Let It Die is my kind of game. It is that refined grind that feels great. It is also incredibly complex on the offset. I thought it would be good to do a write up to un-confuse a lot of it, because it sure had me wondering what it even was for a while.
What is Let It Die?
It's a free to play semi-online grind-action game. I put grind there first because that's its main draw. The action itself while fun, is nothing to write home about. Be very aware that this is not a Souls game. There is next to no real build variety, the environments look uninteresting at best and are procedurally generated for vast chunks of it, the lore is... ridiculous and mostly intentionally nonsensical and the action is extremely basic and doesn't have a ton of nuance. Basically everything you'd play Souls for, is not the reason you'd play this game for. You love a good grind and very interesting mechanics, particularly online? This is the game.
What is the goal?
You have multiple characters. You start in the Waiting Room where you can do all sorts of things to trick out your characters and you want to go to the top floor of the tower, which is floor 40. Each floor has enemies that you probably need to kill and want to kill to get currencies and loot, and eventually you will find an escalator and move on to the next floor. If you die, you start back in the Waiting Room and lose your character for the time being (there are ways around that, read below). Luckily, most floors (not all!) have elevators. If you find an elevator, you can activate it so while in the Waiting Room you can move up to that floor immediately without having to do all the floors over again. Reach floor 40 and beat the boss, you win.
How harsh are the free-to-play hooks?
Difficult for me to say because I 'only' have around 22 hours into the game as of this writing. From my experience, the game hasn't even asked me to spend money yet. It seems completely not-in-your-face about it. Beyond that, I never even felt the game was unbalanced even if it wasn't free to play. That said, perhaps they try to hook you and then roll out the insidiousness later, but for what it's worth, I know a few people personally that told me while it ramps up, they were able to finish it 'fine' not spending any money at all.
Is the game fun?
Balls yes. It depends if you like to grind though. I love me a good grind that is fun to play, so this is perfect for me. But if you get put off by the mere idea of grinding then this game will most definitely not be for you since that is almost entirely what it is about. That said, this is a unique case where I can tell you to just find out for yourself because the game is free anyway, might as well check it out?
Progression
You start with three character slots called Fighters. You can upgrade this later (see Currencies, SPLithium). Each character is not very valuable on the offset. You start out mostly naked (the way you like it) and without weapons. You start in the basement in the Waiting Room, this is your home base of sorts. Your goal is to make it to floor 40 and kill the boss there. While every floor increases in difficulty slightly, there are major difficulty spikes every 10 floors. Meaning floor 9 more closely resembles floor 1 than it does floor 11, which will be on another level.
Fighters and Grades
At the start of the game you will have an All-Rounder, first grade. This is a character class. You will unlock the ability to create different classes as you reach certain floors. After you reach floor 5 (I believe?) you can start creating other classes. The only difference is those classes have higher starting stats in certain area's and the ceiling of their max in those stats is also significantly higher. Making them much better in that particular aspect. The following stats are present:
HP: Total health amount
Stamina: Amount of actions you can perform in short time span until you tire out
Strength: Improves damage with strength weapons
Dexterity: Improves damage with dexterity weapons
Vitality: Reduces incoming damage
Luck: Increases amount of Kill Coins found/dropped and likelihood of obtaining materials, blueprints etc.
Striker
Has more HP and Strength than usual, making this Fighter great for fights with melee weapons.
Defender
Has more HP and Vitality than usual, making this Fighter great for survivability.
Attacker
Has more Strength and Dexterity than usual, making this Fighter great at dealing damage with any weapon.
Shooter
Has more HP and Dexterity than usual, making this Fighter great at fights with ranged weapons.
Collector
Has more inventory slots, making this Fighter great at collecting materials, blueprints and weapons.
Skill Master
Has more decal slots than usual, making this Fighter great for stacking effects.
Lucky Star
Has more Luck than usual, making this Fighter great at farming currencies, materials or other drops.
The ones I would concern yourself with at the start (as soon as they are available) are the Collector and your favorite damage dealer. Skill Master is more interesting when you have a lot of decals (which you won't at the start) and I found I never needed to grind that much so Lucky Star's purpose is still a bit beyond me even. Perhaps he will be useful later. I advise you play your favorite damage dealer (Striker, Shooter or possibly Attacker) at your highest attained floor that still feels somewhat challenging. Play Collector everywhere else, specifically when going on a run for materials.
Grades
When you reach floor 11, you will unlock grade 2 characters. This means you can create a grade 2 character, which will start with even higher stats in their respective fields and can gain additional levels in each skill. For example, regular character can get up to 5 skill points in any given skill, whereas grade 2 characters can go to 10.
The same will happen later and yet later, until you reach grade 5 which is currently the highest tier of characters. Gaining levels for a character is an easy process and luckily, due to the somewhat disposable nature of Fighters, also relatively quick to level them to the max. You gain XP for killing enemies, XP can be used to put skill points into skills. I found a new character would reach max level within an hour usually.
Enemy Variants
There are a few distinct enemy types worth recognizing to know what's going on.
Tuber
These are your basic AI-only enemy types and the first enemy you will encounter. They have distinct movesets. They usually only drop Kill Coins when killed. Apart from the basic first one, they are not necessarily the easiest enemy types to fight. Some later variations will throw some odd moves your way. You will only encounter Mark 1 Tubers on floors 1-10. Mark 2 will start to appear at 11-20.
Screamer
Recognized by a grey name;These are the basic AI-human enemies. Their moveset is identical to your own. They are the enemy type you will fight for most of the game, but their moveset changes depending on the weapons they use. While Tubers also have levels (or in their case Marks) associated with them, the level range on Screamers is a lot wider. You can encounter up to around level 30 Screamers on the first 10 floors.
Hater
Recognized by an orange name; These are identical to Screamers in capability, the only difference is where they come from. Haters are essentially Screamers that have entered your game through online modes. If you die on floor 3, you will lose control of your character and you will have to create a new one. Once you get back to floor 3, the character you lost will be roaming around there and try to attack you similar to a Screamer. He will use the armor and weapons he had on when he died (or pick stuff up that drops even). If you kill your own Hater, he be then be returned to your Freezer and you can swap back to playing that character in the Waiting Room. He will have lost all of his inventory, but his skills are still there. If he kills you, you'll have to create a new character and there will now be two Haters on floor 3. If you die again, you'll have to delete one of your characters to make space. Alternatively, you can pay to get them rescued, which also save any inventory items to remain (more below).
However, when you die on floor 3, someone else has a chance to get a copy of your Hater in their game on floor 3. The game prioritizes to put Haters in from people of your friends list, but will take any Hater randomly if it can't populate your game with enough (there isn't necessarily a Hater on every floor, but going 5 floors without seeing one is rare) from your friends alone. Fun fact: Haters can also be distinguished from their dialogue. If you hear something say something along the lines of: 'Ugly bitch! Choke on my ****!' there is probably a Hater around the corner.
Hunter
Recognized by a red name; These are once again similar to Screamers, but they have been sent by someone else specifically to your game to kill you. You can do this yourself too. You can send one of your characters out as a Hunter into someone else's game. The expedition, as the game calls it, costs time. But your Hunter, even if killed by the other player, will always return. And he will always return with loot based on how long you set the expedition to be. If your Hunter manages to kill the other player, you get increased rewards. If you kill a Hunter, you also get some rewards. In short, send out Hunters whenever possible. It is a win-win scenario for both players (unless the player being attacked actually gets murdered). Important to note: you do not invade other people's game yourself. It is always under the control of the AI.
Weapons and Armor
You acquire weapons and armor as drops from any Screamers you kill. If a Screamer is using a weapon, they have a fairly high chance (but not 100%) to drop that weapon after death. There are a few distinctions in weapon and armor properties worth making here. There are different weapon damage types like slash, strike and pierce weapons. This matters because armor is inherently strong against, or weak to certain damage types. For example, some armor provides increased protection against piercing attacks, while being vulnerable to slashing attacks. This does not matter too much early in the game. It starts to matter more as you reach floor 20ish, though it doesn't seem to ever become very demanding. Attack value always remains more of a priority.
Almost the same can be said for armor, but not quite. While Defense is important, armor also yields more of any given skill based on the type of armor you have equipped. A sturdy steel helmet often gives additional bonuses to health, while some leather headgear might give bonuses to dexterity. Figure out which way you want to lean more: survivability or attack power. Choose your gear based on that.
Unlocking and researching
And choosing you can. Starting relatively quickly (floor 2-3) you will find blueprints. Take these and bring them back to the weapons and armor shop in the Waiting Room. There, it will turn into a random weapon or armor piece. You can then perform research to unlock that weapon or armor piece. Once unlocked (this takes a small amount of time and resources) you are able to buy them from the shop.
Why buy stuff if it randomly drops too? Because all items have durability and weapons do less damage based on how much durability they have left, while armor protects you less based on how much durability is left. Anything that drops always has around 30% durability left, while things you buy have 100% durability. On top of that, you can perform further R&D on those weapons and armor you use most and increase their base properties, scaling their attack and defensive value up exponentially. Soon, a Steel Hammer +3 at 20% durability does even more damage than a regular Steel Hammer does at 30%. Not to mention, since you bought it, it will start at 100%. My recommendation here is to use dropped items on floors you feel confident in, but use purchased weapons and armor on floors you feel are still challenging and of course against bosses also.
Performing R&D requires materials which you will find randomly on floors. Any material can pop up anywhere, but generally speaking, floors 1-10 have the lowest tier of materials, floors 11-20 have the second tier of materials and so on. This means that while progressing through floors 1-10 you will get your favorite gear up to +4. Ascending it from +4 to the next level requires tier 2 materials, which are rare in 1-10, and common or even standard in 11-20.
Note that specific floors are have greater odds of housing a specific material type. For example, I know floor 3 typically has clothing materials (cotton, wool, leather) much more than any other floor. I don't know about anything else specifically.
Recommendations for weapons
Some weapons are better than others. Weapons have some 'hidden' properties like how well they destroy armor. The circle saw is pretty terrible at raw damage, but shreds armor quick. Something like the Fireworks Launcher does pitiful damage but gets some utility from its mastery levels (see below). Every weapon is completely usable to great effect in its own way. Nevertheless, the community seems to agree some weapons are just really good. They might give you an easier time and I would upgrade them first.
Hot Iron
Seems to be the most favorited weapon accross players. It destroys armor fast, deals a lot of damage and hits three times in one burst. Early on, it is the heaviest damage dealing weapon you can get (in terms of DPS). To offset it's power, it is the only melee weapon that has an ammo capacity. Meaning it might be empty before the durability runs out. Nevertheless one of the best weapons.
Hammer
My personal favorite. Deals a ton of damage which is only slightly less than the Hot Iron, but (obviously) has no ammo restriction. On top, it's special move I found seems to stunlock everything, including bosses.
Machete
Deals a good amount of damage and has the luxury of making swiping animations allowing you to hit multiple enemies with it more easily.
Magnum
Amazing damage at range, but very restrictive ammo capacity. You will almost surely run out of ammo long before the durability gives out (you cannot find more ammo for any weapon at this time). Fantastic for enemies you're afraid of though as it makes short work of them in a save way, as it also stunlocks them most often.
Mastery Level
As you get kills with certain weapon types, your Mastery Level of that type will increase. There are 20 Mastery Levels for each weapon type. These bonuses are account wide, so if you have Mastery Level 20 for Hammers and your character dies, your new one will still have all of the bonuses associated with Hammers. The benefits include dealing more damage, reducing durability reduction, unlocking Rage (ultra) attacks and unlocking special moves.
You can whittle an enemy down to low health and then finish them off with the weapon you want to increase your Mastery Level in. The final blow counts. This is smart for things like the Firework Launcher, which does very low damage, but gets better as you unlock Mastery Levels.
Currencies
Being a free to play game, there are several currencies at play.
Kill Coins
The simplest currency are Kill Coins. They are used to purchase weapons, armor and decals. You also have to pay Kill Coins for using the elevator. The cost increases as your destination gets further away from your current location. The Waiting Room being in the basement of the tower, you can see that trips back can cost some money. Being halfway through the game, it has not become an issue at all yet (I can the fare amount back after clearing half a floor). Lastly, you can use them to rescue or ransom any Fighter you have lost. This returns them to you with their inventory intact.
Kill Coins are earned quite easily, being dropped by almost any AI you kill and found in containers or boxes as well as recovered from expeditions.
SPLithium
This can be seen as the 'upgrade' currency, because it does exactly that. You use it to perform R&D research or upgrade your buildings in the Waiting Room. If you want more character slots for example, you use SPLithium to get another one (this is done at the train terminal in the Waiting Room). You can also upgrade your Kill Coin and SPLithium storage (which are capped) or your Bathroom (see Online Heavy-Aspect, Bathroom).
SPLithium is earned by killing Haters and Hunters (small amount) and a fair amount from expeditions. The best source is from Raids though (see Online Heavy-Aspect, Raiding).
Death Metal
A luxury resource, Death Metal is almost exclusively used to save you the hassle of having to kill or rescue your own Hater and bring you back to full health on the spot where you died. This is most often not worth it because you will likely have enough Kill Coins to rescue your Fighter, not to mention if you were close to an elevator, going back up and killing your Hater still doesn't take long at all. Whenever I found some blueprints, I found rescuing my Fighter to be always worth it, otherwise I'd usually kill them, unless I felt the odds were stacked against me. Beyond that you can also use Death Metal to expand your storage capacity, which is by far the best use for Death Metal, especially early in the game.
Death Metal is earned as random login rewards somewhat rarely. Otherwise it is purchased with real money in the PSN store.
Online Heavy-Aspect
Brings us to the final point: Let It Die has a heavy focus on online blending mechanics. We've heard about Haters and Hunters (see Progression, Enemy Variants) but there is more.
Raiding
As alluded to before, the Waiting Room is your home base. It can be raided by other players. This means a player comes into your game and attacks your Waiting Room, destroying your bank and SPLithium storage and claiming a portion of their contents. You will lose this portion yourself. This is by far the best way to acquire SPLithium. If you are a singleplayer kind of person who does not like PvP, have no fear: you will not see the enemy player if you so happen to be in your own Waiting Room while the attack happens. It is instanced. You will always fight AI.
You can protect your Waiting Room by placing one or multiple of your Fighters as defenders. When the player attacks, they will come out and start fighting him. The attack can be repelled that way, though especially early on take into consideration that it is very easy to kill enemy Fighters, even if they are higher level than you. So if someone raids you early on, expect them to be successful. Only once you get grade 2-3 characters will you have a chance of repelling anyone and even then be wary...
Bathroom
... and I say be wary because if one of your Fighters is defeated in a defense, he has a chance to be unconscious instead of dying. This is bad because Fighters that die during a defense are immediately revived after the attack is over and added to your Freezer again for no cost, inventory included. Unconscious Fighters however, can be taken by the enemy player back to their Waiting Room. He will have captured your Fighter at this point and put him on the Bathroom to 'reset' him, meaning he will claim it as his own Fighter. This process takes considerable time though, usually around 48 hours. You can raid his Waiting Room and destroy his Bathroom to rescue your captured Fighter(s). Alternatively, you can pay ransom in the form of Kill Coins to get your Fighter back. The cost increases depending on your Fighter's grade and level. It can become very costly. On the plus side, he cannot decide to not accept it. If you pay, he will get the money and the Fighter will be released. He has no control over that part.
This is why putting up defenders is very risky. At the same time, losing a grade 1 level 10 Fighter is not a big deal at all. But they can't really put up a fight so it's not really worth it ultimately, until you get very far into the game and actually have a good chance of repelling attacks.
Good to know!
There is a welcome pack of four Death Metals in the PSN store that is free. Get it. As previously discussed, use it to upgrade your storage.
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