Back 4 Blood eliminates all difficulties, becomes much easier

A huge nerf for Back 4 Blood is coming up. All difficulties are made easier – does that make nightmare easier?

Back 4 Blood has been criticized since its release. Although the zombie shooter is well received by many co-op fans, the hardest level of difficulty “Nightmare” in particular has been consistently criticized. It is simply not manageable for most players. Unfair combinations of corruption cards and negative effects ensure that most players lose their appetite, as hardly anyone gets past the first 3 cards.

Now, after months of criticism, the developers are finally making improvements. All game modes will be much easier and should be easier to master with a coordinated team in the future.

What will be changed? There have been a multitude of changes, not just to Nightmare Mode – even if the most serious changes are made there. The most important adjustments are summarized here:

• Friendly Fire no longer increases with higher weapon levels.
• In Act 2 and Act 3, an additional card can be drawn.
• Corruption cards with bosses can no longer appear on the first card of an act.
• The fog map no longer automatically generates a hag.
• Birds only have 1 life point (previously 10 life points).
• Barbed wire is now a “Quick Slot” item.

Then there are the extensive changes to the Nightmare Difficulty:

• Healing stations now have 1 free top-up (up from 0).
• The damage bonus from special zombies has been reduced to 35% (was 70%).
• The damage bonus from common zombies has been reduced to 50% (was 100%).
• The “tumble” resistance of the special zombies has been reduced to 25% (previously 40%).
• Special zombies only have 7.5% more life (previously 15%).
• If you continue to use it, you get 100 additional copper (previously 0).
• If you continue to use it, you get 10 bonus life points (previously 0).
• If you continue to use it, you get 5 bonus trauma healing (previously 0)
• There is an additional card when you continue to use it (previously 0).

There are also some improvements and weakenings in the spawn of special zombies. They will be subject to new rules in the future:

• During endless hordes and hordes in rapid succession, a maximum of 2 special zombies of the same type can now appear and a maximum of 4 special zombies at all.
• Special zombies now have a cooldown in order to spawn. Several hordes in a very short distance no longer cause very many special zombies.
• Tallboys and their variants appear less often on Veteran and Nightmare.

If you want to see all the patch notes with all the details, you can go to this Reddit post look at.

What was the problem? The nightmare game mode is the hardest of the 3 difficulty levels in Back 4 Blood. However, it was nearly impossible to deal with in the normal way. Either you relied on “speed run” decks to avoid all combat, or you used numerous exploits to duplicate a few grenades or outsmart the AI ​​in certain places.

Nightmare was almost impossible to cope with with “normal play” – that led to a lot of criticism. That should now be fixed.

Where did the patch notes come from? They were leaked. A confirmation from the “Back 4 Blood” disc, on which the developers are also on the move, makes it clear, however, that these are the actual patch notes. If there are any changes to it, they will probably be minimal. The patch goes live on December 16.

What else is in the patch? Apart from the numerous adjustments, there will also be new skins, new cards and new supply lines (“Supply Lines”) where you can spend your points. These supply lines are only temporary and can only be completed during the Christmas event.

How exactly the skins will look and how long it will all stay active is not yet known.

Are you looking forward to these changes? Or does it make nightmare too easy?