I Beat Final Destination (Finally)

[SuperParkourio]

I started the Weekly Challenge repeatedly to get the starting augments I wanted to appear at the Soul Chip shop. I played as Nina for the range. These were the augments I got:
Spicy Incense - Makes up for Nina's lacking attack power in later stages.
Utilifier - Provides energy for disabling traps (lost power damage is inconsequential).
Glass Cannon - Not crucial, but the attack power helped.

My ideal strategies for bosses (not required, do whatever is easiest for you):
Death Lotus - Save for later but before Level 7, destroy the small flowers with charge shots.
Twin Astrals - Save for Level 7, fight only using platforms to ensure simultaneous demise.
Eternal Star - Beat somewhere before Level 6, preferably with Force Nova.
Kur - Save for level 8, and go to town on him by reflecting Quint Laser with Vera.
Perforator - Beat before Level 5.
Rollster - Beat before Level 7 by hugging the wall an spamming charge shots.
Shatterbeak - Beat before Level 5.
Vile Visage - Beat before Level 6. Mortar not even needed if early enough.
Level 9 Boss - Spam charge shots. Only spend energy to reflect Quint Laser with Vera.
Level 10 Boss - When damaging the boss, begin with a charge shot. It doesn't seem to make a difference whether you keep using charge shots or mash the button before he dashes across the room again. And it looks like he notices repros now, so I guess that was patched out. Use Force Nova to disable energy beams, but only the ones that keep you from jumping over pits full of enemies and fire traps. When faced with what looks like a difficult ice jumping segment, use Flame Shield to destroy all the ice. If Flame Shield is active, avoid letting it touch anything that may destroy it; it might just last another dash cycle and keep you from spending unnecessary amounts of energy. In the interest of conserving energy, avoid using Splinterfrost on fire traps (which are extremely predictable) unless the pattern looks too difficult. Keep all this up, and the long, grueling battle with end. For the escape sequence, take your time. The explosion chasing you seems to be purely asthetic.

You'll be getting all the powers anyway, but here's how I used them outside of bosses:
Force Nova - Destroy energy beams.
Splinterfrost - Destroy fire traps.
Vera - Short bursts of flight to avoid difficult situations.
Flame Shield - Avoiding damage from ridiculous icicle patterns (i.e. Level 9).
Mortar - Eh... Maybe to go to town on certain enemy setups with shields.
Boomerang Blade - Eh... Maybe for a hard to hit flower enemy.
Shadespur - Eh... Maybe to stay on a disappearing platform longer than usual (very rare).
Quint Laser - Eh... Got nothing. Vending machines don't exist in Final Destination.

It's also important to note that the process of getting the Fox Only achievement should automatically give you some other achievements, such as Powerful and Nut Zero (as long as you don't start with a nut-granting augment.

[phadin]

Heh, I just managed to get my first win today myself. I was actually surprised since early in the run i got the Prototype Augment on level 2 that reduced my Max Health to 1 in exchange for a ton of armor. When I picked that up, I didnt' expect to get past stage 5 or 6.

Since I got it early though, I managed to pick up some health augments along the way and got up ot 17 health by the time the armor wore out. I also got my first full core augment set (Owlhawk set). The empowered fire shield was very useful, particularly in the last two stages and the final boss fight. Saved me from a lot of damage.

[SuperParkourio]

Originally posted by phadin:

Heh, I just managed to get my first win today myself. I was actually surprised since early in the run i got the Prototype Augment on level 2 that reduced my Max Health to 1 in exchange for a ton of armor. When I picked that up, I didnt' expect to get past stage 5 or 6.

Since I got it early though, I managed to pick up some health augments along the way and got up ot 17 health by the time the armor wore out. I also got my first full core augment set (Owlhawk set). The empowered fire shield was very useful, particularly in the last two stages and the final boss fight. Saved me from a lot of damage.

This discussion is specifically about beating Final Destination, but if you can get Owlhawk in Endless Mode with Quantum Spook, go for it. Empowered Splinterfrost will destroy everything.

[phadin]

Oh, my mistake, I thought Final Destination was the name of the last stage. I wasn't particularly paying attention to the stage names. Sorry.

[Novus Ordo Seclorum]

Final Destination is one of the skulls available in Defiant mode. Its description is "Fox Only, No Items". The only things you will find are enemies, HP, NRG, and Armor. After defeating each boss, you get to take the boss weapon AND either a heart container or a potato battery. So without using next-run augs, Final Destination is pretty difficult.

[Legion]

I beat FD with hawk using as starting augs Pure flame, a contractor (omega or plus, idr) and something else. Imho Hawk is better than nina/ace in FD because she has unlimited NRG and in FD you can pick both the power and a heart/potato, so i think the utilitifier is kinda useless.
She can disable all traps and spam the powers each boss is weak against.

[SuperParkourio]

Originally posted by Legion:

I beat FD with hawk using as starting augs Pure flame, a contractor (omega or plus, idr) and something else. Imho Hawk is better than nina/ace in FD because she has unlimited NRG and in FD you can pick both the power and a heart/potato, so i think the utilitifier is kinda useless.
She can disable all traps and spam the powers each boss is weak against.

I considered playing as Hawk, but I'm pathetic at melee combat (especially with Hawk, even just to get a little bit of NRG back). I needed a way to deal reliable damage from a distance at no cost. I never actively tried to get Utilifier; I just saw it at the shop and realized that I didn't care about power damage in my setup, and that the max NRG provided was a decent benefit.