depends on you playstyle
i went stealth for the most part so security was a breeze and canaan was kinda fun

I love Canaan music and atmosphere. Security was just a chore.

Canaan is rough if you're not running Crystal Armor. It seems tailor-made for that section of the game.

I think canaan is good thematically but lacks a good renewable resource motivation. Most of my return trips are just teleporting to the cube and going back home immediately after since I have nothing else to get from there. The wood naturally builds up from the occasional rat drop after finishing canaan anyway, and there's not a lot of recipes that use it in the first place. Pumpkins can be grown, corn can when it's been purified as well. And the silver scrap is more abundant and convenient from the train.


Security I think was just way too short and didn't have anything of substance going for it, even with the buff to the reaper it still just felt like "hoover up all the crates and then go to the next sector after dropping by canaan".

I know it's a more stealth focused area but i really wish the canaanites would actually die when i hit them with things like acid and sneak attacks

both areas are rather hard to see anything in, with most of the halloween area being dark colours, and the reaper's domain being constant darkness.
-- best to do the reaper's domain while there's an radiation leak going on, since the green filter acts like an semi-nightvision for the area.

as for the halloween place, the main thing is just making sure your sprinting level is high enough that after letting the villagers ring the bell, you can gather them all into one place, have them chase you out somewhere, then get them stuck, so you can explore freely without getting pitchforked every few seconds.
-- we used to be able to swim in the water, but now there're man-eating eels in there preventing just swimming around the place safely.

Since the update, the Reaper takes a seemingly random number of hits to dispel. Before, he seemed to move quicker, but one hit sent him away. It was a test of reflexes that kept you on your toes. Now you have to blast away at it and hope it goes away. Seems like it's just a test of luck. Before it was a bit scary but manageable if you keep your eyes open, now it's just mindlessly frustrating.

Canaan was just too long the first time I did it, there are very few rewards and the enemies hit inexplicably hard. Now that i know where I'm going I blow through it with crystal armour, a jump pad to get over the two closest gates, and a carbon pick axe.. There's no reason to go back other than for the Lodestone and whatever Hexwood is handy.

Farming the guards for a cracked crossbow takes too long, and the Lodestone Crossbow you can build from it is cool but severely under powered by the time you get it. I already have the energy pistol to use on the weaker enemies that it would be good for. And I'm not fishing for eels just so i can make electric bolts.

Originally posted by coslie:

Since the update, the Reaper takes a seemingly random number of hits to dispel. Before, he seemed to move quicker, but one hit sent him away. It was a test of reflexes that kept you on your toes. Now you have to blast away at it and hope it goes away. Seems like it's just a test of luck. Before it was a bit scary but manageable if you keep your eyes open, now it's just mindlessly frustrating.

Canaan was just too long the first time I did it, there are very few rewards and the enemies hit inexplicably hard. Now that i know where I'm going I blow through it with crystal armour, a jump pad to get over the two closest gates, and a carbon pick axe.. There's no reason to go back other than for the Lodestone and whatever Hexwood is handy.

Farming the guards for a cracked crossbow takes too long, and the Lodestone Crossbow you can build from it is cool but severely under powered by the time you get it. I already have the energy pistol to use on the weaker enemies that it would be good for. And I'm not fishing for eels just so i can make electric bolts.

You become able to make the crystalline armor the same time you get to this zone, so it's probably meant to be one way to get passed the Reaper without confronting it. You could say the armor is "too powerful" since being invisible makes all enemies ignore you.

I don't think it takes a random number of hits, rather it takes at least 6-8 well-placed hits to dispel him. Before, a laser pistol basically made him so easy that it wasn't even worth considering, so I imagine the changes were to give people and incentive to stay on their toes and engage the Reaper as an enemy, rather than a simple hazard.

Security is thematically more interesting than some others sectors but feels stale, probably because you loop a handful of small rooms multiple times just to unlock them.
I love the spooky atmosphere but wish there was more to do/find there. It could have been much more than a place where they train.

i was more disappointed with the size (or lack thereof) with security. i kinda wanted more because it was kinda fun to figure out how to path around and also dealing with them was fun (Discovering the laser gun hurts them was a fun moment)

canaan is... idk its vibe is immaculate but it kinda feels like its too big? most of the time i spend in there is running to point A B and C rather than actually doing stuff in the world (Compared to the other portals anyway)

Security was pretty fun, in a horrifying kind of way. Reminds me of the days on PS1 dungeon crawlers where the render distance was super short and all you'd see is a black void after a bit of distance. Terrified me as a kid and it still terrifies me now. It was too short though, and I wish there were more sectors with gimmicks like it too.

Canaan was also enjoyable for me since I focused on throwing weapons(so I didn't have to grind for the crossbow) and I didn't really mind the long walks. The area itself is really impressive and I come around every once in awhile to just do some fishing.

Sometimes the Reaper takes 2 shots (trigger pulls), sometimes lots, I see no pattern to it, which isn't to say there isn't one. I suspect the maximum is more than 8 but I was too busy backing away to count. Might be possible to find a pattern by watching replays, but I don't have any.

On the bright side now he drops essence when hit with a laser (unless the drop is on cooldown), and seems to ignore the X-Ray altogether.

Like I said I'm pretty sure he's slower now, so being a quick on the draw matters less. But if you stand and fight now it's a coin toss.

Canaan is annoying, as torches deal holy damage, that ignores armor, so it's best to stay on the roofs, but they got crossbows too, and you still need to come down to collect hexwood.

Security was honestly the scariest part of the game for me, while playing solo. Keeping my back against the wall, while desperately breaking boxes and looting stuff, nervously keeping an eye out for the Reaper, ready to switch to a laser pistol at any moment. I've had awful nightmares like it before, so it really struck hard. I like the look of the shadow realm, too. The huge contrast between colors is beautiful. It offered much-needed peaceful pauses in the progression through the sector. The puzzles were fairly simple, and the sector was quite short, but I found it interesting nevertheless. If it had been longer, I'm not sure if the horror aspect of it would have been as effective, since people can become desensitized.

Canaan was...okay, I guess. Not scary but creepy. Stealth and suspense. My kind of playstyle. The world itself is pretty, in an eerie way, and I think it's a shame it's so dark you have to use NVGs, which turns everything monotone. :( I wish they had done more with the swamp. It's a pretty large area, but there's very little in it. I was half-expecting venomous creatures and movement-slowing terrain, maybe even a Swampman impersonating Gate scientists. It has a lot of potential for future content, and I hope it will be expanded upon someday.

I guess people are just different, so things affect them differently. Nothing wrong with not liking all/some parts of the game. It's good that the game has so many different areas, so that most players can find something they like. :3

The scare factor of security wore off pretty fast, after that I was just annoyed by the low visibility, lack off interesting things happening and of course the reaper respawning over and over again. The nightrealm had mad potential but was boring af.

Canaan was ok. The low visibility is annoying. In my personal opinion every portal world after Flathills felt undercooked and rushed, but there isnt any portal world I completly dislike. They are all pretty forgetable (and way too short compared to flathills).

I think the best and most developed part of the game is the lab.