For people finding Steel Soul "too hard"

[Tartempion]

0% skill and 100% practice is all you need

Just finished a couple achievements with my Steel Soul run (namely "Speedrun 1", "Steel Soul", "Speed Completion" and "Steel Heart")

I just wanted to share some "tactics" to help people do it too :)


1. Do NOT start a Steel Soul run unless you any % the basic game (except Pantheons). Although it seems annoying and time consuming to do a complete run before starting Steel Soul, it really gives you the timing and tempo of some bosses and will help you greatly in SS. It also gives you the ability to go practice on your first save if you're stuck somewhere in Steel Soul. As an example, I beat Watcher Knights with Pure Nail on my 18th try in my first playthrough, and I beat them with Coiled Nail first try on Steel Soul.

1b. You are not here to make a clean run, you are here to WIN THE GAME WITHOUT DYING. This means : if you get to one heart, exit and get back to menu (this warps you to the last bench you rested on). DISCLAIMER : some bosses (like Traitor Lord) have moves that deal 2 masks of damage. Be extra cautious when fighting them as they can deplete your life really fast and without you noticing. This doesn't apply to Dream bosses though as they do not count as Steel Soul run killers since you don't really die.

2. Get Fragile Heart as quickly as possible and (almost) never unequip it. Trust me. You can find it pretty early in Fog Canyon on the long-drop room on the right.

3. Prepare your path for the run. It doesn't need to be all at once, unless you're aiming for "Speedrun 2" in which case it is probably a good idea to go for a one shot run. Just prepare mentally in your head your movements before each separate session (which charms you will get, which bosses you will take down, which rooms you will go through, which grubs you will save...). It helps tremendously.

4. If a boss isn't needed, don't do it. If you can cheese a boss, do it (like Nosk be staying stuck to the platform or No-Eyes staying at the center bottom where ghosts cannot touch you). In my first HK fight I was 9 hrs 36 min. I had Coiled Nail, all "Dark" upgrades except Shade Soul, and had defeated (in order) False Knight, Hornet, Gruz Mother, Soul Master, Stinky Boi, Moss Charger (how is this a boss lol), Soul Tyrant (just for 300 Souls needed for Pale Ore from Seer - it is the easiest Dream Boss for me), Lost Kin, Hornet v2 and Nosk.

5. Some people will tell you that these pieces of advice are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and that they can easily one shot every boss with Old Nail and no Spells. They can be really good at the game and tell the truth for theselves but if you are one of them: why are you wasting your time reading this?

Good luck with your Steel Run. It is not as hard as it may seem if you are prepared and stay focused from the beginning to the end!

[kanna]

I agree with all this-- especially doing the speedrun achievements first and then doing the Steel Soul ones. Just want to point out people don't need to go for True Ending to get any of the Steel Soul achievements so no need for Traitor Lord or White Palace for those who have trouble with those parts. Just the basic ending is fine. I would concentrate on getting all the upgrades you can get (I got the works-- all masks, upgraded spells and vessel, all nail upgrades, and most charms).

Once I got the basic ending and all my achievements were done for Steel Soul in one go, I took it too 112% and did True Ending too. And although there's nothing wrong with using the menu to quit out when you're on low health, I never needed to, thanks to the experience of doing everything with low equipment and low masks for the speed achievements.

[Garbage_Collector]

i've played steel soul mode a little, and i just lost interest. In some ways, it's easier than the normal mode cuz your fear of dieing keeps it from happening. I was going for a speed run but after I beat hornet, dashed around a bit, tried to figure out how to get into city of tears without mantis claw (no need to visit mantis community to win the game...) and realized I couldn't. I went down to the village, got mantis claw, got to city of tears, then I looked and saw that i had already used 55 minutes. Sad, right? I'm definitely not a very good gamer.

I went and found the guide on steam for beating 112% ASAP. But what's the point of using this game like an instruction manual?? I would just be retracing something I already did....except not in 80 hours, lol.

[kanna]

Unless you've got some amazingly advanced skills, you DO need Mantis Claw to finish the game. You don't need to fight the Mantis Lords but skipping claw would make finishing any kind of run extremely difficult.

You don't have to use a guide for any of the achievements if you know what you're doing. If you don't know what to do, there's always trial and error, but then you end up with 55 minutes and little to no progress as you said. For someone just completing the achievements for the first time, I wouldn't suggest combining the 5 hour speedrun and Steel Soul, though.

5 and 20 hour achievements on one save file? Sure. 100% in 20 hours achievement while doing Steel Soul? Totally fine if you remember where everything is. No plan needed. But your first go at both 5 hour and Steel Soul? Probably not a good idea, unless you've been playing the game a long time, you've planned well, and you just put those achievements off for some reason.

[Garbage_Collector]

Originally posted by kanna:

Unless you've got some amazingly advanced skills, you DO need Mantis Claw to finish the game. You don't need to fight the Mantis Lords but skipping claw would make finishing any kind of run extremely difficult.

You don't have to use a guide for any of the achievements if you know what you're doing. If you don't know what to do, there's always trial and error, but then you end up with 55 minutes and little to no progress as you said. For someone just completing the achievements for the first time, I wouldn't suggest combining the 5 hour speedrun and Steel Soul, though.

5 and 20 hour achievements on one save file? Sure. 100% in 20 hours achievement while doing Steel Soul? Totally fine if you remember where everything is. No plan needed. But your first go at both 5 hour and Steel Soul? Probably not a good idea, unless you've been playing the game a long time, you've planned well, and you just put those achievements off for some reason.

Yup, all great points. We learn with the greatest impressions the hard way.

[kanna]

I probably could do it now, but at the time I did the 5 hour achievement (which I did combine the other regular speedrun achievement with), I knew I couldn't plan an efficient route so I went with fireb0rn's guide (his guide has very helpful, colourful, easy-to-follow maps so you're not just reading a text wall, and there are very useful boss tips in his video you can generalize across the game). I also watched emray's video (more good tips in her video as well). They not only allowed me to do the achievement with plenty of time to spare (even though I added some detours for another mask the first time, and to upgrade to Shade Soul) but it made me an overall better player of the game.

Steel Soul was nothing after getting used to doing the base game with low health and low equipment.