Hello, it's my first time playing dungeon rats, i'm heading to the ant queen but in the way there are two scorpions which want me dead.

I have 3 characters, a warrior with a sword and a shield, Marcus with a sledgehammer, and Cyrius (or something like that), with a crossbow.

The difficulty was okay until now, i'm stuck, i tried 4 times this fight i always die.

Im in the "tough bastard" difficulty.

Heres what i think is wrong :
1) I'm always poisonned, even with antidote, i end up poisonned and they finish me easily
2) My warrior miss 9 out of 10 hit, because of the scorpions defense i think.
3) Same for the crossbow who always miss or do very low damage.

There was another fight with 8 ants it was impossible too.

Its really getting frustrating, do you have any advices please ?

I used most of my bombs on previous fights, berserk potions is useless because it makes me miss all times.

1) Block is not good for the scorpions and ants fights, since you get poisoned even if you block. Try to get Marcus to tank instead of your own character.

2) Do you just miss or do you do no damage? The first means you don't have enough weapon skill (you should have 5 or 6 at this point), the second that you're using low-damage attacks that can't get through their armor. In the second case you should use power attacks, or aimed attacks at the head or torso.

3) The crossbow guy should have enough points in critical strike and crossbow to do decent damage to the scorpions. Did you raise those skills?

As for the 8 ant fight, you're actually supposed to use a bomb to seal off one of the ant holes, and then you should just have to fight 6 ants.

Don't rush towards the fights, make use of choke points, use different attacks for different enemies. You should also specialize your character in the beginning, focus on one defense skill and one weapon skill, don't spread points in stuff like alchemy too early, you can always come back to harvest those plants.

I had trouble with the fight against the scorpions as well. They're not on the way to the ant queen however, it's an optional side area with some goodies. I just left it alone until after I had killed the ant queen and came back later when my party was stronger.
But wow, that game is tough. I can't imagine anybody enjoying it who hasn't played Age of Decadence before and understands the combat system.

Hey, thanks for your answers.

I will try to send Marcus for tanking but since scorpions surround me i have to be fast.

Yeah my warrior miss, when he hits he can do 5-6 damage.

I did focused on main skills, but spent few points on alchemy/crafting, it seemed important.

I will try again, and maybe skip that fight and go straight to the ants.

thank you!

EDIT : i only have 26 hit chance, because of the opponent defense i think, but my character is useless :/

Yeah that hit chance seems way too low. Did you dump perception? It affects your hit chance for all weapons, not just ranged. Frankly, it's more important than constitution, which you seem to have maxed out.

And while alchemy and crafting are useful, you can use the NPCs to get those. It's best to make your main character into just a combat monster by concentrating on 1 weapon skill, either block or dodge, and critical strike.

Hey,

i have 8 in perception, i've attached a screenshot of my stuff and skills if you want to see more.

I will try to kill the scorpions again, maybe i will suceed now that i have more skills.

Is there a way to heal the party other than with the rations or healing salve ?

EDIT :
Well i've made it to the second level of the mine, with the guy we unlock who are really good at crafting i managed to craft some good weapon and armor for all the party, first fight in the river was very easy.
I no longer have to-hit chance problem, i think one of my weapon was just lame.

Thank you for your answers and advices!

From that screenshot I think I understand why you had such a low to hit chance. The weapon you're using in it is actually a dagger (even if it does look like a short sword) and you said you were skilled in swords.

Anyway, I'm glad you made it past those early fights, although they only get tougher from there.

mystral is right. That weapon is a long dagger, not a sword. Easy mistake, but it's clear if you read the item description carefully.

No need to apologize! You're doing fine.

If you have any more questions, we will try to help.