The repetition and divide between challenges makes the rift tedious and unenjoyable.

anarchy753

So first, the repetition.

Starting with character/theme challenges. I understand wanting themes that reflect characters to be prevalent in their challenges. That's great and exactly what should be aimed for. However, what we end up receiving is a severe amount of repetitive, uninspired challenges through the rift.

Tome 1 was the worst offender, with an obscene amount of unhook/heal challenges, and admittedly the tomes since then have been better. However the issue isn't gone.

Tome 2 has 3 challenges that are all "Take a protection hit as David (and live)" and an additional 2 non-David "take protection hits." Jane at least has some variation, but there are seven "stun the killer" challenges with variations of using Jane and perks. The killers are just as repetitive and boring. The most recent tome similarly suffered from repetition of "Be chased as Kate," "Hide near the killer as Dwight" (Which would have been a solid, unique challenge if not for having to be done twice) and "Perform an exorbitant amount of coop." And similarly just adding 1 to the same "X hits in frenzy as Legion" multiple times.

The Dwight challenges show that there is potential for more creative challenges that explore different aspects of characters than just "Dwight=coop," but time and time again we're getting repeated challenges on the different tome levels.

On another issue, we get the same challenges repeated across different tomes, and across tiers within tomes. The constant repetition of time-wasting anti-challenges is what really puts a grinding halt to the enjoyment of the tomes.

"Get (amount) of (quality) (category) emblem" being present on every level sucks. In most cases, especially the bronze and silvers, they serve only as walls to block you off from anything interesting. I'm doing challenges because I like going into matches, adapting my builds and playing in different ways with goals in mind. It spices up the game. But then these challenges come along that may as well just be "play 5 games without a challenge" and it absolutely ruins the point of challenges. Such offenders include gaining numbers of emblems that aren't possible within less than 3-5 matches, gain a large amount of bloodpoints, do an excessive amount of gens (like anything over 5 is ridiculously slow) or hook/unhook survivors, especially if the 'different' qualifier is used just to make the challenge drag on longer. Who cares if we hook 12 survivors in the same match vs 12 different survivors? The only difference is that one version of the challenge is much slower.

This brings me to the second major point. The reward division.

These tedious, time-wasting challenges don't just suck all of the fun out of challenges, they also provide far less efficient rewards vs time.

"Earn 3 bronze benevolent emblems" is not a hard, nor engaging task. In fact I'm pretty sure not even doing anything benevolent can get you that. However it is guaranteed to take at least 3 matches. The reward is 3 fragments and 15k bp. Compare that to "Succeed 8 skill checks in a row" which is almost impossible NOT to get in the first attempt which rewards 5 fragments and 60k bp. Master challenges have this additional quantifier of "within a single match" which causes them to reward a fair and adequate reward, however simply being non-master challenges makes challenges which take much MUCH longer to accomplish reward a pathetic amount.

It compounds when these are used as progress/fun-blockers. I'm going back to complete Tome 2, and hit the progression blocker of "Repair 10 generators for almost no reward." So either I have no challenge for quite a few games in a row, play an absolute braindead gen jocky and still take 3-4 matches, or play "Make survivors scream" and 2 equally dull and slow emblem challenges to skip that one survivor one.

TLDR:

More creative challenges would be greatly appreciated within tomes. Repeating the same challenge 4-8 times with "as X character" "and survive" "and survive as X character" is boring and shows a worrying lack of imagination.

Long, drawn out and repeated challenges like "do the most basic objectives many more times than can be completed in a couple of matches" suck the fun out of participating in challenges, and rewarding a hell of a lot less for challenges that are guaranteed time-sinks is unfulfilling.

Nantes

"Earn 3 bronze benevolent emblems" is not a hard, nor engaging task. In fact I'm pretty sure not even doing anything benevolent can get you that. However it is guaranteed to take at least 3 matches. The reward is 3 fragments and 15k bp. Compare that to "Succeed 8 skill checks in a row" which is almost impossible NOT to get in the first attempt which rewards 5 fragments and 60k bp."

This, this so much. It's my biggest issue with the tomes; the absolute unbalance of time or skill required vs. reward.

GoshJosh

TLDR, but yes agreed. Much of the rift is either too grindy or far too challenging. Hit five survivors in one use of Feral Frenzy? Two generator grabs in one match with Discordance? What planet do the devs live on?

anarchy753

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/1467293#Comment_1467293

I'm doing tome 2 at the moment because I took a break, and on BOTH levels 3 and 4 is "Repair a total of 12 generators."

That's an absolutely ######### ridiculous grind, and it blocks off actual challenges.