Too much red pigment?

[Red Luster YT]

I dunno about you guys, but, I run into this issue too often: I just don't want to bother with most of the characters because unless they use red pigment, I can't fit them into any grouping.

A majority of the enemies in this game primarily have red health bars, meaning hitting them with anything is going to slosh tons and tons of red pigment into your slots, so much that only using characters like boyle when starting a run is the only smart choice as picking something like livelong, who needs purple, blue or yellow for his moves, and I get hans as a support, I'm going to have an absurd amount of pigment I can't use without hurting my team over and over.

I rarely ever find myself with too much of other color pigments, blue being the second closest and that's only in certain battles. The only fights I've had too much, say, purple pigment is when my team is getting thrashed, or yellow, when some creature just keeps spewing it at me, but those are like, only 20% of encounters so they're rarely a problem that a little forcing through can't fix.

I really want to give other characters a try, but a majority of the time their downsides are just far too great to warrant deviating from the tried and true red users. Should the downside of using wrong pigments be nerfed? Should some chars have more red involved with their skills? Or is there some kind of loophole I'm missing?

[Tromble]

Hey Red Luster YT,

How far into Brutal Orchestra are you currently, from you post I get the vibe that you are pre-hardmode? There are definitely lots of party members like Burnout, Clive, Anton and Pearl that can remove lots of Red Pigment in a single action so this issue may resolve itself as you unlock more party members if you are still early on.

Long-liver, the other party member you mentioned is more of a synergy focused character so if you only have him and the tutorial characters unlocked it is definitely a better choice to prioritise Boyle while you unlock more.

As for your current situation my two biggest pieces of advice is to have Boyle attack nothing if red pigment is getting high, just to burn off two or three pigment without gaining more. Clobber may be a powerful move but it is notorious for producing lots of pigment so maybe limit its use.

My other piece of advice is to keep an eye out from pigment limiting/altering items.
Shop items such as Certificate of Exemption, Dried Paint and Medical Leeches can really help limit pigment overflow. Treasure items such as Blue Bible, Crooked Die, Runty Rotter and Pontiff's Parade can also really limit overflow.

Hopefully this helps you out!

-Maceo (Game Designer/Game Artist)

[Red Luster YT]

Originally posted by Tromble:

Hey Red Luster YT,

How far into Brutal Orchestra are you currently, from you post I get the vibe that you are pre-hardmode? There are definitely lots of party members like Burnout, Clive, Anton and Pearl that can remove lots of Red Pigment in a single action so this issue may resolve itself as you unlock more party members if you are still early on.

Long-liver, the other party member you mentioned is more of a synergy focused character so if you only have him and the tutorial characters unlocked it is definitely a better choice to prioritise Boyle while you unlock more.

As for your current situation my two biggest pieces of advice is to have Boyle attack nothing if red pigment is getting high, just to burn off two or three pigment without gaining more. Clobber may be a powerful move but it is notorious for producing lots of pigment so maybe limit its use.

My other piece of advice is to keep an eye out from pigment limiting/altering items.
Shop items such as Certificate of Exemption, Dried Paint and Medical Leeches can really help limit pigment overflow. Treasure items such as Blue Bible, Crooked Die, Runty Rotter and Pontiff's Parade can also really limit overflow.

Hopefully this helps you out!

-Maceo (Game Designer/Game Artist)

Hey Tromble, nice to meet ya!

I actually started hard mode not too long ago, and I have unlocked all but one of the characters you mentioned, Pearl! As for the others, I keep finding reasons to not bother using them.

Burnout is a neat concept, and in battles against few, weak enemies, he wrecks shop, but as soon as things start gaining more and more health, he gets rapidly outclassed and too weak due to his moves self-defeating nature.

Clive actually almost solo'd Osman during my battle with him, but his draw of needing blue pigment for most of his skills, not just his self healing, made taking him feel like he was taking up valuable blue pigment I needed for my support characters, otherwise he's hurting himself a lot using the wrong pigments or the teams overall health suffers.

Anton relying entirely on luck as his gimmick really just screams 'unreliable' until level three, but shank is pretty good save for the fact it needs yellow.

I guess the main reason I don't pick anyone other than Boyle or Dimitri is again, the fact so many enemies give red pigment when they're hurt. Not having a character that has some method of disposing of large amounts of red pigment often comes back to the overflow situation. As for items, some are helpful, but often too random not only as to when they're gotten, but how 'helpful' they end up being. Not to mention the unlock methods to get these items...are kinda too difficult.

With that all being said, I would like to suggest two ideas: Pigment slots that can use more than one color. Think like, a slot that has an upper half that's yellow and a lower that's red, that can use either pigment without it counting as forced use.
And the other being skills that have 'optional' pigment slots. Like, a skill that does more and more damage the more optional slots used, but can otherwise be used without them.

Anyhoo, thanks for replying and maybe I'll have better luck soon!

-Red Luster(Youtuber)

Ps: How in the WORLD are you supposed to beat Heaven? It seemed like a dead end boss to me that just kind of inevitably crushes your team regardless of composition due to the sheer amount of pressure it puts on you.

[Tromble]

In regards to Anton I was largely referring to his Insult ability that re-rolls all currently held pigment, it is one of his most useful abilities but tends to be neglected by newer players.

I'd encourage you to join the Brutal Orchestra Discord as there are many players there that discuss strategy daily and could definitely give you more in-depth advice on how to utilise party members you are struggling with. You can find the link to the Discord server in the bottom right corner of the main menu.

Thanks,

-Maceo (Game Designer/Game Artist)