[Traveller]

I still didn't spend any scales. I was looking at the dragon mask pieces - with the whole mask you can exchange 5 skill points for 1 power upgrade; but, if you do this not only does your exp bar still increase, but it makes it far harder to get all the skills without a massive grind.

Depends what you're after, I guess. I think I'm just going to go for the skills I want which I will actually use against the last bosses and the ending I want - I'm not much of a trophy hunter.

Do you get anything for beating the underwater Headless?

[Mentalist]

Traveller, on 06 May 2019 - 07:50 AM, said:

I still didn't spend any scales. I was looking at the dragon mask pieces - with the whole mask you can exchange 5 skill points for 1 power upgrade; but, if you do this not only does your exp bar still increase, but it makes it far harder to get all the skills without a massive grind.

Depends what you're after, I guess. I think I'm just going to go for the skills I want which I will actually use against the last bosses and the ending I want - I'm not much of a trophy hunter.

Do you get anything for beating the underwater Headless?

Ungo's spiritfall. Some money pouches.
Edit: Ungo is the one in the moat. There's another 2-dot Headless in a crypt in that Outskirts nook from the the under-valley Idol (where you found the bead). You have to dive in the lake to get to the crypt, but the actual fight is on land, so you can use the shield as usual. Watch out for the ghost samurais that spawn in by the lake. You can grapple back up the cliff and then take them out by stealth, one at a time, but it takes time.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 07 May 2019 - 07:27 PM

[Traveller]

Shinobi assassins fighting ninja assassins across tiled rooftops suddenly makes this game feel very Malazan...

[Traveller]

Back to Ashina dojo. Had quite a cool fight with

Spoiler

Owl, and killed him on 3rd or 4th try. Nowhere near as difficult for me as Genichiro - his moves are far more easily dodged, I was expecting worse.

Just had some nice cut scenes with the Divine Child - the Japanese voice acting is so good, but it made me wonder, does everyone listen to it in Japanese, or do they change it into English? I never gave the English version a thought, as it's a Japanese game set in Japan - it's just authentic. I guess not everyone would though?

This post has been edited by Traveller: 06 May 2019 - 11:17 PM

[Mentalist]

Okay, monkeys down on 2nd try. The hard bit was switching to fireworks to take down the second one before finishing off the albino. Thanks to Ako's sugar I was doing so much damage that I melted half that second HP bar before he could make the mating call. So after I got the deathblow on the female, finishing it off was just a matter of a few good deflections.

All right, only thing left on the to do list is the ghost warrior from the dungeon. I'm sitting pretty at 4 skill points right now. And my stats are good enough that I totally wrecked the purple ninja by the Mibu village idol. Feels good.

Is Nightjar a useful technique? I maxed out the Ashina tree, have everything except the secret skill in the Shinobi tree, but I've been neglecting the Prosthetic tree. Should I bother with Nightjar moves, or focus on the Temple tree?

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 07 May 2019 - 03:50 AM

[Traveller]

I now have 8 skill points but I'm hoarding them now I'm approaching the last few bosses - aiming to choose depending on if and where I hit a wall with someone.

Mostly used whirlwind on the last, although I did upgrade the shuriken to madam butterfly version. Don't use Nightjar much myself at the moment.

I don't have much left now, but I used divine confetti on apes, took the female out in one or two combos.

[amphibian]

I always try to play with Japanese voices and English subtitles. The subtitles are the most important thing to me, so if there's a conflict, I pick the subtitles.

[Traveller]

I just think it would be weird hearing English in that era and setting.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 07 May 2019 - 11:22 PM

[Mentalist]

I've been using Japanese with English subs. It didn't really occur to me to use English voices tbh.

[Traveller]

You could come back to it after a break?

Just got 10th and final gourd. And I think 8th necklace. Just found two more beads in and around the lake, anyway. Up to 11 skill points, still hoarding them.

Fountainhead Palace is another really beautiful area.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 07 May 2019 - 11:22 PM

[Mentalist]

Started the session really strong by killing the ghost dude on first try.

Then I grabbed the thing from the cave, came back to Ashina and things went south fast.

2 more minis down- the purple ninja in the Serpent shrine, and Ogre 2. The Ogre was pissing me off, so I climbed up to the antechamber and dropped on top of him, stealthing his first bead. Then I just kept applying fire untill he died.

Thankfully it's easy to rack up loads of XP in Ashina right now. With the few Adamantine scraps I can get am extra upgrade, but suddenly I'm strapped for cash again.

I'll visit the Dojo tomorrow, and then try to fight my way up to Kuro.

[Traveller]

Yeah I did a ledge hang on the beam over the ogre and dropped on him. There was a convenient doorway that made it easy to chuck oil on him too.

Id say from where I am, don't spend too much time farming money and exp before dojo unless there's something you really want or need for Owl and True corrupted monk - the Fountainhead area has a load of places to farm both and you get much higher level stuff, so don't feel the need to farm the smaller stuff.

That ceremonial tanto is a great item btw. I've been using it just before bosses; it halves your vitality, but you can heal with a pellet right away, and then you start the fight with more emblems. I even did it halfway through a headless fight to get more umbrella uses.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 08 May 2019 - 07:42 AM

[Mentalist]

picked up 2 more skills in the castle (I lost a resurrect, so i farmed like half a skill's worth of EXP trying to get it back. Then I figured I might as well go all the way with it). Got 7 banked now.

The fight int he dojo was fun- I snuck up on the purple ninja and used Puppeteer to get him to attack the mini-boss. Hilarity ensued as my puppet chewed through the first HP bar all by himself. So got my 8th necklace now.

The boss on the top is a bit of a pain. I'm getting his patterns down now, but it just feels like a super-methodical fight, as I need to chip away at his HP before my parries can start to build up his posture. I wonder if Butterfly Kunais will work here to do that faster? Hmm....

Had to call an early night cuz I need to get to work early tomorrow. WCS, I'll focus on nailing

Spoiler

Owl.

on Friday

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 09 May 2019 - 03:15 AM

[Traveller]

It really is methodical, very DS, as if you move towards him you can bait the same attack, which you can dodge and then get in to hit him twice. Bait, dodge, hit. I used whirlwind. Butterfly Kunais help when he tries his anti heal spell if you're too far to hit his back.

Didn't play last night, too tired after staying up late playing the night before, followed by long work day.

I want to thoroughly search the new area now I've unlocked the idols. Plenty of sen now and a ton of carp scales, so might buy up anything I've missed so far.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 09 May 2019 - 05:31 AM

[Mentalist]

Yeah, I had smth like 5-7 goes at it last night, finally got to Phase 2, and then called it a night before I went on tilt and stayed up till 1 AM trying to beat him.

May squeeze in a bit of time tonight after a swim, but I got play-off tomorrow after work so I'll also be contemplating crashing early tonight

[Traveller]

It's difficult to stop; when I reach a new boss it's usually time to turn it off, but after just 'having a look' there's the option to push through and finish it - which ends up being quite late!

When I know the move set and have a working strategy, I push on. When I'm getting beaten and I'm trying things out, I'm happy to come back later.

Worst scenario is nearly getting there and then losing at last second, and then having to quit because of time!

[Traveller]

Finished up the Fountainhead area. Also returned to Ape cave, yet another magic spirit guy there but he wasn't a problem anymore.

Fountainhead boss fight is more of an experience than a fight; finished it first attempt; beautiful to look at, enjoyable rather than taxing. Probably means the last bosses will be awful!

I've got even more power from memories now, and I've upgraded prosthetics to final tier - I'm just being indecisive about what to choose, so I'm hanging on, like with the skill tree to see what the next bosses are like. I have 11 skill points as it's a breeze to farm in lake area - there's one guy you can drop kill for 1000 exp!

It just keeps going... I keep thinking that I'm nearing the end, and then find a new miniboss or area.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 11 May 2019 - 01:48 PM

[Mentalist]

I was up until 4 AM last night trying to kill the boss on the bridge in front of the palace. Yes, the 3-phase one.

I got very good at deflecting her attacks phase 1; I found a way to cheese her phase 2 special move

Spoiler

whens she turns into ghosts I bite down Gokan's sugar to reduce posture damage and then hunker down under the shield. This also allows me to use the projected force counter afterwards

And in Phase 3 it all breaks down somehow.

Sigh. Anyway, I'm at a spot now where I don't have much else to do, so I'm just gonna keep hammering at her.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 11 May 2019 - 07:53 PM

[Traveller]

Apparently you can get the second death blow by hooking up into the branches and dropping down, but I never managed it.

Have you got dust? I think I remember chucking it, using mortal blade, chucking another, using mortal blade, and kept going. Mortal blade still works without emblems and I had heaps of grave dust.

It stops him spawning the ghosts too.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 11 May 2019 - 05:15 PM

[Mentalist]

Traveller, on 11 May 2019 - 05:14 PM, said:

Apparently you can get the second death blow by hooking up into the branches and dropping down, but I never managed it.

Have you got dust? I think I remember chucking it, using mortal blade, chucking another, using mortal blade, and kept going. Mortal blade still works without emblems and I had heaps of grave dust.

It stops him spawning the ghosts too.

Nah, phase 2 was easy. Reduce posture damage + shield works wonderfully, I just tanked the hits.

Phase 3 was brutal, because her damage increases, and I was also juggling my quick-use menu, applying candy and healing. Those attacks hit harder, and have greater range. And she stops using thrusts, which I was using to get easy Mikiri posture damage.

But I came back to it again today, while having my breakfast tea, and I added Ungo's spiritfall (the Vitality damage reducing buff) into the equation. That did it, so now I'm free to explore the Palace grounds. They are indeed, very pretty.

Also, I can now finally buy Divine Confetti from vendors (good thing, too, cuz I was down to my last one in that fight)