NKG vs normal radiance

[Naewyng]

Did anybody else have more problems with the radiance than nkg?

Personally, I beat nkg in ~30min, and the radiance in ~15-20m, but I considered the radiance to be a bit harder, because of it's huge reliance on rng. Like I can say that I literally beat it only because I had good rng on my 5-7th run xD (whereas nkg took me ~20 tries, they ended really fast though lol).

Then again, I beat nkg before radiance, so all the experience and "skill-up" I got from him directly helped me with the radiance.

Anybody else felt the same?

[jdarko2]

I consider Absolute Radiance to be harder than NKG. Not normal Radiance. Just my opinion though. NKG doesn't have any RNG involved in the fight compared to Absolute Radiance.

[Boksha]

They're a very different type of fight. NKG is about reaction speed and muscle memory, while the Radiance is about composure and planning. Coincidentally, there's zero RNG involved in reliably beating the Radiance. Although you definitely can get lucky and not get punished for a mistake, or get free hits on her, you can't get unlucky. Seemingly unavoidable damage just means you made a mistake at an earlier point.

(note I'm talking about the regular Radiance; Absolute Radiance basically adds the reaction and muscle memory requirements of NKG on top of the regular Radiance, and may sometimes put you in a situation where you need to react faster and more precisely than most people can, although if you're not playing with bindings, the fight is still doable reliably if you take time to heal after getting hit with one of those situations)

[kanna]

^^^ What they said, regular Radiance was easier than NKG for me, at least when starting out on both of them. AbsRad is harder than both.

If you're having trouble figuring out the Radiance's patterns on a consistent/reliable basis, I suggest watching one or more videos to see how others do the fight. Video guides and speedruns can both help you get a feel for the patterns and flow of a fight.

[Naewyng]

Originally posted by kanna:

^^^ What they said, regular Radiance was easier than NKG for me, at least when starting out on both of them. AbsRad is harder than both.

If you're having trouble figuring out the Radiance's patterns on a consistent/reliable basis, I suggest watching one or more videos to see how others do the fight. Video guides and speedruns can both help.

I did beat it, but I can't honestly say it was by my skill alone (like how I beat NKG), but mostly through rng. Like the second phase of my fight with radiance was me facetanking a couple attacks while wailing on it and only moving twice lol.

[kanna]

Yeah, the wailing on her is fine since she just hovers there, but don't try to facetank the Radiance's attacks. Either she'll destroy you or you won't get the satisfaction of beating her from skill. I highly recommend checking out some videos. Also, she's very weak to Abyss Shriek so put on Shaman Stone and yell at her a bunch and see how it goes then.

[Naewyng]

Originally posted by kanna:

Yeah, the wailing on her is fine since she just hovers there, but don't try to facetank the Radiance's attacks. Either she'll destroy you or you won't get the satisfaction of beating her from skill. I highly recommend checking out some videos. Also, she's very weak to Abyss Shriek so put on Shaman Stone and yell at her a bunch and see how it goes then.

Well I didn't facetank all of it's attacks xD only the unavoidable ones.
Still I can't say I can beat it consistently, while I did beat nkg consistently afterwards in the arena.

[kanna]

There are no unavoidable attacks in this fight if you know the patterns and account for them. Like Boksha said, if you get hit, it's because you made a mistake.

A strat I like to use to speed up stage 4 (floating platforms) is that as long as she's not sending the orbs out, I like to go directly to her and if I'm early enough I can use a D-dark and the i-frames let me not take a hit while she sends nails out in a spiral, or I can stand between the light rays and hit her a bunch with my nail.

[Juliane_L]

i can consistently beat ascended NKG and did him radiant one time, but i can get killed 10 times by radiance before killing her once.

[Naewyng]

Originally posted by kanna:

There are no unavoidable attacks in this fight if you know the patterns and account for them. Like Boksha said, if you get hit, it's because you made a mistake.

A strat I like to use to speed up stage 4 (floating platforms) is that as long as she's not sending the orbs out, I like to go directly to her and if I'm early enough I can use a D-dark and the i-frames let me not take a hit while she sends nails out in a spiral, or I can stand between the light rays and hit her a bunch with my nail.

Yea that's true, but what I mean when I say that the boss is hugely reliant on RNG, is that this boss can be anywhere from a 3/10 to a 9/10 difficulty, simply based on how lucky you are xD

While NKG is consistently hard, but the good kind of hard (IMO he's the best boss design in the game)

[kanna]

NKG is consistently fast. Regular Radiance just has a lot of attacks and stages to account for. If you're always ready for the types of attacks she might do at any given time, then it's just a matter of consistently executing your jumps and Shadow Dashes to dodge.

Not saying it's easy, but it's not nearly as "random" as it seems. For both fights, the only random element is which attack might come next and NKG is technically more random in that area because he can do the same set of attacks essentially for the whole fight, whereas Radiance can't. She goes through set stages with arena changes to mark them. She just has more (and more dangerous) attacks than he does.

Everybody struggles with different bosses. Do you favour using your nail only, btw? Fights take longer with nail only due to the lower damage. Longer fights can get pretty brutal unless you're good at dodging the boss. (That's why you see "nail only" as a challenge that high skill players do in videos on Youtube, and it's also why speedrunners don't bother getting nail upgrades.)

[PashuGamez]

Originally posted by kanna:

NKG is consistently fast. Regular Radiance just has a lot of attacks and stages to account for. If you're always ready for the types of attacks she might do at any given time, then it's just a matter of consistently executing your jumps and Shadow Dashes to dodge.

Not saying it's easy, but it's not nearly as "random" as it seems. For both fights, the only random element is which attack might come next and NKG is technically more random in that area because he can do the same set of attacks essentially for the whole fight, whereas Radiance can't. She goes through set stages with arena changes to mark them. She just has more (and more dangerous) attacks than he does.

Everybody struggles with different bosses. Do you favour using your nail only, btw? Fights take longer with nail only due to the lower damage. Longer fights can get pretty brutal unless you're good at dodging the boss. (That's why you see "nail only" as a challenge that high skill players do in videos on Youtube, and it's also why speedrunners don't bother getting nail upgrades.)

Oooof, i literally only fight with nail(first playthrough), and only use soul to heal...

[kanna]

Originally posted by PashuGamez13:

Oooof, i literally only fight with nail(first playthrough), and only use soul to heal...

It's not an uncommon tendency for people to have, especially on a first playthrough. You might find charms like Quick Focus and Grubsong useful if you're getting hit a lot, but it pays to get used to spells. Just save enough soul for one or two heals if you need it. Shaman Stone makes your spells both bigger *and* more powerful, btw. Strength Charm and Shaman Stone are the main damage boosting charms.

uses for each spell:

*left/right spell*
- attack from safe distance
- knocks back lighter bosses/enemies
- can get multiple hits from right distance away (tricky but if you keep trying you'll see it happen either on purpose or by accident), or if target is moving away from you

*down spell*
- better damage than SS
- "panic button" for invincibility frames (starts a little after you start diving and ends a few moments after you get control, so you have time to safely re-position, or chain it with a Shadow Dash)

*up spell*
- With Shaman Stone on, the upgraded version of this spell, Abyss Shriek, has the best damage available for a single attack as long as enemy stays in contact with it for the full cast time (listen for four "tick" sounds to know if you got all four hits)
- Works great on anything either taller than you or above you. So... almost everything. (Just beware the downside is that it's slow to cast, so be sure you won't be interrupted.)
- If you spam it at the Radiance, you will move through that fight *very* quickly.

[Naewyng]

Originally posted by kanna:

NKG is consistently fast. Regular Radiance just has a lot of attacks and stages to account for. If you're always ready for the types of attacks she might do at any given time, then it's just a matter of consistently executing your jumps and Shadow Dashes to dodge.

Not saying it's easy, but it's not nearly as "random" as it seems. For both fights, the only random element is which attack might come next and NKG is technically more random in that area because he can do the same set of attacks essentially for the whole fight, whereas Radiance can't. She goes through set stages with arena changes to mark them. She just has more (and more dangerous) attacks than he does.

Everybody struggles with different bosses. Do you favour using your nail only, btw? Fights take longer with nail only due to the lower damage. Longer fights can get pretty brutal unless you're good at dodging the boss. (That's why you see "nail only" as a challenge that high skill players do in videos on Youtube, and it's also why speedrunners don't bother getting nail upgrades.)

The only shadow spell I have is the downward smash attack, the kamehameha is still white, and so is the magic + up xD

And yes, I did all bosses so far with nail only, maybe a kamehameha when I accidentally tapped the wrong button lol

[kanna]

Originally posted by Naewyng:

The only shadow spell I have is the downward smash attack, the kamehameha is still white, and so is the magic + up xD

And yes, I did all bosses so far with nail only, maybe a kamehameha when I accidentally tapped the wrong button lol

Whoops, sorry I used the upgraded spell names. I'll go fix that now. Other than that, maybe try the spells one by one in the suggested situations and see if it helps. (Obviously there's going to be some adjustment involved.)

[Naewyng]

Originally posted by kanna:

Originally posted by Naewyng:

The only shadow spell I have is the downward smash attack, the kamehameha is still white, and so is the magic + up xD

And yes, I did all bosses so far with nail only, maybe a kamehameha when I accidentally tapped the wrong button lol

Whoops, sorry I used the upgraded spell names. I'll go fix that now. Other than that, maybe try the spells one by one in the suggested situations and see if it helps. (Obviously there's going to be some adjustment involved.)

Thanks, but I knew what you meant from the get go :D

I didn't use spells much though, while cool and obviously powerful, they just didn't "feel right" for me, idk how to explain it, I feel like I'd have to "go out of my way" to use them, if that makes sense.