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Arcade Mode


L3land

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This warrants its own thread. Beating arcade mode is the #1 obstacle in attaining 100%. I couldn't find an adequate description of what arcade mode exactly entails, so I figure this thread would make a great reference to others looking to platinum the game.

 

Arcade mode gives you three lives and no continues to complete all six levels on a difficulty more challenging than the hard story mode. There is no option to save and all store items cost a greater amount of hearts. Stages are now timed, but it only affects your total score. On the plus side, the knight starts with all special moves and a maximum of four spells. All enemies have the same amount of health as hard difficulty as far as I can tell, but they are in higher frequency, move faster, and deal more damage.

 

Does anyone have any tips against the white knight? The Jump down+attack and full life fireball seem very effective but I have a hard time avoiding his charge slashes without popping a spell for the invincibility.

Edited by L3land
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On my third attempt I managed to reach the egg boss and lost all my lives figuring out how to survive in bullet hell. I reached the fifth stage on my forth attempt but didn't make it very far.

 

General tips:

Know where all the 1UPs are hidden. They are in the same locations as story mode, except for the fifth stage where it is replaced by a full life pickup. All of them can be picked up quickly and without taking damage. The first two 1UPs in the store are reasonably priced if extra are needed.

 

On hard difficulty, upgrading Black Hellebore once actually made a difference in the last boss fight. It took one less repetition to bring her shield down each time. I have yet to test this on arcade but I plan on budgeting the hearts for it.

 

Stage 1: Hunt for as many hearts as you can now, because it gets harder later. Use charge slashes against wolves, and take them on one at a time. Approach the egg throwers with back flips. Flowers can be killed with one charge slash + 3-4 regular stabs and you don't have to dodge the spores as vertical attacks will protect you 100%. Use charge slashes to kill enemies through the floor (specifically the egg thrower guarding the 1UP and the flame spitting heads near the end climb).

 

Stage 2: There is a microwave with a health pick up in the last room of the tavern. Open it quickly with a charge slash and back flip to safety! Kill huggers with the HCF+attack spell. There are two full health pick ups in this level, try to clear as much of the stage as you can before going back to pick them up. The first is hidden to the right of the second cat elevator; the second is under the drawbridge. Use Black Hellebore to open the chest and pick it up. Take note that you can't go back after the door closes behind the eagle sub-boss. On the water rising portion, you can double jump on the boat to trigger the laughing faces before the game intends. This puts the flying heads out of sync with them and makes the portion much easier. When transitioning to the second boat, there is a face that triggers silently off screen from the bottom left, be sure to jump or have a charge slash ready. Charge slashes can be used to either kill or avoid the laughing faces when they approach. There's a knight miniboss after the boat sequence. The sequence is timed because the water is still rising. I tend to break the armor off with charge slashes then waste two spells on the naked knight. Buy armor before the second boss. Upon entering the final room, back flip to the very end and wait for the white wolves to be summoned. Ideally, each wolf can be stopped with a charge slash, then killed with a few regular attacks without a fuss. No big deal if you mess this up, it is not hard to regain control. After killing the wolves, back flip away from where the boss lands. This fight might seem random, but it is easy to avoid damage if you know which signs correlate to different attacks. From the start, damaging the head makes the boss auto attack very quickly... so try to avoid hitting it. Do not stand directly in front or behind the boss when it is not walking. It will judo kick you half way across the stage. The feet always move in the same pattern, I tend to walk under them as they step but I'm sure there's multiple ways of handling this portion. A foot will move differently if a stomp is coming, learn to look for it and dodge appropriately. It doesn't even require a back flip. After a stomp, the foot will return to it's original position. If a white wolf spawns during this fight, I may just use a spell to stun it and kill it... the added invincibility is nice and it always hits multiple feet. Once the boss is grounded, the hard part is over. You can kill the head by bouncing on it with down attacks in the air. It takes very little effort and is damage risk free.

 

More to come later...

Edited by L3land
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I completed arcade on my 6th attempt. The timer had 1:06 by the time I killed the princess... I was so relieved when it reset for the white knight. I ended up crossing the finish line on my last life.

 

My total purchase list: All but one life upgrade, numerous life +s, one extra life, two Black Hellebore upgrades, two armors. I bought the first armor before the stage 2 boss and the other at the beginning of Stage 4. The Hellebore upgrades really helped in the last fight. It only took three reps to crash the shield instead of five. If you're extremely vigilant in collecting hearts, the first four life upgrades can be purchased by the cave in Stage 2.

 

The rundown: I spent my first two spells to kill the knight at the end of the flood climb on Stage 2. I spent the rest on the wolf boss. I lost my first life on Stage 5 on the wolf boss redux after I had already cleared the spider and egg doors. With restocked spells I blew them all on the last door until reaching the silverware poltergeist. At this point the timer was under 15 minutes, so I sacrificed myself on the instant kill knife to restock my spells and annihilated her on the second go. I purchased the two Hellebore upgrades right before the final door. With about 10 minutes to go, I sacrificed another life to the last boss to restock my spells. Two attempts later, I made it to the white knight with 1:06 and 4 HP to spare. I lost those 4 HP pretty fast, but managed to kill the knight with my very last life. The trophy pops when the boss is defeated.

Edited by L3land
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  • 2 weeks later...

Stage 3: Caution has to be taken with the knight mini boss as it deals a ton of damage in the beginning. There are a lot of added enemies compared to hard mode. I'll try to note the important ones. For instance, after the first doorway there is a set of fast running heads. A bunch of flying faces spawn on the first staircase. After they appear, use back flips to get off the stairs and you should be out of reach. There is now a spiked wheelchair immediately after the first set of gold weights. It can be aggro'd at the halfway point and the weights can do the rest. There are extra bombs on the tower climb with the fatal pitfall. There are now flying heads where the floor falls out from under the knight, just use a down stab to avoid damage. The difficulty spikes at the sequence before the chicken boss. The bells are now populated with two jumping horses and two eagles. In addition, floating faces will appear off screen and swoop to attack without any queues. On the third bell, around 8 faces will spawn sequentially off screen. On the 3rd or 4th bell before the end, 5 more spawn (I may be wrong about the number of this set since I did this a month ago). The rest is identical to hard difficulty. There's nothing special about the chicken boss. It just has added speed. The bullet hell portion is what separates the wheat from the chaff... everything does more damage and enemies spew more shots. Life upgrades make this section much easier to manage. When the playing field is reduced to a small hallway near the end, enemies will spawn in a conga line along the bottom of the stage. If you do not plan ahead and meet the enemies preemptively, this segment becomes much more difficult. The line will eventually alternate between the top and bottom of the screen. The boss is especially difficult but is manageable. Memorize the patterns as best as possible. It's been awhile so I don't remember the patterns exactly, but always stay moving and stay near the left side of the screen for almost the entirety of the fight. The exceptions are when the boss creates a vertical wall of minions that spray death in front (they don't shoot behind) and during the sets of double minions that move horizontally while firing (I moved in a clockwise box pattern that easily avoided everything).

Edited by L3land
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Stage 4: Very straightforward. Although it's possible to backtrack through almost the entire level, the shop near the beginning disappears after hitting the first checkpoint in the desert so plan accordingly. There are added farmers that are annoying to kill. I had the best luck by using a well placed HCF+P move to take them out. There is a full life drop after the hog bosses. The missile patterns are exactly the same as hard difficulty but the second set have farmers on them. Jump around them rather than fight. The boss moves faster and has quicker mask piece regeneration. Take the right fork when climbing the tree.

 

Stage 5: I almost ran out of time on this stage. I came into this level with no magic and tackled the bosses in this order: spider, egg, wolf, silverware poltergeist. There isn't enough time to kill the multitude of spear knights placed around the stage if you're racing the clock. I may have killed 3, tops. There is a very helpful full life pick up during the wolf's level. The wolf boss killed me, which replenished my spells. I spent all those spells to reach the checkpoint before the crazy lady. After intentionally dying on the instakill knife, I blew away the boss with all spell stocks very quickly. I bought two Black Hellebore upgrades in the last shop before the final boss. This knocks down the third phase to 3 hits per cycle instead of 5. I would have bought the third upgrade if I could have afforded it. I tackled the first boss phase very directly: back flip and open with a charge slash. Then I spammed vertical stabs while tanking the head hits. Rinse and repeat for the second side. For the second phase, I used all of my spells on the dropped enemies. There's no point in using them on the hands since you can only deal 3-4 sword slashes worth of damage per opening. The last phase is similar to hard mode, but with heads that are harder to dodge. If you are familiar with the patterns, there isn't much deviation... just slightly harder timings.

 

Stage 6: The white knight boss. The timer resets to 5 minutes since this is considered its own stage. I suck at this fight, but the fireball you get for having full life is extremely helpful. I would jump and immediately shoot after leaving the ground, the timing is hard to describe, but there's a sweet spot that is hard for the boss to dodge.

Edited by L3land
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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

First you talk about 5 levels, then you list 6 stages? I'm probably missing something.

 

How long does it take to get through the game? Kinda wondering how much time I waste per attempt? If it's like a lot of time, then meh, this game can rest in peace, but if it's not that long, I could try to go for it, and get some challenging 2D platformer for a cheap money. :)

 

EDIT:

DAMN. I accidentally purchased this game instead of some other game I was trying to purchase due to a time out in the store. >_<

Edited by MMDE
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  • 6 months later...
  • 5 months later...

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