Do You Kill the Small Enemies or Large Enemy First?

[RedRockRun]

I'm playing "Enter the Gungeon" currently, and I was thinking about what my general strategy should be when it comes to kill order. For simplicity's sake, let's assume you walk into a room - this can be in any game, regardless of POV or genre - and you are faced with many weak enemies and between one and a handful of large ones. Assume the small enemies don't present a threat in small numbers, have low HP, and don't attack particularly fast. Assume the large enemies are pretty tanky and can deal out a considerable amount of damage. Do you thin out the numbers or go immediately for the big guys?

Normally, I find myself thinning the herd. In games which have lots of enemies on screen e.g. Nuclear Throne, I can't keep my eyes on the whole screen at once, and tons of enemies seem to create their own singular hazard in the form of shots coming at irregular intervals at irregular directions. In addition, I tend to have problems focusing on dodging and aiming at the same time, meaning that I can spray and pray while focusing primarily on dodges.

The exception is when the large enemies are so dangerous per special abilities: tough to dodge AoE, mob buffs, mob spawning/necro, that I can't allow them to live for long.

What are your all's thoughts and reflexive actions?

 

[Zenja]

I take the view that a lot of small enemies adds up to a big enemy so I also thin the herd. 5 enemies doing 5 damage each round that die in 1 hit is a better target than 1 enemy that does 35 damage each round but it is going to take 10 hits to kill him. As the small guys will be gone in 5 rounds only leaving you with 35 damage per round. Killing him first means having to take an additional 250 damage on top of his 350.

Long story short, less enemies = less damage. Make quick work of the small enemies so you can go toe to toe with the big enemies without the 'attrition' damage on top of it.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Depends on the genre. In FPS I usually go for the larger targets while i have the ammo and grenades. Nothing is worse using your last rockets on the radscorpions only for a deathclaw to come on in and all you got is a pistol.

But RTS always hit the smaller units first. Their damage over time will add up, and its way easier to overwhelm them at the start of the engagement while you have the units to hand.
I also usually target the most basic buildings first. Why hit the Advanced Science Research Center or the Orbital Relay when taking out the Barracks prevents almost all unit production?

 

[baddude1337]

I play an awful lot of Project Brutality, a mod for Doom. In that it is somewhat situational, but generally its better to go for the larger enemies first, and keeping the smaller ones at bay in between. Boss monsters especially.

 

[BabySinclair]

Depends on how much area damage I'll be doing. If I have AoE to rain on the big guy which will burst down the smaller ones a great deal, then I'll nuke the big one and see how close the little guys are to being dead to see if it's worth waiting for another AoE salvo or have to switch to finishing the smaller guys individually. If I'm playing with single target abilities, I'll go through the small ones before the bigger one.

 

[Saelune]

Depends on if there are a limited number of small enemies. If the bigger ones summon more, or enhance them, I may go for them instead. Sometimes you got to cut off the head to kill the body.

 

[DrownedAmmet]

Yeah, it's usually better to take down the small enemies quick, but there are a few exceptions
In Halo I would take out the Elites first because then the grunts would all run away and become useless
In Dragon Age I take out magic users first because those fuckers are annoying and it's best to kill them before they can cast their cheap ass spell that stops me from using potions
Dark Souls I go for the archers first because you can usually get an easy backstab on them, but I'm usually boned if I accidentally pick a fight with more than one enemy so I just go for whoever I can get a safe hit in

 

[Pirate Of PC Master race]

I never play FPS, but some bullet hell-ish games.

Therefore this is only opinion based on bullet hell games.

I always kill small fries before attempting anything.
I can dodge boss bullet patterns all day(provided that I am focused, not tired, and not blinking). Most of the...*good* bullet hell games are FAIR. Meaning that with enough reflexes(30%) and experiences through your failure(70%), you should be able to dodge them.

EXCEPT when the wrench is thrown to you by the small enemies. Which is why I kill them first.

 

[Legomaniac91_v1legacy]

It depends on what the enemies will do. If its just the big one and his minions, I'll take out the little guys first and then the big one. However if the big guy is able to buff his minions or spawn more, then I'll go for him first.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

It depends on how it affects the mechanics. If the smaller enemies are annoyingly quick and swarmy enough, they go first. But if taking out the bigger (or badder) enemies affects the AI of smaller ones, say like by striking mortal fear into them, then biggie goes first so i can herd the rest off a nearby cliff and save precious ammo.

Failing that, i divide them by race and religion before extermination. Each one takes a detailed cross-examination, moral questionnaire and an intense brain scan before deadly judgement is dropped. There are no survivors. Unless the exit door doesn't demand environmental extinction of all creatures, in which case they can carry on with their day!

 

[Bad Jim]

Since bosses are tough and take a while to destroy, they are usually sporting enough to make their attacks avoidable in some way. Swarms of critters are not balanced in that way because you can avoid the damage by killing them first, and when their attacks are all avoidable it can still be hard to keep track of them all. So I lean towards critters first.

But this obviously depends on the situation.

 

[happyninja42]

Depends on my power set. If I've got some area effect, "room clearer" powers, then yeah I go for minions first, then whittle it down to a 1 on 1 with the big bad. I find it easier, and the little guys can usually kill you just fine if you aren't paying attention to them, or harrass you while you are trying to kill the big guy (breaking combos/kill animations, forcing you to avoid damage while trying to dish it out, etc.)

 

[Fijiman]

I'll usually take out the smaller enemies first as they have a tendency to swarm you and can do a lot of damage really fast if you let them.

 

[EMWISE94]

When I play Enter the Gungeon it pretty much boils down to "which one of you shits is putting too many bullets in the room? is it this mushroom asshole? dead! One of those jello cubes? double dead!! A Lead Maiden? DIE!" the one thing that trumps that rule is "Is there some asshole spawning or buffing in here? its dead! Hold still you little shit I just wanna show you my bullets!!"

But yeah any game, it boils down whoever is causing the most amount of stuff to happen on screen, in Nuclear Throne's case: Scorpions, Snipers, Technomancers, Those Dog Things in the Palace, Wolves in the frozen city and Lil' Hunter... yea my game plan is always to kill Lil Hunter in less than 30 secs otherwise he's more of a problem than I want.

 

[Erttheking]

Depends on the genre. In games like Fire Emblem I try and take out the heavier units first, so that I can take them out on more favorable terms and get the first hit in. In games like Halo I take out the Grunts with a couple of quick head shots so they don't harass me when I move onto the heavier aliens.

 

[MerlinCross]

Depends on the game and mechanics. Like in most RPGs you'd want to go for the little guys as RPG rules state they are the ones with poison, sleep, debuffs

 

[Guffe]

First of I'm going to be boring and say it depends.
But basically if I play a game were I can do loads of AOE damage, I usually go for weak/small ones first.
If I am more of a one on one person, I take out the big threath first.

 

[DementedSheep]

Small usually, one or two big enemies is easer to avoid than a ton of small ones and they can end up causing you to get hit by the big ones.

I go for the big ones first if:
The small ones are very easy to avoid and keep track of.
The big ones will resummon them anyway.
The big ones don't take too much longer to kill but do a ton of damage, have hard to avoid attacks or buff the small ones.
It's turn based and the big ones being alive even one turn more than necessary can be devastating.

 

[spartandude]

Generally I kill small first. They are easier to get rid of. Therefore you take out that extra damage they deal quickly. If you target the large enemy you will have to deal with the damage from all enemies for longer.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Depends on my skill sets. If I have some good DoTs, I'll rain those on the big guy and then focus on the small ones. Done right, they both fall at the same time.