Post by Agrith Dragonflame on Sept 2, 2023 20:56:51 GMT -5
So, after playing through the main story on Impawssible (yikes, by the by), thought I'd toss out a few useful bits of knowledge. Obviously, if you haven't played the main story and want to experience it yourself without any advice, I recommend leaving this thread right now and coming back later. However, if you don't mind the spoilers, open the spoiler below and read on! If you don't mind a teeny tiny spoiler that I feel is useful to know regardless: Beware bullet hells.
Since you opened the spoiler, I take it you want my advice. Alright, here we go! First things first, as mentioned before, each of the five boss fights involve a bullet hell. I bring this up because you can't really train for it in-game, as there isn't really any other bullet hell scenarios. Aside from the Spring Festival's Mouse Chase, I guess? So be ready to learn on the fly. Second, you will be expected to do puzzles and battles before each boss fight (one Dark Ruin is just puzzles, while another is just battles. The other two and the Temple have both). Each dungeon you are expected to fight in will offer unique enemies not found anywhere else (they don't even appear in Collections!). They also have an inscription before each boss fight that heals, resets cooldowns, and heals buddies. Also, just before you enter each Dark Ruin, note the symbol above the door. It's trying to warn you about the boss. Speaking of the boss, much like every other enemy in the game (aside from Spikes), the boss does not do contact damage to you. Last, before I dive into each dungeon individually, if the Ruins or Temple are giving you trouble, it is useful to know that the puzzles and battles are remembered (if you complete a puzzle or battle, then leave, that puzzle or battle remains completed upon your return). You are fully able to complete the Ruin or Temple up until just before you fight the boss, leave and save (and resupply), then come back.
The Eastern Dark Ruins (The Ruins of the Spider AKA The Ruins of Loss)
This is arguably one of the easier ruins. In no small part because it is the first one you are normally able to open and the first one the main story task directs you towards. It's unique enemy is the Void Slime.
- The Void Slime is a pretty simple foe. Kill it, and it spawns two smaller slimes with slightly less health. Kill them, and they each spawn two even smaller slimes with half the health of the previous one. The smaller the slime is, the faster it will move, however. Fortunately, no more will spawn after the third kill. They will have 7, then 6, then 3 health. Buddies or high damage skills like Wild Slash are very useful against them.
- The puzzles are rather simple. One is a sliding block puzzle. Just as the cutscene before it shows cats dying off, you need to cut off the water and kill all the cat statues. The second puzzle is a memory one. Just remember the path (or take a picture if you are feeling cheeky).
-The boss is the Spider Champion. This is a totem boss. The boss will be invulnerable to all damage until you kill the web totems. Until you do, the boss will also fire projectiles at you. In addition, projectiles will fly in from offscreen in all directions (remember what I said about bullet hells? This will happen with every boss, by the by). Also note that, like all the boss fights, you do extra damage to the boss (basic attacks hit for 2, fully charged attacks hits for 6, and maxed Wild Slash hits for 12. AKA, you do double damage and this applies to all attacks and skills. There are two exceptions: One is battle potions which, like normal, still only boost damage by an extra 3. The second is Mortal Wound, which only does 10 damage to the boss instead of its normal 100. The boss is also immune to poison).
-- Buddies are great for getting you to the boss (there tends to be bats on the way in addition to normal battles) but will struggle with all the bosses. In this one, while they will attack the totems, they can also get stuck attacking and doing 0 damage to the boss. They also do not dodge projectiles and thus get melted by the bullet hell. I advise picking a buddy with the Fierce and Caring traits, that way they can inflict damage over time and heal you in a pinch as long as they remain in battle. Alternatively, you can bring a buddy with Vivacious or Tough so that your buddy will last a little longer or do a little more damage while they are still around.
-- For skills, I recommend Wild Slash (better charge attack), Tiger's Breath (Projectiles that can hit the totems without having to go to them through all the bullets), Pinecone Toss (when you are close to the boss, it is so big that all of the pinecones will hit it easily, meaning massive damage, like a shotgun blast to the face. Also helps with the totems), and Shield (negates all damage for a short time, meaning you don't have to worry about the bullets). Note that, since the web totems are not recognized as enemies, Nine Lives and Deep Cuts will not target them. Additionally, since the boss tends to be invulnerable a lot, damage over time from Deep Cuts will be mostly wasted.
-- For power paws, I recommend all the Rainbow (Charge Attack) and Yellow (Run Speed) ones. As for Red (Health), that depends on difficulty. The higher the difficulty, the more health you'll want. Kitten and Easy can get away with few or no red paws. Normal should be close to the second row. Hard and Impawssible should have most, if not all, of them. Purple, Green, and Blue will not help for the dungeons. If you are gearing up for a dungeon, don't prioritize them.
-- For items, bring plenty of healing. A couple stacks of two heart healing or better. Add another couple if you are going on a harder difficulty. Even a few elixirs. You won't get poisoned, so don't worry about that. I would bring battle potions as well, as extra damage means you take out the boss faster and don't have to dodge bullets as long.
The Southern Dark Ruins (The Ruins of the Octopus AKA The Ruins of Sorrow)
I consider this to be the easiest ruin. Partly because this is the Dark Ruin that is just puzzles. Aside from bats, the only fight is the boss. Note that there is plenty of water around and that water slows you down. Obviously, it has no unique enemy.
- The puzzles are rather similar to the Spider Ruins. One is a sliding block puzzle. Make sure the suns shine, but the rain gets its water. Another puzzle is a memory one. Just remember the path (or, again, you can take a picture if you are feeling cheeky). Last (or, rather, first) is the logic puzzle. That one you'll have to figure out on your own (Can't make it too easy. But, if you really need the help, the diamond goes first).
-The boss is the Octopus Champion. This fight seems to be less of a bullet hell than all the others, mercifully (less random projectiles). The boss will sit in the middle of the room and create a bunch of damaging tentacles that will divide the room and move in a clockwise and/or counterclockwise motion. While it does this, it is protected by a barrier that hurts you and prevents you from getting close. You just have to keep moving and avoid the tentacles. Note that, aside from a few platforms, the room is entirely flooded. As mentioned before, you are slower in water. Once the boss tires, it will move to one of the cardinal platforms, where you are free to run up and pummel it. Reminder that it doesn't do contact damage.
-- The boss is the worst one of them all for buddies, unfortunately. They tend to charge the boss and get pummelled in seconds. They will not help you at all here, not even as short lived support. Even so, bring Fierce and Caring, just in the off chance they somehow survive long enough to help you. Maybe.
-- For skills, I recommend Wild Slash (better charge attack), Deep Cuts (damage over time is very helpful to squeeze out more damage when you can't hit the boss, especially while it does the tentacle attack), Pinecone Toss (shotgun blast the boss for massive damage), and Shield (negates all damage for a short time, meaning you don't have to worry about the bullets or tentacles). Projectiles, such as Tiger's Breath, tend to be less useful here, given the flooded nature of the battlefield, since you tend to not be in a cardinal direction of the boss, however you can use them to damage the boss when it is doing the tentacle attack.
-- For power paws, I recommend you have more, if not all, the Red paws by now. As well as the Rainbow and Yellow paws.
-- For items, bring plenty of healing. A couple stacks of two heart healing or better. Add another couple if you are going on a harder difficulty. Even a full stack of elixirs. You won't get poisoned, so don't worry about that. I would bring battle potions as well, as extra damage means you take out the boss faster and don't have to dodge bullets as long. I also recommend thistle and/or valerian to make maneuvering in the boss fight easier.
The Western Dark Ruins (The Ruins of the Bat Swarm AKA The Ruins of Reclusion)
This Ruins will test how well you can handle battles and unexpected enemies. Interestingly, you won't encounter any bats here, but there are plenty of poison gas vents. If you have it, wear the Beaky accessory since it makes you immune to gas vents (just the gas vents. It will not protect you from fire pillars or statuses inflicted by enemies or items). The ruin features two unique enemies: the Void Bug and the Void Ghost.
- The Void Bug is very similar to a rat. Not very fast or strong, but can inflict poison. Easy enough to kill with 2 or 3 charged attacks. However, whenever they take damage, they gain a shield of their own for a brief time. Just wait it out (the higher the difficulty, the longer the shield lasts). You do fight them in a room full of individual water tiles, so mind them slowing you down.
- The Void Ghost just sits in place, charges up briefly, then shoots a fast projectile at you. It will also teleport away after a moment when you get close. The key to beating them is to just keeping rushing them. They can't shoot you if they are teleporting away from you (though they might still get a shot off if you time it just wrong). You fight 4 waves, so you may have to dodge a few shots (buddies help a lot here).
- The singular puzzle is a logic puzzle (tip: make sure you have two circles, two diamonds, one paw, and one star. The circles are not next to each other, but the diamonds are).
-The boss is the Bat Swarm Champion. This fight is hectic. In addition to the boss (three bats), voidlings will continually spawn and try to trap you (the spawning is rather slow, but it spawns several at the start and you are dealing with a bullet hell. It won't feel long enough). You have to kill the three bats to reveal the actual boss you can damage. One bat will periodically (rather slowly) create shockwaves, one fires projectiles, and one creates poison gas vents. Realistically, the hard part is chasing the bats amidst all the voidlings and the bullets, the bats themselves are all but harmless.
-- Buddies are probably the best here out of all the bosses. I highly recommend Fierce and either Vivacious or Tough. You want the voidlings to stay off you as long as possible, either via buddies killing them or just staying alive distracting them. Just remember that the buddy will be torn apart by the bullet hell and the voidlings eventually. How long they last is up to chance. Useful as they are, however, I don't recommend healing them with Sweet Melody. It is unlikely to help them long enough to make much of a difference. However, note that buddies struggle with Void Bugs. They don't recognize the shield and tend to keep attacking the now temporarily invincible enemy that is attacking and poisoning them.
-- For skills, I recommend Wild Slash (better charge attack), Deep Cuts (damage over time is very helpful to squeeze out more damage while chasing the bats and can't hit them because voidlings and/or bullet), Tiger's Breath (projectiles to snipe the boss bats from afar and push the voidlings back), and Shield (negates all damage for a short time, meaning you don't have to worry about the bullets or voidlings). Mortal Wound is also helpful as an opener, as the boss spawns several voidlings at the start. If you are fortunate, it can take one or two out. If not, 10 damage to one or two bats right off makes them easier to finish for the first batch of actual damage (easier difficulties allow for Mortal Wounds be able to kill a bat outright). Mortal Wound can also help the Void Bugs be less of a nuisance (remember, the healing inscription resets cooldowns). If the voidlings are really giving you problems, you could also bring Lion's Roar to give yourself some breathing room now and again (especially when you are going on the attack and Shield is on cooldown).
-- You should have all the relevant power paws by this ruin.
-- For items, bring plenty of healing. Several stacks of two heart healing or better. Add another several if you are going on a harder difficulty. Even a full stack of elixirs. Since there are enemies and hazards that can poison you, bring marigold (and the Beaky mask). I would bring battle potions as well, as extra damage means you take out the boss faster (less cycles of bat chasing. You also kill the bats and voidlings faster, which makes life much easier) and don't have to dodge bullets as long.
The Northern Dark Ruins (The Ruins of the Dragon AKA The Ruins of Anger)
This is the battle ruins. No puzzles here, only fights. You'll face off against the Void Ghosts, Void Bugs, and Void Slimes in that order. Mind the lava and fire pillars that will be present in each fight, including the boss (you'll even get to fight the Void Ghosts in platforms in the middle of a small lake of lava).
-The boss is the Dragon Champion. This fight is just a bullet hell, period. The boss will hang out at the top of the room and shoot fireballs at you (in patterns just like the Pinecone Toss, actually). When you get close, it'll stop attacking for a bit, them blow you back to the bottom (watch out for the bullets from everywhere as you go), then guard itself with a wall of flames. You'll be forced to dodge the bullets and fireballs until the chime sounds to let you know the fire wall is gone. I recommend being as far from the boss when dodging so that there is time for spaces to appear between each wave of fireballs. Then charge up there and do as much damage as you can before being pushed back again. Be wary if you happen to get close to the head just as it is about to fire a wave of fireballs. You don't want to get hit by all of them at once.
-- Buddies will help a lot with the battles before the boss fight. The boss fight itself is going to tear them apart, much like the Octopus boss. Even so, bring Fierce and Caring on the off chance they manage to help.
-- For skills, I recommend Wild Slash (better charge attack), Deep Cuts (damage over time is very helpful to squeeze out more damage. You can use it when the boss start to blow you back to do some damage to the boss while dodging), Pinecone Toss (shotgun blast the boss for massive damage), and Shield (negates all damage for a short time, meaning you don't have to worry about the bullets. It helps a lot when actually charging the boss). You could also bring Tiger's Breath to try to hit it from afar while you are dodging.
-- Have all the relevant power paws. You'll need them.
-- For items, bring plenty of healing. Several stacks of two heart healing or better. Add another 4 or 5 if you are going on a harder difficulty. Even a full stack or two of elixirs. The Void Bugs can poison you, so bring some marigold. I would bring battle potions as well, as extra damage means you take out the boss faster and don't have to dodge bullets as long.
The Temple Beneath (The Temple of the Wildwood Champion)
By this point, you know the identity of the bosses you've been facing. Or, rather, boss. The Wildwood Champion. You have to go through two gauntlets to get to them. On the right is a combat gauntlet. The left, a puzzle gauntlet.
- The puzzles cane be a bit tricky. First is Simon says. Just remember the cats in order and hit the statues in order. Second is one of those puzzles where you activate a switch and all adjacent switches change. Hit each of the cardinal switches once, then each of the corner switches once. Do not touch the center. Last is the rotating wheels. Stop each wheel so that the symbols on the right side of the left wheel is the same as the left side of the center and the left side of the right wheel is the same as the right side of the center. It'll make more sense when you see it.
-The combat gauntlet starts with three increasing waves of blacked-out Tier 3 Darkflies (if you want to test yourself against them beforehand, you can find these type of Darkflies in Mine 3). In the next room, you get to face three waves of the Ruin unique enemies. First is a Void Ghost and a Void Slime (let your buddy handle the slime). Second, a Void Ghost and Void Bug (the bug is more trouble, kill it first). Last is one of each (kill bug first, then ghost, then slime if your buddy hasn't killed it). The last room introduces you to three waves of increasing numbers of Void Spearman. They are blacked-out ghosts that have spears that will point at you before they charge at you. Note that the spears do damage, not the ghosts themselves. Just keep moving, wait for the spearman to charge, then hit them. If you can kill them, do so. If not, hit them hard, then back off before the spear points at you again. Mind the lava in the center of the room.
-The boss is the Wildwood Champion. Unlike the the prior four boss encounters, you have three phases to get through. Phase One: The Wildwood Champion will teleport somewhere, then spawn small tentacles that circle them, doing damage to you if they touch you (very similar to a smaller version of the Octopus boss fight, except that you must damage them while they are doing this instead of waiting it out). You will have to dodge around them as well as all the bullets. Also, the Wildwood Champion spawns multiple voidlings at the start, with more spawning over time (just like the Bat Swarm boss). Phase Two: The Wildwood Champion transforms into a decrepit-looking version of the Forest Guardian. In this phase, the voidlings are gone, but now the Wildwood Champion will create a targeting reticule that will chase you around before dropping a lightning bolt on you. In addition, the Wildwood Champion will create an electric barrier that makes them immune to damage until it drops (sometimes this is timed with the lightning strike, but not always). They will also fire lightning-shaped bullets while the shield is up. You just have to survive until the shield drops on its own, then attack (just like the Dragon boss). Phase Three: The Wildwood Champion transforms again and you get a scene of your allies cheering you on (three of them. For me, it was Krampy, who was my partner, Talon, and Spark). Then the phase begins. The Wildwood Champion will spawn colored paw tokens that are chained to them and rotate around them (a mobile version of the Spider boss's totems). While at least one token is present, he will shoot fireballs in an arc (just like the ones fired by the Dragon boss). Once you break all the tokens, they will be vulnerable and stop shooting fireballs. Be mindful to watch them. They will appear to gather energy moments before creating more tokens and immediately firing more fireballs. If you don't get away in time, you will get shotgun blasted by multiple fireballs (and possibly insta-killed. It almost happened to me, but Shield lasted just long enough for me to survive. Barely). After that... Well, that's your choice.
-- Buddies will help in phase one with all the voidlings. They might even last until phase two, if you are lucky. Again, the bullet hell and the voidling will tear them apart. I recommend bringing Fierce and either Vivacious or Tough.
-- For skills, I recommend Wild Slash (better charge attack), Tiger's Breath (to hit from a distance, as the Wildwood Champion teleports around, especially in phase 2), Pinecone Toss (shotgun blast the boss for massive damage), and Shield (negates all damage for a short time, meaning you don't have to worry about the bullets. I highly recommend it for phase 3). You could also bring Deep Cuts if you prefer it, but remember that the Wildwood Champion tends to become invulnerable.
-- Have all the relevant power paws. You'll need them.
-- For items, bring plenty of healing. Bring a good 5 stacks of two heart healing or better. Add another 5 if you are going on a harder difficulty. Definitely a full stack of elixirs, maybe even two. The Void Bugs can poison you, so bring some marigold. I would bring battle potions as well, as extra damage means you take out the boss faster and don't have to dodge bullets as long.
That's all I got. Have fun, good luck, and may your paws stay strong and the Forest Guardian watch over you!
Since you opened the spoiler, I take it you want my advice. Alright, here we go! First things first, as mentioned before, each of the five boss fights involve a bullet hell. I bring this up because you can't really train for it in-game, as there isn't really any other bullet hell scenarios. Aside from the Spring Festival's Mouse Chase, I guess? So be ready to learn on the fly. Second, you will be expected to do puzzles and battles before each boss fight (one Dark Ruin is just puzzles, while another is just battles. The other two and the Temple have both). Each dungeon you are expected to fight in will offer unique enemies not found anywhere else (they don't even appear in Collections!). They also have an inscription before each boss fight that heals, resets cooldowns, and heals buddies. Also, just before you enter each Dark Ruin, note the symbol above the door. It's trying to warn you about the boss. Speaking of the boss, much like every other enemy in the game (aside from Spikes), the boss does not do contact damage to you. Last, before I dive into each dungeon individually, if the Ruins or Temple are giving you trouble, it is useful to know that the puzzles and battles are remembered (if you complete a puzzle or battle, then leave, that puzzle or battle remains completed upon your return). You are fully able to complete the Ruin or Temple up until just before you fight the boss, leave and save (and resupply), then come back.
The Eastern Dark Ruins (The Ruins of the Spider AKA The Ruins of Loss)
This is arguably one of the easier ruins. In no small part because it is the first one you are normally able to open and the first one the main story task directs you towards. It's unique enemy is the Void Slime.
- The Void Slime is a pretty simple foe. Kill it, and it spawns two smaller slimes with slightly less health. Kill them, and they each spawn two even smaller slimes with half the health of the previous one. The smaller the slime is, the faster it will move, however. Fortunately, no more will spawn after the third kill. They will have 7, then 6, then 3 health. Buddies or high damage skills like Wild Slash are very useful against them.
- The puzzles are rather simple. One is a sliding block puzzle. Just as the cutscene before it shows cats dying off, you need to cut off the water and kill all the cat statues. The second puzzle is a memory one. Just remember the path (or take a picture if you are feeling cheeky).
-The boss is the Spider Champion. This is a totem boss. The boss will be invulnerable to all damage until you kill the web totems. Until you do, the boss will also fire projectiles at you. In addition, projectiles will fly in from offscreen in all directions (remember what I said about bullet hells? This will happen with every boss, by the by). Also note that, like all the boss fights, you do extra damage to the boss (basic attacks hit for 2, fully charged attacks hits for 6, and maxed Wild Slash hits for 12. AKA, you do double damage and this applies to all attacks and skills. There are two exceptions: One is battle potions which, like normal, still only boost damage by an extra 3. The second is Mortal Wound, which only does 10 damage to the boss instead of its normal 100. The boss is also immune to poison).
-- Buddies are great for getting you to the boss (there tends to be bats on the way in addition to normal battles) but will struggle with all the bosses. In this one, while they will attack the totems, they can also get stuck attacking and doing 0 damage to the boss. They also do not dodge projectiles and thus get melted by the bullet hell. I advise picking a buddy with the Fierce and Caring traits, that way they can inflict damage over time and heal you in a pinch as long as they remain in battle. Alternatively, you can bring a buddy with Vivacious or Tough so that your buddy will last a little longer or do a little more damage while they are still around.
-- For skills, I recommend Wild Slash (better charge attack), Tiger's Breath (Projectiles that can hit the totems without having to go to them through all the bullets), Pinecone Toss (when you are close to the boss, it is so big that all of the pinecones will hit it easily, meaning massive damage, like a shotgun blast to the face. Also helps with the totems), and Shield (negates all damage for a short time, meaning you don't have to worry about the bullets). Note that, since the web totems are not recognized as enemies, Nine Lives and Deep Cuts will not target them. Additionally, since the boss tends to be invulnerable a lot, damage over time from Deep Cuts will be mostly wasted.
-- For power paws, I recommend all the Rainbow (Charge Attack) and Yellow (Run Speed) ones. As for Red (Health), that depends on difficulty. The higher the difficulty, the more health you'll want. Kitten and Easy can get away with few or no red paws. Normal should be close to the second row. Hard and Impawssible should have most, if not all, of them. Purple, Green, and Blue will not help for the dungeons. If you are gearing up for a dungeon, don't prioritize them.
-- For items, bring plenty of healing. A couple stacks of two heart healing or better. Add another couple if you are going on a harder difficulty. Even a few elixirs. You won't get poisoned, so don't worry about that. I would bring battle potions as well, as extra damage means you take out the boss faster and don't have to dodge bullets as long.
The Southern Dark Ruins (The Ruins of the Octopus AKA The Ruins of Sorrow)
I consider this to be the easiest ruin. Partly because this is the Dark Ruin that is just puzzles. Aside from bats, the only fight is the boss. Note that there is plenty of water around and that water slows you down. Obviously, it has no unique enemy.
- The puzzles are rather similar to the Spider Ruins. One is a sliding block puzzle. Make sure the suns shine, but the rain gets its water. Another puzzle is a memory one. Just remember the path (or, again, you can take a picture if you are feeling cheeky). Last (or, rather, first) is the logic puzzle. That one you'll have to figure out on your own (Can't make it too easy. But, if you really need the help, the diamond goes first).
-The boss is the Octopus Champion. This fight seems to be less of a bullet hell than all the others, mercifully (less random projectiles). The boss will sit in the middle of the room and create a bunch of damaging tentacles that will divide the room and move in a clockwise and/or counterclockwise motion. While it does this, it is protected by a barrier that hurts you and prevents you from getting close. You just have to keep moving and avoid the tentacles. Note that, aside from a few platforms, the room is entirely flooded. As mentioned before, you are slower in water. Once the boss tires, it will move to one of the cardinal platforms, where you are free to run up and pummel it. Reminder that it doesn't do contact damage.
-- The boss is the worst one of them all for buddies, unfortunately. They tend to charge the boss and get pummelled in seconds. They will not help you at all here, not even as short lived support. Even so, bring Fierce and Caring, just in the off chance they somehow survive long enough to help you. Maybe.
-- For skills, I recommend Wild Slash (better charge attack), Deep Cuts (damage over time is very helpful to squeeze out more damage when you can't hit the boss, especially while it does the tentacle attack), Pinecone Toss (shotgun blast the boss for massive damage), and Shield (negates all damage for a short time, meaning you don't have to worry about the bullets or tentacles). Projectiles, such as Tiger's Breath, tend to be less useful here, given the flooded nature of the battlefield, since you tend to not be in a cardinal direction of the boss, however you can use them to damage the boss when it is doing the tentacle attack.
-- For power paws, I recommend you have more, if not all, the Red paws by now. As well as the Rainbow and Yellow paws.
-- For items, bring plenty of healing. A couple stacks of two heart healing or better. Add another couple if you are going on a harder difficulty. Even a full stack of elixirs. You won't get poisoned, so don't worry about that. I would bring battle potions as well, as extra damage means you take out the boss faster and don't have to dodge bullets as long. I also recommend thistle and/or valerian to make maneuvering in the boss fight easier.
The Western Dark Ruins (The Ruins of the Bat Swarm AKA The Ruins of Reclusion)
This Ruins will test how well you can handle battles and unexpected enemies. Interestingly, you won't encounter any bats here, but there are plenty of poison gas vents. If you have it, wear the Beaky accessory since it makes you immune to gas vents (just the gas vents. It will not protect you from fire pillars or statuses inflicted by enemies or items). The ruin features two unique enemies: the Void Bug and the Void Ghost.
- The Void Bug is very similar to a rat. Not very fast or strong, but can inflict poison. Easy enough to kill with 2 or 3 charged attacks. However, whenever they take damage, they gain a shield of their own for a brief time. Just wait it out (the higher the difficulty, the longer the shield lasts). You do fight them in a room full of individual water tiles, so mind them slowing you down.
- The Void Ghost just sits in place, charges up briefly, then shoots a fast projectile at you. It will also teleport away after a moment when you get close. The key to beating them is to just keeping rushing them. They can't shoot you if they are teleporting away from you (though they might still get a shot off if you time it just wrong). You fight 4 waves, so you may have to dodge a few shots (buddies help a lot here).
- The singular puzzle is a logic puzzle (tip: make sure you have two circles, two diamonds, one paw, and one star. The circles are not next to each other, but the diamonds are).
-The boss is the Bat Swarm Champion. This fight is hectic. In addition to the boss (three bats), voidlings will continually spawn and try to trap you (the spawning is rather slow, but it spawns several at the start and you are dealing with a bullet hell. It won't feel long enough). You have to kill the three bats to reveal the actual boss you can damage. One bat will periodically (rather slowly) create shockwaves, one fires projectiles, and one creates poison gas vents. Realistically, the hard part is chasing the bats amidst all the voidlings and the bullets, the bats themselves are all but harmless.
-- Buddies are probably the best here out of all the bosses. I highly recommend Fierce and either Vivacious or Tough. You want the voidlings to stay off you as long as possible, either via buddies killing them or just staying alive distracting them. Just remember that the buddy will be torn apart by the bullet hell and the voidlings eventually. How long they last is up to chance. Useful as they are, however, I don't recommend healing them with Sweet Melody. It is unlikely to help them long enough to make much of a difference. However, note that buddies struggle with Void Bugs. They don't recognize the shield and tend to keep attacking the now temporarily invincible enemy that is attacking and poisoning them.
-- For skills, I recommend Wild Slash (better charge attack), Deep Cuts (damage over time is very helpful to squeeze out more damage while chasing the bats and can't hit them because voidlings and/or bullet), Tiger's Breath (projectiles to snipe the boss bats from afar and push the voidlings back), and Shield (negates all damage for a short time, meaning you don't have to worry about the bullets or voidlings). Mortal Wound is also helpful as an opener, as the boss spawns several voidlings at the start. If you are fortunate, it can take one or two out. If not, 10 damage to one or two bats right off makes them easier to finish for the first batch of actual damage (easier difficulties allow for Mortal Wounds be able to kill a bat outright). Mortal Wound can also help the Void Bugs be less of a nuisance (remember, the healing inscription resets cooldowns). If the voidlings are really giving you problems, you could also bring Lion's Roar to give yourself some breathing room now and again (especially when you are going on the attack and Shield is on cooldown).
-- You should have all the relevant power paws by this ruin.
-- For items, bring plenty of healing. Several stacks of two heart healing or better. Add another several if you are going on a harder difficulty. Even a full stack of elixirs. Since there are enemies and hazards that can poison you, bring marigold (and the Beaky mask). I would bring battle potions as well, as extra damage means you take out the boss faster (less cycles of bat chasing. You also kill the bats and voidlings faster, which makes life much easier) and don't have to dodge bullets as long.
The Northern Dark Ruins (The Ruins of the Dragon AKA The Ruins of Anger)
This is the battle ruins. No puzzles here, only fights. You'll face off against the Void Ghosts, Void Bugs, and Void Slimes in that order. Mind the lava and fire pillars that will be present in each fight, including the boss (you'll even get to fight the Void Ghosts in platforms in the middle of a small lake of lava).
-The boss is the Dragon Champion. This fight is just a bullet hell, period. The boss will hang out at the top of the room and shoot fireballs at you (in patterns just like the Pinecone Toss, actually). When you get close, it'll stop attacking for a bit, them blow you back to the bottom (watch out for the bullets from everywhere as you go), then guard itself with a wall of flames. You'll be forced to dodge the bullets and fireballs until the chime sounds to let you know the fire wall is gone. I recommend being as far from the boss when dodging so that there is time for spaces to appear between each wave of fireballs. Then charge up there and do as much damage as you can before being pushed back again. Be wary if you happen to get close to the head just as it is about to fire a wave of fireballs. You don't want to get hit by all of them at once.
-- Buddies will help a lot with the battles before the boss fight. The boss fight itself is going to tear them apart, much like the Octopus boss. Even so, bring Fierce and Caring on the off chance they manage to help.
-- For skills, I recommend Wild Slash (better charge attack), Deep Cuts (damage over time is very helpful to squeeze out more damage. You can use it when the boss start to blow you back to do some damage to the boss while dodging), Pinecone Toss (shotgun blast the boss for massive damage), and Shield (negates all damage for a short time, meaning you don't have to worry about the bullets. It helps a lot when actually charging the boss). You could also bring Tiger's Breath to try to hit it from afar while you are dodging.
-- Have all the relevant power paws. You'll need them.
-- For items, bring plenty of healing. Several stacks of two heart healing or better. Add another 4 or 5 if you are going on a harder difficulty. Even a full stack or two of elixirs. The Void Bugs can poison you, so bring some marigold. I would bring battle potions as well, as extra damage means you take out the boss faster and don't have to dodge bullets as long.
The Temple Beneath (The Temple of the Wildwood Champion)
By this point, you know the identity of the bosses you've been facing. Or, rather, boss. The Wildwood Champion. You have to go through two gauntlets to get to them. On the right is a combat gauntlet. The left, a puzzle gauntlet.
- The puzzles cane be a bit tricky. First is Simon says. Just remember the cats in order and hit the statues in order. Second is one of those puzzles where you activate a switch and all adjacent switches change. Hit each of the cardinal switches once, then each of the corner switches once. Do not touch the center. Last is the rotating wheels. Stop each wheel so that the symbols on the right side of the left wheel is the same as the left side of the center and the left side of the right wheel is the same as the right side of the center. It'll make more sense when you see it.
-The combat gauntlet starts with three increasing waves of blacked-out Tier 3 Darkflies (if you want to test yourself against them beforehand, you can find these type of Darkflies in Mine 3). In the next room, you get to face three waves of the Ruin unique enemies. First is a Void Ghost and a Void Slime (let your buddy handle the slime). Second, a Void Ghost and Void Bug (the bug is more trouble, kill it first). Last is one of each (kill bug first, then ghost, then slime if your buddy hasn't killed it). The last room introduces you to three waves of increasing numbers of Void Spearman. They are blacked-out ghosts that have spears that will point at you before they charge at you. Note that the spears do damage, not the ghosts themselves. Just keep moving, wait for the spearman to charge, then hit them. If you can kill them, do so. If not, hit them hard, then back off before the spear points at you again. Mind the lava in the center of the room.
-The boss is the Wildwood Champion. Unlike the the prior four boss encounters, you have three phases to get through. Phase One: The Wildwood Champion will teleport somewhere, then spawn small tentacles that circle them, doing damage to you if they touch you (very similar to a smaller version of the Octopus boss fight, except that you must damage them while they are doing this instead of waiting it out). You will have to dodge around them as well as all the bullets. Also, the Wildwood Champion spawns multiple voidlings at the start, with more spawning over time (just like the Bat Swarm boss). Phase Two: The Wildwood Champion transforms into a decrepit-looking version of the Forest Guardian. In this phase, the voidlings are gone, but now the Wildwood Champion will create a targeting reticule that will chase you around before dropping a lightning bolt on you. In addition, the Wildwood Champion will create an electric barrier that makes them immune to damage until it drops (sometimes this is timed with the lightning strike, but not always). They will also fire lightning-shaped bullets while the shield is up. You just have to survive until the shield drops on its own, then attack (just like the Dragon boss). Phase Three: The Wildwood Champion transforms again and you get a scene of your allies cheering you on (three of them. For me, it was Krampy, who was my partner, Talon, and Spark). Then the phase begins. The Wildwood Champion will spawn colored paw tokens that are chained to them and rotate around them (a mobile version of the Spider boss's totems). While at least one token is present, he will shoot fireballs in an arc (just like the ones fired by the Dragon boss). Once you break all the tokens, they will be vulnerable and stop shooting fireballs. Be mindful to watch them. They will appear to gather energy moments before creating more tokens and immediately firing more fireballs. If you don't get away in time, you will get shotgun blasted by multiple fireballs (and possibly insta-killed. It almost happened to me, but Shield lasted just long enough for me to survive. Barely). After that... Well, that's your choice.
-- Buddies will help in phase one with all the voidlings. They might even last until phase two, if you are lucky. Again, the bullet hell and the voidling will tear them apart. I recommend bringing Fierce and either Vivacious or Tough.
-- For skills, I recommend Wild Slash (better charge attack), Tiger's Breath (to hit from a distance, as the Wildwood Champion teleports around, especially in phase 2), Pinecone Toss (shotgun blast the boss for massive damage), and Shield (negates all damage for a short time, meaning you don't have to worry about the bullets. I highly recommend it for phase 3). You could also bring Deep Cuts if you prefer it, but remember that the Wildwood Champion tends to become invulnerable.
-- Have all the relevant power paws. You'll need them.
-- For items, bring plenty of healing. Bring a good 5 stacks of two heart healing or better. Add another 5 if you are going on a harder difficulty. Definitely a full stack of elixirs, maybe even two. The Void Bugs can poison you, so bring some marigold. I would bring battle potions as well, as extra damage means you take out the boss faster and don't have to dodge bullets as long.
That's all I got. Have fun, good luck, and may your paws stay strong and the Forest Guardian watch over you!
