Cheesing Nightmare King Grimm

[Akane]

I finally beat Grimm while playing on the Switch so I believe that if I can do it then anyone can, but I definitely needed a helpful set of charms to carry me through the fight. So this is what I think the easiest way to kill Grimm's second form is for anyone stuck on that fight.

Step 1: Prepare - If you're not already a skilled metroidvania player you're not going to be able to beat Grimm's second form early on in the game. You might as well save it for the end, though notably you can hold off on the main story boss fights once you get past the Lost Kin and Dung Defender to get those ability items. What you'll want to collect includes: All the Charm slots (we'll be using every last one), all the masks so you'll be able to tank at least 4 hits throughout the fight (and more if you use my healing method), all the vessels for reasons I'll go into with the strategy, all the charms so you can restock your soul at the bench outside with Salbura's Blessing before each fight (if it gets boring going back and forth just start up a tv show or video in the background and go back to it in between each fight, you can just crystal heart your way out of the tent and to the bench without paying much attention), and all the nail upgrades though you yourself won't be having to do all the damage to Grimm in this fight.

Step 2: Practice - Players like you and me won't be able to beat Grimm by staying in the corner or anything like that, we need to be able to read his moves even if it's just for the sake of dodging and keeping as much health as possible. So to practice against Grimm use all 9 remaining slots on the Unbreakable Heart, Lifeblood Core, and Joni's Blessing. If you don't have the Unbreakable version of the Heart charm then the fragile one works fine because it can't be destroyed in a dream fight. I tried experimenting with tanking him but found this method I'll mention soon to be much easier on the logic of dealing fast damage to him while taking as little damage as possible being more effective than tanking the whole way through. If after practicing you think you can overcharm yourself for extra power and pull off a hitless run later on then be my guest, but you'll only be able to tank a maximum of two hits without Joni's Blessing or Lifeblood Core as one of your charms, and at that point you might as well not overcharm at all. So anyway, you'll want to learn to dodge most of his attacks. They seem too fast to even take note of what they'll be at first, so it's just the process of slowly learning to memorize them on the spot when they appear. With most of his attacks you'll only be dodging them, don't worry about trying to damage him during those times at all, but the ones you do want to try to attack him during are his flame bat attack (jump over the first one and shadow dash towards him to get in 1-3 hits depending on how far away you are), and his flame pillar attack (notably the video I watched described this as the best time to attack him, but it's easy to mess up and have a pillar spawn beneath you or you end up touching him in the air and chipping away at your health, and getting staggered only to lose your cool mid-battle will let Grimm demolish you before you know it, so don't attack him during this time if you lose track of the pillars). In general you'll want to try and learn to stay in the middle for several reasons. When he uses the flame bat attack you won't be far away from him and thus you'll have plenty of time to get in more than one hit, with his fire pillar attack you might be lead into a dead end where it feels like you'll surely get hit, but you can always time the pillars to shadow dash over them and head back towards the middle, and with his cape slashing attack your best chance to dodge it is to shadow dash away from Grimm rather than shadow dashing through him, so you never want to let that attack catch you in the corner. Practice as long as it takes to feel comfortable. Generally you'll want to be able to get to the 25% health down mark with Grimm and see his first red ballon blitz phase to practice with it too before you start practicing to seriously fight him with the intent to kill. Even if you don't get to the 50% mark like this it's ok because this part isn't about damaging him, it's about learning to dodge. Got it, Gohan?

Step 3: Child Support - For some godforsaken reason you have to give up 2 of your charm slots for Grimmchild just to start the fight and it doesn't even join you, but that's ok because you'll be able to beat him with this set up sooner or later. The point of this set up is to damage Grimm relatively often so that he'll be staggered roughly once between every 25% health down phase giving you the best opportunity to heal 2 masks (you would be able to heal 3 if not for one of the charms we'll be using). First! Dreamshield. It cannot block Grimm's red balloon blitz attack (when you'll want it most) but it can damage him even without you paying attention to where it's at just because Grimm gets so close to you with some of his attacks. The Dreamshield does the equivalent of your current Nail Damage each time it hits. Second! Dream Wielder. This Charm by itself is useless in this fight, you're definitely not going to be able to Dreamnail Grimm, but it brings out the full power of the Dreamshield and causes it to have a bigger hit box, rotate faster, and regenerate faster. If you think a different charm would be better this is probably the best one to take off and switch with something else. I thought about using Grubsong for extra Soul, but the thing is you're not going to be allowed to get damaged that often with Grimm. Going through all the 1 slot charms there are a few others that are helpful during certain moments of the fight, but none that are helpful the whole way through. Third! Glowing Womb. This is another important Charm and is going to be the reason why you go back to the bench with Salbura's Blessing in between each attempt. By spawning children who each deal 9 damage to Grimm you'll more quickly chip away at his health while also building up a hit count to reach his stagger phase. You almost never want to use Grimm's stagger phase to try and hit him, unless you're completely healed, because using that time to heal 2 masks is going to allow you to tank an extra hit. Notably Glowing Womb eats up at your Soul so you might just be out of luck and unable to heal when the next stagger pops up (in which case you want to try and hit Grimm some more) but it's not about getting it perfect every time, it's about doing just good enough to kill him once so you can finish upgrading Grimmchild. So send your unvaccinated newborns flying at Grimm and teach him what real parenthood is all about! Finally, use Unbreakable/Fragile Strength to increase both the power of your Nail and the Dreamshield. As you continue to practice with this method you'll get better and better and slowly start to notice that you're reaching the next checkmark of Grimm's lowered health with each attempt. Sometimes you'll get staggered and go down in seconds, other times you'll surprise yourself and last longer than you ever have before. As long as you don't give up and believe in your strategy then Grimm will be dead before you know it.

[TheGCat]

The charms are not really important. If u know the pattern and don't get hit u can use whatever u want. U can shorten the fight with certain charms like I do.

Shaman Stone, Mark of Pride, Quickslash, Unbreakable Strength and whatever u want... That shorten the fight extremly. If u don't get hit, u can use all the soul to attack with. Otherwise heal 3 Masks (Yes, u have the time, but u must be fast! If he is a bat, heal immediately. Enough time for 3 Maks => After healt the third u need maybe a dash in his direction. It depends on what for a attack he is using.)

If u know how to avoid his attacks, the fight is really simple. but u need concentration.

[pcdeltalink]

He's really not terrible once you are used to dodging his attacks. I think it only took me about 8 tries to kill him and that was with using Nail only (never really used spells much in this game) and no Dreamshield or fancy charm build like that. I don't remember if I used Unbreakable/Fragile Strength or not. Probably just my usual build of Mark of Pride, Quicknail, and whatever else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV9TN0moYuA&feature=youtu.be