I’m new to this thread, but just passed 89 hours on the game since I started it about three weeks ago. I had all the Unlocks done, but 3 new on today, as I get an update from steam, so I guess I’ll be going back.
I never really went with Hyper, or the XP off/chests only arcana, so I guess there’s still things to do, and I see there’s achievements listed where I’ve missed 20 odd.
I actually had it left alone, with all the weapons upgraded in full, on the tower and went off to go and watch some TV. I think it was about level 600 and had been playing for over 90 minutes when I came back (endless), I think it would have gone on forever at that point.
My baseline is bibles, garlic, whip 1, whip 2, usually the characters default weapon, and one of the wings. Evolve them all, and the whips merge, leaving another slot, which I then get the second wings, which evolves that one and opens a spare slot, and then grab the laurel. Get all slots to six, then grab the card which drags all the items to you making you have a spare bunch of other upgrades past the 6th, and you’re pretty much unkillable at that point. Focus on evolving the whips first though, so they can heal you, that’s the crux of making it further. Spinach is also essential too.
I didn’t take long to work through those, all hyper, inverse, gave up at level 158 odd in the new bat level. It seems my missing achievements are from the dlc.
Just checked steam and it looks like I’m at 61 hours, but that was mostly last year. At the time I had a goodly % of achievements, but that was so many updates ago that now I’m down to a mere 59%. I missed a lot.
That’s new to me, for example, and makes me happy. The recent games I’ve played I’ve gone for “both” unities: the two wings and the two birds. I find it more interesting to keep the upgrades going as long as possible. Looks like I can add the two whips to my standard complement. Yay! (I also really like song of mana as a [much] longer range bible.)
My only complaint with bible is that once I’m maxed out with whatever, everything is mostly dead before they even get to the bible line. At the end of a run, the “heavy hitter” abilities will be credited with…I forget…either a million or a hundred k each, while bible will only show maybe 1/10th of that damage. Garlic even moreso, again solely based on range.
My “core four” is union of wings, union of birds, song of mana and santa water, all of which show heavy damage done thanks to their long range. I can’t remember offhand what my preferred last two weapons are; I typically start with a character who has one of those weapons as default. I think pugnala the wing dude(ette), maybe.
Looking through the wiki, Axe is my 5th weapon; evolved and with the bouncy arcana it’s a solid heavy hitter. Then the last one I waffle around between the lightning thing (only because I take duplicator anyway), runetracer, and fire wand. All three hold their own in terms of damage dealt by the end of the round. I’ll find it more satisfying to make that sixth weapon a whip union instead of “and whatever else” like I’ve been doing.
Ironically, the last few rounds I played using my core four have resulted in most of the killing being too far away for even maxed Attractorb to pull everything in, so I actually have to move around at the end of the round despite being in little danger. (I’ve still only played the easier maps.) The nice thing about bible is anything it kills gets hoovered up by attractorb without moving. Also bible is excellent for boss killing.
My problem here is you have to hope you get both birds (doesn’t always happen) and their evolution requires both to be maxed out whereas most other evolutions only need the weapon maxed and the level one of whatever.
That’s a value add to me, where it keeps the end of the round more interesting. I find with the 10 rerolls, 10 banishes and 10 skips I can pretty much always get whatever I want. Though adding a third union will make it tougher, certainly.
What is the second whip called? I didn’t see it on the wiki, but there were over a half a dozen weapons I didn’t recognize on there by sight.
EDIT: I feel like there are harder maps that would make this strategy potentially non-viable. It’s great on the first two maps, though!
It’s actually worse than that. Your description applies to wings, but for birds not only do you have to max both of them, but then after the union you have to max the union version as well. So that’s three full level ups compared to a normal ability only requiring one. It’s crazy strong once you get it, especially if you “aim” it like bible, but it is a slow start.
On the plus side, birds don’t require any defensive abilities for the union, unlike wings. (But you want the wing defensive ability anyway, of course, being extra revivals.)
Vento Sacro, unlocked by surviving 15 minutes with Zi’Assunta. Merges with Bloody Tear.
I think taking final dps as the measure of performance, misses the healing component, which Bloody Tear and I think Garlic has. This is what’s keeping me alive in the early stages, I’m sitting there at level 150 with three death bosses (ie: strong ones, but not the end of level ones) actually on me, and I’m healing back from the whip and garlic.
If you start to get bored, but like the genre, Spellbook Demonslayers is getting good reviews. At $4.99 (US) I was a bit hesitant, being a couple bucks more than Vampire Survivors, but I figured I’d get at least 5 hours out of it; I was right.
About 8 hours in, with about 10-12 sessions, I find that while there is some inspiration from VS, it plays very differently while still keeping the same genre technique: kill/avoid monsters; gain levels; gain power-ups; improve power-ups.
Visually and user interface-wise, it is much more advanced than VS (but VS is exactly what it aspired to be, in the 8-bit style). Mouseover help text and some pretty thorough explanations in some areas, though lacking any documentation (example: explanation of the symbols on HUD).
I find it a good mix of challenge and “feeling powerful”. For each run thus far, I find I get a nice increase in power along the way, until the last 5 seconds where I get overwhelmed. There are initial goals to reach level 50 with a character, but I just can’t get there (I typically die about level 35).
There are two candy boxes which appear long after its just killing everything, one gives a base weapon, the second gives an evolved weapon. Usually (but not always) before level 200.
Sweet, thanks much. I looked up on wiki and it said to unlock her I need to find her coffin in Cappella Magna, which I need to unlock by getting to level 80 in Gallo Tower. Gallo Tower was the last thing I unlocked last year or whenever, which I only ran once. I believe the metal dragon ribbon things tore me up in my one try.
You may be right; I still just let the round end when time expires. But if I only get four offensive weapons, leaving two slots for garlic and whip(s), all the more reason to figure out which four dps weapons pack the most punch.
It probably won’t be the early “standard” weapons, though the unions might be good. Checking dps over my next few runs, all of which I run at standard speed:
Gallo Tower, Hyper
Upgraded
DPS
Wings
10.9K
Birds
7.5K
Runetracer
4.8K
Axe
4.0K
Water
3.7K
Song
2.8K
That’s disappointing about song. It’s sort of like garlic from range, but instead of healing it slows the enemy. Only the unions look any good here. Wings has such a range advantage over everything else in this loadout, just stealing kills like no tomorrow.
Cappella Magna, not Hyper (first ever run)
Upgraded
DPS
Fire Wand
11.4K
Wings
10.0K
Cross
6.8K
Lightning Ring
6.0K
Birds
3.9K
Magic Wand
3.9K
The problem for birds is this wasn’t a hyper run, so not enough stuff survived the insane range of upgraded wings, or the bouncy bouncy fireballs of exploding death, to give united bird a chance to hit anything. I mean, sure, I spent two arcanas on fire wand (bounces + explosions), but I think it’s fair to say I got some bang for that buck.
What I’m getting from this so far is that wings is my go-to base weapon, making Pugnala my strong favorite since she starts with both. Just both wings is sufficient; I could spend 15 to 20 minutes with only wings for offensive weapons if need be, though I’d need them upgraded and united in a timely manner.
I have a feeling some of the better dps weapons are the ones I haven’t unlocked yet. I have found a favorite, at least. My last run I had united wings and nothing else except maybe level 4 magic wand, or possibly a one of the birds. Even with only wings, everything was evaporating like I had a fire hose and they were made of cotton candy. Better, even, since united wings is like 16 hoses in 16 different directions, all reaching to the edge of the map.
Didn’t find Zi’Assunta’s coffin that run, but at least now I can run it on hyper.
Should I be starting to try and kill death at the end of the round? I unlocked the second whip lady. Please don’t tell me I have to use clock lancet; my first effort will be healing focused.
I killed death by using the clock lancet upgraded and the laurel upgraded. Had to run it a few times to get them in time for the end, took a fast character +30% speed, could see the symbols on the map, got it to far left first because its a buff, and then right ones.Then hitting it hard to get them upgraded. After that death was frozen and damage was limited.
My first effort with the second axe lady went terribly. I forgot how incredibly weak axe is as a starting weapon, and axe 2 is weaker still because it stops swinging when you stop walking. Yikes.
Furthest I’ve gotten is around 13 minutes on my second try, at which point I was level 20 because I couldn’t kill anything. I had a level 4 axe 2, and the two birds were levels three and two, and that was all the weapons I had. Couldn’t kill a fly. Will need to rethink my strategy on multiple levels.
I did already have move speed. It felt like that would be useful for death.
Clock lancets trick is getting the arcana where frozen things explode. That makes it a delight. However, you end up levelling so fast that you might RNG to the wrong options, you need defensive to survive, garlic etc. Otherwise the mobs get too strong too fast and you’re done before you can evolve much. Even non evolved full, it freezes a lot of the screen and they all explode.
I’m not sure who second axe lady is, or axe 2. Lama? Isn’t that the first axe lady? Or is that the moonspell dlc?
Also not sure of your terminology. Wings? Isn’t that the speed thing? Do you mean phiera?
My priorities are stay alive via something (garlic or laurel), get something which will kill behind me rather than the direction I’m going in (but also in front), so the whip there, and then onto the area of effect weapons. Distance comes last, I can outrun distance.
Sorry, meant whip every time I said axe. I always mix them up for some reason. The second whip lady, and how starting with whip is super weak. Even weaker when it stops whipping when you stop moving.
By wings I meant Phiera Der Tuphello + Eight The Sparrow => Phieraggi, but that made more sense as shorthand when move speed was worthless to me. Now I don’t know what to think of them as. But yeah, I guess my next plan will be to start with pugnala and add both whips and garlic later. I think I have to take the second whip lady to 15 minutes before unlocking whip 2, though.
So let’s see: Phieraggi, Whips, Garlic, Clock Lancet, Laurel, Move Speed and that’s it? Yikes. Definitely Phieraggi if I only get one true dps weapon. That thing is nuts.
I messed that up; move speed is a passive, not a weapon. I think I’ll put water in the last spot. Just completed a run without attractorb and was reminded of the “thanks I hate it” subreddit.
United whips was quite impressive, I’ll be trying that out with a dps run. As for getting to 31:00, I’m thinking clock lancet without evolution (taking move speed instead) would be sufficient. I don’t know how much laurel actually did for me.