The Five Challenge - Unofficial Challenge Mode for those who want a tougher campaign!

Hi everyone!
I’ve seen a decent amount of people say that the campaign was too easy and they breezed through it without much of a challenge, and this is something I felt as well. Given that we do not yet have the Masochist challenge in 0.9, and hardcore being a very punishing way to challenge yourself without really making the game itself harder, this could be a fun way to challenge yourself! I love to come up with strange challenges when I play games to test myself and just have fun, so I present to you:

The Five Challenge (I am terrible with names, so bear with me)

The premise is that you are only allowed to equip new gear and change equipped gear every Five levels.
When you hit level Five, you will be able to either equip a new piece of gear, or swap out a current piece of gear for a new one.

  • Are you going to swap your weapon for more damage?
  • Are you finally going to equip an accessory?
  • Are you planning ahead to equip an item you want to use in the forge?
  • Or are you going to save the equip reward for when you find a better item?

The item does not need to be equipped or swapped the moment you hit level Five. You are able to save the milestone reward for later. Maybe you are waiting for a better drop, or maybe you’re wanting to Forge an item before equipping it.

This challenge is designed to be done using the in-game Character Found challenge as you are not allowed to use items from your other characters, however this can still be done as a team challenge where every party member is partaking in The Five Challenge. Just make sure to have a separate stash tab as you don’t want to accidentally mix your items. In the end, if you cheat you are only cheating yourself. This is a tougher challenge purely for fun.

Once you have an item equipped, you can freely use the forge to upgrade it. The challenge is purely equipping and swapping equipment. Any other feature is free to be used.

Idols are not counted as equipment in this challenge, and can be equipped or swapped out freely. This is balanced by the game slowly giving you the Idol Slots, and since the campaign is going to take you longer to get through, the Idol Slots will also be sparse.

This challenge will make those passive and skill points really meaningful. Don’t be afraid to spend some extra time in the lower zones getting stronger! It is truly a min-maxers dream. Being able to see how powerful you can become with as few resources as possible.
Enjoy planning out what items you are wanting to equip when you reach the next Five milestone.

I am still currently playtesting the challenge myself, but do let me know if you have any feedback!

Additional notes:

  • Since the game auto-equips gear types you currently don’t have equipped, make sure to pay attention early in the game so you don’t accidentally move outside the challenge.
  • The first item is generally going to be available in The Fortress Gardens zone as you are on average going to be level 4 when entering the camp prior.

Which Class do you think would do the best or worst in this challenge?

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I can’t even imagine doing The Five Challenge while also running Masochist o.o