How to defeat the Serious Spearman

The purpose of this guide is to share my take on how I defeated the Serious Spearman. It gives some insight on the required stats and some advice on how to approach this tough fight.
The Serious Spearman is the toughest fight in the game so far on all levels and requires grinding, planning, grinding and some more grinding.

Although the game tries to push you into a Physical fighting style with the Spearman I choose Magical Attack, because I was most comfortable with the style and have been using it my entire playthrough. If you are using Physical Attack, this guide may still offer some useful advice but you may need to find an alternative for certain details such as skills and equipment selection.

Feel free to leave a comment to improve this guide or correct a mistake.

Requirements

The first requirement to even hope to survive the first fight out of five is to make sure you finished each of the first five endings at least 5 times, preferably with some Pride challenges on top of them to boost your stats and gain Auto Eat and Queue Slots.

The second requirement is to have fully leveled up all (relevant) summons (party members). This includes the Fire Drake and summons from the Guardians. See also, the party tables below.

The third requirement, and this requires some serieus grinding, is a lot of inspiration to level up your Status Up to at least 1M levels, although 25M+ is recommended and should reduce the amount of grinding significantly. This Guide describes how to do that, see Stats strategy for more info.

The final requirement to make him show up is to defeat Serious Father before you move on to the next area (Forest). With the previous requirements met, this shouldn't be an issue.

My Stats

Every piece of the party configuration aims to boost stats in general, but Magical Attack preferably, this goes for party members stats, but also equipment and second equipment.

Without Magical Formation enabled, my stats at the moment of attack were:

• Hp: 19.1T
  
• Atk: 432B
  
• Def: 18.6T
  
• MAtk: 66.0T
  
• MDef: 28.8T

This included:

• Title: Blessing of the Flame
  
• Astral World Status Up: 1.44M
  
• Astral World Expand Cap: 1.50K
  
• Akashic Records Inspiration+: 2.16k
  
• Blazing Aura: 93.7M
  
• Familiar: Greater Demon x79
  
• Warrior/Sorcerer/Tamer all levels on 4.15M.
  
• Envy:
  
  • Max HP: Lv 65
    
  • Defense: Lv 59
    
  • Magical attack: Lv 116

Energy:

• MP: 44
  
• Stamine: 41
  
• Fire: 79 (Important since this boosts Magical Attack through Fire Drake)
  
• Water: 52
  
• Wind: 52
  
• Earth: 52
  
• Light: 21
  
• Dark: 22

Party:

Member	Skill	Equipment (lvl)	2nd Equipment (lvl)
You	Wind Step	Steel Sword (312+50)*	Silver Rosary (158)
Greedy Beast	Spirit Roar	Magic Wand (441+50)*	Broad Sword (158)
Rage Goblin	Hard Blow	Spirit Orb (326+50)*	A. Bow of Alchemy (0)
Gravekeeper Ghoul	Wind Step	Magician's Robe (416+50)*	Wizard's Gloves (158)
Fire Drake	Heat Bite	Sacred Spellbook (397+50)*	A+. Bow of Murder (142)
Jack of Clubs	Wind Slash	Commander's Flag (377+50)	C. Talisman of Dawn (128)
Skeleton Warrior	Leader's Brave	Leather Shield (442+50)	C. Halberd of Lifemending (112)
First Horn	Spirit Roar	Magma Rod (2+30)*	B. Bracers of Woodcutting (109)
Brutal Right Arm	Spirit Roar	Barbarian Vest (243+50)	B. Necklace of Disbelief (109)
Joker	Phantasmagoric	Adventurer's Armor (425+50)	B. Sword of Power (109)

* has magical attack boost.

Other things that may have helped:

• Love: 95
  
• Sea Breeze Amulet: 5
  
• Durable Leather: 45
  
• Bought all Sin Upgrade Actions
  
• Bought all Inspiration Upgrade Actions

Stats Strategy

After defeating Spearman 3, it took me two months of grinding Gluttony and inspiration before I could defeat him in the fifth fight. I do not recommend this, since it is easier after doing multiple gluttony/reincarnation runs to farm Complains for Envy. Anyway, here is how I did it:

The start

At first, finish every Area, except the Demon King! Make sure to max out your Virtue and Malice while at it (use the Titles). For each decision, e.g. 'Which of these three recipes would you like to learn?' make sure to pick the one that would boost the Magical Attack (Rice Mushroom :)).
After finishing all the area's, focus on building two party templates.

• Habit Efficiency/Inspiration run
  
• Damage (See my stats for this template)

The Habit Efficiency party did all the grinding with a Habit Efficiency of roughly 300M and focused on Inspiration gain, Sacred Ritual and Habit. I made sure to have a quick attack skill (Sharp Spike) for the first party member to blast through the dungeons quickly. Since the queue will directly shift to the next when the previous is done, this should go really fast.
Party:

Member	Equipment
You	Magic Wand
Fire Drake	Shroud of Grudge
Flame Flamingo	Commander's Flag
Overdose Lizard	Wanderer's Robe
Fourth Wing	Sage's Grimoire
Jack of Clubs	Adventurer's Armor
Titan	Prayers Rod
Revolutionary Witch	Relic Heavy Armor
Queen of Hearts	Sacred Spellbook
Fifth Harmony	Overlord's Sword

The reason for Titan to be in the party is purely because of the Gold Max with Habit as a bonus. This allows for faster Mana Crystal farming.

This party boosts the following which is useful to farm inspiration and level up equipment:

• Habit
  
• Sacred Ritual
  
• Dark Ritual
  
• Crystal Converter
  
• Inspiration Gain

Familiar

Only a few familiars are useful at this point (assuming all summons are fully leveled up). While grinding for inspiration, I got two of them selected permanently and switched to Greater Demon when I wanted to try for the Spearman. The two familiars for the inspiration runs are:

• Summon speed
  
• Hungry Pig Man

If your party isn't fully leveled up yet, prioritise that first! Purchase an Auto level up slot if you must and focus your Familiars on the Dryads instead. Potentially adjust your party temporarily to increase seeds drop chance. Dungeons should give you about 10-15k seeds per enemy with the rights party setup. Keep in mind that only the summons for your party need to be fully leveled up.
I made a Seed And Research farming guide for this: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2925335198

Will

Will helps to boost Ritual, Habit and stats which you'll need to defeat the Serious Spearman. I owned Improved Auto Devote, which helps significantly. I invested in the following will traits, although 'Turn into fortune is optional':

• Will Cap+
  
• Holy will
  
• Transform into power
  
• Turn into fortune (optional, but helps slightly for Gluttony)
  
• Task Efficiency
  
• Solid summon art
  
• Transform into evil

Gluttony and Queues

I set up my queues to get the right food for Gluttony:
Dungeon:

• Lostlorn Forest - Abyss
  
• Moon Forest - Abyss
  
• Dragon's Nest
  
• Vast Desert - Oasis
  
• Mt. Dragon - Crater

Loop:

• Catch Fish
  
• Pick Olives
  
• Pray (Optional, for Experience to boost Sacred Ritual)

Other:

• Make Rock Grilled Steak
  
• Make Dried Fruit
  
• Buy Beef
  
• Status Up (Optional)
  
• Kill all Destroyer/Hermit/Arbitrator/Creator/Dominator (Optional)

If you don't have enough Queue or Gluttony slots, prioritize on Dried Fruit and Grilled Steak, so skipping Catch Fish, Pick Olives, Dragon's Nest or Moon Forest- Abyss, in that order.

Auto Eat slots should be placed on (in order!):

1. Dried Fruit
   
2. Rock Grilled Steak
   
3. Wine
   
4. Egg
   
5. Olive
   
6. Fish

NOTE: Don't forget to eat food from quest rewards. Grinding a bit for Slime Jelly from time to time also doesn't hurt.

Satiety

Satiety is the capacity of your Gluttony and gives a multiplier to Dark Ritual and Sin. The latter one is important because we need that for two purposes, Increase of inspiration gain, Complaints to increase Envy levels permanently throughout reincarnations.

Money

The money you earn in all these dungeons is important to spend on the Routines Miracle Stone and Lucky Rabbit's Foot to boost your Sacred Ritual.
I capped my expenditure at 2500, which was sufficient to hover between Habit 100 and 110 and earn about 150k inspiration per run.

The left over money will be turned into Mana Shards, giving you plenty to convert to Mana Crystals which can be spend on Equipment, unlocking important boosts like Magical Attack, All Stats or Defence.
Check the equipment in the party table in My Stats to see which ones you need to level up.

Ritual, Greed and Envy

If you have setup your party you can make inspiration runs that look like this:

1. Dark Ritual when Talent is 10Oc or more
   
2. (Automatically via Sloth) spend 1 Habit on:
   
   • Sacred Ritual (4 in total)
     
   • Fire Cap Extension in Energy
     
   • Familiar
     
   • Will
     
   • Warrior (5 in total)
     
   • Sorcerer (5 in total)
     
   • Tamer (5 in total)
     
   • Envy (21 in total, unless all summons are maxed out, then you can skip Research/Seeds Drop).
3. Spend the rest of your Habit on Envy to level up Sacred Ritual, Dark ritual and (Magical) Attack.
   
4. Spend Research at Greed on everything except Seed drop, Seed max, Valuable experience, Desire and Child Prodigy untill you reach a Multiplier or about 80M.
   
5. Spend that sweet inspiration on Status Up, and don't forget the Expand the cap when it get's too full to prevent overflow on ritual and lose inspiration. (I got 150k capacity).
   
6. Periodically kill the Astral World Guardians but spend some (5-10) Sin of your max before doing so on Inspiration+ at Akashic Records, yielding more inspiration for the next run/Guardian. Make sure to keep your Sin above 30 to get the most out of the Inspiration boost.
   
7. Surplus Sin will be converted to Complaints, which can be spend at Envy to further increase Magical attack, Dark Ritual, Sacred Ritual, Habit, Satiety, Quest Complete and Instance Action. The last three will further increase your Sin gain.
   
8. Keep checking your Quests and keep reaping those rewards and modifiers
   
9. Don't forget to regulary put your seeds into Blazing Aurs/Evil eye
   
10. Keep grinding that Gluttony until an hour is passed and don't forget to clear the Guardians before the Dark ritual.
    
11. Repeat

NOTE: I spend some greed on child prodigy (100) and Valuable Experience (4k) at the beginning of my runs to get the biggest boost. After that, it is just a waste.

Shop upgrades

There are a few upgrades in the shop that could help. Here is a list of all the upgrades I bought with Rubies, especially helpfull ones are highlighted:

• All party Slots
  
• Quest Reward Boost
  
• Auto Sacred Ritual
  
• Upgrade auto eat slot
  
• Add Cook
  
• Improved Put in
  
• Improved Kill all
  
• Envy Upgrade1
  
• Envy Upgrade2
  
• Improved Auto Devote
  
• Glowing Mana Shard+
  
• Queue Slot (4/6)

The Fight

The attack of the Spearman is about 0,1 - 0,2 seconds and he attacks five times in a row with very high damage, about 650Qi and he has about 5Sx HP.
The trick is to attack him before he starts, I used Wind Step since it is slightly faster than his preparation time. You probably won't be able to kill him in one hit, so make sure one party member survives a hit to finish him off.
His order of attack goes like this:
- Prepare attack (1,7s)
- 5x Stab (0,1-0,2)
- Rest (2,5s)

The overall strategy is to focus on getting a high HP and Def to be able to survive a hit and a high (M)Atk to kill him in two hits.



Before you start the fight make sure Magical Formation is available and activate it when you start attacking. You'll probably die the first time but that is okay, the formation lasts way longer than the actual fight, so just attack again.

The first hit from you should take about half his health, allowing your last standing party member to deal the final blow during the rest of the Spearman after he decimated your helpless party with his swift attacks.

NOTE: The pattern of attack is the same for all fights with the Spearman, he just becomes faster and faster at it and deals more damage.

[Mixxiphoid]

If I remember correctly (it has been a while) you can buy some slots for rubies in the shop.

[violamelody0419]

Question, how do you have 6 auto eat slots? I've done all of the gluttony achievements and I only have 5. Is there something that I'm missing?

[yawmoght]

It´s a great guide! It will be extremely helpful, many thanks!

[robertdunn291]

you don't need to include blazing aura, sea breeze amulet or durable leather, those bonuses are negligible compared to your base stats and rather than using will cap+, it is better to just get the AR will cap+ until you get above your max will

[Mixxiphoid]

@cas thanks for the tips. I'll update the guide with your info.

[cas]

1) 1m stats up is too low. all the time spent on gluttony is lost on reinc, and is better spent on sin, su, or envy, which persist on reinc. come back at 30m su
2) shouldnt need will speed+. iirc that caps at 200k he, which should happen around ed3/ed4. low he+ early on results in low su later. better to finish those soft caps asap
3) envy priorities should be quest, satiety, and instant, as these will increase complaint gains on later runs, creating a snowball effect.
4) for gluttony or ins farming, DRs should be 1hr each, regardless of talent