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The Last of Us Part 2: Survivor Difficulty

BluRayHiDef

Banned
I'm playing the game on Survivor difficulty and so far the gameplay has been a rollercoaster of enjoyment and frustration. The consistent lack of resources is a pain, but in environments and scenarios in which I can stealthily kill enemies one by one with the knife, I can get by without resources (though I still die a lot). However, there are other environments and scenarios in which it's hard to be stealthy because there are so many enemies patrolling therein, which is sometimes compounded by the presence of dogs.

At the moment I am at a very frustrating part of the game, at which you have to escape from the basement of a decrepit house while detected by the WLF, who are actively pursuing you and know exactly where you are. This is the part just before you encounter Jesse (which I know because I have watched video walkthroughs).

I am stuck here, because three WLF members swarm me in the basement, attacking me simultaneously. Whenever I manage to run past them and get upstairs, I'm attacked by a fourth member whom I literally cannot outrun; the game is designed to make fighting her unavoidable. When I engage her, the other three come up and assist her, and the rest is history.

I have died at this part perhaps 50 times. I'm frustrated and demotivated. I have only one round of ammunition for a handgun and one arrow.

Fuck this game for being so difficult. It honestly feels cheap.
 

Keihart

Member
I'm playing the game on Survivor difficulty and so far the gameplay has been a rollercoaster of enjoyment and frustration. The consistent lack of resources is a pain, but in environments and scenarios in which I can stealthily kill enemies one by one with the knife, I can get by without resources (though I still die a lot). However, there are other environments and scenarios in which it's hard to be stealthy because there are so many enemies patrolling therein, which is sometimes compounded by the presence of dogs.

At the moment I am at a very frustrating part of the game, at which you have to escape from the basement of a decrepit house while detected by the WLF, who are actively pursuing you and know exactly where you are. This is the part just before you encounter Jesse (which I know because I have watched video walkthroughs).

I am stuck here, because three WLF members swarm me in the basement, attacking me simultaneously. Whenever I manage to run past them and get upstairs, I'm attacked by a fourth member whom I literally cannot outrun; the game is designed to make fighting her unavoidable. When I engage her, the other three come up and assist her, and the rest is history.

I have died at this part perhaps 50 times. I'm frustrated and demotivated. I have only one round of ammunition for a handgun and one arrow.

Fuck this game for being so difficult. It honestly feels cheap.
welp, i got through that whole part running and hiding, after the car arrives, because i was out of resources after the fight in the block before it. My recommendation is, if you have a smoke bomb, use it as the come down the stairs, if you have a bullet, shoot one of the melee guys in the leg so you can steal their weapon, if you don't look for a bottle or a brick to do the same. i'll see if i saved that video so you can get an idea since i got throug it without resources and on survivor too.
 

carlosrox

Banned
Huh, I find this game way too easy so far. You have tons of options.

I've played TLOU like 10 times and finished it on Grounded though.

Still waiting for Grounded in 2.


I've gotten to the TLOU State of Play part now. Difficulty seems to be ramping up finally.
 
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BluRayHiDef

Banned
LOL, right after posting this thread, I tried to make it out of the house again and succeeded. I managed to run past the three WLF members in the basement and run upstairs; I then threw a bottle at the fourth WLF member who's upstairs, which enabled me to kill her instantly with the knife.

However, as I tried to jump off the upper floor to the outside, I was fatally struck from behind by one of the three WLF members who were in the basement. Fortunately, though, I had reached a checkpoint and was able to simply start from there upon reloading the level. Now, I'm with Jesse.
 
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BluRayHiDef

Banned
welp, i got through that whole part running and hiding, after the car arrives, because i was out of resources after the fight in the block before it. My recommendation is, if you have a smoke bomb, use it as the come down the stairs, if you have a bullet, shoot one of the melee guys in the leg so you can steal their weapon, if you don't look for a bottle or a brick to do the same. i'll see if i saved that video so you can get an idea since i got throug it without resources and on survivor too.

I've finally made it to Jesse. Check out my post above.
 

BluRayHiDef

Banned
Huh, I find this game way too easy so far. You have tons of options.

I've played TLOU like 10 times and finished it on Grounded though.

Still waiting for Grounded in 2.


I've gotten to the TLOU State of Play part now. Difficulty seems to be ramping up finally.
Explain your approach, please.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
I beat it on Hard and though it was a tad on the easier side. But if felt balanced enough. Playing new game+ on Survivor and having all your weapons and upgrades makes it feel pretty balanced, if a tad on the harder side. I'd bet that on a first playthrough, I'd be more frustrated than enjoying the challenge of Survivor. Especially because the load times kinda of suck. They aren't the worse load times by any means, but playing through Uncharted 4 right before and having instant reloads on most deaths made it feel a lot better.
 
I'm contemplating a survivor playthrough, but I'm still coming to terms with my negative feelings toward the narrative. May need to shelf it for a time, but I recall falling in love with the original because of survivor difficulty, hoping I come around on this one too.
 

GymWolf

Member
if you explore everything you have enough resources for every encounters, you just have to stealth a bit more.

the game is really not that challenging like the first one.

grounded on the other hand...
 

BluRayHiDef

Banned
I beat it on Hard and though it was a tad on the easier side. But if felt balanced enough. Playing new game+ on Survivor and having all your weapons and upgrades makes it feel pretty balanced, if a tad on the harder side. I'd bet that on a first playthrough, I'd be more frustrated than enjoying the challenge of Survivor. Especially because the load times kinda of suck. They aren't the worse load times by any means, but playing through Uncharted 4 right before and having instant reloads on most deaths made it feel a lot better.
Well, I'm playing it on Survivor on my first playthrough, which the game actually informs the player is not recommended.
 
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BluRayHiDef

Banned
if you explore everything you have enough resources for every encounters, you just have to stealth a bit more.

the game is really not that challenging like the first one.

grounded on the other hand...

Does Grounded become available after completing the game on Survivor?
 

Geki-D

Banned
At the moment I am at a very frustrating part of the game, at which you have to escape from the basement of a decrepit house while detected by the WLF, who are actively pursuing you and know exactly where you are. This is the part just before you encounter Jesse (which I know because I have watched video walkthroughs).
Pretty sure it's actually impossible to stealth this bit. I tried to like a million times on my survivor playthrough but the house at the end just where the exit is (just before the smokey basement bit) has WAAAYYY too many enemies around it, like 6 and 2 dogs. I'm pretty sure it's meant to be a chase sequence till you get to Jesse.

There's another part too later that's similar:

The Scar hideout with Abby just before she gets captured. Again, way too many enemies packed into a small place to get by without getting seen. The fact it ends with Abby getting captured kind of leads me to believe you're meant to run through it.
 
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Grinchy

Banned
If you played a ton of the first game and got to a point where Survivor didn't even feel that hard anymore, will Survivor still feel too difficult on this one?
 

GymWolf

Member
Does Grounded become available after completing the game on Survivor?
no, you have to wait for ND to patch the difficulty into the game.

just wait a little for your second run.

also, if you really are desperate with your survivor run, remember that you can set resources to hard in the difficulty option, hard is basically easy in term of finding resources.
just keep all the remaining options to survivor or the game become a literal cakewalk.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
Well, I'm playing it on Survivor on my first playthrough, which the game actually informs the player is not recommended.
Yeah, I beat the first one on Grounded many times and even I didn't feel comfortable with Part 2 on Survivor. I figured I'd probably at a minimum play the game twice so I may as well enjoy my first playthrough and then really challenge myself on the second. It's hard to enjoy a game when you are constantly being frustrated by it. It's not like there ANY achievements linked to difficulty anyways. That said, Hard is a lot of fun, plenty challenging, and it leaves you just barely enough supplies to survive just about every encounter. Though there were plenty of times I had to run away to get through encounters because I'd mess up a stealth kill with improper timing and would run through supplies trying to survive. I'd highly highly suggest just turning it down to Hard and actually enjoying the game.
 
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Hostile_18

Banned
Ive done crushing/grounded runs on them all and playing hard on this.

No issues so far. Seems easier as resources are plentiful and tons more options. I think the slower you take things the easier it gets.
 

Geki-D

Banned
If you played a ton of the first game and got to a point where Survivor didn't even feel that hard anymore, will Survivor still feel too difficult on this one?
It's way easier, imo. The AI is better but there are way more options to hide and you can actually lose enemies when they find you pretty easily so you get spotted you just leg it and can get some more stealth kills in. In the first game you get spotted, it's a full out open fight till the end.

Also Ellie can stealth kill all Clickers. That helps.
 
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Arachnid

Member
I'm playing the game on Survivor difficulty and so far the gameplay has been a rollercoaster of enjoyment and frustration. The consistent lack of resources is a pain, but in environments and scenarios in which I can stealthily kill enemies one by one with the knife, I can get by without resources (though I still die a lot). However, there are other environments and scenarios in which it's hard to be stealthy because there are so many enemies patrolling therein, which is sometimes compounded by the presence of dogs.

At the moment I am at a very frustrating part of the game, at which you have to escape from the basement of a decrepit house while detected by the WLF, who are actively pursuing you and know exactly where you are. This is the part just before you encounter Jesse (which I know because I have watched video walkthroughs).

I am stuck here, because three WLF members swarm me in the basement, attacking me simultaneously. Whenever I manage to run past them and get upstairs, I'm attacked by a fourth member whom I literally cannot outrun; the game is designed to make fighting her unavoidable. When I engage her, the other three come up and assist her, and the rest is history.

I have died at this part perhaps 50 times. I'm frustrated and demotivated. I have only one round of ammunition for a handgun and one arrow.

Fuck this game for being so difficult. It honestly feels cheap.
That part can definitely be rough without any resources. You don't at all have enough resources for a molotov? I just molotoved the stairs the second I got in. You should be able to catch all three of them with 1. If you don't, you'll just have to get lucky and quickly place headshots on all three enemies in the basement. That or sprint past and get that quick and lucky headshot on the fourth upstairs (is it really impossible to just dodge her and run past?; she only has a melee weapon). Sounds like a rough spot to be in. Worse case scenario, I hope you have a prior save you could load.

For me personally, survivor didn't have enough resource management. I was constantly stocked and I ended the game will full inventory I never got to use (and I definitely wasn't stingy about using resources like I am in most survival horror games). I actually found myself wishing it was a little more difficult. Still, it was just difficult enough to put fear into me during horror sections and keep the tense feeling through human sections, so it was perfect in that respect. IDK maybe it's because I beat the first on grounded a few weeks ago (people overstated Groundeds difficulty too IMO).
 
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What helped me is realizing that the game is not designed for you to stealth kill your way through, nor is it guns blazing. It's a weird hybrid that it forces you almost always be spotted but it's also really easy to go back to stealth. It's different from most games because you can't just run around a corner and be considered back in hiding for most games. It took some getting used to for me.
 

GymWolf

Member
Ive done crushing/grounded runs on them all and playing hard on this.

No issues so far. Seems easier as resources are plentiful and tons more options. I think the slower you take things the easier it gets.
switch to survivor, hard is a cakewalk, you can basically craft arrows and silencers and being a stealth killer without even being notice, also molotov and bombs for more rambo sections, far too many resources.
 

SSfox

Member
Started the game on Hard, and i feel i should gone with Survivor, i've everything full most time, and so there are many times where i can't pick stuffs cause i'm already full lol Compare to Part 1 the game feels easier but idk

Def will go Survivor in my second run. Already excited for that :D
 
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GymWolf

Member
It's way easier, imo. The AI is better but there are way more options to hide and you can actually lose enemies when they find you pretty easily so you get spotted you just leg it and can get some more stealth kills in. In the first game you get spotted, it's a full out open fight till the end.

Also Ellie can stealth kill all Clickers. That helps.
i'm pretty sure that you can regain stealth status in tlou during firefights, it is just more slow compared to tlou2.
 

Bartski

Gold Member
I just finished it on survivor+ and I honestly can't imagine going through some encounters without the "bullet time cheat" or at least soft lock on assistance. I wrote some things about it here. It's really not about the damage enemies deal but about how reactive thy get, never managed to stealth kill a clicker, all infected move so much faster and hit harder but the real problem is human enemies. The way they notice you and fire in a split of a second usually hitting you from miles away to the point it often feels unrealistic. In the later game you need to constantly land perfect headshots not to run out of ammo and immediately bail to reposition and repeat.

I'm definitely doing it again, on PS5, on GROUNDED whenever it comes out.
 

Hostile_18

Banned
switch to survivor, hard is a cakewalk, you can basically craft arrows and silencers and being a stealth killer without even being notice, also molotov and bombs for more rambo sections, far too many resources.

Im saving my hardest playthrough for grounded. I dont see why everyone couldnt be taken out with stealth or avoided though. Famous last words 😂😉
 

GymWolf

Member
Im saving my hardest playthrough for grounded. I dont see why everyone couldnt be taken out with stealth or avoided though. Famous last words 😂😉
dude i'm playing this game mostly because of how good feel killing enemies, i kill everything in my path :ROFLMAO:

55f26bbaff00debc96d2906e692aa82f.gif
 
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martino

Member
I'm playing the game on Survivor difficulty and so far the gameplay has been a rollercoaster of enjoyment and frustration. The consistent lack of resources is a pain, but in environments and scenarios in which I can stealthily kill enemies one by one with the knife, I can get by without resources (though I still die a lot). However, there are other environments and scenarios in which it's hard to be stealthy because there are so many enemies patrolling therein, which is sometimes compounded by the presence of dogs.

At the moment I am at a very frustrating part of the game, at which you have to escape from the basement of a decrepit house while detected by the WLF, who are actively pursuing you and know exactly where you are. This is the part just before you encounter Jesse (which I know because I have watched video walkthroughs).

I am stuck here, because three WLF members swarm me in the basement, attacking me simultaneously. Whenever I manage to run past them and get upstairs, I'm attacked by a fourth member whom I literally cannot outrun; the game is designed to make fighting her unavoidable. When I engage her, the other three come up and assist her, and the rest is history.

I have died at this part perhaps 50 times. I'm frustrated and demotivated. I have only one round of ammunition for a handgun and one arrow.

Fuck this game for being so difficult. It honestly feels cheap.

mobility is the key here
there is worst later :D
 
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BluRayHiDef

Banned
I just finished it on survivor+ and I honestly can't imagine going through some encounters without the "bullet time cheat" or at least soft lock on assistance. I wrote some things about it here. It's really not about the damage enemies deal but about how reactive thy get, never managed to stealth kill a clicker, all infected move so much faster and hit harder but the real problem is human enemies. The way they notice you and fire in a split of a second usually hitting you from miles away to the point it often feels unrealistic. In the later game you need to constantly land perfect headshots not to run out of ammo and immediately bail to reposition and repeat.

I'm definitely doing it again, on PS5, on GROUNDED whenever it comes out.
Despite struggling through Survivor mode, I've stealthily killed Clickers numerous times.
 

Skyr

Member
Is there no reward/ trophy for beating the game on Survivor?
No trophy. You only earn more points to unlock character models and concept art..

Lack of resources on survival is actually what makes the game fun for me just like part 1.
You actually have to put thought into what you use vs which enemies. You have to make use of every mechanic and the environment to your advantage.
And you don’t have to play completely stealthy. You just might have to thin out a group and then use guns/items to finish of the rest.

I very much look forward to the inevitable grounded mode.
 
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Yoboman

Member
I got stuck there on Hard too. Its a weird difficulty spike. Unfortunately I was too dumb to think of just running past them as an option lol

Id recommend trying to always save a buffer of resources and use melee stealth options where possible. Also try not to sit on uncrafted resources. Trying to craft during a fight is frustrating. You will run into a couple more scenarios like this, some of which you can't run from.

Learn using the environment (particularly the wall crevices as chokepoint) plus using the dodge and prone jumps to evade fire is vital
 
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Human enemies are the most fun. Playing against the infected in survivor is a major pain in the ass. You either stealth the majority of the encounter and pick a couple targets with guns or get wrecked going guns blazing - you won't win against rushing infected.
 
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Yoboman

Member
What helped me is realizing that the game is not designed for you to stealth kill your way through, nor is it guns blazing. It's a weird hybrid that it forces you almost always be spotted but it's also really easy to go back to stealth. It's different from most games because you can't just run around a corner and be considered back in hiding for most games. It took some getting used to for me.
I found it pretty logical, they lose line of sight and then you are back in stealth. Its really effective at letting you use stealth while also acknowledging you usually are going to get discovered at some point in a fight
 

BluRayHiDef

Banned
No trophy. You only earn more points to unlock character models and concept art..

Lack of resources on survival is actually what makes the game fun for me just like part 1.
You actually have to put thought into what you use vs which enemies. You have to make use of every mechanic and the environment to your advantage.
And you don’t have to play completely stealthy. You just might have to thin out a group and then use guns/items to finish of the rest.

I very much look forward to the inevitable grounded mode.

Why do you think Grounded wasn't included from the beginning?
 

JimiNutz

Banned
I'm playing New Game+ on Survivor but with one exception... I keep resources on Normal.
I know that's sacrilegious for some but it does still present a decent challenge while keeping the gameplay fun. Resources are still scarce at times.
 

Dick Jones

Gold Member
I'm delighted that I had my first run on survivor. Shocked there was no difficulty trophy like TLOU but nice to see the chapter select acknowledge my struggle with highest level completed.

Playing on survivor made me feel like I earned the ending. I would recommend it as a first playthrough for anyone who finished the first game on new game plus survivor or grounded.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
I'm delighted that I had my first run on survivor. Shocked there was no difficulty trophy like TLOU but nice to see the chapter select acknowledge my struggle with highest level completed.

Playing on survivor made me feel like I earned the ending. I would recommend it as a first playthrough for anyone who finished the first game on new game plus survivor or grounded.
When I saw there was no achievement I felt no incentive to frustrate myself on a first playthrough. Bravo to you though for getting it done. I can't imagine the amount of restarts/reloads you had to go through.
 

Dick Jones

Gold Member
When I saw there was no achievement I felt no incentive to frustrate myself on a first playthrough. Bravo to you though for getting it done. I can't imagine the amount of restarts/reloads you had to go through.
The best thing about Naughty Dog games is the quick loading after death. I would have taken the cowards way out if it took ages to reload. Pity there was no stats as I died alot, it is probably a good thing as I was brutal at times. I once killed a shambler on a fire exit in a gruelling encounter and just afterwards fell backwards off the ledge into death. That one nearly broke me until it reloaded just after that fight.

Those fucking dogs and the stalkers in groups were nightmares. I loved quick throwing bricks at people and fucking their shit up.
 

Bartski

Gold Member
Despite struggling through Survivor mode, I've stealthily killed Clickers numerous times.
yeah so did I on Survivor, but not Survivor+ (NG+ survivor) which amps shit up much further. Clickers seem to move faster than your max upgraded crouch speed and they only stop to echolocate I guess so if you move towards them they detect you. Dunno maybe I just tried many times in the beginning and gave up on it in favor of headshots
 

Keihart

Member
The best thing about Naughty Dog games is the quick loading after death. I would have taken the cowards way out if it took ages to reload. Pity there was no stats as I died alot, it is probably a good thing as I was brutal at times. I once killed a shambler on a fire exit in a gruelling encounter and just afterwards fell backwards off the ledge into death. That one nearly broke me until it reloaded just after that fight.

Those fucking dogs and the stalkers in groups were nightmares. I loved quick throwing bricks at people and fucking their shit up.
I was surprised that now, it wasn't the case in U4, the restart encounter option was also pretty fast. So i have restarted the shit out of some encounters to experiment and to complete them in one go without the checkpoints.
 
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Krappadizzle

Gold Member
The best thing about Naughty Dog games is the quick loading after death. I would have taken the cowards way out if it took ages to reload. Pity there was no stats as I died alot, it is probably a good thing as I was brutal at times. I once killed a shambler on a fire exit in a gruelling encounter and just afterwards fell backwards off the ledge into death. That one nearly broke me until it reloaded just after that fight.

Those fucking dogs and the stalkers in groups were nightmares. I loved quick throwing bricks at people and fucking their shit up.
giphy.gif
 
Got all 100% trophies in The Last of Us Remastered which includes all the DLC which required you to do Left Behind and most importantly Grounded Mode + which was the most difficutly thing. Jumped into TLOU 2 at Moderate difficult for sake of story enjoyment and casual playing.

Due to how gameplay has evolved and how much bigger the levels are, I have a feeling that Grounded Mode in this game will be a complete joke. It's much easier than the first game imo due to your arsenal and better stealth
 
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BluRayHiDef

Banned
Now that I think about it, I don't know whether or not The Last of Us Part 2's Survivor mode is more difficult than Uncharted 4's Crushing.
 

Bartski

Gold Member
The best thing about Naughty Dog games is the quick loading after death.

this is exactly what makes difficult games work and I absolutely love the fact ND gets it, which also gets me so hyped for next gen. I actually died very little but restarted so many times at checkpoints when things were going to shit
 

BluRayHiDef

Banned
This is my run for that part, as you can see i had jack shit in my inventory and even that i had to use lol, i'm loving survivor tho, i like to make every bullet count and have to improvise when i waste them.


It seems that rushing them at the stairway before all three of them could exit it prevented all three of them from swarming you at once; doing so kept the gun wielder at bay long enough for you to take out one of the other two.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Due to how gameplay has evolved and how much bigger the levels are, I have a feeling that Grounded Mode in this game will be a complete joke. It's much easier than the first game imo due to your arsenal and better stealth
I'm playing Part 2 on Survival difficulty I would say, it much tougher than original game. In the first even on survival, enemies much more often drop bullets but in Part 2 they barely drop one, you could run in to encounter with almost no bullets or resources.
 
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