Richter Mode Tips?

[Eighteen-Counts Trevor]

Death and Dracula are kicking my ass. I'm level 27 and my main strategy has been trying to dodge their attacks when I can, hitting death with the axe, and hoping they don't put me in a situation where it feels like it's literally impossible to dodge. I don't want to grind but I could go through the Nest of Evil if I need to.

[Kain Highwind]

Maria is much much much better than Richter for all bosses except the final phase of the final boss. If you are good with Street Fighter type inputs, it might be a good idea to practice chaining Maria's Guardian Knuckles attack. The way to use it is to perform a three-quarter circle starting from the top and ending at either direction, then pressing attack. Guardian Knuckles has several interesting properties: it is holy elemental, so it deals extra damage to Death; it provides you with temporary invincibility; it heals you up; and it hits twice per cast.

As for other tips, make use of Maria's dragon subweapon. It clears small fireballs (not the big dark ones). Having Maria out on the field increases MP regeneration rate so you should not worry much about running out. Richter has more mobility, but this also works against him. It's a good idea to bait out Death's dive by running under him the moment you hear Dracula cast his fireballs - run under him, then back out.

[Eighteen-Counts Trevor]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Kain Highwind:

Maria is much much much better than Richter for all bosses except the final phase of the final boss. If you are good with Street Fighter type inputs, it might be a good idea to practice chaining Maria's Guardian Knuckles attack. The way to use it is to perform a three-quarter circle starting from the top and ending at either direction, then pressing attack. Guardian Knuckles has several interesting properties: it is holy elemental, so it deals extra damage to Death; it provides you with temporary invincibility; it heals you up; and it hits twice per cast.

As for other tips, make use of Maria's dragon subweapon. It clears small fireballs (not the big dark ones). Having Maria out on the field increases MP regeneration rate so you should not worry much about running out. Richter has more mobility, but this also works against him. It's a good idea to bait out Death's dive by running under him the moment you hear Dracula cast his fireballs - run under him, then back out.

I'll make a note of the invincibility frames specifically. The biggest pain has to be the lack of those, which leads me to getting hit twice at once and then dying because I only have around 300 health.

[BippoErnesti]

You probably already know this, but Death only has 4444 HP while Dracula has 6666.

I know this is a bit of a long read, but I'm hoping you'll find the moves that are giving you the most trouble and possibly getting some help on countering them.

I spent long enough to learn the attacks during my run, so I'll lay out the patterns in case it'll help. All of this is going on the assumption that you're playing as Richter, since I mostly used him for the fight personally. It's also worth noting that when you enter phase 2, the chandeliers/candles come back, so make sure to break those in phase 1 if you need the hearts for extra MP.

Phase 1 - Death & Dracula

At the start of the battle and between each joint attack, Dracula and Death will follow a basic pattern.
Death will charge down at you from above; you can occasionally sneak a hit in as he's coming down. If you linger too long in the upper half of the room (uppercut spam, etc.), Death will swoop in and take a side swing to knock you down. He also has a rare attack where he splits into multiple copies and slashes downward, which can be dodged by standing between the copies. Maintaining positioning is tricky while dodging Dracula's fire, but try to keep Death in front of Dracula at all times so it's easier to bait out Death's attack before you have to start jumping.
Dracula will start with his smaller Hellfire attack, firing three sets of 3, 5, and 3 small, destructible fireballs before teleporting to a new location. After that, he will fire four indestructible Dark Inferno fireballs, low, high, low, high. He repeats Hellfire and Dark Inferno one more time before moving on to the next joint attack in the sequence.

First Joint Attack - Bat Swarm*

Dracula transforms into a swarm of bats and charges in the direction he is facing. The easiest way to dodge it is by spamming Richter's uppercut with Up+L (L1 or LB).
If you're feeling brave, you can get in good extra hits on Death by getting close to Dracula and activating Richter's Grand Cross right as Dracula's about to transform into the bat swarm (when he starts fading to black). The timing is tight, but if you pull it off, it'll deal heavy damage and leave you unscathed, though be wary of Death charging down on you right after. Miss the timing and you'll die instantly from the bats, or at least take heavy damage.

Second Joint Attack - Sickle Inferno*

Death summons a wave of sickles that slowly fly toward Dracula as he sweeps his cape at them, transforming them into dark inferno fireballs that fly back out and fill the room. The best way to avoid damage here is to destroy as many sickles as possible with the whip, utilizing the whip brandish technique (hold Attack and tap directions) to wipe out as many sickles as possible; it should only leave at most a few that fly upward when done correctly. Before brandishing the whip, try to stand as far away from Dracula as possible, as his cape will hit you if you're too close.
If you have the MP and proper timing, you can once again use Grand Cross (around when the sickles start moving) to deal heavy damage to both Drac and Death, while destroying the sickles and having the cape phase through you in the process. Remember to dodge away from under Death right after you regain control.

Third Joint Attack - Final Explosion*

Dracula teleports to one side of the throne room, Death moves to the middle and becomes a giant scythe which Dracula takes and strikes the middle of the room with, creating a massive explosion. Avoid it by running to the end of the room opposite Dracula. If you somehow get stuck behind Dracula as he's about to swing the scythe, you can avoid the explosion by spamming uppercuts into the ceiling corner behind him, but make sure to drop down the moment the explosion starts waning, as he'll toss the scythe up there afterward.
If you've been focusing on damaging Dracula instead of Death, you can get some more hits in with yet another Grand Cross right as he brings the scythe down for the explosion, otherwise just avoiding it is the best option. After this attack, the next joint attack loops back around to the bat swarm.

Phase 2 - True Dracula

After he absorbs Death, his attack pattern becomes less linear and harder to predict, but his moves can still be partially influenced by your actions. Not all of this is set in stone though, so you'll have to improvise more from here, even with foreknowledge. Remember that pressing Down+L (L1 or LB) while jumping triggers Richter's backflip, which has a very brief window of invulnerability at the start. It can be a lifesaver.

Basic attacks

Ground Smash* - Usually (not always), if you are a sufficient distance away, Dracula leaps toward you and smashes his claw into the floor before slowly flying back up. The best way to avoid getting hit is to keep your distance and gradually inch away from him during each jumping strike you perform. After he flies up, there's a brief moment for you to quickly slide or slide jump (Down+Jump, then quickly Jump again before the slide ends) under him to avoid getting cornered.
Flying Knee* - Usually, if you're somewhat close to Dracula, he'll cross his cross his arms, fly low and do a horizontal charge attack. You can usually duck/slide under this, but it's a very quick move and simply ducking under it doesn't always protect you, so you should always try to keep yourself as far away from him as your whip range allows to trigger his smash attack instead. With proper timing, you can backflip toward him to phase through the attack, but it's not really worth trying outside of flexing.

Inferno Rain*

Dracula starts slowly flying toward you while fire rains down from his wings. Ideally, you'll want to run under a fireball between each volley so he doesn't reach you.

Scythe Toss*

Dracula summons and throws three large scythes one after another, each with their own predetermined trajectory. The first one flies mostly horizontal with only a slight curve (jump/uppercut over this one), the second one starts curving up much sooner (back up or duck under, spam uppercuts if he's got you up against the wall), the third one starts curving immediately, you should never try to jump the third one.

Imprisonment*

Dracula flies into the background as his wings stretch to the sides, creating gigantic claws that close in on the center of the room. When they start vibrating, they're close to slamming shut on you, which will deal massive damage and usually instantly kill you. Call your partner to attack one side while you attack the other to repel the claws until Dracula returns. To maximize your damage against the claws as Richter, aim at the gaps between the claws for double hits, doing small jumps when attacking the right side, and attacking during the peak of your jumps when attacking the left side. I believe this move only starts happening after you've dealt a set amount of damage to him, though I may be mistaken.

*Not official names, was too lazy to look up if they have them somewhere

Hopefully some of this will end up being useful. Good luck!