The G-Meister
Giga Slime
It's always been my goal to beat Arcade mode with my own build since I started playing Arcade mode back in June 2015. Only now have I succeeded in taking it to Winter, through a small change which can carry you through all of the later floors. Fellow Grindeans, I present to you - the Battletank.
What this strategy aims to achieve is high defence (from now on referred to as DEF) and high attack (ATK) to compensate for a lack of knowledge of monster attack patterns. To put this into perspective, the second time I got to the Season Temple solo, I beat Winter. This exact run is caught on camera from start to finish, and I suggest you read the requirements below before you watch that. I'll do an analysis of the run after that, and I'd advise you read that too, but it's not a necessity.
Here I’ll be discussing the building blocks for the strategy, my own personal choices (which you may choose to abide by,) the video of me defeating Winter for the first time and finally a review of that run (if it was a good example to show people.) In a separate post in the Suggestions section I’ll discuss whether this sort of strategy should be allowed in Arcade. Sorry, it’s gonna be along post. Feel free to tl;dr
The Building Blocks
As with all builds, this strategy has its foundations. However, unlike most builds, this one is pretty lenient everywhere else. You will probably need all of these things below in order to make this strategy work.
The order in which you get the skills/talents is down to your preference. If you want to see the exact way in which I apply my talent/skill points, go and watch the video below. I’ve tailored it to my own ability (which is just scraping by floors with enough ATK to kill stuff in moderately good time,) and I roughly alternate between offensive and defensive talents, although my skills are a little complicated – I’ll explain those after the next section, which is…
Other Options/Personal Preferences
The things in this section have their uses, and some are more useful than others. You’ll probably need a few of these in order to make the run work, though if you play your cards right, you can swap a lot of them out for other things.
Pre-Video Tips and Tricks
Where I got lucky
Anyway, I hope this helped anyone wanting to get through Arcade mode or get some practice at some of the higher floors ^-^
~G <3
P.S. Wow. 1754 words. I’m surprised I even have that much to say. If you read all of that then you have my gratitude I think I’ve forgotten a few things, so don’t be surprised to see this post edited a couple times.
What this strategy aims to achieve is high defence (from now on referred to as DEF) and high attack (ATK) to compensate for a lack of knowledge of monster attack patterns. To put this into perspective, the second time I got to the Season Temple solo, I beat Winter. This exact run is caught on camera from start to finish, and I suggest you read the requirements below before you watch that. I'll do an analysis of the run after that, and I'd advise you read that too, but it's not a necessity.
Here I’ll be discussing the building blocks for the strategy, my own personal choices (which you may choose to abide by,) the video of me defeating Winter for the first time and finally a review of that run (if it was a good example to show people.) In a separate post in the Suggestions section I’ll discuss whether this sort of strategy should be allowed in Arcade. Sorry, it’s gonna be along post. Feel free to tl;dr
The Building Blocks
As with all builds, this strategy has its foundations. However, unlike most builds, this one is pretty lenient everywhere else. You will probably need all of these things below in order to make this strategy work.
- It's a 1H build. You will have to be very familiar with a 1H sword, it's attack range and attack speed. The main way I do damage with this is through normal hits, which also gives you some extra DEF thanks to -
- Brawler talent. 5 Talent levels, each giving a 5% DEF buff which lasts for three seconds. Up to 25% extra DEF is a killer – literally. If you can get a good attack streak going, you get rewarded with extra DEF, meaning if you accidentally take a hit it’s not that much of an issue.
- Protect. This extra DEF will help you out so much in earlier floors, and even later ones, but to a lesser extent. Make sure you always cast it before you walk into a room.
- Pretty good knowledge of floors 1-4. You don’t start with any skill/talent points to apply, so hits hurt badly, and tend to take a good chunk out of your health. I always restart if I take a hit on floor 1 or 2. If you decide to pump all defensive skills/talents, you won’t have enough ATK to make the higher floors easier.
- +DEF and +ATK gear. The run will hand you these, and I’d suggest prioritising the +DEF stuff. Gear drops will be a large factor in whether your run is successful or not. Bosses are the main one.
- DON’T GET HELLBENT ON S RANKS – TAKE YOUR TIME. Yes, they’re shiny. Yes they improve your score. But this is a SURVIVAL guide. I’m trying to get you to Winter reliably, so you can learn the attack patterns of enemies on later floors, so you get better at all floors with an equal rate. Otherwise you’ll probably end up with all S ranks in all rooms and a D for damage (yes, I did this a couple times in the video :/.)
The order in which you get the skills/talents is down to your preference. If you want to see the exact way in which I apply my talent/skill points, go and watch the video below. I’ve tailored it to my own ability (which is just scraping by floors with enough ATK to kill stuff in moderately good time,) and I roughly alternate between offensive and defensive talents, although my skills are a little complicated – I’ll explain those after the next section, which is…
Other Options/Personal Preferences
The things in this section have their uses, and some are more useful than others. You’ll probably need a few of these in order to make the run work, though if you play your cards right, you can swap a lot of them out for other things.
- Dodging Strike. This is my main skill – an incredibly risky one mind you, but it allows you to keep a chain of hits going, therefore keeping up your DEF thanks to the Brawler talent. Perfect dodges allow for an extra damage burst which is very helpful to this process. It is heavily reliant on timing so use at your own risk in multiplayer if you’re not the host.
- Backhander talent. If you’re chaining normal attacks to keep up your DEF, why not have an extra 10% damage per talent level on each return swing? Often the first offensive talent I pump.
- Tenacious talent. Gives you more %HP. The reason I end up pumping this is in late game because my DEF is so high that each hit is only doing 20 damage, which is as low as it goes for most enemies. It then becomes more advantageous to have more HP. There’s also a limit to how much you can pump Brawler
- Strength talent. Only pumped once I’ve maxed Backhander.
- Blade Flurry. I only try to use this when I need to, the best example being stopping Jumpkins. I end up putting points into it later in the game, and I shouldn’t really. I’m cutting my DEF and wasting talent points and EP by doing so.
- I often tend to turn off the game music and put on my own music (didn't do that in the video for fear of copyright strikes.) As cool as the Arcade music is, it raises the tension in me, and gets me over-hyped and makes me want to complete rooms quicker, meaning I take more hits.
Pre-Video Tips and Tricks
- Only use Dodging Strike if you really know what you’re doing – by all means do a story run through with it beforehand. I tend to dodge, wait for it to charge as other enemies attack where you were, then charge back in. By doing that you’re making sure you don’t take damage from anything else that decided to take a swipe at you when you dash back in. It’s almost always worth charging it up to silver if you can.
- Make sure you don’t dodge back into spikes. Always angle yourself such that you won’t do this.
- Shield cancel the dodge after you’ve jumped back if you need to. This can be a quick removal from a dangerous situation for the price of a bit of EP.
- The Flying Fortress will be your greatest enemy. Compared to the later floors, you will probably take a lot more damage from normal enemies even after a lot of practice. I’m only just getting to grips with it.
- If you’re watching how I attack, don’t just watch, analyse. Look at the angle I’m attacking from, look at the distance I’m attacking from the enemy, look how many hits I make before I dodge/shield/run away. I’m normally very methodical with my attacks, but I’m not perfect.
- I have specific ways of beating a lot of enemies/bosses up until Séasònnë, at which point it’s practically brute forcing it with all the spare DEF I have.
- I perfect guard a LOT. I’ve played over 500 hours in the game so I’ve got the timing down for a lot of attacks, but I do slip up every now and then. Only do this if you’re confident that it’s worth taking the risk.
- Having said that, some enemies HAVE to be perfect guarded to be killed quickly/safely. The main example of this is the Pecko, where Dodging Strike is practically useless, and three normal pecks on your shield will break it in no time.
- This video is not the best of examples, but it’s a pretty good demonstration. If you want to know why, please read the video analysis under the video.
Where I got lucky
- +10 ATK ring
- Bloomo Card for +50 HP
- Pumpkin hat for +ATK and +DEF
- Got the Slime Chestplate early for lots of +DEF
- No Sentry
- No Marino
- Health potion from challenge on F12
- Lots of money for a heal on F12
- Few fishing spots
- No good +DEF shoes until F8
- Didn’t get Summer Greaves until F11
- Not that many shops until later floors
- First time encountering the Hydras boss in Arcade
- High HP going into and coming out of the Flying Fortress
- Perfect guarding was up to scratch
- Didn’t take too much damage in Gun-D4M’s final barrage
- Did quite well in Smashie Bashie
- Took damage against the Black Ferrets on floor 3 (almost quit the run at that point)
- Surprisingly poor performance in challenges, could’ve been a cause for lack of good shoes
- Defending against Ghostys
- Defending against Peckos
- Avoidance (or lack of avoidance) of bombs
- Attack rhythm (you’ll often see me attack at nothing to see if I’m getting the timing right)
Anyway, I hope this helped anyone wanting to get through Arcade mode or get some practice at some of the higher floors ^-^
~G <3
P.S. Wow. 1754 words. I’m surprised I even have that much to say. If you read all of that then you have my gratitude
I think I’ve forgotten a few things, so don’t be surprised to see this post edited a couple times.
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