Insane Difficulty: Boss Strategies - Insane Difficulty

Hey everyone,

So we have a thread for characters, for general bugs, but we don't actually have one for bosses! I've been compiling some basic strategies for bosses that I'd be happy to share and was wondering what everyone else's approach to bosses would be! Helpful tips include level suggestions, gear suggestions, stat point distributions, etc.

I guess I'll start off with an easy one. Don't EVER use spells or Level 2 or 3 techs against Bill and Ben. Regular attacks and saber'd regular attacks are usually the way to go when you fight those guys - use healing spells/items as necessary and the fight is super manageable.

When you fight the three Machine Golems on the snowfield, you can move before they can when you enter the fight, and you can push them around to make their rocket-arm opening attack just miss you, instead of waiting around to take it in the face.

mr_smartiepant, on 30 May 2016 - 07:19 PM, said:

This I mostly disagree with; stats depend a lot on the exact team composition so "ideal" stats for team x/y/z won't be ideal for team a/b/c.
I should maybe also add a bit of boss info to the docs; like "yes, Lugar doesn't give a **** about your def", so if those hints here are good I could add them, too.

Praetarius5018, on 30 May 2016 - 10:29 PM, said:

The first place is absolutely true while im against the latter, while giving hints about the boss is great, this kind of thing we are better off finding ourselves since hard type is a whole new game for us to explore.

I'm by no means a Seiken densetsu pro, BUT I'm trying very hard at it so I say we should begin by the beggining, here is what I've been experiencing until now with my Duran/angela/riese play through:

Full metal hugger:

It was all about outlasting him, the game winners here were puipui grass (the debuff healer) and loads of round drops, didn't need a single angel grail.

Double machine golems:

While they both smashed rise and angela real quick they didn't had the damage to take Duran down. Duran was able to man fight both of them and emerge victorious alone (no angel grails again)

Jewel eater:

Just go fast, used that item that reduces max hp and wailed him to death, again no angel grails but only Angela survived in the end.

Tzenker:

This one was a headache, used the speed up item on all the boys, loads of healing items and riese def up along with stardust herbs, duran had sabers but the star here was Angela being able to hit Tzenker whenever she pleased, I kept on healing keeping the hp always close to max so it couldn't combo me to death, and whenever it was able to kill one party member the other 2 quickly followed, leading to loads of resets, and there were this lowering max hp bug too

Door thing:

Stardust herb, healing and MT nuking all day, pretty easy and manageable

Bill and ben:

Currently stuck in them but I already see that stardust herbs + def up are necessary

For Bill/Ben stock up on EVA gear. If you have high enough eva they are a lot more manageable!

Leon Zero, on 31 May 2016 - 02:56 AM, said:

what. considering the flak I got a short while ago...

Praetarius5018, on 31 May 2016 - 05:59 AM, said:

I guess that the trick lies on saving at least a MT tech+a MT spell for when it summons his minions, since the door itself doesn't have much damage even with power up, and always wait it combo def down + mind down to stardust herb, and don't forget to mash X to skip the def down/mind down messages or you might have troubles

Leon Zero, on 31 May 2016 - 07:32 AM, said:

I wouldn't say any boss is easy, but certain group combinations with certain armor set ups make certain bosses more manageable than others. For example, I didn't have any MT when I fought Genova and I thought it was quite challenging. Different parties make different portions of the game or bosses 'easier' just because of the abilities available.

mr_smartiepant, on 31 May 2016 - 07:51 AM, said:

I fully agree with you, that's why I mentioned my party in my post, and tried to be as generalist as I possibly could and I didn't mean to be a pro or anything else as I noted too I couldn't expand much on Genova since the monsters it generate might be random and I could have been lucky with their shapeshifts but it will make the fight invariably easier if you follow my steps granted you have similar options because the boss relies on swarming you with some dangerous enemies and using numbers + attack buffs to kill you, but yes when I say easy it is easy for the game standards which are very high to begin with, if it sounded arrogant I'm terribly sorry and wasn't my point to do so.

Leon Zero, on 31 May 2016 - 02:56 AM, said:

I was thinking more along the line of esoteric hints for the docs:
Bill/Ben; Strength: "strong attacks", Weakness: "Mobility"

"strong attacks" because he counters those (in contrast to regular attacks spells and Lv2 techs ARE strong) and his attacks hurt, especially his 3 attack chain with crits
"mobility" as either high evade or just moving out of his way, this is the last boss where you want to stay still and take hits

FMH, S: "regeneration", W: "tutorial boss"
Tzenker, S: "speed", W: "yes"
Secret Shop, S: "hidden", W: "immobile"

Leon Zero, on 31 May 2016 - 08:07 AM, said:

y-no; he always summons as 1st, 5th, 9th, ... shadow zero + shapeshifter all other times firedrake + shapeshifter

For Lightgazer make sure someone is equipped with cardinal eye to help stunt its own self-heal and its helpful if another person is decked out in full +healing power/item gear

mr_smartiepant, on 01 June 2016 - 06:49 AM, said:

hmmm... so, strength: "heal", weakness: "ironie"
looks like a lot of fun is to be had with that list xD

Black Rabite, strength: "yes", weakness: "sooo cute... wait, argh, no! "

I assume spoiler tags are supposed to be used to hide some information, such as the location of the secret shop, the way to defeat Mispolm etc.

Sefie1999AD, on 01 June 2016 - 02:10 PM, said:

huh, I wonder... does the secret shop count as a boss? well, for some it seems to do.
guess the "boss list" will have about 40 entries

mispolm:
I'd like it, if spoilers are kept to a minimum there, since "the trick" is almost all there is to the fight.

Praetarius5018, on 01 June 2016 - 02:16 PM, said:

Theres a trick to mispolm? I've never had an issue with him at all. What version did that crop up in?

Dolan – weakness – high HP armor – strength = hits like a tank

This post has been edited by mr_smartiepant: 02 June 2016 - 05:17 AM

mr_smartiepant, on 02 June 2016 - 04:42 AM, said:

v0.680

mr_smartiepant, on 02 June 2016 - 04:42 AM, said:

I somehow doubt that this is his "weakness" as of v0.705.

Praetarius5018, on 02 June 2016 - 07:58 AM, said:

That's how I beat him >_>

Praetarius5018, on 01 June 2016 - 02:16 PM, said:

I'd like it,but it would be better if you struggle and cry a little bit while trying to do it

Edit 1: finally won the bill and ben match... all i have to say is that they attack a lot, and how my team depends on angela to deal damage,now im on the ghost ship and the boss is wrecking me but i'll find a way around...

Any tips against the golems refight?