I think the addition of limited skill charges adds a nice form of difficulty that you have SEVERAL tools to play around. For example, having a summon on-hand is very powerful because it lets you conserve your skill uses by having the summon annihilate everything for you, especially if it's a Burst summon. The game also lets you itemize your skill capacity by a LOT, meaning even without Lab Parts, you can easily give yourself a lot more comfort by adding capacity and reducing consumption.

While some enemies are super cheesy with evasion/parry/petrify, and it always feels annoying to get hit by one of those, there are still ways to get around it, like summons, negative effects, and certain class/equipment abilities or itemizing stats like accuracy. It promotes having a versatile arsenal while still having the option for specialization, but I can definitely see why it can be frustrating.

(The PvP dungeon is a nuclear-level volatile mess, so unless you have EVERY facet covered in your loadout [and I MEAN EVERY FACET, you gotta be built like Exodia], you shouldn't be surprised when you just get put in a blender there. Luckily, it costs nothing to just send your already-dead characters there, so it never feels too bad.)


One thing that helps the lack of consistency in loadouts from BB1 is that you can reroll a LOT more times. Once you start abusing rerolls and crafting, it becomes fun to put together something that, while it might not be EXACTLY what you want, will always be close and you will be able to make do.

An example is to reroll for (or craft, once you get the contract for it) the Copy(Weak) rune (WHICH IS A COMMON RUNE), put it on a rare skill you want more of, and then craft Rune Release every time you get that skill if it has less than 2 rune slots. Boom, now you have 3 of that rare skill you want, with each one having 2 rune slots, and that's more than enough to scale you through any dungeon.

(A personal favorite craft of mine is Summon Dark Knight from the Necromancer union, as it provides an incredibly nice cushion to cover for an otherwise vulnerable early game until I get my build going, but there are several options depending on what you want to play for.)


And then once you have a nice handle on getting your consistent wins, maneuvering the Mod Board (cool little feature), customizing the specific combinations of race/class/origin that you want (I really like this change), and building up lab part loadouts on your favorites, then you can start exploring some game depth and having even more fun.

I sort of wish Savage Mode's benefits were more clearly stated, because if I knew I could get exclusive 6 and 7-star skills, runes, and equipment that completely change and/or evolve how I play out any given build, then I would have gone down the rabbit hole sooner. Not spoiling anything, but Shadow Walk's Burst is my beloved.


My main complaint so far is that it feels like ♥♥♥♥ when you enter a room to exit Savage Mode and then get into an unavoidable encounter that shoots you right back to 150% risk because entering Savage Mode does that. It would be better if exiting Savage Mode shot your risk down by an additional 25% to prevent that interaction, because that interaction makes an otherwise agreeable mechanic miserable and annoying.

Other than that; great game, but definitely not for everyone.

[h1] A lot of negative reviews are people coming from BB1 expecting this to have the same strategy when it doesn't. Those reviews just reflect that this game is different than BB1, so people who like BB1 might not like BB2 (although I liked both). [/h1] [h1] That being said, this is still a great game, but it's not for everyone. [/h1] [h1] --- [/h1] [b]I think the addition of limited skill charges adds a nice form of difficulty that you have SEVERAL tools to play around.[/b] For example, having a summon on-hand is very powerful because it lets you conserve your skill uses by having the summon annihilate everything for you, especially if it's a Burst summon. The game also lets you itemize your skill capacity by a LOT, meaning even without Lab Parts, you can easily give yourself a lot more comfort by adding capacity and reducing consumption. [b]While some enemies are super cheesy with evasion/parry/petrify, and it always feels annoying to get hit by one of those, there are still ways to get around it, like summons, negative effects, and certain class/equipment abilities or itemizing stats like accuracy.[/b] It promotes having a versatile arsenal while still having the option for specialization, but I can definitely see why it can be frustrating. [i](The PvP dungeon is a nuclear-level volatile mess, so unless you have EVERY facet covered in your loadout [and I MEAN EVERY FACET, you gotta be built like Exodia], you shouldn't be surprised when you just get put in a blender there. Luckily, it costs nothing to just send your already-dead characters there, so it never feels too bad.)[/i] [h1] --- [/h1] [b]One thing that helps the lack of consistency in loadouts from BB1 is that you can reroll a LOT more times.[/b] Once you start abusing rerolls and crafting, it becomes fun to put together something that, while it might not be EXACTLY what you want, will always be close and you will be able to make do. An example is to reroll for [i](or craft, once you get the contract for it)[/i] the Copy(Weak) rune [i](WHICH IS A COMMON RUNE)[/i], put it on a rare skill you want more of, and then craft Rune Release every time you get that skill if it has less than 2 rune slots. Boom, now you have 3 of that rare skill you want, with each one having 2 rune slots, and that's more than enough to scale you through any dungeon. [i](A personal favorite craft of mine is Summon Dark Knight from the Necromancer union, as it provides an incredibly nice cushion to cover for an otherwise vulnerable early game until I get my build going, but there are several options depending on what you want to play for.)[/i] [h1] --- [/h1] [b]And then once you have a nice handle on getting your consistent wins, maneuvering the Mod Board[/b] [i](cool little feature)[/i][b], customizing the specific combinations of race/class/origin that you want[/b] [i](I really like this change)[/i], [b]and building up lab part loadouts on your favorites, then you can start exploring some game depth and having even more fun.[/b] I sort of wish Savage Mode's benefits were more clearly stated, because if I knew I could get exclusive 6 and 7-star skills, runes, and equipment that completely change and/or evolve how I play out any given build, then I would have gone down the rabbit hole sooner. Not spoiling anything, but Shadow Walk's Burst is my beloved. [h1] --- [/h1] My main complaint so far is that it feels like shit when you enter a room to exit Savage Mode and then get into an unavoidable encounter that shoots you right back to 150% risk because entering Savage Mode does that. It would be better if exiting Savage Mode shot your risk down by an additional 25% to prevent that interaction, because that interaction makes an otherwise agreeable mechanic miserable and annoying. Other than that; great game, but definitely not for everyone.