Curse of the Dead Gods - Boss No Damage runs (Bestiary entries miniguide)

[Copanele]

Hi all! After spending countless hours (and countless deaths) in this fun roguelite, I decided to create this thread as a sort of help for defeating all of the game's bosses without taking damage.

In order to fill the Bestiary (for the  Memoirs trophy) you need to defeat every single boss in the game 10 times without taking any damage. The final boss has to be defeated only 5 times.

Obviously, anyone can contribute with their strategies here, I am just sharing my personal experience so far.

 

RECOMMENDED WEAPONS:

1. Main Weapon - Claw (Warmonger Claw is probably the best claw due to its upscaling with Constitution), otherwise any elemental claw would do. 
2. Off-Hand - Pistol (Elemental Pistol is recommended, one of the best main Affixes should be Critical Damage for Off Hand Combo OR +20% base damage if main weapon is a claw)
3. 2-Handed weapon - Elemental Bow (either Fire, Poison or Cursed Lightning bow)

Why these weapons? While every weapon can be effective, Claw+Pistol can effectively stunlock bosses. With proper timing, you could even defeat a boss without him being able to attack at all.

For the bosses where being close is extremely dangerous, the bow is more than effective in dealing with them by charging the attack button and releasing at the right time for the Perfect attack bonuses.

 

CLAW&PISTOL COMBO

 -> Walk towards boss -> repeat combo

RECOMMENDED BLESSINGS:

1. Reptilian Hunger - Greed Kill never runs out when you are out of combat. Perfect for money farming...as long as you are not hit during combat.
2. Favor of Sich'al - Gain 1000 gold and 5 Perception at the start of your exploration. Money is always welcome and Perception being the best stat in the game, it's recommended to have as much as possible.
3. Serpent's Bounty - Non-optional Champions or Bosses drop 5 pieces of gear (instead of 2) upon defeat - combined with a high Perception stat, you can get covered in overpowered relics and weapons from the very first temple

Why these blessings? The main issue that appears during a full run is that you need to sacrifice a whopping 10000 gold before the final boss (you get free upgrade for your weapons and relics, health boost is not required for a no-damage run). Anything less than that is a chance to ruin your build, with those relics you do not have to worry for gold too much during your run.

 

RECOMMENDED RELICS:

1. Critical Damage relics - the charge attack for your bow does critical damage. Stacking on those will turn your weapon into a cannon in terms of power.
2. Health recovery relics - just as backup plan, try to have at least one healing relic, the 5% crit damage dealt also heals you is the best. You might get hit by traps/ regular enemies in-between your boss rushes, especially during the later temple levels.
3. Passing through a door inflicts -x% curse - you will get cursed for 30 points when passing through a door. Getting that number reduced will greatly help in the long run.
4. (optional) 1 extra stamina bar. For even more combo potential.

 

GENERAL TIPS:

1. Make sure you have your altars upgraded and at least some favor points available. Getting a good weapon right from the start will really help you in focusing on the other more desirable branches in exploration.
2. Plan your route accordingly - try to get the most effective route that covers bosses, relics and weapons.
3. Don't needlessly spend your gold - you can sacrifice Blood in order to get a Relic/Weapon. 
4. Some curses are more beneficial than others. For instance, after beating a boss, you need to choose what to remove from the "extra haste" curse and the "getting hit causes hallucinations", for sure you would want to remove the hallucinations curse.
5. Order of importance - my personal focus when starting a run is on Weapon altar (Until I get my gear) -> Relics -> Stat upgrades -> Weapon Upgrades -> Gold ->Healing pools.
6. For the Claw&Pistol weapons, the best combo is . You will slash 4 times with your claw, shoot your pistol which will stun the boss, WALK slightly towards the boss and repeat your combo. Do that until you run out of stamina, then retreat and wait for the boss to do his move. Dodge the attack and then restart the combo.
7. Dodging is usually better than parrying, some parry windows are iffy. Practice perfect dodging, you will lose no stamina when you perfect dodge an attack.
8. Save scumming will save your sanity. At the beginning of each level you have the option to Save&Quit. Do so for the bosses you wish to try, back up your save and redownload it if things don't go your way  

 

Now without further ado, let's get to the bosses in cause.

 

 

 

JAGUAR TEMPLE

 

Xak'olchir, the Blood Hunter

Weapon Recommended - Any

Difficulty - Easy

Moveset:

• Spear Throw - the boss charges 2 spears and throws them at you one after the other.
• Jaguar summon - the boss creates an Area of Effect and summons a Jaguar.

Strategy - This is the easiest boss in the game. His Jaguars have very low health and his spear tosses are telegraphed and easy to dodge. Focus on defeating the Jaguars first, then attack the boss.

Defeat the boss AFTER beating his jaguars and you will have a chance to get his cursed weapon.

 

 

 

VIDEO

 

 

 

 

Litz&Nepac, the Cursed Twins

 

Weapon Recommendation - Claw&Pistol

Difficulty - Medium

Moveset:

Litz (Sun Twin)

• Sun Rain - Litz summons several fire orbs that initially do not deal damage. Any fire interaction will make them explode in an AoE, similar to the explosive barrels from the game.
• Whiplash - Litz attacks with her whip twice. Hitting the fire orbs with her whip will trigger the explosions.
• Area explosion (switching to the Moon twin) - Litz creates an AoE around her, all orbs in the room will detonate as well.

Nepac(Moon Twin)

• Dash - Nepac will dash strike at you if you are far away, dodge through this attack.
• Swift strikes - if Nepac is close, he will do 3 small strikes followed by a large strike arc. Always dodge through this attack even if you are not close, since the hitbox of the attack is deceptively big.

Strategy - Litz&Nepac are 2 bosses in 1 and they are rather quirky to deal with. Litz is easier to deal with by using the stunlock combo, but make sure you manage to destroy some orbs as well, since when Litz transforms to Nepac the multiple fire orbs exploding at the same time might catch you offguard. 

Nepac is way harder to deal with since he has the bad habit of teleporting. Always have him on your screen, dodge away when he is doing any move and prepare to retaliate with your claw&gun combo.

 

Parrying either twin 3 times in the fight will give you a chance to obtain one of their cursed weapons.

 

 

 

VIDEO

 

 

 

 

Dark Avatar of the Jaguar

Weapon Recommendation - Claw&Pistol

Difficulty - Hard

Moveset:

• Leap - Jaguar will leap at you causing an Area of Effect. It is largely unpredictable so make sure you can always see what he is planning to do.
• Claw swipe - Jaguar will swipe once with his claw, then add a second swipe with a delay. The second swipe will track on you so be on your guard.
• Backhand - similar to the Claw Swipe, the Jaguar will do a backhand slap. He attacks only once.
• (Environmental) Fire Tiles - Periodically, certain sections of the floor will be set on fire. At first the outer square will be set on fire, will be put off for several seconds then the inner square will be set on fire. Rinse and Repeat. Always keep in mind which part of the arena will be set on fire next.
• Fireballs - Jaguar will shoot several fireballs in an arc. They will split the further they travel, so walk between the fireballs instead of rolling through them.
• Area of Effect - Jaguar's most annoying attack, he rushes at you and then summons a large area of effect explosion that can't be dodged through or blocked. You have a very small window to roll out of the Aoe and hope he won't do it while the outer square is on fire.
• (50% health) Forward swipe - After the Jaguar reaches 50%, he will cause a smaller AoE explosion. From that moment, after his Swipes and Backhands, there's a chance that he will walk forward while swiping 3 times. This attack is not hard to dodge but it can catch you offguard.

Strategy - This boss can be a real pain due to his unpredictability. He will always start the fight by leaping at you, causing his AoE. From that point, stunlock him with your Claw&Pistol combo, carefully checking that the floor isn't set on fire. Always try to stay near a corner of the safe area, since the Jaguar can randomly trigger his AoE fire explosions (in rare cases he can do an AoE explosion on the entire middle safe area, effectively trapping you).

Once his health reaches 50% and he does the small AoE explosion, be extra careful. If you see him tilting his head and roaring, move out of the way since he will start swiping forward. Be patient, don't attack recklessly and this boss should eventually fall down.

 

 

VIDEO

 

 

 

 

 

EAGLE TEMPLE

 

K'ax taca, High Lord of the Storm

 

Weapon Recommendation - any

Difficulty - Easy

Moveset:

• Orb spawn - The boss spawns a homing electric orb that will explode in an area of effect. He can spawn a maximum of 3 tracking orbs at the same time.
• Lightning arc - The boss will fire a straight electric current while turning towards you. The further you are from the boss, the faster he turns towards your position.
• Homing lightning arrows - The boss will shoot several electric arrows towards you. They move rather slowly so just make sure you are not directly near the boss when he summons them.

 

K'ax taca is the first boss of the Eagle temple. Despite its numerous attacks for a first boss, he's not all that dangerous. 

It's best to keep medium to close range when fighting him, either with your Bow or Claws&Pistol. Staying near him prevents him from quickly hurting you with his lightning arc. The only worry that you should have is keeping track of the lightning orbs, while you can safely go through them as long as they don't discharge, they can corner you if you are not careful. 

A particular technique with Claw&Pistol is that you can stunlock K'ax taca. After he summons his first orb, chase him and combo him with the regular 4hits1gun attack. Once you deplete your stamina, K'ax should normally teleport to another part of the map. Go wherever he intends to go and, once he materializes, continue your combo. He quickly becomes a punching bag.

 

Defeating him during his lightning arc attack can net you his cursed weapon.

 

 

VIDEO

 

 

 

 

Malok paal, the Flesh Monstrosity

 

Weapon recommendation - Claw&Pistol

Difficulty - Easy

Moveset:

• Shoulder Tackle - Malok paal charges at you. Easy to avoid, but do mind of his trajectory, he can charge randomly in other directions.
• Electric field - Malok paal summons a ring of electricity that causes damage in an area
• Punch summon - Malok paal summons his punches near you. An annoying attack to avoid, always dodge whenever the boss grunts.
• Ground punch summon - Malok paal summons 4 sets of punches from the ground. Dodge roll to avoid.

 

This boss would normally be really challenging, if it wasn't for the Claw&Pistol combo. Malok paal will always charge at you at the beginning of the fight. Use your trusty combo and back off to recover your stamina. He charge at you again, dodge and repeat your combo.

In very rare occasions he will do his other attacks even if you are far away from him. In this case, roll towards him and redo your combo.

Dodging him 5 times in a row gives you a chance to get his cursed weapon.

 

 

VIDEO

 

 

 

Dark Avatar of the Eagle

Recommended Weapon - Bow, ideally Claw&Pistol also

Difficulty - Hard

Moveset:

• Lunge - Eagle Avatar will make a sound then dash at you.
• 3 slashes - When near you, the boss will do 2 slashes followed by a thrust
• 360 spin - When near you, the boss will spin in an arc.
• Backdash thrust - When near you, the boss will quickly throw an attack then backdash from its position.
• Healing - Avatar of the Eagle will lift his shield, healing himself. Attacking will cause the boss to riposte by either dashing at you (if you are far away) or do another close range attack if you are close.
• Tempest (at 66%, 50% and 33% HP) - At certain health thresholds, the Avatar will summon a small tempest circle which will send an electric pulse across the entire field. You can roll through this pulse. He will summon up to 3 tempests that will periodically send the lightning pulse. Standing anywhere in the tempest circle will cause damage.

 

The second hardest boss of the game, Avatar of the Eagle is quite the challenge in terms of no-damage runs. While the start of the fight is pretty straightforward, by the end of it you will have very little space to maneuver while the boss is circling and dashing at you.

The bow has an edge over the Claw&Pistol here, because you can manage the situation better from far away.

One possible way to deal with this boss:

1. He will always start the fight by dashing at you, so roll through the boss and attack without being too greedy. Either shoot 2 fully charged arrows or a claw&pistol combo then back away.
2. The boss will chase you, he will either dash at you or raise his shield up. If he dashes, use the same tactic as point 1, however if he raises his shield, shoot quickly and prepare to dodge, another dash will follow.
3. One the boss stops, a tempest will follow. Keep a close eye and dash through the ring of electricity.
4. When you reach the point where the boss summons the 3rd ring, you will have to play extremely patient. Only shoot when you are sure there is no danger of being counter-hit. 
5. Do not get stuck in the corner. The tempest rings are slowly moving on the map and you being cornered by them + the boss will ensure getting damaged.

 

 

VIDEO

 

 

 

Serpent Temple

 

Xucat' the Witch

Recommended Weapon - Bow

Difficulty - Medium

Moveset:

• Skull Summon - Xucat will summon 6 skulls on the ground that will act as mines, exploding on impact. Roll through them to avoid damage.
• Skull wave - Xucat will shoot streams of skulls in various patterns. You can either roll, parry or walk through the gaps.
• Skull drop - Attacking Xucat will make her drop skulls that will explode with a delay on impact. It's best to deal with her from afar.

 

Despite having only 2 attacks at her disposal, Xucat can be quite the tricky opponent. You have to constantly pay attention that you don't accidentally trip on one of her skulls, or you roll into one of her skull wave attacks. On the good side, she is a complete pushover if you have a bow. You can even shoot her off-screen.

 

 

VIDEO

 

 

 

Ratyapu, the Abomination

 

Recommended Weapons - Claw&Pistol

Difficulty - Medium

Moveset:

• Dual Slashes - Ratyapu slashes twice in front of him
• Weapon throw - Ratyapu charges a ranged attack then throws it at you
• Thrust - Ratyapu thrusts his blades forward.
• Spin - Ratyapu spins around for a short while
• Poison buff - Ratyapu charges himself with poison which gives him enhanced speed for a short while.

 

Ratyapu is a fairly straightforward boss, he will follow you and do either of the attacks from above. Your best bet is to bait the Dual Slashes attack, roll towards him through his second Slash and start doing your claw&pistol combo.

Be very careful when Ratyapu buffs up, his speed increases including weapon throwing, spinning and slashing. The reason why he is not as easy as expected is because of his poison buff who can confuse you.

 

VIDEO

 

 

 

Dark Avatar of the Serpent

Recommended Weapon - Bow

Difficulty - Medium

Moveset:

• Serpent Summoning - The avatar will summon a group of 3 serpents.
• Serpent slam - The avatar will throw his serpent hand in front of him then he will follow with either an axe slam (if you are far away) or a Serpent swipe (if you are close).

 

The Serpent Avatar is an odd boss, mostly because he's the most inactive boss of them all. He prefers summoning his Serpent pets to do his work for him and occasionally throw his arm at you followed by a slow lunge. 

Your main priority however is to dispatch the serpents, because after a while the Avatar will kill them replenishing his own life. The serpents can throw their spears at you, so it's best to circle the arena, shoot charged arrows and dodge anything the Avatar or the serpents throw at you. Approach this battle with patience, since a mistimed attack may lead to you being hit by a random spear toss.

 

VIDEO

 

 

 

 

CLOVIS PARDIEUX, CHAMPION OF DEATH

 

Recommended Weapon - All 3 of them - Claw, Pistol, Bow, also have at least 10.000 gold on you.

Difficulty - Hard

Moveset - Phase 1:

• Curse Beam - Clovis fires a curse beam then turns towards you, similar to K'ax taca.
• Curse sigils - Clovis will spawn several exploding curse sigils that will track on you.
• Curse Arrow - If you have at least one Curse active, periodically a giant Curse Arrow will spawn above your head, slamming on you and removing one curse if it hits. This attack won't appear if you have no curse active.
• Summoning - At 75% health , 50% health and 25% health Clovis will summon a large amount of enemies. He will start with regular ones, followed by stronger and stronger variants.

Moveset - Phase 2:

• Axe Variant - Clovis will equip an axe and he will either spin or jump slam. Easiest variant to deal with.
• Claw Variant - Clovis will equip an axe and either dash 3 times towards you or do a slash flurry followed by a huge slash, similar to Nepac.
• Sword and Gun Variant - Clovis will equip a sword and a gun and will either shoot at you up to 5 times or do several sword slashes followed by a forward slam
• Bow Variant - The most dangerous of them all, Clovis will equip a bow and will either shoot one homing arrow that will track on you 4-5 times until you dodge or parry it, or he will spam several small arrows in a cone in front of him.
• Curse Arrow - If you have at least one Curse active, periodically a giant Curse Arrow will spawn above your head, slamming on you and removing one curse if it hits. This attack won't appear if you have no curse active.

 

The final boss is arguably the hardest boss to no-damage from the game, shown by the fact that you only have to no-damage him only 5 times. He is incredibly dangerous and his 2 life bars can wear you down quickly.

Luckily, there's a way to prevent him from attacking you at all! With the proper setup, Clovis can be stunlocked to oblivion, mainly because of one of his own attacks, the Curse Arrow.

The bosses in this game cannot do 2 attacks at the same time, so when the Curse Arrow appears Clovis will do nothing!

Of course, the prerequisite is for you to have at least one curse active, else the fight becomes way, WAY harder.

 

The way to defeat Clovis as easy as possible:

• Clovis will almost always start with his beam attack. Circle him and once he's done start attacking him with your Claw&Pistol combo.
• After your first claw&pistol combo, the Curse Arrow will appear. When you see it starting to rise, dodge it and prepare your setup for the next part.
• Do a Claw&pistol, walk and repeat the combo a total of 3 times. After you did your Claw&Pistol combo a 3rd time, attack with claws once or twice then wait because the Curse Arrow will spawn above your head in less than a second. Use this opportunity to recover your stamina, dodge the arrow and repeat the combo.
• If Clovis manages to escape the loop, equip the bow and shoot the enemies. DO NOT ENGAGE THEM IN MELEE COMBAT, because of their increased number chances are you will get hit once. 
• After the final enemy has been defeated, go to Clovis' spawning point, avoid his next move and continue to Phase 2.
• Phase 2 should be treated the same as phase 1. If Clovis escapes the loop, prepare to dodge his attacks until the Curse Arrow appears again.

 

This will take several tries. With practice and a lot of save scumming, Clovis is not nearly as impossible  

 

 

VIDEO

 

VIDEO - Take 2

 

 

 

ENDING NOTES: I hope this will help those who enjoyed this little game and wish to go for the platinum. 

Feedback is welcome, if you know a better weapon combo please let me know and share  

Edited January 18, 2022 by Copanele

[Finch_III]

Great guide! I actually just posted about my favoured set-up for no-hitting bosses in another thread, but will repost here. It's basically the below: 
 

• Sword of Conjunctivius: Base stats are highest in the game.
• Relics: +30/45% hit bonus in darkness (final boss counts as 'dark', even though the area is quite bright) and +30/45% critical hit (the finisher for swords is always a critical hit). Also, anything that gives +1 level to cursed weapons. Some of the cursed relics are fantastic, albeit rarer: Accursed Codex (+50% to all damage and Crown of Cursed King (+40 to all stats while under final curse). The depleting health of final curse obviously doesn't matter with this build. 
• Curses: There are a couple of 'good' curses - one hides enemies but does +20% damage in darkness, for instance. That said, early in runs I tend to pick up a relic or two that reduces gold/blood costs. I also try to pick up a relic that has at least 66% (preferably 100%) extra rewards when you sacrifice pick-ups. This nets you loads of gold and, importantly, corruption reduction to avoid picking up too many curses.
• Blessings: Grace of Tempest (+1 Dexterity for each no-hit room), Favor of Sich'al (Gain 1000 gold and 5 Perception at the start of your exploration) and Reptilian Hunger (Greed Kill doesn't reset out of encounters or when switching rooms)
• Room choices: I tend to hit Relic rooms, Weapon upgrade rooms, Bosses and 'Chest/Time limit' rooms. 

With Sword of Conjunctivius, you die any time you get hit - so it can be slow-going having to save scum at the beginning of most rooms. But you can wreck bosses once you get a few +45% damage relics, and you're going to need a lot of no-hit clearances to fill the Bestiary, so worth getting used to restarting after hits.

To increase the chances of getting the Sword, I tend to lock out almost all other weapon choices in nexus area. I just leave Corrupted weapons and a few others (poison claws). 

 

If you've built up a decent bunch of relics and gold heading into the final boss, you have a decent chance. One great thing about the final boss is that when the 'curse anvil' drops on you throughout the fight, it doesn't count as a hit. Found this out on one of my playthroughs – it still counts as a no-hit as long as Clovis or ads don't hit you. 

 

For example, in the below video, you see me get hit by the anvil twice, and it still counted as a no-hit win against Clovis. It's not the smoothest of no-hit wins, granted. But it was the only video I already had on my system of a no-hit win. And I wanted to show the damage output of a beefed-up Sword of C. 

Also, Apologies for the annoying button bashing sound, I forgot to mute my pad mic on PS5...

 

 

 

Edited May 17, 2022 by Finch_III
Added some names for relics.

[DrBloodmoney]

Dude - when you get in on a game, you get in on that game!

 

I gotta admit - Knowing your Dark Souls and fighting game credentials, I kinda knew that if you got in on CotDG, you’d set about cracking the codes, mapping those boss fight DNA helixes and end up being the sensei soon enough…but that happened fast! ?

 

Outstanding work here - I’ve been chipping away at the game every now and then - just in my disorganised, scattershot way (which is pretty much my MO in all games?) - but there’s a lot of new things for me to have a go at here, and looking forward to trying them out!

 

… who knows, maybe I actually might get that plat afterall…

…probably not, but still! ?

[Copanele]

7 hours ago, Finch_III said:

Great guide! I actually just posted about my favoured set-up for no-hitting bosses in another thread, but will repost here. It's basically the below: 
 

• Sword of Conjunctivius: Base stats are highest in the game.
• Relics: +30/45% hit bonus in darkness (final boss counts as 'dark', even though the area is quite bright) and +30/45% critical hit (the finisher for swords is always a critical hit). Also, anything that gives +1 level to cursed weapons. 
• Curses: There are a couple of 'good' curses - one hides enemies but does +20% damage in darkness, for instance. That said, early in runs I tend to pick up a relic or two that reduces gold/blood costs. I also try to pick up a relic that has at least 66% (preferably 100%) extra rewards when you sacrifice pick-ups. This nets you loads of gold and, importantly, corruption reduction to avoid picking up too many curses.
• Blessings: Grace of Tempest (+1 Dexterity for each no-hit room), Favor of Sich'al (Gain 1000 gold and 5 Perception at the start of your exploration) and Reptilian Hunger (Greed Kill doesn't reset out of encounters or when switching rooms)
• Room choices: I tend to hit Relic rooms, Weapon upgrade rooms, Bosses and 'Chest/Time limit' rooms. 

With Sword of Conjunctivius, you die any time you get hit - so it can be slow-going having to save scum at the beginning of most rooms. But you can wreck bosses once you get a few +45% damage relics, and you're going to need a lot of no-hit clearances to fill the Bestiary, so worth getting used to restarting after hits.

To increase the chances of getting the Sword, I tend to lock out almost all other weapon choices in nexus area. I just leave Corrupted weapons and a few others (poison claws). 

 

If you've built up a decent bunch of relics and gold heading into the final boss, you have a decent chance. One great thing about the final boss is that when the 'curse anvil' drops on you throughout the fight, it doesn't count as a hit. Found this out on one of my playthroughs – it still counts as a no-hit as long as Clovis or ads don't hit you. 

 

For example, in the below video, you see me get hit by the anvil twice, and it still counted as a no-hit win against Clovis. It's not the smoothest of no-hit wins, granted. But it was the only video I already had on my system of a no-hit win. And I wanted to show the damage output of a beefed-up Sword of C. 

Also, Apologies for the annoying button bashing sound, I forgot to mute my pad mic on PS5...

 

Wow, I heard that the Sword of Conjunctivius is OP but ~1600 damage on one final strike? That's INSANE  Also great video as a reference.

Thank you very much for the share! I would have liked to try this sword, it's always selected it and a few others (claws, guns and the fire bow) but... I never had it dropped even once. Damn sword is super elusive. The moment I get my hands on it I am definitely going for a run, need to experiment more ?.

 

Also Curse Arrow/Anvil doesn't count as a hit??That is some great piece of information right there! That being said, I do use that to "stunlock" the boss, but if I mistime my dodge I don't have to restart anymore, that's amazing news thanks!

 

6 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Dude - when you get in on a game, you get in on that game!

 

I gotta admit - Knowing your Dark Souls and fighting game credentials, I kinda knew that if you got in on CotDG, you’d set about cracking the codes, mapping those boss fight DNA helixes and end up being the sensei soon enough…but that happened fast! 

 

Outstanding work here - I’ve been chipping away at the game every now and then - just in my disorganised, scattershot way (which is pretty much my MO in all games) - but there’s a lot of new things for me to have a go at here, and looking forward to trying them out!

 

… who knows, maybe I actually might get that plat afterall…

…probably not, but still! 

Well what can I say, you got me with this game  it's got all the good stuff that I normally love in a videogame. I do tend to obsess over games that catch my interest, so that's why I tried to go proficient mode as fast as possible, I needed to tinker with builds!

 

You will get the plat one day  No rushing it, one run per day/week should be more than enough. As long as you don't get tilted by the Dark Avatar of the Eagle as I do. Smh that boss is worse to no-damage than Clovis for me.

[Finch_III]

1 hour ago, Copanele said:

Wow, I heard that the Sword of Conjunctivius is OP but ~1600 damage on one final strike? That's INSANE  Also great video as a reference.

Thank you very much for the share! I would have liked to try this sword, it's always selected it and a few others (claws, guns and the fire bow) but... I never had it dropped even once. Damn sword is super elusive. The moment I get my hands on it I am definitely going for a run, need to experiment more .

 

Also Curse Arrow/Anvil doesn't count as a hit??That is some great piece of information right there! That being said, I do use that to "stunlock" the boss, but if I mistime my dodge I don't have to restart anymore, that's amazing news thanks!

 

No problem. I definitely think the stun-lock method is much cleaner than mine! Most of the bosses barely get a chance to move haha. Perhaps one benefit of Sword of C is that it's great for racking up Elite kills throughout your runs too, if you still need some of those to fill out your Bestiary. One combo and they're always dead.

 

Also, to improve the drop rate on the sword, I tend to 'banish' like 90% of the weapons in the nexus area. Essentially, lock them out from appearing in runs. I leave a couple of elemental claws and the cursed weapons, and that's it. For a truly OP Sword of C build, you can sometimes get a Cursed secondary weapon that doubles the stats of your main weapon. 

[Copanele]

6 hours ago, Finch_III said:

 

No problem. I definitely think the stun-lock method is much cleaner than mine! Most of the bosses barely get a chance to move haha. Perhaps one benefit of Sword of C is that it's great for racking up Elite kills throughout your runs too, if you still need some of those to fill out your Bestiary. One combo and they're always dead.

 

Also, to improve the drop rate on the sword, I tend to 'banish' like 90% of the weapons in the nexus area. Essentially, lock them out from appearing in runs. I leave a couple of elemental claws and the cursed weapons, and that's it. For a truly OP Sword of C build, you can sometimes get a Cursed secondary weapon that doubles the stats of your main weapon. 

I finally got my hand on Sword of C with a +damage on curse active and...my god...it's wrecking everything.

Unfortunately I forgot to backup my save so I died like a dumbass from a random arrow  definitely need to try more.

 

Alright, so I kinda "finessed" the Clovis fight to the point where it doesn't take more than 3 tries to no-damage him. I need to hit him with the claw&pistol combo 3 times, then flail the claws only until the arrow appears above my head. Recover the stamina, rinse and repeat. 

In phase 2 Clovis didn't even have an opportunity to attack ? will update the main post also.

The only boss left to "master" is that stupid Avatar of the Eagle, god I hate that one so much.

 

 

[Finch_III]

2 minutes ago, Copanele said:

I finally got my hand on Sword of C with a +damage on curse active and...my god...it's wrecking everything.

Unfortunately I forgot to backup my save so I died like a dumbass from a random arrow  definitely need to try more.

 

Alright, so I kinda "finessed" the Clovis fight to the point where it doesn't take more than 3 tries to no-damage him. I need to hit him with the claw&pistol combo 3 times, then flail the claws only until the arrow appears above my head. Recover the stamina, rinse and repeat. 

In phase 2 Clovis didn't even have an opportunity to attack  will update the main post also.

The only boss left to "master" is that stupid Avatar of the Eagle, god I hate that one so much.

 

 

Yeah, I think what's great about the Sword of C set-up is that it's pretty much good for every boss - the damage output means you don't really have to even learn to defend their moves much. Even the Avatar of the Eagle - he's basically a punching bag when calling those storm clouds, so you get a free three hits + finisher on him. It's enough that you can usually knock him down to his next 'storm call', so he'll do a move (max two), then call the storm again. Another four free hits. 

 

But yeah, a major downside is that you basically have to save scum every floor or two. Which is super tedious haha. 

 

 

 

 

[Copanele]

On 1/18/2022 at 5:05 PM, Finch_III said:

 

Yeah, I think what's great about the Sword of C set-up is that it's pretty much good for every boss - the damage output means you don't really have to even learn to defend their moves much. Even the Avatar of the Eagle - he's basically a punching bag when calling those storm clouds, so you get a free three hits + finisher on him. It's enough that you can usually knock him down to his next 'storm call', so he'll do a move (max two), then call the storm again. Another four free hits. 

 

But yeah, a major downside is that you basically have to save scum every floor or two. Which is super tedious haha. 

 

 

 

 

Ok, 3 Sword of C runs later, I found a neat trick.

You die with the Sword if you have it equipped in your hand. However if you equip the 2handed weapon, even if you take damage you won't die since the sword is sheated. I managed to dodge a fatal blow by switching to my bow instead  

 

[Finch_III]

2 hours ago, Copanele said:

Ok, 3 Sword of C runs later, I found a neat trick.

You die with the Sword if you have it equipped in your hand. However if you equip the 2handed weapon, even if you take damage you won't die since the sword is sheated. I managed to dodge a fatal blow by switching to my bow instead  

 

 

Yeah, it's pretty cool (I was aware of it). I don't use it too much, as I'm usually doing no-hit runs with Sword of C anyway – and I find swapping between weapons a bit clunky. But it's super useful if you don't really need a no-hit win on a particular boss on your way to the end. 

Just got my fifth Clovis no-hit today. Just need to clear up the rest of the Bestiary now. Lots of elites ... . 

[DrBloodmoney]

Well, faffing about with this Sword of Conjunctivitus seems to have paid off - got my first No Hit on Clovis today ? - so I now know the plat is not impossible for me - just a case of plugging away at it... y'know... forever!

 

 

[SadisticSymphony]

Jesus! Thanks for this write up, might jump back in

[DrBloodmoney]

@Finch_III @Copanele

 

So, I think my not having any kind of head for coming up with OP builds is paying off now...

 

...since I had spent so long trying to get no-hits on the bosses (and Clovis) with just my standard-ass set ups, I had learned their patterns very well..., now that I'm trying this Sword of Conjunctivitus build, I am wrecking those fools. I've now got 3 of my 5 no-hits done on Clovis, and am sitting at like 6 or 7 done for every boss (except for Ratyapu-  that bugger is still so fast, that my rolling is not working as well as I'd hoped!)

 

For the rest through, all that training without a strat was like Rocky learning to fight right-handed - now I've got the Sword of C build, it feels like switching back to to South-Paw in the final round... I feel like I'm mopping the floor with some of them ? 

 

Still got a lot of Elites left after that, but I reckon that plat might be in sight now... 

...and with my 500th coming up - it could end up landing right on it, depending on how things go!

Edited January 21, 2022 by DrBloodmoney

[Finch_III]

51 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

@Finch_III @Copanele

 

So, I think my not having any kind of head for coming up with OP builds is paying off now...

 

...since I had spent so long trying to get no-hits on the bosses (and Clovis) with just my standard-ass set ups, I had learned their patterns very well..., now that I'm trying this Sword of Conjunctivitus build, I am wrecking those fools. I've now got 3 of my 5 no-hits done on Clovis, and am sitting at like 6 or 7 done for every boss (except for Ratyapu-  that bugger is still so fast, that my rolling is not working as well as I'd hoped!)

 

For the rest through, all that training without a strat was like Rocky learning to fight right-handed - now I've got the Sword of C build, it feels like switching back to to South-Paw in the final round... I feel like I'm mopping the floor with some of them  

 

Still got a lot of Elites left after that, but I reckon that plat might be in sight now... 

...and with my 500th coming up - it could end up landing right on it, depending on how things go!

 

Congrats man, I'm glad the build has been working for you! I got 4/5 of my no-hit kills on Clovis with it (one of them was with a poison claw, pistol build similar to OP's set-up). 

 

Best tip I can give for Ratyapu is parrying. He does a one-two strike that is really choreographed - the first strike has a pretty big wind-up. Practice a few times learning to parry that, and you'll wreck him (he'll be weakened after the parry, so Sword of C will do even more damage). When he powers up, you can still parry it - but you need to be a little quicker with the parry. Edit: I'm terrible at parrying by the way – he's one of the few enemies/bosses that I use parrying on. 

 

I'm sort of where you are now. I've killed Clovis 5/5 and done most of the other bosses (1 kill left on a couple of them). But I have soooo many elites. Literally have 20 kills left on each of the 'super' elites (Elite blademasters, big skulls, the Jaguar mecha-robot things, the 'Tomb horrors', Blood Priests AND the floating skull balls). Approx 60-70 Elite kills left, which is bleak seeing as you can only get about 10 elites per run. :/ 

 

I have 96 platinums at the moment. Was thinking of having this as my 100th, but I'm on a bit of a roll with it recently, so might just see it through. 

Edited January 21, 2022 by Finch_III

[Copanele]

52 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

@Finch_III @Copanele

 

So, I think my not having any kind of head for coming up with OP builds is paying off now...

 

...since I had spent so long trying to get no-hits on the bosses (and Clovis) with just my standard-ass set ups, I had learned their patterns very well..., now that I'm trying this Sword of Conjunctivitus build, I am wrecking those fools. I've now got 3 of my 5 no-hits done on Clovis, and am sitting at like 6 or 7 done for every boss (except for Ratyapu-  that bugger is still so fast, that my rolling is not working as well as I'd hoped!)

 

For the rest through, all that training without a strat was like Rocky learning to fight right-handed - now I've got the Sword of C build, it feels like switching back to to South-Paw in the final round... I feel like I'm mopping the floor with some of them  

 

Still got a lot of Elites left after that, but I reckon that plat might be in sight now... 

...and with my 500th coming up - it could end up landing right on it, depending on how things go!

Hot damn you really got motivated, congrats there  Yeah Sword of Conjunctivius is super OP even without upgrading it  like this, you really have quite the good chances to blast through those bosses.

 

For Ratyapu run from him, dodge his spear and when he does his blade swipes dodge into his second swipe and start wailing at him. If you dodge into his swipe you will always get your stamina point back. He does seem scary at first until you see that he's a glorified Pursuer (from that other stamina based game )

 

However...and i will quote @Finch_III here as well

 

12 minutes ago, Finch_III said:

 

I'm sort of where you are now. I've killed Clovis 5/5 and done most of the other bosses (1 kill left on a couple of them). But I have soooo many elites. Literally have 20 kills left on each of the 'super' elites (Elite blademasters, big skulls, the Jaguar mecha-robot things, the 'Tomb horrors', Blood Priests AND the floating skull balls). Approx 60-70 Elite kills left, which is bleak seeing as you can only get about 10 elites per run. :/ 

THIS IS STUPID GRINDY! From my side, I need 27 Blademasters, 16 Soul Reliquaries (Eagle Temple),27 Tomb Horrors and 27 Titan Skulls (Snake Temple). I severely underestimated how annoying it is to farm these critters.

 

Thus being said, I wish to suggest an alternative to Sword of C, if you only need to grind mobs and don't want to live in fear of getting sucker punched back to the start. That weapon is "Effulgence" Harbinger of Yaatz. 

This bow drops from K'ax taca (first boss in the Eagle temple), 20% chance to drop if you kill the boss during his lightning ray animation. THIS BOW IS BEASTLY! It has a lightning attack and electrified enemies get an extra lightning strike. Plus, if you dodge right after you shoot you get an EXTRA arrow in the enemy.

The way I play with this bow is charging a shot, shooting then instantly dodge and charge another shot. The dodge shot will electrify the enemy so my next charge shot will cause critical damage (all bows have critical on charged shots) + lightning strike. With Relics focused on Lightning damage and Critical damage, this bad boy deals some absurd damage.
And the best part - this damn weapon can stunlock the enemy. It's especially effective against Blademasters which are honestly the most annoying out of them all for me.

 

The downside...well...it's not as powerful as Sword of C. Nothing is, really ? But I bet it's the next best weapon in the entire game. I unlocked all weapons and none comes even close to this damn bow, even with focused builds. Except Sword of C. 

[DrBloodmoney]

2 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Hot damn you really got motivated, congrats there  Yeah Sword of Conjunctivius is super OP even without upgrading it  like this, you really have quite the good chances to blast through those bosses.

 

For Ratyapu run from him, dodge his spear and when he does his blade swipes dodge into his second swipe and start wailing at him. If you dodge into his swipe you will always get your stamina point back. He does seem scary at first until you see that he's a glorified Pursuer (from that other stamina based game )

 

However...and i will quote @Finch_III here as well

 

THIS IS STUPID GRINDY! From my side, I need 27 Blademasters, 16 Soul Reliquaries (Eagle Temple),27 Tomb Horrors and 27 Titan Skulls (Snake Temple). I severely underestimated how annoying it is to farm these critters.

 

Thus being said, I wish to suggest an alternative to Sword of C, if you only need to grind mobs and don't want to live in fear of getting sucker punched back to the start. That weapon is "Effulgence" Harbinger of Yaatz. 

This bow drops from K'ax taca (first boss in the Eagle temple), 20% chance to drop if you kill the boss during his lightning ray animation. THIS BOW IS BEASTLY! It has a lightning attack and electrified enemies get an extra lightning strike. Plus, if you dodge right after you shoot you get an EXTRA arrow in the enemy.

The way I play with this bow is charging a shot, shooting then instantly dodge and charge another shot. The dodge shot will electrify the enemy so my next charge shot will cause critical damage (all bows have critical on charged shots) + lightning strike. With Relics focused on Lightning damage and Critical damage, this bad boy deals some absurd damage.
And the best part - this damn weapon can stunlock the enemy. It's especially effective against Blademasters which are honestly the most annoying out of them all for me.

 

The downside...well...it's not as powerful as Sword of C. Nothing is, really  But I bet it's the next best weapon in the entire game. I unlocked all weapons and none comes even close to this damn bow, even with focused builds. Except Sword of C. 

That bow looks awesome - I don’t have that one, but I’ll se what I can do about killing him in that animation, because a serious bow build might be just what the doctor ordered for those final elite hunting runs.

 

Still trying to work out where the most elites spawn - if there is any advantage to going for the hard runs, or just the regular top-tier one… though TBH, not really worrying until these bosses are good and Beastieried!

[Copanele]

4 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

That bow looks awesome - I don’t have that one, but I’ll se what I can do about killing him in that animation, because a serious bow build might be just what the doctor ordered for those final elite hunting runs.

 

Still trying to work out where the most elites spawn - if there is any advantage to going for the hard runs, or just the regular top-tier one… though TBH, not really worrying until these bosses are good and Beastieried!

I only went for top tier regular runs. I will actually fire up a hard run now and let you know...in about 20 minutes  

[DrBloodmoney]

2 minutes ago, Copanele said:

I only went for top tier regular runs. I will actually fire up a hard run now and let you know...in about 20 minutes  

 

 

Nice!
?

 

Goddamn - you’re a pit bull, son - I’ve been picking away at this one for 6 months… took you a week to pass me by, and become my teacher! ?

[Copanele]

17 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

 

Nice!

 

Goddamn - you’re a pit bull, son - I’ve been picking away at this one for 6 months… took you a week to pass me by, and become my teacher! 

So the verdict - nah, go for regular runs. Hard runs spawn the Elite mobs exactly the same, except they are beefier than ever  And you die faster.

And what can I say...when a game catches me, it's really hard to let it go. It's another checkmark in my "Damn I love gameplay" list? but well, since you presented me such a fine game, it's only proper to offer some small strategies in return ?

[DrBloodmoney]

@Copanele 

Zoinks - just got that bow, (I never would have tried hitting the final blow during that move!) and it seems awesome!

 

All I’ve done is test it out in the run I’m in - don’t have any lightning buffs even, but it’s already a beast… that’s an amazing shout!

[Copanele]

9 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

@Copanele 

Zoinks - just got that bow, (I never would have tried hitting the final blow during that move!) and it seems awesome!

 

All I’ve done is test it out in the run I’m in - don’t have any lightning buffs even, but it’s already a beast… that’s an amazing shout!

Hah yep, it's quite the beast. It's pretty good against certain bosses too (for instance Avatar of the Serpent can be stunlocked by this bow without him summoning his snakes more than twice).

Doesn't work that well against Clovis though, from what I experienced.

 

OK, now after more specific runs, here's a weapon that you would definitely like. This one is to spice things up a bit, if you get bored by the same weaponries: "Cataclysm" T'amok's Fury.

To be honest, it took me a while to get this weapon. You get it from the Sun Girl in the temple of the Jaguar if you parry her whip 3 times(not sure if in a row or just overall). Other than doing quite some good damage, this flaming whip has the chance to summon those land mines that explode and do fire damage.

If you want to go for this specific weapon do not parry the Moon Bro else you might get his shitty sword instead.

 

The problem with this whip is that it doesn't do critical damage, whiiich kinda sucks. BUT! If you can get this whip, fire damage buffs and light damage buffs, this damn thing blasts everything around you and makes it rain with landmines. I always use it as an off-hand weapon, by the time I reach stage 3 in the temples I just go in the middle of the enemies, do an off-hand combo and it starts raining with explosives  

The explosives harm you as well so make sure you leg it before you get caught in the blast. 

[DrBloodmoney]

4 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Hah yep, it's quite the beast. It's pretty good against certain bosses too (for instance Avatar of the Serpent can be stunlocked by this bow without him summoning his snakes more than twice).

Doesn't work that well against Clovis though, from what I experienced.

 

OK, now after more specific runs, here's a weapon that you would definitely like. This one is to spice things up a bit, if you get bored by the same weaponries: "Cataclysm" T'amok's Fury.

To be honest, it took me a while to get this weapon. You get it from the Sun Girl in the temple of the Jaguar if you parry her whip 3 times(not sure if in a row or just overall). Other than doing quite some good damage, this flaming whip has the chance to summon those land mines that explode and do fire damage.

If you want to go for this specific weapon do not parry the Moon Bro else you might get his shitty sword instead.

 

The problem with this whip is that it doesn't do critical damage, whiiich kinda sucks. BUT! If you can get this whip, fire damage buffs and light damage buffs, this damn thing blasts everything around you and makes it rain with landmines. I always use it as an off-hand weapon, by the time I reach stage 3 in the temples I just go in the middle of the enemies, do an off-hand combo and it starts raining with explosives  

The explosives harm you as well so make sure you leg it before you get caught in the blast. 

man… that does sound awesome…?

…if only I wasn’t FUCKING TERRIBLE at parrying that whip! ?

I remember trying to get the timing on that early on, when I was still trying to parry everything, and man - was that a disaster!

 

Might try giving it a go with a shield up, for the extra parry timing window, but given my track record, I’d say the odds of me parrying the whip 3 times then beating her, is about the same odds of me accidentally inhaling the couch I’m sitting on! ?

[Copanele]

3 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

man… that does sound awesome…

…if only I wasn’t FUCKING TERRIBLE at parrying that whip! 

I remember trying to get the timing on that early on, when I was still trying to parry everything, and man - was that a disaster!

 

Might try giving it a go with a shield up, for the extra parry timing window, but given my track record, I’d say the odds of me parrying the whip 3 times then beating her, is about the same odds of me accidentally inhaling the couch I’m sitting on! 

Shield totally works  with the shield up, press the parry button the moment the boss swings the whip down. 

Without the shield - yeah the timing is pretty tricky to nail down consistently, not gonna lie.

[Finch_III]

3 hours ago, Copanele said:

 

However...and i will quote @Finch_III here as well

 

THIS IS STUPID GRINDY! From my side, I need 27 Blademasters, 16 Soul Reliquaries (Eagle Temple),27 Tomb Horrors and 27 Titan Skulls (Snake Temple). I severely underestimated how annoying it is to farm these critters.

 

 

Ha, good luck both of you. I've got 19 blademasters, 14 soul reliquaries, 23 Tomb Horrors, 16 headless guardians and 16 Titan skulls. 

 

My preferred way for grinding elites is to pick weapon upgrade and weapon change rooms. They're the quickest, as you have three rounds of enemies in one room - and the last wave always has one of the major elites. Saves trekking through dungeons. Also, the time trial/no-hit trials tend to have a couple of elites in them. 

 

Clovis also summons three random big elites in his final wave of the first phase. It's super grindy though. Kinda done with the game now tbh haha

[Copanele]

3 minutes ago, Finch_III said:

 

Ha, good luck both of you. I've got 19 blademasters, 14 soul reliquaries, 23 Tomb Horrors, 16 headless guardians and 16 Titan skulls. 

 

My preferred way for grinding elites is to pick weapon upgrade and weapon change rooms. They're the quickest, as you have three rounds of enemies in one room - and the last wave always has one of the major elites. Saves trekking through dungeons. Also, the time trial/no-hit trials tend to have a couple of elites in them. 

 

Clovis also summons three random big elites in his final wave of the first phase. It's super grindy though. Kinda done with the game now tbh haha

Yep that's good advice, that's how I do it too. Selecting the path with the most weapon upgrade/changes and praying that I don't get only elites that I don't need.

Also my god is Temple of the Eagle brutal. Can't catch a break from all those traps and stupid blademasters.

[Finch_III]

5 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Yep that's good advice, that's how I do it too. Selecting the path with the most weapon upgrade/changes and praying that I don't get only elites that I don't need.

Also my god is Temple of the Eagle brutal. Can't catch a break from all those traps and stupid blademasters.

 

Haha, I pretty much save scum every room of the last third of a run. And then, if I get an elite I've already got, I just reload my save – you get a different one each time.