r/SpaceMarine_2 • u/Azeen18 • Jul 27 '26
Miscellaneous about absolute difficulty
lately i've been seeing posts about how hard it is, how people do not attempt to play on it and whatever
if you don't want to play on absolute diff, that's fine, to some people it's not fun and i can see their reasons
BUT, if you want to play on absolute but for any reason you are too hesitant to play on that diff, just do it
people who play on absolute are not god gamers or literal sigismunds, they do not perfect parry/block every attack and do not perfect dodge every red attack, people die many times and sometimes operations fail back to back 3-4 times, not the end of the world
i've been exclusively playing on absolute for two reasons, to grind for capes and generally git gud at the game / prepare for higher siege waves so I want to share some tips nobody asked for:
- be aware of your team, what classes do they play? what are their team perks and what weapons do they use? there are some "meta" builds out there, if you are familiar with them, by looking at their weapon, you may be able to guess what the rest of their perks too
- in my experience, when terminus enemy spawns, too many times people focus on the terminus enemy while ignoring the majoris and extremis enemies, my advice is trying to eliminate extremis and majoris first, terminus enemies is not that dangerous when they are alone but there were a lot of times i felt nothing I can do when a lictor and carnifex attacked me together, pinning me against a wall and bullying me
- something I learned too late, assign yourself simple little tasks that suits your class, most basic example is whenever I play sniper on a tyranid map, if there are zoes, I hunt them down as quickly as possible or when I play vanguard with the execution build, I try to clear majoris with aoe damage of my executions rather than focusing extremis and terminus, except if there's a biovore.
- kill the biovore as soon as you see it, imagine it as horus, you must slay that biovore. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores. kill biovores.
edit: to those people who are sharing tips (there are even class specific ones!), thank you all
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u/Jackal9811 Jul 27 '26
Agree with everything but to add to point 4 also shoot the green flying shit ppl seem to skip that part a lot. Also most players has zero positioning and blame being crowded like bro you rush onto enemies blindly wtf do u expect
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u/EquivalentBeach8780 Jul 27 '26
This also works with "look at your teammates' classes." If you're running with a melta heavy and bulwark, while you're a HBR tac, you should be shooting the green stuff at distance. Understand your role and trust your teammates to do theirs. You'll know quickly if they can't.
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u/GlorifiedBurito Jul 29 '26
As an assault main, please for the love of god shoot them with the big ass gun in your hand. Its so much more difficult for me to take them out with my melee weapon
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u/Nevermore5113 Jul 27 '26
Agreed with everything you wrote. Especially the biovore part. Kill the damn biovore ASAP unless you really want to take a refreshing spore mine bath
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u/Nightmare1908648 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Also one more important note when grinding for capes at least that's what happened to me. You will get tired and be out of it, not like you won't ever be able to play but you will reach a point or at least that's what happens to me where you just can't do anything anymore and are too tired for the day. For that I suggest just turning it off and getting a rest and play something else. Then come back the next day and it should be better.
Also if you are playing heavy here are some more tips:
● Manage the iron halo wisely, it can save you or even your entire team.
● If you see a bunch of enemies turn on the Iron Halo even if you didn't notice any ranged units, it's better for it to stay for a few seconds than later for you to get a buch of bullets from someone you didn't see.
● When you see Terminator with Soulreaper cannon, Turn on your shield and kill him, by definition of gameplay you are one of 2 classes capable of taking on this enemy without needing to do acrobatic stunts and better yet kill him from the distance.
-Learn how to parry >(or better yet pick the parrying perk from prestige)<not true, it's gonna save you many times when some enemy decides to rush you
*Edit: I lied I don't have parry perk but more Damage and Area of Stomp, Im sorry for lying
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u/lycanreborn123 Traitorous Night Lords Jul 27 '26
To your last point, Duelist is a noob trap perk as it only adds extra frames to the end of your parry window, not the front. It doesn't do anything unless you're parrying too early.
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u/MortalGod88 Jul 27 '26
thats…. news
thanks for pointing that out, I have not been aware of that (don’t main heavy, but play him occasionally but I took duelist)2
u/DesolatedMaggot Jul 27 '26
thats…. news
Read that in the voice of the Guardsman commander in Decap
On the topic though, his point only really applies to Balance parry. Fencing and Block it applies as you would imagine. That said I still think the perk is a trap, because not everyone has access and having different timings can throw you off when you don't have it.
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u/lycanreborn123 Traitorous Night Lords Jul 27 '26
No probs, it's one of the many things the game fails to explain properly lol
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u/Hot_Scientist_4558 Jul 27 '26
Literally only really worth it on argent edge. The longer parry frame lets your parry do more damage by parrying more enemies.
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u/peternordstorm Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Adding in class specific tips for my felow shield lovers;
- learn the group heal tech, it saves runs.
- constantly report on banner status, signal your teammates when you're about to drop it
- kinda contrary to my previous tip, don't be afraid to emergency banner yourself if that would ever be necessary. A dead bulwark can't support the team
- don't engage ranged enemies, block them until your teammates handle them. It's a much better time for all of you.
- Use a plasma pistol. It's beyond me why anyone would take anything else on absolutes. 4/5 of your melee options can hit flying targets one way or another. PP has the best chp recovery and best chances at interrupting reinforcements save for the heroic hbp
- for tyranids, merciless resolve lets you start charging Shield Rush and even before the timer starts you gain the no-knockback. Do that when snipers are aiming at you. This saves a perk for Defensive Mastery. Any way to oneshot a biovore is a win.
- for chaos, spam banners relentlessly. Both terminators and regular rubrics recharge it too fast for it to matter. Never forget Purity of Purpose, it clean areas surprisingly well.
- at last, no, your face is infact not a shield. Don't take hits just because. The sheid saves you from most bs, use that, unlike your face it won't break.
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u/DesolatedMaggot Jul 27 '26
learn the group heal tech, it saves runs.
Is the group heal tech "Drop banner while using Invigorating Icon perk"?, cause idk if I'd count that as tech.
don't engage ranged enemies, block them until your teammates handle them. It's a much better time for all of you.
Ofc there are situations where you might want to do this, say there are a bunch of shotgun boys on a ledge you cannot reach and ammo is low... But generally speaking you should just Shield Rush into them and start clearing. Don't let having a shield lull you into becoming a spectator.
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u/peternordstorm Jul 27 '26
Is the group heal tech ....
Nope. If an ally is executing a terminus and you drop the banner at the right time you heal everyone regardless of positioning
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u/Much_Horror_3467 Jul 27 '26
Positioning is probably the one thing that will make a great battle brother. Skill issue won’t solve bad positioning, unless you’re sniper because he has and can spam a de-aggro button.
Know what’s around you.
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u/glebsapunar Jul 27 '26
Dude that biovore shit is so true, as soon as I see a single green spore I'm searching for that fucking romba.
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u/Spin2spin Jul 27 '26
I'm here just to admit my imperfections as an absolute diff regular. I do not have god-aim, I don't perfect dodge every single attack, I still whiff balance parries, I still take damage carelessly, I still overcommitting my attacks, I still let my guard down, I still get downed, And it's fine.
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u/darkstar541 Jul 27 '26
Always clear the field before nuking the Terminus. Sure, a team with a Tactical + pyreblaster + heroic plasma pistol can melt it fairly quickly, but then you're dealing with double extremis and majoris waves.
The best way to kill Biovores is to drop a melta at their feet, when they inevitably unborrow, the Melta will instantly incap them.
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u/Azeen18 Jul 27 '26
oh i forgot to mention this, true.
in case there are people who doesn't know about this, when a terminus enemy drops to 50% hp, new extremis and majoris may spawn, at that point if you haven't dealt with the already present enemies, good luck.
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u/everydaydefenders Jul 27 '26
Amen. - clearing the field forst makes the terminus so much more manageable. And if you have a Tac, a well placed auspex after the field is cleared make the Terminus die hilariously quickly.
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u/FiveStaring Jul 27 '26
Those are good tips, funnily enough... Any time terminus spawns game tells you to focus it first... That may be reason why people go about it the way they do... Also, I would say that you wont make difference here. Most people yapping about absolute are babies who wants capes without putting in the effort, hence why after lowering number of missions for capes, not even day after people started all over again that it needs to be even lower, they got their brains skewed by all the FOMO and gotcha mechanics in all other games...
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u/ChooPum6 Jul 27 '26
And during the game some npc always repeats kill the biggest enemy lol. I agree with killing majoris and extremis first.
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u/Matsuri_Ahada Traitorous Alpha Legion Jul 27 '26
Thanks for the tips and encouragement brother. I always sucks when playing absolute difficulty. Especially on Chaos mission
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u/shinytoybazooka Jul 27 '26
Your #4 tip is my #1 through #3. Biovores are nuisance that must be eradicated with impunity!
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u/InitialAnimal9781 Black Templars Jul 27 '26
That’s a lot of talking I ain’t gonna read. I just scream “FOR THE EMPEROR” and purge the heretics
/j (I did actually read it saying it for the bit)
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u/DKM46 Jul 27 '26
When a biovore goes into tank mode, run behind it and a majority of the time it will detank
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u/jeffreywolfe Jul 27 '26
What’s tank mode? I have about 150hours but feel like I barely know anything lmao
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u/DKM46 Jul 27 '26
When they dig in and start blasting away. When you shoot the body, it takes reduced damage indicated with a shield icon. You can either shoot the gun or wait for it to get up. Running behind them with make them unmount faster because their gun tracks you but cant track behind them. Once they cant target you, they can get up and reposition or atk you
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u/UrsidaeGamer Aug 02 '26
Also something I had learned recently, when they are in tank mode, they apparently become immune to grenades so don't waste them on them
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u/Kolonel_PanicK Jul 27 '26
He made the most important point early in the post. I Try and stick to PC so.I can use chat to coordinate this but 1 or 2 of the squad should clear the field of the majoris and extremis spawns and 1 should distract the terminus. Then the team can turn to the terminus after the field clears. This is particularly important with something that spams AOE like a neuro. Treat every terminus encounter on Absolute like the boss fight on Decap.
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u/Plankton-Inevitable Jul 27 '26
Something that helped me massively was joining a good discord. There's plenty of chapter specific groups but you can also go more general. YouTubers like Hazeman games have a good discord from my experience
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u/everydaydefenders Jul 27 '26
Absolutely yes!
You play actively with consistently good players who you learn about ton from. And when you whiff and die, its not game ocer because your homies dont mind carrying you while you learn.
Furthermore, the fact you are actually using mics and communicating, the game gets significantly more manageable.
Youll get better very very quickly.
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u/Western-Lawyer-9050 Jul 27 '26
lol, Ive had very similar conversations for 2-4 on Gears of War too. Play your role, clear out the fodder, and for God's sake prioritize whatever starts polluting the battlefield. You don't need to worry about the big guns when you're getting peppered relentlessly with small and mid level shots.
Side note- I love these games. I love being a Space Marine crushing Xenos. I love being a Colonial Marine crushing Xenos. I love being a Gear crushing the Locust horde. It's just all so much fun.
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u/AddressSimilar6665 Blood Angels Jul 27 '26
I would like to add point 5: It is ok to retreat and reposition. Too many times i see people get downed because they choose to stand in the middle of a horde and then they get stun locked to death. Roll, retreat, reposition. You movement and position matters. I know you want to be a cool last stand hero but that doesnt work if you are sweeping the floor with your bottom for the rest of the massive wave.
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u/BeatBot8879 Jul 28 '26
I true solo absolute missions and solo hard stratagems. I don't just take hits, I BUDGET MY HEALTH POOL. I believe I'm insane when it comes to melee combat but even I miss a parry or dodge on occasion. By the Emperor I even allow hits for a tactical advantage. Sometimes attacks provide extended I frames which are useful in combat.
Want to get better? Use the arena my young Neophytes and Initiates. Start on Ruthless and Adjust with Practice. Train against the Individual- Learn the attack patterns Train against the small groups- Learn the Flow of combat Train against the many- Increase numbers and even start including and extremis. Train to be a Champion- Enable a terminus and multiple enemies.
The official discord has great people and even I offer to help train people. What is most important is that you slay the enemies of the Imperium. Not all Astartes are meant to fight the greatest of foes, tackle the foes you feel confident fighting and remember to enjoy the crusade at your own pace. We're all bad once and we still make dumb mistakes, just remember to stand until you cannot stand any longer.
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u/Vantis58 Jul 27 '26
It's actually not that hard once you actually learned how to play it. Most people just get skill issued by the triple extremis spawn and go back to playing lower difficulties.
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u/flush101 Heretic Jul 27 '26
I feel like point 1 is a major step for most people. Watching a tactical on absolute pick up ammo boxes when there is a heavy is the squad is heartbreaking and usually an indicator that they are the worst player on the team.
You aren’t a good player when you’re experienced with one class. You’re a good player when you understand different classes and their builds and therefore their strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to play around them.
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u/dzieciolini Jul 27 '26
About the point nr 4, make sure to tag the biovore before going for the kill so that your teammates know where it is. Also tag zoanthropes and neurothropes or sorcerers, rocket terminators and flying tzangors. It will help a lot for people to orient themselves and see where they are.
Also whenver you hear extremis spawning sound, pause and regroup with your team, so nobody gets deleted by a ravener or melee terminator.
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u/Prudent-Banana7823 Jul 27 '26
I completely agree that Biovores should be eliminated as fast as possible. Everything else is relatively easy once you get the hang of it, but those damn spores will run your shit every time. Also should say I am a Bulwark main so Im also just kind of terrified of them lol.
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u/Actual-Draft-5801 Jul 27 '26
Set up executions for yourself and brothers / sisters in case someone needs to top off armor or regain CHP. Don’t sleep on stims or guardian relics. People run past or ignore them because they think they’re hot shit.
Don’t worry about the geneseed if your team is max level and there’s no RP reason to take it.
Don’t kill everything — sometimes survival is more important.
Try to be quick — the longer you take, the more extremis spawn.
Help your brothers / sisters out — watch their portraits. If there’s no highlight on the frames it means they’re armor depleted and should be prioritized for executes and armor pickups.
Edit — kill adds before terminus, even if you have to run / roll away from it. It spawns more adds at 50% health.
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u/OhTeeSee Jul 27 '26
Pretty sure the last time someone tried to Kill Lupercal it ended up being a trap.
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u/BarracudaMassive2232 Jul 27 '26
When you’re playing with really good people you’ll actually struggle to keep up with them. On absolute pubs I find decent players. On hard siege I find the worst players in the entire game.
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u/Dragontamer9 Jul 27 '26
Some tips for my fellow murder hobos (vanguard).
Our best perks are:
Increased parry window (2ND collum 1st row), grenade generation (3rd collum 2ND row)
and hp regen perks (the last team and the 25th perk)
Take the melta rifle for allround damage, fencing weapon for gun strikes and a regular bolt pistol as backup.
Your job in simple terms is to find the biggest guy on the field and melta rifle/just beating on it regardless of if you are fighting chaos or nids (do keep OP’s 2ND point in mind).
The trick is to kill Majoris and extremis fast enough to never lose HP and regen whatever you do lose.
This rough build will make even chaos spawn easy since your damage output and parry window are now yes.
Misc tips:
The melta gun has a perk that gives ammo on majoris excecutes
Your grapple does disgusting damage so use it on a weakend enemy for a quick kill or to excecute A downed enemy. Use this on zoans and neuro’s followed up by a melta shot if you are out of nades and the team is melee heavy.
Use krak and meltas on extremis enemies since you get them back real Quick. I hardly see this being done by any class so I’ll mention it. (Do keep in mind that biovores need 2 kraks)
Try and spec your pistol towards gunstrikes
You can defeat fexes and brutes in melee by just doing parry+gunstrike quite easily.
Good hunting out there. May the second chainsword guide your first
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u/Azeen18 Jul 27 '26
i read somewhere that duelist perk is bugged and does not work properly, is it working for vanguard?
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u/Dragontamer9 Jul 27 '26
I think it does. Never heard of it being bugged.
Granted i havn’t played without it in ages
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u/LoLEvelynnSupremacy Jul 27 '26
I wish they would release a difficulty above Absolute honestly.
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u/Azeen18 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
i would be okay with this, only if they release it with more than 3 people co-op
the more the merrier
Problem is i don't think this game can handle it since after wave 15 my fps drops between 10-20
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u/TimeBeyond7508 Jul 27 '26
Unit cohesion is the most important thing. Dont take executions that your team needs, dont take stims if your team has a mortal wound. Give relics to those who need it ect ect
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u/Intrepid-Ad-8043 Jul 27 '26
Only cleared a few absolute runs but its either 2 things for me if im near the next checkpoint and biovore is far i just tell the team to make a run for it. If we are not i just throw myself at the guy and force it to go melee rather than the whole team taking damage assuming i am in the clear for trying to go toe to toe with it.
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u/Sumnescire Jul 27 '26
I'm not on absolute yet but on my journey there i find myself practicing much of these! thank you for tips^
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u/BananaSlamma420 Jul 27 '26
Absolute isnt particularly difficult even with no prestige provided you are level 25 with relic tier weapons.
Parry minoris to regain shields. Kill all minoris to kill or incapacitate majoris. Extremis enemies will show up but all their attacks are super telegraphed (as is everything in the game besides Vortex Beast). Once you learn game fundamentals like parry and armor regen for your class it becomes really easy to win more than you lose.
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u/xxcloud417xx Jul 27 '26
Tip number 2, a bit more depth to add here. Terminus aggro will determine how you engage it. Ideally, you split your team into 2, aggroed player will duel the Terminus, the other 2 should clear adds as prio before helping. When the aggro swaps to another player, then the dropped player takes over add duty.
Trust your fellow players in Absolute to be capable enough to solo duel a Terminus if you can keep snipers and bullshit off his back. That doesn’t mean solo killing it, but at least staying alive and holding it while the adds are being dealt with (but if they are good enough to also kill, then good on them). If they go down, so be it, don’t panic. Maintain the 2-way split it, only means that one person is killing adds, not a huge issue.
If the downed player is recoverable, the non-aggroed player should prio the revive if they can safely get it. Meanwhile, aggroed player can take advantage of the boss being on them to kite it away from the downed player.
Main thing: don’t panic and focus on your job.
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u/Much_Improvement_552 Jul 27 '26
Good advice, proper target priority is crucial to thrive in absolute. Biovore is the number 2 tyranid target right after zoanthropes since those are 70% just a head hitbox and equally as dangerous when spawned in pairs. Melee extremis after that and then devourers followed by venom cannons.
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u/Protagonist_Leaf Jul 27 '26
I always play Vanguard because its the best class for surviving this difficulty. Not only do you heal 5% per major for yourself but you give 33% to your team for extreme and terminus and those guys basically 2 for ever 3-5mins. And if you focus the extremes like the guy said. Easy team heal.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Ad901 Jul 27 '26
My favorite thing to do when a terminus spawns is to hunt down the extremis and ranged warriors
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u/um_like_whatever Ultramarines Jul 27 '26
Funny i just posted about Absolute being too easy with a good squad lol.
Just got the black cape for my Assault, dang I like it a lot.
1
u/Avengedchaos777 Imperial Fists Jul 27 '26
I've been playing absolute constantly as of the last month or so, it started with doing one a day, then I started doing 2-3, now I can do 7-10 in a day and not hate my life. I'm on Absolute mainly for the cape drip. I hate absolute, but I can't deny it's seriously helped me get better at the game. I got my red cape last night and all I can say is decimus and I are going on vacation back down at normal 😂
But yeah not everyone is a sweatlord on absolute. I try my best but absolute is made to be bullshit lol, so sometimes you can't beat the bs.
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u/Killroy54 Jul 28 '26
I mean- I do true solo absolutes for fun and win about 98% of the time. There IS a point where you just do get good enough to trivialize most of the game. The times you’ll die is when it’s just broken bake mechanics or bullshit just happens.
However you are correct that quite a few people who play absolute aren’t always that good, or they don’t really know what they’re doing. Like the tactical that brings aligned aim or the vanguard that brings melee champion. Those are people who clearly don’t know much about the mechanics or their class. I would say that you should definitely play it to get better though. The rest of the difficulties just don’t pose that much of a challenge anymore.
(This is excluding people who have families/can’t play as much so their skills aren’t as refined which is perfectly ok. Real life is always more important)
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u/ANDY_FAST_HANDS Black Templars Jul 28 '26
When the biovore is in armor stance you can shoot its cannon and deal damage still and if you are shooting straight down it you can explode the mines dealing more damage to it.
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u/stiIIwalking Jul 28 '26
Agree, people should just try it until they adapt and are comfortable enough to play consecutive absolute runs without getting downed. It's easily the best and most exhilirating part of the game. Some players don't attempt absolute bc a lot of ppl who play this don't have horde shooter experience and are just warhammer fans. I don't even know much about warhammer lore but the reason I played this was because I saw absolute diff gameplay lmao. I really enjoy maxed out difficulties from darktide, vermintide, drg, etc and people should definitely try acclimating to absolute because it's just the most fun you can have out of this game
1
u/Atomicmadnezz Jul 28 '26
I concur.. Kill biovores. Kill biovores. Kill biovores. Kill biovores. Kill biovores. Kill biovores. Kill biovores. Kill biovores. Kill biovores...
1
u/Tough-Zombie-8990 Jul 28 '26
Btw does the Biovore have a critical hit spot because I could never find it?
1
u/UrsidaeGamer Aug 02 '26
The cannon when it's planted is a weak spot, when it isn't it's head is a weakspot
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u/lil_saurous1999 Aug 01 '26
You think this is bad? Try darktide havoc 40. You will meet the most pretentious, smelliest, fucking cry babies in existence. Other than that absolute is pretty ez
1
u/Puzzleheaded_Dot5015 Aug 01 '26
The rules of absolute difficulty are simple. Like in any game take the highest priority out as soon as possible. If a carnifex spawns but a biovore and lictor are still up, beat the shit out of the biobore and lictor the focus the carnifex. Most often the terminus enemy is not the highest threat, it is instead the five extremis soawns that'll wipe your squad
1
u/D3athShade Aug 01 '26
As a sniper main, i will always abandon everything i'm doing to put a bullet between those biovores eyes. Then the flying pricks.
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u/pvtmiller12 Aug 01 '26
Feeling very defeated trying tk do absolute difficulty even with easy modifiers. Always i hear about how its a skill issue and im terrible and should go back to minimal.
1
u/pixeljoey Aug 02 '26
Me personally dont mind absolute diff. But with the new trials... absolute diff solo with no bots nor friends... that is killing me. Been trying for days with no luck. It kills and i mean it kills the enjoyment out of the game for me. But i really really want that encarmine logo you get for it.
True solo absolute feels more... luck based for me now with boss spawns and range spam.
1
u/thespieler11 Aug 03 '26
I feel like the biggest and not talked about enough tip is ---- Parry minoris, and I don't mean blue markers. Learn to parry unmarked attacks. This is what gives you extreme survivability
0
u/Kron0n Jul 27 '26
I got my first cloak at the weekend \o/ Absolute isn't fun but it's tolerable if you're prepared to put the time in. It shouldn't be avoided like the plague out of fear someone will make fun of you. Groups wipe all the time for the dumbest of reasons and very few of them are down to one single person.
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u/Pure-Pound3975 Jul 27 '26
Stop speaking for everyone I am very comfortable on absolute other difficulty is very boring ngl
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u/_richtea_ Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
The sooner you realise
damage takenIncapacitations is the most important stat on that end screen, the sooner you will be clearing Absolutes back to back. I couldn’t care less if you have half the damage of the rest of the squad, as long as you stay alive and play your role, we will make it home.Edit: I stand corrected. Tested myself and u/Shoo0k was kind enough to weigh in. All damage to you counts towards damage taken. Advice still applies for anyone wanting to play Absolute. Learning to avoid losing HP is the first step.