I just played Fist Hell for 5 hours and couldn't beat it

[benjymlewis]

The game is extremely harsh. I reached the final boss a couple of times, but having to start all the way at the beginning of the level every time you die a single time is really really punishing. I didn't want to have to quit since I made so much progress reaching the last level, but in the end I had to turn the game off without succeeding.
I think this game is too difficult for it to be one of the ones that doesn't save your progress. :( It's literally almost 5am where I live now, I wasn't expecting it to take this long to play, and I stayed up for nothing!

...
Any tips for this ridiculous game? I looked up information online about the cherry for this game, and apparently, you have to beat the whole thing deathless? Is that really true? That seems even more ridiculous. How can it be done? Is it the hardest cherry in the game?

[♥Puroseki (she/her)]

Unfortunately, it really is just learning and executing.
Luckily you made it to the final boss so you've got a distinct advantage now, you know everything each level is going to throw at you. Since you got to the final stage you probably have a few preferred safe methods for dealing with certain enemies. You'll want to develop strategies for every enemy that works safely and quickly, so that you can focus on dodging in big crowds and then when you see a chance to take out one guy, take it.

If you can build up money in the first few levels, upgrade Power and Toughness, unless you're a big fan of throwing moves. Power will let you kill enemies faster, Toughness lets you die slower.

As for the final level specifically, the beach outside is the worst part with all the enemy types in play out there. The mansion interior can be a little rough at the end but the early parts should be simple to keep your health up on, and the elevator only has one dangerous wave of enemies. The final boss has a full heal hamburger in his room, beeline for it the second your health gets low. Enemies will spawn in his room nonstop so only bother killing truly dangerous enemies and focus on just dealing nonstop damage to the boss. You can just stunlock him and punch him and grab him over and over just like a normal zombie, so don't hold back and before long you'll get there.

It took me a huge number of continues my first clear as well. I believe in you.

[vocab]

If you got to the final boss I'm not sure you need any tips. It's all about just staying calm and executing. As for 1cc attempts advice, I recommend you just go slow, and practice stage 3 the most. Stage 3 because of no health pickups after the vehicle chases you (hidden fry, thats it). If you go slow, you won't aggro more than you can handle. Also, the really fat dudes can be basically be put in an infinite, you just don't finish the combo and they will be stuck in hitstun until they are dead. Also, running attack is probably the best attack in the game.

[rwb36]

Some basic tips:
If you don't care about completing it with no continues, just spend your money on the stat upgrades (they persist even if you continue).
Throw is the only stat that you can't upgrade so if that's something you care about, choose your character appropriately.
It's safer to attack enemies from a little below them due to the way the hit boxes work.
Take advantage of enemy friendly fire & the environment.
Grappling & throwing enemies does very little damage but are useful for crowd control & to throw enemies off cliffs.

In Stage 3, there are some weapons that are mostly hidden by the foreground. I found a chainsaw during the section that the vehicle chases you and a shotgun at the end of the level before the boss fight.

For the final boss:
I don't know if this always happens or if I triggered something special, but at some point in the final boss fight for me, a swarm of friendly dogs showed up and swarmed the boss. Made it much easier to deal a ton of damage to it.

[benjymlewis]

Thanks for the tips. I'll try again soon, but maybe for now I'll give UFO 50 a small break and go play Legend of Zelda... My thumbs are not happy with the 5 hours of failure from last night. I'll look up a cherry guide on youtube, take all this advice into consideration, and try again. I'm determined to cherry every game in this collection! Even this completely impossible-seeming challenge will eventually be defeated!

[benjymlewis]

OK NEVERMIND I DID IT!!!!
I couldn't stay away for too long, something was eating at me from inside, I just HAD to try again right away. haha

Okay so I watched this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9_iWZT_oWk
And with this very good breakdown of each part of each stage that I could watch at my liesure, I was able to learn the levels so I could anticipate the enemy spawns and get them to spawn as few at a time as possible.

But the biggest tip of all: USE JAY.

In my 5 hour nightmare last night, I was using Amy because i enjoyed her charged explosive throw move, but it turns out this move is way more situational than it is useful, and despite her having the best "throw" stat, her throws were still much weaker than her fists. So if you pick Jay, he starts off stronger, and after one upgrade is at max strength already.
So don't pick Amy like I did. Don't pick anyone but Jay. That's the actual biggest tip I can give.

But yes,

Originally posted by ♥Puroseki (she/her):

Luckily you made it to the final boss so you've got a distinct advantage now, you know everything each level is going to throw at you.

This was also 100% accurate! It was actually pretty breezy getting back to the final level, since after fighting through so much last night, I now had strategies and knowledge I didn't have the first time. I know it's safe to approach the fat bomb-belching zombies because their lack of arms means they cannot punch me at close range. I know how to deal with the axe-throwing chicken zombies by staying out of their line of sight and approaching from below. I know how to deal with the werewolves, by waiting for their pounce and attacking afterwards. It's true, knowing is half the battle.

Thanks for the encouragement! Fist Hell is now conquered! And to be honest, I quite like it now. Though I do wish Amy's throws were stronger so that the different characters other than Jay could be usable.

[♥Puroseki (she/her)]

Originally posted by benjymlewis:

OK NEVERMIND I DID IT!!!!
I couldn't stay away for too long, something was eating at me from inside, I just HAD to try again right away. haha

Okay so I watched this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9_iWZT_oWk
And with this very good breakdown of each part of each stage that I could watch at my liesure, I was able to learn the levels so I could anticipate the enemy spawns and get them to spawn as few at a time as possible.

But the biggest tip of all: USE JAY.

In my 5 hour nightmare last night, I was using Amy because i enjoyed her charged explosive throw move, but it turns out this move is way more situational than it is useful, and despite her having the best "throw" stat, her throws were still much weaker than her fists. So if you pick Jay, he starts off stronger, and after one upgrade is at max strength already.
So don't pick Amy like I did. Don't pick anyone but Jay. That's the actual biggest tip I can give.

But yes,

Originally posted by ♥Puroseki (she/her):

Luckily you made it to the final boss so you've got a distinct advantage now, you know everything each level is going to throw at you.

This was also 100% accurate! It was actually pretty breezy getting back to the final level, since after fighting through so much last night, I now had strategies and knowledge I didn't have the first time. I know it's safe to approach the fat bomb-belching zombies because their lack of arms means they cannot punch me at close range. I know how to deal with the axe-throwing chicken zombies by staying out of their line of sight and approaching from below. I know how to deal with the werewolves, by waiting for their pounce and attacking afterwards. It's true, knowing is half the battle.

Thanks for the encouragement! Fist Hell is now conquered! And to be honest, I quite like it now. Though I do wish Amy's throws were stronger so that the different characters other than Jay could be usable.

Congrats!!!

Yeah, using Jay makes the game a lot simpler with his starting stats. I wanna mess around with the other characters to see if a change in strategy will keep them just as useful, but 90% of the time you're just punching enemies to death so the guy who's good at punching is a strong character choice.

[Bewul]

Haha, yeah makes sense, since the game doesn't have a 'oh this guy is so much slower' balance like other beat'em ups. So picking the `'punch things good' guy is a given, unless you want someone 'tougher' to practice moving around and dodging. (Then again if enemies die faster, less need to dodge!)

[Yuga-Suggah]

Yeah I just recorded a cherry and actually found an amazing glitch called the exploding elevator. I’m going to post it when I get home.

But this game is actually great.

[Chkn Fngr Subs]

Can’t tell if it was a bug or a secret, but on the final level (beach) I was able to go right into the mansion without the alien fight. I also did not get anything washed up on shore.

[P4wn4g3]

seems like a very hard game to cherry. idk if there are any good methods for that other than getting gud

[Hesti]

Originally posted by P4wn4g3:

seems like a very hard game to cherry. idk if there are any good methods for that other than getting gud

To me, it's an easier cherry than most of the other action games. Rakshasa, Campanella 3, and especially Cyber Owls and Star Waspir, feel like they're going to be much harder. Or maybe Rakshasa is just comparable, but I've been frustrated with it recently.

Fist Hell did seem very hard and frustrating at first until I realized most of the game is spacing with the basic combo, because the basic zombies die from one combo at 2 power. Generally if you get hit you'll need to use the desperation attack, but if you hit first like you're supposed to then you can control the entire situation against any enemy except the squid boss.

The next major mental hurdle was the aliens, because of the fight with three of them in stage 5. Aside from being able to separate that fight out by inching forward, the aliens have a fairly simple strategy despite being much more dangerous than other enemies (they teleport twice after being knocked down, generally ending up behind you).

After that it's just a matter of staying on your toes during the more dangerous fights, like anytime the purple chargers appear, consistently not getting hit by ranged enemies, basically understanding how each enemy works so you're never trying to react on the fly. There was a period of time between realizing I would get the cherry, and getting it, where the game became harder again cause I kept screwing up one encounter I already knew.

But it's really pretty simple and controllable compared to the other action games, I'm pretty sure it takes less skill since I was able to do it.

[Hesti]

Originally posted by Chkn Fngr Subs:

Can’t tell if it was a bug or a secret, but on the final level (beach) I was able to go right into the mansion without the alien fight. I also did not get anything washed up on shore.

That's interesting. I know you can go up the elevator without fighting the fat red guy in the mansion, but what you describe is probably a bug.