Need help with Inventor 5 (edit: Solved? I hope?)

[DoubleATam]

I started playing this game less than a week ago, i like it a lot! I skipped all the episode 4s because i'm not particularly interested in a hard mode (I can't get far in them), but most characters' episode 5s were fair enough. Jester 5 needed a strange amount of grinding but after that it was smooth sailing. (I haven't tried the bonus rounds yet.)

I don't really know what to do with Inventor 5 though. (And it's easily the hardest parallel universe, so I don't know why I haven't seen anyone talk about it.) It seemed clear to me that the basic strategy in most of her episodes was to hang onto 2 core pieces of equipment and not rely on too much else, but I don't have that option here, I can only for-sure hang onto 1 card. So I easily run out of damage if my attack cards gets randomly scrapped or the floor layout decides to be mean and give me a drought of chests. (or the chests keep giving me dice utility when i have nothing to put dice into.) Screwdriver was not enough to beat a Dryad even though I was at near full health, staving off the poison successfully, and hitting with a 6 every turn.

I could figure out inventor 1-3 after about 1 loss because that failure usually told me what i was doing wrong, but I'm stumped here. I checked a wiki and apparently floor 4 has good equipment in chests i skipped which might explain why i lost to a skeleton on floor 5 once, but I can't even get to floor 4 most of the time.

I could use the progress editor to get past it (do I need to beat every episode to see the ending? if so I'll cheat for the 4s at least) but I'm just genuinely curious to learn this. Is this a sign I just didn't understand Inventor 1's game plan well enough?

(Side note: Why does every general inventor guide I found seem to refer to Chainsaw and Screwdriver as their go-tos as if they were available in episode 1? To my knowledge they're only in parallel universe. Was that in an old version or something? I couldn't find that in a changelog either)

[racknae]

1. Generally speaking, if the equipment being offered up to scrap isn't something amazing, it's worth it to scrap that instead of chancing the random scrap option.
2. Remember that you can take your equipment out and hold onto it in your backpack.
3. Make sure to buy scrap equipment in the shop and include it in your loadout whenever you need a buffer. Most of the scrap items available in the parallel universe are actually pretty decent!
4. Sometimes it's more worth it to scrap a good item for a strong gadget instead of keeping it for the next fight.

[DoubleATam]

Originally posted by a bunch of little spiders:

1. Generally speaking, if the equipment being offered up to scrap isn't something amazing, it's worth it to scrap that instead of chancing the random scrap option.
2. Remember that you can take your equipment out and hold onto it in your backpack.
3. Make sure to buy scrap equipment in the shop and include it in your loadout whenever you need a buffer. Most of the scrap items available in the parallel universe are actually pretty decent!
4. Sometimes it's more worth it to scrap a good item for a strong gadget instead of keeping it for the next fight.

Thanks for the advice! I think there's two key things keeping me from following it though... I don't know the value of the items Inventor gets, and I don't know what enemies I can afford to be underpowered against. It always seems like I either made the wrong call or was never given enough to work with to begin with, is it just kind of a trial and error thing? I can't find anything stronger than a Screwdriver or two, and when my gadgets are bad that's basically just a sword.

But I obviously wasn't using scrap items well, so I should at least try to fix that. If I can get any.
Also I don't know if it's a problem, but as inventor I dodge optional fights. levelups don't seem worth running out of attacks to even put dice into? But it is a fact that I keep running out of money and health.

I dunno, I'm kinda frustrated because I really like this character in theory, but in practice it's really stressful and micromanagey and lose-lose in a way that feels very counter to the concept of "you get bored and rebuild your toys all the time". I feel like I Should vibe with her, but something's wrong.

[Jack Ketch]

Parallel Universe has weird rules!
Burn is very helpful because the enemy will use the dice, and then be denied that equipment slot the next turn.
Screwdriver is great (assuming you can keep it) because you get to use your gadget again if you use a six.
Shock is essentially extra damage / lost opportunity - shocked equipment costs 3 hp to unlock. (Enemies will pay if they need to, but avoid the hp loss if they can)

Look for Spanner - which combines two dice - works well with Screwdriver
Calculator - slot with a 3 and a 4 for 12 damage

But basically if you get Burn/Shock going, you should be alright

[HeraldOfOpera]

A funny thing you can do is get the gadget that swaps all equipment and then have no equipment going into the next fight. Because Drake's invincibility is a status, PU changes it so that you don't really need the stake anymore.

[DoubleATam]

Originally posted by HeraldOfOpera:

A funny thing you can do is get the gadget that swaps all equipment and then have no equipment going into the next fight. Because Drake's invincibility is a status, PU changes it so that you don't really need the stake anymore.

I don't think I've fought Drake yet, but exploiting Reversal was an excellent tip and gave me a lot more to work with. Stealing Blood Suck from a vaccuum and upgrading it saved me quite a bit. (I always underestimate the Rhino Beetle.)

Thanks to y'all, I did manage to get a win next time I played! I have to assume I got lucky, but hey! Whatever works.

The scrap tip was great too, it really does give you a freebie against whatever you think is the biggest threat. That said, I found myself forced to use more than one Scrap Kettle, which was so bad I actually needed to upgrade it so it wouldn't actively hinder me, haha.

I also ended up fighting every enemy this time, which I think did help with cash and such.
Going into the boss (Audrey), I had Focus charged and my final equipment was Blood Suck+, Screwdriver, Rubber Mallet and Chainsaw, and the gadget I rolled last was Power Up (from a Lucky 7).
(In reserve I still had Capacitor, Befuddle, and another (cloned) Blood Suck+. If I'd rolled a less useful (or single-use) gadget I'd have just used the other bloodsuck instead of the screwdriver, but I was also thinking that if I rolled Chainsaw (Dial-Up Sounds) I'd get a lot of damage out of Focus + Capacitor. I'm unsure Capacitor would've been more usable than Chainsaw in the rest of the fight though, so I'm maybe glad I didn't.

PS: I got the "Triple Gadget" achievement by using Fury on a Screwdriver lmao. I mashed the gadget button during the activation

[Jack Ketch]

Chainsaw is awesome.
I was in Bonus Round where you get a new rule on every floor and the new rule was "You and the Enemy start with Fury"
And if I started with two sixes, that's 24 + 12 = 36 on the first play!

[DoubleATam]

PPS: I thought I was out of the woods with Inventor 5 but then the first rule I got in Bonus Round was the Inventor 5 rule lmao. But I guess my earlier victory wasn't a total fluke, because this one went pretty well also. (Still got Chainsaw and Reversal though. And Blood Suck+.)

So yeah, strategy works. I hope.
(Oh while browsing the forums I only just now realized you can mark posts as answers. Well, I think every bit helped, but I should probably still at least do the courtesy of picking one)

Also, I guess in hindsight now I see why guides mentioned a lot of items that aren't in ep1-3. Now that i've finally messed with Bonus Round a bit, it seems to be the one that's intended to be replayed the most, so it makes sense that most guides are probably made with it in mind, and I think it has the largest item pool?

[TalesUnfinished]

Apologies for the necro, but I wanted to note that none of these strategies worked in my (Switch) playthrough. Though I did employ one suggestion: Reversal. The rest of my strategy required a bit of tricky timing and a bit of luck (and was how I dealt with a lot of the thief's rounds, too), wherein I timed it such that I went into a fight with the alchemist with Reversal. I then just stole her bear potion and finished it out that way. It required that the alchemist not be the only option coming into the floor, and I had to fight another combatant with one other piece of gear and the pre-Reversal gear so I couldn't accidentally get something else as a gadget option, instead. I hope this eventually helps someone else.