Hard Mode Strategy

[⛤King⛤]

Usually when I am doing hardmode I always stick to cahara, he can get lockpicking which usually aids me in absolutely clearing some levels same as escape plan because the enemies tend to rip open a new hole inside of me.

When I start off a hardmode run I aim for the basement, I loot the floor dodging Manebas, but usually the entire run is gonna be a hit or miss.
The weapon stands are the only thing that is actually gonna ensure I will be alive. The scimitar can only do damage between 200-300 and usually is a 50/50 to chop off a guards arm if I do get caught. If I'm lucky I get a good 65 damage dealing weapon.

Since I'm missing these weapon racks with a mere coinflip I'm either gonna have to gain blackorb, legsweep or something else that is gonna save my ass in the long run.

Either way, I usually survive long enough to get to the caves but the yellow mages always seem to end my runs pre-maturily, how the hell do I manage to kill them? I've gotten a sharktooth+white angel soul run before which killed off the first wizard but the arm of the yellow mage also has about 400-500 hp which makes it a hassle to even chop it off.

Any suggestions for my strategy? I'm trying to gain an S-ending for Cahara

[Watereaters]

It’s been a while since I last played (and got Ending CS) but I can give some tips (also I’m assuming you know how to find the ending, if not, buy the maps from Isayah and follow them to find the fortune Cahara needs, also remember to visit Le Garde)
-> Attack the left leg of Yellow Mages to shut down their Hurting spell before going for the arm to disable the stun
-> Don’t bother trying to find weapons for Cahara’s S Ending since there is only one mandatory fight that can be beaten with an explosive vial (+ you’re planning on running from every fight and Mage legs have very little health)

[⛤King⛤]

Thank you

[Watereaters]

Also once you complete the requirements for the S ending, all you need to do is leave the dungeon in the same way you would for the E ending

[Watereaters]

Forgot one thing
- Pick lockpicking in Cahara's backstory, make your way to the shrine, kill both the Priests and loot them, take one of their souls with the Soul Stone, go to the Hexen (runed door is often in the courtyard south of the shrine) and get En Garde (hold Shift with melee to get a speed boost and get a free turn at the start of combat for most encounters)

[⛤King⛤]

ty

[OdinElGallardo]

On the prisons, if you have lockpicking you can open one of the jail doors and loot a chest where is a guaranteed soulstone (if you successfully do the coinflip). With the other soulstone found on the priest corpse you can max Cahara skill tree on record time.

En garde is useless against yellow mages, I have tried a lot of times and never works.
There is a path around the first yellow mage. He doesnt have enough time to destroy your limps if you follow that path. The second is impossible to bypass that way, you need to jump from where usually you find Darce and try to be super quick after that. But if you ask me both methods are normally not needed, just get a better weapon and kill his left leg (the leg on the air) which is the limp using hurting, Normally it works. They even have good loot if you kill them so it worth it.

Alternative methods:
-You can get the salmonsnake soul, which is not really difficult, or the penance armor (stealing torture a key) and kill the yellow mages, now immune to limp loss (only in a fight, not on the overworld).
-You can get the salmonsnake soul (or get the penance armor) and steal Seymour to get the scroll of swordmanship. Its advisable to destroy his sword before doing any attempt to steal him. Doing this you will have the claymore and the leg sweep skill. Leg sweep instakill the yellow mages legs, however you are now immune to limp loss so doing this only prevents hp loss).
-finding an empty scroll/quill .You can try to en garde the Iron Shakespeare and with enough luck you may steal from him, and then run. There is a 50% chance to get empty scroll/quill, so its not guaranteed. Use that empty scroll to get anything really, but eastern sword or white angel soul are golden.
-Black book; if you want to risk the necronomicon there is a 50% chance for you to lose, and even then there is only a 50% chance to get blood golem or necromancy. If you learn hurting or black orb, though, the yellow mages are not a problem anymore.

Maybe there are more methods, I don´t remember. I hope one of them helps you, though.

[Watereaters]

Originally posted by OdinElGallardo:

On the prisons, if you have lockpicking you can open one of the jail doors and loot a chest where is a guaranteed soulstone (if you successfully do the coinflip). With the other soulstone found on the priest corpse you can max Cahara skill tree on record time.

En garde is useless against yellow mages, I have tried a lot of times and never works.
There is a path around the first yellow mage. He doesnt have enough time to destroy your limps if you follow that path. The second is impossible to bypass that way, you need to jump from where usually you find Darce and try to be super quick after that. But if you ask me both methods are normally not needed, just get a better weapon and kill his left leg (the leg on the air) which is the limp using hurting, Normally it works. They even have good loot if you kill them so it worth it.

Alternative methods:
-You can get the salmonsnake soul, which is not really difficult, or the penance armor (stealing torture a key) and kill the yellow mages, now immune to limp loss (only in a fight, not on the overworld).
-You can get the salmonsnake soul (or get the penance armor) and steal Seymour to get the scroll of swordmanship. Its advisable to destroy his sword before doing any attempt to steal him. Doing this you will have the claymore and the leg sweep skill. Leg sweep instakill the yellow mages legs, however you are now immune to limp loss so doing this only prevents hp loss).
-finding an empty scroll/quill .You can try to en garde the Iron Shakespeare and with enough luck you may steal from him, and then run. There is a 50% chance to get empty scroll/quill, so its not guaranteed. Use that empty scroll to get anything really, but eastern sword or white angel soul are golden.
-Black book; if you want to risk the necronomicon there is a 50% chance for you to lose, and even then there is only a 50% chance to get blood golem or necromancy. If you learn hurting or black orb, though, the yellow mages are not a problem anymore.

Maybe there are more methods, I don´t remember. I hope one of them helps you, though.

I don't recommend risking your run for most of the Alternate methods since you don't really need them for the S Ending (unless you're planning on doing Ending D)

[⛤King⛤]

Thanks for the wall of text, it provides me a nice info on what to do next time since i never really thought of the soulstone down in the prisons. And the idea of getting penance is also good. Thanks

[OdinElGallardo]

[quote=Wat

Originally posted by Watereaters:

Originally posted by OdinElGallardo:

On the prisons, if you have lockpicking you can open one of the jail doors and loot a chest where is a guaranteed soulstone (if you successfully do the coinflip). With the other soulstone found on the priest corpse you can max Cahara skill tree on record time.

En garde is useless against yellow mages, I have tried a lot of times and never works.
There is a path around the first yellow mage. He doesnt have enough time to destroy your limps if you follow that path. The second is impossible to bypass that way, you need to jump from where usually you find Darce and try to be super quick after that. But if you ask me both methods are normally not needed, just get a better weapon and kill his left leg (the leg on the air) which is the limp using hurting, Normally it works. They even have good loot if you kill them so it worth it.

Alternative methods:
-You can get the salmonsnake soul, which is not really difficult, or the penance armor (stealing torture a key) and kill the yellow mages, now immune to limp loss (only in a fight, not on the overworld).
-You can get the salmonsnake soul (or get the penance armor) and steal Seymour to get the scroll of swordmanship. Its advisable to destroy his sword before doing any attempt to steal him. Doing this you will have the claymore and the leg sweep skill. Leg sweep instakill the yellow mages legs, however you are now immune to limp loss so doing this only prevents hp loss).
-finding an empty scroll/quill .You can try to en garde the Iron Shakespeare and with enough luck you may steal from him, and then run. There is a 50% chance to get empty scroll/quill, so its not guaranteed. Use that empty scroll to get anything really, but eastern sword or white angel soul are golden.
-Black book; if you want to risk the necronomicon there is a 50% chance for you to lose, and even then there is only a 50% chance to get blood golem or necromancy. If you learn hurting or black orb, though, the yellow mages are not a problem anymore.

Maybe there are more methods, I don´t remember. I hope one of them helps you, though.

I don't recommend risking your run for most of the Alternate methods since you don't really need them for the S Ending (unless you're planning on doing Ending D)

Of course I dont recommend trying any of the alternate methods in a Cahara S ending, but I though the question was oriented to any S endings, or hard mode in general.

With D´arce and Cahara you don´t really need to fight almost anything, with Enki and Ragnvaldr you absolute need to risk your run if you want to rise in power and being able to actually kill bosses. The black book method is almost discarded in any run, though, I included it because is a method, even not really reliable.