Are you talking about the Endless Gate? The full combat route in there is very difficult, I tried and couldn't do it with the party I had, they were burned out by the time they reached the 3rd group.

You can get passed them without combat but doing so has other consequences, look around for things to interact with.

Thats it. Making it stronger is the the only way? Forcing you to follow the game designer's path. Seems certain combats are really difficult on purpose. Taking on the slaver in pt1 is an example.

It's the only way if your party is having trouble with the cultists. I resolved the final situation with no combat, so i'm not sure how difficult using the shortcuts makes the leader if you choose to fight.

But yeah some combats can be tough. However my party was not really combat focused (my main character is a talker and I have Rhin as a party member) yet I was still nearly able to force my way through with damage cyphers.

What's wrong with making optional combat encounters hard, exactly? If your party isn't combat focused, then yes you'll have a hard time with it. But it's ridiculously easy to avoid pretty much all fights in the game, so what does it matter?

+1 to mystral.

I got my party kicked there (Actually, I'm still stuck there). But the warning before getting in the portal was clear: Once inside, you cannot leave until is done. So, after getting my ass washed by the first order I understand that those encounters are designed for those who wanted to dominate the crysis mechanics (and probably I'll be forced to load my save before getting there as my party was designated to avoid battles)

The problem is that it's stupidly over difficult for the point at which you find it.
There is NO possibility of my party completing it at the point and I tried... using every cypher and power I had available.
I got halfway through and realized I just didn't have enough damage + healing to reach the end, after finishing the third battle with nothing left to fight with.

I ended up reloading and going through the 'easy' route by killing off the tormented skins, then getting him to unlock his memory device and killing him in the past with the sorrow.

Uh, the fourth battle is optional, and something tell me the reason to fight the previous 3 were to have a more easy time with the final character and the dialogue (not sure). By the way, at the end, I requested him to kill himself.

By the way, I was able to finished just now. With the child on my team (the less optimum party possible if we consider that my Last Castoff only has one offensive spell). So yeah, it can be very hard but not impossible.

P.s. and just after that, I remembered about the bronze sphere, is not possible to use in the endless path to rotate your party members as they are losing all their pools?

Edit: and yes, I spent almost all my offensive ciphers there

I gave up. Uninstalled the game period. I had 2 fights with the boss.Mentioned the dead child and fight.I died but came back. End of the discussion fight , first spell takes half of everyones health down by half and I died. Had to reload. FU game. I am not going to try and figure out which response gets thru.This is not fun or entertaining. When someone makes a GOD cheat or mod I'll; consider playing. I'm done with it.

Did you find his Memecaster? If you did then getting through that whole section without fighting at all is really, really, easy (figured it out first time I went there). Though I admit I didn't take the easy route there, instead killing all the cultists on the way instead.

I did replay it once to see what difference it makes to go the "easy" way, and there doesn't appear to be any difference in terms of conversation (of even in the minor battles with cultists - I fought them to see if they got stronger but they were just the same).

Also, did you contact the crazy knight (Glaive) guy back in Sagus Cliffs before you left for the Valley of Dead Heroes? You can enlist him to fight the Children of the Endless Gate, and he happily scarpers off. He then appears ready to help in the boss fight against Inefere, if that's what you decide to do (no idea how he manages to get there before you, or why he just happily stands around waiting for your arrival).

He should make the battle much easier, since he's pretty tough. Strangely enough, he doesn't clear a path for you at all - he only joins in the fight against Inefere.

Wait WHAT?
There is a knight that can helps you ? WOW, that is new for me. Ah... are you speaking about the parody of Don Quijote? (the Toboso guy) DARN! that guy is a perfect match for him, how I forget to speak with him before leaving?

Anyway, something I notice fighting without taking the easy path, the second and third group of enemies, don't start with full HP. And I still think you can rotate your party with the bronze orb.

I triggered the final battle many times, but to be honest, I didn't tried to fight him. I just reloaded to try new combos in the conversation (Party pool exhausted, 3 HP remaining on the last castoff, the other were with 9 - 12 HP and not more offensive ciphers, though I had something like a megaelixir).

And yes, seems the OP didn't had the Memecaster . To be honest, I didn't believed that the Memecaster was to be used against that guy until the conversation showed. In part, because exploring 50 tombs seemed irrelevant for this optional battle. But, you can get two extra souls for your labyrinth after all this chaos, so it is worth :)

Now I'm curious about taking the offensive approach, but that is going to be for another gameplay with a more offensive main character (or at least one that can do offensive area spells or abilities).

P.s. Not sure, but if you can return to the Valley after reaching the sanctuary for the castoffs, you are going to have a more easy time because you party can upgrade their items there (and I was like: "WTH! Seriously?").

Had the megathingy. Game designers have their way thru and punish you if you don't get it. Cultists deal 15 dam with a simple blade that your team only does 6 dam with. I'll wait for a god cheat and play this game. Some npc's need a thrashing like the slaver. I want to win every fight and see if I can break the game. They made some fight too hard so you die and have the inner mind experience.

Yep that's the guy. Since I talked my way through (and use the merecaster) he didn't end up being useful for that battle, though I did enlist his help for the Nycthemeron earlier as well and he was damn useful for that. So I guess he'd kick ass in the Inefere fight as well.

Well exploring the 50 tombs is irrelevant for this battle (that just gives you extra dialogue and some XP from Tantalum), but as you say the merecaster is useful since I don't think you can get those two people into your head otherwise. You can also just threaten him with it, but I'm not sure if he'd show up in your head then (you definitely wouldn't get Choi that way).

I also noticed that half-HP thing with the cultists, but strangely enough killing all those screaming flayed people (ie the easy path) didn't actually increase their HP at all. I think that it might make their attacks stronger and/or make the attack of that entity stronger (that thing with teeth that pulls you toward it and chomps you), since the last battle I had with the cultists (before Inefere) almost wiped me out. Granted I was already pretty weakened by then, so yeah that was another reason why I didn't fight him. I suspect that if you take the easy path and then fight him, that he would be really tough even with the knight helping out, but I haven't tried.

You can definitely go back into the Necropolis after visiting Maer Avest, since I upgraded my team before heading to the Endless Gate. It's only a point of no return once you enter the memecaster via Adiiris.