Pharphis's Arcade mode progress thread (and questions?)

[Pharphis]

Perhaps a bit late to make this since I've accomplished most of the things in arcade mode which I was struggling with, but whatever.

Let's start off with what I accomplished today:

Amazing run as flamethrower build (with frost friend). I think I had 5 potions left by the time I reached winter. Unfortunately, I took 800 dmg on that floor (mostly winter ofc) so no double S rank.

I was also close to finishing that stupid challenge in the flying fortress area (you know the one) that still has me sad that I've never completed it. Any videos would be appreciated, though I think I know what to do, I just need to actually do it... That said, can someone remind if there is a passive that makes moving while shielding faster? I think there is and I also think it would help a lot for that challenge :/

So what I have left is S rank in winter area (floor 9/10) (so close today! beat Smashie and Bashie without using any potions which is a significant improvement but obviously I need to take 1 hit or less from them) and S rank for season temple (This will probably take months of play). Then I also need to beat the last challenge in flying fortress as well as a few challenges on floors 11/12. I also need to purchase the remaining two most expensive items for essences (hood and helmet) which is a nice long-term goal. Well, VERY long-term goal.

Strat for the hydra challenge where thorns slowly appear and most of the floor catches fire?

RIP 1Her, though. It's just too difficult to get some of the harder accomplishments with that build. Sorry, G. Maybe I'll give it another run after I get these harder achievements (and flamethrower is inevitably nerfed for floors 13+ )

 

[Pharphis]

Oh - Earlier today I had one of the best crit-based runs as well (same run as mentioned above). I peaked at I think 37% crit because I had 3%/5% crit from ring/doll, 5% from hat, and unfortunately no ghost card

It was certainly interesting. I wonder if anyone else has reached maximum crit before (2x rabbit foot, ghost card, archer hat, 15% from passives...)

 

[Pharphis]

The other day I got my highest score (by a wide margin, I think) at over 1.3 million points. I wound up with 8 potions (7 from full-health on entering a floor.. one from a knight drop iirc) and didn't *need* to use any of them while fighting winter.

Flamethrower + frosty friend truly is broken

I still haven't had quite beaten smashie and bashie while taking minimum damage, but i'm improving. I also went on a 10 run streak or so where I didn't see Marino at all. Very bizarre. I still have no idea how you're supposed to do that fight, though, so I just take the 300 dmg or whatever and kill him :/

 

[xEleaa]

Normally marino I like to line up either left or right of him, he usually agro's pet then you get 1 good flame on him. After he will agro you so you run north / south and try again so on its kinda iffy

 

[Pharphis]

The blizzard makes this so difficult and practically speaking entirely luck-based, though :/

 

[Ardeof]

Perhaps a bit late to make this since I've accomplished most of the things in arcade mode which I was struggling with, but whatever.

Let's start off with what I accomplished today:

Amazing run as flamethrower build (with frost friend). I think I had 5 potions left by the time I reached winter. Unfortunately, I took 800 dmg on that floor (mostly winter ofc) so no double S rank.

I was also close to finishing that stupid challenge in the flying fortress area (you know the one) that still has me sad that I've never completed it. Any videos would be appreciated, though I think I know what to do, I just need to actually do it... That said, can someone remind if there is a passive that makes moving while shielding faster? I think there is and I also think it would help a lot for that challenge :/

So what I have left is S rank in winter area (floor 9/10) (so close today! beat Smashie and Bashie without using any potions which is a significant improvement but obviously I need to take 1 hit or less from them) and S rank for season temple (This will probably take months of play). Then I also need to beat the last challenge in flying fortress as well as a few challenges on floors 11/12. I also need to purchase the remaining two most expensive items for essences (hood and helmet) which is a nice long-term goal. Well, VERY long-term goal.

Strat for the hydra challenge where thorns slowly appear and most of the floor catches fire?

RIP 1Her, though. It's just too difficult to get some of the harder accomplishments with that build. Sorry, G. Maybe I'll give it another run after I get these harder achievements (and flamethrower is inevitably nerfed for floors 13+ )

Flamethrower doesn't have very good damage scaling. So if Arcade Mode had any higher levels, flamethrower builds would begin to wane because of not having enough damage.

 

[Pharphis]

Ah, good to know. I feel like it may still be one of the more efficient dps methods for a few other floors, though, since you can burst it for 0.5-2 seconds easily and do a ton of dmg. I am excited to see how annoying spinsects (or more likely the larvacid things) are in arcade mode

 

[Pharphis]

Ouuu.. I just checked the high scores to see how good my run was, and I'm ranked 26th

Not bad!

 

[Pharphis]

Had another run that was mostly very good. I'm improving (slowly) against winter, taking *only* ~300-400 dmg (lol) for the last floor. I actually took more dmg against the hydras this time... My score was only about 6k below my highest score so looking forward to beating it

I had one really bad room in the flying fortress with a boss brawler bot and a pecko and a few other things (no summon crystals surprisingly) and it took me 45 seconds to clear the room. Yeesh.

Also did wonderful on the first snow floor but crappy on the second, though I'm also improving against smashie and bashie which is nice

Fought Marino in a different run yesterday and other than arrows I almost contributed nothing to the entire fight... my frosty friend did almost all of the damage (ha!). Very goofy

 

[Pharphis]

Slowly improving

Beat Winter twice today, and the second time I had only taken 240 dmg on that floor. I wan't using defense equipment for the fight for the most part (mix of offense + defense for some reason) and I seem to consistently kill him by 2.5 mins. I think I also beat the hydras without taking more than maybe 30 dmg from being frozen which is nice. My score on that run was garbage but my earlier run was a new record (barely.. still ranked 26th).

Now I'm trying to figure out what I should do about my perks... I removed my only health perk to include an iron shield ( = easier giga slime/halloweed OR more cash early on) but I might eventually replace it with more arrows. *shrug*

 

[xEleaa]

Arrows! I found that you really do not need better than a wooden shield until fortress really, and you generally find one by then anyways. And arrow quantity + drops helps with Pumpking Marino Winter and some other spots like sniping lanterns so on =)

And well done on the progress! Going well =)

 

[Pharphis]

Hmm.. I'll probably have to rely on arrows more since I barely use them outside of Phaseman, Marino, Winter, and annoying blizzard rooms.

Played earlier today (gained 27 essences) and got a new high score of 1.39 million. Not sure how it was better than my previous scores since I honestly didn't play that well but whatever, I'll take it

 

[Pharphis]

Had another run and finally got another achievement: all challenge rooms in season temple. The last one for me was the fire hydra + thorn room.

I'm still missing one of the challenges in the flying fortress :/

Beat the hydras without taking any dmg today, but played horribly against winter (and took 100 dmg elsewhere on floor 12 as well) so no luck this time.

 

[Pharphis]

Alright, did two more runs last night:

1) Played awfully overall. Barely finished, and my score was like 200k less than my high score.

2) Reached 500 essences and bought the horned helmet. Only 999 left to go! I also FINALLY finished the last challenge room in the flying fortress leaving only S rank achievements on floors 9-10 and 11-12. I suspect I will get both of these before reaching 999 essences but we'll see, I guess!

 

[xEleaa]

Doing well! Good luck

 

[Pharphis]

Doing well! Good luck

One way to NOT do well is to clone the enemies in the room only for it to have 4x orange crystal spawner things in the flying fortress. I took like 300 dmg in that room and it took about 45 sec to clear it :/

 

[The G-Meister]

Mate, you need my build. A standard 2H sword, Protect and Haste. Managed to S rank a room with three of the buggers in and take no damage

 

[Pharphis]

That's disgusting.

Tried another run last night and played REALLY well for the first half, then hit or miss for the remaining floors. I had like 7 potions before winter but managed to take too much dmg (I think I got a B rank for floor 12). Well, beat my old high score by like 2k points or something very minor.

I DID beat Marino with record timing (for me - S rank) while taking 0 dmg, however . I managed to get 2 perfect shields (wasn't trying) so that helped me a ton. They really need to tone down the blizzards in that fight (even if only by a tiny bit), because otherwise it feels like running to the safe spot (constantly) while Marino lines up his horizontal strikes. Seems too luck-based for what is supposed to be a fast fight

 

[Pharphis]

Beat my old high score (by a few thousand) and am now barely in 21st place with 1.398 million points. Played near perfectly in the season temple other than against winter (took 270 dmg). I usually play with max dmg (and def pots if I have them) against winter but this run was with defense equipment for the entire fight. Frankly, I think the fight took too long. I think from now on I will play with max dmg to try to minimize the duration of the fight.

I might also drop one of my passives from crit dmg (the last 3 points I use) to put them into potion duration. I wonder if that would be worthwhile seeing as I usually only have 1-2 of each potion I might want to use.

Does anyone know how long potions last?

 

[The G-Meister]

With the build you're running, DEF is only worth it if you go all out like I do. When you walk in with 100 to 130 DEF it starts to make a difference, and you can let a couple hits slide, but much less than that gives you about 1 or 2 hits leeway. I would say focus on your damage rather than trying to tank your way through.

One tip I have is that he normally does his ice maze at about every 1/4 health. If you do too much damage in his opening few moves he'll skip the first one. If the ice maze isn't of too much difficulty to you, I'd suggest cutting back on your damage in the opening few moves just so you get that extra 10 seconds pummelling him.