I just made it further than I had previously and this game has some wild shit. I started recording video when I saw the unfamiliar area. I didn't even understand my death until I watched the video, so you know it's some good Spelunky shit.
It has occurred to me that if I want to progress in this game I should stop hoarding resources like it's spelunky 1 and I'm going after Yama with the strategy of bombing my way through hell.
I thought I'd be all in on Spelunky 2. Played a ton of Spelunky 1 a month ago and finally finished a Yama run, watched a bunch of streamers playing 2 while I waiting in anticipation for the pc release. Unfortunately I'm having a real tough time keeping my frustration in check with the game, not even sure if I'm having fun
2 is a toughie that's for sure. The hitboxes are smaller than the enemy models, your front whip hitbox is smaller than 1, and you have to be higher up on ledges to catch them. I can only play a few runs then I have to take a break.
0
Options
Dyshow am I even using this gunRegistered Userregular
I've leapt face-first into a number of enemies expecting to hit the top of them, so the hitbox changes have gotten me tilted a few times so far.
I'm having fun having to get good at this again through all the little changes, though.
Made it to Vlad's for the first time last night and got the crown and his cape!
And Olmec's new stuff stunlocked me into explosions immediately afterwards.
I have no idea how I'm supposed to fight him at that point and I love it.
0
Options
Dyshow am I even using this gunRegistered Userregular
Actually maybe you just can't damage or kill him? At any rate I'm more than down to just book it to the next zone after I can get to the door.
I watched a bit of Bananasaurus Rex's stream the other day. That guy is pretty good at Spelunky. He got very close to getting Low Scorer on his first attempt, only picking up a single gold bar that was obscured by a foreground element.
I got spoiled on some stuff, but I also learned an important game mechanic:
If you steal from a shop, but don't kill any shopkeepers, you will be forgiven two levels later. I did have a run where it took four levels to be forgiven and I'm not entirely sure what caused that. Either way, being able to rob the shop in 1-2 and not having to deal with angry shopkeepers the whole game is cool.
2 is a toughie that's for sure. The hitboxes are smaller than the enemy models, your front whip hitbox is smaller than 1, and you have to be higher up on ledges to catch them. I can only play a few runs then I have to take a break.
The hitbox changes are annoying. I rarely use the whip now because of it.
Like if there is one thing that's going to get me to stop playing this any time soon it's going to be the jump and whip hitboxes.
2 is a toughie that's for sure. The hitboxes are smaller than the enemy models, your front whip hitbox is smaller than 1, and you have to be higher up on ledges to catch them. I can only play a few runs then I have to take a break.
The hitbox changes are annoying. I rarely use the whip now because of it.
Like if there is one thing that's going to get me to stop playing this any time soon it's going to be the jump and whip hitboxes.
Yeah, I don't mind dying when I feel like I made a mistake, but it's very tilting when I die after I missed landing on something's head, when I know I hit it.
Also, why the fuck do moles get iframes? If I time landing on them when they come out of the ground I should get a hit on them, but as it is you just bounce up and they take no damage.
I never played the first one, but I got this game two days ago. The farthest I've gotten is:
Anubis' temple.
Some things I've figured out:
-At the end of World 1, the exit to Jungle Land (which is the worst) is always on the left bottom corner, and the exit to lava land is always on the right.
-Rock dog makes you completely immune to fire damage so is super duper good for lava land.
-Throwing items/enemies/corpses seem like the best way to kill tougher enemies since you can hit them even when they're stunned.
-LISE is the best player character.
Tell you what I got some pretty tight estimates about how fast I can die real solid foundation of research a wealth of data
Seriously though the deaths where you helplessly bounce around for twenty seconds are agressively sadistic, last night I got to the volcano with a shotgun and a jetpack and a turkey and seven HP and a fireball just dropped in from the top of the screen and instantly killed me and it was a relief thank you Spelunky I said stomping my keyboard into the toilet
I hate the drill, but I've been pretty consistent with it lately. Just gotta be real patient, wait for the lava flow to slow down as much as possible, and then go immediately after a drip, and go quickly. Still pretty far from safe, though.
i enjoyed playing this game and now that i've finished doing everything i feel like doing in it, i have some Thoughts. minor spoilers, mainly level names
mainly, this game seems way, way less curated and carefully constructed than spelunky 1. the dwelling sucks. the moles and lizards suck. 1-4 being identical every time sucks. having to fairy the pet, the ghost pot, weapons, the key, and turkeys through the levels is so just so god damn tedious, but feels like you have to do it every time to maximize your odds of success. not to mention triggering 500 arrow traps per floor
the tide pool and abzu are super easy, easier than the jungle and volcano and WAY easier than temple of anubis and duat. there is literally no reason to ever go to the temple of anubis after you've unlocked the characters there. it's a huge resource dump, duat makes you lose your back item, and is significantly more likely to end your run. it has a collection of by far the hardest enemies and traps in the entire game. it's WAY harder than neo babylon and the sunken city. it would have been one of the hardest zones just because of the crush blocks, i can't fathom why they decided to add new enemies here that are harder than enemies in any other zone. i probably rank the zones, easiest to hardest, like this:
dwelling
tide pool
ice caves
volcano
neo babylon
sunken city
jungle
temple of anubis
this difficulty curve doesn't make any sense. the jungle is just bullshit. you frequently need to make jumps onto vines where a mistake kills you, tons of hidden bear traps, the god damn witch doctor enemy which is probably the worst enemy in the game, the mini spikes all over the place. multiple times i've had witch doctors spawn in a single tile surrounded on all sides by walls so it's unkillable without using a bomb. fucking stupid.
that said, i basically always went jungle over the volcano on my end game attempts. i'd rather contend with a hard level than just get fucked by rng and die, which is what happens to me more often than not in the volcano. spelunky is fun because it's super hard but fair, and usually when you die you know it's your fault. absolutely not the case in the volcano with the drill making tons of unwinnable scenarios.
neo babylon could maybe be bumped up a spot in difficulty since, like the volcano, your runs there are more likely to end due to RNG than making a mistake. i had at least 3 deaths to "ufo flew into a trap then launched directly at me and instantly killed me"
the new olmec fight is really bad and i don't know how it wasn't fixed in playtesting. it's really immediately obvious the strategy is to just sit on him for 5 minutes as he blows up the entire level. it's just boring. should have had the bombs as the final phase, and stomps + ufos as phase 2, maybe.
for all the increase in difficulty, there's also barely any concessions made to the player. the only new item i can think off of the top of my head is the powerpack, which while being good, is still something you'll basically always immediately replace with a cape or jetpack. there should have been a lot more items to help equalize the balance, since this game is a LOT more difficult and unfair than spelunky 1.
the dice game is atrocious. you're basically just tossing the dice whether or not tossing the dice will make the shopkeepers instantly kill you. trying to get to madame tusk's pleasure palace was an exercise in frustration. the wild part is that there's such an easy fix - make a tile blocking the exit so you can roll the dice without the possibility of it barely leaving the door and aggroing the shopkeepers. don't know how this wasn't also caught in playtesting. my assumption is it was, but "oh it's just spelunky difficulty! get good!" was the answer
I got to the boss in 6-4 and I'm not really sure what the winning strategy is.
I tried throwing sticky bombs at her face, but she yelled and that knocked the bombs away.
The yell was doing damage when too close, so it seems like it's a pretty difficult fight if you have to jump on or whip her face.
I'm guessing the easy way to win is having a shotgun.
Shotgun does seem to trivialize her, from what I've seen. I've only personally fought her the once, though, and I was unarmed.
I think I hit her with at least a few sticky bombs? But she did repel, like, three quarters of them. Maybe cooking them a bit first would help...
One thing I did that I think may have been working, although it's hard to say for sure, is standing under her and throwing spare ropes. It looks like the grappling hook hits her on the way up. Although I threw like twenty plus a couple of bombs and she didn't die from it, so it might not actually do damage, or only do a negligible amount. Need more data.
You can just stand on her shoulder and whip her, but you have to retreat after, like, one hit to not get yelled off. It seemed rough.
Oh shit, I finally made more progress! Pretty major spoilers regarding getting the "Awakened" achievement.
I'm really proud of this. I wasn't spoiled on what to do to get to the Cosmic Ocean, and was so happy when the arrow worked exactly as I hoped. Shame I never actually accomplished much there; just kinda wandered around for a bit, and eventually suicided on the big space jelly because I had no other ideas. I have no idea what I'm actually supposed to do there (maybe take the Alien Compass there? Don't actually answer that), but I've got a number of other things I haven't accomplished yet.
I watched a thing on Twitch yesterday (link to VOD) where they had Derek Yu and other members of the dev team on and talked about the game.
They don't outright say it, but I kind of get the impression that to some degree Spelunky 2 was made for the hardcore Spelunky community and that's why it's as hard as it is. And I think that kinda sucks.
Or maybe I'm just being negative because I'm doing poorly at the game, I don't know.
It definitely feels like that is the case. Maybe they didn't just want the vets beating it within a few runs. I can beat Hell in 1 more than 1 in 3 tries and I'm not even that good at it, but I still can't get past 6-2 in Two.
But I can't imagine new players are enjoying it much if I'm finding it frustrating. There are areas in 2 that are harder than gimmick secret levels in 1. Neo is just harder Mothership, Sunken is just harder Worm, Volcano is about as hard as Hell from 1 and it's one of the easier levels in 2. It reminds me of what the Darkest Dungeon devs did; Catered to the hardcore until no one else wanted to play it.
I just feel a bit like they've increased frustration rather than difficulty, things like going through a door and instantly losing a point of health to a bat you couldn't see in time, cave moles dropping on you out of nowhere, instant death traps that are harder to see.
On top of this the hitboxes seem dodgy to me for jumping on enemies, or approaching an enemy that is quickly moving away from you yet it somehow manages to extend backwards and get you.
The number of times I've been on a fairly decent run and then died and just shut the game off rather than start again have massively increased.
I suppose I ought to acknowledge that there are more opportunities to get health once you commit to a diet of turkeys.
And they have made Shopkeepers slave owners in order to justify your rampant murdering sprees.
It definitely feels like that is the case. Maybe they didn't just want the vets beating it within a few runs. I can beat Hell in 1 more than 1 in 3 tries and I'm not even that good at it, but I still can't get past 6-2 in Two.
But I can't imagine new players are enjoying it much if I'm finding it frustrating. There are areas in 2 that are harder than gimmick secret levels in 1. Neo is just harder Mothership, Sunken is just harder Worm, Volcano is about as hard as Hell from 1 and it's one of the easier levels in 2. It reminds me of what the Darkest Dungeon devs did; Catered to the hardcore until no one else wanted to play it.
Thus catering to my hypothesis: The best way to enjoy both Spelunky and Darkest Dungeon is to watch BaerTaffy and BRex and under no circumstances play it for yourself.
I've watched Baer lose a run in the super lategame to the most spelunky deaths, have his soul forcibly extracted from his body, and then alt+F4 OBS like a dozen times. That the game does this to a guy that literally has his likeness etched into it is absurd
Posts
The previous game also listed deaths to traps, but for some reason 2 doesn't.
My top three killed by right now is
Video below, spoilers for world 6
I wish it listed how many times I've been killed by the new gloves controls.
Zay send me your steam so we can leaderboard
im playing on ps4
PSN: Robo_Wizard1
I'm having fun having to get good at this again through all the little changes, though.
Made it to Vlad's for the first time last night and got the crown and his cape!
And Olmec's new stuff stunlocked me into explosions immediately afterwards.
I have no idea how I'm supposed to fight him at that point and I love it.
I got spoiled on some stuff, but I also learned an important game mechanic:
The hitbox changes are annoying. I rarely use the whip now because of it.
Like if there is one thing that's going to get me to stop playing this any time soon it's going to be the jump and whip hitboxes.
Yeah, I don't mind dying when I feel like I made a mistake, but it's very tilting when I die after I missed landing on something's head, when I know I hit it.
Also, why the fuck do moles get iframes? If I time landing on them when they come out of the ground I should get a hit on them, but as it is you just bounce up and they take no damage.
Some things I've figured out:
-Rock dog makes you completely immune to fire damage so is super duper good for lava land.
-Throwing items/enemies/corpses seem like the best way to kill tougher enemies since you can hit them even when they're stunned.
-LISE is the best player character.
I discovered this the first time I went to the secret 4-3, and have video evidence of the event
Sacrificing to Kali.
Also
Although shortcuts are mainly for finding out how quickly you can die if you don't have additional gear
Seriously though the deaths where you helplessly bounce around for twenty seconds are agressively sadistic, last night I got to the volcano with a shotgun and a jetpack and a turkey and seven HP and a fireball just dropped in from the top of the screen and instantly killed me and it was a relief thank you Spelunky I said stomping my keyboard into the toilet
I have yet to make it to the door down there after the first time because of randomly falling blobs of lava from on high
The yell was doing damage when too close, so it seems like it's a pretty difficult fight if you have to jump on or whip her face.
I'm guessing the easy way to win is having a shotgun.
the tide pool and abzu are super easy, easier than the jungle and volcano and WAY easier than temple of anubis and duat. there is literally no reason to ever go to the temple of anubis after you've unlocked the characters there. it's a huge resource dump, duat makes you lose your back item, and is significantly more likely to end your run. it has a collection of by far the hardest enemies and traps in the entire game. it's WAY harder than neo babylon and the sunken city. it would have been one of the hardest zones just because of the crush blocks, i can't fathom why they decided to add new enemies here that are harder than enemies in any other zone. i probably rank the zones, easiest to hardest, like this:
dwelling
tide pool
ice caves
volcano
neo babylon
sunken city
jungle
temple of anubis
this difficulty curve doesn't make any sense. the jungle is just bullshit. you frequently need to make jumps onto vines where a mistake kills you, tons of hidden bear traps, the god damn witch doctor enemy which is probably the worst enemy in the game, the mini spikes all over the place. multiple times i've had witch doctors spawn in a single tile surrounded on all sides by walls so it's unkillable without using a bomb. fucking stupid.
that said, i basically always went jungle over the volcano on my end game attempts. i'd rather contend with a hard level than just get fucked by rng and die, which is what happens to me more often than not in the volcano. spelunky is fun because it's super hard but fair, and usually when you die you know it's your fault. absolutely not the case in the volcano with the drill making tons of unwinnable scenarios.
neo babylon could maybe be bumped up a spot in difficulty since, like the volcano, your runs there are more likely to end due to RNG than making a mistake. i had at least 3 deaths to "ufo flew into a trap then launched directly at me and instantly killed me"
the new olmec fight is really bad and i don't know how it wasn't fixed in playtesting. it's really immediately obvious the strategy is to just sit on him for 5 minutes as he blows up the entire level. it's just boring. should have had the bombs as the final phase, and stomps + ufos as phase 2, maybe.
for all the increase in difficulty, there's also barely any concessions made to the player. the only new item i can think off of the top of my head is the powerpack, which while being good, is still something you'll basically always immediately replace with a cape or jetpack. there should have been a lot more items to help equalize the balance, since this game is a LOT more difficult and unfair than spelunky 1.
the dice game is atrocious. you're basically just tossing the dice whether or not tossing the dice will make the shopkeepers instantly kill you. trying to get to madame tusk's pleasure palace was an exercise in frustration. the wild part is that there's such an easy fix - make a tile blocking the exit so you can roll the dice without the possibility of it barely leaving the door and aggroing the shopkeepers. don't know how this wasn't also caught in playtesting. my assumption is it was, but "oh it's just spelunky difficulty! get good!" was the answer
And yeah what IS with the tide pool being so easy it's less fucked than the first zone substantially less fucked
I think I hit her with at least a few sticky bombs? But she did repel, like, three quarters of them. Maybe cooking them a bit first would help...
One thing I did that I think may have been working, although it's hard to say for sure, is standing under her and throwing spare ropes. It looks like the grappling hook hits her on the way up. Although I threw like twenty plus a couple of bombs and she didn't die from it, so it might not actually do damage, or only do a negligible amount. Need more data.
You can just stand on her shoulder and whip her, but you have to retreat after, like, one hit to not get yelled off. It seemed rough.
https://www.reddit.com/r/spelunky/comments/j5siyp/what_the_hell_happened_here/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
They don't outright say it, but I kind of get the impression that to some degree Spelunky 2 was made for the hardcore Spelunky community and that's why it's as hard as it is. And I think that kinda sucks.
Or maybe I'm just being negative because I'm doing poorly at the game, I don't know.
But I can't imagine new players are enjoying it much if I'm finding it frustrating. There are areas in 2 that are harder than gimmick secret levels in 1. Neo is just harder Mothership, Sunken is just harder Worm, Volcano is about as hard as Hell from 1 and it's one of the easier levels in 2. It reminds me of what the Darkest Dungeon devs did; Catered to the hardcore until no one else wanted to play it.
On top of this the hitboxes seem dodgy to me for jumping on enemies, or approaching an enemy that is quickly moving away from you yet it somehow manages to extend backwards and get you.
The number of times I've been on a fairly decent run and then died and just shut the game off rather than start again have massively increased.
I suppose I ought to acknowledge that there are more opportunities to get health once you commit to a diet of turkeys.
And they have made Shopkeepers slave owners in order to justify your rampant murdering sprees.
Like yeah you can scrape by with a tiny amount of bombs and no mobility, but is it worth your time trying now?
Thus catering to my hypothesis: The best way to enjoy both Spelunky and Darkest Dungeon is to watch BaerTaffy and BRex and under no circumstances play it for yourself.
I've watched Baer lose a run in the super lategame to the most spelunky deaths, have his soul forcibly extracted from his body, and then alt+F4 OBS like a dozen times. That the game does this to a guy that literally has his likeness etched into it is absurd
PSN: Robo_Wizard1