Tips for 3BC

[MacDougall]

Hey guys,

I have been having some trouble on 3BC. I managed to get to HOTK once but I was down to half health and 1 flask and died not having enough healing to beat him. Since then I have been trying to conserve my flasks and I usually end up getting low on health and die looking for food. The starting area and promenade aren't too much trouble but beyond that I take too many hits, especially in the side routes. Also, it feels like I can't make any progress unless I "cheese" groups of enemies. I pretty much wait for my skills to be off cooldown for every group of enemies and strike at the right moment which is really slowgoing. If anyone has any suggestions I would really appreciate it.

[WinterCreation]

Being tactical is not cheesing. If you want to rush forward and kill everything, "Git gud" is the only recomendation in existence.

Since you are having trouble reaching High peak, try shifting your focus a bit:
go for blueprint collection runs with hunter grenade, and learnt how to perfect each separate
level.
Unlocking mirror will help to narrow down where you need to go.

Parry only runs where you try to parry each and every enemy also help to learn timings.

[MacDougall]

Alright thank you very much for the advice. The parry only run sounds like a really good strategy to get better. I'll definitely try that. Out of curiosity, do you play with the enemy attack warning exclamation mark option? I tried turning it off and it's hard to say if it's helping or not. Sometimes when I have it on and an enemy is slowed or something it seems like the exclamation mark is not a good indication of when they are about to attack and I usually get hit. I've got the mirror unlocked, I should use the hunters grenade like you say. I tried it once but couldn't really figure out how it worked... I'm sure there's some info online or something though.

[MacDougall]

Oh thanks, I'll definitely check those videos out too. I watched a bit of a streamer the other day just destroying things on 5BC which amazed me. The game has a high skill cap I suppose.

[WinterCreation]

I dislike exclamation mark option and don`t use it. Not sure how hellpfull it actually is.

Generally I have no problem with enemy animations. And in a large pileups I do not care about individual attacks at all, as you either get out of there or get comboed anyway.

Video above reminded me of a pretty good goal for 3BC - unlocking acceptance mutation. It forces you into a fairly difficult route, which you have to find ways to deal with.

Hunter`s grenade: shows icons looking like itself above enemies which can currently give you new blueprints, including skins.
Throwing it at an enemy fully heals them and makes them an elite. Some passive enemies are replaced with elite green zombies at this point. It also drops blueprint extractor on the ground near enemy.
Pick up blueprint extractor, it is a usable item. Now hit the enemy, when it is left with about a third of hp que will appear to use blueprint extractor.
I takes a few seconds to extract from an enemy, so slow down\freeze is adviced.

Grenade allows to get 1 guaranteed blueprint per run, as it disappears after successfull use.

[dimi]

I'm also stuck at 3 ball mode, but I reached hotk many times and even the giant just now (my first real try to see finish the cavern). I came close to kill the hotk a few times tho.
Is here a way to practice against bosses? Custom mode is not really a good alternative, if I'm forced to do a whole run I might as well do it in the normal mode.

OP: I had the same problem with conserving health when I started 3 ball mode. I'd recommend you to try to get hit less and less, your aim should be to not to get hit at all, which helped me to improve. I also started to approach each fight more cautiously and carefully, so I had control in each encounter. Think about the moves the enemies can do and plan out how you can approach each situation and mix of enemies in order to avoid getting hit. You can most of the time run away and reset the situation if it got out of hand. Also don't be afraid to use your skills, that's what they are there for.
Prioritize enemies that can shoot or drag you through walls if you encounter them, since they can surprise you or lock you in a situation where you will get hurt. Since they are most of the time out of your reach, they attack you first.
I noticed recently that there is a big jump in the available weapons' power on the last map, before the final bosses, so if you can afford it, definitely upgrade your kit before you go into the boss.
I usually use the Gastronomy mutation, so I won't have to use my flask, even after a took a hit once or twice per map. There are almost always food drops that I can use to replenish my health.

Also "git gud" is a non-advice.
"Guys, how do I get better?"
"Get better."
"Wow, I never thought about that, thanks!"

[WinterCreation]

As far as practicing bosses go:
0BC for Hotk, 1BC for Giant, take starter rusty blade from the wall, try to kill them with worst weapon in the game.
As it is a grabage weapon, you will not be able to simply outspam them, while more health charges on lower BC guaranties some left for boss to extend fights.


"Git gud" here is not meant to be advice in the first place. But rather, a qualification: rushing throught dead cells on high BC requires to be... Good.
An actual advice would be "practice". Recomendations for which I mentioned in same post.

[MacDougall]

Thanks for the tips guys, I really appreciate it.

I was messing around a bit with the hunter's grenade earlier and unlocked a skin. Hopefully I can narrow it down to enemies that have missing weapons/skills blueprints eventually. But I feel like I am missing a lot of secret blueprints. There are several areas I don't know how to reach like the moonflower key doors in high castle and I don't know how to get past the door in the graveyard leading to the cavern. I was hoping to figure it out myself but I might end up just having to search it online.

Trying to get better at parries though is hopefully making me a better player. I'm still having some trouble in the biomes I don't have much experience with but that's mostly just because I'm not as familiar with the enemy movesets. It is a shame that there isn't some way to practice against certain bosses/enemies like you said. It sucks to get deep in a run and have some nasty attacks get you you don't have the timing right on. I guess I really should go back to 0BC or something to get some practice on bosses and tougher enemies.

And ya, ever since I unlocked it I always take gastronomy. It seems invaluable for conserving flasks at least until maybe later on in a run.