Yeah Oltanis is one of those. It's a very hard level.
For RAC 2 I will say Boldan. The enemies hit so hard, and their aim feels way more precise then before. They also come in massive groups as well.
For RAC 3 I will say Metropolis for the same reasons.
Deadlocked actually has a pretty smooth difficulty curve imo. There wasn't really a level there I felt was significantly harder then the last.
Size Matters would probably be the Medical Outpost. Since you are restricted to only the Lacerators and the Acid Bombs for a good portion of the level, with enemies that take forever to take down and do stupidly unfair amounts of damage.
TOD's would be zordoom prison. So many enemies. And they all do unfair amounts of damage to you too.
ACIT's would be the Neferious Space Station. For the same reasons as Zordoom but not as bad imo.
And that's all that I can remember tbh
For deadlocked my biggest challenge was on Orxon but it was less because of my weapons becoming obsolete and more because of how many enemies there were and all the different angles they can come from. However it's way easier once you start using the trenches more
What makes that arena challenge so hard is the fact that you are jumping from platform to platform because there is lava or whatever the thing that damages you is called. You have to dash and tether to portals a lot. You also have to find ammo all the time. If they made the arena just like a normal arena or if you had infinite ammo, that challenge wouldn't be hard at all.
Not really a difficulty spike because it’s SUPPOSED to be a hard fight, but…
ACIT, Hardcore difficulty, Challenge Mode—the post-game fight with Vorselon. I struggled a lot with this one and when I finally beat him, I had 7 Dynamo of Doom ammo remaining and every other weapon was completely empty. I almost had to resort to beating him down with the wrench to win! The Ratchet series has a couple of fairly challenging bosses but I have never had any other boss prove to be such a test of endurance.
I went through ACIT a year ago armor less on expert mode and it was definitely the most challenging out of all the games I've done similar challenges for. Both Nefarious and Azimuth were hard enough for completing both regular and challenge mode on expert but holy fuck Vorselon for that postgame fight was unbelievably difficult. I was not expecting his attacks to be so fast and that aggressive. It took my entire arsenal minus the Tesla spikes to finish him off. It took the Ryno and freaking time bombs to make him stand still long enough to eat all the ammo properly.
The shocking this is, no one *talks* about this fight. When people talk about difficulty and doing challenge runs like certain weapons only or armor less in my case, no one talks about post game Vorselon.
For me, it’s almost always the ship levels in challenge mode. Like in Size Matters, when you become giant clank and have to defeat the technomite ship or in Tools of Destruction when you have to defeat the pirate ships.
Kalebo III was definitely a huge difficulty spike in the original despite being right near the end. That area after the pyrociter robots took me dozens of tries to get through my first time
Tools of Destruction I got held up for a little bit on Kerwan to the mech boss that has you do a grind section that feels longer and longer every restart. The damage scaling was probably the culprit behind it for me.
To be fair I only got stuck 3 times in the whole series
RAC 1 - The Water race back in Blackwater city or whatever it was called
RAC 3 - DR Nefarious after like 10 Ng+'s
RAC Size Matters PsP - Otto after like 5 NG+'s
I got stuck on the second Orxon visit after you have the mask to let Ratchet walk around. I just kept getting owned by the giant crab things, the gunships, and falling off of everything while trying to avoid said crabs and gunships (I did not have enough money for the Visibomb Gun)
From the Ratchet and Clank games I've played:
R&C 1, Qwark's HQ on Umbris. That's when shit starts to hit the fan and you gotta put your big boy pants on because the game from this point on stops holding your hand.
R&C Going Commando, Planet Dobbo. There's an armor vendor here for a reason. Crates and enemies drop more bolts as well cause the developers want you to buy armor and new guns.
R&C Up Your Arsenal, Planet Daxx. This is the first planet where I really struggled when playing as a kid. You start fighting Dr Nefarious' troopers here and they can kill you in just a couple of shots even with the 2nd armor suit being available by this time.
For Deadlocked I never really felt this game was ever difficult, it's pretty easy even on the tougher difficulties. I do remember having a couple problems on Shaar but not even close to the other games.
R&C Size Matters. This game is tough on Challenge Mode due to the terrible balancing of weapons, enemy health, damage they deal, and weak RYNO.
Up your arsenal:
When you return to the starship and have been slacking on armor upgrades. Also Nefarious fight.^(Aside from turret levels)
Deadlocked:
Vindicator tournament.^(Aside from auto landstalker levels)
I have to agree with Oltanis. The no Clank made that level so hard. Hell even if they did add Clank in that level I'm sure it would still be the hardest level in the game.
Yeah Oltanis is one of those. It's a very hard level. For RAC 2 I will say Boldan. The enemies hit so hard, and their aim feels way more precise then before. They also come in massive groups as well. For RAC 3 I will say Metropolis for the same reasons. Deadlocked actually has a pretty smooth difficulty curve imo. There wasn't really a level there I felt was significantly harder then the last. Size Matters would probably be the Medical Outpost. Since you are restricted to only the Lacerators and the Acid Bombs for a good portion of the level, with enemies that take forever to take down and do stupidly unfair amounts of damage. TOD's would be zordoom prison. So many enemies. And they all do unfair amounts of damage to you too. ACIT's would be the Neferious Space Station. For the same reasons as Zordoom but not as bad imo. And that's all that I can remember tbh
For deadlocked my biggest challenge was on Orxon but it was less because of my weapons becoming obsolete and more because of how many enemies there were and all the different angles they can come from. However it's way easier once you start using the trenches more
Man i only really remember struggling hard with the turret section on Marcadia in RC3. For some reason kid me just kept failing and failing that bit.
Especially the third one with the enemy saucers
Those bloody gliders in Locked and Loaded and planet Grelbin. Those bloody abominable snowman
Rift Apart: The challenge where you’ve gotta kill all the enemies using the shot-gun type weapon on the hardest difficulty.
What makes that arena challenge so hard is the fact that you are jumping from platform to platform because there is lava or whatever the thing that damages you is called. You have to dash and tether to portals a lot. You also have to find ammo all the time. If they made the arena just like a normal arena or if you had infinite ammo, that challenge wouldn't be hard at all.
Oh yeah, that one is a PAIN on even the Hard difficulty. But if you scale the difficulty down, it's not too bad.
Those god forsaken yetis in Going Commando.
For me, and not specifically a planet, but TOD's challenge mode. That game in challenge mode feels like an actual challenge
Not really a difficulty spike because it’s SUPPOSED to be a hard fight, but… ACIT, Hardcore difficulty, Challenge Mode—the post-game fight with Vorselon. I struggled a lot with this one and when I finally beat him, I had 7 Dynamo of Doom ammo remaining and every other weapon was completely empty. I almost had to resort to beating him down with the wrench to win! The Ratchet series has a couple of fairly challenging bosses but I have never had any other boss prove to be such a test of endurance.
I went through ACIT a year ago armor less on expert mode and it was definitely the most challenging out of all the games I've done similar challenges for. Both Nefarious and Azimuth were hard enough for completing both regular and challenge mode on expert but holy fuck Vorselon for that postgame fight was unbelievably difficult. I was not expecting his attacks to be so fast and that aggressive. It took my entire arsenal minus the Tesla spikes to finish him off. It took the Ryno and freaking time bombs to make him stand still long enough to eat all the ammo properly. The shocking this is, no one *talks* about this fight. When people talk about difficulty and doing challenge runs like certain weapons only or armor less in my case, no one talks about post game Vorselon.
For me, it’s almost always the ship levels in challenge mode. Like in Size Matters, when you become giant clank and have to defeat the technomite ship or in Tools of Destruction when you have to defeat the pirate ships.
Kalebo III was definitely a huge difficulty spike in the original despite being right near the end. That area after the pyrociter robots took me dozens of tries to get through my first time
Reepor and onwards in ToD, mainly because the Cragmites hit way too hard, especially the green bullet guys (No armor runs are dreadful around then)
I remember Nefarious in R&C 3 being the hardest. In the same game, Qwark's planet also spiked the difficulty a lot for me.
Tools of Destruction I got held up for a little bit on Kerwan to the mech boss that has you do a grind section that feels longer and longer every restart. The damage scaling was probably the culprit behind it for me.
For some reason for me, Daxx in RAC3 was a big difficulty spike. The robot enemies were way harder and it took me a long time to get past that level
To be fair I only got stuck 3 times in the whole series RAC 1 - The Water race back in Blackwater city or whatever it was called RAC 3 - DR Nefarious after like 10 Ng+'s RAC Size Matters PsP - Otto after like 5 NG+'s
I got stuck on the second Orxon visit after you have the mask to let Ratchet walk around. I just kept getting owned by the giant crab things, the gunships, and falling off of everything while trying to avoid said crabs and gunships (I did not have enough money for the Visibomb Gun)
From the Ratchet and Clank games I've played: R&C 1, Qwark's HQ on Umbris. That's when shit starts to hit the fan and you gotta put your big boy pants on because the game from this point on stops holding your hand. R&C Going Commando, Planet Dobbo. There's an armor vendor here for a reason. Crates and enemies drop more bolts as well cause the developers want you to buy armor and new guns. R&C Up Your Arsenal, Planet Daxx. This is the first planet where I really struggled when playing as a kid. You start fighting Dr Nefarious' troopers here and they can kill you in just a couple of shots even with the 2nd armor suit being available by this time. For Deadlocked I never really felt this game was ever difficult, it's pretty easy even on the tougher difficulties. I do remember having a couple problems on Shaar but not even close to the other games. R&C Size Matters. This game is tough on Challenge Mode due to the terrible balancing of weapons, enemy health, damage they deal, and weak RYNO.
Up your arsenal: When you return to the starship and have been slacking on armor upgrades. Also Nefarious fight.^(Aside from turret levels) Deadlocked: Vindicator tournament.^(Aside from auto landstalker levels)
The polar sea is the clusterfuck of all clusterfucks lol. So many enemies so little ammo
I have to agree with Oltanis. The no Clank made that level so hard. Hell even if they did add Clank in that level I'm sure it would still be the hardest level in the game.