A little help: grind spots and tips

If you're struggling with The Tarnishing of Juxtia, these small tips may help. No video's and the guide will be updated whenever I can.

Grind Spots

The Tarnishing of Juxtia is a Soulslike Metroidvania, so a challenging game. If you are struggling to advance through the game there's no shame in grinding a few levels so you can survive longer and learn more of the enemy/boss attack patterns. You can always try a level 1 upgradeless run with the weakest weapon once you've gotten good enough, but if you just want to finish the game knowing these grind spots will come in handy. As a general tip though: enemies in a particular area of the game will usually have armour sets that you can obtain by collecting their drops.

The Siege Tunnels

The Valley of Juxtia is the tutorial area, you can usually get by there just by paying attention. The Siege Tunnels on the other hand can get a little hairy with the different enemies, traps and pitfalls. Add in that the boss can be pretty challenging, so you'll want to invest into health and stamina here. Depending on what kind of build you want to make (melee/magic) it will be a good idea to invest in wisdom as well. Can't fire spells if you run out of mp and it only refills at the pace of a geriatric slug.

The War Wastes

You'll have met the Artisan and Vikram by now. Keep both in mind as Vikram is the only shop that buys your junk and the Artisan is the only one who can upgrade your weapons. The War Wastes themselves can get tricky with the many cannons and speedy/AOE enemies. I found that the big old war machines are the easiest way to farm specks, but if you have a fast weapon or good dodging skills the scavengers aren't bad either. Just be wary of the dagger and axe soldiers.

The Drizzling Ossuary

You can reach this place after unlocking the Junction hub. And for the mid game this is your go-to grind spot. A single run nets you 23k specks, the enemies drop solun flakes regularly and solun bars occasionally. The enemies have the virtues of being (relatively) easy to stun or lure off of platforms to fall into the abyss for easy specks. (NB: that last not recommended if you're solun-farming) The best time to start grind runs though is after unlocking the boss' arena. If an enemy starts to glow red, they will mutate into something stronger, but the speck increase may not be worth the additional headache. The commander's prosthetic (beam cannon) can be useful here.

The Shaded City

By the time you reach here you should be pretty tanky. Or a lvl1 maniac with insane skills. Enemies here can hit hard, but are still relatively easy to stun. Once you have at least 2/3 of the door coins and access to the doorman, you actually have several grind spots here to use. Enemies drop a lot of specks, solun flakes/bars and (in a pinch) armour with high sell value. I found that the sword dancers and magi are easiest to grind, but the mages guild from its pre-boss fountain is also good enough if you don't mind smaller gains.

Weapons: do's and don'ts

Once you hit the War Wastes, you'll meet the Artisan. Using solun upgrade items you'll be able to make your weapons stronger, a must if you are not leveling your strength, dexterity, wisdom and intelligence. Flakes and bars can be farmed, but solun tears are limited in number.

So do not be afraid to experiment with the different weapons, as long as you do not mind grinding for flakes and bars. Do not spend the tears nilly willy though, you'll want them for the weapons you use against the final bosses.

To be continued