Any pro tips for All Chars Run?

[Aged Swine]

Never would have thought I'd come this far back when I started, let alone so "fast"... but here I am: just 4 achievements left, and all of them require me to complete an All Chars Run.

To be honest, I'm pretty sure I am NOT yet ready to even try it. I haven't played non-story characters too much (just finished all zones mode once with each), and I am still unable to keep Bolt's rhythm for more than 5 seconds. So the obvious preparations would probably include practicing all of the characters I'm not yet comfortable with in deathless for a while...

Also, Bolt will probably always go first (because as it is right now, I am only able to win with her with tons of luck). The next ones should be Aria and Monk (not sure about the order, perhaps I'll even put Aria into 3rd place since I've played her A LOT, and Monk was a real pain). Bard, obviously, goes last.

Any other insights from the ones who did it? :) Should I keep in mind anything specific about the other characters that would make playing them "safer"?

Also, does anyone know if finishing "all chars run (including DLC)" gives both achievements (polyamorous & very polyamorous) if you don't have the first yet? I.e. does it make any sense to immediately go for the second to conserve time? :)

[Helly]

My personal tip: if you can leave your computer on overnight, do so. Don't attempt multiple runs in a day (with exception to some of the easier ones). Suddenly going from double speed and expecting to miss beats to an instant run fail on a missed beat really throws you. I've never been able to complete two of the harder characters in the same day, in all chars or all zones.

Make sure you're able to consistenly beat Aria/Bolt, those two are actually the tricky ones, whereas Monk is just a case of thinking correctly (and all too often luck). Make sure you're familliar with other characters too, especially Dove, follwed by Dorian and Eli. Cadence should be doable with one finger at this point, and Melody is the same but starts with an amazingly powerful weapon. Bard is a joke.

I'd personally suggest doing the characters in the order as they're stated above, though that's more so for you to decide on.

[Liy4b-Derg]

In my winning run, I had Monk as the first character. Clumsiness can easily destroy a good run xD

Then it's either Bolt or Aria for next,
Went for Melody as early as possible (coz in a past attempt, I played Melody as 7th character and died)
then Eli or Dove,
Dorian, Cadence, Bard

I suggest you also do a lot of Bolt All Zones Mode. Or at least keep playing in Zones 4 or 5 since they have the fastest zone songs. You may also wanna train with Death Metal (even until now I can't consistently fight him without missing a beat).

For strats, always kite enemies one by one when using characters/items that you're not comfortable with. Dove is kinda tricky to use, so always go for items that will keep you safe.

I think Polyamorous and Very are separated. As far as I can remember, someone in a very old forum said that. I don't have any reliable sources tho.

Good luck!

[Xan42]

Having literally just completed the all characters run with the DLC yesterday, my advice would be:

- Get the hardest characters out of the way first. Every one of my attempts started with Aria, but you should start with whoever you have the most trouble with.

- For bolt, try not to worry as much about missing the beats as just surviving. As a result, try to get your hands on a titanium weapon instead of obsidian. Items like the freeze spell or the pacemaker help a lot with Death Metal. I also found this to be pretty useful for playing as bolt (unless you consider it cheating of course ).
(If you have the DLC) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=897077073
(If you don't have the DLC) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=658924832

- Try and take the time to clear out the floor for gold if you can, not for a high score, but to buy any useful items at the shop. If your worried about running out of time with the song, just make sure the miniboss is beating before you go exploring as you'll only be punished if the song ends (or you fall down a trap door) and they're still alive (Unless you’re playing as Aria or Dove, who die when the song ends).
Obviously you won’t want to bother with this for Dove or Monk as they get one item for free from each shop. So for them, just try and find the shop and then get to the exit.

- As Hellpest stated, be prepared to take a break every now and then, even just a quick one to give your hand a rest and calm your nerves. I did all the characters in one day and according to the speedrun timer, it took me just over 5 hours to complete (and boy was my hand sore). However, if you don't have the DLC, it probably won’t take as long since you'll have less characters and one less zone to worry about.
I also don't know if getting “Very Polyamorous” will also get you “Polyamorous” as I got them separately.

- Be prepared for the occasional heartbreak. I had a number of runs end in failure after committing a couple of hours to them

- Otherwise, just get practice.

Hope this helps somewhat. Best of luck to you.

[Aged Swine]

Originally posted by Hellpest:

My personal tip: if you can leave your computer on overnight, do so. Don't attempt multiple runs in a day (with exception to some of the easier ones). Suddenly going from double speed and expecting to miss beats to an instant run fail on a missed beat really throws you. I've never been able to complete two of the harder characters in the same day, in all chars or all zones.

Well, this is another one of the reasons why I'm thinking about putting Aria 3rd - to put some "spacing" between her and Bolt. After all the time I've put into Aria while going for Flawless Victory, playing her without low% limits is almost relaxing. But sure, it's a bit hard to adjust after any other char (in most of my story mode runs I've lost my potion either on the first few steps, or a bit later in zone 5).

Originally posted by Hellpest:

Make sure you're able to consistenly beat Aria/Bolt, those two are actually the tricky ones, whereas Monk is just a case of thinking correctly (and all too often luck).

At least with Monk, you have all the time in the world to think... I remember my only successful Monk run. It was boring as hell, because most of the time, I was simply standing and waiting on the approaching monsters to shoot them one by one with my gold crossbow... :)

Originally posted by BS004:

Went for Melody as early as possible (coz in a past attempt, I played Melody as 7th character and died)

Well, Melody is pretty easy, she was my favorite "relaxation char" back when I still had occasional trouble with Cadence. ;) Of course, you can die with anyone, mistakes happen. But in all my recent Story Mode attempts, I think, it was only once that I died on anyone but Aria.

Originally posted by BS004:

I suggest you also do a lot of Bolt All Zones Mode. Or at least keep playing in Zones 4 or 5 since they have the fastest zone songs. You may also wanna train with Death Metal (even until now I can't consistently fight him without missing a beat).

With Bolt, I can't even consistently beat Zone 1. Guess I'll have to either practice for 100+ hours more, or just put her first and pray for luck as soon as I make sure I can play all the others...

Originally posted by Xan42:

I also found this to be pretty useful for playing as bolt (unless you consider it cheating of course :conwayshrug:).
(If you have the DLC) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=897077073

Oh, thanks for that! I don't think I will keep it active for the actual all chars run, but it'll definitely be of great help for practice... or for manual latency calibration. Automatic always gives me 0, but I'm still suspicious since all too often I miss beats without "feeling" my mistakes myself, like I feel them with any other chars. Or maybe it's just my brain...

Originally posted by Xan42:

- Be prepared for the occasional heartbreak. I had a number of runs end in failure after committing a couple of hours to them

Oh, heartbreaks are nothing new to me after hundreds of hours of Aria (normal + low%), Story Mode and Undeadly. :) I once failed Story Mode by dying on Golden Lute with just few strikes left. And just yesterday, I almost got Dorian killed on 10th final battle for Undeadly...

Thanks everyone! Practice it is, then...

[chaoticenigma]

As someone who did 13 chars before 9 chars, 13 chars does not give you the standard 9 char achievement or the Coda unlock(and likely not even lowest% if you were to do 13 char low%).

I've completed All Chars a total of 7 times. Three times on 13 chars, two times on PreDLC(1 for PS4 Polyamorous trophy, 1 on PC for Polyamorous and Lowest of the Low), and two times on 9 chars on the DLC.

[Helly]

Originally posted by chaoticenigma:

As someone who did 13 chars before 9 chars, 13 chars does not give you the standard 9 char achievement or the Coda unlock(and likely not even lowest% if you were to do 13 char low%).

Oof, that's painful.

[chaoticenigma]

Originally posted by Hellpest:

Originally posted by chaoticenigma:

As someone who did 13 chars before 9 chars, 13 chars does not give you the standard 9 char achievement or the Coda unlock(and likely not even lowest% if you were to do 13 char low%).

Oof, that's painful.

The upside to it is that the Necrodancer Discord's statsbot can track the clears seperately instead of it not knowing how many 9 char achievement unlocks were actually 13. But yeah, disappointment when I had cleared it but didn't get the standard one.

It's interesting, but Steam actually keeps track of how many times you unlocked each of those achievements.


Like I'm at 42 Green Bats, 106 Mary clears, 200 Bolt clears, 205 Dove clears, 158 Aria clears(43 of these being Low%), 96 Monk clears, 45 Daily clears. Only 13 Diamond clears though, I should play him more, he's fun.

Downside is that the Nocturna and Cadence Speed ones check the time when you complete them, so if you sub 15'd Cadence or Nocturna in All Chars(or likely Story in Cadence's case), it would not unlock the achievement or count as one since it also considers the previous runs against it(which is why I've only show as 3 Cadence sub 15's even though I've done it many more times than that)