How do you maximize the pints you're getting?

[Sloom]

Been playing this game a bit now and I absolutely love it. The only issue is when it comes to platformers like this, I'm a completionist and I've spent about 9 hours on the prologue trying to get S rank before moving on to the next level. I've gotten all of the other achievements, but even my best run only landed me around 6800/7500 pints. I've poked around on the internet and have failed to find a scoring system, but here's what I've found helps my pints up.

Obviously, never dropping a sigil, collecting all the pages, completing the level quickly, picking up all blood drops, and killing all enemies (particularly several within a short time frame) help. So I must be missing something within comboing.

I'm sure it's not (hopefully), but the system seems arbitrary to me. I always start the level by picking up the blood and killing the first 2 static enemies in the same fashion, yet sometimes I am rewarded with a slightly different pint count. Sometimes simply air-juggling and enemy will provide me with more pints than varying the attacks. Having them land on dangerous environmental hazards seems to add to the points, and killing several in a short period seem to add points as well, but I can't seem to figure out exactly how to dispose of them in a manner that gets me the highest combo. The combo is shown as AxB, B appears to be the number of hits, and A appears to be god knows what. Sometimes I'll hit them with 3-4 different attacks and only get a 2 for A, or sometimes I'll kill them with only 1-2 attacks and get a 3 or 4. Also, if A is meant to be the number of different types of attacks used (I think it is, but perhaps I don't know which attacks are considered different?), what attacks are worth putting into the combo? For instance kicking a walker into spikes on the ceiling seems to add +1 to A, but doing so also does significantly more damage than a normal attack, so you may be losing 2-3 to B.

Additionally how do you deal with bomb imps? It seems inefficient to throw them at other enemies, so how do you/can you increase their worth? Obviously comboing walkers correctly is going to get you quite a few points, but is there a way you'd recommend dealing with knife imps, wraiths, bomb imps, and squidy things that will in general increase their worth?

TLDR; How do I into pints?

[Turkusowy Sen]

In prologue, I had (if i remember)
-combo bonus
-immortal bonus
-no sigil bonus
-all enemies
-all pages

It is possible to get S even if you miss 1 or 2 of these. You just need VERY huge combo. It i easiest to do in part after making your first sigil There are many platforms with enemies on it, you need to kick them and do volleyball style x 4, 5th time you stab them mid air into the spikes and QUICKLY get to another one. Remember that when the monster in in mid air, combo status is frozen, it is worth to kick monsters to the pits to get some time. Bomb imps should not be kicked to other walkers cause you instakill them - no fun, no combo.

I think on this level you need something like x25 combo minimum i think

[micsh]

ok uhh let me explain this to you in a concise manner

while it is pivotal to maximise every possible combo, it is of utmost importance to remember that it is not merely the number that yields pints. it is also the WAY you manage to augment your combo. try to finish off an enemy by thrusting them onto the spikes. i know its rather obvious and cliche but killing someone without doing it is worth absolutely nothing.

try to extract the utmost from literally every part of the game. there are insane possibilites that you may not even think of but keep playing and youll discern them

for instance, my score on dream 3 chapter 3 is around 25 000 pints. the s rank margin is 5 000

[B.J. Black]

Let me be very blunt to begin, and say, "The Tutorial is your friend." To be more specific, paying attention during the tutorial teaches you a lot about how to increase your "A"s and "B"s.

Basic Stab: +0/+1
Kick to spikes: +1/+1 - Scoring a kill on spikes will also turn A red, doubling it (as both above posters stated, do this a lot); however, Shamblers that are already dead falling on spikes only yield +0/+1 (still with the red A).
Aerial Stab: +1/+1 for the first hit, +0/+1 for followups
Ideal Dash: +1/+1 (from a sufficient distance)
Air Juggle: +1/+1 - Note well that this does less damage than most +1/+1 attacks, allowing an extra hit, meaning a larger combo score.
Dive Attack: +0/+1 or +1/+1, depending on height.

You won't learn what sawblades do, but I know, at the least, they also turn A red. Also unaddressed is what happens when you get to a new opponent after killing one.

B starts at zero, for each new opponent, and it turns red (doubling) after you've collected enough blood for a Save Sigil; A also starts at zero, for each new combo, but each different enemy added to the combo also adds one to it (allowing even basic stabs alone to get an A of one).

So, the key is not merely long combos, but long combos that boost A as much as possible early on.

Let's give an example. In Dream Two, Chapter 1, you start at the bottom of a tall shaft with six Shamblers and one Bomb Imp you can all combo together (there's also the Bomb Imp and Floor Spiker at the bottom, but to the best of my knowledge, you literally cannot work them into a combo with the other six). These seven can yield upwards of 3000 pints! Here's the basic combo I used:

First Shambler, +1/+0: 4 Air Juggles +4/+4, 1 Aerial Stab +1/+1, landing on spikes +0/+1 (turns A red) = 12x6; 72 pints.
Second Shambler, +1/+0: 4 Air Juggles +4/+4, 1 Aerial Stab +1/+1, landing on spikes +0/+1 (turns A red) = 24(red)x6; 144 pints (216 total).
Third Shambler, +1/+0: 4 Air Juggles +4/+4, 1 Aerial Stab +1/+1, landing on spikes +0/+1 (turns A red) = 36(red)x6; 216 pints (432 total).
At this point, I get enough for a Save Sigil, doubling B from here on out.
Fourth Shambler, +1/+0: 4 Air Juggles +4/+4, 1 Aerial Stab +1/+1, landing on spikes +0/+1 (turns A red) = 48x12; 576 pints (1008 total).
Fifth Shambler, +1/+0: 4 Air Juggles +4/+4, 1 Aerial Stab +1/+1, landing on spikes +0/+1 (turns A red) = 60x12; 720 pints (1728 total).
Sixth Shambler, (+1/+0): 4 Air Juggles (+4/+4), 1 Aerial Stab (+1/+1).
No score yet on the sixth, as I jump to the next platform and kill the Bomb Imp before the Shambler hits the spikes all the way at the bottom.
Bomb Imp (+1/+2): Crouching Stab (+0/+1) (turns A red (must be a Bomb Imp thing)) = 72x6; 432 pints (2160 total).
(All Bomb Imps, Knife Imps, and Squidy Things give an extra +2 to their B.)
Sixth Shambler: landing on spikes (+0/+1) = 74(red)x12; 888 pints (3048 total).

Quick thought experiment before more on this: if you kill the last Shambler with nine Aerial Stabs instead, the pint total goes up to 3432. Ending combos with high-B attacks can do that if you get A high enough.

The difficulty is in getting all seven enemies to combo. Here's a little walkthrough.

Start the level, get through the gate, and kill the Floor Spike (if you combo that with the just-detonated Bomb Imp, you'll have a total of 10 pints here).
Wait until the first Shambler is hitting the left edge of his platform, jump over in front of him as he faces right, and hit him with a High Kick straight up.
(If you High Kick a Shambler while he's walking, he'll keep moving- slowly- in the air. Be careful to make sure he stays where you want him.)
Hit him with four Aerial Juggles. Now, you need to prepare to move up. Keep hitting him with High Kicks until the second Shambler turns rightward on his platform, then jump and Aerial Stab the first left, to the spike pit below.
Quickly use your double-jump to grab the wall, jump from there up to the second Shambler, and hit him with a High Kick as well. If you timed it right, he'll be about the middle of his platform so your kick doesn't knock him into the spike ceiling, and the combo gauge will still say "6x", indicating your combo is still running.
Run under him so you're on his right, turn and High Kick him again. Hit him with four Aerial Juggles. If the third Shambler is in a bad position, such that continuing the combo will kick him into the saw above him, wait while High Kicking your current victim again. Jump low, so you can hit him past the spike wall immediately available, and he falls all the way to the spikes at the bottom (for a moment of extra time).
Jump to the next platform and High Kick, run under, High Kick again, and do four Aerial Juggles (the usual). Now High Kick him until the time is right again.
This next part has fairly hard timing, as the fourth Shambler can't be comboed under the saw to the left or in the cave to the right- in addition, the saw blade currently to your left can intercept your Shambler, giving you less combo time to get up there. Ideally, your Aerial Stab will send him all the way to the spike pit at the bottom of the shaft (joining his two buddies) to give you the most time to move, and when you get to the next Shambler, you can High Kick him in the center of his platform, flying up between the saw and the wall.
Here we're back to the usual: run under (don't trap yourself in the cave), turn around and High Kick, four Aerial Juggles. Again the ideal is to Aerial Stab him so he lands in the same spike pit, but even if he hits a saw, you should have time to continue the combo, so don't worry about it. These last enemies don't need to be in any particular place, either, so the rest is easy. Aerial Stab.
Jump up to Number Five, High Kick (no need to run under anymore), four Aerial Juggles, and Aerial Stab him down to the usual spike pit.
Jump up to Number Six, High Kick, four Aerial Juggles, and Aerial Stab him down to the spikes.
Now jump to the Bomb Imp and kill him with a Crouching Stab before Shambler Six meets his final resting place, and you're done. You've only killed nine enemies, and you're over 60% of the way to your S Rank! Don't forget to fall back down and collect that page if you want it.

Which is one hell of a wall of text, for something that takes, what, thirty seconds? And that is the big difficulty in getting high scores. It's all about getting to the next enemy before the combo meter runs out, which involves planning, practice, and timing. Your question is specifically about the Prologue, but there's a video on YouTube more than tripling the S Rank requirements. Watch that for a good plan from which to start.
(Needless to say, THAT would make a wall of text I don't even want to touch.)

[Sloom]

Thanks for the longwinded explanation B.J. it is much appreciated. I had it worked out that it was probably something like that, but "A" was somewhat confusing to me because it felt inconsistant due to little issues. IE. The different award for spikes killing a shambler and the points for a dead shambler falling on spikes, the dash giving different bonuses depending on the distance, etc.

I managed to get prologue and dream 1 chapter 1 S-classed on my own. Copying someone elses run doesn't seem like much fun to me, but at least with your information I'm not going crazy about the inconsistancies in my runs becuase I have a grasp of whats going on under the hood.

Thanks again!