Flawless Run

[Lightbolt]

Finally completed my Flawless achievement, so I'm here to give a general idea of how I went about it and complete the challenge. Feel free to share your own builds or tips if you've managed to as well!

EDIT

:
I made a guide out of this post with a bit more details on the reasons why I picked the stuff I did, as well as more tips on bosses and general gameplay tips:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3116132139

As far as difficulty go, ironically, Overdrive 5 felt a lot easier than Overdrive 0. That 200% XP modifier more than makes up for the increased horde, HP, and enemy speed. It's the difference between getting rammed into by a fish (screw them) and sitting in the middle of the screen firing more missiles than a whole season of mecha anime.

Loadout:

Any HP-related skill is obviously useless, we're on a no-hit run. Anything else around the first skill is good. Spaghettification for black hole supplies, Salt the Wound for damage along with Battery Lick (stun is THE BEST elemental effect, hands down. Even 1% makes a huge difference.) , Black Atomization, Remnant of What Was and Drill Injection (for those juicy Crit drills or extra black holes), Magnetosphere, Reroll #1 (in case your first pickups aren't that strong), and Marathon (movement speed will be important.)

From Marathon:

Gaiden: Decent, but not mandatory. Technically you SHOULDN'T rely on Gaiden to do the job for you since you're not supported to get hit in the first place, but it could potentially save you.

Exponential Expedition: Extremely good. That's movespeed we don't have to stress over with Overcharged Engines, and it'll come in extremely handy when fleeing from some bosses or other enemies.

Confidence: A no-brainer. We're on a no-hit run, of course we'll pick up something that takes advantage of it. Also makes some boss attacks absolutely trivial (you can run circles around Biker and make him cry.)

Bullet Time: Useful if you're scared of certain patterns or if things are getting a bit too hectic for your taste. Remember that while it slows things down, the amount of movespeed you lose is greater than the general slowdown on enemies. Useful on some patterns, but it can work against you if you rely on it too much as a crutch.

From Magnetosphere:

Exponential Experience: Pickup Radius becomes invaluable later on when there's too many enemies for you to navigate around to get the XP. Not a replacement for a good ol' Crown, but if you can't get to drop it, this'll be a safe bet.

Experienced Handler: Not mandatory by any means, but getting to pick up bombs and blackholes from afar has come in quite handy. Careful not to accidentally waste any blackhole pickups this way, though.

Shocking Result: Another no-brainer. Guaranteed upgrade at the start and every boss? Of course.

Fifth Generation Network: Instantly destroys debris. Not necessary by any means, but that means less to worry about wasting bullets on and actually killing enemies while getting more items and XP effortlessly.

Connect Call: A pickup so good it's a night and day difference. Getting to suck up all the XP on the map means we don't have to worry about picking everything up before the boss start and we can focus all of our attention on enemies.

From Black Atomization:

Backwards, Fast & Reversal Core: Since we're playing on Overdrive 5, the extra firepower will come in handy early game, and scale up if we pick up CORE upgrades.

Stack Overflow: YES. It's simply free kills.

Skull Crushing Distance: More firepower. Not the most powerful but the extra damage never hurts.

Hunting Season: Of course. Bosses killed faster, run completed faster.

Nitrous: Don't need to explain, it's more firepower.

Feeling Lucky: Another no-brainer. Even 1% of CRIT is a world of difference, especially on some weapons that can do a disgusting amount of damage.

Rainbowsplosion: Guaranteed horde wipe when you kill a sparkly elite.

Dumb Luck: No need to explain that one. Crits for 5 seconds after killing an elite, on top of Rainbowsplosion, means you simply clear the screen for free.

Critsplosion: Free AoE damage everytime you crit, which helps with hordes.

Weapons:

Flamethrower - Simply the best weapon IMO. Guaranteed Fire status and high damage means it melts whatever you point this thing at. Combined with Battery Lick and other potential electric upgrades like the Eel, you can get a potentially disgusting combo of having enemies frozen in place and getting hit extra hard.

Slime Spike - Excellent crowd control. Combine that with Projectile Size and Speed, and this'll not only deal decent damage but also keep enemies at bay with its decent knockback.

Angel Wings - Not the most damaging weapon, but clearly the MVP in my build. This thing, with enough upgrades, can keep hordes at bay on its own. Combine it with CD% and you can just go make coffee while Cyl takes out the trash.

Ultrabuster - Weirdly enough it looks like it takes advantage of the CORE upgrades I mentioned earlier, but it's still a decent weapon thatdoesn't try to do anything fancy besides being a reliable pea shooter.

CORE - To take advantage of the CORE upgrades above, and it's a decent weapon on its own. With enough upgrades, it can hit a lot of enemies.

Chain Belt - Another solid pick, seems useless at first because of its extremely small range but it can quickly size up with enough Injection upgrades as well as its own upgrades. After a while, with Slime Spike, you make a wall of death.

Plasma Lamp - While I like the snow globe better, it's still a decent pick that can freeze whatever it hits. And we like enemies that don't move.

Leg Saw - Excellent horde-clearing weapon, taking good advantage of Weapon Size% and able to go through everything on the screen.

Eye2 An amazing weapon that goes through anything it hits. I feel like it works great with elemental damage, capable of triggering it through a bunch of enemies.

Passives: Digiwatch for CD%, Injection for Weapon Size, and Battery for Weapon Speed. All of these can quickly make up for the weaknesses of some weapon (Chain Belt's poor range, Flamethrower relatively slow projectiles, ect.) and make it a lot safer for you.

Other honorable mentions:

• Pleoxenic Crown: Makes it easier to pick XP and items. No need to explain it further than that.
  
• Missile Rack: Excellent AoE weapon, scales greatly with weapon size.
  
• Hunter's Bow: The recent changes have made it a bit better at boss killing, and the guaranteed poison is sure to trigger Salt the Wound, which means 10% more damage.
  
• Overcharged Engine: Move speed is the difference between sweating and making a joke out of bosses. Enougn Movespeed can completely trivialize some of them.
  
• Electric Eel: Did I mention Stun is the best elemental effect?

General gameplay tips

• Don't rely too much on autoaim! While having to focus only on dodging is fine, it can work against you. Around mid-game (mortality 5-10) you'll often find yourself completely surrounded. Instead of letting autoaim brainlessly fire at the closest enemy and let them close in on you, carve yourself a path! Fire forward and move away from them. You've got upgrades and Connect Call to get that XP later. TL:DR; play like a coward. We're here to not get hit, not getting a medal of bravery, folks.
  
  
• Don't be greedy with black holes! While they're necessary against bosses (especially Picayune's wall of death), using one is better than restarting a run. Not to mention you can rather easily find some in floating debris, or left over by sparkling elites.
  
  
• Pick your routes well. You'll want to avoid Modified areas when possible, and pick your battles. Remember that enemy types are added to the pool of spawned enemies, so pick those you know you can deal with. Anything with high movespeed are the biggest threat, so avoid thing like Whiskers, Warpers, or Wibblers.
  
  
• On that same note: be careful with statues! Some might raise your curse. Sure, a Berserk or XP statue may be nice, but that might also mean you'll have to stare straight at a Curseformed fish. And fishes are the BANE of your existence. Whenever possible, do not raise your curse to avoid Curseformed enemies! Don't blow up any statues either, that raises your Curse too.
  
  
• Speaking of fish: prioritize them when possible. Due to their extremely high movespeed when dashing, they can completely ruin your run when one of them decides to dash out of a horde and right into your face if you've let them come too close. Don't trust any fish you find, no matter how funny it looks.

That's about it for how I managed to get the Flawless achievement. It's not easy by any means, but it's doable if you keep those things in mind. Let me know what you think!

[Stepford]

This is a really good guide. ♥️

[smallneedle]

thanks so much for this!

[Shrombus]

Shinobi Equipment and Missile Pack are crazy good, and are affected by cooldown/projectile speed and size. Definitely worth considering

[Lightbolt]

Originally posted by Shrombus:

Shinobi Equipment and Missile Pack are crazy good, and are affected by cooldown/projectile speed and size. Definitely worth considering

I gotta admit I havent tested with Shinobi Equipment, but yeah it should scale very well with weapon size and act like a leg saw.

[Booty Executioner]

Solid guide based on your experience, but I can't say I agree with the enemy selection. Anything that fires projectiles is a much bigger threat in this game to you lategame compared to enemies that reach your death blender faster only to die just as quickly. Especially because of their sheer numbers laterbon, and ESPECIALLY since having even one of them in the pool makes afk'ing with no consequence once the ridiculous xp bonus from overdrive starts snowballing straight up not possible without taking a hit.
Autoaim works great for hordes too, never had it screw me over and make me take a hit, especially for fast enemies that are hard to react to quickly enough in manual.

Everything else is solid tips tho.

[Lightbolt]

Originally posted by B.W.S:

Solid guide based on your experience, but I can't say I agree with the enemy selection. Anything that fires projectiles is a much bigger threat in this game to you lategame compared to enemies that reach your death blender faster only to die just as quickly. Especially because of their sheer numbers laterbon, and ESPECIALLY since having even one of them in the pool makes afk'ing with no consequence once the ridiculous xp bonus from overdrive starts snowballing straight up not possible without taking a hit.
Autoaim works great for hordes too, never had it screw me over and make me take a hit, especially for fast enemies that are hard to react to quickly enough in manual.

Everything else is solid tips tho.

Only one enemy that actively fire bullets poses a threat if you don't have a high fire rate angel wings. Normally this gives you enough space to maneuver, otherwise it can be a pain.

But you're right I should probably add a "tier list" of preferred enemies in the future to make route planning better.

[irisu]

i was wondering would the drill that removes ma health take flawless away ? like minus 15 max health but more blackhole or what not

[TransparentBlue]

I have some different opinions on how to do that one

Settign and other stuff

Overdrive 3, 5 is harder at the start and just devolves into a slideshow latter on with the build i'm going with.
XP to canisters should be off, parasight can't grab those, they can grab the regular XP just fine.
Auto upgrade on full build should be off, can't prioritize
Having low screen shake / hit flashes / weapon visibility is worth considering for clarity , low spec as well even on top end current hardware.

Loadout

Obviously need the full 30 points here, I'll mention a few "don't" inbetween.

RGB Genetics, kinda mandatory and generally helpful though an early rainbow enemy can certainly ruin your day
Magnetosphere, incidental but still useful
Leech Education, the central point of what makes the strategy I go with work
Solenoid Infusion, almost suerfluous to be honest but might help a little tiny bit in area 3 if you've not got athe build up yet
5th Generation Network, not super useful but useful enough early on
Shocking Results, makes early game easier
Expert, same aas above
Connect Call, not absolutely mandatory but very usefulin the first three areas
Pickup Line, convenience mostly
Experienced Handler, an absolute no, you do not want that here
Remnants Of What Was, Hitory statues are what you're gonna be wanting mostly, Discipline can be worth and Excution can help if you 're stuck with a bad enmy type (as in anything with projectiles)
Driller Enhancement, some very good ways to kickstart a run here,
Black Atomization, mandatory it's how you prevent getting overwhelmed
Fast Core, most useful of the 5upgrades that get you to the rest of that skill tree
Stack Overflow, i'm not even sure it actually helps any here but overheat is about as useless
Skull Crushing Distance, barely helps in the first area probably can be rplaced
Feeling Lucky, very useful sicne you're gonna be pummelling stuff at insane cooldown levels with absurd quantity of projectiles
Nitrous, probably helps
Rainbowsplosion, helps early but hurts a bit latter since the early part is worse I'd go with it anyways
Critsplosion, on hit AoE damage is also a very good thing to have in that build
Overkill, again if you're gonna be fring that much stuff it's bound to kill bosses faster so it's a yes
Dumb Luck, no, negative synergy with Rainbowsplosion, if you've already blown a rainbow with Rainbowsplosion nothing much is left on the field and spawns are slowed for a bit so you get more damage to fire at nothing (unless you get unlucky and kill a rainbow without trigerring hte chain explosion, which is not a thing beyond area 1)
Salt The Wound, you will have the Flamethrower so it would be foolish to not have that also unlock on hit status effect for everything perks
Battery Lick, main useful one, if you have spare points Poison Brew is the other one you want, followed by Blue Skin and Matchstick
Spaghettification, more survivability is good
Quantum Hole, not really useful, probably better to go with No Worries honestly
Scavenger, extra safety net
Marathon, incidental but helps early
Exponential Expedition, honestly not that useful, at the point where you actually start getting the efftcs it loses most utility since you're not gonna need to be moving, could replace with Gaiden but the second boss can be a bit hardeer without it sometimes
Bullet Time, very damn useful depending on how lucky you are with the build you'll spend most of area 2 and 3 using that
Confidence, purely for early gmae dodging and boss 2,
Reroll, maybe if you've got one point left, not mandatory or useful just reset the run if you don't get the right weapons early on

Upgrades

If you already have all the big ticket items you can just pick whatever to complete the build, the build is centered on 6 items, anythign else is just there for early game help

Core, meh not gonna be useful post area 2 but idecent enough early and good to speed up the process towards a full set of upgrades so you don't get the useless stuff as often
Chain Belt, good early on
Dagger Glove, not good enough in area 2
EYE2, nope, surprisngly terrible
Injection, absolutely but lower priority than other upgrades
Energizing Battery, second most important pasive
IV Bag, about as useful as extra health on a no hit run would be (that would be not useful at all btw)
Pleonexic Crown, replaced by parasight + the perk making it collect XP
Legsaw, by the time you get it to a level where it's useful it ain' useful anymore
Missile pack, mandatory
Parasight, literallyu the most important thing here for that to work, it's gonna be bad until you hit 15-20 stacks though
Yoyo Pack, not useful enough early on to be worth getting
Hunter's Bow, probably one of the better early choice for damage
Halo, even less useful than hte IV Bag
Horn, i'd avoid too risky
Hydroscillator, no
Flamethrower, yeah best early game thing you can get
Snow Globe, one of the lesser melee range option
Plasma Globe, not useful enough early on
Static Sattelite, the less of the big three for that build but still owrth it
Wicked Walkman, actually not bad at all once the swarm closes in on you strrts really helping worth getting 10-15 stacks early on
Soul Spear, meh
Defense Turret, meh and can get you hit on upgrades sicne it takes time to redeploy
Shinobi Equipement, not good enough early on
Strike Call, actually semi useful with 10i-15 stacks to get hte rest of the build up to speed
Angel Wings, could have been useful but isn't enoguh not a bad build filler though sicne it instantly hits from any range.
Demon Wings, nah
Digiwathc, if you can only pick one passive that's the one you pick
Overcharged Engine, you ain't gonna be moving for most of the run, you dojn't need movement speed
Volatile C4, one of the lesser of the on hit / on death upgrades, however pick that one, the other two have issues that are not gameplay related.
Fire Lighter, same as above
Frosty Cone, same as above but midly more useful
Electric Eel, if you manage to get 6-10 stacks of that boss two is a non issue the one on hit effect ypu really want over everything else.
Element Crystal, not anywhere near useful enoguh to be worth using
Shrapnel Shells, absurdly powerful latter on, however your framerate will tank so hard it's no worth using just for that
Telecom, seven more powerful but even worse framerate issues, we're talking seconds per frame territory on high end hardware
Slime Spikes, either that or Chain Belt, or both if you feel like it
Ultrabuster, not great not bad, slightly less useful than Core

|h2] Area Selection [/h2]
You almost always want modded areas over normal ones unless the enemy type is particularly bad
Small enemies is the worst one, low benefits with much higher risks
Parasited enemies is second worst but only really bad in area 1 / 2
Paradox areas are great latter on, they spawn insane ammounts of stuff leading you to get equally insane ammount of XP, starting with one is very very rough however, doable though and gets you a slightly better start, area 4/5 paradox are really really good though and can get you an extra 0-100 levels
Exploding ennemies is very good, safer than regular in area 2 /3, you do have to pop a blackhole earlier on if you get pressured too much though
Large enemies is the safest and there's no reason not to go there, especially if you get chain belt and large enemies is your first area

Any area including droid / Snipers is a nogo,
Early wibbler is kind of sketchy, as are Face and Cornchip (though less so)

Statues are mostly not very useful, except History, you want History over even modded areas especially early, it's basically extra levels with no extra difficulty, I'd almost advise doing it twice in the first area, not like you need blackholes for anything else there.

General tips

At first you're gonna have to agressively chase enemies / XP, more levels early = more firepower to kill more stuff to get more XP faster
Don't spec too hard in passive early, only lock them in, if you don't get a good selection always prioritize shot speed early on, then some shot size, then starting from area 3 hard into cooldown.
You want a good AoE early in area 1 (Flamethrower counts) and you want some death zone near you for late area 1 / area 2 (Flamethrower isn't enough here), you do still have to build up your Parasight (20-30 stacks for area 3) / Missile Pack (15-20 stacks for area 3) / Static Sattelite (20 ish stacks) however
Having 5-10 stacks of Electric Eel into boss 2 is great, you then jst have to move aay fom it in a straight lline and it'll get stunned enough that it can't catch you., same deal with boss 3 except you go diagonally.
Once into area 3 you absolutely want to focus on Parasight and Missile Pack and also passives, if you do not have agood choice stacking Flamethrower, Hunter's Arrow, Wicked Walkman is also good
Shot size over 250% and shot speed over 300% are good goals, after that focus on other things first; cooldown you can get as much as possible though, if you don't end up with 400%-700% you're doing it wrong.
Everytime Fish / Skull / Glove are introduced or upgraded it's a jump in difficulty, keep your bullet time engaged and finger on the blackhole button, if it gets too spicy pop one
Once into area 2 move as little as possible, use bullet time as much as possible
If you've done everything right the Parasight will shower you with XP and by area 3 the enemies will start not being able to get near you, then fail to even get onscreen as you accumulate levels
Boss 4 is the one sticking point that can get you even if you've done everything right, you can if lucky kill it prior to it even shooting at all, but i would not risk getting too close (or too far because it teleports on top of you guaranteeing a hit), pop a preemptive blackhole as soon as the bullets get remotely hard to dodge and check his life in hte mean time then act accordingly (I'd pop another blackhole immediately if you can't kill it while invulnerable.)
Do not immediately use grenades, keep near one to substitue a blackhole , and make extr asure you don't get curse, not early at least, late curse is just extra XP (though sometimes you get unlucky)
Unless you just used one, use a magnet as soon as possible once you spawn one.

Originally posted by hardcoregamer:

i was wondering would the drill that removes ma health take flawless away ? like minus 15 max health but more blackhole or what not

It doesn't.

[_Bayern]

Did I get it right that skill giving immortality after picking up health kit still removes flawless run?