So I have heard a few things about this scenario including that it is difficult and has balance issues.

My group played it for the 1st time yesterday and we kind of crushed it. We finished it with 1 out of 8 doom on the final agenda, we had 1 investigator with 3 horror remaining and 1 with 3 health remaining (the others were really healthy). Now we didn't get max xp or anything, but we did get 4 xp. We did not play perfectly, but we did do pretty good. We also had some bad luck early on drawing 4 tentacles for the 1st 10 tests.

I am curious as to what other people have experienced.

I did witness Minh pick up 7 clues as a single action, that helped us a lot.

Norman and Skids beat it on my blind play. Plenty of time on the clock, though I think Skids might have fudged the "no ready enemies" to resign. He shouldn't have had a problem, though, anyway.

Solo Standard Jenny crushed it (by "crushed" I mean she got out pretty easily. 2/8 on the last agenda. Only 2 XP during the scenario). Leo showed up too late to play and none of the three guns I drew -- including the Twins on the opening hand -- made it into play. Two damage, no horror thanks to the bonus soak. I have two Adaptables, mainly so she could come into this with two Elusives and two Astral Travels (knowing what's coming, though, I may just keep them all). I didn't get a hit on the Stranger because he turned out to be my bonus horror soak. My encounter draws (not in order) were: two Corrosion (claimed a Flashlight and the Clasp), two Straitjackets (one whiffed), Young Psychopath (evaded and left in a cell), Mad Patient (teleported around), Roach Swarm (took an AoO to get to a lower shroud, one hit and evade with Cheap Shot, then evaded again and left behind), both Gift of Madnesses, and two of the Whispers (ignored both).

Solo Sefina -- she's still in there somewhere.

I think the difficulty is effected by the consequence, without going into further spoilage.

4 hours ago, C2K said:

I think the difficulty is effected by the consequence, without going into further spoilage. 

Consequence for the scenario itself or in future scenarios?

the scenario itself.

Played this one twice now, and come out with max XP both times. Full 4-player groups definitely make this one a lot easier, and balance is essential.

Oddly enough, if you do really well, you get less xp because less monsters enter play.

2 hours ago, Jobu said:

Oddly enough, if you do really well, you get less xp because less monsters enter play.

All depends on how you use your "well" In our last we were basically done, but just stalled it out until the rest of the Victory monsters showed up.

12 minutes ago, Buhallin said:

All depends on how you use your "well" In our last we were basically done, but just stalled it out until the rest of the Victory monsters showed up.

Yeah, I considered that as well. But I make a point of not looking at any cards (unless I have to) before playing through my 1st play through so I did not have a great sense of risk v reward.

24 minutes ago, Jobu said:

Yeah, I considered that as well. But I make a point of not looking at any cards (unless I have to) before playing through my 1st play through so I did not have a great sense of risk v reward.

That's fair - we knew we had several more coming mostly because of one of the included encounter sets. We did get a rather nasty surprise with one more big nasty that popped out, but handled that one as well.

Changing the topic a bit, sometimes when I play, I want to get the maximum xp. Other times, I just want to complete the scenario without any trauma. Other times the goal is to finish the scenario with enough time to get another scenario in before its time to go home.

Doing well in my mind is completing a scenario without anyone getting trauma. I find an extra xp is not worth a point of trauma on a 5 or 6 stat, as that tends to lead to a downward spiral.

14 hours ago, Jobu said:

Changing the topic a bit, sometimes when I play, I want to get the maximum xp. Other times, I just want to complete the scenario without any trauma. Other times the goal is to finish the scenario with enough time to get another scenario in before its time to go home.

Doing well in my mind is completing a scenario without anyone getting trauma. I find an extra xp is not worth a point of trauma on a 5 or 6 stat, as that tends to lead to a downward spiral.

And in The Forgotten Age, completing without being poisoned or accruing any Vengeance.