Need advice about game difficulty

First of all I still didn’t play Phoenix Point, only tease it a bit after launch. And couldn’t find on this forum clear information about difficulty difference, only some outdatet discusstions which doesn’t represent situation actual patch.

I’m a hardcore player and I like when game punish me for mistakes, but not to situation where I have to restart the whole game because it doesn’t have comeback potential.

I like game to be hard, but I’m definitely not the “Iron Man” mode lover. I simply don’t have time play single game twice or more.

Any game I play only ONCE and tried to get all possible content during playthrough, but if I have to restart whole campaign without comeback potential I likely abandon it and never start it again.

So after all this is it worth to start Phoenix Point on hardest difficulty? As I understand it still has ability to save when I want, but still not clear about comeback ability if I do some mistakes.

If one hasn’t played a full campaign, I would suggest Veteran. The downside to Hero is that the ODI marches along quite quickly and it could be game over before one grasps all of the critical goals/missions/research. Veteran is more forgiving with the ODI progression. (see ODI in Leviathan 1.0.56049 - 04/3/2020 Patch Notes). With Veteran, carefully spaced & planned saves can help one use the way-back machine without throwing the baby out with the bath water. Also the faster the ODI, the less time one has to explore all of the different side mission and story lines. So if your goal is to milk the most out of the game in one play through, I would vote Veteran.

There could be some issues due to RNG placed bases, faction havens, special missions that can also break the game, and may not be obvious until one has spent several hours playing. There is no going back other than a new game.

This is my take on having played through on the first 3 difficulties (Rookie, Veteran and Hero). I am sure there are others that will share a different opinion, hopefully those that have played at least Veteran to Legend.

Then again, you may just wish to table the game until it’s closer to the Steam release date. As there are numerous planned changes to the game that are being promised.

You won’t be able to see all content on hardest difficulty. Game pace is too fast to unlock it all.

And game is quite punishing if you will make mistakes. There can be point of no return even without “game over” sign.

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I don’t know what is ODI :slight_smile: but seems I can suggest it some sort like Panic level in XCOM. In XCOM btw I had mechanism to decrease this panic doing side missions with free agents. So it was a bit forgiving once I get enough soldiers.

If most side missions are unique this is cool. One thing I really hated in new XCOM most side missions was just procedurally generated but with different events. Such missions give zero content but was necessary to grind new equipment and XP for soldiers.

This is one thing I’m afraid. I’m sure Phoenix Point also have a lot procedural mission and I don’t want spent too much time on something I already saw. I believe there’s should be some synergy between storyline and procedural content, but when game throws me into countless non-story missions I’m getting bored very fast.

Yep, think this is what I’m gonna do. Moreover next DLC comes with major content, it’s better wait a bit.

Thanks for disclosed answer!

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So I would hold with gameplay. Phoenix Point is vastly generated. Even if side missions have unique buildigs, you still have the same generated enemies there.

This game is not for you, I think. This game try to punish you if you play good. If you make mistakes (take a lot of damage on missions, loose soldier) game try to be easier. Yes, if you lost all your soldiers then it will be game over )) But it’s not challenge at all.
The legend difficulty is hard caped at three months of game time. So, you can’t even research all techs (but you don’t need much of them for winning). In general it’s not much harder, then other difficulty. In some case (new soldiers without equipment just for some food) it even much more easier, then veteran, for example.

P.s. I looking for challenge and punish for mistakes and didn’t find that in this game in it current state

I first tried veteran and then hit a brick wall of difficulty (couldn’t get past the Antarctica mission).

Recently started a new play through on rookie, and my main issue now is resources. I never have enough. Which has been slowing me down A LOT. Where in veteran I had 5 ships and several squads, I only have 3 ships with 2 proper squads, and only 1 of those is properly skilled. That said I’ve been experimenting more this play through with different weapons.

Shotguns I tried this time round and quite like those. Grenade launchers seemed good for my heavies, but you need something for when in close quarters, and they lack the punch that the Hel II cannon gives. Tested out snipers going heavy multi-classing and don’t like them since you lose dash.

Also this time round, only stole 1 of the 3 ships I have. Manticore’s appear to do the job just fine and get around wayyyyyy quicker than the Tiamat’s. With a highly trained squad of 6 they do a fine job. I just need to improve my rep with Anu to gain access to their improved food production tech. That should fix up my resource issues once I have that.