KCGemini | Grounded: Mantis solo [Whoa! difficulty - No damage] @KCGemini | Uploaded October 2022 | Updated October 2024, 11 hours ago.
Official Release v1.0.1.3912

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