How Boss Rush Works
-You must start Boss Rush on a new game file.
-You will have all 5 party members, but they will all be at starting strength, and you will have no upgrades from Epimetheus. You start with 30 HP.
-You start with the Athena's Bell item (to switch characters) and the Mark of Epimetheus, so Algus can talk to him and buy upgrades. You start without any other items.
-You will fight the 5 (and a half) major bosses of the game. In order:
1 - Tauros (skeleton blood guy from Gorgon Tomb)
2 - Volantis (mask in wall that turns into a flying worm from Mechanism)
3 - Solaria (horned mask lady that turns into a big mouth from Ruins of Ash)
4 - Gemini (two-faced gold mask from Catacombs)
5 - Black Knight + Blackheart Medusa (final bosses)
-After each boss fight, you will enter a room that contains:
-4 green candles that restore 5 HP each.
-Epimetheus, who you can buy upgrades from.
-A choice from 3 random items to upgrade your character. Once you pick one, the other two disappear.
-Some orb blocks you can break for soul orbs to pay for upgrades.
-A teleport stone that takes you to the next fight.
-After the 1st boss ONLY, there is also a breakable mask that gives you the 2x soul orbs buff. Breaking this costs 20 HP, just like in the regular game, but it's worth it (use the candles to heal after).
-If you die, you will need to restart from the beginning of the rush.
General Strategy
-DO NOT destroy the soul orb blocks in the starting room. You can come back after defeating Tauros and breaking the 2x soul orb mask in the first upgrade room and get 600+ soul orbs instead of ~300.
-The most important thing is to avoid damage, since healing is hard to come by. Time is not a factor if you only care about getting the achievement and the bonus Secret from the menu.
-IMO the hardest bosses are Volantis phase 2, Black Knight, and Blackheart Medusa phase 1.
-Set Auto Attack to Hold in the Accessibility menu. This lets you hold down a button to attack continuously. While attacking, you can hop backwards while still facing forward and attacking.
-I prioritize dmg in character choice, items, and upgrades because the less time it takes for you to kill a boss, the fewer attacks you have to deal with.
Characters
I recommend using only 1 character for the whole run, so you can concentrate your soul orb spending on upgrades for that character, and so you don't have to fumble around during battle switching characters. Algus is the easiest character to beat boss rush with, and if all you care about is the achievement, I would focus on using him. I used him the first time I beat boss rush. I have since beat boss rush using Bram, Zeek, Arias, and finally Kyuli.
I'll list good items for each character. Keep in mind that the Blood Chalice and Amulet of Sol are great for all characters, and the Icarus Emblem is also helpful to everyone.
Algus
-Decent attack speed.
-Decent range.
-Can do massive damage with his Shock Field upgrade and with Monster Ball throwing additional attacks.
Best Items: Monster Ball - increases DPS.
Other Items: Cloak of Levitation will give him up DPS uptime on Medusa. Banish is only useful for parts of two bosses, but if you have no other options it doesn't hurt.
Upgrades: Larger missile size doesn't really do much, and his meteor move costs HP, so neither are that helpful.
Arias
-Fast attack speed.
-Short range is his major weakness - for example, it's hard to break the blood orbs on Tauros with Arias without getting hit by them.
Best Items: Sword of Mirrors - greatly increases his range.
Other Items: Talaria Boots - gives him a dash to get around. You will NEED either the Boots or the Sword of Mirrors if you want to fight Medusa as Arias, or else you won't even be able to reach her hitbox during Phase 1. Boreas Gauntlets - only useful for Gemini phase 1 red side.
Upgrades: Gorgonslayer is useful. The defense upgrade only works if you're at low health, which you don't want to be. Lionheart only stops 1 fatal hit and is expensive, so not worth it.
Kyuli
-Longest range.
-Stacking dmg buff is useful.
-Despite stacking dmg, her very very slow attack speed still means her overall DPS tends to be low. And without upgrading her strength, not even her Shining Ray attack will do much damage.
-Unlike everyone else, she has 5 ranks of attack speed upgrade, which costs extra, and she STILL attacks the slowest.
Best Items: Lunarian Bow - the explosion can help hit targets.
Other Items: Griffon Claw - really only useful for Gemini phase 1 red side, but if you're trying to do a Kyuli run, there's not a lot of other items she can use anyway.
Upgrades: Stacking damage buff is good. Crit chance helps. Shining Ray costs too much to buy, costs more soul orbs to use, and doesn't do that much damage, so not worth it.
Bram
-Medium range, on par with Algus, and his range can be upgraded.
-Slower attack speed than Algus though.
-Throwing axe can help maintain DPS uptime even when moving around to avoid attacks.
-Ranks 1-5 of his defense upgrade are all fixed at 225 soul orbs each, which is much less than upgrading the 3 main characters' defense to the same levels.
Items: The only item that applies to him is the Boreas Gauntlet, which is not that useful.
Upgrades: The range/power upgrade is good. The axe is handy but not overwhelmingly good. The dmg buff with # of kills is useless because you're only fighting bosses.
Zeek
-He attacks along an arc, which can be useful on a few bosses.
-Like Bram, his defense ranks 1-5 are fixed at 225 soul orbs each, which is a good deal.
Items: None
Upgrades: Bigger Loot is useful, as is the crit chance. The dmg buff for soul orbs on hand is not very helpful, since you'll be wanting to spend those on upgrades.
Items And Upgrades
Items
I don't think all the game items are in Boss Rush. I think the devs took the non-combat items out.
Great Items
As mentioned above, Amulet of Sol and Blood Chalice are the big winners. Icarus Emblem is useful for all the characters. Otherwise, choose items based on which character you're using.
Specific Items
-Cloak of Levitation - If you're using Algus, this will increase his DPS uptime for Medusa phase 1. It can also help him dodge the Phantoms and flames during Gemini.
-Banish Spell - It is NOT required. The ghost enemies produced by both Solaria and Gemini will just disappear after some time, even if you don't destroy them.
Items I've never seen in Boss Rush
They'd be pretty useless anyway:
-Dead Maiden's Ring
-Gorgonheart
-Morning Star
-Void Charm
-Linus' Map
-Ring of the Ancients
-Ascendant Key
-Magic Block
-Prince's Crown
Upgrades
Focus on upgrades for the character you're using. Try to max attack speed, and get their special upgrades that help with DPS. After that, focus on increasing Strength, although towards the end you'll want a few ranks in Defense.
As far as general upgrades, Inner Fire is useful. Other than that, get Health Up (5ish ranks) and Invincibility (usually only 1 or 2 ranks) with any leftover soul orbs after you do individual upgrades.
Tauros Strats
-Stand on the blocks.
-Prioritize destroying the blood orbs so you don't get hit.
-Zeek can hit the boss while standing on a block without jumping, due to the arc of his attacks.
-Try to come out of this fight having taken zero or minimal damage.
Volantis Strats
Phase 1 - Mask
-When he shoots from the gem on his head, you'll need to jump to avoid damage, because the shots cause little explosions when they hit the ground that hurt you.
-When he shoots from his eye, move over by that floating block and jump over the 1st shot. If he shoots a second shot, you can just walk under it.
-Hide behind the floating block when he does the giant laser, obviously.
-If Arias has Sword of Mirrors, he can hit back the attacks from both the eye and the forehead gem to damage him.
-Zeek can hit him from the left side of the platform without jumping.
-Kyuli can shoot the gem on his forehead (jump and shoot from the floating block) for critical damage. If she has the Lunarian Bow, stand on the floating block and shoot - it'll do impact damage, and the splash will hit the gem for critical damage on top.
Phase 2 - Worm
-Hitting the glowing orb in the tail does critical damage.
-The worm has several patterns of attacks, which are all telegraphed.
1 - Arc - the warning icon will blink in the two lower corners of the screen (in the spike pits). You'll be safe standing on the center platform. If you move towards the direction it's going, you will be able to get a few hits off.
2 - Low wave - the warning icon will blink at about your head level (see image below).
The worm will then fly in a wave pattern that leaves very little room for you to stand in safely. I recommend standing in these spots:
Stand here if it's coming from the left.
Stand here if it's coming from the right.
The safe spots move a little, so be ready to shift slightly. This pattern gives you some time to DPS.
3 - High wave - the warning icon will blink up high, and it'll blink 4 times, fairly quickly. The worm will then do a steep dive, hitting the platform about in the center (see below)
This pattern also gives you some time to DPS.
4 - Strafing run - the warning icon will blink up high, three times slowly. The worm flies straight across the top of the screen and shoots two orbs that curve towards you. Jump over them. You won't be able to hit the boss during this pattern (unless Arias has the Sword of Mirrors, he can sometimes bounce a shot back into the worm's tail.
5 - Airstrikes - there is no warning icon. The worm will fly across the sky in the background and fire three shots, which will then strike where you're standing. Stand under the floating block to avoid them completely.
Volantis phase 2 probably takes longer than anything else in the entire Boss Rush.
Solaria Strats
Phase 1 - Mask
-She does NOT do contact damage in this phase, so feel free to walk/jump through her if needed to get around.
-You will need to break both horns, her face, and her chin to progress to the next phase.
-During this phase, she'll either shoot a series of curved shots, or larger shots in an 8-way pattern.
-If she disappears into the background, stand on the ground. Most of the shots will pass over your head, and if shots appear at ground level, just jump onto a platform.
Phase 2 - Mouth
-You can stand on top of her "head" in this phase without taking damage.
-She only takes damage when the mouth is open, so hit that as many times as you can while prioritizing not getting hit by her attacks.
-When she opens her mouth, she'll either do an attack that shoots three sets of two orbs, or individual orb sets that change angle slightly. The individual orbs are easier to weave between to keep up DPS.
-Alternately, she'll open her mouth and shake, which will create a vacuum effect towards her, eventually drawing in several large orbs from offscreen. These are pretty easy to dodge and this is a good time to deal damage to her.
-At about half health, she'll send out a spiky arm to her right, which will then rotate counterclockwise.
-After more damage, she'll send out arms to both sides, but again they rotate counterclockwise.
-The third time, she'll send out both arms, but then make the screen dark so it's harder to see, but keep up the same attack pattern.
-She may send out a Revenant (hooded ghost enemy) who will chase you. If you stay away long enough, it will just disappear.
-Besides the rotating arms, all her attacks stay the same throughout.
-As Arias, you can hit her with melee by standing on the edge of the bottom middle platforms and jumping straight up. You can also hit her shots back at her with the Sword of Mirrors to deal damage.
Gemini Strats
Phase 1 - Mask
-Gemini always starts on blue side.
-Occasionally it will send out a Phantom, who will block your shots if you don't have Banish, but it will go away on its own after a while. Just try to shoot past the Phantom.
-Blue side will also occasionally point a beam at you, which is then followed by a fast-moving ring shot. Hold still for the beam then jump over the ring. At lower health, this becomes two beams.
-Your goal here is to burn Gemini down fast enough so that you don't see the red side. The red side has an attack that electrifies the platforms. You can only dodge this by having Kyuli wall jump. It's short enough that you can dodge using only 1 wall jump and don't NEED the Griffon Claw, but the Claw helps with timing.
-The red side will also drop flames that can only be extinguished by Arias or Bram with the Boreas Gauntlet. During my successful Kyuli run, I ended up switching to Arias/Bram to extinguish the flames. Prior Kyuli runs ended because I ran out of safe places to stand/maneuver.
Phase 2 - Twin figures
-The two face masks will rotate around the core, blocking your shots every so often. You should have enough attack speed to just fight through it, but keep in mind that hitting the shield will push Arias, Bram, and Zeek back slightly, so adjust your positioning accordingly.
-The spinning shield does not do contact damage, but the twins' body does.
-Start by going to the left of the platform and attacking him rapidly while he is down at your level.
-Once he flies up, head to the right to prepare for the platforms to fly at you.
-Jump successively to the top row, and keep jumping toward the boss, alternating between the top and middle rows, firing all the while, and the boss should go down fast.
-Keep in mind that the platforms have spikes on the sides which will damage you.
-As Kyuli, if you have the Lunarian Bow, you'll do bettter DPS shooting above or below him to hit the wall and let the splash damage hit him, instead of having your arrows blocked by the shield. In that case , you can dodge the platforms instead of jumping onto them.
-Other attacks he does include emitting a warning beam before shooting several ring shots that travel horizontally, pushing out platforms that will then shoot either straight up or straight down, and firing a spread shot of 4 rings. To dodge the spread shot, move to the right side so they have time to spread out, then get through a gap.
Black Knight Strats
-You want to burn him down to about half health ASAP, because early on, the lance attacks and dashes can be hard to predict and time dodges for.
-So, get in range, hold down the Attack button, then hop backwards repeatedly, to maintain DPS uptime while kiting him. Arias won't be able to do this, and will need to bait out his attacks then hit him while he's recovering or from behind.
-Watch out for his triple dash attack here, as that requires a lot of dedicated dodging.
-The lightning bolt and flying attack are both easy to dodge and give you plenty of time to regen with Blood Chalice if needed.
-If he conjures the falling swords, don't run too fast from them, as they will track you. Move just enough to dodge, so that you have plenty of room to maneuver for the whole set.
Blackheart Medusa Strats
Transition Phase - Veins
-Here you just need to break all 5 veins. You can stay on the ground for all except the far right one, which requires a little hopping to hit.
-She'll create light orbs that fly rapidly towards your position, so jump to dodge those.
-Arias can reflect the orbs with the Sword of Mirrors to hit the veins.
-Her mask will block Zeek's attacks, so he'll need to get close to the middle vein to damage it.
Phase 1 - Mask
-This phase is tough. She attacks very quickly, most of her attacks track you, and there is a lot of stuff on screen. There's not a lot of room or time to hide to regen during this phase.
-You need to hit her forehead here.
-There are platforms to stand on. If you stand on them too long, they will crumble (then respawn later). So, keep jumping up and down when you're on the platform to extend their shelflife.
-The big pink orbs will follow you around the room. Sometimes though, they spawn in the ceiling and won't chase you until you get close to them.
-She'll make a circle of dark purple orbs, which will then all fly at your position in succession, so sidestep/hop over these.
-She'll also throw light purple orbs away from you, but they'll then boomerang back towards your location, so you can predict where they will be going and dodge them.
-She may make a row of light purple orbs across the ceiling, which will then rain shots down. This is the easiest attack to dodge and will give you good DPS uptime.
-She may conjure some blood slugs, which are also easy to kill/ignore and gives you good DPS uptime.
-She may also fire the individual orbs at you, like during the transition phase with the veins.
-I spent more time dodging during this phase than DPSing.
-Algus and Bram can both hit her forehead by getting onto the top middle rock, jumping toward her while attacking, then pulling back in midair to land back on the rock.
-Zeek can jump straight up from the top middle rock, and the arc of his attacks will hit her.
-As Arias, you'll either need to use the Talaria Boots to dash jump off the top middle rock to hit her, or you'll need to use the Sword of Mirrors to reflect the orbs (either dark or light purple both work) to hit her forehead. A normal jump off the rock won't cover the distance.
Phase 2 - Chin
-Here the mask will break off and expose her chin.
-You can stand on the ground and hop up to dmg the chin fairly easily and quickly, so this phase should be pretty fast.
Phase 3 - Brain
-Now the top left of her mask will break off to expose her head/brain and eye, along with the Black Knight who has now been absorbed.
-Your target is the exposed eye/Black Knight.
-Get to the right side of the screen (her left), jump up on the platform, and spam attacks.
-She can use any of the attacks from Phase 1, plus new attacks.
-New attacks during Phase 2 and 3 are: 1) flooding the floor with poison - just stand on a platform. 2) Conjuring three spikes from the floor - these are long and will reach even the higher platforms. Watch for the telegraph of the spike root along the ground. 3) Turning the screen dark and causing lightning to strike up from the floor - this one is easy to predict, happens slowly, and will give you good DPS uptime. 4) Creating a giant vertical beam that travels across the room - you can run through it when the beam narrows/fades. 5) Dropping 4 swords from the sky, which will then fly across the room horizontally - these usually hit low so staying on the higher platforms will keep you safe. 6) Firing a stream of fireballs towards you - this one is quite difficult to see coming and to dodge.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2911719982
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