Tips and suggestions

[Lightbearer]

I just beat the game, so while this is top of mind I thought I'd share some things I found helpful that I wish I had known when I started.

1) Heavy weapons with long range are generally superior. The reason why is that you basically get one swing, even with a fast weapon, before the enemy retaliates or moves. I hope the developers can balance this in future patches to make other weapons and tactics more viable. The extra reach also makes it easier to attack at angles and through walls or barriers.

Here were my preferred weapon sets throughout the game:

Dibon Greatsword --> Lorn's Shamshir --> Halberd of Mornia (a halberd enemy drops this in the garden zone at the beginning of the long staircase to the boss) --> Butcher's Grib (woods) --> Grim Reaver (right before the third acolyte) --> Sword of Eura (after beating the 6th acolyte)

2) Preferred runes. I usually added at least one attack speed rune and then stacked damage runes (fire, electricity, ice, bleed, poison) to increase base damage. For the Grim Reaver I used two attack speed runes, which made the weapon so much better to use with 112 attack damage. I think it may be one of the only weapons with 4 rune slots.

I did not use any life or sanity % runes. I preferred speed and damage over utility given the wide range of healing, buffs, and enemy drops you get on a regular basis.

3) Enemy engagement. For tough enemies I usually did a sneak attack with a special move, which does a lot of damage. You can also run away, hide again, and attack without them tracking you too closely. I believe if you do not see the enemies health bar they have not "seen" you yet. There is also a late game blessing that increases sneak damage and you can one-shot strong enemies. I'd also advise you to attack enemies from a diagonal versus head-on. You'll get a feel for each enemies hit box and attack patterns after a while.

4) Give guns / bows a chance. I prematurely gave up on guns because I wasn't seeing damage numbers that were significant; however, you may want to pick a weapon you like, kit it with damage and ammo runes and see how it performs. I kept a shotgun on hand (The Trust Blaster) that I got from a quest that had 60 base damage. It shoots in a wide ass area so it's perfect for getting rid of swarms of those pesky bugs that get release when you kill enemies or pods. And you will NEED to use it for certain enemies and bosses that call in reinforcements. I'm looking at you swamp boss (AKA the biggest pain in the ass). My late game bow was the Irean Impalor that had 112 damage after upgrades. But, I used it for like 10 minutes since you get it in the last zone.

5) Save up your "Grand Runes" (they are gold colored) until you've found a weapon that you really like. This is critical for the rune (Anxiety, I think) that increases attack speed! The game does give you a healthy supply of runes; many of them are farmable via chests and enemies. Make a mental note of where they drop. Other than that, if you are trying out weapons feel free to use up your runes. I literally had an entire set of them that I did not use the entire game because I thought I might need them. Don't be a hoarder like me, use your runes.

I don't think enemies have any weaknesses. Meaning you will do as much damage with fire versus ice versus whatever. Maybe the developers can provide some insight.

6) Use your items! I literally had an entire wall of items, especially shrooms that I barely used except on boss battles. I didn't really touch the other items because I wasn't a fan of some of the trade-offs.

7) Lazarus flowers and genetically modified broccoli are the keys to surviving bosses. They give you a passive heal and get your sanity meter to max.

8) The sanity meter is a risk/reward gameplay mechanic. Higher sanity means that you give and receive less damage; vice-versa for lower stamina. However, given you can't always get in multiple hits even with a fast weapon it can be dangerous having your sanity too low when facing a boss. If you consider you're self a pro, then go for it, but if you're an average player you might want to err on the safer side.

9) The boss in the swamp is a total nightmare. You'll know when you get there because you'll throw your controller at your screen. It took me forever, but basically you need to juggle avoiding its tongue attack, its poison wave, its jumping, and its bug minions. The windows to attack are very narrow. Having a blast shotgun helps a ton to remove the flies from the battle so they don't swarm you and stun-lock you to death. The battle gets easier around 50% health. I was chugging lazarus flowers and broccoli the entire fight; it made a huge difference.

In the upper right corner of the garden -- that is, the right side of the stairs to the boss room on the ground level -- there is a entire area full of the vine monsters that drop lazarus flowers. It takes 5 minutes to stock up.

10) What blessings to invest in? I posted a different topic if you want to cheat and get unlimited skill points. Since I was able to fully upgraded all 15 blessings here are some pointers.

Pick either the health bar increase or the stone of Dibron. It nets out to about the same amount of total health.

Pick either the stamina bar increase or the stamina recovery increase. Same thing as above.

If you don't want to cheat and/or the devs patch the skill points bug, investing in the experience blessing helps a lot to gain skill points quickly. Best if you do this ASAP so you reap the benefits over the entire length of your game.

Blessing of the Acrobat is a nice-to-have. It makes some of the more frantic boss battles a lot easier because you're able to conserve your stamina running around and dodging so you can get in extra hits with your weapons.

Once you beat the third boss and become "Exalted" beeline to the City because there are some great blessings, specifically the blessings that increase attack speed and reduce damage. These made a huge difference with my build. The buff blessing is really nice for the last boss since it basically increases the length of the buff from 50-100%.

I was level 48 when I beat the game. You will have 7 blessing slots at the end game, which means that you can get up to 4 blessings to level 4 (= 40 total skill points). I'd prioritize the health and stamina blessings if you struggle with boss battles. The defense blessing also makes a big difference.

It would be nice if the devs gave us a specific % increase for each level of each blessing so we know how to better spend our skill points. Is there a difference between level 3 and level 4, versus level 5? I have no idea.

11) Consider downloading Cheat Engine, it's free, and using their speed hack option on the right-hand side. The application may seem complicated, but it really is not. I increased the speed to 1.15 (115% faster) and it made the game a lot more responsive and fun to play.

Hope that helps! Please do add your thoughts and other tips and suggestions you found helpful.

[Sivqqq]

nice

[Eiji]

thats nice,thank you!

you can give a tip about lorn the blind?

i tried him 3 times then i had no time to play.attacking from behind or sideway?

[Ben_Merge]

Isn't Lorn the Blind...blind.
Wonder if that's a hint? :D

[Lightbearer]

I think Ben_Merge gave you the biggest hint of all -- this is something you can play with if you create some distance and watch what he does. Since the boss arena is vertical I ended up attacking him from above and below, retreating to regain stamina.

For me, the most dangerous part of the fight is not getting cornered when you run out of room at the very top or bottom of the screen since you need to get around him without getting hit. Also, pay attention to the bridges since they are at a diagonal -- character placement can really help you. I used the Greatsword to beat him since the long range gives you more breathing room.

[SunfireKnight86]

Ranged weapons are not useless. Get a good single target weapon, rune for ranged damage and ammo, and you can kill any enemy in three hits and have 32 shots, not to mention the game rains ammo pickups on you by the end. You can kite most of the bosses and never be in any danger of dying while taking half their health or more before ammo runs out and you have to use a consumable. I still had 5 chugs of "estus" left after just kiting the final boss around and shooting him in all 3 forms.

[Lightbearer]

That's helpful to know. I think I gave up on guns pretty early / pre-maturely in the game and just focused on the shotgun to clear low-level mobs. I also found it difficult to focus on dodging, attacking, etc. during boss battles to remember to use my gun. Do you have any favorite weapons (name, attack power)?

[Eiji]

thank you all - i will try this!

[Overload_Rand]

What does "the fist" mean in the weapon parameters?
I thought it was the cost of stamina to hit, but it's not.

[Adhan]

Publicado originalmente por jdmccoy7:

8) Keep your sanity meter above 40/100. After that point you will notice a decrease in your attack power, the amount of damage you take, and the # of enemies that attack you. Make sure you go into boss battles with a full sanity meter if possible.

What? From what I've seen it's the other way around as far as damage is concerned: the less sanity you have, the more damage you deal (and take). So there are quite a few instances where low sanity makes things easier.

[Lightbearer]

I found the developer's comments on sanity; I was incorrect and fixed my comments on the original post.

Hey Faust,


Great question!
Hard to give you a general response without giving everything away but I'll try ;)
As your sanity decreases, you'll notice that enemies may feel a little more powerful and that they even have a chance to rise again to try and avenge themselves!
You might also notice that the Striver is panicked by their weakened mental state and lashes out more fiercely at their foes.

Hope this helps but feel free to ask if you have more questions!


Thanks.

[Overload_Rand]

Publicado originalmente por jdmccoy7:

Interesting, there were a few threads where the developer stated that lower sanity = lower damage, but it's not something I have ever personally tested. I'll see if I can find the thread.

I've only seen reports that low sanity increases outgoing and incoming damage.

[Lightbearer]

The "fist" means the base physical damage of your weapon. The other symbols refer to elemental, poison, and bleeding damage depending on the runes that you use. The developer said that enemies DO have weaknesses, but I never saw any difference (like 2x, 3x, etc.) on my DPS and I swapped out runes frequently.

[Overload_Rand]

I also don't feel any increased damage from runes and mushrooms.

[ColonelBaker]

Publicado originalmente por jdmccoy7:

9) The boss in the swamp is a total nightmare. You'll know when you get there because you'll throw your controller at your screen. It took me forever, but basically you need to juggle avoiding its tongue attack, its poison wave, its jumping, and its bug minions. The windows to attack are very narrow. Having a blast shotgun helps a ton to remove the flies from the battle so they don't swarm you and stun-lock you to death. The battle gets easier around 50% health. I was chugging lazarus flowers and broccoli the entire fight; it made a huge difference.

Yes, please tone this down. There's just too many mechanics in this fight that inhibit your ability to move. Getting stunlocked by his tongue while standing in poison and getting hit by bugs is very frustrating. Maybe just slowing down his attacks would help some, but it's just too much and none of it is fun. Up until this point I've really enjoyed the bosses but this one was rage inducing and really stood out from the well designed ones that came before it. The only thing that felt good about this fight was slaying the acolyte afterwards.

[darkphoenixnova]

i noticed lorn takes a fair bit more damage from fire enhanced weapons over plain weapons, could be a weakness since the damage on my fire weapon was lower then the base damage of my sword.