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[Klear]

I've been trying out AoB on UV but it's extremely hard. Best I got was level 5, and only if I got really lucky berseker packs.

I wonder if you could give me some pointers to what I can improve. Let's see:

I giftdrop like crazy, to the extent that when I use my last medkit, my first thought is usually "oh no! I can't giftdrop" instead "oh no, I'm going to die now"
I try to throw knives as much as I can, though there's probably plenty of room for improvement.
I'm playing marine to make the most of any berserk packs I find, theoretically going for Vampyre, though I'm not even getting.
I go with the standard Bru -> Bru -> Ber  -> Bru ... I've yet to get further in the build though. Maybe I should take bru 3 before berseker? (I notice that I don't get zerked all that often with all the waiting for the right opportunities to strike.
I conserve my medkits as best I can, most of the time healing only when I drop to ~10% AND I still usually die after depleting them all.
I skip hell's arena, since I never managed to pass it when I tried, plus I want a chainsaw without dealing with the Arena Master. Maybe I should clean at least the first arena round for XP?
My blue armour tends to get destroyed son despite my efforts to conserve it.

Edit: Oh! And I try to take advantage of barrels as best I can and often succeed in driving enemies to suicide, at times preceded by a long session of sokoban (when I have a tracking map). I'm also aware that I can blow up the barrels myself by throwing knives and that they strangely don't get destroyed.

So... any tips?

[Tormuse]

It sounds like you've got some good strategies there.  In AoB, you're generally going to take more damage than in games with ranged weapons, so anything you can do to minimize that is good.  Use doors and corners as much as you can so you can get to point-blank range before they get a shot off.  Sometimes, if I see an enemy approaching the doorway from the wrong angle and it looks like he'll get a shot at me, I close the door, move on to the other side of it, and open it again so that he's coming at me around a blind corner or I'll take an extra step away from the doorway to a "knight's move" position from it and then take a step toward him when he sticks his head in the doorway.  (This means he'll still melee hit you first, but at least he won't get a shot at you)  Or if you can't do any of that, take advantage of running and move in zig-zag patterns to dodge as much of their fire as you can.

Use your starting armour for gift-dropping.  Once it's down to the last five percent or so, it's much more useful for that purpose than as actual armour.  Five points of damage protection isn't worth the reduction in running speed and you can keep using it for that after all your med-packs are gone.

Personally, I favour going for Berserker before Brute 3 because the appeal of occasional berserk power is pretty great.  :)  Come to think of it, I've never actually tried getting Brute 3 before Berserker, so I can't really say how they compare strategywise.

Unless you're going for the Gargulec Cross, I suggest leaving most of the enemies alive and just heading straight to the stairs.  Try to get to Chained Court as quickly as possible, then make those berserk packs last as long as possible, getting as many kills as you can to level you up to your Master Trait if you can.  Obviously, reaching Vampyre trait is a huge boon that makes the rest of the game easier, but you might want to consider playing as Scout for the stair sense so you can get to Chained Court faster.

One more idea:

Move up to Nightmare difficulty so you get the benefit of longer berserk and extra health from small healing items!  :D

EDIT:  Also, all this talk of UV AoB makes me feel like making another Gargulec Cross attempt, something I haven't tried in a while.  :)

[Klear]

Personally, I favour going for Berserker before Brute 3 because the appeal of occasional berserk power is pretty great.  :)  Come to think of it, I've never actually tried getting Brute 3 before Berserker, so I can't really say how they compare strategywise.

I thought of that because I had a lot of trouble with the knights. Berserker usually triggers too late in those cases. I've given it a try a couple of times and I think it's not a bad idea, though it makes me kinda unconfortable to play withiut Ber.

Unless you're going for the Gargulec Cross, I suggest leaving most of the enemies alive and just heading straight to the stairs.  Try to get to Chained Court as quickly as possible, then make those berserk packs last as long as possible, getting as many kills as you can to level you up to your Master Trait if you can.  Obviously, reaching Vampyre trait is a huge boon that makes the rest of the game easier, but you might want to consider playing as Scout for the stair sense so you can get to Chained Court faster.

Maybe I've been too greedy. I'll try to rush the start next time.

One more idea:

Move up to Nightmare difficulty so you get the benefit of longer berserk and extra health from small healing items!  :D

Are you serious? I guess it's relatively easy to kill enemies in doorways on N! and the corpse disposal aspect of N! interests me, but I don't think I'm ready for it until I master UV...

Anyway, thanks for the tips! I'll let you know if they get me at least to the master trait (that's pretty much my current AoB UV goal - die as a Vampyre.

[skarczew]

Are you serious? I guess it's relatively easy to kill enemies in doorways on N! and the corpse disposal aspect of N! interests me, but I don't think I'm ready for it until I master UV...

I haven't been playing N! much, but in many aspects it is easier than UV ... you just have to remember to kill them in a way that they won't respawn.

[AlterAsc]

Yeah, playing AoB(and not only) on N! is easier than on UV in many aspects.More healing, more berserk/invul duration.And respawning isn't much if you plan ahead, and don't return, just one fast journey through level and then you descend.

[Klear]

OK then. Challenge accepted!

Edit: Dammit, the 5 hours until I can go home from work have just somehow become even harder to bear.

[Ander Hammer]

It's possibly worth noting that you'll occasionally be able to straight-up gib enemies, and also (I think) vampyre will trigger when you kill things that raise.

I'd recommend bru3 over ber if you're having trouble surviving. Berserker tends to trigger either a.) when you're in trouble or b.) when you get a lucky group of something charging through a door at you one after another. Bru3, on the other hand, is always active, a significant boost, and will make Berserker more powerful when you do get it.

[Klear]

It's possibly worth noting that you'll occasionally be able to straight-up gib enemies, and also (I think) vampyre will trigger when you kill things that raise.

Yeah, I love that on the mortuary. I'm not sure I'll survive long enough to even get Vampyre though. I'm not extremely concernerned about corpses since doors are the best place to slaughter enemies anyway, but rather of the additional enemies spawning in levels (I believe the wiki describes their ammount as "WTF"), decrease of speed, and greater chance for monsters to attack. Hopefully the double healing and extra XP will be enough to offset that. Also, double ammo on a AoB run! How fortunate!

[Klear]

OK, I've played a couple of games on N!. Most of the times I got slaughtered on Phobos Entry.

Then I got extremely lucky with berserker packs - found at least 4 of them - and managed to reach level 6, which is a new record for me on UV/N! The thing is - I forgot to enter the Chained Court... that was a stupid mistake =)

I guess I'll keep playing N! and then go back to UV, which will seem like a walk in the park after this. Also, I tried getting Bru 3 before Ber, but with N!'s greater numbers of enemies I think Ber will pay for itself. I have a lot of trouble with sergeant's knockback, so maybe I should take Bad early? Not sure.

Edit: I give up. Back to UV.