squashysquish

@bladededge: I have the exact opposite feeling. The power of your character relative to opponents can vary so widely in Isaac based on what kind of drops you get that it can become a total chore to whittle down enemies' health while staying alive, and I often felt like I lost simply because I had a shitty loadout. In Nuclear Throne, your run ultimately hinges on how well you can position yourself and aim at enemies. You can beat the game with most of the starting weapons and virtually any mutation loadout if you're familiar with the enemies' behaviors. There might be a spawn in 50 that is so difficult to navigate safely that one could consider it an unreasonable difficulty spike, but generally you're left with more than enough time to carve a path to security if you calmly and quickly clear out enemies. I feel the similarities between Isaac and NT are really overstated, though. They're both permadeath proc-genned shooters, but the pace of play and design methodology are so different, it's like trying to compare The Last of Us to Ratchet and Clank because they're both third person shooters.

@bisonhero: Fact.

@onekillwonder_: If you're having trouble progressing, try building melee with durability. Long Arms and Euphoria with a fairly fast melee weapon will let you clear paths through enemy fire, and Strong Spirit plus Boiling Veins will keep you alive long enough to learn the game.

@sdoots: Enemies are pulled, projectiles are pushed. This makes him one of the most potent melee fighters in the game, knocking back bullets and closing gaps quickly. With Euphoria, basically any enemy projectile can be casually sidestepped even at close range.

@onekillwonder_: Assassins only deal 5 damage, and usually lay idly in wait for you, giving plenty of time to notice them. If they sneak up on you, you're probably playing too fast and loose. The only 3 things that can one-hit-kill you on the first playthrough of the game are Big Bandit's charge, touching an orange crystal, and standing in a large explosion. The game doesn't expect you to be able to beat every enemy on your first encounter, just to learn what patterns they have so you wont fall for the same trick twice. The one cause of death I find cheap is Lil' Hunter's death animation, which is extremely unpredictable and still gets me now and again. You basically have to plan around it, clearing one room to hide in and another to fight him from. Any other explosion can be easily avoided. Crystal's Shield reflects projectiles, which is the source of most damage enemies deal outside of the transition areas.