After months of being "meh" on the game (finishing A and being put off by all the bullet hell hacking in B) I decided to go back.

Somehow everything kinda clicked - I think knowing the discussions around this game really help you get in its groove, and so I set about thundering through Route B because C is where the good stuff is at.

Only, now I'm in Route C, I'm level 37 and enemies are between 50-60. They kill me in two hits, if not one.

I've just died yet again because a lumbering 2B (in that sequence) wouldn't move out the way, and I quit. It took a TON of retries to get through those first battles where you help the other YorHa squads (again, lots of one-hit deaths) and this is just too much.

I'm constantly in the "slow-mo coz you just got hit too much" phase, popping Large restorations like there's no tomorrow (I went through 50 in that scene with the EMP as 9S), and I'm just thinking... have I broken the progression?

Is the only solution to try and grind out 15 levels or something? Honestly I'm so disappointed - everything had clicked, I'm DYING to see how it all goes, but the combat is destroying my will to carry on!

@shalashaskauk666: I had this exact problem my first time through the game--it very nearly ruined my overall enjoyment of the experience. What I ended up having to do was go through my chip loadout and prioritize anything that would help keep me alive: immunity after a hit, more HP, life leech, etc. I also needed to play extremely carefully, which often meant playing keep-away while shooting and/or hacking as many enemies as possible. It's a huge pain, especially with those new enemies that shut off your abilities. It is doable but it requires a fair amount of patience and frustration to do so, sadly.

Can you knock the difficulty down a step or two? Unfortunately level is really important in this game - I discovered a postgame boss that took 0 damage from all of my attacks, even though I was at average endgame level (high 50s).

@shalashaskauk666: Just curious: have you been maintaining / upgrading your chips?

Isn't this the case with all rpg's? I mean level scaling isn't a thing except in bethesda games. Nier: Automata is an action-rpg.

The only advice I can give you is to:

1) Load an earlier save.

2) Try mixing up your chip loadout(might not help if all your chips are level 1)

3) If you're on pc, use cheat engine to give yourself infinite hp to get through the part you're talking about.

I'm kind of where you were. I'm ahead of leveling (sort of) during the second half of A, but I'm worried I'll be in your position soon. The side quests are pretty meh and some are tedious, but I did a few and I'm already kind of burnt out in doing more.

Hopefully I'll be 50-ish by endgame, but I'm not digging Nier as much as others. Might have to bump the difficulty down.

I started C sub-40 (as I skipped most side quests) and ended just over 50. Best advice is to use the Pod lasers and dodge alot early, sticking to range with some range+ chips, then invest in upgrading your chip capacity when you can. Upgrade your weapons, too.

By the end of the game I was doing so much damage and healing 3 different ways constantly. Halfway through the playthrough it went from really hard to kind of trivial. Just get through the hump, C is really great stuff.

PUT ON EASY

I want to say for sure that there's an exploit involving the statue in the amusement park in which you can easily gains tens of levels, so I'd look into to that if I were you. Other than that, there is a spot in the desert area where level 38 enemies infinitely respawn, so that would be the "listen to a podcast" method.

Is chapter select not unlocked yet? I would suggest going back to older chapters and doing sidequests to level up if you can. You retain all levels from doing that. Though it might not even be an option yet. I don't remember. If you can get back to camp there's also chip combining you can do to get stronger. The chips really break the game if you let them.

If you are stuck where you are and can't go back it really does come down to optimizing the chips you are carrying already, putting it on easy and toughing it out I suppose. Grinding is possibly an option but I wouldn't suggest it. That shit would be slow and tedious progress.

It's a bit of an odd balance. If you do a really low amount of sidestuff your situation becomes possible. And if you do literally 100% of the side stuff like me, you become an unbeatable war god that kills bosses in 3 hits.... Really seems like they just intended you to do about half or something, which is a very questionable decision. I figure a huge amount of players fall in either extreme of completionism or just wanting the story.

@shalashaskauk666: I had exactly the same problem at the same point. Definitely don't grind, just bump it down to easy, and you'll get through. The game seems kind of poorly balanced at this point, so you'll probably get enough XP in the early parts of C to get back up into the right level range if you want to switch back to a harder difficulty later on.

If you're like me, you probably didn't sell much and you're short on credits, have a look in your inventory for things that can be sold freely because I'd been accidentally holding on to like 500k worth of machine cores without even noticing.

Chapter select doesn't unlock until the end of C/D.

@mvhvtmv: Yeah I thought that may be the case, but didn't remember exactly. Unlucky. :C