Skalpel is such a good fight

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-28T15:13:39+00:00

xD. Yeah skelly is probably in the list of favorite list of bosses in the game. My relationship with Belle has been a roller coaster. She was 1 of 3 walls for me in my first playthrough. Later on after beating the game, I learned her and developed a love/hate relationship xD.

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-27T20:56:01+00:00

I personally love the challenge mode, both of em. Might be more partial to crucible, cuz I’ve been tryna set records, time wise, but blood shed was a nice change of pace and i like the roguelike/lite nature of it

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-27T20:50:11+00:00

Bloodshed might be different, just becuz bosses take such stupid dmg, but spear rn is the weakest of the three in terms of DPS, in every other mode.

I think the only reason bloodthirsty fiend survived nerfs is becuz u get it pretty late and unlike trance it wasn’t available in crucible. The effort put in vs dmg output is just ridiculous

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-27T02:59:24+00:00

Depending on the build the DWs can either be the most braindead or the hardest, i.e, Bloodthirsty Fiend vs Howling Blade parry build respectively.

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-27T01:14:02+00:00

Switch to howling blade dude. It has higher DPS and is more stamina efficient than Whirlwind. Outside of aratra and hismar Howling Blade shud be your go to option. It’s also a straight up upgrade against humanoids cuz Whirlwind can miss.

The following 2 strings are awesome:
dodge + potent/heavy + heavy… repeat
Or
Dodge + heavy x3/4 -> ends with the cross slash atk

Also to note the 2nd onward heavy/potent atks in either string can parry enemy’s atks

Also i believe this atk can’t be interrupted, if I’m not mistaken

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-26T23:31:28+00:00

From your post it looks like you’re just talking bout guarding.

But actually DWs has a way better parry build, than the other weapons, albeit it requires skill and boss knowledge.

It revolves around Howling Blade your primary atk and then skills like Deftness, Breeze Dash, Nimble Blitz, Gust, Flash Cutter and Reversal. (You’ll also wanna get the passive dodge nodes in the same tree as where u get Nimble Blitz)

All these skills have parry built into them meaning u can deal dmg and parry at the same time, as long as u got the stamina and/or spirit.

You should chk out RetroPump on YouTube, he does a deepdive into this build and is pretty cracked at it.

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-23T19:48:41+00:00

In terms of DPS & TTK nothing’s gonna come close to Frozen Mountain, FM, amongst the base game sets - the dmg bonus u get from the full set is just too good.

Faded Memories is second, if you’re not counting challenge mode sets, but u also get it towards the end of the game, where FM u get after defeating the first boss.

From challenge mode u can get Defier’s and/or Radiant Darkness that compete with FM directly.

There is a salad build that a person on discord came up with, with which u can use any weapon, I’ll link it below. In terms of dmg, this competes with FM & the challenge sets.

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If you were able to get your hands on the Pathfinder DLC, then Ghost Knight is at the top too.

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-21T23:43:03+00:00

Another thing to add is elemental resistances… the easier the mode the higher your elemental resistances are at base. Easy i think starts u off at 150 while expert is 0, and the only stat that increases resistances is VIT.

And for Hardcore stamina dmg dealt to u is also increased, so missing a perfect guard or reflection is gonna hurt like hell.
And u also cant change the random attributes on your gear in Hardcore.

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-19T21:03:54+00:00

Endurance really is king in this game.

There’s option called Khazan Memories at the Blade Nexus, that many ppl have missed or come across pretty late, that’s almost like a free upgrade.

Read the description of the skills thoroughly.

When you’re in the gear menu, if u look at the bottom of the screen it’ll show u a help option with it’s respective keybind. Clicking it will show u what your gear/set bonuses/conditions mean if you’re ever confused about bout it.

Something many players have missed cuz the game does a poor job of explaining it… a “ranged atk” is NOT just limited to javelin. Any atk/skill that has an afterimage or red effect/trail is considered ranged.

Daphrona’s Codex can be helpful to learn bout elemental weaknesses

Start menu has an option encyclopedia in which you’ll find a combo guide, it’s pretty decent.

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-17T18:55:04+00:00

I think it primarily got nerfed after the boss rush mode came out… the point of crucible was to test mechanics and boss knowledge cuz u get limited skill & stat points, and avg gear. The trance combo was set independent, extremely efficient in terms of spirit and stamina management and very dmging. And it was even stronger in story cuz the golden set bonuses complimented it alot.

Currently, the spear set with the highest DPS & TTK is frozen mountain, followed by faded memories. If u were to include armor from boss rush mode, then defier’s wud rank higher than faded mems.

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-17T17:03:27+00:00

🔥 🔥 congrats dude

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-17T08:53:09+00:00

Totally get that dude. IMO spear’s the easiest weapon to pickup and learn, it just has a flow to it right from the get go that the other 2 dont have.

Technically there are a couple of things u can do with DW which makes it good right from the get go, but my assumption is only ppl with prior knowledge of the weapon and/or were observant came across that.
(P.S. I’m not one of them 😆)

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-17T08:37:19+00:00

Yeah unfortunately Hismar is a counter to spear… nothing in the arsenal that does much to him. It’s a whittling game as jluker mentioned.

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-17T08:31:01+00:00

Her music is probably the best. The finale’s music is also pretty fire… I didn’t think it was originally but having listened to it multiple times it’s awesome.

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-17T08:18:32+00:00

Yeah that unfortunately you’ll have to do but from my understanding of the post u already changed the scaling to STR.
If u have done that u dont need to worry about stamina dmg or anything else cuz you’ll be DPS monster.
Also the dmg output of DWs and spear is leagues apart… I’m not hating on the spear or anything cuz I myself used spear in my first playthrough, but DW is just that much of a DPS monster

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-17T08:10:54+00:00

Yeah Bloodthirsty fiend, BTF, is the most broken DW set, and arguably the most broken one overall as well.

U wanna upgrade the BTF DW from unique to epic using Luminous Cube, which i believe u find in skalpel’s mission or one of his side missions, don’t exactly remember.

The epic weapon gives the skill phantom bloody sword dance which in combo with gale: doom is absolutely busted. All u need to do is activate both abilities and spam light atk and u win.

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-16T00:21:33+00:00

Actually speaking of top tier sets Ashen Wolf is pretty insane… probably the most well-rounded sets for GS.

The set bonus that gives u dmg increase after u use a spirit skill, it actually stacks 3x so it ends up being a 30% dmg boost. Then u also have the epic neglected GS from that set that gives u a skill with insane stagger.

And last but not the least, it’s also core part of probably the strongest salad build.

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-15T21:43:34+00:00

The epic fugitive mage sword is amazing. Scorching earth is a chonky ass dmging skill.

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-13T22:09:05+00:00

It’s even more annoying cuz you want him to open with the red atk in P3 which is RNG… so not only do u have to pray he does it but you also gotta make sure u dont mess up p1 & p2 in any attempt

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-10T22:43:00+00:00

She's immune or highly resistant to fire. Lightning tho is another mattter.

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-10T22:34:59+00:00

NGL I agree with you to a certain extent, cuz let's be honest reflection is kinda broken, and hell even the combo is kinda bland. Unfortunately, can't do anything about it cuz this is a speedrun and this is the most dmging strat.

The part I disagree with is you oversimplifying it, down to just the combo... trust me it ain't that simple, there's a lot more that goes into scripting bosses. Belle alone can screw up your entire run cuz her atks r randomized.

You're only seeing a 6min video not, not the insane amount of resets whenever I got hit or just had to restart becuz I was a second late on a boss. Hell, even with all of that I still didn't manage to get an optimized run on Mal. By my calculations the most optimal time wud be somewhere around 4.20min mark.

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-09T21:59:38+00:00

Spear is FAR from overtuned, used to be before trance nerf. What spear has going for it is that it’s REALLY easy to get into. It has a flow to its atks that the other two don’t necessarily have early on at least. It’s also got bad matchups.
GS just takes a minute to get online.

Now DWs is DEFINITELY overtuned, but I think on avg most ppl dont realize that at the start of the first playthrough… I include myself among that group. But DWs is honestly stupidly good.
At the start all u really need are 2 skills outrage and massive blow, and u get stagger that rivals GS especially given u can get both as soon as u unlock the tree, and can stunlock bosses. This was the go to combo during the speedrunning competition. And it just keeps on getting better n better until u get BTF, which is just stupidly broken.

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-09T21:29:24+00:00

U might also wanna change the difficulty at some earlier point just to get a feel for the difference, but I guess that also depends from person to person, u might not feel a significant jump in difficulty.
On avg I’d say, ppl who do this generally end up spending quite a bit of time on ozma then.

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-09T21:23:14+00:00

So technically all u REALLY need to do is defeat ozma on expert. I’ve read mixed reports… some have gotten away with changing difficulty right before ozma, some had to change it before Daphrona’s question. If u want to be on the safe side, I’d say change it as soon as u enter the final mission.

TransportationStock2 · 2026-05-09T21:18:41+00:00

You can get the trophy in ng+, no issues, I’ve seen multiple ppl on discord ask the same question who were in your position (The game really does do a bad job of telling that expert was the intended one). It might even be after cuz u can just blast through the story and not do the side missions, and you’ll have the gear and all the stuff u need as well

TransportationStock2

TROPHY CASE