before the update endgame food gave u max stamina plus 250hp. now if you get the max stamina foods you get like 70hp. So it has raised the difficulty in that sense. Also raised difficulty by making the overall stamina not last as long.

Yes the complaints are warranted. And as someone who played w/ endgame foods prior to update i'm triggered that they made it necessary to have minimum of 1 hp foods active. So now i run 2 stamina foods and 1 hp foods. Or else i could be one shotted too easily with having all 3 foods be stamina.

You do need to manage your stamina more, but I wouldn't say the game has become significantly more difficult.

Once you get used to how the game plays now it will be more or less the same as prior to H&H.

IMO.

Originally posted by Estyn:

With the new foods you just need to put more thought into what your anticipated session plans are (fighting, exploration, building, etc), and what you should eat.

^^ This ^^

Just adjust your foods based on your plans and the stamina monitoring isn't difficult or debilitating. Also with the changes to the block mechanics, it just means that you can't shield tank multiple blows/mobs endlessly even with perfect parries is all. Eventually your stagger meter will fill up and you'll be the one left stumbling and vulnerable.

Originally posted by gsw mer:

before the update endgame food gave u max stamina plus 250hp. now if you get the max stamina foods you get like 70hp. So it has raised the difficulty in that sense. Also raised difficulty by making the overall stamina not last as long.

Yes the complaints are warranted. And as someone who played w/ endgame foods prior to update i'm triggered that they made it necessary to have minimum of 1 hp foods active. So now i run 2 stamina foods and 1 hp foods. Or else i could be one shotted too easily with having all 3 foods be stamina.

Yeah, I'm getting pretty sick of these @!#$%s on here bashing people that have legit gripes about the changes. Those of us who did the grind to get all the good stuff got screwed. H&H was supposed to be all about new building and crafting options, and barely got any of that. Instead, loads of the good stuff that we worked to get got nerfed. People dismissing them obviously didn't spend the time in game working to get all the high level stuff just to have it diminished. I stockpiled all kinds of superfoods (when they were super foods) to get ready for the challenges in the new biomes because I expected the difficulty to be ramped up in those areas (whenever they get around to populating them). If I am now expected to be ok with all of my hard work to get the good stuff to be nerfed by an update, then I don't see the point in the grind if my progress isn't going to mean anything.

Honestly? Post-H&H got... Overly complicated. Feature bloated. Unnecessarily complex. I liked how it was before, but now, they kind of just added an extra inconvenience to the game. It's not harder or anything, it's just more annoying.

First there was the hp system (which I didn't care for), Now there's the stamina system, which ties into the new food and crops system. IMO, it has had the effect of reducing the ability/desire to explore. Essentially, to get the crops you will need for you and your buds, you're going to have to put in a lot of time staying in one place.

As the cause, the stamina tweaks make the game annoying, but not impossible. The effect, however, is to make it much easier to do nothing but build. Net result: significant change in gameplay. I wonder if the developers really meant to alter the dynamic to that extent.

Where did all the Vikings go? Gone to flowers... and onions, and carrots, etc. Farmers, all of us. Historically accurate, but not much fun.

Originally posted by hand_sanitizzzzer:

Honestly? Post-H&H got... Overly complicated. Feature bloated. Unnecessarily complex. I liked how it was before, but now, they kind of just added an extra inconvenience to the game. It's not harder or anything, it's just more annoying.

most of which you can just ignore.
you only need to build and upgrade cauldron to gain access to the next tier of food and meads. and on almost each tier you have you have the same food, just with stronger numbers. (you can even survive with lower tier food cuz the difference is 5hp/tier only)

Originally posted by jrc:

First there was the hp system (which I didn't care for), Now there's the stamina system, which ties into the new food and crops system. IMO, it has had the effect of reducing the ability/desire to explore. Essentially, to get the crops you will need for you and your buds, you're going to have to put in a lot of time staying in one place.

pant them in your "hub" base (the one you're returning from time to time). they'll grow without your concern. then just gather, replant few as seeds and put in the chest (1min max. less if you use stagbreaker to harvest).
when you'll have time get ingredients from a chest and cook.

also... food like sausages(55hp, get lots of it and require basic ingredients: entrails, raw meat and thistle) or fish(45hp) & cooked serpent(70hp) (it's inverior to serpent stew & fish wraps, but you don't need a cauldron) doesn't require to have a farm. almost 0 time investment (there are even ways to build an afk fishing farm)

I don't think game play is hard and I don't notice it being any harder. Before and after H&H, I think the difficulty just consists of being patient enough to level your gear, and learning when to parry.

I did make a Dark Souls comparison recently, but it was because trolls can destroy many hours of work, not because they are actually hard to kill.

Its the same as before, except work and running across the map is slower and you need to pay more attention to food production.

Eh, the new 'difficulty' is fine. Been playing since launch, +/-800 hours in. Some of the mechanics / stamina consumption were a bit harsher, but stamina got tweaked last patch.

With the new foods you just need to put more thought into what your anticipated session plans are (fighting, exploration, building, etc), and what you should eat.

Since ours are typically all over the place, we've been eating a stamina food, a mixed/combo food, and a health one. Turnip stew, wolf skewer, and wolf kabob. Still in the mountain biome, haven't killed Moder, but have built a plains farm and wiped out a few goblin villages and a tar pit without much difficulty while still in iron gear.

Not sure how Moder will be, but my wife and I found the Eikthyr / Elder / Bonemass easier than our pre-H&H playthroughs.

Personally, I'd like to see some more tweaking of the stamina consumption rate though. Especially with things like the hoe & cultivator. Gods, it's annoying to have to pause partway through planting a long garden row to let stamina rebuild. Maybe I just need smaller gardens...

Originally posted by Gman:

So my question is how difficult is the game actually after the update? Are any of these complaints warranted?

It's not significantly harder, these people just got used to other people carrying them. I first played the game on February 9 I think, beat it almost entirely solo deathless by April. Played through it again post-H&H, only died when I made the conscious decision not to care and walked into a crypt with a 2-star draugr archer with substandard Black Forest-tier food just because I didn't feel like going to a different chest to get my better food.

Just eat 2 dedicated health foods or 1 health food and 1 mixed if you're expecting a difficult fight, and besides that just be good at the old mechanics and it'll be fine.

It should be noted that the stamina usage from weapons was kinda nonsense - not impossible, just unreasonable - right after H&H's release but it was adjusted quickly after and is not gonna make a big balance difference from pre-H&H levels.

Not much I've started a fresh play through and I'm up to farming barley and trying to find and beat yagluth. So far not really that much more difficult. The only issue I had was finding turnips. Took me a while and because of that it locked me out of getting the next tier of food recipes for a while longer than expected

If anything, it seems a bit easier to me than it was 7 months ago. That could be just more experience with the game though. Stamina isn't that hard to manage unless you are trying to max out your health. There are health foods, stamina foods and balanced foods. You can mix and match the foods to what you are doing. If you are building/farming then max out your stamina. If you are hunting/mining you may want something a little more balanced.

If you eat all health foods and expect to swing your weapon or sprint constantly, yes you will have stamina problems even with potions.

haven't played before H&H much. cuz i've bought the game in august. so i have little to compare.
but i think the game is playable and fairly easy (you decide how difficult it'll be by investing in food and armor). imho as long as you have 3 food (my usual setups are 1health-1stamina-1balanced(general exploration), 1stamina-2health(boss fights) or 2stamina-1health(archery and harpoon usage)) and have rested bonus (sitting near the camp can give you rest1. so there is no excuse not to have it ...except ocean travelling) you'll be fine even if your food is 1-2 tiers below (though i wouldn't recommend blocking cuz with low tier food you'll be staggered a lot).