Has someone managed to clear Dungeon Mode?

[Caju_94]

Hey there.

 

So to get this game's platinum, I just need to clear Dungeon Mode once and get into the local rankings. However, I'm always to clear it 1 or 2 times a day and I always end up failing. I'm using control and special assists. As the character I started using Franceska, but switch to Sara, since her weapon's proficiency were higher and now almost all weapons are maxed.

 

Still, I get beat up the deeper I go into the Dungeon. The Dungeon has 50 floors and the best I managed to get so far was the 47th floor. The boss floors are quite ok for me (the 40F can be a pain sometimes though). The one that worry me the most are the sub-bosses floor, where you have to face another girl, specially if they are on lava floors!

 

I try to evade a lot with the dashes and use a lot of special attacks, yet after I passed the 40th floor, the damage I get is too high! The equipment I used have the following effects on my characters: Reduce Dash MP cost, Automatic Secret Tech on KO, Less Stun time, Movement Speed Up (don't remember about the others)...

 

I want to get that Platinum... But damn! How did you manage to get pass through this Dungeon?

[afroshouji]

Dungeon Mode was the last trophy I went for because I had a feeling it was going to be the hardest due to it being 50 floors of hell, and I was right! Plus it's best to leave it for much later after unlocking all 8 upgrade slots since you will need all of them to get through it without beating your head against a wall. The method I used may not be the best, but it fit my playstyle and finally allowed me to get the platinum. So maybe this little guide can help anyone pull it off.

 

As a word of caution because I don't know if it's a glitch in the game, or if I did something wrong. But I beat Dungeon Mode in 31'27”56 on my last continue, and I didn't rank or get the “Complete Mastery” achievement, even though it doesn't say you can't use continues. The time was never even logged in the Rankings screen. Then I beat it again with 28'08”98 without dying at all, and I did finally get the rank and achievement. Now I don't remember if I skipped the dialogue at the end which might have messed it up, or if you do need to beat it without using any continues. In any case, it's just a warning about what happened when I was doing it.

 

Character Used: Katerina.

Many people swear on Sara-Annika is best for this before of her higher damage output, but that's rectified in the Equipment portion. Katerina's Super is probably the best in the game since it's a high damaging AoE. I think it's even better than Lucrezia's in both damage and range, and can make swarms much easier to deal with.

 

Equipment Used:

I treated Dungeon Mode like Survival Mode 2.0, because that's essentially what it is. Much of my items I used are just to keep me alive and shave off or escape damage as much as possible.

( I rank them 1-5—5 being equipment I find mandatory, 1 being stuff I see useful, but can be swapped out if you play differently thank I do. )

• Red Glasses: Dash Invincibility Time Up (M) – 4.

  You're going to be dashing a lot, so might as well make that time as damage-free as possible. It comes in handy after Floor 30.

• Headphones: Steadily Recover Latest Damage – 5.

  It's good insurance. Later floors will be difficult to see or avoid everything, so if you get clipped by something at least this will be a nice bandage.

• Party Hat: Floor Movement HP Recovery Up – 5.

  Easily the best item on the list. This basically makes sure you start each new floor with full health or near to it, which comes in handy going into a Fire, Mid-boss, or Boss floor. It also fills up your partner's HP which is a nice extra.

• !?: Chance to Nullify Damage – 4.

  I don't know the exact proc rate, but it appears to be about 10-15%. There's no visual cue, but I think it's a soft *clang* sound when it does. In any case, it's additional insurance for those 'oh crap!' moments that are bound to happen.

• Black Cat Tail: Dash MP Cost Down (M) – 4.

  Again, you're going to be dashing a lot to get in and out of situations. This was to make sure I just had enough resources to pay for it all. And since dashing gives invincible time, it stacks well.

• White Paw Glove: Additional Basic Ground Attack – 2.

  Four basic attacks, more damage.

• Black Paw Shoes: Movement Speed Up – 4.

  Self-explanatory.

• Sara-chan: Character Ability Change (Sara) – 5.

  Sara's base damage is arguably the best in the game. She can kill things in 1 or 2 fewer basic attacks than others. So with Katerina's AoE Super she does a ton of damage to everything around her. The Black Cat Tail keeps her mana usage low when dashing in and out of combat.

Personally I feel that the only item that can be taken out and not weaken your defenses is the White Paw Glove. In fact the Glove might be semi-useless because it becomes harder to do all four attacks on later floors. You might get two off before having to dash out and re-engage. In which case some good substitute items are the Monocle (Special Attack MP Cost Down), A Certain Robot Mask (Nullify First Few Hits), or Devil Tail (Enemy K.O. Chance Up) which all have good synergy with the rest of the kit.

 

Starting Weapons Used:

• Valflare (O)

  It gets you out of ground danger and strikes Bats.

• Berserker (X)

  Combos well after the Valflare slash for great damage.

• Goddess Vanguard (Square)

  More AoE that combos fast after Berserker. Katerina seems to be immune to stun during the first few frames of its animation before she slashes, but don't quote me on that.

• Sword of the Falcon or Knight of the Tower (Triangle)

  Both are great enders for AoE. I tend to favor Knight of the Tower because it leaves you airborne to air-dash out of situations where enemies are surrounding you, so you can land and re-engage safely.

 

PROTIPS:

Your partner is just cannon fodder, and that's it.

She really is, sad but true. Don't think of your partner as an equal because she is anything but. Your character is going to be doing 95% of the work and damage. By the time you get to Floor 30 you will probably be about 100 levels higher, so she's not doing anywhere as much damage as you. What she excels at is being a distraction. Especially when it comes to sub-bosses. Just let your partner get attacked by them, and dash in to attack when the mid-boss is on cooldown. The same goes for Knight. Wash, rinse, repeat. She also is handy in just taking many enemies away from you so you have smaller and sizable packs to mow down.

 

Keep the majority of the room in front of you.

It should go without saying but you want to see as much of the room as possible. You're going to be R2-ing a lot to focus an enemy so you can dash to them. But you still want to try and keep the room open to you. In the higher Floors a Beast charge or two can come out of nowhere and mess up your run. So unless you're good at hearing the sound of them stomping at you, keep them in sight to dodge when needed.

 

Don't worry about the time.

Chances are people will want to double up the “The Conqueror” and “Complete Mastery”, so your only stipulation is beating Dungeon Mode in under 40 minutes. Unless you're not killing anything and wasting time admiring how cute Lucrezia looks in her party hat and cat tail, then time won't be a factor. I beat it in under 30 minutes, and that was with me waiting for my partner to revive on 40+ Floors so she can distract enemies. Your only concern should just be surviving and not taking stupid risks.

 

Stick and move—constantly.

In a lot of cases you will never finish a full ground combo against many enemies (which is another reason why the White Paw Glove may not be really useful), but that's okay. Typically what you're going to be doing (especially after Floor 20) is baiting attacks, dodging out, then dashing back in to unleash actual bigger damage. This is especially important against groups of larger enemies. I tend to dash in with an attack, then dash out when they do their big attack animation. This leaves them vulnerable for a bit of time to get back in there and unleash a full combo + Special attacks.

 

When possible, prioritize Wizards.

People may have different opinions on this, but Wizards are the most annoying thing you will have to deal with. Considering they don't need to be near you to attack, they just end up being more stuff to dodge. So if you manage to bait a monster and are going in to attack, you may end up having to dodge out again prematurely because you need to avoid lighting strikes. The lightning won't kill you, but multiple ones hitting you cause enough stun to put you in a bad situation fast. And in the Lightning floors, it's just more to deal with. So I tend to make them one of my number one targets. They die fast, so I try to kill as many as I can before or in-between attacking larger enemies. It just keeps the clutter down to concentrate on other dangers. I'm not saying kill all of them first before anything, just try to minimize their numbers when you have openings.

 

Fire Floors are a double-edged sword.

One of the main reasons time is not a factor is because of Fire Floors. You can clear most of them in 10-15 seconds. Whenever I got to one, especially if they had lots of larger enemies, I would just move around and wait until they all spawned, and then do a Super attack. Katarina's AoE with Sara's damage coupled with the Fire room's damage buff kills just about everything onscreen. Anything left you can easily pick off with a regular slash or two.

 

Super = Get out of Jail Free Card.

If you find yourself in a situation where you're in the middle of a lot of enemies, getting hit, and very low on life, spam the Super button. If tends to save you a lot, and knocks all the enemies away from you so you can regroup. And you get some HP back from killing things.

 

 

Hope this information helps some with Dungeon Mode, but it can also be used for the other modes as well. I used this Equipment setup for most of the Mode achievements. On ones where I had to use Sara, I just swapped Sara-chan for whatever looked nice.

Edited November 21, 2020 by afroshouji

[Caju_94]

18 hours ago, afroshouji said:

 

 

Wow, thanks for the tips!

 

Well, I've already managed to beat Dungeon mode some 3 times (in around 20 attempts, maybe?) but didn't get to the leaderboard either. I guess that if you die in Dungoen Mode, you don't get to the leaderboard for some reason?

 

Well, I've been using Sara-Annika because of her obvious normal damage she causes and I already have all of her weapons maxed out. Before starting using her, I also loved using Katarina mainly because of her AoE special, which is way better than Sara's in my opinion (sometimes I end up missing and fail to aim who I want to strike). Going back to Katarina means I will probably have to grind out most of the weapons again, which is why I'm trying to beat with Sara. With Sara, I managed to survive up to the 45th floor, where I normally get beat down from this floor onwards and start using my partner as a bait and distraction. I've been using more Manaburst and it is really useful.

 

About the equipment, I don't remember exactly which ones I am using the Black Cat Tail, the paws and te Red Glasses. I used some equipment related to Stun time, too, if my memory doesn't fail. I will try once again with Sara a few times with the equipment you recommended (except Sara's plushie of course) and see if it works. If I somehow die later in the dungeon, then I will keep trying. If not, then I will try with Katarina, even though it means I would need to grind all her weapons to max first.

 

By the way, I've considered having a second player partner, so that way it wouldn't be controlled by a bot and would ACTUALLY USE its special (how come the bot partner not use specials?), but I don't know, nor have I found information if it affects the leaderboards and trophy-wise.

[afroshouji]

That was my other main gripe with using Sara is that her Special is an aimed cone, and it seemed like many times I was either too far, or I did not aim it correctly when I wanted to kill something specific. So it just got wasted! Whereas Luc and Kat just hits everything around you without worry, and that's nice to get things off.

 

Quote

By the way, I've considered having a second player partner, so that way it wouldn't be controlled by a bot and would ACTUALLY USE its special (how come the bot partner not use specials?), but I don't know, nor have I found information if it affects the leaderboards and trophy-wise.

 

Not sure either how another player will effect things other than, yes, your partner using their Specials. I assume it makes it easier in the long run, unless creature damage/life is directly proportional to player level. So two human players leveling close together may provide tougher enemies? Not exactly sure how it works.

 

Finally, while maxing out weapons is great, I don't know if it's that important. Looking back I only had one gold star weapon (Berserker), and the others had maybe 2-3 bronze. I'm sure it would have been much easier to have it all maxed, but I guess I got impatient and just wanted to get this platinum out the way. But if you haven't used Kat outside of her story mode, then maybe a little leveling should be solid.

Edited July 13, 2018 by afroshouji

[Caju_94]

11 minutes ago, afroshouji said:

That was my other main gripe with using Sara is that her Special is an aimed cone, and it seemed like many times I was either too far, or I did not aim it correctly when I wanted to kill something specific. So it just got wasted! Whereas Luc and Kat just hits everything around you without worry, and that's nice to get things off.

 

 

Not sure either how another player will effect things other than, yes, your partner using their Specials. I assume it makes it easier in the long run, unless creature damage/life is directly proportional to player level. So two human players leveling close together may provide tougher enemies? Not exactly sure how it works.

 

Finally, while maxing out weapons is great, I don't know if it's that important. Looking back I only had one gold star weapon (Berserker), and the others had maybe 2-3 bronze. I'm sure it would have been much easier to have it all maxed, but I guess I got impatient and just wanted to get this platinum out the way. But if you haven't used Kat outside of her story mode, then maybe a little leveling should be solid.

 

Well, I'll try again with Sara... If I don't manage to get to the leaderboard, I will switch to Katarina...

[The-Smiths-85]

I'm starting my road to the plat now. Any info on the co-op affecting the trophies or the leaderboards? Is the difficulty of the Dungeon Mode similar to the DLC in Dante's Inferno?

 

PS I've decided to not start my road to plat this game. There's just a stream option (no download) on PS Premium, which shows it's not a PS4 but more likely a Vita version. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Edited April 6, 2023 by The-Smiths-85
Added info.