Advice needed: How to beat Bragg?

[Atom.Little]

I have tried to get through the last part of the level that takes place at the funeral in the cemetary, but I've been unable to down that Briggs - or Braggs, or whatever his name is - even though I've gathered a pretty fair amount of essence and therefore have some of the most expensive, neat abilities.

I've got him to near death three times, but he always wins in the end - and as we know, if both he and I are close to dying and both shoot or hit each other at the same time, the win always goes to the mob (that's how it is in all games that I know of).

One of my abilities is Black Holes, and I watched a video (the only one on game play through this level that I could find) on Youtube. Like me, the player had the Black Hole ability. Take a look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28IBGsWcWRA
But while I didn't get one single Black Hole in ten attempts to complete this level, the player in the video gets no less than three, and it is by using them that he wins the fight against the boss pretty quickly.

At first I thought it was a matter of waiting until I was in luck and Black Holes would appear in my game too, but after ten attempts, some of which were pretty lengthy because I managed to evade his many single or two-split Black Balls... or Holes?... as well as his very damaging flying rams that both take 1/3 to almost 1/2 of your life plus takes away any item you may have held when he hit you and which won't come back, thus leaving you with yet one less item you can throw at him... perhaps the most damaging of all since in my experience it is throwing things at him IF you have the "Things you throw turns into bombs and blow up upon impact" ability.

It is my observation that this ability and throwing Black Holes plus various items you find around the rather small graveyard enclosure where this boss fight takes place, is how you can defeat him. However, hearts from dead enemies and objects you can throw are somewhat limited in number, so if you don't get any Black Holes to do at least some of the main job of taking his life away from him while remaining health sustained yourself, as I see it lots of luck is the only way you can get through this level.

Then again, maybe I'm wrong, maybe there's something I'm overlooking or something I don't know? Or maybe there's some technique or strategy, or combination of the two, that's necessary to defeat this boss and which I'm somehow not aware of?
.........

At this point I just don't know how to get through this level.

Sometimes the simplest things which may be completely obvious to someone else can be just what another person needs to break whatever it is that keeps him stuck. So if anyone who reads this can offer advice or share information, I'll be grateful.

Thanks in advance.

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P.S. Something I've noticed about videos where the player use a controller: They only have to slash once, or twice at the most, in order to rip through wires, doors and fences, etc. while I have to slash and slash and slash until by chance the rip gets through. - I read a few comments by people who play on PC without using controller, and they said the very same thing.

[Atom.Little]

UPDATE...

10 more tries later... that's 20 tries in total:

This time I only got him down to near death once. - I honestly don't know what to do... that is, I do know what to do, but there just aren't enough items to throw at him nor enough hearts to restore your health, even if you've retained from eating more hearts than absolutely necessary before Brigg (or Bragg or whatever, lol) appears when all his henchmen are dead.

Guess what: I Still haven't had a single black hole, not One!(1*)

The Dark Channeling shots which supposedly do much more damage than any other firearms in the game, seem to do the same damage as all the rest do, and both do regular firearms and the Dark Channeling do so little damage to this boss that it seems almost as if they don't do any damage at all.

I'm wondering if maybe it was a mistake to build on this Dark Channeling ability, I also have both the Extended Shooting Time and the Shorter Cool Down between the availability of each Dark Channeling mode.

But even if it was a wrong choice, changing it requires that I start a New Game and play the whole thing all over from sratch - again! But having done this once already I really don't feel like repeating it, especially not since you reach the cemetary part pretty fast anyway - you can easily do so in a couple of hours if you've done it before so you know what to do when and where.

And besides, if I were to start all over again, I'd almost certainly come across something else a little further ahead where I also didn't know which ability would be helpful, so I could easily end up in exactly the same situation again... and again... and Again(!), several times as there are about just as many levels left as the number I have already played. - Based on the relics count, I have 13 or 14 and there are 29 relics in the game altogether, so the math is simple.

Of course I could watch gameplay videos showing me everything in advance, but I only watch videos when I'm absolutely stuck because I dislike the feeling of having been coached (or hand held) through the whole thing. I want to find out as much as I can on my own and withour shortcuts.

Well, I'm babbling now. Think I'll get back to the game and give it another ten attempts....And who knows, I just may finally be lucky and beat the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Wish me luck, guys.

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(1*) - Did you get that?: Not ONCE in 20 attempts have I had a single Black Hole! - And believe me, it's not because I don't grab at the dead enemies to see if they may have one....Usually there'll be a text telling to use the Q key to grab the Black Hole from a corpse though mostly Black Holes appear while you still hold them with your left tentacle immediately after killing them. But in twenty attempts... not once, nothing, nada.

[FloodFetter]

For real, I don't remember him being so hard that I had to find some special tactics. It's been a while since I've plaed, so I don't remember exactly, but I know it was generally just moving around, shooting him as much as possible when you get the chance, throwing things, etc. Just make sure to be aware of his location. You may be over-estimating him. Try giving him less credit as being a big challenge, relax and you'll eventually take him out and it will seem like it was so much easier than you originally felt like it was.

[FloodFetter]

Oh, and I did beat the game on Don difficulty, so that was as hard as it gets.

[Atom.Little]

Originally posted by FloodFetter:

For real, I don't remember him being so hard that I had to find some special tactics. It's been a while since I've plaed, so I don't remember exactly, but I know it was generally just moving around, shooting him as much as possible when you get the chance, throwing things, etc. Just make sure to be aware of his location. You may be over-estimating him. Try giving him less credit as being a big challenge, relax and you'll eventually take him out and it will seem like it was so much easier than you originally felt like it was.

Oh, and I did beat the game on Don difficulty, so that was as hard as it gets.

Everything you describe here is how I've played it, and initially I didn't expect him to be hard. It was only after several deaths that I began to realize he wasn't as easy as I assumed from what I had observed.

You're probably right, all I can do is continue doing my best until I have enough luck to complete the level.

I'm somewhat disabled because I don't use a controller and that makes grabbing live enemies very difficult and almost impossible. I've learned that this is a common problem for people who play on PC without controllers.

I Do wonder why Black Holes appears so seldomly. I noticed it already when I was taking back my mansion. It was also here I noticed I couldn't grab the shields though I could remove their extra armor by shooting or throwing things at them.
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I can imagine the Don Difficulty must be hard for anyone, no matter what platform you play on. It must be a good feeling to have achieved beating the game at the highest level of difficulty, and I congratulate you for having the will, skill and persistence. Well done indeed.
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You pretty much confirm everything I've experienced and observed myself, and I appreciate your input.

[Atom.Little]

Originally posted by FloodFetter:

Oh, and I did beat the game on Don difficulty, so that was as hard as it gets.

Hey, whattaya know, I finally got lucky. I got a Black Hole, and after that for some reason he could aim as well, often didn't hit me, and I was also lucky in avoiding most of his fast flights towards me in order to bash into me. Actually there were many things that went differently in my third attempt after eaving the last post replying to you.

Strange enough, I was almost out of life for a good long time towards the end, but for some reason he couldn't take advantage of it as he did in all the other attempts I made at defeating him.

Such a great feeling to have finally made it past this level.

Y;know, it means a lot to receive a response even if people can't give you any specific info on how to do this or that. So thanks for your support, FloodFetter, I'll not forget it.

[matrushko]

Well... It is 2018, and after 30 attemps i couldn't manage it. I surrender...tonight.

I don't have such thing as blackholes, just big gun and normal ones, and... Nothing. It seems impossible, no matter how fast I move.

It is hard to put down the lights of the van, in the distance. And if you get closer , your ass is kicked for sure by the few first and only soldiers who appear, or by Bragg.. he really....grabbs you.

[FloodFetter]

Well, it's been a while since I've done a playthrough, but I do believe that my statement above (from 2015) is reasonably true, vague as it may be. Without having played in a while, my only advice would be to have good control over your actions. If you feel like your fumbling with your mouse and keyboard while under presssure, take a few minutes in advance to review all your keybindings, weapons switches, attacks of any sort...then do your best to be calm and be as deliberate as possible with your actions. Sounds like you've playes it a bit, so at this point you probably have this under control though.

[FloodFetter]

Just remembered that I do have this particular battle uploaded to YouTube. The video is a few years old, but I didn't upload it until last year and then just kept it private. The sound quality is lower than what I usually consider acceptable, and I was playing on Don Difficulty...so it wasn't exactly impressive. Anyway, I just changed it from private to public in case you want to check it out. You may see something that helps. The main fight with Bragg starts around 26min 40sec into the video. I died 2 or 3 times in the process, but still under 6 minutes on Don Difficulty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfubP445Q_I

The video is of the entire "Aunt Sarah's Funeral" portion of the game. If you get desperate, you may want to watch through it for anything you may have missed. Sorry the sound quality isn't perfect, and I didn't edit anything, so it includes quite a few deaths due to the difficulty.

One suggestion I do have...gun channeling is awesome, particularly for this.