Chapter 9 Hard is perfect, Chapter 13 Hard is just hoping that this time bulets miss you

[Kore wa Senpai]

Fighting agains Zmora V feels just fair
She has patter - Dash, blink, blink, blink, runs to you, cries, thunderstorm, repeat

The moment it clicks you are in a dance where you manuver between her attacks that you are able to work around while also keeping all engines at check

Dash is simple to dodge if you are ready for it
blinks can be either avoided in safer pattern by going top right > bottom left> top right (or top left, bottom right, top left etc) or you can get some seconds by risking it
Cry is a moment where you can look what you need to gather and rearange your resources
and then you just dodge the dash and so on


Chapter 13.
All this time game teaches you that even in most insane scenario there is a pattern. I was not having fun in chapter 12 but looking back at it i can at least see what i did to conquer it, be it keeping bull on the other side, proper dashing for the dogs, or timing skulls with other minions

Chapter 13 on the other hand is havely focused on dashing constantly to break stuff like skulls, bodyguards, bull etc. It would be a bit diffrent but still learnable even with those smashes from boss.
But those target bullets. Due to how many things happen on the screen and how you need to take care of skulls, dogs, boss smash, bull after death bullets create a situation where you either have huge reaction time or can keep focus on all the small bullets coming into your way (pretty much touhou players). I thought i found a pattern to hide in spaces with machines but then dogs kill me as i dont have space and time to get rid of all of them

all 12 chapters are great, they are hard but not ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hard, If you can do half of engines that means you can do all of them if you keep polishing out your strategy

In chapter 13 whatever i got to half the engines and died i didn't had that feeling, it felt like it was just a pure luck that nothing hit me.

Its not to say that this game is bad as its so good i wish there was way more. Just... without random stray bullets in a sea of other hazsards

[Golden Sorcerer]

Chapter 13 feels like some other game, honestly. Or dev just gave up and said "you know what, good luck beating THAT".

The last level is a mess and not a fun one :/ In any other game I knew it was ME who messed up. Hollow Knight, Lies of P, MGR, Doom Eternal on hard, even Helltaker. It took me TWO TRIES to beat Dr.Kahl in Cuphead- boss people struggled with for hours. I always knew where my mistake was; when difficulty is fair, it's fair.

Here? Ummmmm, nope, my brain just can't process THIS MUCH ♥♥♥♥ happening all at once at that speed while being in place so tight. Sometimes I don't have enough space to move so I 100 % will get hit.

It would be fair if it wasn't for the 3 annoying bullets that follow you anywhere. Or you had 2 HPs instead of 1. Or enemies spawning where you're standing at the moment, killing you instantly. Or, you know, THERE WAS NO PAUSE BETWEEN DASHES so you could be moving constantly. Whatever bro.

"Git gud" comments are incoming in 3, 2, 1...

[Zylth]

Chapter 13 suffers from visual clutter. I don't mean bullet hell, but there are a lot of effects going on that don't need to be there

* The gas cloud when the boss slamming down to indicate its summoning the 3 warning indicator. It's a warning for a warning and it's green which should be reserved for dangerous things
* The wrench ghosts get a warning ghostly wisp that they...exist. The wrenchers already move very predictly that this warning isn't necessary and again it's green
* Yellow danger summons. I actually think these are fine, but it shows that the dev is willing to use another color scheme but didn't use it for other non-vital warnings?

All and all, I think the color green is overused this game and makes the signalling to the player confusing

[Lynbt]

I think that Chp 9 is harder than 13; But that is because I found myself in a rush in most scenarios.
The real thing to realize is, you have plenty of time even on hard. Just keep a dance and a rhythm and you can find it isn't so bad.
I mean its a bit more of a dance in 13 but you can effectively make the bullets launch on the side you are leaving and make them relatively easy to dodge. Basically there is a time frame to go from side to side. And once you kinda have that mental it just comes down to dogs. They are probably the last hurdle. Once you are doing the dance right the bull should die on spawn, the guys crossing aren't so bad; and you should either kill a skull on entry or not care cause they'll die on the opposite side.

My clearing run of 13 was actually me slowing down a bit and keeping a better rhythm going with making sure targeting was doing its thing and making sure Dogs hit the borders or were dodged through (exploding them).

Chapter 9 was also the same for me but without the dodge i kept making dumb mistake of stepping into the electrified floor; I think that killed me more than V; just saying.

But I understand if its hard to get a groove going on 13... but the one big realization is that you have a lot of time, just get into a groove of crossing back and forth and it should be pretty simple.

[specty]

Originally posted by Zylth:

Chapter 13 suffers from visual clutter. I don't mean bullet hell, but there are a lot of effects going on that don't need to be there

* The gas cloud when the boss slamming down to indicate its summoning the 3 warning indicator. It's a warning for a warning and it's green which should be reserved for dangerous things
* The wrench ghosts get a warning ghostly wisp that they...exist. The wrenchers already move very predictly that this warning isn't necessary and again it's green
* Yellow danger summons. I actually think these are fine, but it shows that the dev is willing to use another color scheme but didn't use it for other non-vital warnings?

All and all, I think the color green is overused this game and makes the signalling to the player confusing

yeah most of my trouble with trying to do Striga III was just the sheer amount of visual clutter on the screen, it's arguably easier than 12 because your dashes can be used offensively but sometimes there's just so much going on I always end up missing a stray projectile or accidentally walk into an enemy.

[The Snacrifice]

Originally posted by Kore wa Senpai:

But those target bullets. Due to how many things happen on the screen and how you need to take care of skulls, dogs, boss smash, bull after death bullets create a situation where you either have huge reaction time or can keep focus on all the small bullets coming into your way (pretty much touhou players). I thought i found a pattern to hide in spaces with machines but then dogs kill me as i dont have space and time to get rid of all of them

You can time the bullet spams to appear on one side, then dash through the things you need to break to get to the other side. WHen Striga stomps, you get to the corners. There is a pattern, the clutter is on purpose to make you pay closer attention.

[Vinyl Scratch]

Use the small little upper alcoves (next to the 'processing' machines on either side) as a bit of breathing room. The running ghosts can't hit you here, and the bull has a hard time targeting you here unless it has already dashed to a full side.

Sit in these alcoves, dashing as needed to beat up the dogs, until he uses the targeting shots, and then make your run to the other side. This gives you the entire width of the level to use as well as makes the horizontal and upper spreads irrelevant as they immediately hit the walls.

[ElOhTeeBee]

I think 13 would feel a lot better if you could turn off screen shake. There's a ton of it, and it makes it very hard to figure out where bullets are gonna go.

[Meaw]

honestly for me it feels inverted. yeah, the visual clutter is excessive in 13 but once you get the pattern of 2 enemy summons -> boss attack repeat, and start taking cover next to the 2 inner machines it was more manageable.

I couldn't STAND chapter 9, the boss was so fast and i literally did not have the mental bandwidth to keep track of the floor hazards which I ended up dying to the most lmao

[Hurkyl]

Originally posted by Meaw:

honestly for me it feels inverted. yeah, the visual clutter is excessive in 13 but once you get the pattern of 2 enemy summons -> boss attack repeat, and start taking cover next to the 2 inner machines it was more manageable.

I couldn't STAND chapter 9, the boss was so fast and i literally did not have the mental bandwidth to keep track of the floor hazards which I ended up dying to the most lmao

I did this for other reasons, but there's a way to get yourself a lot of spare time without worrying about the boss. Her pattern is

• She runs towards you
  
• When close, she does a rush attack towards you
  
• Three times, she does a "teleport to your location and do a cross shaped aoe attack"
  
• Other stuff

During the "other stuff", you have plenty of free time to move around while ignoring the boss. True, you have to worry about the global lightning strikes during this time, but it's just that and the static hazards.

So, what you can do is trigger step 2 at a place of your choosing, so you can handle step 3 where the floor hazards can't get you. Then during step 4 you can put most of your focus on the floor hazards. You can ignore the boss until she finally gets back to step 1 and starts getting close, at which point you can do it all over again.

[The Snacrifice]

Originally posted by Hurkyl:

I did this for other reasons, but there's a way to get yourself a lot of spare time without worrying about the boss. Her pattern is

• She runs towards you
  
• When close, she does a rush attack towards you
  
• Three times, she does a "teleport to your location and do a cross shaped aoe attack"
  
• Other stuff

It's also important that her teleport/aoe attacks can be wholly avoided by moving diagonally. It's way slower than it looks and you usually have plenty of room to move, so it's best to get the machines when she's doing her dash attack and her big screen-fill attack, then move to the middle for the teleport attacks.

[Meaw]

Originally posted by Hurkyl:

Originally posted by Meaw:

honestly for me it feels inverted. yeah, the visual clutter is excessive in 13 but once you get the pattern of 2 enemy summons -> boss attack repeat, and start taking cover next to the 2 inner machines it was more manageable.

I couldn't STAND chapter 9, the boss was so fast and i literally did not have the mental bandwidth to keep track of the floor hazards which I ended up dying to the most lmao

I did this for other reasons, but there's a way to get yourself a lot of spare time without worrying about the boss. Her pattern is

• She runs towards you
  
• When close, she does a rush attack towards you
  
• Three times, she does a "teleport to your location and do a cross shaped aoe attack"
  
• Other stuff

During the "other stuff", you have plenty of free time to move around while ignoring the boss. True, you have to worry about the global lightning strikes during this time, but it's just that and the static hazards.

So, what you can do is trigger step 2 at a place of your choosing, so you can handle step 3 where the floor hazards can't get you. Then during step 4 you can put most of your focus on the floor hazards. You can ignore the boss until she finally gets back to step 1 and starts getting close, at which point you can do it all over again.

smart strat. looking back i think i was too paranoid of the boss getting close during the global AOE attack when i shouldnt have so i would rush

[( ͡° o ͡°)]

In so many games the last boss is a difficulity spike and additional mechanic and or phase. It is wat it is.

[Cursememe]

Strategy for this level is focusing on surviving since its a marathon, note you have a double dash as ula in level 13, this essientially allows you to insta zoom across the level and allows you to dodge the bullet hell by camping at the top corner of the arenas, if you focus on managing the enemies and corner camping the bullet hells attack you will eventually win the level

[ThePuppeter]

Idk, i just beat chap 13 running around like a moron and not aknowledging the amount of generators left to not stress myself and fall out of rythm

[Pon3d]

Originally posted by Zylth:

Chapter 13 suffers from visual clutter. I don't mean bullet hell, but there are a lot of effects going on that don't need to be there

* The gas cloud when the boss slamming down to indicate its summoning the 3 warning indicator. It's a warning for a warning and it's green which should be reserved for dangerous things
* The wrench ghosts get a warning ghostly wisp that they...exist. The wrenchers already move very predictly that this warning isn't necessary and again it's green
* Yellow danger summons. I actually think these are fine, but it shows that the dev is willing to use another color scheme but didn't use it for other non-vital warnings?

All and all, I think the color green is overused this game and makes the signalling to the player confusing

This was 100% my feeling as well. The giant translucent effect to indicate the line charging is wholly unnecessary and takes up most of the screen. Most of my deaths were to stuff I hadn't even realized were there because I just can't filter through all the green to even recognize what I need to watch out for.