#41

Hey guys and gals. I just learned something from my most recent run (as Kid Ultra of all people).

The voidsap on the first floor and from the Alphas? You can shoot those. They disappear instantly. I wouldn’t time on the ones on the first floor though - too many numbers.

#42

I’ve only played through it twice so far, first with Orendi (she gets dibs) and second with Boulder (because story.) There was a hugely noticable change in difficulty.

Orendi was easy breezy, with the only noticable challenge being the occasional horde of evolved Thrall. Which, being the first run, shouldn’t really indicate anything.

Then I played as Boulder, and cruised through until the jumping section. That turned into a damn meat grinder. Holy crap, everything people have been complaining about happened right there, and I limped into the boss battle with one life left.

The only reason I beat it was because I somehow found two more lives during the fight. Next up is S&A. Wish me luck…

Edit: Always sucks when autocorrect goes into business for itself…

#43

Just finished 100 OPs with Shane, no prob, use your boomerangs a lot and keep your shield up with fetch.
I back-peddled as I wore the bear down with my Ult, which could kill 3 bear cubs at a time too.

1 Like
#44

So if you can get the earlier story versions it is night and day compared to later story versions. I wrote this post after beating Story Version 10 at 95 Ops Points, and it was hell.

But the point is that no matter the difficulty, it should feel fair.

Being knocked up on the upper level, when the bear is on the lower level, and falling right in to an Alpha Orb and a Ghost Bear, wherein you are immediately stunned by a cub and blinded by the orb so you can’t avoid the ghost either, and immediately dying, doesn’t feel fair.

Using your 3 remaining lives in situations like this in the same boss fight, and only barely (eh?) making it out alive doesn’t feel fulfilling, it’s frustrating. It leaves one with no desire to play through 30 more times, at least, for the skins. Unless you’re @wisecarver apparently.

Here’s what I’ve learned, and use, to no avail for some of these horrible situations -

  • You can shoot the Orbs that Alphas spawn, and the ones down below, and depending on damage it may take 1 to 3 shots to dispel them from what I’ve seen
  • You can shoot a Ghost and it will immediately go in to explosion mode, this doesn’t help your stunned melee friend however
  • The Demon Bear does Knock-Up with tentacles if it’s not in a charge animation and you’re not in melee range
  • The Demon Bear’s Knock-Up either works through walls, or the level is glitched with random Knock-Up, or it intentionally has additional random Knock-Up too, so expect to just lose control of your character at inopportune times
  • The Demon Bear can be knocked back a small amount with heavier Knock-Back effects, like Ambra’s Ground Slam, which can knock it off the second level
  • SCRATCH THAT(Not sure when appear/disappear): The Orbs only spawn on the lower level when the Demon Bear’s shield is up
  • The Cave-Ins are always around the Demon Bear, but being out of melee range will 50-50 result in an immediate follow up tentacle slap Knock-Up
  • Alphas can and will teleport to you, stunning you if they hit you on the teleport
  • Alphas have ranged attacks in addition to their Orbs, with some amount of heat seek on them
  • Using pillars as cover won’t block all Alpha projectiles because of heating seeking
  • The Cubs mini Knock-Back is a slight stun, stay out of melee with Cubs whenever possible
  • You can using the pillars as a marker for the “Getting out of the way” of the Demon Bear charging a Drill
  • You can clear the additional spawns during the Demon Bear’s two Shield phases, but its last post-shield phase is infinite spawn, so just focus the Demon Bear if you can
  • Fighting the Demon Bear from a range is much safer, but you will have more Knock-Ups, teleporting Alphas, and Alpha projectiles to contend with still, and you can’t stay still for long…

Also for the rest of the level, here are more lessons -

  • Almost every enemy does more damage than in almost any other PvE setting, so just assume that getting hit is half your health unless you’re in tank gear
  • There are going to just be a lot of everything, even on solo, so if you rely on cooldowns to clear be prepared for a lot of rope-a-dope
  • The “Conservator” for the challenge in the second village that Nova mentions is actually labelled a Channeller
  • Never keep your back to a ledge, as one of the following will knock you off: Bulwark Bots, Varelsi Skaven, Varlesi Channellers, Varelsi Disruptors, Varelsi Defilers, Thrall Brutes, and sometimes even Evolved Thralls or a Primal Thrall pack
  • Your back will almost always be to an edge, especially on the islands, so too bad
  • Varelsi Defilers have a fast firing mortar with no indicator that will nearly One-Shot you, but they will only fire it if you’re in Mid Range, snipe or melee them
  • Varelsi Defilers will hit you will all shots in rapid succession if approached in melee from the front and they’re not behind a shield, nearly One-Shotting you, approach from a flank
  • Varelsi Defilers have a large area slow / gravity pull effect, that they love to use before their mortar, so avoid dark spots with purple rings, unless you can’t
  • Thrall Brutes have a shield charge that will nearly One-Shot you, approach from a flank
  • Thrall Brutes will grenade you in melee range if it’s on cool down, and it will probably One-Shot you
  • Thrall Beastmasters summon 4 Thrall on higher Ops points, instead of 3, and often times do so in unison, flooding the towns with summoned Thrall
  • All Thrall will jump the walls at the Gate, making it a near useless choke point, expect to be flanked if trying to use it as such
  • All Thrall have grenades, only Brute grenades have an indicator circle
  • Varelsi Channellers have a 3 wave, 360 degree, mid-range, high damage Knock-Up, so unless you have a horizontal escape on cool down, only engage from long range
  • Varelsi Channellers spawn on the islands, where there’s little-to-no room to avoid their Knock-Up, too bad
  • Thrall grenades hit a larger area then their indicator circle, so if you think you’re outside of it, you’re not
  • Areas in the town only spawn when moved in to by a player, unfortunately melee range with existing spawns means triggering those other spawns, so always engage from range
  • Basically, ranged rules and melee drools in this Op, and almost every encounter is either a DPS race or takes forever…

On top of all of that you’re usually going to have to make it through with 6 lives and not getting past level 7. And if you want those skins on all your Battleborn, get ready to do this 30+ times.

Hopefully the random stories after the first 10 runs skew toward Story versions 1 - 3, as after that is when all this insanity seems to bake in.

If this Op is ever going to be fun then these later stories need some serious tuning. =(

5 Likes
#45

You can reset your ops points by talking to a NOVA hologram. If you see one floating around, go to her. She’ll reset them back to zero.

#46

I just got 100 points on this with Orendi by spamming quit until I got Story 2. It is SO much easier than the later stories, it’s absurd!

#47

…Good notes.
btw yes I’m one of those pain people, just have Toby and Whiskey left and then every char is 100 OPs.

I have lately been killing the Alphas when they spawn, except as Reyna, she didn’t do enough dmg fast.
The trick is to kill them fast when they spawn, or you die, or they teleport, so…do it very fast.

#48

it’s possible to get to level 10 before the bossfight by not killing the beastmasters until they stop spawning thralls. it takes forever but we manage to get to level 10 almost always this way (3 people in the party, i don’t know if it works solo too)

#49

Unfortunately Nova doesn’t show up when in Couch Co-Op. I’ve only ever seen her in Single player. Unless I’m missing something.
In SP I can see her by the first bridge. in CCOP/Splitscreen I don’t see her there, or anywhere.

#50

All good points. A few more things I would add to that:

  • CC is your friend. BE careful with knockbacks however as sometimes the enemy won’t actually get stunned after colliding with the environment (try to line them up against another enemy instead).

  • Damage amps are also your friend. More damage means you kill faster. Killing faster means less enemies in a shorter amount of time, etc etc.

  • Any augments that grant DoT, take them. This helps greatly against thralls as it has a chance to make them either fall over in pain or pause and try to cover themselves. Use this opportunity to layeth the smacketh down on their candy-like asses(?).

  • If you’re just looking to get skins/commander packs, roll solo. Not just for the lessened difficulty, but also because playing solo greatly decreases your skill CDs (50% I think). One of my best runs so far has been with Gals in no small part to me being able to RP as Captain America (hint hint GBX) with reckless abandon.

Hope this also helps some.

2 Likes
#51

I’ve noticed that there are only two waves of Alphas in the boss fight. Is this a general rule or just an artifact of my games? Anyone else have more than two waves? Also, has anyone had the Demon Bear not come back after a wave? I’d consider it a win but that’s not how the game works :unamused:

#52

Just saw the edit.

From personal experience, I’ve never hit level 10 in any Ops Mission unless I was in a party, and only then in “The Rebellion”. I don’t think the Ops Missions are geared to let you ascend to that high a level. :confused:

1 Like
#53

Wow. I learned something new today

#54

carry me to the skins. i die more in this op than i do in pvp games
i need your expertise

2 Likes
#55

Lol any skins in particular?

#56

Are you on Steam? I’m always helping peeps here, not a problem at all for this dlc.

#57

yes, i’ll send you a friend reqquest
but you haven’t been online for 17 days…

#58

My wisecarver account isn’t being used, it got snarfed with the OPs bug and I bought another copy for my Valve account.
I can use the wisecarver account for you though, if you send a friend request to it just let me know and I’ll login.

#59

i did

#60

Will login in a bit :wink: