I don't get it. How am I supposed to defeat the scissor woman?

[Tails' Cash Explosion]

Am I supposed to just guess a combination of claps and bows and hope I don't die before then?
Or am I supposed to just fight it like normal and pray I can dodge enough attacks and do enough damage before it kills me?

[Tails' Cash Explosion]

Well I just beat her with luck by dodging enough. Still don't understand clapping and bowing.

[HypetheKomodo]

You can kill her normally

I haven't tried to clap or bow anything yet, maybe that does something, but I'm too spooked to try that on most things

if you are performing the ritual incorrectly she'll be her "Horror" form and will be harder to kill, but it is still possible

[Tails' Cash Explosion]

I understand preparing for the ritual properly. If you clap and bow, the game will tell you "you think you've gotten x number of moves correctly. So it appears to literally just be trial and error to figure out what order to do and combination of claps and bows. Which seems kind of ridiculous since that means your just taking damage to the face while you're guessing.

Maybe in the main game mode you can discover part of what's needed to do the clapping and bowing properly and then you only have to guess part of the ritual. I dunno. Thanks for responding.

[Moagim]

I would say that Scissor woman is actually one of the easier monsters to defeat. Do you have a weapon of any sort when you fight her? If not you can find a wooden bat in one of the lockers in the school

Also make sure that you do the ritual correctly (ie that you draw the proper symbol on the blackboard).

Edit: also the clapping and bowing doesnt really have anything to do with the ritual needed to defeat her. As far as I know it serves for casting spells, but I never really use it.

[Tails' Cash Explosion]

Yes I had the weapon you speak of and I know I've been doing the ritual correctly, because I have done it incorrectly before and I understand the consequences of that.

It just sounds like if you manage to do the proper order of claps and bows, you'll yeet the enemy out of existence or something. If you do claps and bows during combat the game will say: Nothing happens! You think you got 2 ritual moves right!

So it just sounds like if you figure out the order of claps and bows something will happen. But now I know you can just defeat her normally. Thanks for the response!

[Wbluesky]

The clapping/bowing hasn't come up for me yet during a run except one of the mysteries (the vigil one). Completing the clap/bow correctly will tell you (for this boss specifically) that it only works on ghost type enemies, so it's totally useless on her.

As for actually beating her: It's mostly luck. I got lucky with my investigations and didn't have a lot of stam/reason loss when I got to her, the ritual was prepared correctly, and I just spent my turns building up up my hit ratio (the +10% cumulative to hit) with a steak knife (might've been a broken bottle), and sponged the damage as best I could.

I survived with my mouth cut open, but I survived!

[Tystefy]

The ritual using the blessed chalk and candles will force her into a weaker form. Once you find the chalk, the blackboard will display some garbled symbol. This initial symbol is not the correct one. Near the same button you click to "explore school", there will be two additional buttons marked "1" and "2". Clicking these will allow you to redraw the symbol. Your friend's diary will have a rough scribble of the correct symbol to draw.

You will be unable to modify the drawn symbol when you decide to explore again after finding the chalk.


The ritual involving claps and bows is an entirely separate ritual. It is not what your friend is talking about. Successfully preforming the correct sequence will insta-kill ghost-type enemies.

What I like to do first is 5 claps in a row. The game will tell you how many you got correct but not which ones. If it says "you think you got 3 correct", then I know the ritual involves a total of THREE claps. By extension, you now know it also involves only TWO bows.

Using some form of pen and paper to chart your attempted combinations will greatly assist. Otherwise, it might feel frustrating.





Alternatively, just smack the ghost with a bat. Works too.


EDIT: Also, do not discount the value of the Dodge action.

[Dr. Marker]

Another thing that can help for people struggling with her is that if you manage to find and keep the 'Small Key' item (can be found as a reward in other investigations, so I actually recommend doing the Scissor Lady investigation second or later) you can open the locked locker on the right that will contain a sporting rifle that comes with two bullets, easily enough to kill her within two turns and can also be sold for a fair amount of money if you decide to not keep it after expending it's ammo.

[Tails' Cash Explosion]

Alright, I fully understand how it all works now. I just successfully did the correct combination of bows and claps against the Scissor Woman and the game says: Nothing happens! This ritual will only work on GHOST enemies!

Really dumb the game doesn't mention this at all, at least not in the tutorial mission. The game should really say its not going to work instead of letting you figure the correct combination out for something that doesn't even work. That makes no sense.

[Greatfox [RUS]]

Does the ritual stay the same for the entire run? I.e. if I get it right just once, can I use the same combination on all of the ghostly enemies for the remainder of the game? It's not terribly useful as there aren't that many strong ghostly enemies around, but it would conserve some resources.

[Shakajolt]

There are very few ghost enemies from what I've seen, and I'd also recommend the "block" action rather than dodge for a lot of cases- if an enemy does 1 damage of any kind, blocking blocks all of it. If they have 1-all, blocking will block that damage. You *can* still sustain injuries despite taking no damage from some specific enemies, but otherwise blocking will let you slowly kick to death a lot of weaker enemies while taking no damage what so ever.

Also going off of Dr. Marker; the sporting rifle can be used as a weapon without ammunition and is great if you have high perception-not sure the logic behind it, but I definitely kept it over some other weapons.[/quote]

[Tails' Cash Explosion]

Alright I'll try blocking more against the weaker enemies instead of dodging. I haven't really experimented with blocking yet. Combat in general feels pretty weak and uninteresting in this game. Feels like there aren't many options.

[Dr. Marker]

Originally posted by Neptune Himself:

uh I got both Endings A and B just by hitting her really hard with a stick and getting lucky and having all my hits land. one time getting the symbol correct and one time getting it wrong.

Am I doing something right/wrong?

No, that's about right.

Ending A is for defeating the scissor woman and properly 'banishing' her by getting the ritual correct, saving your friend in the process.

Ending B is for defeating the scissor woman in her 'horror' form due to getting the ritual incorrect, the fight is harder and it's narratively the 'bad' ending since it's implied she isn't truly gone but you also get her scissors as a weapon, which are pretty damn good if you don't mind the doom gain.

In addition, a nice little bit of continuity in the game is if you first resolve the Mermaid investigation by burning down the school and then go on to do the Scissor Lady quest you will fight a different 'burned' version of her rather than her normal form, I don't know if this fight is any different statistically but it is counted seperately in the beastiary.

[Dr. Marker]

Originally posted by Squidsy:

Also going off of Dr. Marker; the sporting rifle can be used as a weapon without ammunition and is great if you have high perception-not sure the logic behind it, but I definitely kept it over some other weapons.[/quote]

All very true, although if you don't have great PER or you already have a weapon you prefer to use like the katana or fire axe and have run out of bullets then it does mean that it can serve a useful purpose even after using up all the ammo.

EDIT: I have no idea why the quote is messed up like that.

[*^SaoSin^*]

lol literaly the easiest map of all since it always ends with encounter and you get a weapon very early on this map... I always start with that if RNG gives this mystery to me. Spared funds on weapon...