Single-player campaign: underpowered ?

I've noticed as I am playing along with the single-player campaign that as I go up in levels, I'm seeming more and more underpowered with each level I get to. I thought it was a minor miracle to survive the level 10-11 quests with the zombies and jellies (abusing poor monster AI more than anything to win) and now that I'm level 12, I'm getting swarmed by goblins in the tree fort battle. Am I missing something? How bad is it going to get for level 17-18?

 

For me the opening of the level 11 shop made a huge difference - I was able to change my warrior from ineffectual Impaler-build to a Chop-based build and that alone was very noticeable. Got some proper healing items for my priest too with Greater Heals. Once you actually have some decent cards it gets easier and the common items are cheap as dirt. I had more trouble around 10-11 than I've had since and I'm lvl 17 now, though there's still a bunch of places I haven't cleared.

 

With the goblins. I went heavy armor and chops on both my priest and warrior. Still took me a few retries.
It's pretty gear dependent. Sometimes you need high damage and blocks (ogres). Sometimes you need movement (humans, chess pieces)

It's not too bad 17-18, with the only "arrg" quest being Wyverns treasure hunt.

PS. Belkar is my favourite character too

 

The quests get harder and harder as you level. You pretty much have to farm items and check the shops for gear if you want to not die all the time.

You are basically intended to alter your party for each encounter to counter the various powerful cards they have. To me it sometimes feels like the AI is in full legendaries and I've only gone through the campaign up through level 8. I hear it just gets worse ><

 

I felt the increase of difficulty a little sooner but you're right, trading blows at those levels especially in melee is quite frustrating because the attack cards are too weak compared to the ones of the enemies.

 

I'm at around L12 now and I've been winning, but the battles take a long time. (Then again, there are some with a LOT of mobs to kill.)

 

I appreciate all the comments and tips. I did check out the goblin market and found some useful new weapons to beef up my dwarf, and my mage has gone completely to "crowd control" spells (read:fire) instead of zapping to try and killdudes quicker. Made it to level 14. The quest continues!

 

I've been trying to rely on a few powerful combinations to win lately. Warrior and Cleric in heavy armor and Chop. Wizard in Resistant Hide + Firestorm for the zerg levels (lots of weaker monsters) and some Acid/Armor removal cards when you get something annoying.

I feel like I need to re-tool for most fights though. Be sure to keep a nice array of gear for whatever they throw against you.

I like the difficulty, I'd just like to be able to find some good bash weapons for my warrior. Itemization could use a pass I guess in general.

 

Why should get easier as the game progresses?

You getting more powerful and the game getting easier are 2 entirely different things. the latter doesn't need to, or should, happen with the former. A well designed game should always have a more difficult late game than mid game and a more difficult mid game than early game.

 

I don't think anyone is saying it should get easier, I think the OP was saying that he is really feeling the increased difficulty. Most games give you the illusion that you are getting more powerful overtime. That is done in part by making the damage/health numbers bigger, but also in trivializing some early mechanics. Card Hunter doesn't trivialize old mechanics and in fact tends to add new ones. That's great for people who want a game which increases in difficulty over time. BUT it's a surprise to most people their first time through.

My main complaint is that it's pretty non-obvious why you are failing at levels when new mechanics or difficulty jumps occur. And sometimes, even when you know what you need to do differently, you didn't get the necessary/optimal gear along the way. My experience, and I'm only level 14, is that it seems increasingly clear that I will probably wipe at least once on almost every new module level because I can't adequately prepare for what is inside. That sucks.

I would recommend a pass through the loot drops of the single player campaign to ensure that players are given a more consistent and beneficial set of loot as they progress. Grinding isn't a ton of fun, nor is dieing, and the RNG of the loot combined with the lack of info about new modules basically requires that you do both.

 

what is fun is that I in levels where I get beaten badly (lvl 12) with my strongest items I sometimes need to change to my lvl 3-4 items which might not be good in general but do the trick in this particular scenario

I think it would be easier (i.e. less repetitions) if I knew what to expect beforehand (like resistances etc.) before we start the fight, sometimes it's obvious but most of the times not (like have 2 fights against skeletons just to get a jelly blob on the last fight, that sort of stuff)

 

They are surprised that a game gets more difficult as it progresses?

Again, i'm not seeing what they are supposed to be surprised about.

i'm not getting the "trivializing some early mechanics" argument at all.

I've never had an issue with gear myself or found myself at an impass due to lack of gear.

On the other hand i do play 3-4 rounds of mp per day for chests.

Most of the time, I win by changing tactics, not gear. the standard setup variations can be performed with multiple gears. I havent had an issue where a given card is needed and i dont have a way to get it.

Hell, depending on individual cards are rarely even viable. Most of the times gear change is along the lines of: more armor/a few armor removals/more mobility. Those can be accomplished easily. Its almost never i need X number of a specific Y card to win.

You will have a higher chance of wiping because tactics actually matters now. You actually have to make strategic decisions to exploit your enemies. In the past those aren't present. The solution was always "attack with party and move forward" etc. Now you have to take into account the unique situation of each battle and formulate plans based on circumstances. Thats a step up.

They should show a starting layout/positioning of the map to give you a better idea, but its not that big a deal. You have 3 tries and a rez cost 15 gold.

Again, i've never had issues with grind. don't agree with the second statement at all.

I don't believe i've resurrected my party more than once for any campaign.

The game would get boring fast if its not challenging enough to forced you to adapt tactically to changing environments.

 

Difficult is a subjective term. It's more difficult to win without using your armor and only one weapon slot, but it's not necessarily more fun or interesting to do that. Increasing the monster HP or damage also makes it more difficult but again that's very base.

The difficulty increase should be tactical as well as simple number increases. You also want to feel your character is growing and gaining access to new and more diverse, more powerful tactics and strategies to deal with the corresponding increases of the enemies.

I think Card Hunter does a good job. I can win, but not without effort and that's what I love about it. The gear is tough, I'm forced to make trade offs which is good, but I'm also looking at a lot of gear I cant even use yet due to power requirements. Or worse, to use one piece of very good gear forces me to abandon too much. Even leave slots empty.

 

Well, I finished the single player campaign today. The underpowering that I felt was simply a function of gear. I was not doing a good job of looking in shops or analyzing my gear to get the most "bang" out of my slots. Once I beefed up the damage of my dwarf and went to area control spells with my mage, the survivability got better.

It wasn't surprise. It was more a feeling of impending doom. I had a couple of quests in the level 10-11 range where i was finishing the last battle, in my last attempt, with only one character left. If I'm on the razor's edge of survivability in level 11, I could only imagine what level 17 was going to be like.

Now that I've finished the campaign, I know better. But I think to someone unspoiled by the forums, or the wiki, there is a steep difficulty curve mid-campaign that might give other players problems.

 

I guess sooner or later someone will make a spoiler site! You do have the option to make notes, anyway, so you shouldn't be thrown more than once per mission.

I think the surprise monsters also tend to come in the earlier missions of a dungeon where there tends to be more room for error in gear loadout.