Nightmare! used to be the hardest difficulty level in the game, and has unique rules that distinguish this difficulty level from all others. For instance:
- Non-robotic enemies can respawn as exalted variants after enough time out of sight.
- Enemies drop 50% more ammo on first kill. XP is not granted for respawns.
- Enemies get +10% to accuracy.
- Higher enemy count per level.
- The normal exit is shown to non-Scout classes after killing 6 enemies.
Gibbing[]
Gibbing mechanic is slightly beneficial for playing in the Nightmare! mode as gibbed enemies won't revive as quickly.
Enemy revival[]
Should an enemy be left out of sight for too long, its chance to revive will increase linearly, starting at 25 turns and reaching 100% at 50 turns. Enemies become stronger each time they revive, but it also doubles the minimum and maximum thresholds they require to revive.
After their first revive, enemies spawn with half the health of their exalted variant. Starting with their second revive, they will have the same amount. They will also spawn with one more exalted keyword each time, maxing out at 3.
Once 3 enemies remain on the level, they, and any other enemies that respawn will always be visible on the minimap.
Exalted enemies that were spawned by the level on entry as part of a pack will not respawn.
Strategy[]
High damage attacks from single sources or step-and-fire tactics help in Nightmare!. More importantly, builds that move quickly and don't require stationary turns tend to do better. Most master traits, and even masterless characters, can beat nightmare with enough skill and persistence, but *reliably* achieving wins on nightmare is extremely challenging.
A huge skill 'wall' faces players progressing from UV, as there is a huge new mechanic to learn which changes the way combat must be approached. The idea of completely clearing each area should probably be completely abandoned, and wasting time, including pathing (maze dead-end) problems should be recognised as a major misplay.
Historical notes[]
Nightmare! was introduced in the patch 0.9.3.
Old info removed from this page: Should you need a build for Nightmare!, consider Bulletstorm, Vampyre or Gunrunner. These master traits have been proven successful multiple times in Nightmare. Sniper has also seen success.
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