Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Help/Tips/Tricks What am I missing?

I've reached a point where I've purged the Screamers and Gareth and company go to the boat. However, first I have to pass a combat where the enemy is a level higher than me. With difficulty, I defeat them but then appears a huge sea monster that finishes me off. The game at the beggining of the first combat, warned me that I should return later. But I think I visited every part of the island and I think I don't have any more enemies to fight and gain experience. Maybe there's still a couple of side-quest to finish. I don't see where I'll get enough XP to advance a level.

I've started in Classic mode, then turned to Explorer mode, because it was just unfairly difficult to me. However, Explorer was a little bit too easy and after a while, really easy, so I went back to Classic mode again. With more experience and equipment, It was much more accessible.

I wonder if in explorer mode, we earn less XP in combat. If yes, may I have reached a point that I can't earn enough XP to reach the necessary level to surpass this combat? I'm level 7 right now, the enemies are level 8.

You're not really missing anything, the combat with the worm is just challenging.
My party was level 7 when we reached the worm too.
Good luck!

It's exceptionally difficult to reach level 8. It might be possible with a genocide run and Pet Pal.

Regarding levels, I've hit level 8 with some 15% over without unnecessary kills. Before beginning the last fight. I never go without Pet Pal, though.

It's mostly about finding as many of the experience triggers as you can. That is mostly completing quests and visiting locations, not so much combat. Most importantly, doing everything that has an order in that correct order.
My very first playthrough, I did things way out of order and only had level 7 by the final fight, because I skipped experience gaining triggers. Still beat it, after several tries. I've also never won by letting the worm fight the magisters and waiting it out.

I don't think the difficulty changes exp gained.

As many people can demonstrate, Classic is doable and not even that hard. Assuming of course, that you have a good party composition and not throwing too many points around where you won't use them.

I've tended to hit level 8 during the last fight without on my various play-throughs any dubious shenanigans other than playing on explorer mode. I also never go without Pet Pal, which I consider to be one of the more useful of the talents, although mostly as I like exploring...

I just finished a solo character run on Classic mode. For the final fight I mostly kited around the area with Tactical Retreat and sniped the humans and the worm as they fought each other.

Well, going back to explorer mode I've managed to overcome that combat. Instead of entering the area, I've sent someone there and made him retreat, so that the enemy had to come to me leaving behind the two in the high places and avoiding being flanked. That made the combat easy. Then I defeated the two and only then appeared the giant worm.

I think there should be some difficulty mode between explorer and classic or both should be tweaked, because explorer mode is too easy (but I think that's intended, for those who don't like combat very much) but the classic mode can be a little bit too hard, specially if you don't make the right choices in the beggining (for example, if I had known that a sorcerer, archer and knight/soldier would join me, I would not have made my character an archer; If I knew that source points would only be usable near the end, I would not have had spent money in learning certain skills/spells; etc).

I'll try the same fight in classic mode, now that I have a little bit more experience with this combat.

There was no need to take an archer, there is also a witch as a fourth character available. And early in the game, you hardly lose if you respec a character. But honestly I think it would be nicer for single player campaign, if you just could define your team without the need of using tricks to do so. Some of the predefined classes aren't very appealing at current state.

In my first run, I hit level 7 during the final fight.

Classic mode is too easy. You can beat it with a party of one character.

Good for you, but the point of the thread is definitely not to brag about how you finished it, nor how easy you find it.
Some people can have trouble with what other people call easy, but that's still not the point.

Closer to the point is whether or not so much content is hidden out of the main path that it can result in an undepowered character for the end fight. On top of that, there are cases where doing a quest line out of order will result in losing quite a bit of experience.

Even closer to the point, if I understand it correctly, is whether or not the end fight is balanced against the level the average player will reach by that point.

I was responding to his claim that the game is unfairly difficult. It isn't.

Key part:


Nuance.

It is possible that other people are not, in fact, YOU, and are playing the game in a different way with a different party configuration than you. Different people can have a different rate at which they master the combat and systems of the game. That will be the case on release as well, so feedback from those people is entirely valid even if they are not as good at the game as you.

Also not everyone knows as good how to exploit the combat mechanics and AI flaws for the own advantage.

But I think the point still stand, fight can't get properly balanced, before stats and skills got their final balancing.

It might not be difficult for you personally, but other people (like me) may not have exactly the same experience as you or may simply have a different playing style: for me personally combat is a part of the game but not an end in itself.

Oh I got WRECKED the first two times trying this (both times before the turn the Voidspawn appears), then I went BS mode and snuck my people into better positions outside the courtyard (for example, teleported my wizards up on top of the bridge), down by the shore that Gareth takes off in the boat at, lured a few of the losers down there and started wasting them...until I caused a Holy Fire underneath the Voidspawn as it first appeared, while also having primarily fire-based weapons.

2nd time around I made sure I could knock off Whatshisfaces armor with a Source based skill so my rogue could tickle his guts before Mr.Snek could come in and ruin the party again (kept everyone on the ground this time, too).

But overall, the entire experience for the game (so far) isn't really all that difficult, other than the EXP being pretty low (and I explored the entire dang island, even the area where the little kid keeps his treasure and even killed the fake-out fire-skele's in the Gargoyle's Maze) and getting to lvl 8 being impossible in Explorer mode without killing anyone/everyone you come across.

It's definitely possible: I've got to level 8 three times using my "blundering about aimlessly" technique, although only just. None of those occasions involved killing anyone or anything I shouldn't, though I'm a bit sad about having to pwn the source hounds every time.

If you're lazy (like I am), you can also just sneak around and teleport everyone into shriekers. Also position someone else in shrieker range (outside of their vision, though) in sneaky mode. The worm will still nom it, since it seems to find sneaking characters everywhere. And the shrieker will one hit the worm and you just revive your guy.

If you do it like this, it's probably gonna be the most anticlimatic fighting you've ever done in this game.

Gotta try that on my solo / duo run.

I've gotten to level 8.5 twice now without killing a single innocent (magisters aren't innocent!) but it required attention to dialogue choices to get the most XP from situations and only running some quests out of order. (I find and rescue Gareth before going to the seeker camp.)