Need Miriam tips, I'm a tank with too many items

[Mtn Dew]

I'm only on Normal, but even after googling tips and experimenting with badges, I can't beat her past half health, even after using all my cakes and donuts. The only attack she can't use is the Cocoa bomb, and I've gotten almost every upgrade and stat-up item I can get at this point in the story.

Oddly enough, I did best when I was doing what I always do: beef up my HP/defense as high as it can go and spam healing rod. I'm just incredibly bad at dodging and using the amulet well, so I tank as hard as I can. Whenever I go glass cannon, I die before I can even chip off a quarter of Miriam's health.

This is absurdly tough, I need help. Is there something else I'm missing?

[AlexSSZ]

https://rabidb.com/Effect/Detail?name=badge_copy

You can read about her special ability here and some tips on how to counter it.

[Mizufluffy]

Because of Miriam's badge copy buff it is more beneficial to actually go for full glass cannon rather than try to be as defensive as possible. She gets defense and hp up buffs when you have badges that have same or similar effects but on the other hand she can also get a defense down if you have a badge that lowers your defense (attack trade). If you have Pure Love badge equipped then she gets bunny lover which halves the damage taken when the opponent is a bunny (and funny thing is that Erina is a bunny). The link AlexSSZ provided gives a very useful list of effects for different badges.

I'd say the easiest way to defeat her is to unequip every badge that gives beneficial buffs for her and after that equip attack trade to lower her defense. Yes, her attack also goes up when you equip it which shouldn't matter too much if your plan is to dodge those attacks. The rest is just to practice dodging her attacks. If you have Soul Heart item from the shop then it is recommended to have as little EN as possible when you enter the fight. There are a few badges that are relatively safe to equip without giving her harmful buffs so you can experiment with those too.

Are there any attacks you have especially hard time with dodging? Remember; the weaker she is and the stronger you are the shorter the fight will become and the less time you need spend on dodging her attacks.

[Mtn Dew]

Originally posted by Mizufluffy:

Because of Miriam's badge copy buff it is more beneficial to actually go for full glass cannon rather than try to be as defensive as possible. She gets defense and hp up buffs when you have badges that have same or similar effects but on the other hand she can also get a defense down if you have a badge that lowers your defense (attack trade). If you have Pure Love badge equipped then she gets bunny lover which halves the damage taken when the opponent is a bunny (and funny thing is that Erina is a bunny).

I'd say the easiest way to defeat her is to unequip every badge that gives beneficial buffs for her and after that equip attack trade to lower her defense (yes, her attack also goes up when you equip it). The rest is just to practice dodging her attacks. If you have Soul Heart item from the shop then it is recommended to have as little EN as possible when you enter the fight. There are a few badges that are relatively safe to equip without giving her harmful buffs so you can experiment with those too.

Are there any attacks you have especially hard time with dodging? Remember; the weaker she is and the stronger you are the shorter the fight will become and the less time you need spend on dodging her attacks.

I tried going glass cannon, using that exact badge lineup, it didn't work, I died pretty much instantly. Of course I never used Pure Love, but when I did well, I used the HP up badges, Def trade, Self Defense, maybe hex cancel or survival.

There's so many attacks I can't dodge. Fire Orb, Piko Hammer, Pandora, Nixie, Sliding Powder, Wall Jump, Bunny Whirl, Hammer Wave, Healing Staff, Max Bracelet, Charge Ring, they're all really hard to dodge and I just don't have the amulets to take everything on.

[Sylphonic]

Originally posted by Milk:

I've gotten almost every upgrade and stat-up item I can get at this point in the story.

Unfortunately, like all new players that play this game and don't know otherwise, this is a deadly thing to do because of this battle. It's still winnable though, just makes it more difficult.

You can't tank in Miriam's battle. Without the badges, you can't offset the damage well; with the badges, you will just increase Miriam's defense and be unable to inflict major damage on her.
Therefore, full offense is the way to go.

Dodging is the key to winning. You have to dodge because during Miriam's portrait attack, her defense goes up and you can't damage her by any significant amount. The character copies that spawn have 2x damage buff on it so getting hit is deadly. If you don't know how to dodge well, start practicing. Keep redoing the battle if necessary.

Lastly, you should get Miru's buffs. This will help tremdenously in the battle and none of the buffs you get will affect Miriam.

[Mizufluffy]

Have you tried carrots?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlrLWRC55M8

It looks like they are quite effective against her. I believe I started using the same strategy after seeing that video.

[Songbird]

You can use Atk Grow instead of Atk Trade if you don't like the massive increase to damage taken from the latter. It still gives her defense down for... some reason, not really sure why.

In general, though, the easiest way to win the fight is to just kill her before she uses the amulet, and that means doing whatever it takes to maximize your offense, plus delaying her attacks by slowing her and knocking her back as she walks across the screen (though she will attack anyway if you do this for too long, and some of her attacks suck to dodge if she's center screen). Learn how to dodge her early attacks, keep the damage piling on during her Burst Rod attack, switch to Carrot Shooter when you get to low HP, etc.

If she does get to Amulet, immediately attack each boss as it spawns and use as many up and down drills as possible at the end of your combo to keep it in hitstun. You can't do damage, but each boss remains on the battlefield for a fixed amount of time, and that time still counts while the boss is in hitstun, so you can see one or even zero attacks if you play your options right. Nixie is basically guaranteed to hit you if she uses her homing lasers as she spawns, though, and there's not really anything you can do about it but burn an amulet or take it.

[Mtn Dew]

Well, I did it. Thanks, all.
I used a lot of badges. Having Atk Grow, Def Grow, and Def Trade worked wonders because it gave Miriam both up and down for both Atk and Def, which cancelled each other out and left her with no atk or def buffs, while I took all the buffs from the badges.
It was a long battle. Her attacks looped over before I could beat her, might've even had to fight the amulet twice.

[Sunwave]

There's so many attacks I can't dodge. Fire Orb, Piko Hammer, Pandora, Nixie, Sliding Powder, Wall Jump, Bunny Whirl, Hammer Wave, Healing Staff, Max Bracelet, Charge Ring, they're all really hard to dodge and I just don't have the amulets to take everything on.

Well, I was going to suggest to AT LEAST learn to dodge Pandora, Nixie, Wall Jump and Hammer wave. If you really can't' dodge those on normal, then all you can do to fight the bosses is "try hitting them faster than they are hitting me", which doesn't work for anything more than normal difficutly (i'm surprised you even got this far).
But hey, you made it at least. Good job! You're almost there. And arguably, you've left the worst part behidn you!.

[Songbird]

To be fair, I've cleared the fight on BEX without healing and I still have no freaking clue how you dodge any of the three bursts of bullets in Max Bracelet, much less all three. And Nixie is impossible to dodge other than maybe positioning yourself so she spawns exactly inside you while you have Pure Love equipped, should she use her homing lasers first (and having Pure Love equipped is a terrible idea). That attack can only be dodged by being underneath her, and she'll use them from the ground if they're her first attack.

[Sunwave]

Well, IF that one happens (which is only once in every few times Nixie spawns) then you have to use an amulet. True.
Note that I didn't' mention that he should be able to dodge the max bracelet. To be honest, I can't dodge that one either. Maybe the first burst, but not the blue bursts. Max bracelet is the hardest one. And healing staff is pretty difficult too (though you can consistently dodge if you know how, it's still really hard).

[Ru]

Originally posted by Mizufluffy:

Have you tried carrots?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlrLWRC55M8

It looks like they are quite effective against her. I believe I started using the same strategy after seeing that video.

First time I've seen someone link one of my videos. It's not very good. Here's an updated video that I did last month on the tactic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bQvFWfbSko

[Tartarum]

Originally posted by Mizufluffy:

If you have Pure Love badge equipped then she gets bunny lover which halves the damage taken when the opponent is a bunny (and funny thing is that Erina is a bunny).

MAN i had pure love badge, no wonder after 6+ min of surviving i barely got her to 50% hp.