Questions about builds, combat tips, bosses

[carpe_libris]

For anyone who has played through a significant portion of the game or beaten it, I need some general build and combat strategy advice. I can't join the discord, no matter how many invites I've tried. I'm struggling with enemy and boss balancing despite being in mid-late game now. For context, I have reached every area up to the Desert. I have not found any recalibrations, nor have I fought any bosses after Konrad. The reason for that is I was worried about the boss scaling mechanic and spawning red knights after killing 3-4 bosses. My goal is to explore everywhere first and unlock all shortcuts and homunculi.

I’m a 2H STR build using Eviscerator, I have only one perk (Vampirism), I'm level 23, and I can facetank and kill most enemies in a few hits. Yet there's others, namely elite types like the dual-wielding axe brutes, blue-sword revenants, and claw guys in the tower area that annihilate me with a couple hits. Bosses are also giving me trouble. I tried the optional Plagued Revenant in Ghost Town and can’t make any headway without getting demolished in 10 seconds. I'm trying to understand what I need to be optimizing or what I'm doing wrong.

To that end, some specific questions:

1) For a melee build, what types of crystal upgrades work best in both armor and weapons? Base damage, attack power, HP/stamina, penetration, status effects? I've not found many crystals that aren't of the lesser type so I'm saving those for when I settle on a final armor set/weapon. In the meantime, I'm prioritizing the lesser crystals that add 7.5% base damage. Is this a good idea or should I diversify into other boosts like HP/stamina, penetration, etc.?

2) For a melee build, what weapons have you found effective? Is 2H sluggish with high damage the way to go, or did you find a slow 2H better, or should I ditch ugga bugga and go for faster weapons if they do greater DPS? Feel free to name-drop actual weapons you guys used.

3) For melee, what equipment did you prefer? Which rings/amulets/capes and armor pieces really felt like the meta or S-tier choices?

4) What is a good order of bosses? I would assume the achievement list order makes sense: Konrad --> Plagued Nemesis --> Aberrant Knight --> Silicon Visage --> Nurgei --> Wormlord. What about the optional bosses? With bosses scaling after each one defeated, have any of you tried killing late game bosses earlier?

5) How do you kill those blue-sword revenants in the Ghost Town crypt/subway? They nearly one-shot me, heal themselves, and I can't figure out how to parry their spin-to-win attack. The only way I was able to defeat one was by cheesing it from a distance with the bow.

6) Regarding Vermillion knights that appear after defeating 3-4 bosses, do they spawn randomly and how hard are they to defeat or run away from?

[Fry93]

It's hard to answer everything according to your numbers.
I first finished the game as a technomancer. Early game was brutal, but once I had the flux regen the game became trivial.

Now I'm doing a similar strength build. Heavy armor and 2h weapon. I went with the busted Armor Buster, that drops from the big guy that is the first enemy in the Machinarium.
It already ignores 50% of enemy armor, so you don't need that much penetration.
Even against Titan Slayers and Vermillion Knights I do almost always the full damage that is written in the character sheet.

I went with the Illusion perk first, and than Vindicator into Mindbreaker without upgrading Vindicator first. You can get just enough health leech with a single 40hp leech gem in the weapon. Everything else is HP and attack bonus as well as faster stamina regen in the armor. In the weapon I put in two early great crystals for 9% attack damage.

Most armor sets have identical resistances in their weight class, so except for some unique gear, take the one that you like visually the most.

I use the 3 Agi ring that also gives 100 health leech. The rest is strength focused.
I'm about lvl 22 right now. With 15 con, 15 agi and the rest into strength until I reach 45.

For bosses don't fret about the increased difficulty. The crafting they unlock and areas give you all the means to counter this. The increase is just there so they don't become trivial because of all the stuff you unlock just by beating one or two.

The blue revenants hit hard, so dodge and hit, before running away. The game is slow and methodical. Learn the Iframes of your roll. Maybe take Power Armor abillity? I went with dash for mobility and Echo slam to stun Vermillion Knights and Titan Slayers. It opens them up for a fully charged attack.

I never died to a vermillion knight in both playthroughs. They have fixed positions and can be farmed for some unique weapons and their armor set.

Also do the calibrations. In my first blind playthrough I did them last, but now I did the one in Deluge as early as possible. The extra belt slots can really help. Also they give huge amounts of exp, and the max level is 25 in NG.

[Fry93]

I made screenshots of this build now and forgot some recent additions.
So far I killed Konrad, Abherrant Knight, Plagued Nemesis and Wormlord and did the Deluge calibrations. The Armor needs to be farmed, but I checked and it has identical stats to the restless set.
The cape is special and needs to be farmed from Cursed Knights. Their whole set has this name. They are in Deluge behind the gated area, but one later gets replaced by a greatsword vermillion knight.
But some also appear in Machinarium after the difficulty increase. They wear heavy armor and greataxes.

I am a bit afraid of the Tech-damage of later bosses now, thats why I increased the resistance of it as much as possible. MIght also replace all resistance crystals with the Technoarmor version.

But so far this build easily kills vermillion knights, all bosses first try and bullies the pair of titanslayers in the Blok 1v2.

[r.kohout]

https://discord.com/invite/VfH9mtct

[palacentes]

1) For a melee build, what types of crystal upgrades work best in both armor and weapons? Base damage, attack power, HP/stamina, penetration, status effects? I've not found many crystals that aren't of the lesser type so I'm saving those for when I settle on a final armor set/weapon. In the meantime, I'm prioritizing the lesser crystals that add 7.5% base damage. Is this a good idea or should I diversify into other boosts like HP/stamina, penetration, etc.?

For offense, I prio penetration, then attack power. I dont use status effects because penetration is pretty solid and you have to work for status, penetration is immediate.
Not saying its bad, but I didnt experiment too deeply w status since penetration was doing the job.

For defense... HP then stamina. ( blocking loves stamina, and even shieldless can land 1 or 2)

I began choosing penetration + stamina later in the game since I was getting high base dmg and health from my stats.

you need to drink a defense potion for a hard fight. The + 2000 for a specific resistance or + 2000 to all dmg types. This stacks w regen potion. Its incredible for boss fights and you can easily refresh it and experience the whole fight buffed. Drinking potion is just too fast in this game, you cant be punished for it.


2) For a melee build, what weapons have you found effective? Is 2H sluggish with high damage the way to go, or did you find a slow 2H better, or should I ditch ugga bugga and go for faster weapons if they do greater DPS? Feel free to name-drop actual weapons you guys used.


ugga bugga is fine, its about timing. I can down anything w em.
Let me give you a secret. Get one handed hammer. Spam fast attack. Wont work on a boss, but an elite still has a small flinch animation, and a fast 1h hammer will make it flinch so much, it just keeps flinching until it dies.Works on red knights, but not large foes or blocking foes.
Giant weapon still deletes them and chunks massive HP. I switch to it if I want to be serious.

3) For melee, what equipment did you prefer? Which rings/amulets/capes and armor pieces really felt like the meta or S-tier choices?

I have the stat boost rings. Cape with penetration bonus, amulet of divine might for more strength.

4) What is a good order of bosses? I would assume the achievement list order makes sense: Konrad --> Plagued Nemesis --> Aberrant Knight --> Silicon Visage --> Nurgei --> Wormlord. What about the optional bosses? With bosses scaling after each one defeated, have any of you tried killing late game bosses earlier?

put silicon visage before aberrant if possible, he is one of the harder, nurgei too. Order is fine. I havent tried killing the late game ones earlier, good potion buffs stays strong even in ng+


5) How do you kill those blue-sword revenants in the Ghost Town crypt/subway? They nearly one-shot me, heal themselves, and I can't figure out how to parry their spin-to-win attack. The only way I was able to defeat one was by cheesing it from a distance with the bow.

I cheese them, but with hammer r1 spam. They will flinch until they die. For the spin, I block it, I have a ton of stamina and I have duelist perk that makes the first block super strong( no stamina cost, but this enhanced block has a 10? 15? second cool down). They also get bodied by giant weapon to the face, huge dents on their hp. I die sometimes w giant, but never w hammer r1 spam, unless it had help.


6) Regarding Vermillion knights that appear after defeating 3-4 bosses, do they spawn randomly and how hard are they to defeat or run away from?

vermillion are very easy to run from. For defeating, its an elite, but the blue sword is harder and hammer r1 cheese still works. Or just fight them normally. They arent that big an obstacle and easy to bypass if you are unwilling. You willingly fight them to farm materials. Or I did. They werent trouble if I actually wanted to avoid them. Vermillion replace certain guys, its not random, the replaced guys will stay as vermillion. As for who gets replaced.... well, it certainly feels random, even weakling mobs got replaced by vermillion elites, but only a few.