Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Help/Tips/Tricks How am I so underleveled??

I struggling A LOT with this game. I'm playing on explorer and still consistently get beat in almost any encounter. I have 4 party members (fane, ilfan, red prince, sebille) all on different specializations. Currently, I'm at the quest where I've retrieved the purging wand and need to fight alex and the void worm. I'm level 5, they are level 8+. Even on explorer this requires perfect execution and an in depth knowledge of all the combat mechanics. I feel as the entire purpose of explorer mode was that you don't have to first master the game to do a play through. What am I doing wrong? I've tried buying as much equipment as I can afford, but I have no means of getting more gold. Is there any way to grind on weaker enemies to level up? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

cheers,
dom

You're way too underleveled for that encounter. After doing everything you can in that region before that point, your party should be level 8 as well.


It's exactly because you're playing on Explorer that this encounter were even doable at all with a party three levels lower than the intended level. I don't know about Classic but on Tactician it should be impossible (without some god-tier cheese, anyway).


More or less, provided you're tackling encounters of the same level as yours. Or one level higher at most. The very first key to combat is level difference. One level difference makes a huge difference, because your HP and the magnitude of all spells/skills AND stats of equipment scale strongly with level. On Tactician with solid understanding of everything and perfect execution, with a standard party and decent gear (so no Lone Wolf or any other cheese), an encounter of two levels higher against at least four enemies will be a real challenge but doable (usually).

Back to your situation, you should be level 5 (or close to) just by completely exploring Fort Joy and doing everything you can in there. After that, by exploring the remaining areas and going through several other encounters, you should be able to hit level 8 before taking on Alexandar. If you're still level 5 when getting to Alexandar, then there's a whole lot of stuff you haven't done and explored. There are a bunch of encounters of level 5, 6, and 7 around Fort Joy, and also keep in mind that you get XP just by exploring new areas.

One of the problems, though, is it isn't clear which quest paths can help you level up. And very few quest path can be completed within a level, one almost always has to come back after leveling up. Which is difficult enough on its own, but the whole quest naming and organizational convention when looking at the Log is so convoluted it is difficult to follow which quest is actually which, or which are really related or sub-quests. The Quest Log is a hot mess.

Both in Fort Joy and especially now after I've escaped Fort Joy I keep hitting a level gap in just about every quest and I am having a difficult time figuring out how to level up enough to complete varying quests. I keep thinking a certain quest should be simple enough to get some more experience but then I hit a brick wall.

I am not a fan of the magic skill "Restart fight" as a valid tactic, but this game seems to make take that strategy to a whole new level. Not deal breakers but annoying all the same. I do a lot of wandering around.

Secondarily I hate when my physical or magic armor seems to be one shotted by enemies, even of a lower level than me. Without really being able to pre-buff this is just cruel and unusual punishment.

Joe

Tip #1: actually explore. It's called the explorer mode ffs, just run everywhere, and when you see red bordered enemies that's a similar level to you, GO KILL IT.

Tip #2: actually buy armors that's the same level as you are. Your armor won't get oneshotted if you have a semi-up to date equipped character taking said hit.

Tip #3: there's a LOT more quests/encounters to farm up on, if you're under leveled you're just skipping too much stuff. If you actually found almost everything, not a single encounter in the game will have you be under leveled by even 1 level.

Tip #4: talk to NPCs. Read the dialogue instead of skipping through. They will give hints (or outright tell you) as to where you can find events, most of which also give exp.

Tip #5: every quest can help you level up. You can just chicken out if you find the enemies for that quest many levels above you, then come back later. No penalties for not immediately fighting them in 95% of the quests (Trial for all seasons or the one in the Blackpits being the only exceptions off the top of my head)

Tip #6: Then kill all the NPCs for extra exp. Magister keeping peace in camp? KILL. Shop vendor helped you with your collar? KILL. Little doggo wagging its tail at you, not having done anything wrong? KILL. THAT'll get you mightily leveled. Not that I recommend it unless you like to roleplay the most evilest baddie, but still.

Tip #7: some quests are initiated by talking to animals. Do try pet pal, you'll find many hilarious (and oftentimes plot relevant) storylines speaking to random animals.