Sirius, Nightmare, Pride and Obviam's magical (and insane) Castlevania journey

[Aleph]

I'm up to the stupid sand fish. I never did know this guy's pattern.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

I remember him doing 3 things most of the time.

One is where he surfaces to shoot some spiky orbs. I counter that with Optical shot + Max shot.

Another is where he attacks with his fin... Quadruple Ignis (the fire kick) works against this.

Finally, sometimes he pops up to destroy a rock, sending its pieces to hurt you. Just warp to the opposite side of where those pieces will go.

[Nightmare]

Gravedorcus isn't very hard, as long as you know his pattern. For the urchins he throws out (spiky orbs), I prefer to just use max shot. It hits several times and will most likely destroy them all, something optical shot will fail to do unless all of the hits connect, whereas all of max shot's hits will definitely connect. And also, whenever he destroys both rock platforms, he will eventually follow you from one end of the room to the other and then jump out. Just go to the opposite end and slide from under him at the perfect time, then turn back and fire all you've got at him (since he'll be stationary for a while).

His weakness is ice, and Torpor deals ice damage, but you might as well use max shot or optical shot, due to the really poor amount of damage Torpor does. It's too bad, really.

Edited July 19, 2010 by Nightmare

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Instead of sliding at "the perfect time", there's Quadruple Ignis dealing damage requiring less "perfect timing".

[Nightmare]

The perfect timing really shouldn't be any trouble for anyone who got that far in the game, but I guess Ignis works too.

I only use Ignis to exploit Albus.

Edited July 19, 2010 by Nightmare

[Dr. Tarrasque]

You need to use Ignis more. I often have to do its quick verson in the Death battle to avoid the goddamn sickles.

[Aleph]

I'm so sick of this boss already. The stupid urchins don't break after a couple of hits like they usually do, one or two of them get under the platform where I can't see them, and then Gravedorkus knocks them into me out of nowhere.

Half the time I fire a max shot at his mouth to stop them all early, one goes sailing over and pretty much comes straight down on my head, forcing me to either take a BS hit or lose my chance to destroy the other urchins...and leaving urchins out gets me killed every time.

Edit: Apparently waiting until I hear the first urchin come out and chaining Max/Optical/Max worked wonders. Almost no urchins got by in any of my tries and after becoming so wary of the bastards I was able to avoid what few that did.

Is Argila hard? ._.

Oh, it's a Ruvas clone. Almost beat it first try and then warped onto a man eater in the last room XD

Edit: Argh, I killed myself with 2 regular shots.

This is going to be a retarded fight. Or not; it seems like I can just double jump every attack he does! Except Max Shot never comes out half the time I try to fire it so I'll get hit (and die) waiting for MY Albus to shoot the damn thing before I jump over the other Albus...

Most of my deaths now are from choking when he does Torpor because

- He does it so rarely

- He has so much fucking HP I get worn out

Edited July 19, 2010 by Obviam

[Nightmare]

Sirius told me to use rapid shots against him and it works better than anything else. Unless you want to know how I exploited him...

[Aleph]

Rapid shots either miss in the air or stall you while on the ground. It's key for me to be able to counter immediately; typically I land/backdash cancel in these games when I can. I guess I could try them...

Often just double jumping over him leaves me without receiving damage for extended periods, but sure, go ahead and spoiler your AI buster.

Edited July 20, 2010 by Obviam

[Nightmare]

If you stand in the same place as him, he'll do the stationary Ignis. Timing your Ignis just right will allow you to damage him with all hits and not get damaged yourself. The best timing is like, half a second or so after he shouts his catchphrase (TAKE THIS I think), maybe a bit less. Keep on doing this until he dies. Sometimes he'll fly away with his kick, in which case you just have to follow him to wherever he went and start again.

The first time I found out about this, I killed him. No damage sustained.

[Aleph]

O_O

Are you serious? I tried that and he did the SIDEWAYS Ignis out of the way @_@

Edit: Oh, I didn't read the rest of your post. He did that the very first time for me. If he doesn't do it every time I would have never known.

You know, I think I read about that trick before. Might be why I tried it myself (and failed).

Edited July 20, 2010 by Obviam

[Nightmare]

DEATH COUNT: 102

I defeated Blackmore. Kept expecting him to go THAT WAS QUITE ENTERTAINING like he normally does, but he didn't. I did think it was weird that his shadow got all unfocused after a while, without making that quip.

OH WELL

Sirius, you should probably do the same as me and go through the game is if you were Shanoa. And probably go get a few of those power ups you missed as well.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

They won't make a difference against Death. The sickles do about 216 damage.

[Nightmare]

Maybe not just by themselves, but when put together...I mean, I have 308 HP right now.

Also, it will increase your insanity skill level so you can take on Death easily.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Maybe not just by themselves, but when put together...I mean, I have 308 HP right now.

Also, it will increase your insanity skill level so you can take on Death easily.

I'll go from being 2HKOed by everything to 2HKOed by everything. Only thing it'll do is make going through the castle a bit more easier but I don't need that.

[Aleph]

Your trick don't work. He just uses Torpor about halfway (?) through the fight, and the timing for dodging his ignis means I'll land on it every time. Then for some reason I can't escape the second hit...the one time I did, I tried ignis again and he just used Torpor again. v_V

Edit: Haha, I just got SO lucky. I did 10 ignis before he broke away, and then he hit me with Torpor (while I was fighting normally, which is embarrassing), but since I didn't land right in it, it only hit me once. I got out and was doing my usual max shot/double jump when I thought "why the heck not?" and went back to ignis in case he was close to dying...he broke out with Torpor after the SECOND ignis, but the thing is, I accidentally hit the button too early out of fear of Torpor and dodged it in time, then ran up and ignis'd him to death after that.

So yeah, some part of my brain can see the future or something? Awesome

Edit: Apparently my foresight only works on Albus because I'm having more trouble dodging Barlowe's fireballs than anything. I think it'd help if I quit being so far away when he fires them

Edited July 20, 2010 by Obviam

[Nightmare]

Sirius would recommend warping through his books, which is a good idea, but I couldn't execute it very well. So then I just stay behind him a little while before he starts firing the books, then walk away (towards the side he's facing) until the books start reaching me, then I double jump the other way and do an Ignis, and maybe a slide when I land, just in case the last book might hit me.

Something to that effect. I trust you know how to efficiently dodge the ice, Globus and lightning, yes yes?

[Aleph]

The ice only hits me because I get greedy with rapid fire, but otherwise yes.

I can dodge the fireballs now and then just brute forcing it with running away/double jumps, then teleporting when I'm trapped, but I'll try to come up with a more efficient method that suits me. He should be cake after that; those are his only attacks right?

[Nightmare]

He has the punches when you get him to low health. The first four can be dodged if you wait until you see him and then jump over him and for the last one, a simple Ignis will do.

[Aleph]

I'm about to just cheat on this bastard. My touch screen, A button and now my L button are getting insanely unresponsive.

It's like with my R button after snaking in MKDS so much, except it's THREE input systems instead of just the one. Although having a screwy R button while playing MKDS is actually far worse, but you know what I mean.

I don't have the reflexes for the punch, or if I do I don't need them. Warping the last two works perfectly, except half the time my touch screen just doesn't care. Fuck this DS.

The L button, by the way, is for dodging the fireballs. Apparently just backdashing left and right under the guy lets you dodge the fireballs in place, which is great because my previous strategy didn't work if Barlowe was against a wall like he was one of the times I died during his final phase. Which by the way pissed me right the fuck off, since he never spawned there for any attack, let alone his fireball attack, any time before or after that time.

Oh, and

Fireballs - backdash under the guy

Globus - Two jumps with rapid fire and Optical Shot under him, then ignis against the wall

Electric ball - He goes toward the side of the room he's furthest from, so I ignis in that direction and then ignis back to the center of the room when he comes near me the third time (since he doesn't come close enough to hit me the second time he comes near)

Ice - Nightmare's usual ignis; I do two ASAP and then stand behind him and rapid fire when he uses Globus afterward (like he always does), then Optical Shot when he ascends; his Globus always misses after this so I don't need to ignis

Warp punches - Double jump straight over the first, because I have no reflexes and can't see which way it's coming from, then jump over and away from the second and third with a single jump, finally warping to any position that has a different altitude the moment he launches the fourth and fifth punches

He misses every time. He only hits me now if I stray from my own strategy or my DS doesn't respond. Guess which happens more?

Edited July 21, 2010 by Obviam

[Dr. Tarrasque]

I use Quadruple Ignis against the punches. Dodge and land some damage on him. Needs some decent timing though.

[Aleph]

GODLY ANTI-PUNCH IS GODLY

I got sick of the touch screen failing, so I choked when I saw him doing punch 4 once again...I accidentally hit the A button and it screwed 4 and 5 so easy.

So from then on I dodged all 5 punches for 3 rounds by doing the usual double jump/jump away twice and then using ignis for BOTH of the last punches...he finally bit the dust.

Oh, and when I beat him, he used the fireballs against a wall again...my backdash defense dominated.

Okay, I'm using a map now. I'm lost.

I have a cheap strategy for Blackmore.

I think I've tried it in the past but wasn't as good with it. Basically, just slide under his claw at the beginning so you can see behind him, then warp there. Then, when he straightens his back, ignis through him. I was able to do this several times before he forgot to turn around and actually attacked the wrong direction, causing me to land in a combo. If I can figure out how to predict when the AI will fuck up (seriously? Attacking the wrong way on purpose? I doubt that) I can probably no damage him without any effort.

Edit: Just no damaged Blackmore. If you wait until the end of his little pirouette before doing ignis he always turns around, leaving you a safe landing.

Took 17 ignis. Ignii? Whatever.

Eligor has a huge hole too.

If you stand on his tail he'll attack as though you were behind him, but you can rapid fire his eye while it's off screen. The only problem is, his tail does contact damage at completely random times, so I have no idea how to keep the loop going...

Edit: Beat Eligor. Apparently it's the smaller part of the two gold pieces of his tail that is safe to stand on. When he raises his tail to do a tail attack instead of kicking with his hind legs, you should move off of the tail onto his back and pepper him with rapid fire and optical shot, then move back onto the tail...he may make a loud grunt and indicate he is about to do the only other attack you should watch out for, where he rears back and moves his eye toward you, which you can just duck under while at the back of his...back; if you constantly stay on the safe spot of his tail when you can he won't do anything but those three attacks.

Sirius, you want to beat Death and tell us what you did real quick? >_>

Although it looks like using max shot on the sickles (even when he's not spewing them from his hand, as it helps ameliorate the random sickles) and using ignis to go through his other attacks (although warping over his circle slash might be better and is what I've been doing) is all there really is to it, but the random sickle locations are really injuring my concentration.

Edited July 21, 2010 by Obviam

[Pride]

Past Tymeo and it's annoying spiders, beyond the zombie with the nice hat, further than the Skeleton Cave and it's annoying lack of save points, and against the water wench.

That's when my DS, after five years of faithful service, bit the dust. With it's busted top screen, broken r button, (not like I ever found a use for torpor but) and unresponsive touch screen, it died in battle, where it belonged.

*cue taps*

[Aleph]

Someone get this man and me a pair of shiny new DS Phatz compatible with the original AR.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Sirius, you want to beat Death and tell us what you did real quick? >_>

Haven't been able to beat the bastard but I think I got pretty close to it. Won't be surprised if you beat this run before Nightmare or I do.

Anyway, I just Optical shot as much as I can, sometimes Death pretty much follows you so you can use that to do Optical Shot in the direction you're running away and if you placed it on the correct altitude, Death can get hit by that 4-5 times. Whenever I'm surrounded and need to move to the other side, I perform the Ignis but with a jump so that it's less slow and hope I don't end up on a spawned Sickle >_>.

Edited July 22, 2010 by Sirius