Cheesy Archdevil – Annihilator Build + Various Tips

This guide helps to make the Archdevil playthrough as easy as possible with an OP build and provides tips for all enemies and bosses.

Preface

This guide is meant to make Archdevil playthrough as easy as possible. I totally understand that my build is OP and I want the developers to release a patch that will fix the balance but this is META for now. I’m not making you play the Archdevil difficulty using exactly this build and if you are willing to have a real challenge I can only support that! However, I also cannot ignore META and even if I do, somebody else will just find it sooner or later.

With that said, we can move to the guide.

What is Archidevil?

Archdevil is a brand-new difficulty that was added in the 1.5 update. It unlockы after you finish the story on any difficulty and presents itself as an ultimate challenge that requires the best of your skills and gives no room for errors. If you ask me, completing Archdevil is similar to playing Doom Eternal Master Levels on Nightmare. Not only the difficulty is pumped up to the max, but the levels also have enemy spawn changed, so high-tier foes appear from the very first level. Some of the Doom Master Levels were a real pain to complete and demanded perfect reaction and knowledge of enemies, is it the same for Metal: Hellsinger? Well, not really if you are using the build below…

Annihilator “Goodbye” – The OP Build

Behold the ultimate demon-killing machine…









I called this build Annihilator “Goodbye” because it exterminates all the demons around so rapidly that you manage to only say “goodbye” before their bodies perish. Jumping into details, Angelic Eyes will be our outfit (sorry non-DLC owners) and Vulcan (aka crossbow) will be our primary weapon. The latter one deals large amounts of damage and has explosive projectiles but there are only 2 bolts in the magazine. Angelic Eyes increases the number of bolts in the magazine up to 10 with every successful quick reload. In the end, you get an almost infinite ammo rocket launcher that wipes out everything. Most of the enemies need 3-5 shots to die, the toughest ones require 10-15. Vulcan’s ultimate is also quite useful as it drags all the nearby entities into one spot, so you can finish them all together. The second weapon is optional, but I recommend either The Hounds or Hellcrow. The former one doesn’t deal much damage but is easy to wield on beat, the latter one deals double damage but has a low fire rate. Both of them, however, have pretty useful ultimates, The Hounds places a kind of stationary turret, Hellcrow creates a damaging aura around you. I myself prefer The Hounds because you can place a shooting turret and then dash to a healing crystal or wait for the enemies to be ready for slaughter. As for the sigils, I choose Last Breath Aegis and Ultimate Sovereignty as they provide the most survivability. The whole build is generally centered around survivability, so if you are going for the max score you may have to change the sigils and experiment with the secondary weapon.

There are only two major issues in this build. Firstly, because the Vulcan projectiles have a decent explosion radius you will likely destroy all the healing crystals in the area before you actually need them. This problem becomes less relevant as you master your crowd control skills and learn the number of shots needed for enemies to be weakened. Secondly, the Vulcan projectiles create so many particles and effects on explosion that it becomes hard to see enemies among them. I recommend keeping a medium distance from the crowds and being ready to dodge any time in case some enemy decides to jump on you.

Last but not least, this build is not Press-X-To-Win. You still need to mind your surroundings, evade projectiles and hit the beat. However, this build makes it significantly easier to complete Archdevil and works in 90% of fights. Most of the time I died (except for totally stupid deaths) was when a large pack of projectiles met with my face and I didn’t manage to heal in time. To sum up, the higher your skill in Metal Hellsinger, the cheesier this build will be for you.

How To Use This Build

Again, this was created to provide maximum survivability – if you are going for a high score you will need to be more creative.

The order of actions is almost the same for every level. Start with The Hounds\Hellcrow and build up the ultimate for them, then switch to Vulcan and get to 10 bolts per magazine. Then you can start annihilating everyone around, use Vulcan’s ultimate on cooldown cause you will build it up pretty rapidly every time. In dangerous situations quickly switch to The Hounds\Hellcrow, activate ultimate, switch back to Vulcan, and continue shooting. Additional ultimate will increase your chances to emerge victorious from the battle. After that, regain the ultimate by shooting low-tier enemies or just wait for the Sigil to regain it and continue until the end of the level.

Basic Tips

These are five basic tips that I came up with during my playthrough.

• 1) Move and stay in the air as much as possible. As obvious as it sounds, some players still try to tuck into a corner or hide behind a pillar to be safe from projectiles and enemies. Metal: Hellsinger is not a cover-based shooter and fast-paced movement is essential. Try to run in circles around the arena, bait enemies to approach Chaos Crystals, stay in the air to avoid most of the melee and aura attacks. Vulcan explosions do not damage you but let you perform rocket jumps, which essentially gives you almost 5 jumps instead of 3 that you can make by using jump and dash.
  
  
• 2) Bind reload to RMB. I’m serious. Do it and play for some time to get used to it. This is so much more convenient than constantly reaching to R with your fingers and lets you strafe right during the reloads. You can rebind the ultimate to MMB or additional mouse buttons if you have them. The other bindings depend on your preferences, I personally bound Dash to Alt instead of Shift because it’s more convenient for me.
  
  
• 3) Learn the number of shots required for an enemy to be ready for slaughter. I will leave the numbers for some of the enemies in the Enemy Tactics section. This knowledge will let you efficiently control the crowd, manage your health, and regain it quickly if there is no health crystal in the vicinity.
  
  
• 4) Quick reload slaughters. I couldn’t find any information on this in the game’s codex but if you slaughter an enemy on the exact beat you need to perform a quick reload, the weapon reloads automatically. I hope it’s a hidden feature and not a bug that will get patched. It is pretty useful as instead of spending time on reload you can finish an enemy and replenish health.
  
  
• 5) Do not hesitate to slaughter. Even if you have full health, do not stop slaughtering. Firstly, it’s stylish (this is very important, of course), secondly it gives you invincibility frames, thirdly it lets you traverse the arena quickly, finally, it saves your ammo. There is literally no single reason why you shouldn’t slaughter once you get the chance, the only exception being crowd control of course.
  
  
• Optional. If you’re struggling with the beat of level songs, the Archdevil difficulty lets you change the music without finishing the chapter with the default track. Thus, you can swap all level songs to Down with The Sickness (if you have Essential Hits Pack) or Stygia - these are two tracks with the lowest bpm in the game. The obvious drawback of this is that you won’t be able to shoot as fast as if you had higher bpm tracks.

Enemy Tactics

The slaughter shots indicate the number of accurate Vulcan shots required to make the enemy vulnerable for slaughter. Remember that danger and priority are approximated for each enemy and may vary depending on the level and the arena.

Marionette
HP amount: Low
Danger: Low
Priority: Low
Slaughter shots: 1
Slaughter HP regain: Low

Just a regular zombie. They do not pose any threat if you’re constantly moving. Can be taken out in large groups just in two shots and usually die in the process of killing bigger enemies.
















Cambion
HP amount: Medium
Danger: Low
Priority: Low
Slaughter shots: 3
Slaughter HP regain: Low

The most common shooting enemy. They are slow, easy to evade, and can be killed quickly. However, they can decently drop your HP if you are unfortunate to hit their burst of projectiles. Try to keep a large distance and use them to regain some of your HP.














Behemoth
HP amount: High
Danger: Medium
Priority: High
Slaughter shots: ~10
Slaughter HP regain: Medium

The low-tier tank enemy. They will follow you to deal melee damage and sometimes will try to leap on you. Even though their attacks are easy to dodge they can get quite pesky, so it’s better to deal with them first.















Stalker
HP amount: High
Danger: High
Priority: High
Slaughter shots: ~8
Slaughter HP regain: Medium

One of the most irritating enemies in the game. Even though they mostly use melee attacks they constantly dash around the arena and can deal large amounts of damage if you are unfortunate to meet them face to face. The most effective tactic is shot + dodge on the same beat. Kill these demons as fast as you can.













Eyeless
HP amount: Medium
Danger: Medium
Priority: High
Slaughter shots: 3
Slaughter HP regain: Medium

The “supporting” shooting enemy. Even though their projectiles are easy to dodge, they explode on impact and create a toxic area that not only damages but also slows you down. They can also leap through the arena to take new shooting spots. Because of this, it’s better to keep a large distance from them and get rid of these enemies as fast as you can, considering they are pretty easy to kill.












Hierophant
HP amount: High
Danger: Medium
Priority: High
Slaughter shots: ~12
Slaughter HP regain: High

The only summoning enemy in the game. They will summon their copies that will try to melee you, mines that explode on impact, and black entities that will follow you and damage you if touched. Though these demons do not attack you directly, they clutter up the area with their summons, so it’s better to kill them as fast as you can.













Lesser Seraph
HP amount: Mini-boss
Danger: Medium
Priority: Paramount
Slaughter shots: ~10
Slaughter HP regain: High

The “ultimate” regular enemy. They do not move much and their beam and explosive attacks are easy to dodge but they still deal a large amount of damage. In addition, their sphere attack makes a large part of the arena becomes unavailable for traversing, so it is crucial to deal with them as fast as possible.













Shield Cambion
HP amount: High
Danger: High
Priority: Medium
Slaughter shots: ?
Slaughter HP regain: Medium

Another pretty irritating enemy. They are quite slow but are invulnerable to direct attacks, shoot long bursts of projectiles, and sometimes summon aura attacks on the arena. Approaching these demons on Archdevil is too risky, so the most effective tactic is sniping them from afar aiming to the right of their shield. However, shooting from one spot makes you an easy target, so it’s better to keep a large distance from these demons and deal with more dangerous enemies first.










Siege Behemoth
HP amount: Mini-boss
Danger: Extreme
Priority: Paramount
Slaughter shots: ?
Slaughter HP regain: High

A buffed version of a regular Behemoth. They do not only try to melee you but will also use their ground aura attack, “cleaving” slow projectile attack, and a wide fast projectile “shotgun” attack. The most efficient tactic is to keep higher or lower ground, thus their aura and “shotgun” attacks cannot reach you. Deal with them as fast as you can.












Void Stalker
HP amount: Mini-boss
Danger: Extreme
Priority: Paramount
Slaughter shots: ?
Slaughter HP regain: High

The ultimate version of Stalker. Unlike the regular Stalker, these will constantly use their ranged projectile and aura attacks among regular dashing around the arena in an attempt to melee you. They are even more annoying and dangerous, so try to keep a large distance, use shot + dodge tactic, and eliminate these demons as fast as you can.













Annihilator Seraph
HP amount: High
Danger: High
Priority: Paramount
Slaughter shots: ?
Slaughter HP regain: High

The only enemy that solely appears on the Archdevil difficulty. Despite that, they are not an extreme threat for an experienced player. Their laser, ram, and aura attacks are pretty easy to dodge and do not deal much damage. Still, they can be quite pesky, especially when mixed with other enemies, so keep a large distance and get rid of them as soon as you can, considering they are quite big targets.

Boss Tactics

Anger Aspect: Voke

Nothing extraordinary. The boss summons just one wave of enemies as soon as you deplete half of her health. When she is almost dead a slow bullethell wave starts but you will likely finish her quicker before the first bullet hits you.







Charged Aspect: Stygia

Nothing extraordinary either. The boss bullethell attacks are slow and pretty easy to dodge. She summons 2 waves of enemies on 2/3 and 1/3 health left; Vulcan’s ultimate will help to deal with both packs. The arena is not very big though, so Void Stalker in the second wave can be quite tricky to kill. Otherwise, the battle is easy.





Fortress Aspect: Yhelm

This boss will create a shield that protects her from direct damage. Wait for the round projectile attack to end, go under the shield, and dash around the boss while shooting. She summons 2 waves of enemies on 2/3 and 1/3 health left. The arena is again not too large, so a second wave with 2 Lesser Seraphs and one Annihilator Seraph can cause some trouble. Move quickly and shoot accurately to survive.



Infernal Fury Aspect: Incaustis

This boss will make the central arena pillar rotate and spit out fire. It doesn’t deal much damage but can easily kill you if you repeatedly touch it. The arena is also quite small with the pit around which does not give you much space for movement. The boss’s main attack is fast homing projectiles; try to get the farthest you can from her and dash right and left while shooting. She will summon 3 waves of enemies on 3\4, 2\4, and 1\4 health left. The first two are quite easy, however, the third one not only spawns a Hierophant and Siege Behemoth but also makes the central pillar spit fire all around. Save as many healing crystals as you can for this wave, once it starts, use both of your ultimates, use Vulcan rocket jump to get the max height, and kill enemies as fast as you can. I recommend killing the Hierophant first to get rid of the pesky summons and then switching to the Siege Behemoth. In the last phase, the boss will stay above the pillar and shoot fast aiming projectiles at you. Heal to the max before it starts, then dash around the pillar and kill her.



Hellstorm Aspect: Gehenna

This boss doesn’t have any special ability like the previous two. It shoots you with fast homing projectiles; dash around the arena to avoid them and shoot. When she drags you into the center area with a wind spell you can try to dash into one of the pillars on the sides and hide behind it, otherwise, just shoot and dash left and right. The boss summons two waves of enemies on 2\3 and 1\2 health left. The second wave may cause some problems because of two flying Lesser Seraphs, an Annihilator Seraph, and several stalkers on the ground. However, the arena is large, so use your ultimates, mind your movement and you should emerge victorious. I recommend dealing with the stalkers first, so you can safely dash behind the pillars from the flying enemies afterwards.



Doppelganger Aspect: Nihil

The most annoying boss in the game. She will make copies of herself all of which will shoot at you and deal damage but only one of them will receive damage from you. Look closely where the “real” boss moves during transitions and try to keep as much distance as possible from her and her copies. The boss summons two waves of enemies on 2\3 and 1\3 health. The second one might be tricky due to two Void Stalkers and a Hierophant spawning at the same time but the arena is big enough for keeping a large distance. In the final phase, there will be one real boss and three copies. Use your secondary weapon ultimate, dash constantly, and kill her as fast as you can.



Wheel Aspect: Acheron

This boss will spawn packs of fast homing projectiles and shoot them at you. Keep a large distance and dash left and right to avoid them. The boss summons two waves of enemies on 1\4 and 1\2 health; she will additionally spawn one Lesser Seraph after the first wave to aid her. The last wave is quite tricky because it spawns Hierophant, Siege Behemoth, and Annihilator Seraph at the same time. Use your ultimates and try to eliminate and slaughter Hierophant as quickly as possible. Dodge the Annihilator Seraph’s attacks and shoot the Siege Behemoth. You can use the angled cog to hide from projectiles and Seraphs’ beams for some time. The arena has only 2 healing crystals at the back but the good thing is you are unlikely to destroy them during fights and they will be very useful to survive the last wave. In the final phase the boss will spawn a lot of Heirophant mines around the arena and start shooting projectiles at you; stay in the air as much as possible and finish her rapidly.



Red Judge - Worldbreaker: Sheol

The final stretch! Surprisingly, this boss is not very hard if you know what you’re doing. She has 4 phases and spawns 3 waves of enemies at around 1/10 health left. The first phase is a bullethell with medium-speed projectiles; try dashing diagonally but do not approach her too close. Try not to use the crystals on this arena as you will likely need them in the subsequent phases. Once the boss's HP drops to 2\3 the second phase starts: climb up, regain HP from a crystal if you need and start shooting at flashing spots of the boss. In this phase, her projectile and sword attacks are pretty easy to dodge. Once her HP drops to 1/3, the third phase starts. Regain HP, jump down and you will face three Aspects like those which you’ve already fought in the previous levels. They are pretty easy to kill, so just dodge their projectile attacks. After that, there will be 3 waves of enemies: the best way to effectively kill them is to use both of your ultimates at the start of each wave, and when one enemy is left, regain both of them with the Ultimate Sovereignty sigil. The final wave will be two Siege Behemoths, one Annihilator Seraph, and a bunch of low-tier enemies. Use Vulcan’s ultimate to pull all of the latter ones into one spot and eliminate them with a bunch of Vulcan shots. Use the secondary weapon ultimate and kill Annihilator Seraph, while keeping distance from the Siege Behemoths. Once the Annihilator Seraph is killed, finish the Siege Behemoths and make sure to regain HP. In the final phase, the boss leaves very little space for movement and starts spawning projectiles around you. Dash left and right and shoot her left eye (right for you) to finish her and this difficulty once and for all!

Level Tactics

Voke

The main issue of this level is small locations that get swarmed with enemies pretty quickly. However, the majority of them are Marionettes and Cambions, so the completion is easy as long as you shoot everything that moves and stay in the air. The 4th zone has gaps in the floor which you can fall into during the fight, be cautious when dodging.










Stygia

On this level, the increased amount of enemies and duration of battles start to become more noticeable. There is nothing particularly hard at this stage, the arenas are pretty vast and it’s hard to fall from their edges. Remember to keep your distance from Stalker enemies and you will be fine.











Yhelm

On this level, the game tends to spawn groups of Stalkers, Shield Cambions, and Behemoths. Swift movement and Vulcan’s ultimate are the key to the victory. The arenas are large with no holes in the floor, so there is a lot of space for dodging.












Incaustis

I consider it to be the hardest level in the game because of its uneven arenas with many lava pits that you can fall into, rocky walls, and corners that you can get stuck in while dashing. On top of that the arenas themselves are not very large and the game starts to spawn groups of several high-tier enemies that aid each other. Your movement and enemy prioritizing skills are crucial in this level: run in circles around the arenas, avoid accidentally destroying healing crystals, and slaughter as much as you can. Sometimes it’s better to firstly deal with hordes of pesky low-tier enemies and hide from the high-tier ones at the opposite side of the arena, the decent amount of rock pillars will assist you.



Gehenna

This level has medium-sized but easily traversable arenas. Nothing particularly difficult if you are able to move and prioritize enemies. Remember to use Vulcan’s ultimate and try to avoid meeting Lesser Seraphs and Annihilator Seraphs face to face while in the air. Use the pillars on the arenas to hide from enemy attacks but do not linger in one place for too long.









Nihil

Nothing particularly hard on this level if you are already experienced in enemy prioritizing (and if you’ve got to this point, you should be). The arenas are big enough for easy traversing with many pillars to hide behind and the game doesn’t spawn too difficult packs of enemies. The main problem of this level is the notable amount of Lesser Seraphs and Annihilator Seraphs spawning with ground enemies. Try using the ultimate to stun the latter ones in place and deal with the Seraphs quickly.







Acheron

A pretty intense level due to large groups of dangerous enemies. As always, constant movement and enemy prioritizing are the key. Every arena is built around a pit in the center (except the second one where there is a wall), so it’s easy to run in circles from the ground enemies but a large number of Seraphs make it much more difficult. Learn which wave is the last on each arena and use both of your ultimates for them. Be careful at the last arena because it has some pits around and you can easily fall off if you aren’t paying attention.





Sheol

Despite being the final level, it is not very difficult. All arenas are vast and have a decent amount of space to hide from enemies. As usual, just move quickly and prioritize the enemies depending on the situation. If you’re having troubles, learn the final waves for each arena and unleash your ultimates onto them.

Other Tips

• If you are a metalhead but a complete noob in music theory, just use the headbanging to shoot on beat, so you won't have to constantly look at the beat brackets.
  
  
• Remember that you can always go back to the Beast difficulty and train particular songs, so you will be able to quickly recover if you go off, without the need to look at the beat brackets.
  
  
• If you’re willing to finish the level ASAP you can skip the enemies that spawn in the transitional areas between the arenas. You will obviously get a lower score but I don’t think you care if you just want to complete the chapter.
  
  
• The fury level seems to drop quicker on Archdevil than on other difficulties. This is not really important if you just want to finish the level but crucial if you’re planning to get a high score.
  
  
• I may be wrong but it feels that the game increases enemy damage and decreases the amount of regenerated health with each subsequent level on Archdevil. I simply noticed that I started to get less HP from slaughters and crystals at the later levels but this might be due to constant dashing and not collecting all healing shards.

Torments

???

For now, the torments are unavailable on the Archdevil difficulty but, who knows, maybe we will get them in future updates…

P.S.

Developers, can you please add more achievements, especially one for completing the game on Archdevil? It is a cool experience but you get almost nothing for its completion.

Thanks to SiviruS for making a funny thumbnail.

[Warriot]

Tip for people that don't have the Angelic Eyes DLC, you can also use a similar build with Vulcan + Ghost Rounds III, that let you having 8 rounds and can fast reload with swaping weapons (pressing Y and B fast)

[Vassago]

deeply appreciated read .. I'm still quite at the beginning of learning this game, and for games like these it always helps to see ideas of how it's "meant to be played"