A few things I think need to be changed/rebalanced/updated/etc

Phoenix Point is a solid game, but there are definitely a few things that are either underpowered, overpowered, imbalanced, or in need of bug fixes. Here’s a list of things I’ve come up with and some suggestions on how to change them. I’m sure a few of them have already been noted by the devs, but I’ll still be listing them.

  • The Ancient Weapons are extremely strong and satisfying to use, don’t get me wrong, but they’re honestly too much. While I don’t think nerfing their damage, range or other parameters is necessary, I do think they should not have unlimited ammo. Changing the weapons to require exotic ammo would help curb them a bit by removing one of their key advantages: the fact that they save on backpack space. Make it so the ammo costs Antediluvian materials to create (not too much, but something like the Rebuke should need Mutane gas to forge its ammo) and it’ll keep them from being 100% beat-all when compared to the weapons made by the other factions.

  • Rapid Clearance is definitely in need of a rework. It feels like cheating when you have an Assault/Heavy equipped with a Mattock, the Synedrion Mech Torso and Anu Agile Legs, and send them into a cluster of enemies, oneshotting them and getting 2 AP for the 1 AP you spent attacking them. I’ve had such a soldier sweep through over 10 kills in a single turn when attacking a Pandoran Nest; it’s kinda insane. Even if it takes a while to get a soldier who can do this, it still feels broken. To address this, Rapid Clearance should refund the amount of AP used in a killing blow, not refund 2 AP on every kill regardless of attack type used. This would definitely nerf the Assault/Heavy melee build and some explosives builds, but it would be a buff for heavy weapons and sniper rifles. Either that or Rapid Clearance needs a cap on how many times it can refund AP per usage (i.e. up to 5 times per turn).

  • The Infiltrator’s Sneak Attack perk should have its effect reduced for explosive weapons. I’ve been using an Infiltrator/Heavy combo with a Rebuke, augmented with the Synedrion Head and Anu Shadow Legs for improvements to Stealth. This build lets me bombard enemies from long range and do insane amounts of damage, while using Vanish if my artillery soldiers are spotted. It’s kinda insane how much damage they can do. Reducing the effectiveness of Sneak Attack on explosive weapons could help rein in such terrifying power.

  • The New Jericho Archangel RL-1 rocket launcher is an oddball, likely due to improperly-coded stats. It presently deals Blast damage, but without a blast radius, and has a 168 effective range. I’m guessing it was meant to have a blast radius of 1 and an effective range of 68, but someone goofed it up. I know this one has been cited before, but the devs haven’t gotten around to fixing it. Sure, having a sniper-like rocket launcher is kinda nifty, but I doubt that was the intent.

  • EMP Grenades, even when used against the Pure, are pretty weak. 60 damage alone is bad, and it doesn’t even deal limb damage. Add on that it only works against mechanical enemies, and there’s no real reason to make EMP Grenades.

  • Speaking of The Pure, the mission “The Bionic Fortress” is very underwhelming. The map is very easy to beat by mid-game, with the only threat being those pesky Spider Drones, but the fact that you don’t even fight Subject 24 and the fact that the facility doesn’t even look like much of a “fortress” makes the showdown with The Pure really anticlimactic. I would love to see the devs remake the mission, maybe taking notes from XCOM: Enemy Within and the assault on EXALT’s headquarters in that game.

  • Repair Kits are just too expensive. They cost almost as much as an augmentation itself, even if they can restore its functionality mid-fight. I personally just use a Technician with Field Medic and repair the augment after the mission rather than use Repair Kits. If Repair Kits were cheaper, I think they’d be a lot more worthwhile.

  • Scyllas need to be more resistant to psionic attacks, viral damage, and other forms of disables. It’s really easy to disable one if you have a soldier with Biochemist and a rapid-fire weapon to drain its WP after you shred its armor. I’d change them so that they have a passive that lets them resist effects that drain their WP as long as their head is not crippled. If you cripple their head, however, you can then use stuff like Induce Panic, Neural Disruption, Mind Control, and so forth. This would make it so those options aren’t completely taken away, but the player has to put in more effort to get them to work.

  • The Adrenaline Rush ability doesn’t state in its tooltip that it imposes a severe accuracy penalty while active. I found this out the hard way while trying a Sniper/Berserker combo with Strongman. Adding that bit to the tooltip would be a nice quality-of-life fix.

  • The Anu Perceptor Head, while neat, needs to do more than just provide stats. Perception isn’t that hard to build on a character, and you sadly can’t pair the Perceptor Head with things like the Motion Sensor or Mist Repeller accessories. It’d be nice if the Perceptor Head had a special feature to it, rather than just being a stat-stick.

I’ll add more if I think of it, but this is a good start.

9 Likes

I generally agree with you on the points you’ve made except for the one about EMP grenades. EMP grenades are a little bit better than you think. I did a lot of experimentation with EMP grenades back when the Blood and Titanium DLC came out, to figure out what exactly they do, since EMP damage was not explained in the in-game Phoenixpedia. Here is the in-depth explanation I wrote back in June 2020 about how Zeus EMP grenades work in Phoenix Point, that is referenced in the Phoenix Point wiki:

http://phoenix.server317.com/Damage_types#EMP_Damage

In the time since I wrote that explanation, EMP grenades now work properly against Infiltrator spider drones as well.

I never got around to testing EMP grenades on Ancient Hoplites and Cyclops, but they have EMP resistance that causes them to only take half damage from EMP grenades. But if any body parts of Ancient Hoplite/Cyclops enemies are exposed to the centre of an EMP grenade explosion, it should still disable their effected body parts for one turn.

As for the first point you made about the Ancient weapons, my personal opinion is that they need some extra careful balancing. I think the Ancient weapons should require expensive ammo that costs Orichalcum/Crystal/Mutane to make, with the Mattock of the Ancients left as the only ammo-free Ancient weapon (the Scyther is such a powerful melee weapon that it should be ammo-limited). The Ancient weapon’s stats should also be toned down a bit so that they are only slightly more powerful overall than the faction late-game tech weapons are. Changes like these would rebalance and repurpose the Ancient weapons so that they function as ‘golden gun/golden ammo’ weapons that are too expensive for routine use and are meant more for special occasions and particularly difficult missions.

3 Likes

You should propose that on Canny if you haven’t already.
That is the best way to get sensible suggestions like this listened to.

3 Likes

Not familiar with Canny. What is that?

The Phoenix Point Canny feedback page. It allows you to create, and vote for, proposals for improving the game. The Snapshot Games developers look through the proposal topics and decide which ones they want to implement in the game.

For example, I’ve just made this new one on Canny. Here’s the link:

Legacy of the Ancients DLC weapons need to be rebalanced

You’ll need to setup an account to create and vote on proposals though. Here’s another link to the Phoenix Point Canny Feedback home page, you can setup a new account on the top right of the page.

Canny Phoenix Point feedback homepage

All the things you’ve posted above about what needs changing in Phoenix Point, you can also post in the Canny feedback page as well.

1 Like

I fully agree with you. Phoenix Point have so many overpowers for player side that has no fun to good players… i hope they change anything for Festering the Skies and nerf severly this super soldiers massacring aliens game type that PP is now.

Put your suggestions in:

Phoenix Point Feedback

Thats where the developers read and answer the fans.

Good luck