KCGemini
Grounded: Director Schmector solo [Whoa! difficulty - No damage]
updated
One Thousand Fists
0:00 - Infused Infected Ladybug
1:28 - Infused Assistant Manager
3:00 - Infused Hedge Broodmother
4:11 - Infused Mantis
5:09 - Infused Mant
6:31 - Infused Director Schmector
7:46 - Infused Wasp Queen
10:43 - Infused Infected Broodmother
As it would take far too long to describe setups in my usual manner, I show what equips/mutations are used after the boss fights. Two specific trinkets are needed to make Lil Fist work in this manner:
*Trinket #1* - Fury / Samurai (Turbo fists)
Trinket #2 - Fury / Mad Scientist (This is to go even further beyond)
*Trinket #3* - +Unarmed Damage / +Boss Damage (Used last, as this trinket allows the boosted stats to do good damage even in later NG+s)
Trinket #2 is used when trinket #1 would be slower overall or not enough for the situation, as Mad Scientist's additional buffs can allow one to DPS down the boss quickly. With trinkets #1 and #3, Lil Fist becomes a viable choice, as Samurai's attack speed increase allows one to build 100 Lil Fist stacks with little effort. For the damage trinket, one should look for +Unarmed Damage, but pairing it with +Boss Damage is an additional 30% increase to the 100% that +Unarmed Damage gives. Fury is *not* optional, as it allows punches to pair with skills and mutations that are otherwise incompatible, such as Samurai or Smasher.
One thing to note is that outside the first boss fight, every other one was done with its default arena. For some reason, the Infused Infected Ladybug and the Infected Mites in the room count as separate spawns. Due to NG+, additional mites are generated outside the room with BURG.L's chip, and the ones in the room can 'slide' underneath the door, leading to the boss and 9 mites fighting the player simultaneously. Worse, the ladybug spawns 3 Infected Larva and 5 more mites as its HP lowers. To add the cherry on top, the mite's attack is also unblockable. Imagine having 14 of those shooting at you all at once.
Fortunately, you can clear out the 9 mites beforehand; otherwise, I unsuccessfully spent several hours trying to clear that mess. Ironically, setting up the fight in this manner mirrors normal Whoa mode.
---
I had a good time with Grounded, and with this video, I have done all I wanted. It was nice seeing you all!
Just like the Coaltana, the Coldtana can mess a spider up.
Her Infusions:
Increased Movement Speed
Increased Attack
Increased Max Health
Fresh Magic Attack
Shockwave
Projectile Bomb
Spicy Magic Attack
There's not much to say past my other videos except that I don't think anyone has defeated IBM with double parries and managed not to get hit. Although I only needed to parry two fast flurries, fighting her this way made not lowering her attack speed a requirement, making the fight a bit more interesting for me.
For IBM's fast flurry, I found it effective to time the block for the first hit as late as possible. Afterwards, one should hold block until the second hit is done. Finally, the third, fourth, and fifth hits should all be blocked with normal timing.
On another note, the nerf to fresh AoE attacks in 1.4.4 applies not only to the player but also to infused creatures with that effect. In 1.4.3, I would have definitely gotten hit by her exploding her infused effects upon her faked death at 0:37 (which is a bug that has yet to be fixed), but now its effect is much smaller than spicy explosions and sour projectiles. The hit radius is almost point-blank now, which is a shame.
-
Items and Equipment:
Fresh Coldtana Lv. 15 - With Samurai, it becomes a blender of pain. It also comes with Finale Parry, which increases parry frames by 15 milliseconds for every third hit in a combo for 10 seconds. Successful perfect blocks also give a 25% increase to attack for 10 seconds.
Infused Crossbow Lv. 15 - +Critial Hit Chance (ammo: fresh arrows)
*+Critial Hit Chance - Raises crit chance by 5%
Glowbasa Necklace #1 - Samurai / +Hunger Rate / Finale Fury
*Samurai - Katana weapons get a 10% increase in attack speed every hit. Upon being hit or switching weapons, this attack speed is lost, and only 5 stacks of attack speed can be generated, maxing out at 50% attack speed
*Hunger Rate - Decreases hunger drain by 20% (Not very useful here)
*Finale Fury - Every third hit in a combo temporarily increases attack speed by 20%
Glowbasa Necklace #2 - Fresh Damage Up Best / +Critical Hit Chance / Implant Weakness: Fresh
*Fresh Damage Up Best - Increases fresh damage by 50%
*+Critial Hit Chance - Raises crit chance by 5%
*Implant Weakness: Fresh - Adds a debuff that gives an enemy 50% increased damage to fresh
Note: I switch between trinket #1 for Samuri stacks and trinket #2 for increased damage.
Eyepatch Lv. 0 - Adds 10% more to one's attack but at the cost of taking 25% extra damage.
Fire Ant Arm Guards Lv. 9 (Sleek) - This armor piece has a 10% chance to inflict corrosion upon striking the enemy, which reduces defense by 15% for 10 seconds.
Assassin's Greaves Lv. 9 (Sleek) - Critical hits have a 30% chance of causing a bleed debuff. Since the Infected Broodmother is 60% resistant to bleed, this ends up doing 8 damage a second for 10 seconds.
Koi Scale Helmet Lv. 8 (Sleek) - Gives an extra 15 milliseconds to one's parry frames. This effect stacks with the other armor pieces and is used to reliably parry IBM's fast flurry via double parries. Additionally, its set bonus, Dazzling Riposte, lowers a creature's defense by 20% for 10 seconds upon a successful perfect block. Combined with Finale Parry, one can have an extra 60 milliseconds of parry time, making double parries easier.
I think that Koi armor should have its parry time doubled, as it would be significantly more helpful for its intended purpose.
Koi Scale Breastplate Lv. 9 (Sleek) - Same as the above.
Koi Scale Greaves Lv. 9 (Sleek) - Ditto.
-
Food and Drinks: (due to the cooldown for using buffs, I skipped recording these actions)
Perfect Toast - +5% crit chance and +40% to critical hit damage
Boss Sauce - +5% crit chance
Liquid Rage - +10% attack
Green Machine - 20% faster stamina recovery
Boost Juice - +20 stamina
-
Mutations:
Blademaster Lv. 3 - Although this will lower IBM's attack damage by 30%, its primary use is reducing the exhaustion timer by 90%, which is more than necessary since Samurai drills through stamina like nothing.
Parry Master Lv. 3 - Every perfect block recovers 100 stamina.
Natural Explorer Lv. 3 - Despite combat significantly reducing the speed this gives, what little it does helps one get a better position faster.
Coup De Grass Lv. 2 - 5% crit chance, stack all the crit.
Trapper Peep.R Lv. 3 - 60% more damage from critical hits, pairing nicely with the other buffs.
Lastly, the Infected Broodmother mount was used for an extra 20% damage increase.
Equips:
Cold Star Fist+25
Talisman of All Crucibles
Blue Dancer Charm
Ritual Sword Talisman
Two-Headed Turtle Talisman
Cosmetic Item:
Priestess Heart (Dragon Form)
Anywho, the top of the tower awaits.
Equips:
Cold Star Fist+25
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Two-Headed Turtle Talisman
Cosmetic Item:
Priestess Heart (Dragon Form)
Equips:
Cold Star Fist+25
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Two-Headed Turtle Talisman
Cosmetic Item:
Priestess Heart (Dragon Form)
Equips:
Cold Star Fist+25
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Two-Headed Turtle Talisman
Cosmetic Item:
Priestess Heart (Dragon Form)
Equips:
Blood Star Fist+25
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Two-Headed Turtle Talisman
Cosmetic Item:
Priestess Heart (Dragon Form)
Anywho, Bayle definitely has the OST matching its threat level because I think he's the second hardest boss in the DLC. The time to fight was fitting since I am halfway through the DLC's remembrance fights.
Sadly, this didn't go as smoothly as my other videos, mainly because I was testing some baits/punishes but failing to do them quickly enough to hit (or being pushed away by Bayle).
Equips:
Cold Iron Ball+25
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Two-Headed Turtle Talisman
Cosmetic Item:
Rock Heart (Dragon Form)
Equips:
Flame Art Iron Ball+25
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Two-Headed Turtle Talisman
Cosmetic Item:
Rock Heart (Dragon Form)
Equips:
Cold Star Fist+25
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Two-Headed Turtle Talisman
Cosmetic Item:
Rock Heart (Dragon Form)
In the halls of a roasted library caked with dust and spiderwebs, Midra brings it all together to envision what would happen if a Lord of the Frenzy Flame were to escape to wander the Lands Between.
Unlike most of the DLC bosses, Midra has quite a number of slower moves mixed with decent-sized AoEs, allowing for counter-attacks between the gaps. As a good chunk of his moves aim high, well-timed attacks that bend one's character, such as 1:41 as at 2:17, can add up to many free hits over time.
(The 'dodge' at 1:41 was something that I didn't even believe. I had to watch it in slow-motion to realize I was a fraction of a second from re-entering standing position and being inside the knife's hitbox. FromSoft definitely has some coding magic.)
Equips:
Cold Star Fist+25
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Two-Headed Turtle Talisman
Cosmetic Item:
Rock Heart (Dragon Form)
With enough distance, one can skip the blue flames during the beginning of the second phase, as the occasional double flames can have patterns that are hard to dodge.
On another note, I had to use a Red-Hot Whetblade over the Sanctified one, as my game file was already past the point where you could grab it. Holy damage is better than fire over the course of the fight.
Equips:
Flame Art Iron Ball +25
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Two-Headed Turtle Talisman
I'm not even kidding when I say that I beelined straight back here just so I could do it all over again.
Equips:
Cold Star Fist +25
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Green Turtle Talisman
Because the DLC's challenge level is significantly higher, I won't be able to consistently upload several videos at once.
As for the Golden Hippo, it's a good baseline for what to expect, though it (as well as quite a few bosses) can perish pretty quickly to decent builds paired with a high Scadutree blessing without even learning any of its tricks. The second phase is especially dangerous for not getting hit, as the needles can land in unexpected places if one's positioning is bad. Usually, staying behind to its side can make the spinning attack significantly less dangerous, but I still double roll in case a few come in my direction unexpectedly. It also likes to auto-counter if you make any lengthy attacks from its backside, which is abusable once you know the timing of its sideswipe.
Equips:
Cold Star Fist +25
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Green Turtle Talisman
This Infused Infected Broodmother will be fought with... the Pebblet Spear?
Her Infusions:
Increased Movement Speed
Increased Attack
Increased Max Health
Venom Coating
Sour Magic Attack
Explosive Attack
Shockwave
At the request of @JW-of9tn, I have decided to push the no shield challenge further - youtube.com/watch?v=hThGdfdEZCc. Though phases 1 and 2 aren't any more interesting, the length of phase 3 with her increased HP caused me to develop a more reliable strategy, as the initial one in my previous video had some holes in it that could lead to death if not properly handled.
It's very important that she does not jump in the water at all times during phase 3, as this will remove any attack speed debuffs you have inflicted on her. To prevent such shenanigans, one should turn her to the left (the entrance of her arena) or the right (the summoning sacs) and never at the center, as that can cause a chain reaction, leading to one's death. If her fastest flurry or egg bomb is on cooldown, then that is a safe option. Due to Finale Goo being rather blinding in first-person, I had to switch to third-person, and I am definitely not very good in third-person (and this is probably the reason why this took so long).
Overall, I spent around 20 hours on this challenge. While my first kill happened within 5 hours, that video's recording was damaged irreparably. My second 'kill' had her bug out and become invincible, and she even tried it again during this video, but thankfully died properly this time. Another note is that somehow, within the almost 4-minute third phase, she didn't manage to do a single close-up egg bomb (or any egg bombs, for that matter), whereas, in my second video, I dodged 3 of them successfully. I wanted to get a video out with them in it, but that is my luck.
On another note, if anyone has more requests, they'll have to wait until a week (or possibly longer) after Elden Ring's DLC, as I plan to play it on launch day. However, I will keep them in mind.
-
Items and Equipment:
Pebblet Spear Lv. 15 (fresh) - Fun fact: This weapon maxed out has the same strength as a Lv. 6 fresh Rusty Spear. Needless to say, the lack of power is shown in this video.
Glowbasa Necklace #1- Fresh Damage Up Best / +Critical Hit Chance / Implant Weakness: Fresh
*Fresh Damage Up Best - Increases fresh damage by 50%
*+Critial Hit Chance - Raises crit chance by 5%
*Implant Weakness: Fresh - Adds a debuff that gives an enemy 50% increased damage to fresh
Glowbasa Necklace #2 - Fresh Damage Up Best / Fresh Damage Up Major / Finale Goo
*Fresh Damage Up Best - Increases fresh damage by 50%
*Fresh Damage Up Major - Increases fresh damage by 25%
*Finale Goo - Applies the same effect as Giddy Goop, giving the enemy a -20% movement and attack speed debuff for 10 seconds
Eyepatch Lv. 0 - Adds 10% more to one's attack but at the cost of taking 25% extra damage.
Fire Ant Arm Guards Lv. 9 (Sleek) - This armor piece has a 10% chance to inflict corrosion upon striking the enemy, which reduces defense by 15% for 10 seconds.
Assassin's Greaves Lv. 9 (Sleek) - Critical hits have a 30% chance of causing a bleed debuff. Since the Infected Broodmother is 60% resistant to bleed, this ends up doing 8 damage a second for 10 seconds. In addition, each crit has a 30% chance to add 25 stun to IBM, thanks to Crit Stun. However, there's no real chance of maxing out her stun gauge due to the lack of extra stun damage from the Pebblet Spear.
-
Food and Drinks: (due to the cooldown for using buffs, I skipped recording these actions - however, the last four are used to rebuff Max near the end of phase 2)
Perfect Toast - +5% crit chance and +40% to critical hit damage
Boss Sauce x2 - +5% crit chance
Liquid Rage x2 - +10% attack
Green Machine x2 - 20% faster stamina recovery
Boost Juice x2 - +20 stamina
-
Mutations:
Javelineer Lv. 3 - Increases thrown spear damage by 30% and temporarily gives spear attacks a thorns-like effect, reflecting 200% of the damage to the target that's inflicted on the player. The latter won't be happening here.
Parry Master Lv. 3 - Every perfect block recovers 100 stamina.
Natural Explorer Lv. 3 - Despite combat significantly reducing the speed this gives, what little it does helps one grab that thrown spear faster.
Coup De Grass Lv. 2 - 5% crit chance, stack all the crit.
Trapper Peep.R Lv. 3 - 60% more damage from critical hits, pairing nicely with the other buffs.
Lastly, the Infected Broodmother mount was used for an extra 20% damage increase.
Is the Wasp Queen not playing fair? Well, she does, actually. Unfortunately for her...
Her Infusions:
Increased Movement Speed
Increased Attack
Increased Max Health
Spicy Magic Attack
Sour Magic Attack
Shockwave
Projectile Bomb
It turns out that a full set of Wasp Armor + Pollen Arrows can place the Wasp Queen in a similar situation as my Sour Staff strat does to the Mantis.
Although the Wasp Queen has the buggiest stun duration in the entire game (it lasts less than a second and causes her to fly immediately), it's possible to delay her fall by placing your character underneath her. Even if you don't delay her freefall, if she follows up with her poison bomb attack, one can get a ton of free damage for as long as she doesn't target underneath herself.
The rest is up to fate, although some things need to happen for consistency:
1) One should fire 5 uncharged pollen arrows at her to almost max out her stun gauge, then swap out of Wasp Armor to a more damage-capable armor set to be ready when she falls. She must be staggered with at least *one* of the arrows, as otherwise, she will likely be staggered during her fall/recovery, very likely knocking her away and ruining any chance of this working. Depending on how many times Air Superiority worked, you may have to fire one or two additional arrows (it's possible for it to trigger 5 times and cause the knockdown immediately, but 6 pollen arrows seem to be the average from when I was trying this).
2) Her attack on the ground must be poison bombs. One can improvise by using a shield in case she uses her various stinger attacks, but that may lengthen her aid phase considerably.
3) Go for the highest damage you can. At a minimum, I recommend Salt Damage Up Best x2 and Implant Weakness: Salt with a maxed-out salty Infused Club.
-
Items and Equipment:
Sprig Bow Lv. 1 - Due to only needing pollen arrows to stun the Wasp Queen, it needs no additional modifiers. You can use any other bow and get the same results, though I recommend any infused bows using this strat to have +Critical Hit Chance. (Apologies for forgetting to click on it in this video, but those are its stats)
Ammo used: Pollen Arrows - When fired at aerial creatures, they do +50 stun. It's nuts.
Infused Club Lv. 15 (salty, +Summon Damage / Salt Damage Up Best) - One should aim for Salt Damage Up Best to increase the chances of killing her before she can start her shenanigans, although +Boss Damage and +Wasp Queen Damage are decent alternatives.
+Summon Damage - Increases the damage of called creatures by 100%, which isn't used here.
Glowbasa Necklace - Salt Damage Up Best / Implant Weakness: Fresh (Salt) / Quickcharge
*Salt Damage Up Best - Increases salt damage by 50%
*Implant Weakness: Salt - Adds a debuff that gives an enemy 50% increased damage to salt
*Quickcharge - Increases the speed of charged attacks by 20%, which doesn't have much use here
Wasp Morion Lv. 9 - This is only used to get the armor's set bonus, Air Superiority. Otherwise, it has Charged Shot Combo and Quick Shot Refund. The former has a 30% chance to reduce the charging time of any weapon capable of using charged attacks by 25% for 5 seconds, and the latter has the same effect as the former with its buff timings, except uncharged shots will give the user 30 stamina per shot. Air Superiority is how this defines the strategy, as uncharged shots have a 75% chance to inflict +30 stun to aerial creatures, such as the Wasp Queen. Adding pollen arrows increases stun damage even further.
Wasp Breastplate Lv. 9 - Same as the above.
Wasp Greaves Lv. 9 - Ditto.
Eyepatch Lv. 0 - Adds 10% more to one's attack but at the cost of taking 25% extra damage.
Fire Ant Arm Guards Lv. 9 (Sleek) - This armor piece has a 10% chance to inflict corrosion upon striking the enemy, which reduces defense by 15% for 10 seconds.
Fire Ant Legplates Lv. 9 (Sleek) - Same as the above. With both pieces equipped, each hit has roughly a 19% chance of inflicting corrosion.
-
Food and Drinks: (due to the cooldown for using buffs, I skipped recording those actions)
Perfect Toast - +5% crit chance and +40% to critical hit damage
Boss Sauce - +5% crit chance
Liquid Rage - +10% attack
Green Machine - 20% faster stamina recovery
Boost Juice - +20 stamina
-
Mutations:
Sharpshooter Lv. 3 - Upon hitting the target with an arrow, bows/crossbows temporarily gain an additional +20% crit chance. Needless to say, you definitely want this for the air stagger.
Barbarian Lv. 3 - Increases club damage by 25%, but one can no longer perfect block. In the worst-case scenario, bring a shield.
Cardio Fan Lv. 3 - Decreases the exhaustion timer by 30% and grants 30% faster stamina recovery.
Coup De Grass Lv. 2 - 5% crit chance, stack all the crit.
Trapper Peep.R Lv. 3 - 60% more damage from critical hits, pairing nicely with the other buffs.
Lastly, the Wasp Queen mount was used for an extra 20% damage increase.
Imagine having a faster attack speed than the Infected Broodmother.
Her Infusions:
Increased Movement Speed
Increased Attack
Increased Max Health
Projectile Bomb
Fresh Magic Attack
Explosive Attack
Damage Resist
Fury is working correctly in this patch, and +Unarmed Attack allows Lil Fist to compete with other weapons once it has max stacks. In addition, as long as one doesn't change weapons, Fury can also be chained with other trinkets to increase the player's stats further, such as myself reaching 110% attack speed here. Unfortunately, many skills that should work when combined with Fury have no effect, but they might in a future patch. If one didn't know, specific weapon buffs will stick around even if trinkets are switched mid-fight, and Fury allows for many otherwise unavailable combinations.
As for this fight, while it is possible, I don't recommend doing this solely on the phase change for the final phase alone due to the very high risk of getting hit by magic/bomb infusions when IBM fakes dying. One can manage to stun her to skip this danger during the first phase change due to fists having decent stun + Crit Stun from the Assassin's pieces, but the third phase shift killed more than the third phase itself (one will see me hesitate much during the last part of the second phase solely for this reason).
Not worth it, honestly. (Lil Fist is, though!)
As for the general strategy, one should start with a Science Cone/Glowbasa Necklace that has at least Fury + Samurai, then switch to one that has at minimum +Unarmed Damage so that IBM gets stunned when she has around half of her health remaining. To increase the chances of ending phase one successfully, temporarily unequip the shield to gain an extra 20% damage and re-equip it when the second phase starts. When safe from her infusion effects, switch to a trinket with Fury + Mad Scientist to build additional buffs, then switch back to the damage trinket once near the end of the phase. Depending on whether you want to use the Smasher mutation or Termite armor to reduce her heightened attack speed in the third phase will determine if you wish to pair another trinket with Fury and +Unarmed Damage or want to use a +Unarmed Damage trinket with additional modifiers such as +Boss Damage.
It took me almost a week to farm the trinkets needed for this fight.
Once again, I don't recommend this.
-
Items and Equipment:
Strong Hand - And what a strong hand it is, thanks to Fury.
Ladybird Shield - There is a 25% chance that blocking with this shield will apply the stamina buff that allows the player to use no stamina while attacking for 5 seconds.
Glowbasa Necklace #1 - Fury / +Mantis Damage / Samurai
*Fury - Has the same effect as the Power Droplet, of which it adds an additional hit to unarmed attacks that do 6 damage and have a 25% chance to trigger specific mutation, armor, and trinket effects
*+Mantis Damage - Increases damage against the Mantis by 30% (Not useful here)
*Samurai - Every hit with katana-type weapons increases attack speed by 10%. This can stack up to 5 times. Although fists aren't katana-type weapons, thanks to Fury, the game considers them as such
Glowbasa Necklace #2 - Mad Scientist / Fury / +Summon Aggro
*Mad Scientist - Using the Pinch Whacker or Prod Smacker can increase attack damage or speed by 10%, exhaustion time by -10%, or increase crit chance by 1%. This only happens every 10% of hits. This also triggers Fury's effect
*Fury - (see above)
*+Summon Aggro - Increases the aggro chances for a summon to get attacked by the target (Not useful here)
Glowbasa Necklace #3 - +Critical Hit Chance / +Boss Damage / +Unarmed Attack
*+Critical Hit Chance - Increases crit chance by 5%
*+Boss Damage - Increases damage against bosses by 30%
*+Unarmed Attack - Increases fist damage by 100%, which is quite good once Lil Fist stacks are maxed out
Eyepatch Lv. 0 - Adds 10% more to one's attack but at the cost of taking 25% extra damage.
Assassin's Chestplate Lv. 9 (Sleek) - Critical hits have a 30% chance of causing a bleed debuff. Since the Infected Broodmother is 60% resistant to bleed, this ends up doing 8 damage a second for 10 seconds. In addition, each crit has a 30% chance to add 25 stun to IBM, thanks to Crit Stun.
Assassin's Greaves Lv. 9 (Sleek) - Same as the above.
Termite Armor Lv. 9 (Sleek) - This armor piece has a 10% chance to kick up dust upon hitting the enemy. While inside the cloud, the enemy's attack and movement speed are lowered by -20% until the effect ends. It also grants you immunity to the same dust cloud.
-
Food and Drinks: (due to the cooldown for using buffs, I skipped recording these actions)
Perfect Toast - +5% crit chance and +40% to critical hit damage
Boss Sauce - +5% crit chance
Liquid Rage - +10% attack
Green Machine - 20% faster stamina recovery
Boost Juice - +20 stamina
(I will continue this description in a pinned comment)
Remember when Director Schmector was the most demanding boss in the game? The infusion system does, but for the wrong reasons.
His Infusions:
Increased Movement Speed
Increased Attack
Increased Max Health
Shockwave
Sour Magic Attack
Projectile Bomb
Venom Coating
I've covered this fight in depth here (youtube.com/watch?v=_Pcj4xm54-8), so I'll explain why the infusion system makes it painful.
Having the smallest boss arena in the game is one thing, but adding infusions such as projectile bombs or magic attacks can make for *a lot* of cheap hits. Did I mention that if raisened Wendell gets hit, his effects will also trigger around him and Director Schmector? With Director Schmector already having almost complete arena coverage during certain phases, getting caught by infusion effects because Wendell got bopped on your blind sides makes the fight feel awful (and is likely a bug).
-
Items and Equipment:
Infused Hammer Lv. 15 (sour, Sour Damage Up Best) - One can easily go with a sour Infused Club or the Acid Edge for better DPS, but I wanted to push the battle further by using one of the worst weapons types in the game. Despite this, it still does reasonably good damage when used without a shield due to Director Schmector being weak to busting and sour.
*Sour Damage Up Best - Increases sour damage by 50%
Fire Ant Shield - There is a 20% chance that blocking with this shield will apply the corrosion debuff, lowering the target's defense by 15% for 10 seconds.
Glowbasa Necklace - Salt Damage Up Major / Sour Damage Up Major / Implant Weakness: Sour
*Salt Damage Up Major - Increases salt damage by 25%, which doesn't add to this weapon's damage since it's sour
*Sour Damage Up Major - Increases sour damage by 25%
*Implant Weakness: Sour - Adds a debuff that gives an enemy 50% increased damage to sour
Eyepatch Lv. 0 - Adds 10% more to one's attack but at the cost of taking 25% extra damage.
Fire Ant Arm Guards Lv. 9 (Sleek) - This armor piece has a 10% chance to inflict corrosion upon striking the enemy, which reduces defense by 15% for 10 seconds.
Fire Ant Legplates Lv. 9 (Sleek) - Same as the above.
-
Food and Drinks: (due to the cooldown for using buffs, I skipped recording these actions)
Perfect Toast - +5% crit chance and +40% to critical hit damage
Boss Sauce - +5% crit chance
Liquid Rage - +10% attack
Green Machine - 20% faster stamina recovery
Boost Juice - +20 stamina
-
Mutations:
Smasher Lv. 3 - This gives the enemy a -30% attack speed debuff upon striking them with a hammer and adds additional stun to said attacks.
Natural Explorer Lv. 3 - Despite combat significantly reducing the speed this gives, what little it does really helps avoid... well, everything.
Buff Lungs Lv. 3 - Increases stamina by 50.
Coup De Grass Lv. 2 - 5% crit chance, stack all the crit.
Trapper Peep.R Lv. 3 - 60% more damage from critical hits, pairing nicely with the other buffs.
Note: With update v1.4.4, Wendell's head finally stops triggering infusion effects.
Is the Mantis not playing fair? Well, neither will I.
Its Infusions:
Increased Movement Speed
Increased Attack
Increased Max Health
Projectile Bomb
Fresh Magic Attack
Shockwave
Sour Magic Attack
I decided to change this description from a reply that I gave to karoly2865:
For this strategy to work, one should start the battle by charging a Whittle Wizard enhanced Sour Staff shot to the max to inflict high stun damage.
Second, one needs to run up to the Mantis with a salty-infused club that uses Finale Goo to slow down the Mantis's attacks long enough to build up the rest of the needed stagger value. If one's not beside it when it gets out of its beginning animation, it will likely jump and ruin the chain that comes next. It should try doing one or two normal attacks before doing an overhead lunge or triple slam, which gives one enough time to reliably stun it if the Sour Staff's shot hits it.
Third, once one can see that it's visibly stunned, they should quickly throw that infused club, as this will equip the second salty-infused club, which should have a modifier relating to +Boss damage, +Mantis damage, or +Salty damage, which will pair with the Barbarian mutation from a different mutation set. One could alternatively open their inventory to switch to the other infused club, but throwing the previous one is quicker and deals an additional hit. (In this game version, one can't switch to another club via the hotbar, as it considers the clubs to be the same item.)
Last, the combined damage of those two boosts amplifies the player's power so much that even its increased defense values reached at 50% and 25% of its health do little to prevent a quick death.
It's possible to do this with just one powered infused club, but I wanted to reduce the luck element needed.
Note: For mild/medium players, you will want to throw two max-charged Sour Staff projectiles to get the stun value right for the setup.
-
Items and Equipment:
Sour Staff Lv. 15 - With Whittle Wizard, the starting charge fills up a good chunk of its stun gauge, and the stun buffs that clubs have received from this patch enable one to fill it completely before it screams.
Infused Club Lv. 15 (salty, Finale Goo) - This club is used initially to build up more stun and slow down any of Mantis's attacks that could go through and potentially ruin the chain.
*Finale Goo - Applies the same effect as Giddy Goop, giving the enemy a -20% movement and attack speed debuff for 10 seconds.
Infused Club Lv. 15 (salty, +Mantis Damage) - To reliably get the kill before the Mantis can either jump or scream afterward, one must switch to this club while switching their mutations, as when added with Barbarian's damage increase is where this club truly shines.
*Mantis Damage - Increases damage against the Mantis by 30%
Glowbasa Necklace - Salt Damage Up Best / Implant Weakness: Salt / Quickcharge
*Salt Damage Up Best - Increases salt damage by 50%
*Implant Weakness: Salt - Adds a debuff that gives an enemy 50% increased damage to salt
*Quickcharge - Increases the speed of charged attacks by 20%. One can charge slightly earlier and still nail the max charge from the Sour Staff even without this ability
Eyepatch Lv. 0 - Adds 10% more to one's attack but at the cost of taking 25% extra damage.
Termite Armor Lv. 9 (Sleek) - This armor piece has a 10% chance to kick up dust upon hitting the enemy. While inside the cloud, the enemy's attack and movement speed are lowered by -20% until the effect ends. It also grants you immunity to the same dust cloud.
Fire Ant Legplates Lv. 9 (Sleek) - This armor piece has a 10% chance to inflict corrosion upon striking the enemy, which reduces defense by 15% for 10 seconds.
-
Food and Drinks: (due to the cooldown for using buffs, I skipped recording these actions)
Perfect Toast - +5% crit chance and +40% to critical hit damage
Boss Sauce - +5% crit chance
Liquid Rage - +10% attack
Green Machine - 20% faster stamina recovery
Boost Juice - +20 stamina
-
Mutations (A):
Whittle Wizard Lv. 3 - This adds additional stun damage to the Sour Staff, which was necessary to build enough of the Mantis's stun gauge to trigger at the right moment.
Parry Master Lv. 3 - Every perfect block recovers 100 stamina, although this becomes less useful after a certain point.
Buff Lungs Lv. 3 - Increases stamina by 50.
Coup De Grass Lv. 2 - 5% crit chance, stack all the crit.
Trapper Peep.R Lv. 3 - 60% more damage from critical hits, pairing nicely with the other buffs.
Mutations (B):
Barbarian Lv. 3 - Increases club damage by 25%, but one can no longer perfect block.
Cardio Fan Lv. 3 - Decreases the exhaustion timer by 30% and grants 30% faster stamina recovery.
Buff Lungs Lv. 3
Coup De Grass Lv. 2
Trapper Peep.R Lv. 3
Lastly, the Mantis mount was used for an extra 20% damage increase.
-
Whenever Obsidian smoothes out this fight, I'd like to do it in a more proper manner.
I never thought that I would be updating this video.
Her Infusions*:
Increased Movement Speed
Increased Attack
Increased Max Health
Sour Magic Attack
Explosive Attack
Projectile Bomb
Fresh Magic Attack
*see notes at the end of my description
Thanks to the recent patch, Broodmother's scream is finally perfect blockable (and therefore, a no-damage run is possible). However, her scream still will give a debuff that decreases the player's damage by 50%. Patience is a virtue, I suppose.
Instead of using multiple options as I did here (youtube.com/watch?v=1zO_4w8sHXM), one can use the Spicy Staff with *Spicy Mage to deal good damage to her and her minions, simplifying one's efforts in the battle.
Broodmother calls for additional spiders at 75%, 50%, and 25% health, with each breakpoint causing her to scream. After blocking said scream, one should focus on the spiderlings and orb weaver jr's more than herself, as they're more likely to damage the player. If any are infused, it will be a thorn in your side for significantly longer, especially while debuffed.
Unlike the older version of Broodmother, she gets an attack speed boost upon reaching 25% of her health, so be wary of that.
-
Items and Equipment:
Spicy Staff Lv. 15 - Normally, it's too slow to be an effective weapon. Thanks to Spicy Mage, the staff can now reach attack speeds that were previously unimaginable.
Glowbasa Necklace - Implant Weakness: Spicy / Spicy Mage / Blastwave
*Implant Weakness: Spicy - Adds a debuff that gives an enemy 50% increased damage to spicy
*Spicy Mage - Every hit performed by the Spicy Staff will increase attack speed by 15%, stacking up to five times
*Blastwave - Any summons created by the player have a 25% of creating an explosion that does 70 damage upon hitting the enemy, of which this damage can affect the player. Needless to say, this wasn't useful here
Wizard Hat Lv. 9 (Sleek) - Used for Wizard's Defense and Wizard's Duel. Wizard's Defense increases the parry window by 30ms for 10 seconds with staves when one attacks with ranged weapons, and Wizard's Duel increases the damage of staves by 40% for 10 seconds when one successfully perfect blocks.
Black Ox Harness Lv. 9 (Sleek) - Its sleek effect adds quickcharge, reducing the charge time of attacks by 12%.
Black Ox Legwraps Lv. 9 (Sleek) - Same as the above.
-
Food and Drinks: (due to the cooldown for using buffs, I skipped recording these actions)
Perfect Toast - +5% crit chance and +40% to critical hit damage
Boss Sauce - +5% crit chance
Liquid Rage - +10% attack
Green Machine - 20% faster stamina recovery
Boost Juice - +20 stamina
-
Mutations:
Whittle Wizard Lv. 3 - Helps the Spicy Staff apply a burning DoT modifier that does 75 damage every 5 seconds. In addition, it reduces the stamina cost for multiple attacks. The true spiderling murderer.
Parry Master Lv. 3 - Every perfect block recovers 100 stamina, which helps offset some of the stamina use.
Natural Explorer Lv. 3 - Despite combat significantly reducing the speed this gives, what little it does helps get away from those pesky spiderlings.
Coup De Grass Lv. 2 - 5% crit chance, stack all the crit.
Trapper Peep.R Lv. 3 - 60% more damage from critical hits, pairing nicely with the other buffs.
Lastly, the Broodmother mount was used for an extra 20% damage increase.
-
*Notes:
- If she has Venom Coating, she will inflict it with her screams, preventing a no-damage run entirely. As the devs are fixing infusion effects on attacks such as this, this is likely a leftover bug.
- Spicy Mage's effect stays on for as long as you're using a staff, so you can freely switch to a more damaging trinket once you have five stacks built up. Ironically, I learned this *after* I completed this video.
- If only the Mantis could get balanced in this manner...
Is using the Infused Bow by itself for this fight worth it? You decide.
Her Infusions:
Increased Movement Speed
Increased Attack
Increased Max Health
Explosive Attack
Spicy Magic Attack
Venom Coating
Shockwave
The main difference from my older Wasp Queen video (youtube.com/watch?v=B94OS_xr6gw) is that after testing super gas arrows and bomb arrows, I found the former to be better. However, the strats within it are still as valid here.
-
Items and Equipment:
Infused Bow Lv. 15 - +Boss Damage (ammo: salt arrows/super gas arrows)
*Boss Damage - Increases damage against bosses by 30%.
Due to their low damage, bows are usually far outclassed by melee weapons. However, they can become competitive thanks to somewhat better mutations and a decent trinket/infused weapon.
Fire Ant Shield - There is a 20% chance that blocking with this shield will apply the corrosion debuff, lowering the target's defense by 15% for 10 seconds. However, it's rarely used in this manner during this fight, as its primary goal is to protect from stinger shots and charged stings.
Glowbasa Necklace - Salt Damage Up Best / Implant Weakness: Fresh (Salt) / Quickcharge
*Salt Damage Up Best - Increases salt damage by 50%
*Implant Weakness: Fresh - Adds a debuff that gives an enemy 50% increased damage to fresh. (On another note, this trinket effect can be mislabeled and shares itself with Implant Weakness: Sour and Implant Weakness: Salt. To test if it's actually the element in question, hit an enemy once to trigger the debuff and then hit them again to see what type of damage increased. This one is actually salt. Version 1.4.2 fixes this bug.)
*Quickcharge - Increases the speed of charged attacks by 20%, though the antlion armor's version of quickcharge does most of the heavy lifting here.
Antlion Wide Brim Lv. 5 - This is only used to get the armor's set bonus. Otherwise, it provides 75% sizzle resistance when all three pieces are used, which is not helpful here.
Antlion Poncho Lv. 0 - Same as above.
Antlion Spurs Lv. 0 - Ditto.
Quickcharge - Antlion's set bonus, which increases bow/crossbow reload speeds by 40% for 3 seconds upon hitting a target with an arrow.
-
Food and Drinks: (due to the cooldown for using buffs, I skipped recording those actions)
Perfect Toast - +5% crit chance and +40% to critical hit damage
Boss Sauce - +5% crit chance
Liquid Rage - +10% attack
Gastro Goo - Temporary gas immunity
Green Machine - 20% faster stamina recovery
Boost Juice - +20 stamina
-
Mutations:
Sharpshooter Lv. 3 - Upon hitting the target with an arrow, bows/crossbows temporarily gain an additional +20% crit chance.
Natural Explorer Lv. 3 - Despite combat significantly reducing the speed this gives, what little it does helps make it easier to ignore poison bombs and stinger shots.
Coup De Grass Lv. 2 - 5% crit chance, stack all the crit.
Trapper Peep.R Lv. 3 - 60% more damage from critical hits, pairing nicely with the other buffs.
Bardic Inspiration - Bow and crossbow attacks have a 25% chance to buff yourself/allies with three effects: +10% crit chance, +20% attack damage, or +25% damage resistance for 10 seconds. Only one of these buffs can exist at a time.
Lastly, the Wasp Queen mount was used for an extra 20% damage increase.
This video exists to show why I never put up a non-infused Mant video (or Assistant Manager, for that matter). If anything, consider it a showcase of the Fresh Coldtana/Breathslayer.
His Infusions:
Increased Movement Speed
Increased Attack
Increased Max Health
Explosive Attack
Spicy Magic Attack
Shockwave
Venom Coating
As for strategies, other than using Mant's legs to kite any summoned ants to prevent them from biting you, you want to watch out for his gurgle-roar, as being right beside him during that moment will trigger his infusions and likely cause a one-shot.
-
Items and Equipment:
Fresh Coldtana Lv. 15 - With Samurai and a good Science Cone/Glowbasa Necklace, he gets out-DPS'd before he can do much of anything. The Science Cone here has Samurai, which is used to build up 5 stacks of +10% attack speed.
Science Cone - Friendly Fire Defense Up / Samurai / Finale Goo
*Friendly Fire Defense Up - Not needed in this fight, but it reduces damage from other players and yourself by 75%.
*Samurai - For every hit inflicted by a katana-type weapon, +10% attack speed is added, up to a cap of 5 hits (50% attack speed). Samurai's effect still works even if you switch trinkets mid-fight.
*Finale Goo - Applies the same effect as Giddy Goop, giving the enemy a -20% movement and attack speed debuff for 10 seconds.
Glowbasa Necklace - Fresh Damage Up Best / +Critical Hit Chance / Implant Weakness: Fresh
*Fresh Damage Up Best - Increases fresh damage by 50%
*+Critial Hit Chance - Raises crit chance by 5%
*Implant Weakness: Fresh - Adds a debuff that gives an enemy 50% increased damage to fresh. (On another note, this trinket effect can be mislabeled and shares itself with Implant Weakness: Sour and Implant Weakness: Salt. To test if it's actually the element in question, hit an enemy once to trigger the debuff and then hit them again to see what type of damage increased. This one is actually fresh, thankfully.)
Eyepatch Lv. 0 - Adds 10% more to one's attack but at the cost of taking 25% extra damage.
Fire Ant Arm Guards Lv. 9 (Sleek) - This armor piece has a 10% chance to inflict corrosion upon striking the enemy, which reduces defense by 15% for 10 seconds.
Greaves of the Mother Demon Lv. 9 (Sleek): Each hit inflicted has a 25% chance to apply poison or venom to the target. The poison does 16 damage every 5 seconds, while venom does 18 damage every 5 seconds.
-
Food and Drinks: (due to the cooldown for using buffs, I skipped recording those actions)
Perfect Toast - +5% crit chance and +40% to critical hit damage
Boss Sauce - +5% crit chance
Liquid Rage - +10% attack
Green Machine - 20% faster stamina recovery
Boost Juice - +20 stamina
-
Mutations:
Blademaster Lv. 3 - Although this will lower Mant's attack damage by 30%, its primary use is reducing the exhaustion timer by 90%, which is more than necessary since Samurai drills through stamina like nothing.
Ant-nihilator Lv. 3 - Increases damage to all ant types by 25% and defense by 10%. This *does* include Mant.
Cardio Fan Lv. 3 - Decreases the exhaustion timer by 30% and grants 30% faster stamina recovery.
Coup De Grass Lv. 2 - 5% crit chance, stack all the crit.
Trapper Peep.R Lv. 3 - 60% more damage from critical hits, pairing nicely with the other buffs.
Lastly, the Fire Ant Queen mount was used to deal an extra 20% damage to fire worker and fire warrior ants. I'm not sure if this mount works on Mant.
Volcano spider.
Her Infusions:
Increased Movement Speed
Increased Attack
Increased Max Health
Explosive Attack
Spicy Magic Attack
Shockwave
Projectile Bomb
The infusion effects do change up phases 2 and 3 a bit, so I'll state some of them.
:: Phase 1
Honestly, nothing's different here from the regular version. The worst that could happen is that she rolls a crit during a flurry attack because one of her legs is in the water, which would be it for Max. One main difference is that she releases her infused effects upon playing dead, so I chose the Infused Crossbow to deal with her when her HP is low. One could also use a decently powerful ranged option or throw their weapon to eliminate that risk.
:: Phase 2
Due to her projectile bomb and spicy magic infusions, getting near her during a scream is now deadly. The projectile bomb infusion can be either trivial or fatal, depending on the situation. The best way to neutralize it is to point the Infected Broodmother *away* from where you plan on going.
:: Phase 3
Her increased movement and attack speed make the previous infusions deadlier because you have to deal with them and her, sometimes simultaneously. For this reason, I apply the goo effect to her to neutralize some of the speed gain, as without it, she can be aggressive enough to force you to block her screams up close. Needless to say, this combo can end one's life quickly. The -20% speed loss is enough to catch her scream animation fast enough to escape it.
-
Items and Equipment:
Fresh Edge Lv. 15 - After testing several standard and infused weapons, this one beats them all, even considering the random trinket effects (outside of Coldtana/Breathslayer + Samurai, which is pretty sick). However, due to the danger of the third phase, I also use the following:
Infused Axe Lv. 15 (fresh, Finale Goo)
*Finale Goo - Applies the same effect as Giddy Goop, giving the enemy a -20% movement and attack speed debuff for 10 seconds. Due to Infected Broodmother's aggressive nature and the need to stick close to neutralize potential egg bombs and close combat screams, it does an excellent job of keeping Max alive.
Infused Crossbow Lv. 15 - +Critical Hit Chance (ammo: mint arrows)
(see Glowbasa Necklace)
Fire Ant Shield - There is a 20% chance that blocking with this shield will apply the corrosion debuff to the Infected Broodmother, lowering her defense by 15% for 10 seconds.
Glowbasa Necklace - Fresh Damage Up Best / +Critical Hit Chance / Implant Weakness: Fresh
*Fresh Damage Up Best - Increases fresh damage by 50%
*+Critial Hit Chance - Raises crit chance by 5%
*Implant Weakness: Fresh - Adds a debuff that gives an enemy 50% increased damage to fresh. (On another note, this trinket effect can be mislabeled and shares itself with Implant Weakness: Sour and Implant Weakness: Salt. To test if it's actually the element in question, hit an enemy once to trigger the debuff and then hit them again to see what type of damage increased. This one is actually fresh, thankfully.)
Eyepatch Lv. 0 - Adds 10% more to one's attack but at the cost of taking 25% extra damage.
Fire Ant Arm Guards Lv. 9 (Sleek) - This armor piece has a 10% chance to inflict corrosion upon striking the enemy, which reduces defense by 15% for 10 seconds. Be aware that this doesn't stack with the Fire Ant Shield's debuff, but by using both, you'll likely keep the corrosion debuff on for most of the fight.
Assassin's Greaves Lv. 9 (Sleek) - Critical hits have a 30% chance of causing a bleed debuff. Since the Infected Broodmother is 60% resistant to bleed, this ends up doing 8 damage a second for 10 seconds.
-
Food and Drinks: (due to the cooldown for using buffs, I skipped recording those actions this time around)
Perfect Toast - +5% crit chance and +40% to critical hit damage
Boss Sauce - +5% crit chance
Liquid Rage - +10% attack
Green Machine - 20% faster stamina recovery
Boost Juice - +20 stamina
-
Mutations:
Chopper Lv. 3 - Eliminating the exhaustion timer during weapon use + 20% defense down on the target enemy makes this one of the most busted mutations in the game.
Parry Master Lv. 3 - Every perfect block recovers 100 stamina, and when combined with Chopper, one should hardly ever have issues with stamina.
Natural Explorer Lv. 3 - Despite combat significantly reducing the speed this gives, what little it does really helps avoid those last-moment screams that the Infected Broodmother can unleash.
Coup De Grass Lv. 2 - 5% crit chance, stack all the crit.
Trapper Peep.R Lv. 3 - 60% more damage from critical hits, pairing nicely with the other buffs.
Lastly, the Infected Broodmother mount was used for an extra 20% damage increase.
-
On another note, patch 1.4.2 made the following change:
*Infected Broodmother final phase scream no longer triggers infusion effects.*
RIP, chaotic final phase.
0:00 - Stats, Equipment & Chat
1:01 - Fight
23:18 - A Familiar Face
24:27 - Aftermath
Buddy vs. The Pit Horde
Lisa: The Undone v 1.0.2
Even with Legendary Pals having significantly higher damage reduction (DR) values than anything else in the game, they're still defeated quickly. Jetragon seems to have around 70-75% DR, while the others have around 85-90% DR, which gives the rocket launcher more utility.
Unfortunately, rockets have a significantly harder time hitting the head for weak point damage due to the blast portion of the attack needing to hit the face first, which makes connecting them far harder than it should be.
---
Pals and Equips:
Ragnahawk - Lv. 5 (100% Attack + Fire damage conversion)
Frostallion - Lv. 5 (Enhanced Ice damage + Ice damage conversion; it's roughly a 130% attack increase, though it doesn't display on the stat screen)
Chillet - Lv. 5 (100% Attack + Dragon damage conversion)
Frostallion Noct - Lv. 5 (Enhanced Dark damage + Dark damage conversion; same as Frostallion)
Gobfin x4 - Lv. 5 (80% Attack)
All Pals have Vanguard (50% Attack)
Legendary Assault Rifle (560 AR)
Legendary Rocket Launcher (14000 AR)
2x Attack +2 Pendants (30% Attack)
Mozzarina Cheeseburger (20% Attack)
49 points into Attack
---
Attack values against:
Frostallion: 198 base attack * 360% (all passive skills (260%) + 100% mount bonus) * 20% (the cheeseburger is calculated separately) = 855 total attack
Jetragon: 198 base attack * 390% (* 20%) = 926 total attack (the attack value displays as 617, and is very likely a bug)
Paladius and Necromus: ~ On Chillet ~ 198 base attack * 340% (* 20%) = 807 total attack
~ On Frostallion Noct ~ 198 base attack * 370% (* 20%) = 879 total attack (the attack value displays as 570, and is very likely a bug)
I opted to use Chillet/Frostallion Noct for Paladius & Necromus rather than just one of them to speed up the battle with weakness matching. As a result, I lost 20% attack as a passive stat due to having one less Gobfin in the party.
On another note, some damage values on the rocket launcher are higher than what the game displays. For example, hitting a sleeping Frostallion displayed 10k for the damage numbers, but actually, 12k was done.
Lastly, this is *very* impractical for regular play due to having 300 carry weight alone, but some points into the stat wouldn't lower one's damage by too much.
---
0:00 Assault Rifle (Frostallion)
0:38 Assault Rifle (Jetragon)
1:07 Assault Rifle (Paladius & Necromus)
2:11 Rocket Launcher (Frostallion)
3:04 Rocket Launcher (Jetragon)
3:34 Rocket Launcher (Paladius & Necromus)
4:22 Rocket Launcher (Frostallion Asleep)
4:44 Rocket Launcher (Jetragon Asleep)
4:56 Rocket Launcher (Paladius Asleep)
---
*Palworld v0.1.4.1*
No, I'm the boss now.
---
Pals and Equips:
Chillet - Lv. 5 (100% Attack + Dragon damage conversion)
Gobfin x4 - Lv. 5 (80% Attack)
All Pals have Vanguard (50% Attack)
Legendary Assault Rifle (560 AR)
Legendary Rocket Launcher (14000 AR)
2x Attack +2 Pendants (30% Attack)
Mozzarina Cheeseburger (20% Attack)
49 points into Attack
Altogether: 198 base attack * 360% (all passive skills (260%) + 100% mount bonus) * 20% (the cheeseburger is calculated seperately) = 855 total attack
This is *very* impractical for regular play due to having 300 carry weight alone, but some points into the stat wouldn't lower one's damage by too much.
(On another note, this feels like good timing on this video, considering Pocketpair released their promo on Chillet today, haha - youtube.com/watch?v=ldszEQTXjck)
---
0:00 Assault Rifle
0:50 Rocket Launcher
---
*Palworld v0.1.4.1*
Music is Anonite - Deltarune 3 by SilvaGunner
PC Version 16.0.0.0
I enjoyed doing the fight so much in this manner that it became a speedrun. From the time her health bar appears on the screen to her death clocks in at 1:21:14.
If you want general information about this fight, however, go here:
youtube.com/watch?v=CpjtVMyzy7g
-
Strategies and timesaves:
] Not much happens in phase one other than trying to force the Infected Broodmother into a corner of the map free from the exploding fungus in the later phases. She'll likely end up this way if you're pointed toward one, as she'll eventually use her dodge and end up in the exact direction you're looking at. Afterward, you'll want her to perform as many power attacks as possible, as it's easy to deal with and allows for much damage. Sadly, I built up fewer Lil Fist stacks than I otherwise wanted (96-100 stacks), costing around 2 seconds.
Notice that I align with her head while she's 'dead.' This guarantees a few free punches before she rotates to attack.
] For phase two, she always starts by screaming, which dislodges the exploding fungus off the walls, so be mindful of your position. Hope for an egg bomb afterward, as this combo allows for enough damage to eliminate her second health bar in one go. Sadly, that didn't happen, and the shenanigans that ensued afterward cost me 4-5 seconds.
] What attack she chooses to start with in phase three is somewhat randomized, but you'll likely get one of the three-speed flurry attacks. Hopefully, you're near a corner, as her stagger resist mechanic will reset, allowing one to stagger her out of the initial attack. Unfortunately, my positioning was terrible here, as I wanted to knock the Infected Broodmother into the corner via the stagger to keep punching her before she fully recovered. Optimally, that should allow one to cut her health in half. Afterward, I held block rather than opting for perfect blocks, as she is quite hard to see when she's halfway buried in a wall. I could see this being cut by 5-6 seconds if she attacks by screaming or using side lunges, as they allow one to inflict more damage in a shorter amount of time. I wouldn't be surprised if someone could find ways to cut this time even more than what I mentioned here.
RNG is gonna RNG, though.
(Note: Patch 1.2.4 nerfed Lil Fist to 100 stacks. RIP timesaves.)
-
Items and Equipment:
Strong Hand - With Power Droplet + Lil Fist stacking buffs over time, the damage goes from potatoes to broken.
Ladybird Shield - A 25% chance upon blocking with this shield makes one's melee attacks consume no stamina for five seconds. With Infected Broodmother's attack speed, this will proc *a lot*.
Eyepatch (Sleek) - Adds 10% more to one's attack but at the cost of taking 25% extra damage.
Fire Ant Chestplate + Leggings (Sleek) - Each piece has a 10% chance to inflict corrosion on the enemy, which reduces defense by 15% for 10 seconds. Add the lowered resistance from the Chopper mutation, and even the Infected Broodmother starts feeling real pain soon enough.
Power Droplet - Not only does it add a second 'punch,' but its unique skill, Fury, will trigger other mutations unrelated to fists from those second punches, such as Chopper and Assassin.
-
Drinks and Food:
Empanadust - For faster stamina recovery (+50%)
Spider Slider - For extra crit chance (+5%)
Boss Sauce - For even more crit chance (+5%)
Liquid Rage - For more attack (+10%)
Green Machine - For faster stamina recovery (+20%)
Boost Juice - For more base stamina (+20)
-
Mutations:
Lil Fist Lv. 3 - Not only does every punch landing stack a 2% damage buff, but every punch also deals a second punch that does half that damage. The only thing that stops the buff is combat ending or one taking damage.
Chopper (Power Droplet) Lv. 3 - Allows fists to lower the target's defense. It stacks with the Fire Ant armor's effect.
Assassin (Power Droplet) Lv. 3 - It adds an ok bleed DoT modifier for the entirety of the fight. It gets less valuable as Lil Fist gains more stacks.
Coup De Grass Lv. 2 - 5% crit chance, pain².
Trapper Peep.R Lv. 3 - 60% more damage from critical hits. Chunks of health are gonna fly.
-
Extra buff:
An Infected Broodmother Mount was activated before the fight to add 20% more damage.
The Wasp Queen transitions lost their random nature when the game updated from 1.2.1 to 1.2.2. One of the most significant changes is now her HP gates her wasp callings based on what's left. If she reaches a certain threshold, she'll immediately stop attacking to call more wasps rather than continuing whatever phase she is on - making the battle far more chaotic than it was on 1.2.1.
:: Phase 1
It's best to zone her to pelt her with salt/bomb arrows, though the former is more effective. I recommend switching to a shield to block the stinger shot if she's above you or at an odd angle.
You can switch to melee if she gets close by, but for consistency (and safety), it's easier to keep your distance in this phase.
If she does her poison bomb barrage, take care not to step in any of it. While the first variant aims around the arena, she has a more dangerous second version where she purposely aims for you, which she often uses when her health is lower.
:: Phase 2
She'll be in this phase quite a lot more due to the 1.2.2 changes, as she tends to call wasps at around 65% - 50% - 35% health if one is doing high damage quickly. She also tends to do this if a certain amount of time has passed. If you haven't already, you should swap to bomb arrows to AoE blast the wasp and wasp drones.
For wasps, you can run from them or hold your shield to block their charging sting attack. When the Wasp Queen's health is 50% or lower, I recommend the latter rather than the former.
Wasp drones are by far the largest problem, as they can fly erratically when not positioned near you. If you can't immediately nail the wasp drone with a bomb arrow, I suggest switching to a shield and holding block until they either buff/heal or shoot their stinger at you, as this will give you some breathing room.
(Her wasp calling can sometimes glitch out, causing her to use it twice in rapid succession. 6 wasp/wasp drones are not fun to deal with.)
:: Phase 3
She tries to body slam you, so take care that you're not in the radius of the attack. The easiest way to avoid it is to back up while she's hovering towards you, as she will not perform any other attack while attempting to do so.
(This 'attack' can also sometimes glitch out, and she'll body slam the ground again immediately after recovering.)
:: Phase 4
Outside of phase 3, this is the best opportunity for melee damage, as she will only aim poison bombs at you. Circle around her (but towards the slopes in the arena or near the arena wall) and then give her the pain. Due to the HP threshold, she will likely repeat phase 2 again afterward, but otherwise, you should immediately switch to a shield and block, as her phase 1 AI will attempt to do the charged stinger, normal stinger, or three-sting combo.
-
Items and Equipment:
Black Ox Crossbow - Lv. 9 (what comes up must come down) :: Paired with salt arrows for the boss and bomb arrows for the minions.
Club of the Mother Demon (w/ Salt Upgrade) - Lv. 9 (pain bat)
Fire Ant Shield - Chaos control
Moth Armor Set (Sleek) - Each piece has a 20% chance of applying bleed to the enemy. Bleed is pretty strong, for now.
Eyepatch (Sleek) - Adds 10% more to one's attack but at the cost of taking 25% extra damage.
Fire Ant Chestplate + Leggings (Sleek) (Sleek) - Each piece has a 10% chance to inflict corrosion on the enemy, which reduces defense by 15% for 10 seconds. Add the attack buffs with the high attack of the Club of the Mother Demon, and the damage can get pretty silly.
Entomologist Badge - 10% more attack? Yes, please. Barbarian already gives imperfect block, so this redundancy can be used to the player's advantage.
-
Drinks and Food:
Empanadust - For faster stamina recovery (+50%)
Spider Slider - For extra crit chance (+5%)
Green Machine - For faster stamina recovery (+20%)
Boost Juice - For more base stamina (+20)
Liquid Rage - For more attack (+10%)
-
Mutations:
Barbarian Lv. 3 - Gives a significant attack buff (25%) but sacrifices the ability to perfect block.
Buff Lungs - 50 more stamina; can't go wrong with that.
Coup De Grass Lv. 2 - 5% crit chance, amplify the pain.
Cardio Fan Lv. 3 - Constant movement needs fast stamina regeneration.
Sharpshooter Lv. 3 - Having essentially unlimited sprinting as long as you land an arrow every 5 seconds is quite an advantage with charging wasps.
Trapper Peep.R Lv. 3 - 60% more damage from critical hits is a sight to see.
-
Extra buff:
A Wasp Mount was activated to make the wasp and wasp drones take 20% more damage. It becomes necessary if the Moth armor doesn't apply bleed, as it guarantees a three-shot with bomb arrows if one gets unlucky.
Note: If you don't care about accuracy, I suggest block-canceling to turbo-shoot bomb arrows on wasps and wasp drones to proc bleed on them quickly, as it will always kill them. I didn't do so in this video because I thought it would be rather cheesy, but it's *by far* a better strategy.
noun: *ouroboros*
"A circular symbol depicting a snake, or less commonly a dragon, swallowing its tail, as an emblem of wholeness or infinity."
...oh.
Music is MH3 - Sound of the Great Mountain (Agnaktor Theme)
PC Version 14.0.0.0
It's safe to say that he didn't have much fun at all.
I would have let my previous video stand, but I had a few issues with it:
* Due to the self-hitting Barbarian mutation bug before 1.02's release, it became a detriment to the battle. It, combined with other +attack buffs, evaporates Schmector's HP.
* The Assassin (Mantis) armor set is not only slightly bugged, but its utility is never fully realized because it is highly reliant on crits. Its set bonus, Critical Chain, only works with charged attacks, not normal ones. Secondly, it only gives a measly 2.5% extra crit during activation.
If one doesn't know current crit values, they were stealth nerfed *heavily* upon version 1.0's release: Coup De Grass at level 2 gives 5% crit, Spider Slider slider gives 5% crit, and Thor's Pendant gives 1% crit, which maxes crit for most weapons at 11%. The Assassin armor's abilities (bleed and extra stun) are also tied to active crits. The former does not affect Schmector, and extra stun hardly changes the battle. Despite belonging to a boss, it's a very underwhelming armor set.
I also forgot to show my mutations at the end of the last video. Not much has changed text-wise if you've already read about Schmector's mechanics in the previous video, but here you go:
-
* Before his HP reaches the 80% mark, strafing and being aware of his charged electric shot is all one needs to worry about. After his blue charge, the corners become safer when the wall turrets fire, as the bouncing electric shots can be easily seen.
(In this video, however, he takes so much damage so fast that this part is skipped entirely.)
* At the 60% mark, assuming you don't score a crit as I did in the video, you should hold block with a shield during his orange spider charge. Otherwise, it'll do a tiny amount of damage before the spiders come out of the two side doors. This is likely a bug, as the other two charges he does have no ability to do damage.
* At the 40% mark, if a crit isn't scored during this orange charge, going to the side of the room with the uncharged electric turrets is the best option, as lasers will soon fire. From there, one can move from side to side and dodge any shots he attempts. Unfortunately, Schmector will likely activate the lasers again once they time out, making this a lengthy phase for the unlucky.
(I was near the necessary spot to stay safe from the green lasers, but I decided instead to duck the 'V' pattern to bum-rush him here to end the battle. Usually, you'd want to stay to the side where the laser's targeting ends.)
* The last 20% is something else, as Schmector prioritizes all three charges above regular attacks. From here, crouch to pre-emptively evade the lasers and go all out. Hopefully, the fight ends before the spider charge is activated; otherwise, getting hit is all but guaranteed.
(Unlike the last video, his robot body fell apart in this phase before doing much of anything.)
-
Items and Equipment:
Club of the Mother Demon (w/ Sour Upgrade) - Lv. 8 (pain bat)
Entomologist Badge - 10% more attack? Yes, please. Barbarian already gives imperfect block, so this redundancy can only be used to the player's advantage.
Eyepatch (Sleek) - Adds 10% more to one's attack, but at the cost of taking 25% extra damage.
Fire Ant Chestplate + Leggings (Sleek) - Combined, they give a 20% chance to inflict corrosion on the enemy, which reduces defense by 15% for 10 seconds. Add the attack buffs with the high attack of the Club of the Mother Demon, and the damage can get pretty silly.
-
Drinks and Food:
Spider Slider - For extra crit chance (+5%)
Green Machine - For faster stamina recovery (+20%)
Boost Juice - For more base stamina (+20)
Liquid Rage - For more attack (+10%)
-
Mutations:
Barbarian Lv. 3 - Gives a significant attack buff (20%) but sacrifices the ability to perfect block.
Buff Lungs - 30 more stamina; can't go wrong with that.
Coup De Grass Lv. 2 - 5% crit chance, amplify the pain.
Cardio Fan Lv. 3 - Heavy bat needs fast stamina regeneration.
Trapper Peep.R Lv. 3 - 60% more damage from critical hits is a sight to see.
-
Here's the previous video if you want to see the difference in effectiveness:
youtube.com/watch?v=7xvNkW8XPGA
Sadly, this is way too luck-based on being reliable due to many of Orchid Mantis's attacks inflicting status effects through perfect blocks. Stacking damage debuffs makes this possible, although it's *rough.*
Since there's not much of a reason for a guide, I'll tell you the many ways that this can fail:
* Pollen bouncing off a corner wall endlessly and creating a ton of lag? Have fun trying to finish the fight with the game running at 1 FPS every 2-3 seconds. Interrupting its scream stops the pollen from generating.
* Mantis does its 5-hit combo? Even with perfect blocks, you'll get a bleed and a negative attack debuff.
* Mantis does its tracking overhead? It also bleeds you with a perfect block.
* Mantis does its charged overhead? You could get lucky and run away (especially if a dust cloud from the Termite Armor procs), but otherwise, it gives the negative perfect block debuff.
After doing the fight in this manner, I wouldn't mind some kind of move that had i-frames because otherwise, I'm not sure what the player is supposed to rely on past getting staggers at the right moments.
-
Items and Equipment:
Club of the Mother Demon (w/ Salt Upgrade and Apex Predator) - Lv. 9 (its true form gives death)
Larva Blade - Lv. 1 | Spider Fang Dagger | Widow Dagger - Lv. 8 (w/ Salt Upgrade) - Stacks poison quite well. The Widow Dagger generates a bleed stack from Assassin and can stop the Mantis from screaming due to its high attack speed.
Insect Bow - Lv. 5 - Used to shoot Super Venom Arrows and Venom Arrows, as their poison effects stack with the three previous weapons.
Thor's Pendant - Some of the stats on it are helpful.
Mask of the Mother Demon (Sleek) - Poison coating + the extra poison damage from the Widow armor pieces ends up putting a massive dent in its HP bar. Poison Nova adds to this as well when it procs.
Widow Spaulder + Leggings (Sleek) - These generate extra poison damage.
Termite Armor (Sleek) - Active dust clouds slow the Mantis during its attacks, making getting away from its charged overhead much easier. It also gives you more time to recover and attack.
-
Drinks and Food:
Spider Slider - For extra crit chance (+5%)
Green Machine - For faster stamina recovery (+20%)
Boost Juice - For more base stamina (+20)
Liquid Rage - For more attack (+10%)
-
Mutations:
Assassin Lv. 3 - The extra bleed goes nicely with the large stack of poison.
Buff Lungs - 30 more stamina; it's almost a requirement.
Coup De Grass Lv. 2 - 5% crit chance, hit hard.
Trapper Peep.R Lv. 3 - 60% more critical hit damage really shows when a crit does trigger.
Apex Predator - Turns the Club of the Broodmother into a monster, as it grants a strong stack of poison.
* Speaking of all this poison stacking, I did not find this strategy, but a Discord friend told me about it. After doing some YouTube sleuthing, I found who is most likely the owner of this information.
Credit to Paraly5er: youtube.com/watch?v=C6YS-BHbFZw
Bagelgoose
Music is Monster Hunter World goes Rock - Bazelgeuse Theme
PC Version 15.11
Mods used:
Daily Food Skills - To get Felyne Booster
RNGdig vs. RNGwall
Music is Varusaburosu's Battle Theme (Monster Hunter Frontier)
PC Version 15.11
Mods used:
Daily Food Skills - To get Felyne Booster
It's been over a year since I've done a special arena quest, and I'm not sure why I stopped doing them. As for this run, I feel there won't be as much time to save due to Narga's ability to suddenly scramble halfway across the map after switching modes.
Note: At 1:19, I'm aiming at Narga's cutwing on purpose, as it's in a better position for lance charges after tail slams. I still consider that part (and a couple of others) not the greatest of RNG, but that's speedrunning.
Music is Monster Hunter Jazz - Nargacuga
PC Version 15.11
Mods used:
Daily Food Skills - To get Felyne Booster
Somehow, I managed to get a sub-5 with Raging Brachy going the wrong way, which skipped the damage slide entirely. I always thought this wasn't possible, but sometimes its chaotic AI rolls just the right way. Although it's two seconds slower than my PB, I prefer this video because it has fewer mistakes.
If it wasn't for some unfortunate staggers, I could have gotten a 4'4X, although lower isn't impossible. Raging Brachy is going to Raging Brachy, though - maybe I'll get it before Sunbreak releases.
Music is Macroblank - あなたがいなくなって
PC Version 15.11
Mods used:
Daily Food Skills - To get Felyne Booster
Equips:
Cold Star Fist +25
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Green Turtle Talisman
Equips:
Cold Star Fist +25
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Green Turtle Talisman
Equips:
Cold Iron Ball +12
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Equips:
Cold Spiked Caestus +12
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
The fight feels a lot like that, and it would have been pretty cool if it was flatter.
Equips:
Cold Iron Ball +12
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
*Nihil's damage is unavoidable, and the fight is designed so that you use the Purifying Crystal Tear to almost completely negate the effect. This will be the only time I'll use the Flask of Wondrous Physick.
Equips:
Cold Star Fist +25
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Green Turtle Talisman
Equips:
Cold Spiked Caestus +12
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Striking weapons crack its skull open like a walnut.
Equips:
Cold Iron Ball +25
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Green Turtle Talisman
Note: Sacred Order is much better than War Cry here due to the sacred affinity + extra holy damage from the AoW.
Equips:
Cold Star Fist +25
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Green Turtle Talisman
I can't even tell.
Equips:
Cold Star Fist +25
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Green Turtle Talisman
Equips:
Cold Iron Ball +12
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Memes aside, the end is near.
Equips:
Cold Star Fist +25
Blue Dancer Charm
Radagon's Soreseal
Ritual Sword Talisman
Green Turtle Talisman