For Those Struggling - Something That May Help

[{MOUF} Shellz0rz]

Just beat the game today. I hope my experience may help other players that may be struggling. (TLDR at the bottom)

I had a real hard time with the last three bosses. The very last boss in particular almost stumped me. After ~50-60 attempts and making very little progress at phase 2, I was just about ready to give up. Then I had a thought. Why not try re-spec'ing? After all, I'd based my build around Advance and I noticed very few of the weapons actually take advantage of Advance. In fact, none of the "special weapons" scale with Advance, so I kinda felt like I was missing out on some powerful weapon options.

I re-spec'ed to a full Technique build and fully upgraded the Two Dragons Sword to +5 with a technique handle. Went back to fight the boss... almost bested him on the first try after re-spec'ing. Wtf. Have I been accidentally playing this game on hardmode? Five tries later, the boss is dead. The game is complete.

I definitely benefited from the experience from the previous 50-60 tries or so, but the boss felt about 50% as difficult after re-spec'ing. Waaay easier. Went from feeling impossible to totally doable.

TLDR: If you're having a hard time, try re-spec'ing and maybe use a different weapon. I don't know if Technique is the best stat to focus on, but in my limited experience it's far easier than focusing on Advance. For those looking for a greater challenge, try an Advance build.

[Samseng Yik]

Accidentally play the game on hard mode and reach that far.
The journey should have trained you to become more pro players.
It is something highly productive.

Also, I just beaten nameless puppet last night. And I max upgrade all weapons with advance stat.
End up I like Crystal Axe and Blacksteel sword the most

Will come back in next few months, maybe play a pure physical Slash/Crush build

[Cr@zY-$HeeP]

I played a Technique build that favored Attack Damage and Stamina reductions wherever available from the P-Organ upgrades. I can confirm that the Two Dragons sword is absolutely nuts.

As far as I am aware, it is the only "handle" (you can't separate it, of course) that can attain an "S" Rank in Technique by spending two Tech Cranks on it. (CORRECTION: Etiquette can also attain an S Rank. I don't have this weapon, because I took the Amulet option instead.)

Additionally, spamming attack while moving in a direction causes P to do a spinning animation that I'm almost certain has iFrames - it's similar to Dodging, except you are totally on offense the whole time. This allows you to basically whirl around enemies while just tapping R1. For example, most of Manus' Phase 1 attacks just whiff while you spin all around him.

Finally, I'm not sure if this is a real thing, but it definitely feels like the Two Dragons has a larger-than-normal Perfect Guard window, when compared to other weapons. I'm not entirely sure about this, though - perhaps it is just the speed at which P is able to recover from successive attacks with that sword, which allows you to go on the defensive faster.

---

The only other weapon that I found to come close is the Tyrant Murderer's Dagger Handle + Acidic Great Curved Sword Blade. The handle gets an "A" Rank in Technique with a single Tech Crank, and the blade's Fable Art deals huge damage and coats the blade in Acid for successive attacks that just melts enemies + bosses alike.

All attacks with the Tyrant handle are straight thrusts. The Acidic blade is light, long, and heavy-hitting - so it scales really nice with Technique, and has excellent reach from the straight thrusts of the handle.

[The Royal Pain]

I know a lot of people swear by the Saw-Blade, but I'll personally throw my lot in for a flexible build: the Spear of Honor Blade and the Bramble Curved Sword Handle. I went all in on Motivity and used the Holy Sword of the Ark, but after a point I just needed more speed so I started tinkering

The Spear of Honor Blade is balanced in Slash and Stab, the Bramble Curved Sword Handle is C-C so you can crank it any which way, and the fable arts for both pieces are really slick and useful, with Killer Attack being a good 'I'm willing to trade HP for big damage' gambit. On top of that, the Spear of Honor Blade is one of the longer blades without being miserably slow, so you still get fairly brisk swings with good damage.

I think ultimately matching the swing type with the blade matters more than the scaling. I noticed that when cranking a given handle, the stat adjustments could be positively minuscule despite something like, cranking from B to A in Motivity despite dropping my non-upgraded Technique stat out of the equation.

[Chacheya1G]

people keep overselling just how more lenient the parry window is for the Katana R2, but i am yet to see anyone time it correct vs Puppet phase 2.

[Chacheya1G]

Originally posted by Cr@zY-$HeeP:

The only other weapon that I found to come close is the Tyrant Murderer's Dagger Handle + Acidic Great Curved Sword Blade. The handle gets an "A" Rank in Technique with a single Tech Crank, and the blade's Fable Art deals huge damage and coats the blade in Acid for successive attacks that just melts enemies + bosses alike.

All attacks with the Tyrant handle are straight thrusts. The Acidic blade is light, long, and heavy-hitting - so it scales really nice with Technique, and has excellent reach from the straight thrusts of the handle.

The Acidic blade is also purely slashing blade and you are taking massive damage penalty by using it on this handle.

[Cr@zY-$HeeP]

Originally posted by Chacheya1G:

The Acidic blade is also purely slashing blade and you are taking massive damage penalty by using it on this handle.

Wow, you're totally correct. Never noticed the reduction at all because the combat is so quick.

I switched to the Master Chef's Handle with a Tech Crank to A-tier, and now I make about 130 more damage per hit, and it's just as fast.

[60mph gorilla]

Originally posted by The Royal Pain:

I know a lot of people swear by the Saw-Blade, but I'll personally throw my lot in for a flexible build: the Spear of Honor Blade and the Bramble Curved Sword Handle. I went all in on Motivity and used the Holy Sword of the Ark, but after a point I just needed more speed so I started tinkering

The Spear of Honor Blade is balanced in Slash and Stab, the Bramble Curved Sword Handle is C-C so you can crank it any which way, and the fable arts for both pieces are really slick and useful, with Killer Attack being a good 'I'm willing to trade HP for big damage' gambit. On top of that, the Spear of Honor Blade is one of the longer blades without being miserably slow, so you still get fairly brisk swings with good damage.

I think ultimately matching the swing type with the blade matters more than the scaling. I noticed that when cranking a given handle, the stat adjustments could be positively minuscule despite something like, cranking from B to A in Motivity despite dropping my non-upgraded Technique stat out of the equation.

Bramble handle is just overall a good choice. That fable art can wreck an HP meter if you apply the right weakness to it. Been using it since the first eldest brother fight and haven't really switched up.

[The Royal Pain]

Originally posted by Giant Feeble Lard Baby:

Bramble handle is just overall a good choice. That fable art can wreck an HP meter if you apply the right weakness to it. Been using it since the first eldest brother fight and haven't really switched up.

It's also a fantastic stagger tool just because of how many swings you can put out if you have a good window. If it flinches and can be opened, you can usually get a crit. If it's a boss and you get a window, you can carve off a whole chunk. If you slap on a grindstone, you can throw on a status.

I think the only other handle I used as much was the Wintry Rapier early on since it was so agreeable with early blades.

[Paraskeet]

do a pure motivity or quality build.

if you struggle with bosses, use heavy weapons. especially the greatsword handle which has a generous fable art that allows you to perfect parry unavoidable attacks.

shot puts are good for those that don't manage to stagger the boss with a charged r2.

use grindstone to apply buff that the bosses are weak to.

don't always parry ( you still can perfect parry everything ) but it's better to quick-step to close gap.

some bosses will get stronger if you move away from them like the puppet king second phase where he imbues his weapon with fire and goes on a combo frenzy that is difficult to doge and parry.

the ultimate crutch is the aegis legion arm. I haven't used it yet but from the description it allows you block nearly everything.

overall I don't think this game is more difficult that fromsoftware's titles or team ninja's excellent games but it's still fun. currently doing my third playthrough with a pure advance build and it's broken af

[Samseng Yik]

I don't think is technique build help you win the game.
It is probably you using twin dragon very easy perfect block op method win the game

[{MOUF} Shellz0rz]

Originally posted by Samseng Yik:

I don't think is technique build help you win the game.
It is probably you using twin dragon very easy perfect block op method win the game

Yeah, I suppose it is possible that it's more to do with the weapon than the tech build.

For the first 1/3 of the game I used the Electric Coil Stick. Then I switched to Salamander Dagger Blade + Acidic Crystal Spear Handle which I used for the majority of the remainder of the game. This was mostly fine until the last three bosses.

After switching to the Two Dragons Sword, it does more damage, blocks more damage if I miss a perfect guard, and seems to stagger the enemy faster. As far as I can tell the perfect guard window was unaffected. Perfect Guard timing felt identical between all weapons from what I could tell in my subjective experience.

[{MOUF} Shellz0rz]

Originally posted by Cr@zY-$HeeP:

I played a Technique build that favored Attack Damage and Stamina reductions wherever available from the P-Organ upgrades. I can confirm that the Two Dragons sword is absolutely nuts.

As far as I am aware, it is the only "handle" (you can't separate it, of course) that can attain an "S" Rank in Technique by spending two Tech Cranks on it. (CORRECTION: Etiquette can also attain an S Rank. I don't have this weapon, because I took the Amulet option instead.)

Additionally, spamming attack while moving in a direction causes P to do a spinning animation that I'm almost certain has iFrames - it's similar to Dodging, except you are totally on offense the whole time. This allows you to basically whirl around enemies while just tapping R1. For example, most of Manus' Phase 1 attacks just whiff while you spin all around him.

Finally, I'm not sure if this is a real thing, but it definitely feels like the Two Dragons has a larger-than-normal Perfect Guard window, when compared to other weapons. I'm not entirely sure about this, though - perhaps it is just the speed at which P is able to recover from successive attacks with that sword, which allows you to go on the defensive faster.

---

The only other weapon that I found to come close is the Tyrant Murderer's Dagger Handle + Acidic Great Curved Sword Blade. The handle gets an "A" Rank in Technique with a single Tech Crank, and the blade's Fable Art deals huge damage and coats the blade in Acid for successive attacks that just melts enemies + bosses alike.

All attacks with the Tyrant handle are straight thrusts. The Acidic blade is light, long, and heavy-hitting - so it scales really nice with Technique, and has excellent reach from the straight thrusts of the handle.

Two Dragons Sword definitely doesn't have i-frames on attack. As far as I can tell, the parry window seems identical to other weapons as well. At least, I subjectively didn't feel it was any easier to hit perfect guards. It is a good weapon though!

[Chacheya1G]

Fun fact, i had to respec from Technique to Advance in order to be able to put Manus, Father of the Ergo down. Without the acid damage, i wasn't able to go through his enormous HP bar reliably (was using the Murder Knife before that). The same Advance build did not work whatsoever against Nameless Poopet - the electricity weapons kinda suck for that fight, so i respecced back to Technique.

[zmanbuilder]

I used a motivity build to beat the game, for nameless puppet i used the acidic greatsword blade and handle with a motivity crank put on it, The handle gives a perfect block and that made the nameless puppet much easier.

Once i finish my new game+ run and get all the achievements, i will be doing a dex advance build on a fresh save, as it gives me many more fun options to use.

[{MOUF} Shellz0rz]

Originally posted by Chacheya1G:

Fun fact, i had to respec from Technique to Advance in order to be able to put Manus, Father of the Ergo down. Without the acid damage, i wasn't able to go through his enormous HP bar reliably (was using the Murder Knife before that). The same Advance build did not work whatsoever against Nameless Poopet - the electricity weapons kinda suck for that fight, so i respecced back to Technique.

Interesting, so perhaps it's more about using the right weapon for the right boss rather than technique build vs. advance build. The game does give you a fair amount of weapon upgrade resources to play with. Maybe it expects players to change up their weapons more often than the souls games, where you barely get enough resources to upgrade even one weapon.