out very high dmg with long term stun(75% chance for 2turns), and the quake skill grants extra turn allowing the general's basic which steal fury/power to self maintaining the skill -throw in a horus with 2 energy talismen sets for extra GG

[Metallicamilo]

Easy Answer. This world is not meant to be finished in 2 days. And don't worry about it, the world won't go anywhere. Just be patient and grow characters along. It isn't a pay to win because all resources are available to you. I finished it after long weeks of struggle and some ironite. I grew characters I thought I never needed(magus Mayan priestess for sleep) but that's the thing.

[scott-5496]

Yeah, it can be a slow burn to get through it. I was lucky and had Prisoner and Horus so getting through all levels was easy enough - you just stun, stun and stun again. Not been back since to be honest but it was a nice four days of grinding it out - a few of the skulls were pretty hard going though that is for sure!

[RPaige71]

I quit playing night city months ago.33% at normal difficulty

[Hartacus]

Assassin Heirophant + ANY buff-giving talismans is job done in regards to beating the levels.

[Ydex]

Night City is tough. When you get stuck, spend some time grinding for resources. Crank some souls through sacrifice and fill the vortex up. Spend some time in Arena and add some Relics.

Go back later and see how you do with your new Characters/Talismans/Relics. Play it through until you get stuck again.

Look at WHY you're losing. What Buffs / Debuffs are you lacking in your lineup? How are your team members abilities enhancing each other? Every member of your team needs to Passively enhance a critical feature of another member of your team-- there's no good teams built just by stringing together some "good characters" and button-mashing.

Is your team as balanced as possible? Do you have the best Talismans applied in a way that balances your characters stats, AND adds abilities your team actually needs?

Are you playing your characters in the right order? Can you, even incrementally, advance towards winning with every move you make, and in a way that each move adds value to the next? Every single move needs to be the best move.

What are you spending your power moves on? If you can win the battle with ONE hit point left on your last character, then spending power on Defense would have been wasted.


If I thought there wasn't any strategy to this, I wouldn't be enjoying it. I've continuously improved strategy and team synergy, and I still learn new things every day. Getting the best characters and the best talismans isn't as important as learning how to use the ones you have. And if a certain resources is "required" to pass a stage, well I'll get there eventually. If I could win the game overnight what else would there be left to do?