Hardest 1 credit clear

[FakeOfficer]

What is the best route and set of characters to complete Hardest (and Insane later, I hope) mode 1cc? Any other tips?

I didn't try all routes on hardest but I tried all sets of characters and I run out of lifes at Death Island 2 if I play as two or three characters and I run out of lifes at surfing/raft sections if I play only as one character.

I looked through some topics and learned that anti-airs and bounce kicks are essential and I also found these tips
https://steamcommunity.com/app/674520/discussions/0/3183345000082769948/

UPDATE: two days ago I completed Hardest 1cc with Gal only, Ending "E".

Important tips:
1)Don't take bots in your team. You'll have more enemies at screen at once and bots won't let you proceed slowly
2) Play as long as you don't lose lives. If you lose one I suggest to stop the game and enter Practice mode to learn the stage (maybe several times), take a rest(important!) and then return to stage. But be ready to have worse situations than in Practice.
3)Sometimes you will lose more lives than intended. I lost 4 lives at elevator during actual Arcade mode, while I completed it several times with only one or two deaths in Practice

Route Tips:
1)Go through bike stage to earn extra lives and don't take forest detour to avoid Diane and Dobermanns
2)At refuge stage don't break the barrels before they come close to the dead bald dude.You can save that HyperOrb and Pipe for Tigar and Tracy and kill them just spamming attack button
3)Proceed slowly at Slaughterhouse 1-2 and Death Island 2
4)Third door of Slaughterhouse 1 contains chicks, chicken and zero enemies. Don't open doors if there are enemies nearby
5)Don't break the rolling barrels at Cave 2. They are empty, but at least they can knock down your enemies
6)Raft section is much easier as Gal, because you can throw away most enemies with Double Roundhouse Kick. Enemies don't use block before touching the ground
7)Roosters at Death Island 1 are very slow and don't have wake-up attack. You can run into them and grab or throw them away before they can even attack you! Approach them diagonally for more safety
8)Don't break the rolling barrels at Fortress 1 too early. One of them contains tasty chicken you'd definitely like to eat in the middle of fight with roosters and generals
9)Don't get cornered on Elevator. I lost 4 lives on that location because I got cournered by Minotauro, T-Bisons and O'Hara

P.S. THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR THE HELP, YOU ARE THE BEST!

If you have tips for Hardest 1cc and Insane drop them here. Someone else may need our help.
If you need help, look through this discussion, there are a lot of great tips

[El Rey de la Karnov]

Something that is often overlooked is the parry. Once you get the hang of that, it is a very powerful tool that make many parts much easier.

First thing to take note of is that you can parry even during the recovery of special attacks.If you are coming down from an anti-air and see enemies close that can punish you, throw a parry attempt there. Since AAs have invulnerability on the way up, you can defend very safely with this.

Also a successful parry gives you a full SP meter. So in that situation above, you can do an SP attack right away to safely escape a bad situation.

Bosses are great parry fodder. Just like in traditional arcade beat'em ups, bosses here have a tendency to throw invincible / fast attacks when waking up from a knockdown if you are close to them. You can exploit this by doing a parry when you see them waking up, you'll get the parry, a free counter, knock them down again with an AA special or a SP attack, then repeat. The annoying cat boss for example will ALWAYS do the spinning attack thing if you stand next to them when they are getting up.

Another enemy that is really vulnerable to parry and that can be quite annoying otherwise are the bouncer dogs. If you try to rush them down, you are likely to whiff your attacks since they mantain distance really well, and then become vulnerable to their Dudley like rush punch. Instead, wait for them, and look for the back dash of their rush punch, When you see it, be ready to parry, then counter. This turns a very very annoying enemy into a cakewalk since the rush punch is very easy to see coming, though hard to counter without parry.

As for other general tips, that list is pretty good. The keys are to take care of enemies in groups, never become surrounded, not being greedy with combos if you see enemies close, and getting away to safety ASAP if you see you have people on your back. Always try to have everyone or the closest threats in front of you, never go wild into a mob unless you have SP ready for use or are good at parrying. If you knock someone down that is not a boss, they are dead, get on them quick and hit them as soon as they get up.

As for the routes, the easiest I guess is the shortest. The one with the raft and the turtles is the longest.

https://imgur.com/v9hXRgF

Don't take the detour in the Dark Forest and go forward instead. You'll skip a couple of levels.

[FakeOfficer]

Thank you for the tips!

[Raxyz]

The way I did 1cc hardest with my friend:
Escape
Don't help the girl
Go straight in the forest or ou can take the detour but DO NOT fight Attary in the backstage, go to the cage.

Insane though... That's a whole new nut to crack. Ricardo is completely off-limits for insane as his egregiously long hit-stun will get him surrounded and beat to a bloody pulp, his super-armor is useless as even a single rat takes 33% health per hit. We couldn't even get through Death Island with continues, let alone 1cc.

[FakeOfficer]

Thank you for the tips, the more the better!

[Yoni Arousement]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBy1jGrvmOo Just throwing this out there, I haven't played through the actual game much yet but I found this playthrough on Unfair.

[Trash Boat]

you actually may not have to parry some bosses on wakeup. For example, you can just anti the cat boss on wakeup and survive becuz of invul frames.

On routes. Shortest may not always be best. Some players (like myself) prefer long routes because it gives them more opportunities to build high scores and get more lives in the process escaping the village and riding bikes is a good way to do this

[El Rey de la Karnov]

Originally posted by Raxyz:

Insane though... That's a whole new nut to crack. Ricardo is completely off-limits for insane as his egregiously long hit-stun will get him surrounded and beat to a bloody pulp, his super-armor is useless as even a single rat takes 33% health per hit. We couldn't even get through Death Island with continues, let alone 1cc.

Ricardo is the best character for survival in all difficulties, hands down. Have everyone on the same side, if you get surrounded just Lariat or DP or parry your way out. If you play correctly though enemies will be dying before they can do anything, grab into headbutts kills almost everyone, grab into piledriver has massive invulnerability and knocks people out in an area, and you can infinite entire crowds with combo into forward throw ender, dash then combo into forward throw x N, and eveery one of those throws has invulnerability and knocks people in front of you.

Ricardo is a beast in every sense.

[Raxyz]

Originally posted by Nazareth:

Have everyone on the same side, if you get surrounded just Lariat or DP or parry your way out

You do realize this is true for all characters right? With Norris or Gal you can jump or run away from hard, they're never locked in any move. Ricardo's only choice is SP or parry, if you can't parry consistently, you've no other option. But provided you do have parry down pat, every character instantly has the same survivability.

[El Rey de la Karnov]

You do realize I posted many other things Ricardo can do, right? Like getting invul on grabs? And his main combo, the infinite grab chain gives invul while knocking enemies down with it? His lariat is much much better than the other character's SP attacks, it has massive range and is a big ♥♥♥♥ you to everyone, coupled with the armor, AA special and parrying and how much DPS he does he is by far the easiest character for survival.

[Raxyz]

Yes, all of which doesn't solve the problem that if ANY enemy is not in your grasp/combo then they will circle around and hit twice before you can cancel out of his hitstun. Up until hardest this is manageable, from insane onwards you need to completely change how you play and bunny hop until either your SP recharges or you manage to align every mob in the stage for a big-ass combo. And even bunny hopping isn't safe in Insane given how fast the Tracy-like enemies and Electricat are.

I agree that Ricardo is the easiest in survival up until hardest, but from Insane onward his lack of mobility is far too much of a hindrance. I'm sure I play a lot better with Ricardo, but I'm way safer with F Norris by my attempts so far. He also has jumping grab that allows him to stall until SP cooldown, his rain kick is godlike provided there are no AA mobs, he can run away and close distance quickly with the slide, while his Tsunami kick can't hold a candle to both range and damage from the Lariat, it carries momentum which allows for quick and invulnerable escapes too. It's all around easier to survive, altough much longer to kill.

Maybe if you're good it's another story, but the way I play and in my skill ceiling it's just not feasible.

[El Rey de la Karnov]

That doesn't happen at all if you play Ricardo right though. Piledriver is OP as hell, you grab someone close, dive into a group and you knock them down with that, then start your forward throw infinite. Enemies you knock down keep other enemies in front of you controlled, it's really hard for them to circle you, and if they do, unless they are monkeys you can simply dash jump into throw at them easily then piledrive again into the bunch and start again. If enemies manage to sneak, most of the time the super armor or invul of your throws saves your ass, and even then you still have step dodges and SP attacks.

You must not run away at all with Ricardo. Your aim is to speedkill everyone, his DPS is insane, he kills near everyone with a single combo, and another one afterwards gets you very easy overkill bonus, you get tons of lives with him this way, 10+ for a run easily, which also helps a lot with survival.

I just had a credit after not playing Insane for a year or so, got to the end of the elevator at the final stage. Ricardo's still the best for Insane, you just have to fully use his strenghts (infinite/throw invul/piledriver crowd control).

[P0NYSLAYSTATION]

off-topic but seems like someone in this thread might know, is there an actual 1cc mode or you just quitting at the continue screen?

[El Rey de la Karnov]

The closest is getting an achievement for clearing the game on Normal / Advanced on a single credit.

[Raxyz]

Originally posted by P0NYSLAYSTATION:

off-topic but seems like someone in this thread might know, is there an actual 1cc mode or you just quitting at the continue screen?

No, you just have to play arcade mode and reset in case you lose all lives.

[El Rey de la Karnov]

Originally posted by Raxyz:

Yes, all of which doesn't solve the problem that if ANY enemy is not in your grasp/combo then they will circle around and hit twice before you can cancel out of his hitstun. Up until hardest this is manageable, from insane onwards you need to completely change how you play and bunny hop until either your SP recharges or you manage to align every mob in the stage for a big-ass combo. And even bunny hopping isn't safe in Insane given how fast the Tracy-like enemies and Electricat are.

I agree that Ricardo is the easiest in survival up until hardest, but from Insane onward his lack of mobility is far too much of a hindrance. I'm sure I play a lot better with Ricardo, but I'm way safer with F Norris by my attempts so far. He also has jumping grab that allows him to stall until SP cooldown, his rain kick is godlike provided there are no AA mobs, he can run away and close distance quickly with the slide, while his Tsunami kick can't hold a candle to both range and damage from the Lariat, it carries momentum which allows for quick and invulnerable escapes too. It's all around easier to survive, altough much longer to kill.

Maybe if you're good it's another story, but the way I play and in my skill ceiling it's just not feasible.

https://i.imgur.com/uN3QVLx.jpg

Aaaand done. Unfair is next!