On Damnation (especially hi-intensity, ESPECIALLY hi-intensity shock troop gauntlets), Hab Dreyko’s finale is just a massive slog. It’s easily the least fun mission in the game.
Even on skilled teams, the amount of trash you have to sift through while also somehow having to scan the objective is too much to handle. More time needs to be spent killing enemies than you have available to scan targets, and this is a major drain on resources.
On top of that, after you finish both scan sessions, now you have to run through a gauntlet just to finish the mission? What gives?! I’m ALREADY almost out of ammo, now you’re telling me I need to run through more enemies?
It’s horrid and needs changing. Ideally, small breaks between waves to give players a chance to regroup and actually do the objective.
I like the gauntlet ending, but overall it’s my least favourite mission I think. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t complete it, but I never find it fun in a challenging-fun kind of way; it’s just a slog.
Whereas the newer scan mission endings have different height levels, railings, etc. so that the enemies are at least funneled for the most part, the end of hab dreyko is just one huge open area where all elites, specials and mobs have a free for all.
I’m not against that necessarily, but it’s such a hard area to move around that it just becomes grindy. I think for my money there’re probably 1 too many scan points on each stage. You can move around as a group, but it’s a long haul, and most pugs I see split in to individuals all trying to pick off the 4 corners.
They should honestly combine the phases into a scan 10 to complete and eliminate the lull, especially since things keep spawning anyway. That would make this easier without having to tune anything.
That map always had far fewer enemies than any other mission.
Since the spawn rates in the final event got buffed, it is finally no longer a simple pushover. I really like it since.
If it is too difficult for you, do not play it on max difficulty.
I like what they did with it. The increased spawns apply pressure to the team.
When the team sticks together (or a dedicated player clears most spawns) and people actually play the objective, it is completely fine.
The only times that i had any issues with this event was, when people did stupid things and were not playing the objective.
Same thing with the gauntlet. It applies some pressure to the team but unless you do stupid things, it is very easy to get through.
What I hate most it’s that, after the final event wich probably is already one of the hardest, during the escape towards the extraction point, spawn so many enemies and elites, in a narrow space and with risk of falling, that it almost seems like a second event
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a good challenge, but constant difficulty is both exhausting and annoying. Pacing is key to a good gameplay loop, and for most missions, it’s fine, though sometimes you really do have to carve your way through a nonstop horde - only on Hi-Intens Damnations, though.
Hab Dreyko is different in that you aren’t waiting for an objective during crescendos, you have to move around and scan stuff; while also having to deal with an insane amount of enemies. There’s very little room for error.
You may ask what’s different about this versus hacks, since you still have to interact with a thing, but I’d argue that’s different - the hacks are paced well. You have a lull of simply killing enemies, and when the hack prompt is up, only one target is given, and only one person has to do it. Compared to auspex scans, which seem to encourage the team to split up more than anything, it makes SENSE. Ultimately, the hacks are on a timer that sometimes needs to be given a nudge; scans, on the other hand, constantly expect that nudge.
The scanning segment in the Carnival 2 finale (the stim lab) is essentially a much better version of Papa Nurg’s Christmas Tree. It’s in a condensed area, with enemies only coming from one direction, meaning a good choke, or at least a meaningful spot to direct your team’s focus fire while one or two people are scanning. This ends up with a much similar experience to the hacks.
If it was that stressful on lower difficulties […]
Yeah, of course, I would argue that Hi-int Damnation SHOULD make you play nearly perfectly, but even on other missions, it’s still surprisingly generous. After writing up the explanation for Carnival 2, I’ve realized that it’s the LAYOUT of the arena that sucks, rather than the fact that you have to scan.
The first two scanning segments in Hab Dreyko are fine, actually, because of lots of hallways combined with open spaces to create obvious chokepoints for your team to corral enemies in. Compared to Nurg’s Tree, which is just a giant flat space with enemies coming from all sides, you can’t do the same thing, and just end up getting overwhelmed, even with regular Damnation.
The ending is very doable if the team stick together, the problem is that the scan targets are all spread up around a huge area, encouraging the bad behaviour of splitting up.
If they would make the scan targets more clumped together there will be less problems for everyone.
Imo the Hab Dreyko final event and extraction gauntlet should be the standard that all other missions are tuned up to match. It is really the only one that is remotely intense.
Funny enough, it used to be the easiest finale in the game… Now it is easily the hardest. Pox walkers pour in from all angles, and gunners/snipers spawn in from far away and can pin your entire team down.
Best advice I can give you is to bring a veteran with the corruption cleansing medkit and make sure to place it in one of the side alcoves so you have a safe place to recover. I recommend placing it in the alcove to the right as you come down. That is where your team mates will spawn when they die.
You won’t face any heavy armor for the finale. It’s pure dregs, specials and pox walkers, so know that you’ll need to bring a melee weapon focused on cleaving down the masses.
I’ve beaten it plenty of times since it was buffed. A psyker with smite/venting shriek can shutdown most of the melee onslaught.
There is no avoiding it. It is literally the only investigation mission. Eventually you’ll be running it 250 times when you run out of other penances to do like me I=
This was my favorite mission but atm its the pre nerf Convo of Decay of this game. What makes pugs into slogs without stealth (I will advocate for even Vet stealth here) is that jamoke that always launches the skull before everyone is even at the heal station.
Actually fighting to the drop ship is amazing and should be on every mission. I miss when the final door would open on Refinery and the full toilet dumps into the fan.
This was the exact thought I had the last time I played Hab Dreyko on hi-int, and even on regular Damnation. There’s just too many enemies that spawn too quickly, by time you deal with the enemies and you can actually take out your scanner safely, the next wave is already crawling out of the ductwork. It also doesn’t help that a decent chunk of the time, one of the scan objectives is in a spawn room, which makes getting it difficult without some direct communication. Expecting that from a group of complete randoms is a bit much TBH.
I’d suggest slightly reducing the number of enemies and elites per wave, or increasing the time between waves. Enough so that a team with average coordination and situational awareness (that is, they remember to take out their scanner when there’s nothing near enough to poke them) can complete it in a handful of waves.
One of the reasons why convo had such a terrible success chance was that everyone played QP. In DT QP is nowhere near as popular. Iam pretty sure Mael cant be qued into with QP at all.
That means you can always bring builds you know will work, or make the end event a snooze fest. A single stealth Vet can do the event solo. A Taunt Ogryn makes it trivial to do the scanning. A Point Blank Ogryn minces the Elites in an instant. CC, or Trauma Psyker works wonders, as does a chorus Zealot.
Hub right now is one of the few events that make staying together and fighting toward a location a necessity. If more end events would require more active involvement, not just staying alive, people wouldnt have so much trouble with it. The second people start splitting things are very likely to go south. FS apparently does include mechanics in the game that make such a behavior punishable by the AI director, why shouldnt it be in end events?
I wish more end events would be like hub, or warren. The only way a “standing in a corner” end events go south is when the “mission aborted” joker gets pulled by the AI director. That sadly includes the other new map “Merc”. Events that are as speedy as the group manages to accomplish goals are just more engaging.
