Zone 4 Tips required

[PlaguePaladin]

As a fan of this game, I love it and want to beat it. however, zone four is hard as trying to chug four pounds of solid lead. I tried the tips of "Do not dig into other rooms" but I suck at combat and can't stop activating the sentries. I need help, tips or such would be appreciated.

[Wheaty]

General tips

• Take on enemies one at a time. Try to lead them back a bit before engaging them.
  
• All Zones mode is a LOT easier than single-zone mode. chances are, by the time you can clear Zone 4 from scratch, you're already ready to conquer All Zones mode.
  
• If you're having trouble learning enemy patterns, the beastmaster (who can be rescued in the first two zones) can provide 1-on-1 training. For more training on crowd control, it's recommended to play as Bard or Nocturna for an easier experience.
  
• Ooze is a run-killer, whether for casual players, speedrunners, CoNDOR racers, and even the occasional BulletNick. So avoid it like the plague or load up on hearts, armor, and protective boots!

Enemy tips

• In general, from the highest priority to lowest, take out: Goblin sentries, spiders, monkeys, harpies, liches, goblin bombers, ooze golems, blademasters, orange armadillos, and warlocks. If you're lucky, black bats, the miniboss, and the sarcophagus will stay out of trouble until you approach them (by then, they should be by themselves). No enemy is deadly on its own, but a swarm of two blademasters and a warlock has ended many a Bolt run.
  
• Some enemies do more damage than others. The apprentice blademaster barely ekes out half a heart, but the base warlock can knock out one and a half with one hit! If you have to get hit, take a blademaster over anything else.
  
• The Black Bat and monkeys move every beat, so if you're an odd number of spaces away from them, you'll never hit them - but they can hit you! To reverse your parity (as NecroDancer players call it), you have to buffer a beat: either dig a wall, attack a different enemy, use the war drum or an item, or prepare to throw your weapon.
  
• Harpies deal 1.5 hearts of damage per hit and move quite far. Thankfully, they only move once every two beats, so it's easy to attack, jump back, and repeat to deal with a flood of them. In addition, their ability to pursue means they should be one of the first enemies you take out first - no use taking damage because of an unlucky confusion spell or teleport!
  
• Spiders move orthogonally once every two beats when on a wall and diagonally once every beat when on the floor. There's multiple ways to take care of them, bombs and phasing dagger being the easiest. Otherwise, moving laterally when they're on a wall forces them to move as well, allowing you to quickly walk up and dig them out.
  
• Liches are Aria's biggest nightmare. For Cadence, that confusion can send you bumbling into a harpy or an ooze golem, almost guaranteeing heavy damage if not an outright death. NEVER position yourself two squares away from them! One of the best ways to take them down is to walk up, sidestep, land a hit, and sidestep again. Otherwise, if you have range or diagonal attack, you can take them out from relative safety.
  
• Blademasters are Bolt's biggest nightmare. Unless you have piercing or spells, the only way to kill a blademaster is to trick them into lunging. So, attack one from point-blank range to send them backward. Then, retreat from their lunge. Finally, hit them while they're in this vulnerable state to dish out one heart of damage.
  
• Warlocks are Monk's second-biggest nightmare (first being Deep Blues, of course). They're relatively harmless by themselves (aside from their disproportionately strong attacks); range and/or reflexes can dispatch them easily. However, be wary of where the warlock's teleportation will send you. One bad teleportation will bring you in range of a golem ready to whack you for five hearts of damage!
  
• Ooze Golems are hellish for anyone without boots. Pre-Amplified, taking them out requires a four-beat dance to take out one of its monstrous five hearts, wasting as many beats as a red dragon. Post-Amplified, though, one dagger swipe followed by one retreat and four more attacks will easily take it out.
  
• Orange Armadillos can target you orthogonally or diagonally. Be careful, and try not to aggro them too early!
  
• Goblin Bombers deal a nasty two hearts if they hit you, but attacking them from a distance lets you lop four hearts off any enemies within range of its blast. Great for crowd control!
  
• Pixies are an interesting balance between deadly and useful. If they "attack" you, you regain one heart of health. These "pixie kisses" are lifesavers in both single zones mode and low% runs! If you have range, attacking a pixie from a distance will also dish out four hearts of damage to faraway enemies. Think of them as slightly less annoying Goblin Bombers that move every beat.
  
• Sarcophagi can only spawn one skeleton at a time. For most skeletons, bring them down to either base form (hit the knight once to bring it down to armored, then break the shield) or headless form to render them mostly harmless. Then, take out the sarcophagus to neutralize the threat and earn yourself a hefty sum of money.
  
• The Ogre is easy to fight - if there's no enemies nearby. It'll only attack once every four beats, so if you can't walk away because you keep swiping at a blademaster or something, be prepared for a world of hurt. Conversely, the Ogre can kill other enemies for you.
  
• The Mommy is one of the most complex minibosses in the game. Taking out the Mommy is a deadly dance of sneaking in hits, taking out the Mummy, and dodging the Mommy's own attacks. There's a Mommy Dance that can clock hits in when attacking from the side - you should look it up on CotND's wiki!
  
• And above all else, remember that you don't need to kill everything! Most players just zoom past Zone 4 without opening half the rooms because it's too difficult. I'll admit to ending more than a couple of my Bard/Bolt runs here because of the sheer difficulty!