Iris is a cool fight and all but ...

[ScrapyardGuru]

The fight is a cool concept, I'll give it that, but do you guys find yourself scouting around in the last level or two for a weapon specifically for her?

For example, I had a run earlier with the double sawed offs. I love those things. I knew they'd be trash against her but ran the entire run with them anyway. And sure enough, they didn't do beans against her, despite being just fine against other bosses and getting S rank across the board.

Was it doable? Yes. But it was absolutely gimping myself and making life a lot harder.

I find myself generally skipping the Iris fight for this reason. I've done full S Rank runs on G4 for each class, so I'd like to think I'm somewhat decent at the game. But I always feel like I need to pick a weapon specifically for Iris (and sometimes a perk or two) instead of just making a build I want that still seems to work for the rest of the game.

[SomeUnregPunk]

Yeah... even when fighting it with a fantastic starter pistol at 11 stars is pretty gimped in damage when compared to any other pistol acquired later in the run.

[Julius Seizure]

When there's a big, definite final boss at the end of a run in any roguelike, I tend to end up making builds specifically designed around killing it. I don't like it, but tripping at the last hurdle never feels good.

I think there should be more than one 'final challenge', at least after you beat the game. A choice between the IRIS fight or a huge arena fight or a timed platforming section depending on what you think your build can handle at the end of the run would be pretty neat. It'd make it more fun to do experimental builds, or at least make it less tempting to run Mark builds all the time like I've been doing.

[♢ ۷ Ξ Я ₲ ℝ ♢ Ʉ ₦ D҉]

Not really tbh, I usually just pick a build and stick with it. My last commando run, I was doing a melee build with shovel for the whole run, and although the Iris fight definitely wasn't as quick as full crit ranger, it was still absurdly easy since you can dodge 90% of Iris' attacks by flying up to her face. I do think it'd be nice to have alternate fights though, since you pretty much gotta approach the boss the same way every time. Would've been cool if Iris maybe even had a different phase or form every time you fought her or something.

[ScrapyardGuru]

Originally posted by Julius Seizure:

When there's a big, definite final boss at the end of a run in any roguelike, I tend to end up making builds specifically designed around killing it. I don't like it, but tripping at the last hurdle never feels good.

I think there should be more than one 'final challenge', at least after you beat the game. A choice between the IRIS fight or a huge arena fight or a timed platforming section depending on what you think your build can handle at the end of the run would be pretty neat. It'd make it more fun to do experimental builds, or at least make it less tempting to run Mark builds all the time like I've been doing.

That's actually a really cool idea. Would be nice if that choice was at the actual end though, and not determined by the route you took, because some routes just plain suck.

[FatLittleCanadianBoy]

Originally posted by ScrapyardGuru:

The fight is a cool concept, I'll give it that, but do you guys find yourself scouting around in the last level or two for a weapon specifically for her?

For example, I had a run earlier with the double sawed offs. I love those things. I knew they'd be trash against her but ran the entire run with them anyway. And sure enough, they didn't do beans against her, despite being just fine against other bosses and getting S rank across the board.

Was it doable? Yes. But it was absolutely gimping myself and making life a lot harder.

I find myself generally skipping the Iris fight for this reason. I've done full S Rank runs on G4 for each class, so I'd like to think I'm somewhat decent at the game. But I always feel like I need to pick a weapon specifically for Iris (and sometimes a perk or two) instead of just making a build I want that still seems to work for the rest of the game.

Somewhat, I suppose. I find I'm not focusing so much on weapon type but rather damage type. Elemental damage is so overpowered in this game. Honestly, I almost ALWAYS end up with a heavy weapon (minigun/beam gun/etc.) and it just absolutely melts (especially with elementals attached).

[DLCI]

a good general rule is to have one weapon that is good at clearing rooms then make sure your other slot is to fight a boss

an example of weapons that are very good vs. regular enemies and very bad vs. a boss is the tesla rifle or slingshot, both do significantly lower DPS than most similar weapons, but are highly effective due to the automatic ricochets

an example of a weapon that is much better at fighting bosses than smaller enemies is the tomahawk, because each hit generates a healing pickup that you collect automatically. whereas vs. regular enemies it only adds 1 extra health pickup per kill.

general purpose weapons work fine for this too, which would be weapons like the guerilla bolter or windmill rifle that are effective in both situations

then there are a few items that are definite 'boss killer' trade-off picks that are useful to collect along the way to the moon

the most obvious examples are the corrupted explosion-type items

there's perfume that increase explosive damage but decrease radius (explosive radius makes zero difference vs. a screen-sized boss)

or the banana that increases explosion damage vs. 1 target but reduces damage vs. multiples

you have to be careful not to grab too many trade-off items like that early on, or it will be a struggle to clear rooms