The game does have a couple of oblique hints as to where to use the Invert shard to get that aforementioned item, but it does require a bit of knowing the logic of how a Metroidvania tends to organize itself. There's one area of the map that has a larger number of items and areas that are suddenly accessible via use of Invert than others. It's a hint that you should use Invert in a trial-and-error fashion in said area until you can find the item needed.
I'm used to this style of game and picked up on said oblique hints without a guide, but I totally see not catching on. Also, I can see it completely possible to miss these hints if you're good enough at Sequence Breaking techniques namely, if you're good enough at the midair stomp after a double jump, some of those items in said area are accessible much earlier, thus making it much less obvious.
I finally upgraded Alchemic Bounty to Rank 9 Grade 9... and oh my god, I knew people were calling it a Game-Breaker, but it's just absurd even by those standards. All the crafting materials you could ever need suddenly available, because you make 5 instead of just 1 half the time you craft, which you then break down 4 of them back into materials, wash rinse repeat. And it even works on shard crafting - I decided to make another Augment Gold shard to see if improving its grade would improve the frequency of gold drops, and I hit the RNG and got 5 more instead. Candles started dropping 1000 and 2000 G bags instead of the 500 I was used to - I think I'm going to see if I can push my cash on hand to 1 million when I fight Valefar again in New Game Plus just to see how ridiculously high I can push his HP in the second phase.
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.
Yep, Alchemic Bounty is kind of awesome. Somewhat offset since it takes a lot of Gold to rank up, and Gold is a pain in the ass to get.
And upgrading and doubling up on Augment Gold makes it so much easier to get the $500k gold achievement.
Edited by M84 on Jul 25th 2019 at 1:17:51 AM
Disgusted, but not surprisedOkay so I found Bloodless through a mirror that was so small and out of the way that I missed it the first time. But then in my beastiary it's listed as enemy number 118 when the previous boss (not counting that dragon that is much earlier in the beastiary for some reason) was number 116. Did I skip a boss somehow?
Edit: Or is number 117 Gebel? They didn't show up in my beastiary after defeating them (probably due to giving me the bad ending).
Edited by Druplesnubb on Jul 24th 2019 at 9:25:25 PM
If you're referring to the black dragon being earlier in the bestiary, that's because it's a Degraded Boss later in the game - it's placed in about the same place as the other monsters in the area where it appears as a non-boss enemy.
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.I'm currently trying to get the medals for a no-damage fight against the bosses in New Game Plus Hard Mode. I'm fascinated to note which bosses are much more frustrating when you're trying to completely dodge/block their attacks. In particular, I found the Abyssal Guardian ridiculously tricky to perfectly run (it has this jumping attack that doesn't do that much damage, but it's a pain in the ass to avoid), not to mention that I still don't know how to do a perfect run against Valac (there's always one stray hit during its Taking You with Me attack that gets me, and yes, that does count against you). Oh, and Alfred is predictably annoying as all get-out, particularly since the circular arena means that you can't use Recycle Hat cheese nearly as easily (you still can, and in fact I eventually did, but you have to get way closer than I would have liked to shoot him - I probably could have used a spear with as close as I had to get).
On the other hand, I was surprised at how relatively easy Bathin was to handle (once you figure out the right distance to bait him into certain moves) as was Doppelganger (she has several moves that leave her wide open; just play defense until she uses one, then dodge and unload).
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.So I've gotten the Inversion but I can't actually use it to progress the game anywhere? of the three big rooms where I could use it one was split in half by a wooden plank, one just contained a Carpenter's Key that I can't use anywhere and the last one has the way blocked by one of those iron maiden thingies (and unlike the one in the Garden of Silence there aren't any enemies to lure into this one). What am I supposed to do, exactly?
Once you have Invert, you need to go back and use it in various places to reach a chest that you couldn't before. What's particularly tricky is that, unless you are really curious and have double jumped in the right place, you probably haven't seen the chest in question that you can now invert to.
I'll be a little more precise to hint as to where to go: Invert opens up a lot of vertical areas that weren't reachable before. You should head to a part of the map where there's a lot of vertical space, as there are probably parts that you haven't found before. And don't worry, if you're wrong and invert somewhere that doesn't have a ceiling, Miriam will automatically use Invert to prevent falling off the world.
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.![]()
Yeah I got so sick of Trying to find a way into the Oriental Sorcery Lab that I just went "fuck it" and tanked the damage of the spike hallway. Afterwards I went "that can not be the intended way through" and looked through my inventory, only to discover I had picked up spike protection armor a while back and never noticed.
I'd say end of the game. He's pretty hard.
Edited by Moth13 on Jul 26th 2019 at 9:46:26 AM
The Carpenter and other Bonus Bosses are more or less endgame level. The Carpenter in particular is pretty aggressive. Though I'd say the Eight Bit Overlord is the hardest one.
I guess you could just cheese The Carpenter with Invert. But that's not really all that satisfying. Invert btw doesn't really help much against Eight Bit Overlord.
Edited by M84 on Jul 26th 2019 at 10:30:43 PM
Disgusted, but not surprisedHonestly, of the four Bonus Boss battles, I found the Master Carpenter to be the hardest - his attacks come out fastest (so it's harder to cheese with Directed Shield) and he can summon fairly beefy minions to help him out (Millionaire's Bane also can summon, but it just summons Lilis, and you should be able to two-shot them at worst by the time you can do that bonus fight). I actually find that 8-Bit Overlord is the easiest - his attacks are slowest, and the only one that can't be blocked is his stomp (which is so telegraphed that you can just move out of the way). Go in with a full magic meter (maybe some ethers if your meter isn't that long) and a high-rank Directed Shield (which you really should have maxed by now; it's one of the cheapest to do), and it's actually pretty easy to do a perfect run on. Revenant is mostly pretty easy because a lot of his attacks are slow and telegraphed, but he has a couple that come out quick enough that, if you're not in the right position to dodge, can hurt a bit (but thankfully, he doesn't spam them). Also, since most of dealing with Revenant is dodging rather than shielding just right, he's cheaper to manage. Oh, and Millionaire's Bane does have the chance of just giving you a free victory depending on the slot (I got super lucky and it pulled a triple 7 on my first fight on the second spin, so I only had to deal with, maybe, a quarter of its lifebar) - if you want to be cheesy, you could just try doing that fight repeatedly in order to get blessed by the RNG, then use the loot from there to make a Game-Breaker to more easily handle the other bonus bosses.
In short, unless you're feeling bold, Master Carpenter, in my opinion, is probably the last one you should fight, even if he's the second that you'll come across (first if you didn't find the 8-Bit Nightmare earlier).
Also, my apologies, I thought the ability to move the iron maidens with Craftwork was more known. Though admittedly, for all that it's required for plot progression, it's kind of odd that there's only five places in the game where the shard can be used (that I can remember).
EDIT: I'm leaning towards use of the Rhava weapons myself. Not so much for the raw power (it helps, yes, but I have enough options that I can get equivalent power elsewhere), but for the fact that its multiple hits to deliver the same amount of damage means that it's somewhere between two to eight times as likely to trigger Pickpocket - yes, the individual chances of a given hit triggering the item or gold drop is low, but the fact that enemies technically take somewhere between 2 to 8 hits from the weapon (even if I only press "attack" once or twice) means that I pile up the hits and thus the odds that I get bonus gold or items from every enemy I defeat. In fact, I sometimes switch over to the weaker Rhava and turn off the skill shards related to Rhava's use (Augment STR, Sword Mastery, Red Remembrance) to lower my attack and thus get even more hits for some of the really rare drops (here, Ice Elementals...).
Edited by 32_Footsteps on Jul 29th 2019 at 1:13:31 PM
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.Heh, Master Carpenter was the first Bonus Boss I tackled. He's surprisingly easy if you Invert. I did that the first time, then fought him normally. It usually boiled down to a dps race between me and him — it helped that I had a maxed out Heretical Grinder.
Disgusted, but not surprisedHuh.. of all the bonus bosses, I thought he'd be second-least vulnerable to Invert cheese - Millionaire's Bane and Revenant seem like they'd be much weaker to it. Plus, Master Carpenter's chisels come out pretty fast and can hit the ceiling, so I would have thought he'd still be difficult.
That said, honestly, I don't like using Invert much. Takes some of the challenge out of things. I suppose I probably shouldn't complain on that too much, given how much I cheese out with Directed Shield, but still.
EDIT: Heretical Grinder, I wasn't as fond of, but it's no more broken than a lot of other shards in the right circumstance (honestly, I get tons of mileage out of Throwing Axe for similar damage numbers, even with the whole "only throw it left or right" issue). There's only one time I can thing of where it completely cheeses things - getting to the right spot and using it is basically "I win" against Kunekune... I've been using it to attempt to farm Resist Curse.
Edited by 32_Footsteps on Jul 29th 2019 at 1:21:54 PM
Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.

Well, it's obvious until you get Invert, then the game expects you to find a specific piece of equipment hidden in a random place in the map if you want to proceed.