ScourgeBringer Guide - Everything I Wish I Knew

Basic and Advanced tips I Wish I Knew including guides for each level and stage!

Basics

0:00 Basic Tips and Guide

In this guide I’ll give you survival tips, teach you how to find secret rooms, and explain what the cucumber does in this brutally difficult roguelike.

If things seem impossible, check the accessibility menu and change some options. It may seem like cheating but you need to learn enemy moves and which mobs to prioritize and you can only do this if you actually survive long enough to reach those areas.

Your basic attack will pull you towards an enemy even if it’s at the edge of your range. It also slows down your descent in the air allowing you to almost float. You can double jump but this only resets when you land on a surface, hit an enemy, or smash a projectile.

Along with your basic slash you get a dash on a pretty quick cool down and it does the same damage as a regular attack. Enemies caught in this are pulled along with your momentum which is great for skewering and killing multiple enemies. But watch out; you can still be hurt by enemy fire while dashing!

Make sure to incorporate your ranged weapon often. It reloads as you attack so use it to pick off enemies and hope for a good ranged weapon as soon as possible.

To help you avoid enemy fire you’ll need to use your Smash attack. Despite the name and heavy animation, it does a third of the damage of a regular attack! But the basic smash does knock away enemies and deletes enemy fire including environmental hazards like poison gas (and level 6). If you see an enemy with an exclamation above them, smash them to cancel their attack and stun them too! Oh and if your smash kills an enemy that spawns projectiles upon death, those projectiles will be on your side!

Now, when there’s a follow-up wave, farther away enemies spawn before those near your position at the last hit. Use this knowledge and dash to the opposite end of a room to clear out those mobs before others spawn in!

1:27 Find Secret Rooms

Hidden rooms are very important since they always grant a free item! On the first stage they’re obvious just look for these dust particles falling off surfaces. You can shoot these with your weapon or smash enemies and projectiles at them. Unfortunately, from the second stage and beyond, these walls become much more difficult to find.

Note that using Fury will reveal a secret wall and try smashing enemies and bullets at all the surfaces that don’t already have an exit. And smashing during a fight, even if you don’t manage to hit the wall, will eventually make the secret wall drop a bunch of dust but this won’t last for long so pay attention!

There’s at least one secret room and two shops on every stage. However, if there’s only one shop, that means there’ll be 2 secret rooms instead!

If you’re having trouble finding these rooms (especially in the later stages), you can simply hurry and beat the stage to catch up with Peppy. Completing an area quickly (in about 6 minutes) gets you a free item that way as well.

2:15 What does the Cucumber do? What do the Chaos Roots do?

Oh, and if you see the cucumber in the shop, it’s a troll item! Apparently one of the creators hates cucumbers so if you buy it, you get nothing but an achievement even though you spent blood to get it! Buy it once and it will never appear again unless you call it back with the Chaos roots which add challenges once you beat the game.

Want to unlock the Pizza Gun? Or maybe learn some tips about the upgrades? Check the Advanced Tips in the section below.

Link explaining each Chiming Tree Upgrades[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

Link explaining each Chaos Root options[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

Advanced

0:00 Advanced Tips and Guide

This video has some advanced tips and shows you how to unlock the pizza gun to help you survive this crazy hard roguelike.

0:05 Lethal Club

When you smash enemy fire with the Lethal Club upgrade or use smash to last hit enemies that explode bullets, those projectiles will be friendly and look slightly different.

0:14 Dash Linking

The Dash Linking upgrade lets you dash immediately after killing an enemy with a dash. Notice how enemies spawn faster the farther away they are from you when you complete a wave? Dash-kill a final enemy and then b-line to the opposite side of the room to keep the momentum going. Learn which enemies take only one hit so you can dash to those mobs and use them to get to the next enemy!

0:32 Dragon Punch

The Dragon Punch upgrade lets you combine your smash with a dash rendering you safe from enemy fire on a 4 second cooldown. It’s pretty essential for some of the later encounters. You can also pair it with the Dash Linking Upgrade or Ground Pound since this allows your Dragon Punch to go farther.

0:46 Charging Fury

The Charging Fury upgrade lets you convert enemy fire into your own ammo and sometimes into health! So try to empty your entire clip before and wait for a moment when there’s lots of enemy fire on the screen! Then use Fury to get your ammo back and maybe health if there’s enough bullets!

1:00 Unsettling Mod (gun)

If you have the Unsettling mod for your gun, some bullets will do 300% damage but most will do 50%. You can tell the difference since the 300% ones will look black. If you find a reload item, consider firing off all the top most 50% damage shots before you pick up the refill for a chance to reroll those as 300% damage bullets!

If you’re about to pick up a mod but you’re already full, a white highlighter will cycle through your current mods. This shows you which mod will be replaced if you pick up the new one.

1:27 Bet Upgrade and Rolling Shop Items

If you have the Bet upgrade, try not swapping shop items until after you’ve visited the blessing altar on that stage. A couple blessings can make shopping easier so I’d check first. Otherwise, I almost always changed the health item to see the second one since it was often better. I also prioritized items which increased my total health pool since I could look for the blessing to refill all health and ammo later on if I was lucky and in need.

1:49 Combos and Shields

Building up a combo increases how much blood you get and this combo only goes down when you get hit. However, being hit while you have a shield won’t remove your combo score meaning you might want to face a challenge room or boss when you have one!
You may know that different types of attacks increase your combo faster, that’s what these coloured bars are on the side. Slashes and Fury are light blue, Dashes are white, reflected or fired bullets are orange, and Smashes are Purple.

2:11 Maxed Stats and Living Dangerously Upgrade

If a stat’s maxed out, try smashing surplus items with the Living Dangerously upgrade to get some free blood:
Max health cap: 20
Sword damage cap: 100%
Gun damage cap: 100%
Damage vs stunned cap: 100%
Reload speed cap: +50%
Fury recharge speed cap: +70%

2:16 Unlock the Pizza Gun!

Finally, if you want to unlock the Pizza Gun, enter this cheat code at the main menu:
⬆️ ⬆️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬅️ ⬅️ ➡️ ➡️ 🅱️ 🅰️
You should hear a sound confirming that you got an amazing pizza gun with 3 random mods! Just enter the code again to disable it.

Want to know how to ace some of these annoying mobs? Check each stage guide below!

Entangled Ingress Guide

0:00 Entangled Ingress Guide

These videos will teach you some not so obvious tips that’ll help you survive this brutally difficult game. Check out my other guide with basic and advanced gameplay tips if you’re just starting out.

I’ll list all the enemies that take one hit as well tips for specific mobs. I’ll also break down some specific strategies for each area, guardians, and Judge.

1 Hit Mobs
Munching Slug[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Blue Slug[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Electro fly[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Dash bat[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

Don’t leave the Devils around or they will fire a lot of bullets!
Devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Alpha Devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

The small Crab bots can be ignored as long as you don’t go in their line of fire.
Crab-bot[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Red Crab-bot[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

When you see an exclamation, it’s best to smash the enemy but sometimes letting them fire can give you an opportunity to smash the attacks back with your Lethal Club upgrade, or use your Charging Fury to reset your ammo and gain health if there’s a crazy amount of bullets on the screen!

0:34 Guardians (Eye Construct, Original Crab Bot, Ancient Devil)

There are 3 Guardians, against the Eye Construct: Try waiting on the top platforms. If it doesn’t have line of sight, it’ll appear and do nothing. If it sees you, move quickly and smash it!
Eye Construct[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

When the Original Crab-Bot has an exclamation, it fires bullets from left to right like a sprinkler. Be sure to smash it just like the Alpha Crab-bot or Dragon punch the bullets back at it!
Alpha Crab-bot[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
When it’s flashing without an exclamation, don’t slash since your attacks will pull you towards its fire. Instead, stay on the ground smashing or stand on the ledge to the left or right and smash the bullets back.
Original Crab-bot[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

Keep the Ancient Devil low to the ground. When flashing without an exclamation, move away as it spawns a circle of bullets. Then jump in and smash them back!
Ancient Devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

1:11 Judge (BodyBoulder)

The BodyBoulder Judge gets more dangerous when it’s below half health. For this reason, you might consider saving your Fury or some ammo to finish it off quickly. It’s helpful to time your smashes and deflect as much enemy fire as possible. As with most enemies, take your time to learn the attack patterns and how to avoid them.
Judge BodyBoulder[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

Still Bastion

0:00 Still Bastion Guide

1 Hit Mobs
Bouncy-jello[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Fall-bot[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Note that you shouldn’t dash when Fall Bots fall since they’ll hurt you. Instead, smash them into enemies and their projectile attack becomes friendly!

I prioritized Prisms and Devils since they caused me the most problems. I didn’t mind leaving the jello mobs around since their bullets move so slow that I could just smash them at enemies.
The Lock Prism’s attack cannot be smashed; you’ll need to dodge, find cover, or stun them ASAP. Luckily they get batted around easily allowing you to smash them into other enemies. Their armor makes them hard to take down with ranged weapons though.
Lock-prism[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Alpha Lock-prism[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Hardened-devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Alpha Hardened-devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

0:33 Guardians (Ancient Devil, Omega Prism Bot, Primitive Hardened-Devil)

Try to keep the Ancient Devil low to the ground. When flashing without an exclamation, move away as it spawns a circle of bullets. Then jump in and smash them back!
Ancient Devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

The Omega Prism Bot forces you to float to survive the spinning laser attack. Keep slashing to slow down your descent and use dashes to reposition. It’s best to keep this guardian close to the center to give you space to move around and avoid its spinning lasers.
Omega Prism-bot[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

When facing the Primitive Hardened-Devil, use the terrain to avoid the torrent of bullets. Try not to push this guardian too far away since he gives you limited time to smash when he gets his exclamation. You can also use a well timed Dragon Punch to feed his bullets back to him.
Primitive Hardened-devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

1:06 Judge (CandleMask)

The CandleMask Judge has two blind spots in the bottom right and left corners (under these ledges)! Most attacks can’t get you here. When it starts a laser on an angle it’ll fan the attack up and around; meaning you’ll have to hover and fly ahead of the beam. Then, get your smash or Dragon Punch ready since it also pops off a few shots at the end. When it hovers just above the center and has an exclamation, you can smash it to get in some damage, wait to smash back the bullets, or use charging fury to regain ammo and some health.
Judge CandleMask[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

Wasted Pit

0:00 Wasted Pit Guide

In The Wasted Pit, be careful with your dashes, especially when you get the Ground Pound upgrade! The poison gas on the ground can make it difficult to find a safe space to land but you can Dragon Punch through the poison vents when they're active.

1 Hit Mob
Spat-fly Nests are easy enough to destroy but I prioritized other mobs first. When spat-flies first spawn, they hover and can’t be hit with regular attacks or dashes, use your smash on them instead!
Splat-fly[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Splat-fly Nest[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Slash Adult Spat-Flies about 4 times and it’ll start an explosion animation. Now smash it when it’s flashing red like this and the explosion will act in your favor!
Same thing with the Alpha Splat-fly. When it’s flashing red, smash it towards an enemy to turn the poison gas friendly! Remember that you can Dragon Punch or smash to swipe away unfriendly poison.
Adult Splat-fly[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Alpha Splat-fly[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

I always focused down Sentinel mobs first since they fire quickly and don’t stay stunned for long! Smash them into walls and enemies!
Sentinel-bot[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Alpha Sentinel-bot[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

Also focus down the Devils so that you’re not always getting shot at.
Waste-devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Alpha Hardened-devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Bouncy attacks from the Wasted devils spend a lot of time down low. Smash is really handy vs them.
Waste-devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Alpha Wasted-Devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

0:55 Guardians (Decadent Waste-Devil, Plasma Saw-Bot, Splat Fly Queen, Primitive Hardened-Devil)

If you can manage to push the Decadent Waste-Devil to the left or right walls, a bunch of projectiles will bounce away from you making this fight less chaotic. However, when it has an exclamation, it might be too far to stop in those corners if you’re not ready. Try the Dragon Punch to be safe in these situations.
Decadent Waste-devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

The projectiles from the Plasma Saw-Bot fly directly towards you and stick to the first surface they find, they wait around and then fly towards you again. Smash back as many as you can and keep moving in a circle around the boss. If you can wedge it right near some terrain it can help manage the projectile spread.
Plasma Saw-bot[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

Jump in the middle of the Splat Fly Queen and don’t stop slashing…that is until it makes a crazy screaming noise, meaning it’s about to fire off a couple projectiles you should either dodge or smash.
Splat-fly Queen[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

When facing the Primitive Hardened-Devil, use the terrain to avoid the torrent of bullets. Try not to push this guardian too far away since he gives you limited time to smash when he gets his exclamation. You can also use a well timed Dragon Punch to feed his bullets back to him.
Primitive Hardened-devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

1:47 Judge (Bileranha)

When facing the Bileranha Judge hover nearby and attack when possible. If it starts frothing green stuff, dash away and wait for his vomit attack to end. Note that it’s possible to smash clear vomit if you find yourself under it but in general NEVER be below this thing. If it gets his exclamation attack off, stay up high and away from the ensuing explosions! Don’t forget that the orange bones can be smashed back and use your charging fury when it sends out all the green bullets to refill your ammo and gain some health.
Judge Bileranha[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

Living Walls

0:00 Living Walls Guide

Once you reach The Living Walls, you’ll need to master your smash timing to survive. A lot of terrain here allows projectiles to pass through it so deflecting attacks and using your own ranged weapon will be critical! Also, many enemies from this stage on give you less time to react to their exclamations so prioritize the most annoying mobs!

No one hit kill enemies 🙁
Unless you’re balling with damage, no mobs die with one hit but the Weavers and Toxic Wasps die to only a couple hits. Their attacks can be annoying so I liked to kill them quickly!
Weaver[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Toxic Wasp[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

The Search Prisms attacks are hard to avoid, also making them a priority for me.
Search-prism[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Alpha Search-prism[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

Deformed mobs attack quickly especially when you’re nearby so be ready to smash!
Deformed-devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Alpha Deformed-devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

Waste Devils shoot bouncy attacks which are hard to track when there’s too many on the screen. Try staying up high if there’s lots of green bullets around.
Waste-devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Alpha Wasted-Devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

Spores and Alpha Spores can be a nuisance with all the projectiles they fan around. If you can keep your distance you can ignore them or smash the bullets around but if you’re in a tight space or there’s too many mobs, cut these fungus down quickly!
Spore[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Alpha Spore[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

0:51 Guardians (Decadent Waste-Devil, First Spore, Omega Search-Prism, Prehistoric Deformed-Devil)

If you can manage to push the Decadent Waste-Devil to the left or right walls, a bunch of projectiles will bounce away from you making this fight less chaotic. However, when it has an exclamation, it might be too far to stop in those corners if you’re not ready. Try the Dragon Punch to be safe in these situations.
Decadent Waste-devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

When fighting the First Spore, slash like crazy until it starts flashing. An exclamation should be smashed otherwise get some distance and be ready to smash back the large number of projectiles it spews. Look for times where there’s tons of bullets on screen to use Charging Fury to refill ammo and get some health.
First Spore[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

When the Omega Search-Prism spawns in the middle of the screen, be ready to smash it and get as many slashes as possible. When it appears in the corners DO NOT GET IN THERE with it! Instead, stay back and smash projectiles back at it.
Omega Search-prism[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

The Prehistoric Deformed-Devil fires a ton of projectiles and there’s often little to no terrain to hide behind. A great tip is to time your Dragon Punch to hit at the exact moment the Guardian fires off a salvo from its exclamation. This will do devastating damage, but if you’re not close enough, smash the projectiles, dash away to dodge, and repeat.
Prehistoric Deformed-devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

1:49 Judge (NightWeaver)

In the NightWeaver Judge fight, smash away as many attacks as you can. If you smash the big orbs they become friendly and spawn more friendly attacks when they explode!
If you can get up close and attack while it’s shooting in a fan from the wall, you can get some free hits but be careful as it moves up and your attacks pull you close to its mouth. When it moves to the top and fires pairs of attacks, you should quickly get down and slowly tap left or right to avoid the bullets.
Judge NightWeaver[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

Old World

0:00 Old World Guide

The Old World can be confusing with the portals at the edge of the screen. Note that exclamations that appear at these edges indicate danger from the other side. Some mobs here have a lot of health and likely need to be shot and stunned to keep them from attacking.

1 Hit Mob
Saw bots are one hit kills and note that you can safely dash into them even when they’re spinning!
Saw-bot[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

The Quantum bombs should be smashed when they start flashing red making their final explosion friendly. They only need about 2 slashes before they’re ready to blow so count your hits! The Alpha Quantum bomb on the other hand will always have a hostile explosion. They have more health than judges and start their explosion animation early so smash them away and avoid their explosion.
Quantum bomb[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Alpha Quantum bomb[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

The Alpha Ignis and Horned Devils fire quickly. Use your Dragon Punch if you don’t think you have enough time to dash to them.
Horned-devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Alpha Horned-devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Ignis[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Alpha Ignis[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Alpha Ignis protector[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

0:40 Guardians (Horned Devil King, Initial Bomb, Primordial Ignis, Prehistoric Deformed-Devil)

Survive the Horned Devil King by keeping your distance and deflecting projectiles back at it. Get close in between volleys for some added damage.
Horned-devil King[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

Against the Initial Bomb slash in between its attacks and deflect shots back as often as possible. It does one final explosion of projectiles when it dies so be ready! If there’s at least one other mob on screen when it dies, you can use your charging fury to soak up all the bullets and get healed. Conversely, if there’s no other enemies, you can teleport away with the Lightning Travel upgrade.
Initial Bomb[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

When the Primordial Ignis is green, attack. When it’s red, keep your distance! Simple as that. After facing it often, try to note the cadence and rhythm of this change.
Primordial Ignis[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

The Prehistoric Deformed-Devil fires a ton of projectiles and there’s often little to no terrain to hide behind. A great tip is to time your Dragon Punch to hit at the exact moment the Guardian fires off a salvo from its exclamation. This will do devastating damage, but if you’re not close enough, smash the projectiles, dash away to dodge, and repeat.
Prehistoric Deformed-Devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

1:11 Judge (Kriterion)

The Kriterion Judge has two forms but either way, stay in the middle and slash as much as you can. Only leave to avoid projectiles and smash them back when you can. If you can manage, keep track of the portals at the edge of the room for potential escape routes especially since there’s more to dodge in the second fight. In that phase, when Kriterion gets low or high, move to the opposite side to avoid the ensuing bullets and keep slashing!
Kriterion, Herald of Judgement[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

The Beyond

0:00 The Beyond Guide

The Beyond is filled with these dangerous environmental hazards. You can use your smash and Dragon Punch to temporarily remove them as you fight enemies. You cannot prolong their dormancy, they’ll be out of commission for a few seconds and can’t be smashed until they revive again. Also note that you can easily tell which projectiles are friendly by how they look (sparkly).

A big tip for this zone is to take it slow and smash back as many shots as you can. For example, I often ignored the Blood Sentinels since their attacks are easily avoided and basically provide ammunition for you to smash towards enemies.
Blood Sentinel[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

1 Hit Mob
Make sure to smash Blood Flies to be safe. When they start this animation, you have about a millisecond to smash them otherwise they explode.
Blood Fly[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

When the Alpha Blood Sentinel is flashing red, do everything you can to smash it! It’ll explode into a huge wave of projectiles and it’s better to have these working for you than against you.
Alpha Blood Sentinel[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

The Chaos Devils shoot homing attacks making them really annoying. Smashing back the little individual attacks isn’t so tough but the stream from the alphas can be much harder!
Chaos-devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Alpha Chaos-devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]
Alpha Blood Watcher[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

The Chaos Block can only dash vertically or horizontally, never on a diagonal. They will hurt you if you touch them while active so stun them first!
Chaos Block[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

0:59 Guardians (Horned Devil King, Twilight Chaos Devil, Greed)

Just like in the Old World, survive the Horned Devil King by keeping your distance and deflecting projectiles back at it. Get close in between volleys for some added damage.
Horned-Devil King[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

The Twilight Chaos Devil has a lot of homing attacks. Your smash and Dragon Punch will be important to survive this battle. Remember to shoot like mad and use Fury to soak up all the projectiles!
Twilight Chaos-devil[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

Greed is an insanely difficult fight! Most of his attacks require precise smash timing to avoid being hit. Use Dragon Punch to safely travel through the portal edges when needed. If you manage to kill Greed, he’s gone for good; that is unless you beat the game to unlock the chaos roots and donate your judge blood to revive him in the new room that appears. As far as I know, this only reinserts him into the game for added challenge but it’s not needed otherwise.
Greed, the Seeker of Power[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

1:39 Judge (EndMonger)

The final Judge, EndMonger, can be a real pain in the neck. Do your best to avoid his telegraphed criss crossing lasers. When it closes its eyes and starts following you, it’ll spawn a ring of homing attacks from its exposed brain; get some distance and smash them back! When it makes a huge laser either vertically or horizontally, get to the opposite side of the room and Dragon Punch through the hazards at the edge so you can portal over to the other side; be sure to go a little farther into the room from where EndMonger started since it wraps around after you.
Note that if you miss your smash when it shows an exclamation, the spikes it sends out can be smashed like bullets.

Finally, don’t let your guard down after it dies! You have to smash away the dangerous floating eyes that drop from its dead body.
EndMonger, the Preyer of Worlds[scourgebringer.fandom.com]

Pretty useful guides right? Subscribe to keep up with all my guides and funny reviews!

[Jovian]

Hope you sub to my underrated YouTube channel. Did you see the views and sub count?

[Mumrah]

Thank you for the reply. I tested it, and yes, it is vulnerable when it is green. You are also right that one needs to learn the pattern of red green.

[Jovian]

You avoid it until it's red if I remember correctly. It changes at a regular interval so you can start predicting the cadence.

[Mumrah]

Hello,

I was looking for tips on how to deal with Primordial Ignis. I know I can stun it while it is red, but I'm not sure how to attack it when it is green. I just keep taking damage when I do normal attacks. It seems to me that when slashing it, Kyhra bounces around it and runs into the green flames.