Yes, 2.5 months after it’s release, finally decided to check how it is, for now only on normal. Since I play HC I naturally dislike locations where floor wants to kill me, and I heard a whole lot about Valbury on the forum.
Have to say that most things I read about Valbury before were pretty exaggerated.
I remember reading that Valbury is very big and someone complained that he spent like a hour travelling till the door. The actual size of location before the door I’d estimate the size of Wightmire. Burrwitch Outskirts are clearly bigger.
Floor is mostly avoidable except cases when you need to kill a terraformer and he’s got his own pool. I expected something as unpleasant as Stonerend Quarry or Hargate’s Lab.
The only actually dangerous place is after the door, and only because you don’t expect it - it’s a poisonous floor, not aetherfire one, so after seeing a lot of aetherfire you just don’t perceive it. Good thing there’s a pathway above that poisonous trench.
Aether twisters that someone complained before as dangerous stuff are fairly docile, slow, avoidable and don’t do much damage.
Locations after the gate I’d estimate being 1.5-2 times the Burrwitch. It’s definitely the longest roguelike, but not because of the sheer size - it’s just very hard to navigate if you’re doing it the first time due to all the debris. I spent quite a bit of time thinking “ok, how the fuck do I get there?”
I remember some saying that he got like 4 levels cleaning Valbury. I got only 2.5, from 53 to 55.5, including Archivist exp reward.
FPS drops are real. My cpu isn’t great so when there’s a lot of monsters and projectiles I’m down to 15 FPS, since it’s aetherials that are known for quantity over quality.
Van Aldrich is dangerous. Won’t be going there without capped Aether, Fire, Poison and Cold on higher difficulties.
Overall I’m very pleased with Valbury’s design. 10/10, will come again.
No idea why less people completed Valbury than killed Avatar of Mogdrogen, judguing by steam achievements.
EDIT: also no idea how achievement for completing Valbury in HC is more rare than 500.000 monsters. I have no idea how 500.000 is possible with a single character.
I was honestly expecting to be like Stonerend Quarry and Immolation, but i noticed that it’s nowhere as bad as those two. I’ll put it at the same level as The Conflagration in terms of Aetherfire.
It did took me over an hour to beat it the first time, but now that i know the layout really well, it takes me around 30 minutes.
About the Aether twisters, i swear they are trolls. There can be gaps of time where not a single one shows up, but suddenly one shows up when you don’t want to. They specially love to show up in pairs.
The poisoned water did take me by suprise but i know now how to avoid it. Still wish it wasn’t there but it makes sense why is there due to the backstory of the city.
From my experience, I’ve found that certain combos from lesser enemies to be more deadly than some of the actual challenge areas. Aether Resistance and Reduced Stun duration are probably the most important things to have for Port Valbury.
The first Watcher will usually always try to fight you directly on top of the aetherfire. I find him to be the most challenging as he usually ends up nuking my character from a screen’s distance away before I’m even aware he’s there (Watcher Ordas).
The Hulks run in and hit hard but they are very susceptible to “Stun”. If you don’t have it, use other means to take 'em out. If you do, you will not find them much of a threat.
The three stooges in the “Throne of Van Aldritch” have not given me the problems that I’ve seen posted in the forums numerous times. My builds are usually AoE focused however and not LMB machines.
I still find Port Valbury to be the most challenging of the three dungeons and prefer it over the other 2.
I may not be HC, but for me, my major hatred for it arises entirely from the damaging ground junk. If my builds have 91% Aether Res, then they really shouldn’t be feeling it the same as everything else…Yet they do. I get that I can walk around it, and I do, when I do the quest in it…But I don’t think the notion of “The Ground itself can harm you” is a good one in any game. It doesn’t add challenge, because it takes no skill to avoid…Just time. It’s a nuisance, nothing more, and I don’t like nuisances being added just for thematics.
Other than that, I love the rest of Valbury. The Watchers, the Aldritch fight, Thelon…All enjoyable. The lore is great. The MI’s are nice, both the specific Valbury ones and the convenience of farming the Aetherial MIs in general along with them…I almost wish they’d made another Amalgamation in Valbury, I could farm even more MIs in there.
The ONLY thing that keeps me from farming Valbury all the time is the damage ground, again not because it’s a problem, but because it triggers me so freaking hard that it was ever put in this game, or any other.
I also play HC (self-found) and find this dungeon very atmospheric. Also I didn’t read anything about it before i gone there. I felt myself like in a book of Strugatsky “Roadside Picnic” (“Пикник на обочине” for those who can read in russian) exploring the area and reading the diaries. There was anomalies (those wondering Aetherial shit) and other dangers tickling nerves (main reason to play HC), and when I stuck in a tube (somewhere with acid shit ground before the big stony boss) it was like ‘Oh shit is this kind of trap?’, hopefully I could run backway.
I did it on Veteran with my Pyromancer 1st and then with a Trozan Shard Druid
Most dificcult enemies for both was a hulks. Final boss was easier with Pyro cuz he had better resistances. Druid struggled hard. Aether and cold dudes died pretty fast but then the poison dude procced Alchemist belt twice.
Also after completing Anasteria quest and reading her stuff I found a plot about Aetherials a bit similar to Terry Pratchet’s “Thief of Time”.
This ^^ is why I have never been and don’t want to , I don’t want to subject myself to crap on the ground for the sake of it . It’s just added to slow you down .