Sakura Droplet - have you ever kept it?

[CazadorDeLobo]

I'm wondering if anyone else has imposed the "Shadows Die Only Twice" rule on a playthrough. I've done #1-#5 now without getting the third resurrection node, and admittedly I enjoy the game more. It doesn't feel significantly harder.

This would be imo "normal mode" in the context of people referring to the "difficulty modes" in the game. Easy is then having that extra node. Hard I feel is Demon Bell, while harder is not having Kuro's Charm. Hardest is getting both of these debuffs at once.

So by having the third node, I would say the difficulty of your playthrough is one tier lower than you may have thought.

Three Nodes + Demon Bell = Normal
Three Nodes + No Kuro's = Hard
Three Nodes + No Kuro's + Demon Bell = Harder
Two Nodes + Demon Bell = Hard
Two Nodes + No Kuro's = Harder
Two Nodes + Demon Bell + No Kuro's = Hardest

Note that you can never get the droplet back in a save file, once given away.

[Ol'Chum]

Sakura droplet is insignificant when you start getting into hardest types of content, especially without mods. It's quite rare to die even once let alone 2-3 times in a single boss when you are getting really good.