So I just died for the second time in survival/expert/second chance.
This latest death I had completed nearly 9% which is bitter sweet. Getting even that far feels like an accomplishment and I'm definitely getting better at surviving. On the other hand, that was essentially a day's worth of gaming to get there and it's all for nothing
Feeling a little dejected. Not quite sure whether I want to start all over again and I sure as hell don't want to do that damn tutorial again.
The fear of investing so much into the game only to have it snuffed out in a moment is utterly unique though... Maybe time for dinner and then I'll start again.
Just FYI - things were going well though I had lost my last life at this point. I was about to cross a river when I heard some foot steps. I sat there for a moment, prone, wondering what the hell to do. Not sure where the noise came from and then BAM! Angry face of this ****ing cave lion was the last thing I saw. Knocked out 3 health bars in an instant. My god damn useless leopard did nothing. Word to the wise - stick with the white wolf while roaming.
My three quick survivor tips mostly around FIRE and plot missions.
1) Fire truly is your friend in the early game but not around other Wenja who have a bad habit of bumbling into conflagrations. I have lit up so many Cave Lions and Jaguars with fire arrows already it is unreal but ware those cursed bears unless you can run and jump over some stuff or down some slopes to buy time to hit them multiple times. Never ever forget they more fast, swim very well and are dogged once they decide they want you for breakfast. Fire is also good for killing pesky snakes hiding in bushes.
2) Watch that Animal Fat - especually in the north - I froze to death at one point, luckily it was second chance and I had a life to spare. I simply ran out of animal fat without realising it and could not light a weapon and was too far away from any fire and warmer climes. No winter clothing at all so was relying on fire, tried to run south but froze before I made it.
3) Think three times before you decide to do any plot mission and make sure you are as prepared as possible.
EDIT managed to tame a Leopard oddly in the South rather than the frozen North and am finding it really useful as a pet. For some reason never spent much time with this one before now, mostly previously going from Cave Liion to Sabretooth thinking that was a past oversight. Leopard fairly stealthy, strong and fast - that it tags nearby creatures is sometimes useful too.
Addendum: The pain just lost my Leopard taming a Brown Bear. Leopard down when the Bear decided to take the bait. Otherwise three separate attempts to tame a Sabretooth, one I accidentally killed, other two killed me luckily each time I went huntng a Sabre I made sure I had a second life.
Shockingly looking at my stats of hours played and progress made - I have crudely averaged 2% an hour - that seems dire to me. Did spend lots of time looking for rare south stone without great success,
So far it feels like I'm doing good.
I'm gonna have to admit that I "cheated" a little. I don't consider it cheating but... meh. I copied my savegames over to a backup folder as soon as I completed the tutorial so that if I die and need to start over again, I can at least start over from the point when I already completed the tutorial.
Currently I'm about 3 hours in I believe? Mostly just very immersive exploration. It's very true what others before me have said. You need to make absolutely damn sure you're prepared and well stocked on food, ammo and weapons before you start a campaign mission.
Pacing is so far the most effective tool I've found. Stealth is my primary approach to everything now and I reckon this goes for practically every player in Survivor Mode. My weak clubs take forever to kill 1 single enemy while 1 hit from them in return forces me to immediately retreat and heal up.
Carefully landing headshots is the best way to go. Slowly sneaking up to a group of enemies to take them up one by one, the old, typical early-game "Throw-a-rock-and-takedown-from-bush" tactic that spawned in 2012 with Far Cry 3. It takes forever to get rid of larger groups of enemies using this approach, but at least I don't find myself on fire and screaming "NO NO NO I MUSN'T DIE IN THIS MODE DAMN HELP" this way.
I like it. The permadeath things adds an extreme amount of caution and immersion to the game, though I will say that I'm not sure if I could bring myself to try again if I lose all of my lives (playing on Second Chance atm). Playing on this mode makes it so that you can't wuss out and just let enemies kill you when a situation seems hopeless; no, you must go on no matter how dire a situation seems. It's an incredible feeling though - I'll say it again - I doubt I'd be interested in trying this all over again when I die.
The game itself disagrees with me regarding how well I'm doing. While it feels like I'm doing good, when I think about it all I've done is wandered around the wilderness and discovering a few campfires here and there. Random encounters don't count towards your completion rate of the game however random encounters is what I've been spending most of my time with.
Currently I'm at 3-4 hours in the game, 3% completion rate. Haha. I don't see myself ever reaching 100%. I didn't do it in my previous normal playthrough and I'm certainly not going to do it now on such an extreme difficulty.
Random food for thought - good god, the assault-type missions. They constantly remind you of the permadeath thingy in the background.
Escort missions, rescue missions, campaign missions... they're absolutely terrifying now.
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Le quick questions: Does anyone know the details of Second Chance?
My game says "1 LIFE REMAINING" when I pause, I'm assuming that means I have 1 extra life? As in, I can die once. If I die twice, it's game over?
When do I get extra lifes? Is it just bound to main campaign missions? Level? Experience? The game never tells you this. Don't tell me the only way to get extra lives is doing main quests.
Speaking of which, can I actually get more than 1 extra life? Like "3 LIVES REMAINING"? Or does "Second Chance" literally imply I can't stock more than that 1 extra life?
Additional note: I just realized I'm gonna have to do those Great Beast hunts at some point as well.
The ones that previously made me almost ragequit due to how unrealistically powerful some of those wolves were or how ridiculously difficult it was fighting that OP Sabretooth Tiger in those very tiny, crowded tunnels of his den.
Yeah... I think I'm just gonna cheat and backup my save files before I attempt those. Not gonna risk losing all my progress to some wolves that look like ordinary grey wolves but instantly kill me in 1 quick bite.
You can replace a lost life every 3% of game but you cannot bank these lives. At best you only ever have one extra life.
No doubt the game gets harder later on when that 3% requires bigger risks doing harder missions if you avoid these at the beginning.Lost my latest cushioning life due to doing the hunt for eagle feathers - in the dark - and making a nightime leap of faith. I know beyond stupid I do not know what I was thinking at the time. Obviously I missed the pool. Using much more hunter vision on survival thought it might actually help to spot the eagles but forgot the game asks you to leap off. Annoyingly afterward realised you do not have to make the dive to complete the mission it is optional.
Even with second chance and now playing on normal level survival I am pretty sure I am never gonna finish my game. Too easy imo to get killed somewhat randomly by say a Sabretooth.
Making me wonder if there is another way to have almost this level of tension and consequence in future Far Cry games without the extreme need of a... do over from the beginning. Anyone out there got any other ideas about how the loss of life in games might be made more significant. Primal is certainly experimenting with greater consequences such as the loss of the gear you used even outside of survival. I rather like these losses but respawning in a non survival game now seems a bit too easy and trival. Think it will be hard for me to go back to playing standard Primal with such light consequences to death.
I really don't think there is another way to replicate this feeling. The trepidation you feel at every moment comes from the risk of losing it all. Even having check points that throw you back quite a way won't have the same effect.Originally Posted by vic_must_play Go to original post
That being said, I would like to see a clearer description of how to get 3% progression. At this point it seems like that only comes from story missions... If that's the case, I feel like my later game is doomed. I just surpassed my last streak, sitting on about 11% now and have a spare life.
Incidentally, after I managed to get Wogah to head to the village and high-tailed it back there myself, I literally had a sick feeling in my stomach from the anxiety of nearly dying (wasn't granted my extra life til I got back home and built Wogah's hut).
I ****ing love and hate this mode... Couldn't possibly play the game without it but had to call it quits for the evening after that - it's not quite what I'd call enjoying some relaxing down time.
EDIT: playing extreme difficulty for some masochistic reason...
Hi Guys,
I already wrote some hints and result of my experiments, regarding Permadeath mode. I run on Expert Level Survival mode, but with Permadeath Off. Just for testing without any heartattack that how could I fare.
Well, I have to admit that I failed on 15%. I foolishly get in close combat during Cave of Sunwalkers quest, where you need to burnd down their resources. Tried many times after, but finally learned that my gear and skills are low for such missions.
Also saving Karosh were difficult.
So some new experiences for perma-death mode:
-Avoid side quest till you get better pets and skills and weapons.For skills, you can farm some XP by collecting Dysha Hands.
-Pets tend to lose if you climb up/down and go away for a bigger distance. I lost some pets this way. So its safer to dismiss them, and call when needed.
-Also better to dismiss a pet, if you would like to capture something (outpost) in stealth mode. My pet joined to a fight drawing more attraction, despite I ordered it to stay behind a tree in the bush.
-Bears: Bears are strong. Also difficult to hunt them early, while you have poor weapons and skills. I find that the trap could make wonders. Spot the bear, lay down two traps then start peppering it with arrows/spear. I avoided sabretooth so far, but guess it could work on them too.
-Sting bomb is your best bet, when need to kill 2-3 packed enemies.
So depending to my current experiences, now I know that I couldn't finish this game on Perma-death Expert. Maybe need to lower the difficulty level to hard/normal.
Good luck fellow hunters
Got all the guys back to the village now except for the Udam and Izila those I imagine are gonna be tough jobs. Very scared of the Great Beast Hunts so have not attempted any yet in my Second Chance normal difficulty game. However finally did manage to tame a normal Sabretooth but keeping that one in reserve as I lost a few pets.
As others have mentioned sometimes pets weirdly disappear / die around drops.
On a fun note I survived a mad ambush by another Sabre at night. As mentioned elsewhere it leapt right over my head whilst I was in hunter vision with no lit weapon, forced me to do a quick time to fend it off. Then managed to kill it with another hasty spear thrown to the face. It felt like an awesome kill at the time in fact I am still buzzing thinking about it.
EDIT *** GUESS WHO IS DEAD AGAIN *** THIS TIME AT 32 almost 33%
This one really hurt big time after surviving so much and getting loads of skills unlocked.
Damn Cave Bear did the damage, may that smelly carpet suffer an eternal toothache. Caught me with no animal companion and by surprise in the woods. Thought it was just another brown bear - might go take a time out.
Damn, that sucks. I feel sorry for you man.Originally Posted by vic_must_play Go to original post
I myself am still at the early stages of the game. Everything cranked up to maximum difficulty with the exception of using Second Chance instead of Permadeath. But I lost the extra life during the early bone tree mission. 1 single Udam with a bloody slingshot, standing on a medium-high rock. I was stupid enough to try and jump to hit him mid-air with my club instead of shooting an arrow at him. Obviously this resulted in Takkar automatically doing a slow climbing animation after which the Udam immediately shot 1 rock at my head. Dead. There goes my extra life.
I closed the game after that because I knew that wouldn't have happened if the game were most responsive at that point. Or I could've sent my wolf after him if my wolf hadn't randomly died 20 seconds earlier to the all-too-common bug where they just vanish in Survivor Mode and you need to tame them again. At that point I realized that the difficulty slider in Far Cry Primal should've improved the AI of enemies or something. Not their direct damage. It's not fun going through so much effort to complete a large portion of a game only to then lose it all in a matter of seconds because everything does insane amounts of damage to Takkar in this difficulty.
The game is enjoyable, sure. But it's like doing a very difficult obstacle course and then at the end some guy in a suit walks up to you, gives you a pair of dice and says "You must roll 12, otherwise you need to start the entire obstacle course all over again."
I'll try again later today considering I only lost my extra life. There's still 1 chance left to complete the mission, but I think I'm just gonna start making savefile backups every week or so from now on because I can already tell that I will otherwise lose all my progress at a later point due to some frustratingly unlucky Sabretooth Tiger spawn or something or worse yet, a bug or glitch.