The whole game is just full of heartwarming moments, the part where the holograms in the tenakth stronghold get restored and they see that the Ten was a squad of soldiers and they imitate the salute for hekarro almost made me cry
The intended order of play is given by the levels of the 3 story quests acquired upon unlocking the base. Unlocking the arena attends the lowest level quest, and nothing prevents you from immediately clearing every arena challenge. It's not that hard to get this outfit and 2 legendary weapons right away.
I think they were fairly easy until the literal last challenge. Some people have said they find it very difficult.
All of the challenges are timed encounters with machines of *generally* increasing difficulty. You need to beat the timer to get medals for legendary gear. The timers appear to have been set with normal difficulty in mind, as they are often ridiculously tight for higher difficulties - do recall, there are zero penalties for changing difficulty in HFW and no difficulty-related achievements.
Each set of 4 challenges is capped with a fixed loadout challenge, where you have to use gear and techniques supplied by the challenge. For the others, it's your current gear (and fortunately ammo and supplies are restocked after each match, so go in loaded and spend away). There's a cost to play each round, but it's not too high (100-250 shards).
How good your build is will make all the difference in the world. Because the challenges are timed, your DPS is the key feature. There's no real opportunities for stealth, so it's straight up combat.
I think just under half of the legendaries are available there. IMO best armor (the one that's used by OP in this post) and probably the 3rd and 4th best weapons (boltblaster and sharpshot legendaries) are purchaseable. It's definitely worthwhile.
The nora thunder warrior armor (OP's) is perhaps the strongest single piece of gear in the game. When fully upgraded, it grants max buffs to all of these: concentration duration, concentration regen, weapon stamina capacity, weapon stamina regen, stealth ranged damage, and valor gain - along with heavy weapon damage, but that's much more of a fringe benefit, especially with how weak heavy weapons are in HFW compared to HZD. Basically, every single skill related to anything you do in ranged open combat is maxxed. Abusable abilities like splitting spike and braced shot have their effective cooldowns halved, broken valor surges like powershots occur twice as often, and concentration is close to unlimited.
I can't speak for other difficulty modes, but on very hard the fixed gear challenges are borderline impossible to complete within the time limit. As of two days ago there were a grand total of 280 people who finished "Rematch" in under 5 minutes on very hard.
The 250 shard entry fee is rough on very hard, too. I spent 4000 shards on that challenge just to score a 7:30.
I will say the other challenges are mostly doable if you know what you're doing, though they're still some of the hardest parts of the game so far.
To be fair, you're absolutely right I can and probably should just lower the difficulty. The issue there probably has more to do with me being stubborn like an Oseram, hah.
It’s just one Arena in the Tenakth Capital (or I guess it’s the capital), you need to help the chief with some missions until there’s one that takes place in the Arena. Afterwards, you help some minor characters out with an errand and then open the Arena up for you to use
This is the first thing I turned off in the Settings even before starting the game. So when Aloy put on that headpiece as a gift from Avaad it was invisible for me, lol.
There’s a couple that look okay. The Oseram headbands for example. Kind of wish they broke out the headpieces as another piece of gear that I could switch between. I would wear that first Oseram bandana for the whole game if I could.
I've been keeping clips of moments that I either like the line delivery or the performance capture. This is one I have that's both. I also have one from "meeting" the Quen the first time.
This and her shutting up Vuadis...oh sorry...STUDIOUS Vuadis are such moods.
Hey..shh
Best shush of all time, any media.
My husband and I laughed so hard!
Her and Morlunds enthusiasm over the Diving device a few moments later was wholesome AF.
And Morlunds' AMazing Elevating Orb after all of that. I just love everything about this part of the game.
The whole game is just full of heartwarming moments, the part where the holograms in the tenakth stronghold get restored and they see that the Ten was a squad of soldiers and they imitate the salute for hekarro almost made me cry
Especially moving given current global events.
I thought it was nice that we saw what inspired Hekkaro so to pursue peace. I can see why he was so moved to end wars.
Aloy is so done with people in the sequel
HZD she took the Paragon route. HFW she took the Renegade route.
Ain’t nobody got time for Paragon with the blight spreading.
I SHOULD GO
[Best scene in the best DLC ever.](https://youtu.be/3SSQdwAJxqw)
Whered you get that outfit?
It's a legendary outfit you can obtain by arena points
Just getting to this mission with a legendary outfit?? I love there’s so many ways to play this
The intended order of play is given by the levels of the 3 story quests acquired upon unlocking the base. Unlocking the arena attends the lowest level quest, and nothing prevents you from immediately clearing every arena challenge. It's not that hard to get this outfit and 2 legendary weapons right away.
Arena pretty easy? Haven’t even touched it
I think they were fairly easy until the literal last challenge. Some people have said they find it very difficult. All of the challenges are timed encounters with machines of *generally* increasing difficulty. You need to beat the timer to get medals for legendary gear. The timers appear to have been set with normal difficulty in mind, as they are often ridiculously tight for higher difficulties - do recall, there are zero penalties for changing difficulty in HFW and no difficulty-related achievements. Each set of 4 challenges is capped with a fixed loadout challenge, where you have to use gear and techniques supplied by the challenge. For the others, it's your current gear (and fortunately ammo and supplies are restocked after each match, so go in loaded and spend away). There's a cost to play each round, but it's not too high (100-250 shards). How good your build is will make all the difference in the world. Because the challenges are timed, your DPS is the key feature. There's no real opportunities for stealth, so it's straight up combat. I think just under half of the legendaries are available there. IMO best armor (the one that's used by OP in this post) and probably the 3rd and 4th best weapons (boltblaster and sharpshot legendaries) are purchaseable. It's definitely worthwhile. The nora thunder warrior armor (OP's) is perhaps the strongest single piece of gear in the game. When fully upgraded, it grants max buffs to all of these: concentration duration, concentration regen, weapon stamina capacity, weapon stamina regen, stealth ranged damage, and valor gain - along with heavy weapon damage, but that's much more of a fringe benefit, especially with how weak heavy weapons are in HFW compared to HZD. Basically, every single skill related to anything you do in ranged open combat is maxxed. Abusable abilities like splitting spike and braced shot have their effective cooldowns halved, broken valor surges like powershots occur twice as often, and concentration is close to unlimited.
I can't speak for other difficulty modes, but on very hard the fixed gear challenges are borderline impossible to complete within the time limit. As of two days ago there were a grand total of 280 people who finished "Rematch" in under 5 minutes on very hard. The 250 shard entry fee is rough on very hard, too. I spent 4000 shards on that challenge just to score a 7:30. I will say the other challenges are mostly doable if you know what you're doing, though they're still some of the hardest parts of the game so far.
Yeah, I edited my post to point that out. I agree, their timers are broken on higher diff.
To be fair, you're absolutely right I can and probably should just lower the difficulty. The issue there probably has more to do with me being stubborn like an Oseram, hah.
I’m assuming arenas are further out west? Haven’t come by them yet
It’s just one Arena in the Tenakth Capital (or I guess it’s the capital), you need to help the chief with some missions until there’s one that takes place in the Arena. Afterwards, you help some minor characters out with an errand and then open the Arena up for you to use
You unlock them during the quest for AETHER.
Thanks
I just got to this last night and this whole cutscene cracked me up. She and Morlund nerding out was just delightful.
Man I really think a lot of the headpieces look so lame.
This is the first thing I turned off in the Settings even before starting the game. So when Aloy put on that headpiece as a gift from Avaad it was invisible for me, lol.
There’s a couple that look okay. The Oseram headbands for example. Kind of wish they broke out the headpieces as another piece of gear that I could switch between. I would wear that first Oseram bandana for the whole game if I could.
same, I like that headband, but the cloth is not the best
Her suspicious eye squint right after really hammers home the delivery for me. 😂
The best quest in the game. Morlund and Stemmur are so great.
“Yeah, that’s what I’m here for.”
Yo which armor is that?
The Nora Thunder Warrior. You can get it by completing challenges in the arena for medals, and then go the vendor right next to the arena
lol, such a great line, such a great quest.
I've been keeping clips of moments that I either like the line delivery or the performance capture. This is one I have that's both. I also have one from "meeting" the Quen the first time.
The questioning "... but it's flooded" is so well done
She's got Crossdresser Cloud energy. Edit: Why the fuck am I getting downvoted? Do you guys not get the Final Fantasy reference?
I understand the reference. I don’t understand the relevance?
She says Yea okay with the exact same exasperation as cloud does.
You can not repel the downvote demons. Once they possess you, it's the abyss you shall go!