Arcade Survival Guide: Shadow Assassin.

[Own]

I'm typing this because Arcade Mode is difficult to get far in, and understanding the enemy attack patterns can be trickier still. Also, with any luck, using these notes I can figure out some other build that can consistently get to Winter.

This build is centered around getting into the room, doing the quickest damage possible in the shortest amount of time, stunlocking the enemies you can kill and kiting those you can't.

Suggested Perks: Improved 1-handed sword, +Max HP, +Max HP%.

Skill Requirements: Shadow Clone, Spirit Slash. Never, ever charge Spirit Slash if you use it, just tap it for a split second and run.

Talent Options: +2% Attack Damage, +2 Attack Speed, +3% Crit Chance, +% Crit Damage.

Ideal Equipment: Attack Ring, Attack Speed Ring, Carrot Sword, The Stinger, Devil Horns, Red Bow, Crit Bandana, Phaseman's Boots, Pumpkin Head, Royal Crown, Barrel Shield, Green Slime Vest, Chainmail, Brawler Plate. Any combination of these ought to do you good. Don't be fooled by the shirt that gives you +60 HP. More defense is better than more HP, especially when it comes time to heal at the nurse. Anyone care to do the math on this one, comparing damage taken with Chainmail, Greenslime and HP shirt?

Build order:

If you're not confident in your ability to take on enemies, 1 point in Shadow Clone and 1 in Spirit Slash, then max Shadow Clone.

If you are confident, max Shadow Clone immediately and ignore Spirit Slash until Pumpkin Woods or Flying Fortress.

Talent options are up to you, among the four. All four increase your ability to kill. As a matter of preference, I prefer either the first two or the latter two in a pair. I've been going +Damage, +Speed and finally +Crit Chance.

General Strategy:

The very instant the room loads, locate the enemy that most threatens your ability to control the room and kill it ASAP. Shadowclone will typically stunlock that enemy to safely kill it before any other enemy gets near you. If there are too many dangerous enemies in the room, remove your Shadowclone and put what you learned against GUNDAM in Story Mode to good use. You'll be weaving around the room, spamming Spirit Slash whenever you get a window to do so. Spirit Slash can stunlock enemies just like Shadowclone, even if the damage isn't quite as good. Rooms that require Spirit Slash are a battles of attritition, doing whatever damage you can until the room is in a state you can control.

Enemy Survival Guide:

MOUNTAINS

Green Slime - No threat. Group these together with bunnies, run up against them and slash into them over and over while holding down the directional arrow where you're facing. Your attacks will push them back and your arrow key will inch you forward between attacks pixel by pixel, closing that distance so they have no chance to leave stunlock and retaliate. Elite: Maximum threat. Slime will slow you down and put you at risk.

Rabby - See Green Slime. Rabby's attack and move quicker than Green Slimes, though, so if your stunlock fails they will lunge at you quicker. Elite: No threat. Slightly quicker, but just as easy to stunlock.

Bees - Potential Threat. Bees can't be stunlocked or controlled, you can only manipulate their attack patterns. You'll want to kill them first if possible, but they will usually be left for last. Walk up or down in front of the be while gathering the Slimes/Rabbies of the room into a cluster, when the bee dives you'll have enough of an open window to destroy the enemies on the ground. If you're facing multiple bees, just put your back to the trees to deal with just one dive direction, shield up and wait for them to stun themselves. If you're facing NUMEROUS bees, do the same but slowly walk up and down along the treeline with your shield out, spreading out the stunned bees so you have a window to attack some of them. Elite: Decent threat. Dives and movement are quicker, stun is shorter. Still easy to avoid if you keep an eye on it.

Vilya - No Threat. Most predictable attack pattern in the game. Walk right up to her, pummel her with shadowclone for a second or two, then shield. She'll whap your shield. Repeat the attack, shield. Whap. Sneak in another hit, then run away. She'll dash, stun herself and she's dead before she can exit the stun.

Helloweed - No threat. As predictable as Vilya, but does more shield damage. Just don't let it break your shield. Walk up to it, hold your shield up, inch backwards. When it pops up and dings your shield, attack. Shield before it swipes at you, repeat. If your shield is about to break, just run away and let it recharge a little bit. You can also bait out attacks by running back before it swipes, but just shielding gives you less downtime between swipes.

Beehive Boss Battle - Dangerous. Beehives impede your ability to control the room, making them always threat #1. Immediately run to the left hive, break it before it can spawn a single bee. The slimes/bunny have caught up to you by now, but ignore them and run right. The remaining beehive has spawned a bee, but you can force it to dive by getting in it's way on the walk over. Kill the other beehive before it can make a second swipe at you and then treat the room like a normal room.

FORESTS

Beehives - Maximum threat. See Beehive Boss Battle. Sometimes these spawn immediately next to one or two flowers, if that's the case you will likely take some damage while trying to kill them ASAP. It's alright to take a hit if that's the case, do anything you can to prevent them from spamming the roomwith bees. Elite: Ten times as worse as normal. Rush them down, no matter what it takes.

Red Slime - Treat as Elite Green Slime. Elite: Same, but much longer jumps.

Bloomo - Treat as an immobile Helloweed, so even less of a threat. Elite: Same.

Boar - Slight threat. Many people treat the boar as if it's a bigger danger than it actually is. They're actually very easy to manipulate, getting some practice in in story mode may be helpful. Just treat it like a bull fight. Walk past in front of it to make it lunge at the air, stunning itself for a second or two. You can attack it then, but you can't stunlock the boar, so back up and repeat the process until it dies. Shield it instead of walking past if you need to. If you see it charging, just back up and give it a wide berth, try to angle it's charge to damage some other enemies or take out some thorns. It's much easier to kill after you let it stun itself on the wall. Kill this enemy at your leisure. Elite: Maximum threat. You can't attack this until the rest of the room is cleared. It charges and moves incredibly fast, with little downtime. Only engage after it self-stuns against a wall. If you have Spirit Slash, this is the best time to use it.

Gigaslime - No threat. If you have Silver Charge Shadowclone by now, Gigaslime won't have any opportunity to perform an attack. Move to it's bottom left or right corner (to avoid being easily hammered) and start wailing on it. When it jumps, just move down and continue pummeling. It will quickly spin. Just move to the left or right side of it farthest from the trees and put your shield up. If you have good timing, you can keep it stunlocked in place by chaining perfect guards. I prefer to take no risks, just hold your shield up and walk backwards slowly, keeping you undamaged and your shield from breaking. NOTE: Gigaslime is your first boss that has special attacks at certain HP activators. Learn to identify at what HP amounts it's Spin Move triggers.

Black Ferrets - Somewhat threatening. You can't fight Vilya until the mooks are down for the count. One only ever attacks from above, the other only attacks vertically, the other horizontally, but if you move carefully enough you can get them side by side. Wait until Vilya stuns herself, then stunlock the mooks by hitting them both together until they drop. Then just treat Vilya as a slightly quicker, shorter stunned version of her normal self. Just put your shield up quicker than you normally would and run away sooner. If you're worried, you can just wait and attack her whenever she stuns herself. Spirit Slash may be useful in here if you can't control and kill the mooks together.

The Zoo - Large threat. Too many enemy varieties and attack patterns in here to keep tabs on at once. I never use my bow anywhere else, so I prefer to start this battle off by spamming arrows into the fray. That typically weeds out the slime, rabby, sometimes Bloomo and rarely the boar. The bee you'll likely kill last, just trick it into diving. If the boar is alive, just let it charge and kill most of the enemies for you. The Elder Rabby is your main threat, it's the second boss with an HP Activator attack. It enters Rage Mode at, I believe, 66% and 33% HP? If you see a berserk icon, run away until the Elder Rabby stops steaming. While in Rage Mode it can't be stunlocked and will do rapid damage to you. Spirit Slash is great for this room if you have it.

 

[Own]

HALLOWEEN WOODS - You may now ease into kiting and spamming Spirit Slash and disengaging Shadowclone for more EP if you aren't comfortable with this area. Ignore all the tactics about shielding, blocking and taunting out attacks and just use Spirit Slash if you need to.

Jumpkins - Slight threat. Jumpkins will ruin your day if you try to shield around them, you can't disengage your shield and run without them biting you at least once. With the slightest window of opportunity, they will chomp you repeatedly. Thankfully Shadowclone leaves no windows between the rapid sword swings, Jumpkins die easy. With low HP they're nothing to worry about. Elite: Something to worry about. It jumps fast, jumps far and never stops. It will control your movements, making it a top priority. Just get in a position to hit it once and stunlock it to death.

Pumpkin Mages - No threat. Some people like to be fancy and kill these by reflecting their shots back at them. There's no need to risk dumb damage. Just walk by them from a distance and wait for them to throw a fireball, then move in at an angle to kill. You can let your shield take the hit too, if you like. Elite: Fires 5 fireballs instead of one, in a cone. Just taunt out it's initial volley at a longer distance, give yourself more of a chance to avoid it.

Scarecrows - Slight threat. These are actually easier to manipulate than the boar. You can't stunlock scarecrows, but they do much less shield damage. You can walk past them from any direction and they'll take a slow swipe at where you were, giving you the opportunity to pummel them from the side. I prefer to let them bang on my shield, though. They die quick. I like to bunch up 2-3 scarecrows and kill them all together. Elite: Same, but faster.

Halloweed - Maximum threat. Ignore everything else in the room when you see one of their purple flowers on the ground. Immediately find a place in the room farthest from all other enemies, put up your shield and inch backwards. The Halloweed may pop up at your sides or behind you if you don't walk backwards with your shield up. Burst it down ASAP, shielding whenever it swipes. Don't run away unless you absolutely need to. Once you have it's attack pattern down, you can pummel both a Halloweed and Scarecrow attacking you simultaneously. Elite: Completely ignore everything else. If you take damage from other sources, that's fine. This thing is way too powerful and fast not to die immediately, ESPECIALLY with it's thorn spawns.

Ghosts - Slight threat. They only attack side to side like bees. Some people might suggest shielding against them like bees, I like to run up and down along the room, revealing how many ghosts are in it. They linger long enough to be hurt and have no way to damage you when visible and not charging. Spirit Slash is good for cleaning them up, if you want to use it. Elite: Save this enemy for last. It vanishes much too quickly to kill while you're distracted. If you can perfect guard it it'll be visible for longer, but don't take risks.

Terrorweed - No threat. This boss is hyped up to be more dangerous than it is, it's just a glorified Bloomo. It's Scarecrow duo are easily taken out in the first few seconds, just march up to them, let them bang your shield and cut through them before continuing up. The Terrorweed will have spawned a bunch of thorns around the room. Position yourself somewhere where there's a clear path behind you. Wail on the Terrorweed until it burrows, then shield and back up, same strategy as the Halloweed. When it pops up you'll be flung backwards, but if you positioned yourself correctly you won't take any thorn damage. Run back up to it, wail on it, shield the swipe. You'll be flung back again. Repeat 2 times. The Terrorweed will then try to spawn more thorns around the room. It'll die to your barrage before it gets the chance to finish.

Pumpkin King - Large threat. The normal pumpkins are just a nuisance who will most likely get a bite or two off on you, but the damage by now probably isn't anything to worry about. Spirit Slash them if you need to, but otherwise focus on the Pumpkin King. The King behaves largely like a scarecrow in that you can taunt out his initial swipe, then pound him down with Shadowclone. If that's all this battle was it would be easy, but the King comes with a trick - he's the third boss with an HP Activator. And he has three. You'll want to keep a careful eye on either his HP bar, or him until you get a feel for what HP amounts trigger his Bat Swarm. When he raises his arms to start summoning the bats, RUN. Don't shield. The bats will keep you stunlocked in the shielding position, shatter your shield and rip through your HP. When King is finished summoning them, he'll leap to where you are. Intercept and pummel, repeat Scarecrow fight tactics until Bat Swarm 2 comes. Repeat for Bat Swarm 3 and you win. Positioning yourself somewhere the bats won't get you is the most important way to win this battle. If you feel overwhelmed when all three swarms are visible, just disable Shadowclone and kite himwith Spirit Slash.

 

[Own]

FLYING FORTRESS - I hope you've memorized attack patterns from Story Mode, otherwise you're going to die here quickly. Knowing when you can afford to Shadowclone and when you can Spirit Slash are the most important ways to survive this area.

Summoning Crystal - TOP THREAT in Arcade Mode. I don't care what else is in the room, you rush these things down or you lose, no matter how much damage you take doing so. These will control the room to a point that you can't come back from. They can summon any enemy from the Flying Fortress area except Pecko. I don't know if the summons are weaker or if they have less HP, but it doesn't feel like it. Once you kill it the room will likely be filled with enemies. Disengage Shadowclone, kite Spirit Slash the rest of the enemies by their threat level. Elite: You may have already lost by the mere existence of this. Just try and kill it quick enough.

Brawler Bot - No threat. They give a quick chase, but they telegraph their attacks and have a cooldown after taking a swing. They're easy to stunlock and Spirit Slash mows them down too. Elite: Disregard that, they're a danger now. You can't stunlock them, their attacks are rapid and their chase is relentless. Kite and Spirit Slash.

Robo Eye - Maximum threat. If a few of these are in the room, forget about Shadow Clone. You don't have enough of a window open to attack. Their shots are curved, they seek you out, they're difficult to shield and the Eyes are constantly running away from you. 2 Spirit Slashes a piece ought to pop them. You really can't afford to fight anything in the room so long as they're alive. Elite - Even more annoying, the strategy stands.

Blue Crystal - Threat dependant on what it's shielding. Summoning crystal? You've probably lost already. Brawler Bot or Pecko? Can be safely ignored until the room is cleared. Eye? Annoying. Kill it when you need to kill what it's shielding.

Green Crystal - Large threat. They're great at controlling the room, denying you access to places you want to go. Kill one if you get a chance, otherwise stick to the corners and edges of the room where they have trouble hurting you. You only need to kill one to stop the beam. They like to move, so Spirit Slash gets them good.

Purple Crystal - More inconvenience than threat. Kill only if it's stopping you from fighting safely. If you're trapped in the purple aura, don't try to shield even if surrounded by enemies, you'll be stuck in the center. Run and get out.

Pecko - Distraction more than threat. Treat the Pecko as a wandering hazard, just keep away from it at all times while you clear out the rest of the room. If it flies to get over to you, great, it's out of combat for a little while. Once everything is dead it's the easiest enemy to kill. Don't approach it from behind to avoid it's dust. Approach it from the front with your shield up and it will peck three times, then take a break. Hit in this window, repeat until death - or retreat to regen shield HP. If you can perfect guard a peck it will be stunned for a brief time, but don't risk damage just for a quicker fight. Elite: More attack, but no more a threat.

Summoning Portal - Coinflip Game Over threat. It's a 50/50 shot that you see this boss on your run. If you do, you're just unlucky. If you have fought GUNDAM and Phaseman enough, you might be able to survive this battle by treating everything it spawns as obstacles rather than enemies, weaving between all the punching Brawlers and shooting Eyes. Let's assume you haven't immediately given up at the sight of this boss.

Run forward, pummel it over and over with Shadowclone as much as you can. If a Brawler approaches, edge to the side where you can fight the Brawler while simultaneously hitting the Portal. If the first summon is an eye, go to the side of the crystal opposite the eye and continue pummeling while tapping shield to absorb the projectile. If it's a blue crystal protecting it, kill it ASAP.

No matter what you do, you'll be overrun. Disable Shadowclone and ignore every enemy in the room that isn't a blue crystal shielding the portal. Stop only when you can safely sneak off a Spirit Slash on the portal. If there are too many Eyes in the room firing at you, you can try to replace them with brawler bots by spirit slashing them, but it won't be too much of a help.

If you're lucky and skilled enough, you might be able to kill this before too many Eye-shots hit you. TIP: With potions in the game, DEFINITELY pop a Damage or Gale potion here if you have one.

Phaseman - No threat. If you generated this boss, congratulations. Phaseman has no ability to control the room and is heavily scripted. As soon as it starts go over to stand right beneath him, shielding any projectiles that might get too near you. Pummel him relentlessly with Shadowclone, you're safe here. Shield up as he teleports right, but don't follow him. Shield facing right and move up and down, you can avoid the projectiles easy over here. When he goes to the middle continue pummeling. Sometimes I can kill him here. If you don't, you'll have a full screen of projectiles to dodge and shield, but you probably won't take too much damage. He's guaranteed dead after he warps to the top, before his green shot explodes.

GUNDAM - No threat. Spirit Strike's time to shine. Phase one, just spam spirit strike against his hands, they won't retaliate against it. Sneak in some normal attacks if you want, the hands are easy to dodge. Quickly warp up and bash his head in, you'll do over half the damage. Jump down before he electrocutes you, go stand against the wall and shield upwards. You can inch left and right to avoid the projectiles, but the blue projectiles that target your location might be tricky. Just weave left and right as each wave of them hones in on you. You can practice against these in Hard Mode via the Memory Room in Collector's HQ. If you are REALLY having trouble surviving his death throes, hoard a bunch of DEF equipment or a DEF potion to switch into when the death throes begin. Not much to say beyond that, just avoid his final barrage at the end and welcome to...

Winter - Surprisingly less stressful than the Flying Fortress, at least in terms of normal rooms!

Ice Slimes - Potential threat. They can lunge in any direction if you're vertically or horizontally aligned with them. Circle the room until you've got them all bunched up and then approach from a corner, you can pop them all with little problem. Spirit Slash if things are hairy. Elite: Treat as Elite Red Slime, except slippery instead of sticky. Make a top priority.

Snowball Frostlings - Annoying, but not a real threat. They take a while to wind up and pitch, you can stunlock and kill them with Spirit Strike though. Elite: ???, haven't seen one yet.

Gift - No threat. As far as I can see they're a sprite swapped Green Slime? They don't do anything special. Maybe if they sucked up loose coins on the ground and spat them at you I might be intimidated, or if they could get stronger and faster the more money they gobbled up, that would at least have synergy with the frostling that knocks money out of you. Elite: ???, see above. I imagine it's just a green slime without the stickiness.

Present - Major threat. Controls the room far too easily with it's bombs. Circle the room until you can land a Spirit Strike on it safely to stunlock it without getting near one of the bombs, then swoop in for the kill. Elite: Watch out for it's dying attack, it spurts bombs all around it.

Thief Frostling - Threat. Fast, quick attacking and relentless. The fact they can knock your money out of you is just a distraction and doesn't really do anything, since you're getting it back or dying either way. If there's too many of them or there are Ice Slimes nearby, just run around the room or and spam Spirit Slash until they're dead. Don't let it get close enough to hit you. Elite: MAJOR threat. Like Elite Brawler Bot, you can't stunlock him. He moves even faster and attacks even quicker. Spirit Slash is a must.

Continued further in the topic.

 

[GarlicJelly]

Ideal Equipment: Attack Ring, Attack Speed Ring, Carrot Sword, The Stinger, Devil Horns, Red Bow, Crit Bandana, Phaseman's Boots, Pumpkin Head, Royal Crown, Barrel Shield, Green Slime Vest, Chainmail, Brawler Plate. Any combination of these ought to do you good. Don't be fooled by the shirt that gives you +60 HP. More defense is better than more HP, especially when it comes time to heal at the nurse. Anyone care to do the math on this one, comparing damage taken with Chainmail, Greenslime and HP shirt?

A combination of both is really nice. There is one big downside to the HP adding equipment and that is that there is a bug that causes you to lose current health when you remove any equipment that gives +HP. Having a big healthpool with a little bit of Defence is my preference at least. I used to use the DEF support skill and pick up a lot of +HP items so that I could tank a lot of hits but keeping the buff active during boss fights is really hard and I would mostly just get hit from charging it again so it's kind of a waste for any battle that takes longer than the buff duration. OFC DEF is a more important stat as you get further and further up so you should consider DEF as a more important stat if you can make it past floor 4 IMO.

 

[Vilya]

This is great! I love how much work you put into this with comments for every enemy and the bosses. A great guide

Although...

Vilya - No Threat.

 

[GarlicJelly]

This is great! I love how much work you put into this with comments for every enemy and the bosses. A great guide

Although...

Vilya - No Threat.

Make the boss harder then. XD
The Bee Hives and the Helloweed (Halloweed, whatever it's named...) are both harder. Perfect Guarding 2 attacks and then just walk back a little within 20 seconds to kill a boss is easy peasy. I've never taken damage in that boss fight since there are so few chaces to missplay. Maybe the HP should be increased a little to put the boss fight on par with the other two?

 

[Own]

Increasing HP doesn't increase difficulty, all it does is increase time required to beat it. Vilya's intentionally a weak boss, I think. She teaches new players to analyze attack patterns. I'm cool with her being a tutorial-esque boss in both Story and Arcade mode.

She's actually a challenge in the Black Ferrets battle.

Anyhow, anyone here wanna try out this build / strategy and report back on it?

 

[GarlicJelly]

She's not the challange in the Black Ferrets fight, it's the fact that you have 3 guys attacking you at the same time. And increasing her HP would change the difficulty because the longer a fight is the more chances you will have to make a misstake. If a boss only does 3 attacks then it's not much of a fight is it? In both the other fights you have to deal with more than 4 attacks. I think increasing the health on Vilya on the first two floors would make the fight a little bit harder and you would also have more time to learn the attack pattern. If the attacks are super easy to block/evade then having to go through another cycle of them shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Own]

You have to keep in mind that we're not the average player. We've been playing since the closed beta, or at least I have.

Take a random youtube video of any newer player sizing up against Vilya in Arcade and you'll see a struggle. Most people barely know how to shield, those who played Story Mode just run around in circles forever until she stuns herself, attack and run away. I don't think floor 1 is supposed to be a challenge for anyone but the newest of new players, I can't remember the last time I took damage on the first two floors or got anything less than A's and S's.

 

[GarlicJelly]

But Arcade mode is something you are supposed to play more than once and eventually you will learn the pattern and find a way to play the fight flawlessly. In BoI you have a couple of bosses one the first floors where even the veteran might take damage and that never seemed to be a problem. If people are going to play Arcade mode more than 20 times then they will most likely find a way to beat the "harder" Vilya on the first floor. Her attack pattern is very simple and if you just decide that you don't wanna take damage in the fight and just play it super safe then you can do what the newer players are doing. If you're going for A or S rank you will have to learn her pattern and start to use the shield. I don't think it would hurt the game if the learning curve was a little bit steeper in the Vilya fight.

 

[Luart]

Error of the guide, Insult to injury + both debuff perks has more dps than the talents you suggest
EDIT: if you pair it with backhander its even more

 

[Own]

Which might be relevant if 90% of your combat in Flying Fortress and Winter didn't require using Spirit Slash.

Spirit Slash doesn't trigger debuffs or backhander. Good luck debuffing any enemy while you're surrounded by brawler bots, wisps and green laser crystals.

Pure melee DPS is only relevant through Grindea Forests if you're a normal player or through Pumpkin Woods if you're extremely familiar with the combat system. Past that it's a skill-and-run frenzy, except against bosses who are largely easier than the rooms you have to go through to get to them.

 

[Sekibanki]

I've seen Elite Frostling Scoundrels and they throw 5 snowballs just like Lantern Jacks, this applies to their big snowballs as well. I killed them with swarm so I'm not sure if you can still stunlock them.

On the topic of Vilya being easy maybe if she a choice of two types of dashes, the standard easy to dodge and unblockable one, and a new hard to dodge but blockable one. If they had similar but still noticeably different telegraphs it could make the fight more challenging. I'm not sure if having the first boss be to easy is necessarily a bad thing though.

 

[Luart]

welp own, if i didnt already beat arcade with the talents i said with ease i wouldnt even post here ;P but hey, killing bosses like they were mere elites isnt a bad thing at all, gun-dam in 2 go's xD

 

[Own]

You beat the Winter Arcade Boss?

 

[Crazyfighter]

Can i translate this guide and post it on a chinese fuoums?

 

[GarlicJelly]

Can i translate this guide and post it on a chinese fuoums?

I don't see any reason why you couldn't. The common thing to do if you spread someone else's work is to give them credit and refer to the source. If you state that this guide is made by Own and also provide a link to this thread you should be all good! Go for it!

 

[Own]

Can i translate this guide and post it on a chinese fuoums?

Depends, is it mostly frequented by pirates? If so, say that the creator of the guide would be immensely appreciative if they would purchase the game, since it means the developers can dedicate their full time and attention to finishing the game and fleshing it out to be the best that they can.

Otherwise, in general, sure. I wrote this to help players.

 

[Own]

I should've made a placeholder for extra room. Bloody '10,000 character limit'. :/

Boss Frostling and Yeti - ???. I dunno what to tell you. I've gotten here four times, died to the boss's machinegun snowballs four times. I can't outrun them I'm not sure what build changes I could do to survive them any more easily. Edit - CURRENTLY TAKEN OUT OF THE GAME?

Marino - Little threat. Marino is a heavily scripted boss, like Phaseman, which makes him easy once you analyze his attack patterns. I like to sit slightly above the lower left corner of him and attack, bait out the slash to the left and move under him to continue attacking. Then move back up to that corner. He'll never hit you. If your timing is off and your shield is good, you can just tank it too without your shield breaking, but you have less time to attack.

Marino likes to charge left and right, so be prepared for that. It's easy to avoid if you're quick about it.

Marino has a special attack that involves 4 dash attacks in succession going left and right. This is incredibly easy to dodge if you imagine that you're at third base in baseball. Run a counter-clockwise diamond shape from third base and all his swipes will miss you. You might also be able to just run back and forth in this shape to dodge them all: / <--- From one end to the other, after each swipe.

Toy Factory: No threat. You may feel compelled to try and DPS down the boss, but there's no point. You'll risk getting hit by bombs so much more if you just try to hit the boss. Go around the room and kill the presents, which will spawn more presents. Same strategy applies as earlier. Kill these presents and then look at the sides of the room when the levers appear. Which side are the arrows coming down from? Hit the switches to make a path that will guide the train into the boss's mouth. Then just wail on the boss while you wait for the train to do 1/3 or 1/4 of it's life in one hit. Repeat this until the end of the battle. Just take care not to get trapped by bombs or hit by trains when killing presents.

Season Temple - It's smooth sailing from here on out! Until you reach one boss, anyhow. How's your equipment looking by now? You gota Crown? Stinger Sword? Jumpkin Card, Pecko Card, Bloomo Card? Anything? Hope you've been using your HP potions carefully up until this point. If you get any green scaley shoes, slap them on, even if you're using Phaseman Boots for EP regen. But don't sell your Frostling Boots, the ones that make you immune to to sliding on ice. They may be helpful here.

Season Knights - No threat, chumps even. But only because you're not going to engage them with your sword. That gives them a massive HP boost by making them put up their shields. No, you're just going tap Spirit Slash near them and watch them collapse instantly, or ignore them while you walk around and attack the Wizards who actually have a chance of hitting you. NOTE: There is no way to identify an Elite Knight or Wizard currently, until they get their own unique non-elite Empowerment visual cues.

Season Wizards - Some threat. They will launch a volley at you the instant you get near them or enter the room, so put up your shield. Each hit will probably do 10-15 damage a pop, so no great loss if you are hit. Just Shadowclone them to death. Easy, right? Wrong. Time to look at Empowereds.

Empowered Blue Knight - Threat. You remember Marino's long dash attack, right? These guys have that in spades and up and down as well. Thankfully theirs is much less restrained, you can bait them into charging and save them for last while they slam into a wall far away. Spirit Slash will handle them nicely.

Empowered Green Knight - Chump. He'll break your shield if he hits it. Oo, scary~. :I See that? That's my not-too-impressed face. Slap him down with a Spirit Slash and send him on his way before he even gets near you. To be honest, though, if you do get in melee range of him that hammer will probably do a ton of damage to you. I've never actually been hit by it, though. I mean... I should probably let it hit me once for science, but... no, just Spirit Slash.

Empowered Orange Knight - Maximum threat. And not just because of him, either. If there's a season orb nearby, hit it ASAP. His special attack controls the room like a champ. Which isn't surprising, since Spin2Win is a better build than the one you have right now and Orange Knight took 30 levels in that. He'll spin around and home in on your location for a while. If you can't safely Spirit Slash him like this or remove his Empowerment, shield it to bounce him back until you can.

Empowered Blue Wizard - No threat. Surrounds enemies with... icecube barriers? I guess these hurt you if you touch them? Why would you get that close to them? Tap Spirit Slash at a safe distance, watch them fall down.

Empowered Green Wizard - Maximum threat. These guys don't control the room, they DENY you the room. And if you're surrounded by a bunch of enemies, good luck escaping this with your HP intact. Kill this guy ASAP or change season. They spawn a bunch of damaging thorns around you that you have to slash to destroy, if you want to escape.

Empowered Orange Wizard - Voted 'MVP of Controlling Arcade Rooms' in his highschool yearbook. You thought those yellow summoning crystals back in Flying Fortress were annoying? If you let a few of these survive in any room for any amount of time, you may be dead. They spawn numerous whirlwinds around the room. If they touch you, you're thrown around helplessly at the mercy of whatever enemy wants to hit you. If they touch Orange Knights, you're got a faster, smaller, more dangerous Gigaslime on your hands. If you absolutely can't change the season, put your shield up and wait for the Whirlwinded Orange Knight to lose his buff.

Hydras - Threat, but ignore until last. You may occasionally find these in rooms. Knock off their Empowerment if you can, but otherwise kill the knights / wizards in the room first. After that it's just a matter of moving up and down whenever you see it get vertical, that means it's about to strike. Let it smack a wall and beat it down with your sword. You can take it's initial charge on your shield for extra slashing time, if you like. It'll break your shield, but it won't hit you. Optionally, you could try perfect guarding it. It's fairly easy to pull off on them, but you're on the final floors, so why risk it just to be flashy?

Continued

 

[Own]

Triple Hydra - Maximum Threat to No Threat. You remember when I said, hey, don't sell those Frostling Boots if you have them? We're about to see how hard this battle is if you listened to me.

With Boots: Right, so, you want to avoid that initial volley of fire and hit the Winter Orb the instant it becomes available. Now you just watch the three hydras above, walk back and forth while checking to see which one goes rigid, then baiting it until hitting the wall. Or shielding it. Whichever. Bash it down, carefully walk around to avoid being blasted by the Winter Hydra's ice beam (it moves in two predictable patterns, don't worry) and focus your attention on Summer / Autumn Hydras. You absolutely must save Winter last. Kill it and proceed.

Without boots: Aaalright then. Change of plans. You chose a hard battle. Summer? Spews flames endlessly that never run out and damage you when you walk over them. Autumn? Spits out spore balls that burst when they touch you, damaging you and spraying mushrooms on the floor that blind you. Winter? Slip'n'slidy floor. You want to switch back and forth between Winter and Autumn, preferably remaining on Autumn until too much of the area has been mushroomed to avoid the blindness effect.

The strategy remains the same, you just now have less of the area to move in with Autumn and with Winter, you can't move as precisely or quickly as you would like, cutting down on your DPS vs the Hydras. Absolutely kill Summer first, or at least second.

Summer and Autumn Fairies - No threat. This battle is more annoying than it is difficult, you can get hit a lot but for very, very little damage. They like to do hazard damage via winds, thorns and ice spikes, while controlling the room completely. Don't bother trying to knock down the thorns that spawn, just focus fire on Summer because Autumn likes to leave the circles. Spam your sword damage on Summer relentlessly, use Spirit Slash if he's just out of your range behind thorns, follow him and repeat until he's dead. If he's behind a lot of thorns, switch over to Autumn if possible, they share an HP bar. Give her a swat if Summer dies, it means she has 1 HP.

Winter Fairy - ???. Gonna be honest, haven't fought and killed him yet with Shadow Assassin. My suggestion? Don't play to kill him, play to survive. Pray that he makes his Ice Maze as often as possible. Also, put all your spare points into the Support magic Protect. Also, hoard every single item from the start of Arcade Mode that can give you extra defense. Slime ring? Keep it. Scarecrow scarf? Keep it. A Knight's helmet? Keeeeep it.

As soon as he heads into a corner to start the blizzards, use Protect and quickly ESC to swap out your equipment. Chug a defense potion if you have one, which you absolutely should have been saving for this fight. Hopefully you have a Barrel, Present or Ice Shield and can withstand the torrent without sustaining damage. Show him that the cold never bothered you anyhow by ESCing and chugging a Damage or Gale potion, pounding down his HP in the lengthy time it gives you to attack him after potentially skipping the maze.

Again, I have no idea if this works. I haven't tried it yet. But trying to fight him normally hasn't worked for me yet. Here's hoping you have about 4-8 HP potions stored up if the worst happens.