2025-11-18 10:00
Let me tell you something about gaming that most guides won't - sometimes the hardest part isn't beating the game, but surviving the grind. I've spent countless hours across multiple RPGs, and what I encountered in Avowed recently perfectly illustrates why the PHL (Patience, Hierarchy, Leverage) approach might just revolutionize how you approach challenging games. When I first jumped into Avowed on Normal difficulty, I expected the typical power fantasy - you know, the kind where your character gradually becomes unstoppable. Instead, I found myself in combat encounters that felt like trying to chop down a redwood with a butter knife.
The combat system transforms what should be impactful encounters into these drawn-out skirmishes where you're constantly vulnerable. I remember this one particular battle where I faced just three enemies, but two of them were merely two gear levels above me. That slight advantage on their part turned a straightforward fight into a twenty-minute ordeal of dodging, weaving, and slowly chipping away at their health bars. What really shocked me was how quickly larger groups could overwhelm me - we're talking about waves of six to eight enemies where just one or two higher-level opponents could completely shift the balance. The scaling suggests you should be keeping up effortlessly, but the reality is quite different. I found myself and my two companions getting flooded by larger waves that materialized out of nowhere, often leading to complete party wipes within seconds.
Here's where the patience component of PHL really matters. I learned the hard way that checkpoints aren't as forgiving as you might expect. After dying to a particularly tough boss encounter around the 15-hour mark, I was thrown back not one, but three previous encounters that I'd painstakingly cleared. That meant redoing about 45 minutes of progress - and let me be honest, that kind of design choice tests your commitment to the game. The default Normal difficulty presents these hurdles consistently throughout the 30-40 hour campaign, which honestly surprised me given that there are five difficulty settings to choose from at any time.
Now, you might think lowering the difficulty would solve everything - I certainly did. When I knocked things down to Easy around the 25-hour mark, my survival odds in late-game battles improved by about 40%, but the core issue remained. I was still stuck whittling down enemies with vastly superior gear, just dying slightly less often. The tedium factor decreased from "frustratingly repetitive" to "mildly annoying," but the fundamental balance issues persisted throughout my 35-hour playthrough.
What Avowed taught me is that modern gaming success isn't about brute force or even pure skill alone - it's about understanding game hierarchy and leveraging your advantages strategically. Through my multiple playthroughs totaling around 80 hours, I discovered that gear levels matter more than raw player skill in this particular title. An enemy just three levels above you has approximately 150% more health and deals 80% more damage, creating this massive power disparity that conventional tactics can't overcome. This is where the leverage aspect comes into play - I started focusing on environmental advantages, companion synergies, and specific skill combinations that could turn the tide regardless of gear disparities.
The current state of Avowed's balancing creates this persistent frustration that, frankly, could drive many players away within the first 10 hours. From my testing across different difficulty settings, the sweet spot seems to be about 20% below Normal, though the game doesn't officially offer this option. I'd estimate that roughly 65% of players who start on Normal either quit or lower the difficulty within the first 15 hours based on community engagement metrics I've observed.
What surprised me most was how my perspective shifted after embracing the PHL method. Instead of charging into combat, I started spending the first minute of each encounter analyzing enemy gear levels, positioning my companions strategically, and identifying escape routes. My completion time for particularly challenging sections dropped from multiple hours to about 30-45 minutes once I implemented this approach. The game doesn't owe players a straightforward power fantasy, as the developers clearly intended to create a challenging experience, but the current balancing makes progression feel more like work than entertainment during crucial mid-game sections between hours 12 and 22.
The real breakthrough came when I stopped treating Avowed like other action RPGs and started applying what I call "strategic patience." Rather than engaging every enemy group I encountered, I began selectively avoiding encounters where gear disparities exceeded two levels, returning later when I'd improved my equipment. This approach reduced my death rate by approximately 70% between hours 18 and 30 of my playthrough. The PHL method isn't about gaming the system - it's about working within the game's actual mechanics rather than how we wish they would work.
Having completed the game three times with different approaches, I'm convinced that the traditional "learn patterns, git gud" mentality simply doesn't apply to titles with balancing issues like Avowed's current state. Success comes from recognizing that sometimes the game's systems are working against you and adapting accordingly. The satisfaction I felt upon finally completing my first playthrough wasn't from overcoming tough but fair challenges, but from persevering through what often felt like artificially inflated difficulty. If you're struggling with similar games, remember that sometimes maximum gaming success comes from stepping back, analyzing the systems at play, and approaching challenges with strategic patience rather than raw determination.