Here is basic info no one is really saying. The robots are MORE POWERFUL. You generally cannot fight them head on and win. If you try this you will lose. Period. You need to fight smarter some how. People are giving you advice on how to do that but really it is up to each player to realize and learn to play tactical. Sometimes I snipe , other times my position is bad so I run for the hills to escape. Grenade or mine, It varies alot all the time. It is a challenge and I love it that way. So do all who play this game for long.
3 Likes
Only way to make Adventure difficulty easier, (other than learning to play the game), is to remove all machines from the game. And even then, you can die. E.g step on a landmine, blow yourself up with a grenade or fall to your death.
6 Likes
Hi everyone.
I’m not sure how up to date this topic about difficultly still is and what was actually tweaked or fixed.
I started the game about three weeks ago with my brother and we nearly quit after exploring South Coast region and encountering loads of hunters and at least one harvester. As we came in quite freshly from Archipelago and were on skirmish difficultly, we got our asses kicked big time to the point where we ran out of ammo, medkits and adrenaline.
We decided to switch to adventure difficultly and heck, was it payable all of a sudden. Machines actually got damaged with our then crappy guns as of before we didn’t even notice that we’re damaging them at all. That’s for hunters and above, runners were no big deal.
Now that I found better guns and stockpiled a good amount of ammo I went back to area I mentioned before.
What put me off was, as mentioned before in this thread, the machines join battle from miles away. I had a rival in the area (didn’t even spot it) and encountered a FNIX harvester with like four to five hunters. What I ended up with were four harvesters (military and FNIX) plus all the hunters in a large radius, plus the hunters they call in, plus the rival, also a hunter.
I managed to beat them all, even without dying, but it was kind of stressful to say the least. I wasn’t near any building and had to use the environment as cover, which works only so well until the hunters circle you, forcing you out of cover. Oh and the harvesters mortar fire of course.
Long story short, I support the wish for a smaller detection range. I didn’t even see any of the other machines as I scouted the area before engaging the FNIX harvester with its hunters, but still a s***load of machines came out of nowhere. That’s what in my opinion makes the game too much of an arcade shooter.
Later I went up north in farmlands to kill an apo tank rival. My ammo is mostly depleted now, as there were three harvesters plus two other tanks more or less with the rival.
So, I’m not saying the number of machines should be reduced or made easier (they are quite easy for me now, except that rival), but to lower their detection range and/or sensibility.
I hope I wrote not to much crap as English isn’t my native language and I’m writing from my phone.
Have a great weekend everyone. Love this game though.
2 Likes
Your English is fine mate personally in early game the archipelago to the south coast is where most go but the south is harder now so idk it seems to jump a little too fast now into hard machines for new players…
2 Likes
Thanks. 
That reminds me of one thing I forgot to mention. There isn’t really a hint where you should go after archipelago as the story mission doesn’t continue, or we didn’t find it. The only hint we got was Sorken Bunker warboard, but that was way up north and we encountered two tanks already as we entered farmlands.
Also the areas aren’t described properly in terms of how easy or difficult they might be, for example a recommended player level range.
1 Like
Yeah it would be nice to have when you look at a region level the recommended level to do it at
2 Likes
Actually, there is. As soon as you exit Archipelago, the next region you enter is Farmlands and difficulty wise, it comes after Archipelago.
In the early days, South Coast and Farmlands border was different and it was possible to go from Archipelago directly to South Coast, without even entering Farmlands.
As far as region difficulty goes, it goes like so: Archipelago -> Farmlands -> Forest -> Mountains -> South Coast -> Marshlands -> North Coast -> Himfjäll.
But depending on your play style, the order can change. E.g for me, Mountains region is far harder than North Coast since former it’s heavily forested and my sniper play style is hindered in there. Also, in Mountains, machines can sneak up on you relatively easily, if you’re oblivious.
Machines doesn’t have 300m+ detection range. What most likely happened, was:
- you aggrod the harv
- the commotion drew in FNIX seeker(s)
- once seekers detected you, they blew their horn, drawing in all machines in hearing distance (about 400m radius from seeker)
Also, do note that machines have patrol routes, and long ones. So, it is common that once you start a battle, additional machines join since they heard the commotion near their patrol route.
You should try play on Guerilla difficulty (like i do), to see the true detection range machines have, before complaining about it on Adventurer difficulty.
Also, do note that enemies are machines and it’s logical that they will outspot you. And with greater numbers, also outnumber you. But what you have, is outsmarting them.
5 Likes
Yes, you enter farmlands first. But there is no marker or anything that points you were it makes sense to explore next.
Thanks for the order of regions though. Right now on easiest difficulty every region is more or less equally easy/difficult.
I guess the machines scale to the player lever rather than having a level range depending on the region?
Okay, that sounds like a good explaination.
Yeah… no. 
I’m more of a casual player and don’t like souls-like games where you die constantly, struggle with your resources or have to be super careful about every move. That’s too stressful and not much of my playstyle. I like sneaking though instead of running in and shooting everything. So for now given the number of machines I encounter at once some times, adventure is perfectly fine for me. I might switch to skirmish again, if my gear gets better and I am more skilled.
Just of today I saw a searcher in a field about 500m away which then detected my while riding my bike. There were no other machine around so I didn’t really matter. I was just baffeled by the detection range again. Even though they are machines. 
No. Machines doesn’t scale towards player at all. Machines are defined by the region they are in.
E.g:
Archipelago - only Prototype
Farmlands - proto, mil (outer edges); FNIX (airfield and crater)
Forest - mil, FNIX, few apo
Mountains - mil, FNIX, some apo
South Coast - mil (Northern part); FNIX, apo (middle and Southern part)
Marshlands & North Coast - FNIX and apo
Himfjäll - only apo
Depth perception varies from person to person. But that much i can say that machine draw-in distance is 400m.
Knowing the exact distance can be done in 2 ways (solo game) or 3 ways (MP game):
- Unlock Spotting Intel level 2 skill (this gives range in Tech View mode when looking at a machine)
- Place a waypoint on the map and hover over it, to see it’s distance from you
- Look how far your buddy is from you (range is displayed under another person’s name)
In higher difficulties, machines have greater detection range and if you don’t want to get spotted, you need to do a lot more sneaking.
1 Like
But I encountered several Apo in farmlands already. =)
Also thanks again for the list!
November '20 update skewed the machine spawn locations, where most machines now spawn in the new, revamped part of the Farmlands.
Before the update, all my rivals were more-or-less evenly spread all over the map. Now, most of them are clustered in Farmlands.
1 Like
Adventure mode is more than balanced, I’ve had the same issues in the past using Guerillla (despite myself, long story).
The advice is to observe the behaviors of the machines, and when encountering “mixed packs”, eliminate the weaker ones first and leave the tanks and harversters at the end. Very recommended to unlock the skills related to running and maximum weight carried to the maximum, this helps in combat and in not running out of ammunition. Equally, get the formulas for the ammunition we use most often and craft them directly, this avoids the frustration of having to collect again for hours to have a supply.
Generation Zero’s claim with Adventure difficulty is that it is focused on story over combat. If Generation Zero were a movie or a book, it would not feature the main characters constantly dying and being replaced or otherwise respawning. We all intuitively understand that very few main characters die in a story, and that when Generation Zero says that Adventure difficulty is story focused, that is promising a mode where the average player will very rarely (if ever) die while playing.
This is not remotely true. Heavy machines, especially rivals, are perfectly capable of tanking a rocket to the gas tank and six more to the face without going down, and the reason I know this is because one of the Farmlands quests required me to take one on. It even had a pair of rockets in a nearby house, which would’ve been good design if two rockets were remotely enough to take on the boss machine outside.
Evading machines isn’t an option, because lots of missions (especially in the expansion) require you to destroy machines to progress. Ambush makes no difference, because even heavy ordnance fired directly into the weakspot of mandatory machine bosses does so little damage that emptying another dozen AR mags into them (even when aiming for weakspots) still didn’t bring it down. And this is in a fight where VO starts trying to carry the story, only to have it brought screaming to a halt for 30 minutes while I scrounge around for supplies to try and restock for another go.
The new expansion content is supposed to be an improvement on the early/middle parts of the game - and it places the emphasis squarely on attacking powerful enemy machines, not evading them, with multiple missions that require you to take out specific machines, whether waves of them attacking a fort or specific rivals out in the farms. And if these machines are intended to be fought rather than evaded, then Adventure difficulty makes them way too hard. Probably this specific issue would be mostly fixed if the tank rivals in the expansion mission were swapped out for just regular tanks, those seem to actually explode when you fire a goddamn rocket directly into their fuel source, which seems to me like a pretty reasonable reaction to that course of events, but failing that the HP of Adventure difficulty tanks and harvesters just needs to be tuned way down.
Also this isn’t the exact same thing but related: Solo players should have either significantly increased damage resistance or else spawn adrenaline shots far more often, at least in Adventure difficulty, possibly in Skirmish as well. Adventure difficulty is supposed to be story focused which means deaths should be rare for anyone who’s putting in any effort into playing the game all sneaky like, and it’s easy to get blindsided and overrun even when you have plenty of resources left if you don’t have any mates to help you up after getting flanked by a hunter. I doubt this would be a major issue in a full group of four because odds are fantastic that at least two of you will survive any unexpected trouble and be able to help your mates up and skedaddle, but in solo you can go from 80 health and 50 medkits to dead in literally seconds.
I take that you’re playing solely on Adventurer difficulty and you don’t like that machines won’t fall over when you breathe towards them.
To get objective understanding about Adventure difficulty, you need to have experience with Skirmish and especially Guerilla difficulty. Once you’ve learned how tough thing are in Guerilla difficulty, then you can compare Adventure difficulty to that and make objective observations.
For example, i play solo and on Guerilla difficulty. I’ve played on Guerilla difficulty since the day different difficulty levels were introduced (March '20 update). While things can get tough, i like it since game gives me a challenge to overcome. Though, i’d prefer even tougher opposition (like it was post-April '20 update) or when taking down Reaper in solo Guerilla game, in Himfjäll, with Apo machines around (which i’ve done).
I’ve also switched in-game difficulty to Adventurer for testing purposes and i have to tell you, coming from solo Guerilla game (where i’ve gotten used to), Adventurer difficulty makes everything super-easy.
There is little, if any, effort from my part needed to take out any machine. Also, the range where machine detect player is so small that i have to go under their nose for them to detect me and shoot at me. And i need to use at least 3 times less ammo to take any machine out, compared to Guerilla difficulty. Oh, machines doesn’t damage the player that much either and i can easily tank multiple shots from machines, without the need of healing myself.
So, to what your understanding is based on?
Btw, do note that GZ is co-op game 1st and it also happens to have solo play as well. It is intended to play GZ in a co-op setting but since it also has solo play, it is natural that things are tougher in solo play.
Only way to achieve that is when all machines are removed from the game. And even then, player deaths wouldn’t be that rare since there still is fall damage in the game and players can fall to their deaths. Or blow themselves up with AoE weaponry (e.g grenade). Unless you remove those too and make GZ into walking simulator.
Which expansion are you talking about? FNIX Rising or Alpine Unrest? Regardless of either of the two, none of them are meant for early- to middle-game. Instead, they are intended for late- to end-game. But the fact that you have open world and can decide on your own, where to go, can make them appear at any point of the game.
Difficulty wise, regions go more-or-less like so: Archipelago -> Farmlands -> Forest -> Mountains -> South Coast -> Marshlands -> North Coast -> Himfjäll.
4 Likes
I explained exactly what I don’t like. Read my post and try again.
This is not what “objectivity” means. Indeed, the entire rest of your post goes on to elaborate at length about how your objectivity is corrupted by having played the game since before difficulties were introduced, meaning your input on how the game comes across to new players is useless. Your schoolboy posturing about how good you are at video games does not constitute an understanding of game design.
Pro-tip: If you’re trying to present yourself as an expert, you should avoid making patently absurd statements. It is blindingly obvious that there is a level of difficulty where deaths are rare without rendering them completely impossible.
FNIX Rising’s content is available in early-to-midgame areas, unlocks automatically upon entering those areas, uses enemies who appear commonly in those areas, and is not especially harder than main game content when in missions that do not use heavy machines.
1 Like
I can respect that different players find different things difficult. This game has no scaling for a solo player. Locations and random spawns determine what level of machines the player will encounter. When GZ was new, the trailers urged the player to engage in guerilla warfare against the machines, and to always consider if the fight ahead can be handled.
In my opinion, the main factor that determines how easy GZ is for you, is your experience! Not so much your weapons or the difficulty you choose. A seasoned player could play the game solo on Guerilla with low level weapons.
To be fair, @Aesyle is not trying to brag about how good a player she is. I also play the game solo on Guerilla now. I first played on Skirmish, since that is closest to the game’s original difficulty that I was used to. After a good while, I knew the game and the enemies so well that Skirmish became a bit too easy, so I switched over to Guerilla. An experienced end-game player with the best available weapons will normally be able to handle Guerilla just fine. Skirmish is good for casual gameplay, but for this player, Adventure will seem like a joke. Absolutely no challenge at all.
A fresh player will need to feel their way forward and always pick fights they can win. Scavenge, conserve your resources, pick your 30 skillpoints wisely, and step by step you will master Generation Zero, I promise! And it feels so rewarding when you finally do! 
1 Like
Are you kidding? Her entire post was split evenly between boasts of how amazing she is at this game, including boasts about specific individual accomplishments, condescension towards new players, and an attempt to limit a discussion about the experience of new players exclusively to the perspective of those who have already mastered endgame content, which is obviously completely backwards: The most valuable perspective when discussing the experience of the game for new players comes from new players. Everyone else is guessing.
Slapping smileys on the end of a demand that other people enjoy video games the same way you do does not make the demand less absurd or condescending, nor will it magically conjure up the money the devs are missing out on by slapping a difficulty wall in front of a game that advertises itself as being a playable 80s movie set in Sweden. Modifying the Adventure difficulty isn’t going to change Skirmish or Guerilla, this insistence that your way of playing the game is the only valid one does nothing but harm the game’s success and its community.
1 Like
As much as I don’t care about changing the lower difficulty to even lower levels I really don’t appreciate the tone you’re presenting here.
@Aesyle and @NJR87 are both friendly and assertive in their posts. The forum is a place were all people are allowed to present their ideas and opinions without devaluation and attacks. I think, it would be nice if you would maintain a more positive attitude in your posts. Throwing other opinions out the window with weird arguments doesn’t support your case very well.
Both argued from their perspective as seasoned players with a lot of play time. Maybe there is something to their arguments.
Being a new player doesn’t mean you need to play only on the easiest difficulty. Some people like to enjoy a game with challenges right from the start while others prefer a more walking simulator style even after hundreds of hours of playtime. There is nothing wrong with any approach. Everybody has their own perspective and desire to play a game.
4 Likes
Aesyle’s entire post is dedicated exclusively to arguing that I should not be allowed to participate in the conversation at all, and opened with a direct insult. What the Hell are you talking about?
1 Like
What? She told you how she plays. Nowhere is any mentioning of you to shut up or similar.
Sorry, that you see it that way. I found it to be funny since machines are exactly the opposite of that. Quite ironic so to speak.