So, question about S ranks...

[LittleFieryOne]

So I'm on a mission to S rank every boss. Not easy, especially since I've spent the last two days trying to beat Wally Warble. The problem was the time. It was extremely tight to finish the fight in two minutes. I pulled it off a couple of times, but not without losing health. However, literally less than five minutes ago, I manage to pull through without getting hit. I start praying that I was fast enough... only for the clock to say 2:06. I groan, and get ready for another shot, when I look again and see that I ended up with an S rank anyway and to be sure, I checked the little flag outside the boss arena, and sure enough, it now had a big fat golden S.

I don't know if I should be pissed off or relieved, but I always thought that I had to beat a boss in less than two minutes for it to count towards the S rank. That's when the timer turns gold on the scoreboard, after all. But was I mistaken? Or is this a glitch?

[coolDisguise]

The timer requirement is dependant on the specific boss fight, afaik. It would be kind of unfair to get only 2 minutes on bosses with high health per phase and long phase transition animations where you couldn't hit them as much. Anyway, congrats.

[Super James Nelson]

I'm trying to S rank every boss too. All I can say is "good luck" you're going to need it.

[LittleFieryOne]

Originally posted by coolDisguise:

The timer requirement is dependant on the specific boss fight, afaik. It would be kind of unfair to get only 2 minutes on bosses with high health per phase and long phase transition animations where you couldn't hit them as much. Anyway, congrats.

Oh. Thank. CHRIST. I thought for sure I'd have to go through that hell again. I mean how many eggs can one ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bird keep in his stomach. And God knows how many times that little ♥♥♥♥ of his cornered me.

[Nervatel]

When the score gets added up, time has the biggest wiggle room, up to ~10 seconds past the 2 min golden time.

[brainiac2482]

Getting an S rating for Hilda Berg is going to be the bane of my existence.

[LOL21h]

Originally posted by LittleRainyOne:

Originally posted by coolDisguise:

The timer requirement is dependant on the specific boss fight, afaik. It would be kind of unfair to get only 2 minutes on bosses with high health per phase and long phase transition animations where you couldn't hit them as much. Anyway, congrats.

Oh. Thank. CHRIST. I thought for sure I'd have to go through that hell again. I mean how many eggs can one ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bird keep in his stomach. And God knows how many times that little ♥♥♥♥ of his cornered me.

Wait until you see Djimmi and Kahl's Robot, personally, the hardest bosses to S rank. Not because the extremely tight time, but these bosses are insane on expert.

[LittleFieryOne]

Originally posted by #DeathToCreativeNames:

Originally posted by LittleRainyOne:

Oh. Thank. CHRIST. I thought for sure I'd have to go through that hell again. I mean how many eggs can one ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bird keep in his stomach. And God knows how many times that little ♥♥♥♥ of his cornered me.

Wait until you see Djimmi and Kahl's Robot, personally, the hardest bosses to S rank. Not because the extremely tight time, but these bosses are insane on expert.

Oh, I tried Djimmi earlier. Never even made it through with full health once. And I'm not looking forward to the damn robot.

[TheRuffLife]

Just finished out S ranking all bosses. Good luck to those trying! The flying levels are by far the hardest. The devil was not far off. It seems hard to believe, but once you figure out the patterns it does become possible, even repeatable to S rank them. But it takes some real grinding to get there.

And no - I'm not some savant... I've died more than a thousand times. : )

As for the issue with the time on levels - the time limit is the what makes an S rank so hard. If you could just dance and be defensive all day you'd eventually chip a boss down without getting hit. Much of the difficulty comes from having to attack full throttle while finding the parries you need. You have to live in harms way to get the job done quickly enough.

I may try to put together a guide of what worked for me. For now - hit me with any questions or bosses you are working on. I'd be glad to give you any tips I can.

Nothing better than nailing an S run on after working for it! Good luck!

[LittleFieryOne]

Originally posted by The Most Interesting Family:

Just finished out S ranking all bosses. Good luck to those trying! The flying levels are by far the hardest. The devil was not far off. It seems hard to believe, but once you figure out the patterns it does become possible, even repeatable to S rank them. But it takes some real grinding to get there.

And no - I'm not some savant... I've died more than a thousand times. : )

As for the issue with the time on levels - the time limit is the what makes an S rank so hard. If you could just dance and be defensive all day you'd eventually chip a boss down without getting hit. Much of the difficulty comes from having to attack full throttle while finding the parries you need. You have to live in harms way to get the job done quickly enough.

I may try to put together a guide of what worked for me. For now - hit me with any questions or bosses you are working on. I'd be glad to give you any tips I can.

Nothing better than nailing an S run on after working for it! Good luck!

Thanks for the luck, but I finished S ranking them a while ago. Was pretty surprised to see that wasn't the requirement for the last hidden achievement, but oh well.

Actually, after Wally Warbler, they almost fell like dominos. Don't get me wrong, they were all very difficult, but Wally's the only one that took two 6 hour sessions to beat. I think I broke some kind of skill ceiling. Or maybe I'm just really really really lucky. But anyway, good luck to you too. I trust you'll break that ceiling as well. :)

[TheRuffLife]

I've got it too - Congrats and internet high five! : )

And a 6 hour session doesn't sound crazy. It makes me feel like I wasn't the only crazy one. LOL! My biggest hurdle was the dragon. I didn't buy the lobber before I fought him. Added it and suddenly he was nowhere near as hard.

I took the time to A+ rank every boss up to Inkwell Isle 3 before deciding just to settle for A's until beating the game. Probably took me a lot longer overall because of that. A+ ranked a few run'n'guns too before deciding the heck with that. The pacificist runs can be tricky, but are really not so bad.

Thanks for replying - good to enjoy the hard work with someone else!