How to abuse and beat 5BC Difficulty, Survival Build

[Abolish DEI]

First off, this game is amazing.

However, its difficulty is very rough with lots of scenarios leading to insta-game over. So here are some tips to beat the game while retaining your sanity.

1) Abuse malaise. The 60 kills door mechanic is GARBAGE. It just makes you feel bad and frustrated; and it wreaks havoc on your patience and morale as you make your run. One SINGLE mistake, and your 59-kill counter goes all the way back to 0. Screw that!!! But, the rewards are simply too good to pass up if you're looking to make it all the way to the true final boss. So simply clear out an area and stand there while malaise units spawn. Kill them to hit 60. I guarantee you, your run through that biome will feel SO MUCH BETTER without having to worry about that 60-kill trash-tier mechanic. The better you get at the game, the LATER you can start this. For example, work your way up to flawless 45 kills, and THEN start abusing malaise (for the sake of time and patience).

2) Abuse necromancy + malaise. This applies more to the later half of the game, since necromancy is too weak at around <15 green scrolls. It really comes online at around >20 scrolls. The healing is DUMB, and will get you back in fighting shape in no time. This will let you save flasks. Your other biome mutations should be gastronomy and disengagement. Gastronomy is self-explanatory, while disengagement is to preserve your sanity and patience by avoiding out-of-nowhere 100-0 combos from enemies. While healing up, you are also building your 60 kills. Win-win!

2) Just run a shield. Don't bother with 2-slot weapons. Shields provide parry which is invaluable. Many dangerous enemies are designed to punish dodging and running away, so parrying is a crucial option to have. Shields with AOE-on-parry are great for biomes, while Spiked Shield and Rampart is great for bosses.

3) Frost armor and the Slay-The-Spire Card skill (Foresight Mode). Run it! They allow you to take a hit for free every now and then. Also, frost armor mostly TRIVIALIZES challenge rooms. Both are great for preserving your kill streak and flasks. Once Foresight is deactivated during a boss, be sure to switch to the next mode (Shield Mode). The only downside is that you don't have a panic button in case you're overwhelmed (Cluster bomb, anyone?).

4) Abuse malaise AGAIN! For Cursed Chests. Malaise makes Cursed Chests virtually FREE.

5) Run the biomes with the most rewards. Check the wiki map. For example, Toxic Sewers > Ancient Sewers > Prison Depths > Graveyard > Cavern > High Castle. Only run a biome with less rewards if you need to buy a flask (Ramparts and Stilt Village have guaranteed Food Shops). Speaking of flasks,

6) Don't be afraid to use a flask (sometimes). There won't be enough time to chug again and again for HotK and Final Boss, anyway. Aim to have at least 1 flask by the time you hit Final Boss (so <2 by the time you hit HotK). If you've got a great run going but accidentally got BS'd by a Rampager/Slammer or something, go ahead and heal. It's not the end of the world.

7) Mutations for bosses. 1) Soldier's Resistance (+40% health), 2) Disengagement, 3) Crow's Foot/Vengeance/Recovery. This makes you super tanky, allowing you to learn more before you inevitably die.

8) For mutations, if you've saved a ton of gold for the Final Boss (+50,000), replace #3 with GOLD PLATING. This will save you a TON of damage if you've got enough gold. This is part of the reason we don't really want to skip the kill-streak rooms.

9) Weapons. Scissors or Flint. That's it. Scissor's range is dumb and it's combo is simple and great. If there's an elite, attack him right when there's a fodder unit next to him; they both die INSTANTLY. Scissors also seems to ignore shields and often triggers Breach, as if it wasn't busted enough. Flint is also god-tier. It's "combo" is simple and powerful and has great range above you (for flyers). Also tends to trigger Breach. It's charged attack is also very, very powerful. Learn how to set up for a charged attack. Frost/stun/root are great for setting up a one-hit kill with this charged attack. Also, simply jump to another platform, charge it up, and hit the enemy when he teleports/jumps. For biomes, scissor is a bit better. For bosses, flint is better. With CC, you will be able to focus on charged flint attacks, which reduces the temptation to button mash (which only lets the boss hit you). Baseball bat is also good, with good damage output. Range sucks though, and there's a very strong temptation to button mash.

10) Enable outlines in accessibility. Make it really bright colors. Green for you, red for the enemy and red for its projectiles. Dead cells gets chaotic, so it's nice to have a little bit more visual clarity.

There you go. This is a slow strategy, but I've beaten the game reliably with it. I'm simply too old and my reflexes aren't what they used to be, so I must compensate with strategy, instead of the elitist gamer's adage of "git gud scrub". This is for you old-man/woman gamers out there. For reference, I usually beat 5BC with this build in about 1 hour and 45 minutes. This strat mostly applies to 4BC and below, obviously minus the malaise abuse.

Good luck!

[Guernica]

Man, you literally saved my chair from melting (Though I`ve already knew that Survival is kinda OP at 5 BC with all this green mutations + outlines is really helpful)

[Salty Waffles]

What about the Boy's Axe + Baseball Bat combo? Given that the former gives you consistent and easy ability to root enemies from range, allowing you to get consistent crits with the latter, does that make the Baseball Bat more viable?

Any other weapon recommendations? Because hoping to get one of two weapons in a 5BC run is gambling with very bad odds.

[Abolish DEI]

Originally posted by Barry_Kleshnya:

Man, you literally saved my chair from melting (Though I`ve already knew that Survival is kinda OP at 5 BC with all this green mutations + outlines is really helpful)

You're welcome!

[Guernica]

Originally posted by Salty Waffles:

What about the Boy's Axe + Baseball Bat combo? Given that the former gives you consistent and easy ability to root enemies from range, allowing you to get consistent crits with the latter, does that make the Baseball Bat more viable?

Any other weapon recommendations? Because hoping to get one of two weapons in a 5BC run is gambling with very bad odds.

Basaball Bat + Axe is really op - i finished the game with it
But I`m dont sure about other weapons to use (Specially if we are talking only about survival category) - firstly i tried tactical build with any close-range bow and Marksmans Bow and it was kinda alright (Mostly because I was able to just kill enemies from the long range and dont really fight with anyone, but I didnt manage to kill second boss using this build)

[Abolish DEI]

Originally posted by Salty Waffles:

What about the Boy's Axe + Baseball Bat combo? Given that the former gives you consistent and easy ability to root enemies from range, allowing you to get consistent crits with the latter, does that make the Baseball Bat more viable?

Any other weapon recommendations? Because hoping to get one of two weapons in a 5BC run is gambling with very bad odds.

Both are good weapons on their own, and yes they work well together. You'll generally do great in biomes, but you might suffer in boss fights with no shield. Take a shield in your backpack. Many bosses can't be rooted anyway, so switch out Boy's Axe during bosses.

Generally, I like to restart the run if I don't see at least one favorable weapon/skill in the starting options.

[Guernica]

Originally posted by Josh Balane:

Originally posted by Salty Waffles:

What about the Boy's Axe + Baseball Bat combo? Given that the former gives you consistent and easy ability to root enemies from range, allowing you to get consistent crits with the latter, does that make the Baseball Bat more viable?

Any other weapon recommendations? Because hoping to get one of two weapons in a 5BC run is gambling with very bad odds.

Both are good weapons on their own, and yes they work well together. You'll generally do great in biomes, but you might suffer in boss fights with no shield. Take a shield in your backpack. Many bosses can't be rooted anyway, so switch out Boy's Axe during bosses.

Generally, I like to restart the run if I don't see at least one favorable weapon/skill in the starting options.

Well, The Concierge can be rooted, Time Keeper too, King`s Right Hand also can be rooted and the final boss can be rooted to). So, if you choose "original" way you can just cheese all bosses with this combination of weapons

[Abolish DEI]

Originally posted by Barry_Kleshnya:

Originally posted by Josh Balane:

Both are good weapons on their own, and yes they work well together. You'll generally do great in biomes, but you might suffer in boss fights with no shield. Take a shield in your backpack. Many bosses can't be rooted anyway, so switch out Boy's Axe during bosses.

Generally, I like to restart the run if I don't see at least one favorable weapon/skill in the starting options.

Well, The Concierge can be rooted, Time Keeper too, King`s Right Hand also can be rooted and the final boss can be rooted to). So, if you choose "original" way you can just cheese all bosses with this combination of weapons

Fair point. Conjunct guy can be rooted, too, now that I think about it.

[gbors]

Originally posted by Salty Waffles:

What about the Boy's Axe + Baseball Bat combo? Given that the former gives you consistent and easy ability to root enemies from range, allowing you to get consistent crits with the latter, does that make the Baseball Bat more viable?

Any other weapon recommendations? Because hoping to get one of two weapons in a 5BC run is gambling with very bad odds.

It's a pretty wicked combination, however, the one problem with both weapons is that they're fairly atypical as far as survival weapons go - they both have pretty fast swings with moderate per hit damage, while most survival weapons are slow. So yes, counting on them is a bit of a gamble - however, using custom mode to limit the item pool can be helpful here.