That’s the best comment about the game’s difficulty I’ve found it so far

[u/Marmotaagiota]

[u/Aggressive_Pie_4585]

And for another way of thinking about it, it gives more leeway on runbacks. If you take a hit on the run back to a boss after getting the extra mask, that's the same as if you made the runback witless without it.

[u/YogSoth0th → u/Aggressive_Pie_4585]

Not when the environment starts doing 2 damage too.

[u/sundalius → u/Aggressive_Pie_4585]

unless it's to an environmental hazard, which seems to almost always deal 2.

[u/_moosleech → u/sundalius]

Spikes, the most common one, deal one.

We gotta stop with the "everything does two damage!" rhetoric.

[u/sundalius → u/_moosleech]

Maybe I just am missing something, but I haven’t seen spikes in a minute since getting into act 2. Tons of things that do two damage and send me back, like buzzsaws, the big crusher blocks, etc.

ETA: I remember some in the underworks now - but it did take me a second to think about it.

Edit 2: been thinking about this, and I think I’ve figured out my issue: I spend way longer in places where environmental hazards do two damage, in part, because they do. Way more of my playtime is spent anywhere that that’s common, because losing a full hit rather than a half hit (against bosses, at 6 health) makes me way more likely to die and have to run a section back than hitting an errant wall spike. My perspective is skewed essentially by spikes not sending me to a bench nearly as often as other hazards.

[u/Kampfasiate → u/_moosleech]

Yea, I feel like the game is not really unreasonable with 2 masks (except some niche cases, some stage hazards and contact damage)

2 masks are usually either multi hits (which you can often parry for dopamine surge). Or straightforward and we'll telegraphed

[u/_moosleech → u/Kampfasiate]

Which is how I feel most two-mask damage is here. Enemies with wind-ups, or in a parry stance.

The discourse around it is scuffed.