An absolutely safe guide to beating Arcade Mode, Catalyst 0

[Wisp]

This is meant for people who cannot get to the end any other way.

Builds: Choosing your build. If you're using this, you want something that does not require you put yourself in a risky position. If you're 1H, you want something like Spirit Slash. 2H, Whirlslash or Weapon Toss. Magic, Fireball or Ice Spikes or Insect Swarm or Chain Lightning. Ideally you want a skill that does single target DPS damage to use again bosses for quicker defeats.

Starting Out: Before the run. You want to unlock both Pins and Loods before making any serious attempt. Pins will appear if you can get to Floor 3 on your next run, I believe. Loods are a point based unlock from Papa Guard, after you have achieved enough of a high score. For your talents you ideally want 5% chance for pins to spawn, more loods, or a pin that starts you off with a better weapon. You will also need at least 100% score to beat Arcade Mode on any catalyst.

Talents: Most of the talents you believe will help you are bait. +HP%, for example, is a waste of points. +Crit Chance, Manaburn, Combo Starter, Intelligence, Strength, Attack Speed, +Max EP, +EP Regen, Lady Luck and so on are your ideal option.

Potions: Damage potion. If you have another slot, Crit Chance.

Treats/Curses: If you have these, No Elites will make your life considerably easier. You'll need a curse to counterbalance it and stay above 100%, though. Big Brothers isn't too terrible.

Habits: If the next room on your minimap is red? Pre-chug your Damage (and Crit, if you have it) potion before going in. Same deal goes for the boss room. Potion buffs persist between rooms. At the very start of every room use your Barrier no matter what. It should be a force of habit more than anything. If you're using Frosty Friend at Silver Charge, your second action should be to put him into Rage Mode. The vast majority of Frosty's damage is in Rage Mode. If you're not activating it you're going to be suffering through much longer fights.

Floor 1: Use your bow to blast through most of the starting rooms, until you can get your first skillpoint. Put it into your primary attack skill. Level 2 puts a point into Frosty Friend, no matter your build. He is there to draw some aggression off of you. Level 3 puts a point into Barrier. Hold shield the bees, don't try to perfect guard them.

Boss, Vilya - Just walk around, wait for her to charge and dizzy herself.

Boss, Flower - Your first instinct is probably to run around in circles. Don't. Hold your shield up, let it pop up against your shield. You can then run away and attack at a distance or shield the swipes. You can also scoot left beneath it when it's facing right and vice versa to keep it preoccupied turning around to face you.

Boss, Beehives - Smash the beehives as a priority. This is just a regular room after that.

Floor 2: Get Frosty to Silver Charge and start Raging him. Max your primary attack skill past that point. Getting Barrier to level 3 becomes a priority whenever you have the points for it. On this floor your main priority is smashing beehives, saving boars for last. Run away from the boars long enough and they'll charge, stunning themselves. This is when you attack. Arrow spam them down, if you need to.

Boss, Zoo - This is essentially a normal battle room. Just avoid the White Rabby when it's raging, you can't stun it with damage.

Boss, Vilya and Friends - Same as normal Vilya. Only attack her when she's stunned. The mooks are jokes.

Boss, Gigaslime - You should be familiar with this guy from Story Mode. Don't stand directly above or below him to better avoid the hammer, but if you can't avoid the hammer let it break your shield. If the boss spins put up your shield and walk backwards.

Floor 3: The real challenge starts up. If a room has ghosts you'll hear a giggle, be on guard. Try not to be perfectly horizontal or vital to pumpkin wizards to avoid their fireballs. You can consistently kill them or jumpkins with arrows from afar. Shield the flowers the same as you did the flower boss on floor 1. Shield the ghosts to make them stop long enough to hit them.

Boss, Flower - Never run from this boss. Treat it like you would any other flower, wiggling back and forth beneath it to keep it busy or taking swipes on your shield. If you try to run it will burrow you and you will have less time to flee. If it does burrow towards you, shield up and walk backwards - this boss tries to dig behind you for a backstab. Clear out nearby roots if you need to, a 2H staff will do this easiest.

Boss, Jumpking - He'll continuously spawn jumpkins to bother you, deal with them and then focus on him. He is essentially a fancy Scarecrow enemy. If he summons bats just move back and wait for him to stop.

Floor 4: Comparatively easier. Your biggest threat is Elite Brawler Bots. Take them down with your Frosty Friend, Arrows or any other safe ranged skill. Peckos have a window of opportunity after three pecks. This floor has a unique transition point in the boss arena, look for a ledge at the bottom corners.

Boss, Sentry - Burst it down as fast as you can. Shield green orbs that get fired at you. Let your Frosty Friend's rage keep Brawler Bots preoccupied. Only bother with the crystals if one shields the boss.

Boss, Phaseman - It's going to lob a green ball at you. Hold shield to negate it, or try to perfect guard it to stun the boss if you're feeling cheeky. When it teleports left, stand above or below it to burst it down. If it teleports right hang left and wait for it to teleport to the middle to hit it. If it goes into its super attack go down and shield up. Repeat until dead.

Boss, Gundam - Go back and forth slapping hands. Teleport up, burst the head as much as you can, hop back down before it shocks you on its shoulders before it shocks you. It'll go haywire at 50%. Knock out the hands ASAP to skip this phase, if you can't hide in one of the corners with your shield up, carefully walking between the bullets. Treat the end of battle barrage the same way. You can pause and put on all your defensive gear during the final barrage.

Floor 5: Your biggest threats here are blizzards and elite snowball chuckers. Be mindful to avoid the blizzards when you see their indicator. Shield the snowball barrage. If you can perfect guard them it'll one hit kill him. Yetis are slow, chunky and non-threatening, they'll be the last things you kill each room.

Boss, Marino - Try to keep above or below him at an angle to prevent his combo stab or dash. If he goes into his 4-dash attack just continuously run up or down to avoid it.

Boss, Toy Machine - This is a puzzle fight. Ignore the boss, kill the mobs. After enough waves a train will spawn. Feed the train to the machine, repeat.

Boss, Smash and Bash - Whoever you don't kill here will become a superboss, so be mindful of that. The gremlin will be the biggest threat if you don't kill him ASAP. Circle strafe the room if he goes into rapid spam mode, or try to perfect guard kill him with his own snowballs if you think you can. When Smash goes elite wait for it to hop twice and then deal some damage. Then go slightly above or below its current horizontal position away from it to avoid the shockwaves. You can hit it again then, repeat. If you can perfect guard the shockwaves you'll deal major damage to it, but it's incredibly risky.

Floor 6: This floor is free. Nothing here is even remotely a danger. The enemies all flinch upon taking damage and if you notice there's too many of one element in elite mode just hit an orb to remove their powerup. If you see a hydra in a room -immediately- switch to any element other than its element. Shield spinning autumn knights to push them back, don't stay in a cardinal direction to empowered winter knights, avoid being within five feet of summer knights and you're good to go.

Boss, Hydras - Cling to the edge of the map at the start let the fire trail after you there. Avoid the hydra headbutts, let them break your shield or - if you think you can - perfect guard the headbutts to stun them. Wait until an autumn orb comes online, switch to that, then shield the spores while moving fighting the heads until they're all dead.

Boss, Fae - Easy, unless you let the green thorns spread out. Kill them ASAP and not much else can hurt you.

Boss, Winter - A battle of patience. Wait for him to linger in a spot you can burst him down at. If he goes into his super attack of ice spikes, hold shield and walk carefully to try and avoid their pattern and later the snowball fists tossed towards you. If you're not good at the ice maze either put a point in Blink to navigate safely through it or just stay put. Damaging the boss isn't worth shredding your HP. Holding shield should let you navigate the gaps more easily, though.

Floor 7: The floor of hazards. Blinding, acid and fire, with poison thrown around all the while screen saver enemies bounce off the walls. Spinsects are your #1 kill target, ideally before they start spinning. If you can perfect guard them they'll immediately stop spinning. Avoid the acid enemies until everything else is dead. The mushrooms are easy to stunlock, just avoid the spores and flames. The poison plants you don't have to kill ASAP, just do a little damage to keep them shrinking so they can't spew poison.

Boss, Power Flower - Kill the spinsects ASAP. Poison spewers will also overwhelm you if not killed fast. Don't worry too much about damaging the flower when it's at its smallest state, it has less defense the bigger it is. When it goes into the hyper beam attack either walk in a circle with shield up or go hide in the little nook in the bottom left with your shield facing outward to bypass all damage.

Boss, Queen Bee - Frosty will handle most of the floor mobs in here. A charged Cloud summon will handle most of the bees. Ideally you want to put your back to the wall and wait to be swiped at, hurting the queen whenever you can. Take note that a Cloud can tremendously delay the queen swiping at you.

Boss, Vilya and Friends Again - Ignore the mooks, she'll just shout them back to life. You want to hurt her when she's dizzied, as usual. She'll shout commands to the mooks to throw their swords, hinting the pattern they'll use. Only thing to watch out for is the shuffle smokebomb attack. Pay attention to where the mooks are at and using process of elimination position yourself where she can't possibly hit you with her larger attack if she appears there.

[Wisp]

Floor 8: If elites can spawn, Elite Shadow is your nightmare. Be prepared to flip around back and forth defending that. If you can't possibly kill this thing first then kill it last, after you destroy everything else. All other enemies are much more easily managed. The plant is the biggest nuisance to kill quickly.

Boss, Priestess - Blinking past some of her attacks will help you immensely in the long run, but always remember it's better to take a shield break than to take damage. Frosty will wail on her barrier during her special attacks and knock her out of it quicker. There's not much more to do than to memorize all her patterns and learn how to walk to avoid them.

Boss, Worms - Easiest of the floor. Handle them how you would the normal worms until they start burrowing, then try to always be moving to avoid their spikes popping up under you. Focus fire down one worm if you can.

Boss, Mimic - Hit the first phase until you can cause it to enrage, then run away. If it stats bouncing around mad, go to a corner with your shield up and wait for it to transition. You can idle until your Barrier recharges during this time. In the second phase treat the spiked coins it spews out as any other shockwave attack, try and stand somewhere slightly off the cardinal directions. After it hops three times it's safe to wail on. When it hops into the upper left corner go into purely defensively mode, switch on every bit of defensive gear you have. Shield up and weave around, try to dodge. Damage gear back on during phase three, where you can idle until your Barrier is back again Do not attack to DPS rush this boss down, you will suffer tremendous enemy spam. Clear the mobs that get puked out, then damage it carefully until the next volley gets puked out. You've fought all these monsters before, easy.

Floor 9: Solems are the big threat here. You can take their laser on your shield or try to reflect it back by watching the flash of their eye. If you've chosen to go for Gold Charge Frosty Friend he can kill flying crows with his smash attack, and most of the enemies in the room for that matter. Cacti enemies projectiles are just slower, reskinned shockwaves, avoid them the same way. Kill Solems last for ease of room clearing, and pop any eggs you see laid.

Boss, Solgem - Only a few dangerous attacks here. It will dig towards you a few times, walk around while you wait for it to stop and then attack it. If it goes to a corner it's going to unleash shockwaves, so move to the opposing wall. Shield up and move up and down into the gaps, or Blink past the waves if you like. If it goes to the top of the screen it's going to pound down rocks and do a sweeping laser strike. Hide below each rock to avoid being lasered.

Boss, Troll - This is basically a slightly faster yeti with some bells and whistles, treat it as such. If you see a strength potion shield up and position yourself where the glowing dots on the floor aren't. If you see a speed potion try and shield or run. It'll summon some monsters but they're no threat.

Boss, Marino and Friends - Largely the same fight as earlier, with some extra tricks. Kill the shadows as they pop up to avoid getting surprised. If you see him calling you a loser avoid attacking him, he's using Provoke to try and do a counterattack on you. You can perfect guard this to send him to the ground, which stuns him for a while, but it's a risk move. If he does a wall of shadows you can take a shield break to negate it or try to move along the lines.

Floor 10: You basically want to be in ghost mode the entire time, unless a row of pink skulls are coming down. Transition out to avoid being hit by them. Mages are your biggest threat, kill them ASAP to avoid them empowering and healing their allies. Warriors are fairly bland enemies with less of a threat than the echoes you fought in Tai Ming. Their elites don't even get a special gimmick. The ghosts are even easier than their pumpkin woods reskins, just avoid the goo. If you have experience with boars, you know how to handle the crabs. Their charge is even easier to perfect guard than the boars is.

Boss, Eye - Lots of puzzle elements here. Laser show is all about holding shield and moving into the gaps created. Spare some time to hit the blue eyes so you can see or you'll be killed by things you can't see. If it's doing the colors/shapes immediately pause to identify what colors are present. Look for the color that isn't there, stand where the missing color intersects from the eyes on the walls. You can try to navigate the fire maze or Blink through it, but I prefer to move up into the corner with my shield up and let the laser break my shield. It can't drag you if you're pressed up into the corner. If it spawns a bunch of small eyes, this is an easy damage phase for you. Just take care to smack the small eyes away if there are any near you to avoid damage. Once it pops out of the wall just shield up by the bottom wall, wait for it to stop and then burst it down. If it gets to put on a laser show it'll be invincible, so shield up by the walls and wait.

Boss, Captain - Treat this guy as a funky Echo of Madness. He'll mainly swipe at you, so shield that or move out of the way. Get out of spirit sight whenever he summons walls of skulls, go where the pink ones were. Or you can Blink twice. About halfway through he'll throw a bunch of rubbish at you, shield up and walk around to avoid it. Cross the bridge that forms, hit him and then you the fight resumes with skulls you'll need to crack. Avoid the projectiles, and the fight is the same as normal.

Boss, Luke - Possibly the hardest boss you'll face this run if you get him. If the boss swapper lady offers to let you change the boss away from him take it every single time. This is another battle of patience, waiting for Luke to laugh, get winded or get his axe stuck to attack him. If he's chucking balls then shield up at a screen edge and move up and down to avoid them, or perfect guard them for a truly irrelevant amount of damage. If he slams the deck prepare to scoot where glowing dots aren't. If he's swiping, run around or shield up. If he goes to the right side he's about to whirlslash across the stage, notice the pattern to figure out if you should go to the bottom or top of the middle of the screen to avoid it. During his second phase rage he'll take and deal more damage, and continuously attack for a while. I think he can't be killed until he gets to his first breather period, so don't stress out about killing him until that point. Just survive as best you can. If you have been upgrading your bow to max and he's in the middle of flames, now is the time to charge up and plink him down.

Floor 11: Drink any potions you might have to maximum HP. Put some talent points into Potion Effectiveness, even, if you have the gold to spare for a brief respec. Grab your gold essence and head in.

Boss, Bishop - Few attacks of note here. If he's at the top of the screen he's going to be using the scythe. Hopefully you picked up a Crab Shield at some point for the defense and can tank all three swipes or perfect guard them. If a bunch of him are at the sides of the screen, just stand at the gap he isn't at to avoid the spear tosses. If he puts up flames around the arena, this is a fancy, prolonged version of an Elite Echoes attack. Continuously switch between shielding left and right to avoid it. The rest of his attacks are easy enough.

With that done you've beaten the tutorial of Arcade Mode. Figure out your own refined builds to better deal with the true game to come, getting more and more catalysts. You'll be done with Arcade Mode once you clear the dungeon with three Catalysts in the statue. There are other challenges waiting for you, but I won't spoil them any no one else using this tutorial guide should spoil them either. Good luck!

Assorted Tips:

- Your ideal Golden Essence purchases are Lightning Potion first, then Pin Shelf. Lightning position will passively deal with most early rooms. Pin Shelf will help you construct a pin build for later.

- On the final floor or two you can start throwing away any pin that says it -Permanently- gives a bonus. These won't serve you well for much longer.

- Cursed gear is bait. Don't do it. You need your defense, you need your health.

- If you come across the roulette casino and don't have any Money = Power pins, feel free to gamble here until you're broke.

- If you have only taken a small amount of damage when coming to a new floor you can ignore the health orb at the start. Come back and get it when you're truly wounded, or get it before moving on to the next floor to guarantee a health potion on the next floor.

- In the same vein, if you come across a hotspring immediately leave if you don't need it and aren't at full HP. If you can get your HP up somehow it will award two potions instead of healing you to full.

- Also in the same vein, try to be at full HP before going into ? rooms if you can. The Goddess statue in them might try to heal you to full. Not too big a worry, though.

- Prioritize popping Loods if it's safe enough to do so that won't make you take damage. The more gear you can get, the higher chance you deplete the loot pool and get something you'll need. Health potions are always handy too, as are more pin options. Gold loods are of least concern for risk.

- If you have more gold than you need you can respec 3 talent points into +Health Orb Healing% at the start of each floor for a better heal.

- Icecream shops are amazing rooms. Use this to figure out what you need to help your build. Personally, I go Fish Mushroom Gingerbread as a mage.

Apple adds 5% of current base MaxHP (i.e. without multipliers) to the total
Carrot adds 4 + Floor to ASPD
Fish adds 7 + 3 * Floor to MATK
Mushroom adds 5 + 2 * Floor to MaxEP
Banana adds 10 + 2 * Floor to EP Regen
Crab adds 4 + Floor to DEF
Gingerbread adds 4 + Floor to Crit
Pumpkin adds 7 + 3* Floor to ATK
CandyCane adds 9 + Floor to CSPD
Egg is a random effect from above

- If you're struggling on a boss just build the arena and refight it there until you have a good handle on the attacks.

- The dojo will give you plenty of perfect guard training against most enemies in the game. Only problem is it runs out of training for the last few floors and bosses.

- The bank is a priority building if you need more town gold. You can keep 25-75% of the gold you're carrying at the end of a run using it.

- If you get an early blood merchant, you always take the peg leg if offered no matter how much health the merchant wants. You're guaranteed safety for most of the run using the damage it provides.

- If you get a Potion Shop room, the potions inside are almost always worth your while. Save them for the Floor 10 or 11 boss for a permanent buff throughout your fight.

- If you get a fishing hole and you aren't trying to get any fish for your aquarium, you can cancel a thin or long bar to avoid wasting your time on something that isn't going to be loot. Immediately reel in and try again.

- If you can't find any other worthwhile main skill, go ahead and focus Frosty to gold and command him to Rage and Smash his way through all your problems. If you can find a Dog Tag accessory, all your summoner EP problems are over. Likewise, if you're using a Shadowclone build put on the Mysterious Cube artifact and enjoy all the buffs it will provide.

[Voruwa]

Why is there no comments rewards or likes? This is best guide on arcade mode ever. I gave you a reward.

[Larryt]

awesome. now do one for three catalysts! lol

[Wisp]

Originally posted by Larryt:

awesome. now do one for three catalysts! lol

For three catalyst you do everything here with a lot more skill and some good pin drops early on.

Gold -> DMG / Speed are good anytime. Clear a room -> Permanent +HP or +DMG damage on F1 or F2, incredible. If you can get some good, early scaling the enemies can start to feel like they're on a lower catalyst difficulty.

Also, you get a lot of score % to work with on Catalyst 3. Get some good treats. No elites might help you out more than anything.