Recommended charms, routes, and other tips for Steel Soul mode?

[Chorizo Joe]

I've completed the game 100% and now I wanna complete the Steel Soul mode. I tried it a few times but die after 4 hours or so. Any tips? It would be great if your strategies work for a 100% completion too :)

[ALL MIGHT]

u can quit if ur gonna die and you'll return to last bench...i dont really recommend using it since it feels like cheating but u should use it as a last resort cuz it'd be annoying to lose hours of work.


Also, fragile strength and the other fragile one that gives u 2 more hp

PS: u may already know this but this is all i can offer actually...

[Fredrikorex]

My biggest tip would be to focus on getting pale ore early on so you can have the strongest nail possible, bosses are a lot easier if they die faster.

You could use the fragile charms seeing as you don't really risk losing them, fragile health is a good way to have more health early on.

[Dan]

Basically what @Fredrikorex said.

- Don't be afraid to save and exit if you drop down to one life. It's no death / hardcode mode, not Iron Man. You still need to be able to beat bosses and arenas and challenges.

- In areas with environmental hazards, exit if there's two life left - you don't want an enemy to bump you into them and kill you instantly. Same with explosions - leave at 3 life.

- Fragile Charms are a godsend. In particular, extra life and or extra damage basically puts you ahead of the curve in terms of resources you have available. Since Fragile Strength is a raw +50% boost, it basically acts as a pseudo weapon upgrade when you acquire it, but it really shines lategame when you're doing about 30 damage per hit.

- You can cheese pretty much any boss with Fragile Strength, upgraded nails, Quick Slash, and maybe Stalwart Defender or Fragile Health. The Soul Master died in about 6 hits; I went against the Fools boss at full life and stood tanking hits and just slapping the beast with my sword and lost about 5 health (of 10) and it died pretty much after one attack cycle. Other bosses (such as Uumuu or Dream Warriors) can be zoned into a corner where you just stand and swing until they die.

- Know where the upgrades are. This lets you get really strong really fast. For example, if you're careful you can get the Pale Ore from the Mawlek miniboss as soon as you start. Then it's just a matter of going to the city for two weapon upgrades. This, combined with Fragile Strength, basically trivialized all the fighting until the late game.

- Not really a tip, but I realized you don't need the City Crest to get into town; all you do is get the Tram Pass and you can come up via the destroyed elevator. Made for an interesting path.

[Chorizo Joe]

Thanks for the tips :D
Yeah I heard about the save-quit strategy but I didn’t like the idea. I guess I’ll just have to swallow my pride if I wanna complete this…
The challenge is so exciting. I’ll get back to you if… no, WHEN, I am victorious!

[Dan]

It's entirely up to you whether you want to do the save+quit thing.

The big thing is asking yourself "Do I want to lose 6+ hours of progress because of ____"? The answer is no. Always no. You'll just get frustrated and burnt out.

[Poobah]

I agree with not using the save and quit method. There's literally no point in playing steel soul mode if you use this method. Also rancid eggs give a good amount of geo from the person who can normally reclaim your shade for you.

[Sliske]

Originally posted by Lamb Sauce:

Thanks for the tips :D
Yeah I heard about the save-quit strategy but I didn’t like the idea. I guess I’ll just have to swallow my pride if I wanna complete this…
The challenge is so exciting. I’ll get back to you if… no, WHEN, I am victorious!

I guess you gave up?