High Peak Castle

[Piterros990]

I'm struggling with that place. I've recently had an excellent run, I literally sublimated Time Keeper, and then got vanished in the castle. Literally died with full hp within a second, having no modifiers that increase my damage taken. I couldn't even react - the big sword dude started spinning instantly making it impossible to get out and lance guys appeared everywhere around. How should I approach the castle? What should I know to not die there so quickly, since from what I can tell dying there is not hard? I know that the lance guys hit hard from above or below, and big sword warriors aren't slow, even with such a huge weapon, and they do tornado bs and that's it.

[Fel]

"Welcome to the newbie killer zone, I hope you will enjoy your stay because this and the boss behind it stopped many people for a good while."

It's half a joke, but at the same time it is definitely a zone that tests your skills as a player a lot more than the rest of the game until there, every single mistake costs you a big chunk of health even with very tanky builds.

My personal suggestion is to start learning shields, because they can really help you big time in this zone (and yes you can even parry the tornado, it stops it and stuns the knight for a short while, and he usually only uses as his first move and does notmal attacks after that).

Other than that, bomb-based builds or trap/power builds can work really well, as you can initiate from positions where only the lancers and spell casters can have a shot at you (and lancers tell you about impending attacks pretty long before hitting when it's above or below).

The key word is being "careful", you really don't want to jump in and spam a weapon, it works fairly well in other zones but unless you mastered dodging it results in death more often than victory in the castle.
Not that weapons don't work, what doesn't work is the usual "burst them before they react" that tends to become a way to play for people before reaching this zone.


If you want, there is a stat "build" that makes you much more tanky (outside of the damage reduction gear) by putting your stats at 8-7-13, but it also means that your damage suffers a great deal, so it can be good for learning the enemies but not always as fun as focusing on a single stat and watching everything melt.

[Piterros990]

Originally posted by Fel:

"Welcome to the newbie killer zone, I hope you will enjoy your stay because this and the boss behind it stopped many people for a good while."

It's half a joke, but at the same time it is definitely a zone that tests your skills as a player a lot more than the rest of the game until there, every single mistake costs you a big chunk of health even with very tanky builds.

My personal suggestion is to start learning shields, because they can really help you big time in this zone (and yes you can even parry the tornado, it stops it and stuns the knight for a short while, and he usually only uses as his first move and does notmal attacks after that).

Other than that, bomb-based builds or trap/power builds can work really well, as you can initiate from positions where only the lancers and spell casters can have a shot at you (and lancers tell you about impending attacks pretty long before hitting when it's above or below).

The key word is being "careful", you really don't want to jump in and spam a weapon, it works fairly well in other zones but unless you mastered dodging it results in death more often than victory in the castle.
Not that weapons don't work, what doesn't work is the usual "burst them before they react" that tends to become a way to play for people before reaching this zone.


If you want, there is a stat "build" that makes you much more tanky (outside of the damage reduction gear) by putting your stats at 8-7-13, but it also means that your damage suffers a great deal, so it can be good for learning the enemies but not always as fun as focusing on a single stat and watching everything melt.

Thanks! I didn't honestly think you could parry the tornado, now that is a good reason to take a shield (unless I have a powerful synergy going, like on that run when I vanished Time Keeper, double Double Crossb-o-matic, Impaler, Fire Brand, and +100% damage on every weapon to enemies on fire, so trading any of that hurt quite a bit).

[Piterros990]

Welp, just managed to get to the throne room, and died (had an amazing run tho, no-hit the Concierge and disintegrated Time Keeper, no-hit as well). Trap builds seem to work the best in the Castle, as you just put down traps and walk away as they take care of anything around. That's how I managed to survive, cuz those guys hit hard. And the boss... It's kinda dumb there isn't like practice mode so you can try them out, get the timings and stuff figured out, since getting there took me over 50 minutes (and I was playing blind, which now I regret). He's so fast you just can't react when you don't know what's approaching. How should I face this boss?

[Fel]

If it counts as practice mode, there are boss rush mods that allow you to practice (mostly useful for that boss as at least one of those mods let you fight him again after you beat him).

As for what to do, it's mostly about figuring out what he is going to use, 3 hits combo, bom launching and summoning the explosive banners (only happens in phase 2 and 3) are fairly easy to avoid as long as you pay attention, the ones that can throw you off when you are not used to him are his "slam" (on the first phase he sometimes jumps in the air and slams the ground, creating earth spikes around him, there are two more advanced versions of this in the phases 2 and 3) and his bull rush (he goes all the way to one side, faces you, makes a shield and runs, trying to push you into spikes, he does a full back and forth in phase 3 instead of just a single rush).
Both of these moves can easily be avoided by jumping on the ice things on either sides then double jumping from there (not for height but for air duration more or less, you can also slam on him if you want after it's safe).

A fairly easy way to get through him is to unlock crow's wings (the feather that lets you fly and electrocute things), as it lets you fly above him as long as you jump before activating it.
Tough Nut (neutral mutation) makes the spikes significantly less threatening.
Cudgel (shield that generates an invincible energy shield for 3 seconds after a parry) can trivialize most of the fight if you manage to parry a bit (the charge becomes a non-issue at least).
Crusher trap doesn't make you safe but it covers most of the arena and deals heavy damage.
Phaser lets you be safe in most circumstances (except the ground slam).
Shovel or assault shield let you use his bombs against him mostly safely.

He is also pretty vulnerable to damage over time, especially fire, so torch, fire brand and to some extent fire bombs are fairly good, but stacking bleed on him also works pretty well.

[Piterros990]

Originally posted by Fel:

If it counts as practice mode, there are boss rush mods that allow you to practice (mostly useful for that boss as at least one of those mods let you fight him again after you beat him).

As for what to do, it's mostly about figuring out what he is going to use, 3 hits combo, bom launching and summoning the explosive banners (only happens in phase 2 and 3) are fairly easy to avoid as long as you pay attention, the ones that can throw you off when you are not used to him are his "slam" (on the first phase he sometimes jumps in the air and slams the ground, creating earth spikes around him, there are two more advanced versions of this in the phases 2 and 3) and his bull rush (he goes all the way to one side, faces you, makes a shield and runs, trying to push you into spikes, he does a full back and forth in phase 3 instead of just a single rush).
Both of these moves can easily be avoided by jumping on the ice things on either sides then double jumping from there (not for height but for air duration more or less, you can also slam on him if you want after it's safe).

A fairly easy way to get through him is to unlock crow's wings (the feather that lets you fly and electrocute things), as it lets you fly above him as long as you jump before activating it.
Tough Nut (neutral mutation) makes the spikes significantly less threatening.
Cudgel (shield that generates an invincible energy shield for 3 seconds after a parry) can trivialize most of the fight if you manage to parry a bit (the charge becomes a non-issue at least).
Crusher trap doesn't make you safe but it covers most of the arena and deals heavy damage.
Phaser lets you be safe in most circumstances (except the ground slam).
Shovel or assault shield let you use his bombs against him mostly safely.

He is also pretty vulnerable to damage over time, especially fire, so torch, fire brand and to some extent fire bombs are fairly good, but stacking bleed on him also works pretty well.

Thanks for all these tips! I'll put them into use the next time I meet him, thank you for all help, I hope it works out!

[Fel]

To be fair, from the moment you step into the castle you enter the part of the game where it's very much about your skills as a player (on top of your gear and stats, but blind bulldozer mode no longer works), but for better or worse it doesn't stop when you beat the boss.

After you beat it, you unlock 1-cell difficulty, then 2, 3 and 4, each much more challenging than the last (not always potion refills in 1 cell, only a few single charges in 2 cells and no potion recharge outside of food shops in 3 and 4 cells), to the point where it makes you smile when you then look at the times where you had troubles against the Concierge, then against the Time Keeper, then in the castle and against the hand of king.

If you look at it in a good light, this game is great for people that aren't at pro-gamer levels of skills, because you feel much more acomplished when you finally beat each zone and each boss.