If you want my answer: smaller, more consistent numbers disambiguates things for the player. Everything doing a different amount of stress in DD1, combined with modifiers from traits, light, items, debuffs, etc that make it circumstantially less or more, while not actually BEING all that random, FEELS much more random because keeping track of exact amounts on that scale is more trouble than it's worth. It's like a fighting game health bar, numbers behind it somewhere, but basically just color from where we're sitting. More suspenseful, less strategic. It's the same reason Relics are deflated compared to Gold. Nothing in DD1 cost less than 10 gold, so why not divide all prices by 10? Or 25? The extra zeroes just complicate things for no reason. It's like when you would simply in math class. Why use "100x = 500y" when you could use "x = 5y"? I'm sure it does make balancing and fine tuning harder for the devs because they can't micro-adjust it. It's not perfect. But one of the most common issues new players face in DD1 is not being able to wrap their heads around stress and stress management, in part because they're just not playing well yet, but in part because the numbers create a lot of ambiguity and make it hard to know what they're doing wrong. Making things simpler in DD2 probably saved Red Hook from thousands of hasty Steam returns from frustrated newbies, lol.

I wouldn't say it's rng based but it is harder to balance with. Not sure why the change was made.

@@nessesaryschoolthing I totally agree with you, the new sistem is easier to understand and get used to. Which make easier to be aware of.

what skills do you run?

@@moldy8200 Plague doctor alchemist: Noxious blast, battlefield medicine, plague grenade, inicision and magnesium rain.(I swap magnesium rain for cause of death for bosses, can also swap incision for something like indiscriminate science if flag deathless 3 + battlefield medicine 3 not enough.) but I dont reccomend swapping incision cause it might be key to dealing dmg when you get shuffled. Jester virtuoso: razor's witt, fade to black, battle ballad(tho I almost never use it, only to reposition in a very bad spot), inspiring tune and encore. Flagellant scourge: punish, fester, deathless, acid rain, more and more. ( I swap fester for sepsis for bosses and big enemies, you can also swap it for suffer but I barely use that only when flag has some kind of passive regen from trinkets so that he can go below 50% health stealing DOT from another ally to use deathless in fights or also undying but never tried it). Hellion ravager: wicked hack, iron swan, toe to toe, adrenaline rush, howling end. Just go full dmg honestly. Skills I upgrade: first two skills: plague granade(the skill I use most) and wicked hack(the skill I use most in early). After: deathless( having trouble healing up), inspiring tune( having trouble with stress), Acid rain(the skill I use most so...) Toe to toe(to remove winded/reposition while removing winded) or howling end(because dmg). Or both. Encore( to give two turns to someone pretty big for removing atleast one enemy out of usually 4 before they get a chance to attack you). Punish(to hit front rank). Noxious blast... Fade to black(to make combo on the way back+ the blind which is good against big dmg enemies and just keep doing razors witt + fade to black) The rest are w/e. If you get this ones you probably won already. Gameplan: I try to go to the tangle or the sprawl since theyre usually the easiest for me. Dont do the leviatan boss is a pain to deal with. With memories the game becomes too easy. And try to lock in good starting quirks defiant, the jinx,. Get mastery points the creature dens are ultra good. Its a comp for full dmg, heal only when flagellant is too low. Find blight trinkets for plague doctor theres some of them which are very good usually the hoarder has them, dmg for hellion(or extra turn), for flagellant honestly w/e, for jester very good something like extra turn since getting to use razors witt to apply combo+ encore or fade to black is very nice). Stagecoach: pet always the bunny since its a slow but hard hitting team with dot+ direct dmg hellion, even if you get only 1 food stagecoach item. 2 or 3 food stagecoach item is the ideal, 4 is overkill you dont need that many. Try to get the flapjack one if possible. The yellow torch is like easy mode if you want to get through fast and not worry about it. The +4 inn speed item is really good on hellion. Position: rank 4 jester(to use razor witt on someone you want hellion to kill with wicked hack). Rank 3 plague doctor(ends up in rank 4 after jester uses razors witt, plague granade the backline), Rank 2 flagellant (acid rain the backline, when he is low like less than 35%/ battle about to end, use deathless to heal himself and an ally(using more and more not very worth it only for bosses or to get enemies attention but its better to just dps the enemy and forget about who takes dmg). Rank 1 hellion(use wicked hack way more than howling end, howling end only when you can unwind yourself with toe to toe, and youre guaranteed to kill a big enemy else its better wicked hack with jester combo applied(almost never use any of the other stuff since flagellant can use deathless to heal). Honestly its all about how broken flagellant deathless with scourge path is xd. Ive beaten all the chapters with this. Feel free to make changes.

@@konstanZX2 Damn, hidden guide in the comments, ty for this.