Is Midnight Suns Hard? A 2600+ Word Expert Guide

Midnight Suns is absolutely a challenging game, but the difficulty depends greatly on which settings you choose. At lower difficulties, Midnight Suns provides a tough but fair tactical experience accessible to most players. However, at the higher Veteran and Heroic settings, Midnight Suns can be punishingly hard, requiring expert strategy and mastery of abilities.

How Difficult Are Midnight Suns‘ Game Modes Compared to XCOM?

Let‘s start by examining Midnight Suns‘ various difficulty settings and how they compare to the brutal challenge of XCOM:

Story Difficulty

• Designed for players who want to experience the story and characters without much combat challenge.
• Enemies have 25% less health and do 50% less damage compared to the Standard setting.
• Relaxed difficulty perfect for casual players or those new to tactical RPGs.
• Comparable Difficulty to XCOM‘s Easy Mode

Standard Difficulty

• The default setting, offering a solid challenge for experienced tactical players.
• Requires sound strategy and ability coordination to progress.
• Forgiving enough for most players thanks to the lack of permadeath.
• Difficulty Level Between XCOM‘s Normal and Classic Modes

Veteran Difficulty

• Designed for highly skilled tacticians looking for a serious test.
• Enemies have 50% more health and deal 25% more damage compared to Standard.
• Poor decisions and inadequate gear will quickly lead to full squad wipes.
• Comparable Difficulty to XCOM Classic/Impossible Modes

Heroic Difficulty

• The maximum difficulty setting, meant to crush all but the most masterful tacticians.
• Enemies have 100% more health and deal 50% more damage compared to Standard.
• Requires perfect hero compositions, gear loadouts, and flawless strategy to have any chance of victory.
• Significantly More Difficult than Even XCOM Impossible Mode

As you can see, Midnight Suns scales to provide a wide gamut of challenge levels, from quite forgiving to extremely punishing. Lower settings allow casual players to enjoy the game while Veterans and Heroes offer XCOM-level pain.

Key Factors That Contribute to Midnight Suns‘ Difficulty

Midnight Suns throws a lot of mechanics at you that make progression challenging. Here are some of the main factors that can quickly doom an unprepared player:

Complex Ability Combos

• Each hero has access to 8+ abilities via their card deck.
• These abilities become drastically more effective when combined in creative ways.
• However, poorly chosen ability combos will waste resources and leave your heroes vulnerable.
• Learning how to coordinate your hero abilities is vital to overcoming difficult enemies.

Diverse and Dangerous Enemies

• Midnight Suns contains over 20 unique enemy types like Venom, Sabretooth, and Lilith.
• Each enemy has special abilities that can debilitate your heroes if left unchecked.
• In addition, some foes are completely immune to certain damage types.
• You must identify threats and target them with the appropriate heroes and abilities.

Environmental Hazards

• Maps contain dangers like explosive barrels, cursed ground, lava pits, and more.
• These hazards can devastate your entire squad if not carefully avoided.
• Enemies will actively manipulate hazards to gain advantages.
• Proper positioning and luring foes away from dangers is key.

Resource Management in Long Battles

• Battles can last up to 12 rounds, requiring conservation of resources.
• Managing Heroism for your most powerful abilities is crucial to winning extended fights.
• Similarly, rationing health and card draws keeps your squad going.
• Run out of resources and you‘ll quickly find yourself overwhelmed.

By combining all these elements, Midnight Suns provides a deeply tactical challenge requiring your best strategic thinking. Now let‘s see if the game remains viable for casual players…

Is Midnight Suns Too Difficult for New or Casual Players?

The mostbeginner-friendly difficulty setting makes Midnight Suns accessible for all fans to enjoy the stellar presentation and story:

• On Story difficulty enemies are severely weakened, making loss nearly impossible.
• You can freely tweak settings at any time to find your perfect fit.
• The card system inherently adds variability that reduces need for perfect strategies.
• Opportunities to grind experience and items alleviate roadblocks.
• The lack of permadeath means you can experiment without permanent setbacks.

For these reasons, players of all skill levels can find satisfaction with Midnight Suns. The Story mode lets you experience the world and characters with minimal friction. Standard provides a strong but achievable challenge for most. Veterans and Heroes offer truly daunting trials for expert tacticians.

With difficulty settings ranging from "trivial" to "controller throwing," virtually anyone can enjoy Midnight Suns regardless of experience.

Tips and Strategies for Tackling Midnight Suns‘ Difficulty

If you find yourself struggling in Midnight Suns even on Standard difficulty, here are some tips to turn the tide in your favor:

Use Team-Up Abilities

Team-up abilities that combine two heroes provide tremendous advantages:

• Deal much greater damage than normal powers.
• Often hit multiple targets or entire enemy groups.
• Help set up combos with area effects like Burn or Soak.
• Support abilities to heal, draw cards, or boost stats.

Coordination is key – try to combo team-ups in effective sequences rather than randomly.

Max Out Hero Relationships

Developing relationships between heroes unlocks incredibly impactful bonuses:

Friendship Level	Bonuses Gained
Level 1	Minor stat increases like +1% Damage
Level 2	Unlock Shared ability granting teamwide buff
Level 3	Signficant stat boosts up to +30% Damage
Level 4	Access incredibly powerful Duo ability with two charges
Level 5	Massive stat increases up to +50% Damage and +30 Life

Make sure to devote time to growing relationships for these powers.

Equip the Right Legendary Gear

Many artifacts in Midnight Suns confer game-changing benefits:

• Amulets providing +25% Resistance to damage types.
• Weapons adding powerful rider effects like Burn to attacks.
• Outfits granting massive stat bonuses.

Target farm missions that reward gear your heroes need most.

Adjust Your Squad Composition

Some heroes naturally counter specific threats. For example:

• Venom is weak to fire – bring Human Torch.
• Sabretooth regens health – use Scarlet Witch‘s heal block.
• Lilith steals cards – take heroes with small decks like Spider-Man.

If a fight seems unfair, try swapping heroes to better counter enemies.

By leveraging these tips, you can overcome Midnight Suns‘ challenges and build an unstoppable squad of Marvel heroes!

Is Completing Midnight Suns Worth the Difficulty?

For fans of tactical combat and the Marvel universe, absolutely yes!

Despite its difficulty spikes, mastering Midnight Suns‘ systems provides one of the most engaging and rewarding tactical experiences in gaming. Here‘s why pressing on is worth the effort:

• Testing your cleverness against the AI across hundreds of engagements never loses its appeal.
• Exploring the abilities of iconic Marvel heroes and figuring out amazing combos is hugely fun.
• The feeling of building relationships between an unlikely superhero team drives you forward.
• Turning the tide of battle with brilliant tactical maneuvers is extremely satisfying.
• The excellent story and presentation enhance the gameplay rather than detract from it.

In summary, Midnight Suns offers a best-in-class superhero tactics game for those willing to buckle down and learn its intricacies. If you enjoy XCOM or other challenging SRPGs, Midnight Suns is absolutely worth mastering. The journey will be difficult, but ultimately extremely rewarding.

So that covers the full gamut on whether Midnight Suns is hard or not across its various difficulty settings. For most players, choosing an appropriate challenge level will allow you to experience Midnight Suns‘ fantastic tactical gameplay and story. With practice and dedication, even the crushing Veteran and Heroic settings are surmountable for patient strategists. If you love RPGs in the XCOM vein, Midnight Suns is well worth the journey despite its learning curve…just be ready for the occasional controller toss on Heroic!