Thoughts on Absolute Radiance

[EdgarAllenSwole]

I've seen people complain about how certain attack patterns are unfair, but I want to steer clear of things that might depend on familiarity and practice. Here's what I find (objectively) indefensible about AR:

- You can't see projectiles against the white background. The fact that I have to manually lower my brightness means AR wasn't properly playtested on default settings.
- The platforms in phase three have broken collision. The orbs pass right through them if they spawn close enough, leading to undeserved damage.
- AR comes at the end of a hour-long gauntlet of easy fights. The runback is time-consuming not because it's actually difficult, but because it forces you to go through the motions of clearing a huge roster. The game respects my skill enough to include a backbreaker like AR, but not enough to let me bypass all the weaklings leading up to her.

I enjoy difficulty but can't get behind AR for those reasons. I've already killed the other bosses on Radiant but don't feel like AR is well-designed enough to justify the effort. I'll at least try beating her pantheon.

[Desticler]

This. I myself didn't bother with PoH legit and just used infinite notches mod, which actually was pretty fun. However, I decided I would beat every boss on Ascended. Literally did all of them except Absolute Radiance.
Attuned AR only took me 11 minutes. Ascended - in 1 hour of gameplay, I got past phase 2 only 3 times. On phase 1, if I got hit more than once, I just suicided knowing I wouldn't be able to fully heal before phase 2. Every death on phase 2 felt unfair as difficulty of attacks there just isn't balanced. I once got AR to just stand in an easy spot, not teleporting, spamming easy attacks (This CAN happen), but most of the time it's just "orbs passing right through [platforms] if they spawn close enough, leading to undeserved damage" and other super rng attacks.
Every time I died, I couldn't help but remember this is at the very top of the final pantheon which can take anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour. I usually feel bad for cheating in games, but here, I just didn't care. Literally, remove AR from PoH, make PV its final boss, and it's a good final challenge now.

I will, however, disagree about not being able to see projectiles. My brightness is at default and I see everything perfectly.

[Kanra]

- Isn't this kind of subjective? I don't experience this issue and I haven't tweaked any brightness settings whatsoever.

- The platforms don't exactly have broken collision. It's more of a case of the orbs being set to pass through things for a while after spawning. You just kinda have nothing else to compare it to since the phase is all platforms.

- Nothing to be done about that since P5 is meant to be the complete bossrush experience. Best I can tell you is to learn how to quickkill the other bosses to reduce the time ever so slightly. If AR herself is an issue, Hall of Gods always exists.


Radiant is a different story though.. There are definitely charms that can help you out a bit and barely any reasons to hold back on using them. It definitely looks like a massive wall to get past and it definitely doesn't look like much progress is made at first. I had to hit my head against it for a while and after a good night's sleep things definitely improved, even to the point of doing the fight hitless during a soul binding run of P5.

The big factor in it is definitely positioning. Poor positioning will absolutely cost you a lot of health and possibly even the run. Playing with sound also helps immensely as well as making sure to not be overly aggressive (this ties in with poor positioning, since you can get yourself in a tight spot if you poke at her too much).

First phase I would definitely recommend that you always expect her to fire off something at you after she teleports or finishes an attack. Being prepared for the beams or swords really helps a lot. There will be instances where ground spikes will spawn during certain attacks and it might prove difficult to dodge unless you move towards those spikes. In this case, I would recommend dodging towards them and then using Descending Dark on the spikes (it makes them disappear and protects you). Second phase is pretty much self explanatory.

Third phase is actually a really good one for heals. You have a lot of windows to heal after she finishes an attack. For the phase itself, it's definitely better not to chase her around and instead wait for her to be in a spot that you can safely reach. In situations where you're right in her face and she's about to fire off an attack, it's a good idea to use Dive for the iframes and a bit of damage. This can save you from pointblank swords, beams and the first homing orb.

Climbing phase is just a game of patience, positioning and baiting. Sometimes you'll have to jump a bit away from the next platform and Shade Dash onto it, but really all of this phase is just super situational.

Last phase is a game of offscreening the orbs, either via simple double jumps or pogos. I can't say much about it because it's really just about knowing which direction to dodge towards and finding the right timing to do so, and that comes with practice really.

I definitely think you can make it there. Even after reaching some sort of level of consistency I was never able to get over how anxious the fight always makes me feel since there are a lot of things that could happen ( https://www.twitch.tv/videos/421517710 big, big anxiety). I can't say I ever expect things to go smoothly whenever I have to fight her. The road to her definitely feeds that feeling. If you can get down some of the healing spots and get just a bit more comfortable dodging some of her attacks you can definitely make it there.

[FlappyPants]

My problem in the PoH ended up being Markoth not Radiance, though she still is the only boss that I have left to defeat on Radiant difficulty. I think that's more on my play style of being aggro as hell, and not Absolute Radiance her self.

[EdgarAllenSwole]

Thanks for the feedback. I might attempt Radiant if practice yields any kind of consistency.

[Terin]

Quick Focus + Deep Focus + Shape of Unn + Nailmaster's Glory + Grubsong

Got to phase 5 of AR on my first try with that charm combo, great to work on attuned/ascended. Lots of stuff is still pretty annoying to dodge, but with these charms you can heal so much, so quick, and dodge with a smaller hitbox while doing so. Do that, and pogo off of AR on phase 5 (so the orbs will pass you and despawn off screen), and you got this.

Radiant Radiance? Well... that's another thing, but go for that pantheon first!

[Luckytime]

Originally posted by Kanra:

( https://www.twitch.tv/videos/421517710 big, big anxiety)

CHARMS?

On topic, AR can eat a ♥♥♥♥. I'm usually on board with this game's design choices (save for a few) but AR is made to be a torturous experience because you have to watch her intro every single time so you lose practice time. The void at the bottom of the screen also obscures where platforms are in the final phase unnecessarily. I don't know why they thought obfuscating vital information was a good idea.

[Kanra]

Originally posted by Luckytime:

CHARMS?

The classic setup tbh: Mark of Pride, Quickslash, Unbreakable Strength and Heart

It's quite effective on AR since you can slash twice in the air quite easily with Quickslash. A lot of people also like to overcharm with Grubberfly's Elegy when doing the Radiant statue.

[EdgarAllenSwole]

I just finished a no-hit run on Ascended. It came after about an hour of attempts, though the result seemed more luck-based than anything. The boss repeatedly teleported to me during phase three, eliminating the risky approach that often got me killed.

I'm still not convinced that you fully control the outcome of this fight. I just know that practicing long enough puts you in a position to exploit good RNG.

[Boksha]

Originally posted by EdgarAllenSwole:

- The platforms in phase three have broken collision. The orbs pass right through them if they spawn close enough, leading to undeserved damage.

This is by design, and isn't caused by broken collision on the platforms; the orbs simply don't dissipate when hitting platforms for the first second or so they're moving. It's predictable, so I don't really see much of an issue with it.

That said...

Originally posted by EdgarAllenSwole:

- You can't see projectiles against the white background. The fact that I have to manually lower my brightness means AR wasn't properly playtested on default settings.
- AR comes at the end of a hour-long gauntlet of easy fights. The runback is time-consuming not because it's actually difficult, but because it forces you to go through the motions of clearing a huge roster. The game respects my skill enough to include a backbreaker like AR, but not enough to let me bypass all the weaklings leading up to her.

I fully agree with these points, though the first one is a very minor issue, since lowering the brightness does fix it.

The second one though, I feel really saps the fun out of the fight, especially the first time around. It could have been an epic fight like the original Radiance or Nightmare King Grimm, where you try and learn and try and learn until you finally manage to win, to a great sense of satisfaction. But instead, you just slog through the boring fifth Pantheon once to unlock the final boss in the Hall of Gods, then you do the learning thing there with no pressure behind it, and even get a proverbial slap in the face when you do finally win (paraphrasing the Godseeker: "You won but haha it doesn't count!"); THEN you practice again and again until you're finally sure you won't lose (don't want to risk losing after 40 minutes of boring repeat-fights) and THEN you still have plod through the damn Pantheon again to win a fight you already know you'll win. It all felt very unsatisfying and dull. What could have (and, in my opinion, should have) been a climax to the game reduced to a repetitive dutiful motion to get the final bit of the game off my plate once and for all.

[Stret]

i have not really had any problems you mention, except the 50 bosses - long loading screen

[Boksha]

Maybe. If they did, I can't really blame them. I know from experience the last 10% of any project tends to take the most time and is the least fun.