General Gaming The First Descendant | F2P 3rd Person Action RPG Shooter Using Unreal Engine 5 | Coming July 2, 2024 for Consoles & PC

[Keyser_Soze]

@Mr.Vic20 You ever do this defense mission AKA Horde mode? (you probably have since you practically live in the game. )

 

Seems like a fairly fast way to get mastery, levels, etc up. Unfortunately it takes a lot of time to complete. We failed right before the 3rd reward because one dude quit out and the difficulty curve turns from piss easy to hard as a rock shit in the blink of an eye.

 

I might do this again to get some levels on Bunny.

[Mr.Vic20]

9 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

@Mr.Vic20 You ever do this defense mission AKA Horde mode? (you probably have since you practically live in the game. )

 

Seems like a fairly fast way to get mastery, levels, etc up. Unfortunately it takes a lot of time to complete. We failed right before the 3rd reward because one dude quit out and the difficulty curve turns from piss easy to hard as a rock shit in the blink of an eye.

 

I might do this again to get some levels on Bunny.

Yup! Its my go to leveling board! Bunny is actually really good one you can put a good shielding mod on her. Electro shock field + speed run = lawn mower! 

[DPCyric]

I like it but sadly my graphics card does not  It's fine when I am the only PC but once other people are running around my framerate tanks to choppiness 

[Keyser_Soze]

5 hours ago, DPCyric said:

I like it but sadly my graphics card does not  It's fine when I am the only PC but once other people are running around my framerate tanks to choppiness 

 

Yeah the frame rate definitely takes a hit in Albion (that's the name right? lol) But the thing is they released a hotfix and I feel like it ran better before the hotfix. 🤔

[DPCyric]

2 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Yeah the frame rate definitely takes a hit in Albion (that's the name right? lol) But the thing is they released a hotfix and I feel like it ran better before the hotfix. 🤔

 

Nah, even at start up it gives me a warning about the fact my system may not run it well  Can you unlock other characters without spending cash? I want Bunny who will probably be even worse for my framerate 

[Keyser_Soze]

20 minutes ago, DPCyric said:

 

Nah, even at start up it gives me a warning about the fact my system may not run it well  Can you unlock other characters without spending cash? I want Bunny who will probably be even worse for my framerate 

 

Yes, from my understanding is you can unlock them all without spending money. Bunny is the first one you unlock. You basically have to craft the character by finding parts or whatever and then you go to a lady and she unlocks the character.

[Mr.Vic20]

OK, as @Keyser_Soze suggested, I lived this game over the long holiday break (yes, we still went to fire works with the kids!). Here are my takeaways from my time with it:

 

• This is Destiny in general structure/narrative approach, but with all of warframe's sub systems, more or less.
• That union will definitely turn some off because much of the development of your character(s) comes down to mods and they will take a very long while to develop.
• Guns lack diversity. There are quite a few guns, but aside from the typical break downs of rifle, shotgun, hand cannon, etc, many of the guns perform more or less the same.
• Ultimate weapons will confuse many players because to unlock their true potential you will need to make & combine multiples of them and then pair them with their sympathetic reactor. Because this is an RNG looter/shooter, it will take a long time for F2P users to get the materials/reactors needed to leverage them. This currently means that purple tier guns are the best and will be, potentially for a couple of months for most players.
• The monetization of this game is brutal. This is a Nexon game, so that shouldn't surprise you. Even if you plan to spend, maybe wait to see if this is still a game in a year.
• The difficulty curve is typical of the genre. You will make easy gains and have fairly balanced challenges against the first 3 or so Colossi (big bosses that gate progress) . After that the difficulty jumps up a cliff face and you will be into quite a significant grind if you wish to keep moving forward. This jump occurs at "Dead Bride" or the "Devourer", depending on your team's skill.
• Focus on collecting Descendants (playable characters) with different elemental types. These different elemental powers are needed for farming various void shards, behind which many materials for new descendants and ultimate weapons lay.
• Characters level cap at 40, so development of your powers as bosses sail past level 40 is based on your weapons, mods, and mods cost reducing upgrades to both. Basically you have so many points for a given Descendant or Weapons. If you exceed these points, you can't slot any more mod cards. As I mentioned above, it will take a significant amount of time (100s of hours) to get a few Descendants and favored weapons into later boss beating shape. 
• The story is silly but its also dumb. The characters are absurd and come off as weird, emotionally mal adjusted, given the supposed gravity of everything happening around them. Welcome to camp "extreme coping mechanisms" She only laughs and flirts when she's REALLY scared, ya know?
• This game needs a lot more reasons to show up after you've consumed the immediate content. Naturally its really not fair to compare this brand new game to the 11 year old Warframe or Destiny 2, but still the experience is a bit more shallow than either of those titles.
• Its nice to play in a matured use of the UE5 game engine. That said, this game is not well optimized and will wreck a lot of rigs that aren't my rig. Some of these later boards are really initially impressive lookin, but you quickly realize that its the natural backdrops doing most of the heavy lifting, and the built environments are sparse. 
• The grappling hook needs a better range of reach and should be unlimited in its use (has a cool down!).
• The platforming part of this game REALLY needs some more care put into it. As it is, it will lead to a lot of frustration. If nothing else, put more time on the clock for the timed events, and make the grappling hook faster, have a greater reach, and provide more directional precision/control when you release from your grapple point.
• Albion, the hub of the game, needs more life and things to do in it. Currently it looks like a futurey industrial plant is hosting a convention for the adult film awards. I doubt this will change, but at least build a little more humanity into humanity's last fortress against the hordes. 

I'm sure I have other thoughts on the game, but I'm off to another meeting, so that's it for now!

[Keyser_Soze]

On the subject of grappling hooks. The first boss tutorial said you could use your grappling hook on it and then you could pound on it monster hunter style, which sounded cool, but it never worked at all. Were you able to do this?

[Mr.Vic20]

10 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

On the subject of grappling hooks. The first boss tutorial said you could use your grappling hook on it and then you could pound on it monster hunter style, which sounded cool, but it never worked at all. Were you able to do this?

Absolutely not! That is, however, a great way to die quickly! 

[Keyser_Soze]

Also a couple of other things.

 

In regards to content. That dev video I showed, or if you read the cliff notes at least show  what content is coming next. We aren't even in "chapter 1" yet. And they're rolling content, chapters at least, on a 3 month cycle. So I think there will be plenty of more to show back up for.

 

As far as the microtransactions yeah some of them are eye opening, like $60 skins but I think the battle pass is fair if you feel like throwing some money in there. It's $10 but like street fighter you earn back the money by completing it. You get back like $6 of it if you get to the end which I think is a nice incentive if you think you'll be playing a while.

 

That being said I never buy material stuff in these games, I just never find them worth it, even if you think the game is grindy. So BP is fine for me and maybe a skin here or there if I like it (for the record I have not bought a skin. )

[Keyser_Soze]

I have a list of things as well but I want to start out by saying, you're comparing it to both Destiny and Warframe both something I kind of bounced off of. Warframe I could never get into because the controls felt weird. I really only played Destiny 2 because it was something to do with my friend but I never much cared for it. I never really enjoyed the characters or story but the worst part for me is that you're forced to ADS to do critical hits. This game is pretty much the opposite, in fact there are weapon modules to improve hip fire accuracy. It's just too fast to really bother ADS which is why I think I enjoy playing it. It's just super fast, you have a grappling hook the shooting feels good and this is carrying the game a lot for me. I want to dare to say this kind of reminds me of a better looking and playing Outriders. Outriders was weird because it had a cover mechanic but if you took cover you were doing it wrong. Yes the story is kind of whatever but it all seems to be just setting up whatever this universe is and all the game mechanics. But personally for me as long as the story isn't boring and gets to the action I don't really mind it. Plus I feel like whatever issues they have now can be improved down the line.

 

Now the following were minor gripes that I feel like could be ironed out in the future. Hopefully the dev has a survey or something so I can just tell them instead of screaming at one guy in a dev video

 

•  Doing missions in the open world: This feels odd a lot of the time unless you're starting the mission. It seems like however many people are in an instance of the world you're in only one person start the mission. So that means if you want to do that mission yourself you either have to wait for them to finish or join them in the middle of it, and you have no idea how far along in the mission they are. That's why it feels odd.
   
• When you engage in dialogue with someone yet more than one person are involved in the conversation. The game kind of does a Bethesda lock into one person while they talk kind of thing, a little less awkward though (but how many times can Gley push up her glasses in a conversation?) So when the second person is talking or third person you just hear their voice and see their name and if you kind of forget who the characters are you're sitting there wondering who the other person is. I was thinking, "does this person have like an inner personality that has a name and speaks?" then had to go look at the characters who were in the conversation after to get some clarification.
   
• Descendants need different loadouts. Yes you can save module setups but it's things like your reactor when you switch characters is something that should be tied to the character. Because if I swatch to Bunny I want the electric reactor not the ice one, and then I have to change it myself and then also keep a reactor on hand for when I do switch
   
• I normally don't really care about this too much but since they try to get dramatic at times with the dialogue some AI lip sync might help out. It's probably just synced to Korean so you see some weird timing on the dialogue.
   
• The quest list is awkward to read. Like can it just be written normally why does it have brackets around some words? Looks bad.
   
• This is a missing accessibility option but we should be able to adjust the size of the subtitle font
   
• On the subject of subtitles the Descendant Instructor (the robot guy) his subtitles are too fast, so you have to speed read when he talks (because he doesn't speak in an English voice just robot bloops you are forced to read subtitles as you know)

 

And those are the HOT criticisms I have of the game so far. Like I said I'm having fun playing it, it looks good. I personally don't have an issue with the character designs. I like a cool looking character over a practical one

 

I only have 17 hours compared to your 400 hours or whatever you have so maybe I'll have more thoughts later.

[XxEvil AshxX]

Game is weird and dumb but also kind of fun while at the same time being pretty terrible. 

[Keyser_Soze]

Patch hit

 

Greetings, Descendants!

 

The First Descendant Hotfix 1.0.2 patch is now live.

 

■ Patch date and time
- PDT 07.11.2024 (Thu) 06:05

 

■ Target Platforms
- Steam, Xbox Series X│S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5

 

■ Patch Details

Content Improvements

• Added the 'Start Public Operation' function (matchmaking) to Infiltration Operations (Hard). 'Start Public Operation' is available even if you change the selected reward, but if you select an additional option, only 'Start Private Operation' will be available.
• Removed the sequential type Immunity Spheres from Named Monsters. They have been changed to either the default or extermination types.

 

# Director's Comment
The Dev Team acknowledges the community's concern about the monotonous patterns of Named Monsters and strives to enhance them.

In particular, we've noted that the pattern involving breaking spheres in a specific order isn't appropriate for public matching and have decided to remove it immediately.

As new patterns are developed, we will soon update the patterns of existing Named Monsters one by one.

As Named Monsters frequently appear in Hard difficulty and Special Operations, we will continue working towards diversifying their patterns.

 

• Increased the quantity of rare basic materials dropped from Encrypted Vaults three-fold. The Elite Vulgus that appear in Field Missions and Infiltration Operations will now drop them too.

# Director's Comment
The most efficient way to farm rare basic materials is still through Encrypted Vaults, but for those who prefer hunting monsters, we have updated Field Missions and Infiltration Operations to drop these materials too.

The Dev Team will closely monitor the overall farming status and do our best to create a joyful environment for all our Descendants.

 

• Reduced the time from two 90-second to two 60-second occupations for the Kingston 'Vulgus Data Transmitter' Hacking Mission.
• Improved the Battle Pass Battle Supply Shop button's visibility by redesigning it in the format of the Bonus Shop banner.

# Director's Comment
You can get season-limited skins for free from the Battle Supply Shop. Complete pre-season challenges to claim your special skins!

 

• Updated the Library window from closing when the map is opened and closed through the Acquisition Information pop-up.
• Improved the duration of party invitation messages to make them easier to confirm and accept.
• Improved the duration of the Descendant Instructor's lines.

# Director's Comment
Many Descendants have commented that the Descendant Instructor's dialogue contains many useful game tips.
Currently, it's not possible to revisit previous dialogues, but we are planning to fix this.

We will continue to make improvements so that Descendants can easily access the information they require.

 

• Moved the guide NPC you meet after first arriving in Albion closer.

Optimization Improvements

• [PC] Improved the stability of the shader preparation process by reducing the CPU load during shader generation.
  Currently, we are actively monitoring this issue, and if you encounter issues with a 13th or 14th gen Intel, please refer to Intel's official guide.
   
• [PC] Lowered GPU memory usage when set at High or higher quality.
• [PC] Fixed an issue where character skins were displayed abnormally in low graphics settings intermittently during extended play.
• [PC] Fixed a bug that allowed frame limits to be set when using Nvidia and AMD's Frame Generation.
• [Common] Fixed an issue where shadows were intermittently displayed abnormally depending on the view.
• [Common] Made various other fixes for optimization purposes, and we will continuously monitor them.

 

Bug Fixes
(1) UI/UX

• Fixed an issue displaying unused items in the Library.

(2) Descendants

• Fixed an issue where Descendants could not get out of DBNO when their HP was below -100% from module settings.
• Fixed an issue where Kyle would occasionally go up into the air when using 'Superconductivity Thrusters' during 'Repulsion Dash'.
• Fixed an issue where Esiemo could not get back up while using 'Arche Explosion' and being inflicted with Knockback.

 

(3) Modules

• Fixed an issue where the increase in Firearm ATK per stack in the 'Sharp Precision Shot' module was summed instead of multiplied.

 

(4) Equipment

• Fixed an issue where a weapon's attribute damage did not apply damage over 100,000.
• Fixed an issue where higher values were displayed as the Ultimate (Gold) option despite the Reactor's Skill Cooldown and Skill Cost stats being preferable with lower values.
• Fixed an issue where lower values were displayed as the Ultimate (Gold) option despite the Weapon Change Speed stat being preferable with higher values.

 

(5) Field

• Fixed an issue where 'Amorphous Material Pattern: 118' and 'Shape Stabilizer Form 8' were not dropped at 'Frozen Valley: Vulgus Strategic Outpost' in Fortress (Hard).
• Fixed an issue where Elite Vulgus in the White-night Gulch 'Upper Hatchery' Battlefield Missions did not drop rewards.
• Fixed an issue where monster spawning was interrupted at some Vulgus Strategic Outposts.

 

(6) Instance Dungeon

• Fixed an issue where Vespers resource box materials were dropped from Echo Swamp, Agna Desert, White-night Gulch, Hagios, and Fortress Infiltration Operation resource boxes.

 

(7) Research

• Fixed an issue where the core materials of Ultimate Descendants were incorrectly displayed as Rare instead of Ultimate Tier.

 

(8) Miscellaneous

• [French] Fixed an issue where the 'Go to title screen' menu was displayed with the same phrase as 'Exit Game'.
• [French] Fixed an issue in the story where 'Ultimate Chimera' was used for 'Dreadful Abomination'.
• [French] Added missing words in the probability display for Executioner Tier 3 Set 4.

 

# Director's Additional Comment
It has come to our attention that the community is worried about possible nerfs to Tamer and Gley's infinite magazine builds.
This meta is very strong, but since it is within the scope of what the Dev Team has planned, there are no immediate plans to do so.
In addition, some weapons are more powerful than Tamer and there are a variety of character builds that rival Gley's infinite magazine, so please enjoy them fully. We've been looking forward to seeing Descendants use creative builds to take down powerful Colossi swiftly, so we're quite delighted to see this in action now.

We are well aware that as many Descendants begin farming in earnest, various discussions are taking place regarding drop rates. There is no variable drop rate system in The First Descendant. We are using the fixed rates displayed in the game. The Dev Team has reviewed the acquisition rates across all servers and confirmed that they are dropping according to the rates displayed. We are currently working on various measures to ensure the community can trust the dev team such as disclosing item drop amounts for each content. And we also prepare ways to improve the farming experience. The First Descendant will continue to communicate transparently and honestly.

 

Thank you.

 

@Mr.Vic20 Looks like I wasn't the only one having  trouble with the descendant instructor

 

Also I know I said earlier I wish you could save descendant loadouts, well you can it's on the left side of the screen. The only thing is you still need that thing in the inventory. I guess my revised criticism is that each character should have their own storage for their unique reactor. So far I haven't seen a good reason to use a toxic reactor on an ice character for instance.

[Mr.Vic20]

That's a nice list of improvements!  Agreed about shared Descendant reactors and chips. Each character should have independent plug-ins. I've made it to the last boss and oh boy...its not meant for fire team Rando! 

[Keyser_Soze]

1 hour ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

That's a nice list of improvements!  Agreed about shared Descendant reactors and chips. Each character should have independent plug-ins. I've made it to the last boss and oh boy...its not meant for fire team Rando! 

 

I've been trying to get the Freya enhanced cells but it's just not dropping. I've done that damn mission so many times, I'm going to have to mute the dialogue because I've memorized it by now.

[Mr.Vic20]

26 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

I've been trying to get the Freya enhanced cells but it's just not dropping. I've done that damn mission so many times, I'm going to have to mute the dialogue because I've memorized it by now.

I love drops stated at 20% that took me a dozen runs to get.

[Keyser_Soze]

1 hour ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

I love drops stated at 20% that took me a dozen runs to get.

 

Yeah I got the rarest drop, the shape stabilizer, on my 3rd try or something, which is a 2% chance! Yet these enhanced cells have yet to materialize.

[Mr.Vic20]

@Keyser_Soze - when you're ready to face the hanged man final boss, let me know and we can run it together. Its an especially cruel boss if you are running it with randos as it requires a level of coordination and communication that the rest of the game does not. I've lost 13 times to this boss because of tram confusion on what the steps are. I have the build/fire power to put this boss down (Tamer build is currently at 320,000 DPS) I just need one or two other people working to manage the gimmick of the fight. I'm being intentionally vague about what that gimmick is to avoid ruining the "experience" for others that might want to play later. 

[stepee]

2 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

@Keyser_Soze - when you're ready to face the hanged man final boss, let me know and we can run it together. Its an especially cruel boss if you are running it with randos as it requires a level of coordination and communication that the rest of the game does not. I've lost 13 times to this boss because of tram confusion on what the steps are. I have the build/fire power to put this boss down (Tamer build is currently at 320,000 DPS) I just need one or two other people working to manage the gimmick of the fight. I'm being intentionally vague about what that gimmick is to avoid ruining the "experience" for others that might want to play later. 

 

this post scares me so much to ever play this!

[Mr.Vic20]

27 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

this post scares me so much to ever play this!

Its really not that hard, but the game trainings players from the start to follow specific behaviors and then this boss fight just throws that stuff out the window. Its cruel because its a fast pace game where very few people are talking on open mics, so strategy that involves a sequence is kinda crazy to expect. Eventually the community will have enough players farm this boss after learning/beating its sequence. Right now though, its a social experiment (i.e. can 4 mimes work together to solve a minor puzzle) that ends mostly just one way, in a total party wipe.  

[stepee]

8 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

Its really not that hard, but the game trainings players from the start to follow specific behaviors and then this boss fight just throws that stuff out the window. Its cruel because its a fast pace game where very few people are talking on open mics, so strategy that involves a sequence is kinda crazy to expect. Eventually the community will have enough players farm this boss after learning/beating its sequence. Right now though, its a social experiment (i.e. can 4 mimes work together to solve a minor puzzle) that ends mostly just one way, in a total party wipe.  

 

This scares me more!

[Mr.Vic20]

Well, if you do decide that "Destiny: Horny Town on the Edge of Armageddon" Edition is right for you, then I'd be happy to ride with you to assist!

[Keyser_Soze]

2 hours ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

@Keyser_Soze - when you're ready to face the hanged man final boss, let me know and we can run it together. Its an especially cruel boss if you are running it with randos as it requires a level of coordination and communication that the rest of the game does not. I've lost 13 times to this boss because of tram confusion on what the steps are. I have the build/fire power to put this boss down (Tamer build is currently at 320,000 DPS) I just need one or two other people working to manage the gimmick of the fight. I'm being intentionally vague about what that gimmick is to avoid ruining the "experience" for others that might want to play later. 

 

Will do. I'm not there yet. I think the last collosi I fought was sexy lady or whatever that boss is called. I think the desert area is next for me, maybe. I'm just basing it on the Bunny quest.

[Keyser_Soze]

Still not dropping. I got the Valby Water Play before I got this thing...

[Keyser_Soze]

@Mr.Vic20 Finally!

 

 

And now I get to wait 16 hours.

[DPCyric]

On 7/8/2024 at 3:59 PM, Keyser_Soze said:

I have a list of things as well but I want to start out by saying, you're comparing it to both Destiny and Warframe both something I kind of bounced off of. Warframe I could never get into because the controls felt weird. I really only played Destiny 2 because it was something to do with my friend but I never much cared for it. I never really enjoyed the characters or story but the worst part for me is that you're forced to ADS to do critical hits. This game is pretty much the opposite, in fact there are weapon modules to improve hip fire accuracy. It's just too fast to really bother ADS which is why I think I enjoy playing it. It's just super fast, you have a grappling hook the shooting feels good and this is carrying the game a lot for me. I want to dare to say this kind of reminds me of a better looking and playing Outriders. Outriders was weird because it had a cover mechanic but if you took cover you were doing it wrong. Yes the story is kind of whatever but it all seems to be just setting up whatever this universe is and all the game mechanics. But personally for me as long as the story isn't boring and gets to the action I don't really mind it. Plus I feel like whatever issues they have now can be improved down the line.

 

I like everything Warframe has going on except with the controls  Movement and close quarters combat sucks on keyboard and mouse but aiming sucks on a controller... if someone wants to gift me a Steam Deck I have an idea how to fix that  I've never tried Destiny might give it a shot but I am enjoying this game as just a casual pick up and play even with all the framerate issues I am having.

[Mr.Vic20]

@Keyser_Soze the hanged man is dead! We are rollin’ on hard mode! 

[Keyser_Soze]

1 hour ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

@Keyser_Soze the hanged man is dead! We are rollin’ on hard mode! 

 

Just like all the missions give it time and op people can overcome any type of coordination.

 

Also, forgot to mention that the way I got through the grind is I switched the voices to Korean and they aren't too bad actually. The Guide sounds like Suk Mun but I couldn't find any voice credits for her.

[Keyser_Soze]

@Mr.Vic20 I don't know if you noticed, or use the Xbox app on your computer but there are perks for this game.

 

 

Basically it's a weapon skin, a pink backpack, 3 colors and a spray.

 

You have to jump though a couple of hoops to get it but it's fairly easy. This game actually has cross-progression as well as cross-play which I thought was actually fairly cool. It runs surprisingly smooth on my XboxSEX (I only have a 1080p TV but it was running smooth in Albion) Small aside here that I also found interesting, they are using text chat on console, or at least it's visible by default. I never see anyone do any text chat on the PC version. 🤔

 

In any case here are the steps

1. Make sure your STEAM account is linked to your Nexon account. (It's in game on the options screen)
   Surprisingly I already had one when I just put my email address in
    
2. Download the Xbox version and then link that to your Nexon account (Same as before on the options screen)
    
3. Claim the perk
    
4. Profit!

The bundle shows up in the store like a purchase and you can claim it. 👍

 

Also if you do this you'll unlock all the achievements you earned already. EZ!

[Mr.Vic20]

Oh ice, I didn’t know about that but I’ll give it a spin! 

[Keyser_Soze]

4 hours ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

Oh ice, I didn’t know about that but I’ll give it a spin! 

 

Hmmmmmmmmmm. So this is weird.

 

At the main menu before you start the game and see your descendant you see them wearing the cosmetics. But when you get into the game it's not available. That would be strange if you could only use it on the console versions. Which seems to be the case.

[Mr.Vic20]

21 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Hmmmmmmmmmm. So this is weird.

 

At the main menu before you start the game and see your descendant you see them wearing the cosmetics. But when you get into the game it's not available. That would be strange if you could only use it on the console versions. Which seems to be the case.

Yeah, that’s an odd promotion if so!

[Mr.Vic20]

@Keyser_Soze whelp, I never want to even see the mission called “The Shelter” ever again, but ultimate bunny is now cooking! 

[Keyser_Soze]

Currently having trouble on that platforming mission in the swamp where you have to get the drones. You get to the point where you have to swing to the side of an orb and it doesn't consistently get them and then you fall and have to go back up and you're already toast by then.

[Mr.Vic20]

3 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

Currently having trouble on that platforming mission in the swamp where you have to get the drones. You get to the point where you have to swing to the side of an orb and it doesn't consistently get them and then you fall and have to go back up and you're already toast by then.

I hate those missions so much! I got lucky and was able to divide and conquer with some randos.