Tips on Grimstone

[circus_penguin]

Absolutely losing my mind at this game . Just got to Rio and party is at lvl14. Using a party of Umbra/Lee/Anne/Rufus and trying to beat the lady with the coffee in the mines, but her double tapping usually kills 1-2 party members before I can reliably kill the 2 bandits with her. I can't outpace her healing with my regular attacks if I'm left with 1 or 2 party members. In addition, random encounters feel like they're tuned to be very difficult, especially when you're facing off against 6-8 mobs at a time.

Is this just a case of grinding out levels? At this point, I've realized how bad Rufus is due to the inconsistent targeting and damage/hit variance when not hitting criticals. Anne's buffs and Umbra's magic are great support, but I feel like outputting damage is my main issue. Lee is the primary damage dealer and tank. Despite all this, I still feel like I'm missing a "piece" of the metagame or there's something I'm not getting. Any help would be appreciated.

[Arzaac]

Looking at your party you probably are underlevelled, unfortunately. I just beat this with no issues (and a sturdier party) at level 17, for a point of comparison. For some character specific things:

Anne - She learns Doc 1 at level 18, which doubles the healing of items. I don't think you'll have to grind that far, but its an option.

Umbra - Do you have all the spells for her you can get? You should have 6 by this point. In particular, paying for the mustang in Rio Valle will let you learn Kick, a damage spell that should deal ~180 damage.

Rufus - He's honestly not great here, I'd just stick him in the back of the party so he can stay near full health until he needs to jump in front of someone who's dying. Also, if you haven't grabbed the dog treat in this area, you should do so. It's on the world map, outside the suspicious church. There's a cactus with a skeleton next to it - examine the bones

Lee - Similar to Umbra, you might wanna make sure you have all the spells you can get for him. In particular Leech is pretty good for healing and damage at the same time. Multihit, combined with Umbra's Gust, can probably take care of the bandits pretty quick. Break, if you get lucky and land it on Betty, could stun her for a few turns. And lastly, you might not wanna do this, but you can apparently steal a better pistol from the repeatable bandit fight in Rio Valle. I'm not sure this is worth it, I tried for a bit and it seems pretty rare.

Failing...any of that, yeah, you might just have to grind more.

[EvilChicken]

Lassos are good all game long. Unlike other stunning spells that can fail, I never had a lasso fail. Bring many and keep the boss lasso'd while you kill the minions. Whoever is going to throw the lassos should have the highest speed in your party, give them your fastest shoes. For bosses with no minions, you can literally lasso them the entire fight. I made it to the final railroad connected town at level 17 and once you get there, leveling is fast and easier because you can take a rest after every fight and level fast.

[fakename]

Originally posted by circus_penguin:

Absolutely losing my mind at this game :isaac:. Just got to Rio and party is at lvl14. Using a party of Umbra/Lee/Anne/Rufus and trying to beat the lady with the coffee in the mines, but her double tapping usually kills 1-2 party members before I can reliably kill the 2 bandits with her. I can't outpace her healing with my regular attacks if I'm left with 1 or 2 party members. In addition, random encounters feel like they're tuned to be very difficult, especially when you're facing off against 6-8 mobs at a time.

Is this just a case of grinding out levels? At this point, I've realized how bad Rufus is due to the inconsistent targeting and damage/hit variance when not hitting criticals. Anne's buffs and Umbra's magic are great support, but I feel like outputting damage is my main issue. Lee is the primary damage dealer and tank. Despite all this, I still feel like I'm missing a "piece" of the metagame or there's something I'm not getting. Any help would be appreciated.

I don't find you have to grind in this game, per se. It's more like throwing yourself at the objective over and over until you win. Because there's really no downside to it, you don't lose progress, only half your teeth that aren't in the bank, but you keep the exp, and whatever gold you have left over covers the cost of the items for the next attempt.

Lee gets a couple of attack skills that help with random battles, you should look for all the skills he can learn if you don't have them already.