ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Hi there, folks,

I've got a fairly open ended question. I've managed to collect enough information about the game, and stored enough equipment in my vault, that I've managed to finish the game a few times. The first 15 levels are usually an RNG toss up, but after I get to sher'tul I'm usually pretty confident.

This is on normal difficulty, of course.

Is it considered the convention that after becoming comfortable with the game players move up in difficulty? Should I be playing on Nightmare now? Is that the intention? Or is that more like game modes for people who are just bored of the game?

Thanks.

Nothing wrong with playing on Normal difficulty - especially if you plan to play on classes you are unfamiliar with or bad at. However, if you find Normal Difficulty is getting to become a 'free win', then you can always try the harder difficulties to add more of a challenge.

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Its amazing what the mind can come up with, but it shows talent to make something of it. - Davion Fuxa
Inscription Guide - Version 1.4.8 Steam Guide
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It depends on the player, I moved up when I started finding the difficulty too easy or boring, if you're enjoying the difficulty then play it!
That said, don't be afraid to try a higher difficulty, you never know what you'll enjoy until you try it.

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"As dying is one of the leading causes of death, you should avoid dying." -rekenner

"I'll bond with a cactus until my buttcheeks touch the sand before I play nethack again" -Gagarin

I beat Normal 10 times before moving onto Nightmare, but I only beat Nightmare 3 times before moving onto Insane. It really depends on how comfortable you are and how much of a challenge you want. If you're only winning with stuff like Oozemancer and Solipsist then maybe you should try a harder class but otherwise you should be ready to take on Nightmare.

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My wiki page, which contains a guide and resource compilation and class tier list.

NM is boring in 1.4.9 zzz. I suggest winning as soon as possible with a strong class/build and then playing insane. Normal is fine too, but it gets boring after awhile.

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A little bit of a starters guide written by yours truly here.

Jumping from Normal to Insane is, well, insane. Nightmare's not that much harder than Normal but it's a good stepping stone. Also I believe it's getting harder in 1.5.

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My wiki page, which contains a guide and resource compilation and class tier list.

Imo it's better than playing Neo-Normal mode, at least until 1.5 comes out.

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A little bit of a starters guide written by yours truly here.

pick whatever you enjoy most

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<Shibari> You're full of shit
<darkgod #tome> ster is a troll
<Sheila> and ster, i do agree with you on most things game-related, but do try to not be such an ass!
<mex> your posts lead to people like me being abused and murdered

I dunno, there seem to be an awful lot of people stuck on insane and not moving up...

That's because madness is designed to be unreasonable. Most classes it isn't even reasonably possible.

Insane is the last fun difficulty

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"As dying is one of the leading causes of death, you should avoid dying." -rekenner

"I'll bond with a cactus until my buttcheeks touch the sand before I play nethack again" -Gagarin

For me, the problem is the game is too easy on normal - except for the final boss fight (in the MajEyal campaign, not EOR).
Nightmare feels about right so far and I start most of my characters on it for the extra challenge now.
Insane feels very unfair and you have to do so many runs before you can even survive the Tier 1 dungeons.

EoR with the new OP classes is too easy on normal and nightmare, final boss included. Unless you do stupid things like trying the vaults/sewer grates at early levels or trying to fight the patrol ambushes. I beat the boss first try and was never even close to dying, and only had 1 character lose all their lives when I took too many risks from overconfidence, attempting end game vaults with level 150 monsters. (very bad idea)

Don't forget you can do arena mode and infinite dungeon mode too, those are pretty challenging. Arena is reasonably difficult, infinite is like Insane - really brutal to start off with, hard to get momentum. But once you break through it gets a lot smoother. Summoner class really shines there.

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"You could skip it, i think it drops 0 xp and 1 copper [at most], you are better off selling oxygen to beggars to become rich."

insane assumes drowning to start which is a bad tedious mechanic, other than that it's pretty fun because it keeps you thinking and your character is very strong compared to lower difficulties.

(imo nightmare is harder than insane but not in a very fun way)

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<Shibari> You're full of shit
<darkgod #tome> ster is a troll
<Sheila> and ster, i do agree with you on most things game-related, but do try to not be such an ass!
<mex> your posts lead to people like me being abused and murdered

Insane is usually a rough start without everyone's favorite mechanic, drowning, yeah. Other than that, the sheer amount of rares/rare+'s that pop up in insane are very difficult to get used to but the loot (especially in 1.5, since pinks won't be godawful in most situations) really does make up for it.

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A little bit of a starters guide written by yours truly here.

Well playing Roguelike instead of Adventure is also an interesting way to up the challenge. I like Normal / Roguelike best. Lulls you into a false sense of security and is very unforgiving of mistakes, just like real life.