In-depth Downwell Hard Mode Guide

[machaesthetic]

Just platinumed this and there is very little info on this so just thought it might help some people out. I used arm spin for most of my runs, but tried boulder and actually beat hard mode with it (and found I got more consistent runs with it)

 

Styles

 

Arm Spin Style: Allows you to have a better ideal, and to get more energy and more health if you are a top-tier player. I am fairly sure that with all of the side rooms that you should technically get more health than boulder, and certainly more energy, in addition to more upgrade options (although I think the advantage of this is overstated, as there are a dozen great upgrades that you want). 

 

Boulder Style: Safe style that allows you to have more consistent runs if you are not an absolute top-tier player. Typically when going into the final boss you want 6-8 health. With boulder style, you will always have 6 health, and almost always have 7 health. This will allow you to just focus on survival and a bit on energy. Energy is a lot less important once you have many upgrades since upgrades greatly increase your DPS and Gem Sick/Gem Attractor with Gem-Powered allows you almost always have ammo available (with Safety Jetpack helping if you run out). Because caverns and catacombs are so brutal and will single-handedly kill many runs, boulder can really help you with beating hard for the first time. Even runs you think are doomed can easily be turned around with an apple. Youth really helps this style since it gives you 1.5x more upgrade options, however since there are basically 12-14 useful upgrades out of 20, you should not really need to grab many useless upgrades if any (depending on when you get Youth and RNG).

 

Other styles: Not really useful. Floaty style may help with learning the game but ultimately you handicap yourself in the long run.

 

Quick Tips

 

• As a general rule, energy is more useful if you are full health, health is more useful if you are not full health, and max HP should be used whenever you can afford it.
• Know the combo tiers. 8 is +100 gems, 15 is +1 energy, and 25 is +1 life. These are cumulative (so 25 gives all three bonuses). However, note that there is absolutely no difference between 8 and 14, 15 and 24, or 25 and 125. Know when to end your combos based on what you need, and going for risky combos is quite dangerous and can lead to unnecessary health loss. 
• You can use the shopkeeper's air bubble to recharge your own.
• Running out of air doesn't actually kill you, it merely takes away a health point and then resets you with enough air for another 5-10 seconds. 
• Know how much ammo enemies approximately take to kill. Some red enemies die very quickly, while some enemies like ghosts and angry skulls take a ton of bullets to kill.
• You want to generally go down as fast as you can without being reckless, and without missing side rooms. If you are being chased by the clear orbs from above in the caverns, then your pace is too slow. Strength comes from upgrades, side rooms, and from limbo farming; the gems you get while going through the first three areas is largely irrelevant, so go as fast as you can without rushing and causing yourself to play reckless. Note that if you have knife and fork you may want to go slow and take corpses, but I don't recommend this. Knife and fork is great, but you want to use it passively and not change your playstyle, as going for corpses can oftentimes lead to you taking extra damage. 
• You can wall jump by jumping against a wall and flicking the other direction when on full energy, this can be useful in some scenarios.
• The biggest difference between a decent and great player is being able to read the enemy placements and know what the best way to get through is. The worst place you can be is stuck in a corner with a lot of enemies above you. Sometimes you may want to just stay on a ledge and clear out a particularly heavy area before proceeding, but depending on placement (e.g. multiple enemies that can only be jumped on, enemies hiding behind ledges, etc.) it may be easier to simply just run right past them. 

 

Upgrades (Ordered from most to least useful)

 

Top-tier:

 

1. Gem-powered: Game changer, allows you to spam shots excessively, especially when you have high energy. Becomes quite a bit more useful when you get to limbo and the boss where you both need constant firepower and there is a constant stream of gems to support this.
2. Popping gems: There are three upwards shooting items (this, gunpowder blocks, and hot casings). I think this is definitely the most useful of the three. It does a ton of DPS and later in the game (and especially with Gem Attractor), you will be getting a huge stream of gems that allow you to kill or at least push away almost every enemy above you.
3. Blast Module: This helps so much in every stage, but especially in Aquifer and limbo. Basically instantly kills enemies, and is especially useful in hard where enemies group together.
4. Apple: This is situational but is almost always taken every run. +4 hp is just amazing in a pinch and can save so many runs. Even if you are full health, I will sometimes grab this later in the game where most good upgrades are taken because max health capacity is so useful for the final boss. You will almost always want this item, although I wouldn't always just take it the first chance.
5. Drone: This is a ton of DPS increase while also giving you a much bigger AoE. The only small issue with this, is that the drone can be mistaken for your character and adds a lot of visual noise. Regardless, this item is very strong especially in limbo and for the boss.
6. Youth: This is more useful early on, but it basically ensures you will never have to grab a useless upgrade unless you get quite unlucky. The +1 hp is also quite useful.
7. Safety Jetpack: this item is so great early when you are low on energy or if you spam a lot, and can save your ass a ton. Its usefulness goes down later or if you have a ton of energy, but almost always a safe choice because when you start spamming as you will need to late game, ammo can run out very fast and you don't want to just go plummeting down. 
8. Gem Attractor: This is a great item that has really strong synergy with Gem Powered and Popping Gems, as well as just giving you a bit more gems to help you afford more items. This item is not very useful unless you have one of the two aforementioned upgrades though, so feel free to temporarily skip this one for a more useful upgrade. 
9. Laser Sight: A universally strong item, range is great on later stages and the QoL improvement from a sight helps with aiming. Can't really ever go wrong with this.
10. Knife and Fork: Good especially when you get this early. Do not go out of your way to try to kill more enemies or collect more corpses, simply play normally and it should give you a few health points worth of extra health across the run. It's basically like apple except more spread out.

 

Mid-tier:

 

1. Hot Casing: Another option for upwards damage. It is a bit less useful than Popping Gems but nonetheless, upwards damage becomes increasingly important in later stages. 
2. Gunpowder Blocks: An interesting choice that can really help with rapidly dispatching of any enemies near or on top of blocks and also instantly clears out an entire gruop of blocks with a single shot. This is useful in Catacombs and Aquifer especially. However, it has limited use later in the game, and can be a bit of a double-edged sword if you want to land on top of blocks. A situational item for sure.
3. Gem Sick: While Gem High is obviously great because it increases both your range and damage, Gem Sick doesn't really add much. It doesn't increase damage or range, and merely increases the length, and as you get into later stages you will basically never run out. Certainly better than the never use options, but very limited use.
4. Member's Card: A very situational item. Can be marginally useful in Aquifer since you can fill up air from the shopkeeper. However, prices are very expensive on hard, and a 10% discount does little to change that. It's best utilized early when prices are still low. It does allow you to be more picky with shop choices since you can choose what works best, but ultimately you need to have a big stockpile to buy anything from the shop, so a shop every level is very redundant.

 

Never use:

 

1. Reverse Engineering: I just don't find any use for this. All of the weapons are decent with only the shotgun and Noppy being slightly worse than the others. You can maybe get +1 HP instead of energy if you really needed in a pinch, but ultimately though, there is just a lot more useful upgrades. For late game (Limbo + boss), DPS hardly even matters since you will shred enemies in each phase and it's mostly about avoiding damage.
2. Candle: There may be times when you are newer and get trapped in a corner and you may get hit twice, but ultimately, this is quite uncommon even on the final boss or in Limbo. 
3. Rocket Jump: You will mostly be in the air, and increased jump height is not that useful in my experience. 
4. Rest in Pieces: Not many enemies drop corpses, having to locate the corpse and shoot it is just not very practicical and very limited use. There are much better AoE/DPS options such as Drone, Laser Sight, and Gunpowder Blocks. 
5. Heart Balloon: Slows down your movement and just very limited in usefulness. Hot Casing and Popping Gems do the same role but much, much better and with no drawbacks. 
6. Timeout: Just never found any use for this whatsoever. Items that require you to get hit in the first place aren't particularly useful and given how every single area has you constantly moving down, this is just incredibly limited in use. 

Upgrade paths (These are what upgrades are helpful to have by what point)

 

Caverns: Youth is very useful since it is quite early. Knife and Fork is very useful at this point. Member's Card is more useful early since prices are still low. Safety Jetpack is useful throughout, but a bit more useful when you have low energy. 

 

Catacombs: Gunpowder Blocks is incredibly useful in this stage. Safety Jetpack is useful in this stage since there is so much safe landing space with all the spikes. 

 

Aquifer: This is where you will start needing upwards firepower. Popping Gems and Hot Casings are both very useful for upwards firepower. Gunpowder blocks is incredibly useful for quickly getting down. Safety Jetpack is incredibly useful since you will be spending a lot of ammo avoiding the hazards and going for bubbles. 

 

Limbo: Significant upwards firepower is a must here (Popping Gems and Hot Casings). Gem Powered is an absolute must by this point as well since you will rarely be able to land (even jumping on top of enemies is quite risky). Laser Sight is incredibly useful. Blast Module is incredibly useful since there is so many clustered enemies. Drone is incredibly useful. 

 

Weapons

1. Puncher: Probably my favorite weapon in the game. Deals a good bit of damage, nice AoE, doesn't use too much ammo, and it seems to really push enemies away. 
2. Laser: One of my favorite weapons. Basically a better form of the shotgun. Just destroys and basically one shots everything in its path, and the ammo costs are not too high given the damage.
3. Triple: An interesting weapon. Very weak bordering on pea shooter early, although if you can hit the enemy with more than one bullet with each shot, the DPS will increase quite a bit. However, it is a decent item late-game where there is a lot of enemies and you have a very high DPS. You can just spam it constantly and keep enemies at bay and not have to constantly adjust like with other weapons.  
4. Machine Gun: Pretty decent early game, allows controlled fire. Not very much DPS or AoE in the late-game, but a decent all-around weapon if you can aim
5. Burst: Basically like the Machine Gun, but slightly higher DPS while going through ammo quite a bit faster. It can be a bit tedious having to mash though.
6. Shotgun: Horrible weapon early on. Is basically the laser with much less range, and consumes ammo faster. This weapon is not too bad later when you have tons of energy to spare, but it really feels awful early game. Pretty strong in Limbo though and the final boss if you have the energy to spare. 
7. Noppy: Probably the worst weapon, it's not even the weird aiming style, it just doesn't really seem to deal very much damage at all. I wouldn't necessarily avoid it though because your weapon is not really that big of a deal with Gem High, Drone, Blast Module, etc. but this is definitely on the weaker side. 

 

Final Words 

 

Beating hard mode is ultimately made or broken at Limbo. Being able to avoid enemies from the top and being able to manage your ammo while finding safe opportunities to bounce on enemies to restore your ammo to full is vital. You will oftentimes be quite low going into limbo, but the multiple combos should allow you to heal to full before the boss.

 

The boss can be quite intimidating, but ultimately is not much different on hard. The most important tip is to TAKE IT SLOW. You will not beat the boss by spamming DPS, it's all about avoiding his shots and killing the enemies. Know the cues for the shots and stand about 2/3 the way above him and you should have no problem avoiding them. Kill his enemies quickly and then focus on DPSing him. Remember to watch out for spikes from above. Be ready for the transitional phases and just keep going down and keep your distance a bit above him and be ready to get into position when he stops. There will be multiple heart gun modules available through the fight so you can get hit actually quite a bit and still win. The hardest part is definitely the Aquifer phase of the fight managing oxygen and the annoying red enemies that you can barely see. 

 

Good luck!
 

[iGGTheEnd]

I am so crap at this game,  every time I start it up to try for the plat I never get more than 2-3 levels in before dying and remember why I don't even try for it.  Maybe I should give it another go with your tips and give it more than an hour before giving up.

[dmland12]

That's interesting and it really goes to show that people can have different approaches and strategies.

 

Anyway, whatever works for you is what works.  Maybe this approach will work better for others.

[TheYuriG]

9 hours ago, StealthMonkey43 said:

Weapons

1. Noppy: Probably the worst weapon, it's not even the weird aiming style, it just doesn't really seem to deal very much damage at all. I wouldn't necessarily avoid it though because your weapon is not really that big of a deal with Gem High, Drone, Blast Module, etc. but this is definitely on the weaker side. 

Noppy is garbage and I do not acknowledge friendship with anyone that likes it. This includes @Hemiak.

[Kristycism]

10 hours ago, StealthMonkey43 said:

Reverse Engineering: I just don't find any use for this. All of the weapons are decent with only the shotgun and Noppy being slightly worse than the others. You can maybe get +1 HP instead of energy if you really needed in a pinch, but ultimately though, there is just a lot more useful upgrades. For late game (Limbo + boss), DPS hardly even matters since you will shred enemies in each phase and it's mostly about avoiding damage.

 

I actually liked Reverse Engineering, and would personally put it in mid-tier. Definitely not as useful as the top-tier upgrades, of course, but it's good for switching energy to hearts regularly. I never used it specifically for changing weapons, mind you, but I got quite a few extra hearts each run by using it, and that can make a difference for those who, like me, aren't great at the game (read: suck badly).

 

I don't like Gunpowder Blocks at all. I get that it could be useful in later stages, but for me, it ruined runs more often than it helped, so I'd put that as a "never use". I also actually didn't like Blast Module too much. Again, it's good in later stages, but I found adjusting from not having it to having it made me screw up often, and I coped just fine without it, so that was another I personally would move down to maybe mid-tier. Or maybe I just suck and that's why I didn't like either of them It's probably me sucking...

 

Also I did like Noppy...I'm sorry if that makes you never want to be friends with me, @TheYuriG

Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's the best weapon or anything, but I found it easy to use, and it saved me a lot in Aquifier and Limbo from enemies that came at me from the side. I certainly like it more than Shotgun, because the range on Shotgun is awful for the small amount of shots you get, and Burst is just the worst (it even rhymes). I'd probably put Noppy at #4 on the list, as I agree with your #1-3.

[TheYuriG]

Just now, Kristycism said:

Also I did like Noppy...I'm sorry if that makes you never want to be friends with me, @TheYuriG

Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's the best weapon or anything, but I found it easy to use, and it saved me a lot in Aquifier and Limbo from enemies that came at me from the side. I certainly like it more than Shotgun, because the range on Shotgun is awful for the small amount of shots you get, and Burst is just the worst (it even rhymes). I'd probably put Noppy at #4 on the list, as I agree with your #1-3.

I'm pretty sure it's only useful in Limbo or against whatever enemy that shot back upon kill (or am I confusing the skeleton head from stage 2?). Noppy is a recurring meme between me and Hemiak, he got his plat using that only to spite me, that bastard.

[Hemiak]

I haven't liked Noppy in a long time, though I don't hate it. Also, with arm spin  and knife and fork I've reached the boss with 11 health. Getting the extra upgrade option with AS makes it far superior to Boulder IMO.

 

Another point against Boulder, on hard any gem rooms are a total waste. 120 gems isn't even a third of an purchase on the first floor. Getting a new gun with an extra hp or two battery is crazy powerful. 

[machaesthetic]

4 hours ago, Hemiak said:

I haven't liked Noppy in a long time, though I don't hate it. Also, with arm spin  and knife and fork I've reached the boss with 11 health. Getting the extra upgrade option with AS makes it far superior to Boulder IMO.

 

Another point against Boulder, on hard any gem rooms are a total waste. 120 gems isn't even a third of an purchase on the first floor. Getting a new gun with an extra hp or two battery is crazy powerful. 

Yeah that's true, but you need 8 health rooms at full health to even get to the starting health of boulder. Boulder just allows you to have a better starting point for runs, and what really makes you strong is not gems, but upgrades. Obviously energy is really good too, but with certain upgrade combos and feathering, it's really not that necessary. Arm Spin is fine, and I even used it for most of my runs, but after switching to boulder, I just think that being able to consistently get through the first two areas where vast majority of runs end really helps you power through hard mode. You can get hit a ton of times, and then just get an apple when you are low. Basically just scrape by the first three areas, then farm energy and health in Limbo, and have a good idea of how to approach the boss and you should be good. 

 

Each person will have their own personal play style and preferences, this is just a starting point for players that are new or struggling. 

[adam1984123]

On 26/06/2019 at 10:28 AM, machaesthetic said:

Just platinumed this and there is very little info on this so just thought it might help some people out. I used arm spin for most of my runs, but tried boulder and actually beat hard mode with it (and found I got more consistent runs with it)

 

Styles

 

Arm Spin Style: Allows you to have a better ideal, and to get more energy and more health if you are a top-tier player. I am fairly sure that with all of the side rooms that you should technically get more health than boulder, and certainly more energy, in addition to more upgrade options (although I think the advantage of this is overstated, as there are a dozen great upgrades that you want). 

 

Boulder Style: Safe style that allows you to have more consistent runs if you are not an absolute top-tier player. Typically when going into the final boss you want 6-8 health. With boulder style, you will always have 6 health, and almost always have 7 health. This will allow you to just focus on survival and a bit on energy. Energy is a lot less important once you have many upgrades since upgrades greatly increase your DPS and Gem Sick/Gem Attractor with Gem-Powered allows you almost always have ammo available (with Safety Jetpack helping if you run out). Because caverns and catacombs are so brutal and will single-handedly kill many runs, boulder can really help you with beating hard for the first time. Even runs you think are doomed can easily be turned around with an apple. Youth really helps this style since it gives you 1.5x more upgrade options, however since there are basically 12-14 useful upgrades out of 20, you should not really need to grab many useless upgrades if any (depending on when you get Youth and RNG).

 

Other styles: Not really useful. Floaty style may help with learning the game but ultimately you handicap yourself in the long run.

 

Quick Tips

 

• As a general rule, energy is more useful if you are full health, health is more useful if you are not full health, and max HP should be used whenever you can afford it.
• Know the combo tiers. 8 is +100 gems, 15 is +1 energy, and 25 is +1 life. These are cumulative (so 25 gives all three bonuses). However, note that there is absolutely no difference between 8 and 14, 15 and 24, or 25 and 125. Know when to end your combos based on what you need, and going for risky combos is quite dangerous and can lead to unnecessary health loss. 
• You can use the shopkeeper's air bubble to recharge your own.
• Running out of air doesn't actually kill you, it merely takes away a health point and then resets you with enough air for another 5-10 seconds. 
• Know how much ammo enemies approximately take to kill. Some red enemies die very quickly, while some enemies like ghosts and angry skulls take a ton of bullets to kill.
• You want to generally go down as fast as you can without being reckless, and without missing side rooms. If you are being chased by the clear orbs from above in the caverns, then your pace is too slow. Strength comes from upgrades, side rooms, and from limbo farming; the gems you get while going through the first three areas is largely irrelevant, so go as fast as you can without rushing and causing yourself to play reckless. Note that if you have knife and fork you may want to go slow and take corpses, but I don't recommend this. Knife and fork is great, but you want to use it passively and not change your playstyle, as going for corpses can oftentimes lead to you taking extra damage. 
• You can wall jump by jumping against a wall and flicking the other direction when on full energy, this can be useful in some scenarios.
• The biggest difference between a decent and great player is being able to read the enemy placements and know what the best way to get through is. The worst place you can be is stuck in a corner with a lot of enemies above you. Sometimes you may want to just stay on a ledge and clear out a particularly heavy area before proceeding, but depending on placement (e.g. multiple enemies that can only be jumped on, enemies hiding behind ledges, etc.) it may be easier to simply just run right past them. 

 

Upgrades (Ordered from most to least useful)

 

Top-tier:

 

1. Gem-powered: Game changer, allows you to spam shots excessively, especially when you have high energy. Becomes quite a bit more useful when you get to limbo and the boss where you both need constant firepower and there is a constant stream of gems to support this.
2. Popping gems: There are three upwards shooting items (this, gunpowder blocks, and hot casings). I think this is definitely the most useful of the three. It does a ton of DPS and later in the game (and especially with Gem Attractor), you will be getting a huge stream of gems that allow you to kill or at least push away almost every enemy above you.
3. Blast Module: This helps so much in every stage, but especially in Aquifer and limbo. Basically instantly kills enemies, and is especially useful in hard where enemies group together.
4. Apple: This is situational but is almost always taken every run. +4 hp is just amazing in a pinch and can save so many runs. Even if you are full health, I will sometimes grab this later in the game where most good upgrades are taken because max health capacity is so useful for the final boss. You will almost always want this item, although I wouldn't always just take it the first chance.
5. Drone: This is a ton of DPS increase while also giving you a much bigger AoE. The only small issue with this, is that the drone can be mistaken for your character and adds a lot of visual noise. Regardless, this item is very strong especially in limbo and for the boss.
6. Youth: This is more useful early on, but it basically ensures you will never have to grab a useless upgrade unless you get quite unlucky. The +1 hp is also quite useful.
7. Safety Jetpack: this item is so great early when you are low on energy or if you spam a lot, and can save your ass a ton. Its usefulness goes down later or if you have a ton of energy, but almost always a safe choice because when you start spamming as you will need to late game, ammo can run out very fast and you don't want to just go plummeting down. 
8. Gem Attractor: This is a great item that has really strong synergy with Gem Powered and Popping Gems, as well as just giving you a bit more gems to help you afford more items. This item is not very useful unless you have one of the two aforementioned upgrades though, so feel free to temporarily skip this one for a more useful upgrade. 
9. Laser Sight: A universally strong item, range is great on later stages and the QoL improvement from a sight helps with aiming. Can't really ever go wrong with this.
10. Knife and Fork: Good especially when you get this early. Do not go out of your way to try to kill more enemies or collect more corpses, simply play normally and it should give you a few health points worth of extra health across the run. It's basically like apple except more spread out.

 

Mid-tier:

 

1. Hot Casing: Another option for upwards damage. It is a bit less useful than Popping Gems but nonetheless, upwards damage becomes increasingly important in later stages. 
2. Gunpowder Blocks: An interesting choice that can really help with rapidly dispatching of any enemies near or on top of blocks and also instantly clears out an entire gruop of blocks with a single shot. This is useful in Catacombs and Aquifer especially. However, it has limited use later in the game, and can be a bit of a double-edged sword if you want to land on top of blocks. A situational item for sure.
3. Gem Sick: While Gem High is obviously great because it increases both your range and damage, Gem Sick doesn't really add much. It doesn't increase damage or range, and merely increases the length, and as you get into later stages you will basically never run out. Certainly better than the never use options, but very limited use.
4. Member's Card: A very situational item. Can be marginally useful in Aquifer since you can fill up air from the shopkeeper. However, prices are very expensive on hard, and a 10% discount does little to change that. It's best utilized early when prices are still low. It does allow you to be more picky with shop choices since you can choose what works best, but ultimately you need to have a big stockpile to buy anything from the shop, so a shop every level is very redundant.

 

Never use:

 

1. Reverse Engineering: I just don't find any use for this. All of the weapons are decent with only the shotgun and Noppy being slightly worse than the others. You can maybe get +1 HP instead of energy if you really needed in a pinch, but ultimately though, there is just a lot more useful upgrades. For late game (Limbo + boss), DPS hardly even matters since you will shred enemies in each phase and it's mostly about avoiding damage.
2. Candle: There may be times when you are newer and get trapped in a corner and you may get hit twice, but ultimately, this is quite uncommon even on the final boss or in Limbo. 
3. Rocket Jump: You will mostly be in the air, and increased jump height is not that useful in my experience. 
4. Rest in Pieces: Not many enemies drop corpses, having to locate the corpse and shoot it is just not very practicical and very limited use. There are much better AoE/DPS options such as Drone, Laser Sight, and Gunpowder Blocks. 
5. Heart Balloon: Slows down your movement and just very limited in usefulness. Hot Casing and Popping Gems do the same role but much, much better and with no drawbacks. 
6. Timeout: Just never found any use for this whatsoever. Items that require you to get hit in the first place aren't particularly useful and given how every single area has you constantly moving down, this is just incredibly limited in use. 

Upgrade paths (These are what upgrades are helpful to have by what point)

 

Caverns: Youth is very useful since it is quite early. Knife and Fork is very useful at this point. Member's Card is more useful early since prices are still low. Safety Jetpack is useful throughout, but a bit more useful when you have low energy. 

 

Catacombs: Gunpowder Blocks is incredibly useful in this stage. Safety Jetpack is useful in this stage since there is so much safe landing space with all the spikes. 

 

Aquifer: This is where you will start needing upwards firepower. Popping Gems and Hot Casings are both very useful for upwards firepower. Gunpowder blocks is incredibly useful for quickly getting down. Safety Jetpack is incredibly useful since you will be spending a lot of ammo avoiding the hazards and going for bubbles. 

 

Limbo: Significant upwards firepower is a must here (Popping Gems and Hot Casings). Gem Powered is an absolute must by this point as well since you will rarely be able to land (even jumping on top of enemies is quite risky). Laser Sight is incredibly useful. Blast Module is incredibly useful since there is so many clustered enemies. Drone is incredibly useful. 

 

Weapons

1. Puncher: Probably my favorite weapon in the game. Deals a good bit of damage, nice AoE, doesn't use too much ammo, and it seems to really push enemies away. 
2. Laser: One of my favorite weapons. Basically a better form of the shotgun. Just destroys and basically one shots everything in its path, and the ammo costs are not too high given the damage.
3. Triple: An interesting weapon. Very weak bordering on pea shooter early, although if you can hit the enemy with more than one bullet with each shot, the DPS will increase quite a bit. However, it is a decent item late-game where there is a lot of enemies and you have a very high DPS. You can just spam it constantly and keep enemies at bay and not have to constantly adjust like with other weapons.  
4. Machine Gun: Pretty decent early game, allows controlled fire. Not very much DPS or AoE in the late-game, but a decent all-around weapon if you can aim
5. Burst: Basically like the Machine Gun, but slightly higher DPS while going through ammo quite a bit faster. It can be a bit tedious having to mash though.
6. Shotgun: Horrible weapon early on. Is basically the laser with much less range, and consumes ammo faster. This weapon is not too bad later when you have tons of energy to spare, but it really feels awful early game. Pretty strong in Limbo though and the final boss if you have the energy to spare. 
7. Noppy: Probably the worst weapon, it's not even the weird aiming style, it just doesn't really seem to deal very much damage at all. I wouldn't necessarily avoid it though because your weapon is not really that big of a deal with Gem High, Drone, Blast Module, etc. but this is definitely on the weaker side. 

 

Final Words 

 

Beating hard mode is ultimately made or broken at Limbo. Being able to avoid enemies from the top and being able to manage your ammo while finding safe opportunities to bounce on enemies to restore your ammo to full is vital. You will oftentimes be quite low going into limbo, but the multiple combos should allow you to heal to full before the boss.

 

The boss can be quite intimidating, but ultimately is not much different on hard. The most important tip is to TAKE IT SLOW. You will not beat the boss by spamming DPS, it's all about avoiding his shots and killing the enemies. Know the cues for the shots and stand about 2/3 the way above him and you should have no problem avoiding them. Kill his enemies quickly and then focus on DPSing him. Remember to watch out for spikes from above. Be ready for the transitional phases and just keep going down and keep your distance a bit above him and be ready to get into position when he stops. There will be multiple heart gun modules available through the fight so you can get hit actually quite a bit and still win. The hardest part is definitely the Aquifer phase of the fight managing oxygen and the annoying red enemies that you can barely see. 

 

Good luck!
 

 

Thanks for the tips. 

 

I have tried many times to beat the boss on hard, but unsuccessful so far. I’ve made it to the boss only a couple of times - on vita and PS4, so I’ll try your sugggested strategy as it’s different to mine to see if I can make it more consistently. 

[AJ_Radio]

Only just saw this thread now.

 

I've looked at your profile OP and I see you got quite a few difficult games done. May have to ask you for some advice on some, including Super Meat Boy.

 

Good guide, however I've beaten the game last October so it won't be of much help unless I decide to dedicate a new account, which is unlikely.

[Arcesius]

Thanks for writing this up, @machaesthetic! Unfortunately, this didn't go with my playstyle, but I'm sure it could help other players

 

 

After reading this I tried to use Boulder for a couple of runs. You are right in that it is "easier" to get past the catacombs, but there are a couple of disadvantages that I found made this mode harder for me... 

 

With Boulder Style you fall way faster than with any other style. Not only that, the worst part is the way the character bounces off of enemies and candles etc. The bounce is very weird to adapt to, especially after having played with other styles for a while.

 

My winning run was using Arm Spin Style. And I was playing very badly (it was the last run of the day and my gf was waiting for me to watch smth on Netflix ?), I got K&F after the first or second stage and still only reached the boss with 5 total HP. That run would not have worked with Boulder, as what saved me was getting constant Health back from all the sideroom weapon upgrades (and K&F). 

 

 

P.S: I'm in the pro-Noppy camp! ?

[AmazingNoeder]

Don't get it how no one here is talking about how terrible and disgusting the shotgun is

Noppy is actually good, I don't get the hate on it

Now the shotgun?

Always empty,has only a few shots,and it should in theory do a really good damage.....and it doesn't, sometimes i went extremely close to the enemy and it doesn't kill even with all shoots (Only 2 that this shit has)

My personal advise,noppy isn't that bad,is good/normal,laser can be super good if you know how to use it ( on any area is good)

Shotgun is by far the worst shit in the game,if you need to avoid getting something, avoid the shotgun,even when i only had 1 hp left and didn't take the 1 Hp shotgun, and i always survive the next room, something that i wouldn't using that crap

[WeeJ87]

On 26/06/2019 at 1:28 AM, machaesthetic said:

Just platinumed this and there is very little info on this so just thought it might help some people out. I used arm spin for most of my runs, but tried boulder and actually beat hard mode with it (and found I got more consistent runs with it)

 

Styles

 

Arm Spin Style: Allows you to have a better ideal, and to get more energy and more health if you are a top-tier player. I am fairly sure that with all of the side rooms that you should technically get more health than boulder, and certainly more energy, in addition to more upgrade options (although I think the advantage of this is overstated, as there are a dozen great upgrades that you want). 

 

Boulder Style: Safe style that allows you to have more consistent runs if you are not an absolute top-tier player. Typically when going into the final boss you want 6-8 health. With boulder style, you will always have 6 health, and almost always have 7 health. This will allow you to just focus on survival and a bit on energy. Energy is a lot less important once you have many upgrades since upgrades greatly increase your DPS and Gem Sick/Gem Attractor with Gem-Powered allows you almost always have ammo available (with Safety Jetpack helping if you run out). Because caverns and catacombs are so brutal and will single-handedly kill many runs, boulder can really help you with beating hard for the first time. Even runs you think are doomed can easily be turned around with an apple. Youth really helps this style since it gives you 1.5x more upgrade options, however since there are basically 12-14 useful upgrades out of 20, you should not really need to grab many useless upgrades if any (depending on when you get Youth and RNG).

 

Other styles: Not really useful. Floaty style may help with learning the game but ultimately you handicap yourself in the long run.

 

Quick Tips

 

• As a general rule, energy is more useful if you are full health, health is more useful if you are not full health, and max HP should be used whenever you can afford it.
• Know the combo tiers. 8 is +100 gems, 15 is +1 energy, and 25 is +1 life. These are cumulative (so 25 gives all three bonuses). However, note that there is absolutely no difference between 8 and 14, 15 and 24, or 25 and 125. Know when to end your combos based on what you need, and going for risky combos is quite dangerous and can lead to unnecessary health loss. 
• You can use the shopkeeper's air bubble to recharge your own.
• Running out of air doesn't actually kill you, it merely takes away a health point and then resets you with enough air for another 5-10 seconds. 
• Know how much ammo enemies approximately take to kill. Some red enemies die very quickly, while some enemies like ghosts and angry skulls take a ton of bullets to kill.
• You want to generally go down as fast as you can without being reckless, and without missing side rooms. If you are being chased by the clear orbs from above in the caverns, then your pace is too slow. Strength comes from upgrades, side rooms, and from limbo farming; the gems you get while going through the first three areas is largely irrelevant, so go as fast as you can without rushing and causing yourself to play reckless. Note that if you have knife and fork you may want to go slow and take corpses, but I don't recommend this. Knife and fork is great, but you want to use it passively and not change your playstyle, as going for corpses can oftentimes lead to you taking extra damage. 
• You can wall jump by jumping against a wall and flicking the other direction when on full energy, this can be useful in some scenarios.
• The biggest difference between a decent and great player is being able to read the enemy placements and know what the best way to get through is. The worst place you can be is stuck in a corner with a lot of enemies above you. Sometimes you may want to just stay on a ledge and clear out a particularly heavy area before proceeding, but depending on placement (e.g. multiple enemies that can only be jumped on, enemies hiding behind ledges, etc.) it may be easier to simply just run right past them. 

 

Upgrades (Ordered from most to least useful)

 

Top-tier:

 

1. Gem-powered: Game changer, allows you to spam shots excessively, especially when you have high energy. Becomes quite a bit more useful when you get to limbo and the boss where you both need constant firepower and there is a constant stream of gems to support this.
2. Popping gems: There are three upwards shooting items (this, gunpowder blocks, and hot casings). I think this is definitely the most useful of the three. It does a ton of DPS and later in the game (and especially with Gem Attractor), you will be getting a huge stream of gems that allow you to kill or at least push away almost every enemy above you.
3. Blast Module: This helps so much in every stage, but especially in Aquifer and limbo. Basically instantly kills enemies, and is especially useful in hard where enemies group together.
4. Apple: This is situational but is almost always taken every run. +4 hp is just amazing in a pinch and can save so many runs. Even if you are full health, I will sometimes grab this later in the game where most good upgrades are taken because max health capacity is so useful for the final boss. You will almost always want this item, although I wouldn't always just take it the first chance.
5. Drone: This is a ton of DPS increase while also giving you a much bigger AoE. The only small issue with this, is that the drone can be mistaken for your character and adds a lot of visual noise. Regardless, this item is very strong especially in limbo and for the boss.
6. Youth: This is more useful early on, but it basically ensures you will never have to grab a useless upgrade unless you get quite unlucky. The +1 hp is also quite useful.
7. Safety Jetpack: this item is so great early when you are low on energy or if you spam a lot, and can save your ass a ton. Its usefulness goes down later or if you have a ton of energy, but almost always a safe choice because when you start spamming as you will need to late game, ammo can run out very fast and you don't want to just go plummeting down. 
8. Gem Attractor: This is a great item that has really strong synergy with Gem Powered and Popping Gems, as well as just giving you a bit more gems to help you afford more items. This item is not very useful unless you have one of the two aforementioned upgrades though, so feel free to temporarily skip this one for a more useful upgrade. 
9. Laser Sight: A universally strong item, range is great on later stages and the QoL improvement from a sight helps with aiming. Can't really ever go wrong with this.
10. Knife and Fork: Good especially when you get this early. Do not go out of your way to try to kill more enemies or collect more corpses, simply play normally and it should give you a few health points worth of extra health across the run. It's basically like apple except more spread out.

 

Mid-tier:

 

1. Hot Casing: Another option for upwards damage. It is a bit less useful than Popping Gems but nonetheless, upwards damage becomes increasingly important in later stages. 
2. Gunpowder Blocks: An interesting choice that can really help with rapidly dispatching of any enemies near or on top of blocks and also instantly clears out an entire gruop of blocks with a single shot. This is useful in Catacombs and Aquifer especially. However, it has limited use later in the game, and can be a bit of a double-edged sword if you want to land on top of blocks. A situational item for sure.
3. Gem Sick: While Gem High is obviously great because it increases both your range and damage, Gem Sick doesn't really add much. It doesn't increase damage or range, and merely increases the length, and as you get into later stages you will basically never run out. Certainly better than the never use options, but very limited use.
4. Member's Card: A very situational item. Can be marginally useful in Aquifer since you can fill up air from the shopkeeper. However, prices are very expensive on hard, and a 10% discount does little to change that. It's best utilized early when prices are still low. It does allow you to be more picky with shop choices since you can choose what works best, but ultimately you need to have a big stockpile to buy anything from the shop, so a shop every level is very redundant.

 

Never use:

 

1. Reverse Engineering: I just don't find any use for this. All of the weapons are decent with only the shotgun and Noppy being slightly worse than the others. You can maybe get +1 HP instead of energy if you really needed in a pinch, but ultimately though, there is just a lot more useful upgrades. For late game (Limbo + boss), DPS hardly even matters since you will shred enemies in each phase and it's mostly about avoiding damage.
2. Candle: There may be times when you are newer and get trapped in a corner and you may get hit twice, but ultimately, this is quite uncommon even on the final boss or in Limbo. 
3. Rocket Jump: You will mostly be in the air, and increased jump height is not that useful in my experience. 
4. Rest in Pieces: Not many enemies drop corpses, having to locate the corpse and shoot it is just not very practicical and very limited use. There are much better AoE/DPS options such as Drone, Laser Sight, and Gunpowder Blocks. 
5. Heart Balloon: Slows down your movement and just very limited in usefulness. Hot Casing and Popping Gems do the same role but much, much better and with no drawbacks. 
6. Timeout: Just never found any use for this whatsoever. Items that require you to get hit in the first place aren't particularly useful and given how every single area has you constantly moving down, this is just incredibly limited in use. 

Upgrade paths (These are what upgrades are helpful to have by what point)

 

Caverns: Youth is very useful since it is quite early. Knife and Fork is very useful at this point. Member's Card is more useful early since prices are still low. Safety Jetpack is useful throughout, but a bit more useful when you have low energy. 

 

Catacombs: Gunpowder Blocks is incredibly useful in this stage. Safety Jetpack is useful in this stage since there is so much safe landing space with all the spikes. 

 

Aquifer: This is where you will start needing upwards firepower. Popping Gems and Hot Casings are both very useful for upwards firepower. Gunpowder blocks is incredibly useful for quickly getting down. Safety Jetpack is incredibly useful since you will be spending a lot of ammo avoiding the hazards and going for bubbles. 

 

Limbo: Significant upwards firepower is a must here (Popping Gems and Hot Casings). Gem Powered is an absolute must by this point as well since you will rarely be able to land (even jumping on top of enemies is quite risky). Laser Sight is incredibly useful. Blast Module is incredibly useful since there is so many clustered enemies. Drone is incredibly useful. 

 

Weapons

1. Puncher: Probably my favorite weapon in the game. Deals a good bit of damage, nice AoE, doesn't use too much ammo, and it seems to really push enemies away. 
2. Laser: One of my favorite weapons. Basically a better form of the shotgun. Just destroys and basically one shots everything in its path, and the ammo costs are not too high given the damage.
3. Triple: An interesting weapon. Very weak bordering on pea shooter early, although if you can hit the enemy with more than one bullet with each shot, the DPS will increase quite a bit. However, it is a decent item late-game where there is a lot of enemies and you have a very high DPS. You can just spam it constantly and keep enemies at bay and not have to constantly adjust like with other weapons.  
4. Machine Gun: Pretty decent early game, allows controlled fire. Not very much DPS or AoE in the late-game, but a decent all-around weapon if you can aim
5. Burst: Basically like the Machine Gun, but slightly higher DPS while going through ammo quite a bit faster. It can be a bit tedious having to mash though.
6. Shotgun: Horrible weapon early on. Is basically the laser with much less range, and consumes ammo faster. This weapon is not too bad later when you have tons of energy to spare, but it really feels awful early game. Pretty strong in Limbo though and the final boss if you have the energy to spare. 
7. Noppy: Probably the worst weapon, it's not even the weird aiming style, it just doesn't really seem to deal very much damage at all. I wouldn't necessarily avoid it though because your weapon is not really that big of a deal with Gem High, Drone, Blast Module, etc. but this is definitely on the weaker side. 

 

Final Words 

 

Beating hard mode is ultimately made or broken at Limbo. Being able to avoid enemies from the top and being able to manage your ammo while finding safe opportunities to bounce on enemies to restore your ammo to full is vital. You will oftentimes be quite low going into limbo, but the multiple combos should allow you to heal to full before the boss.

 

The boss can be quite intimidating, but ultimately is not much different on hard. The most important tip is to TAKE IT SLOW. You will not beat the boss by spamming DPS, it's all about avoiding his shots and killing the enemies. Know the cues for the shots and stand about 2/3 the way above him and you should have no problem avoiding them. Kill his enemies quickly and then focus on DPSing him. Remember to watch out for spikes from above. Be ready for the transitional phases and just keep going down and keep your distance a bit above him and be ready to get into position when he stops. There will be multiple heart gun modules available through the fight so you can get hit actually quite a bit and still win. The hardest part is definitely the Aquifer phase of the fight managing oxygen and the annoying red enemies that you can barely see. 

 

Good luck!
 

This has helped me so far after reading thanks ? am playing this on vita but would it be better playing ps4 version for the bigger screen? Made it to boss with boulder style didnt defeat him but i was so near it

Edited July 7, 2023 by WeeJ87

[WeeJ87]

Big shout out to @NaughtNaught@Shadow_Slick for tips and tactics if it wasnt for them i would of quit this by now  damn it is hardest game i have played hands down, i tryd the ps4 version but i couldnt control it it seems 2 fast for my old eyes lol stayed with vita version. Also check out shadows videos on this game his youtube channel is Shadow Slick gaming. Also thanks for everyone elses comments here it also helped alot. So hyped right now ????

Edited October 31, 2023 by WeeJ87