Hey folks,

I started into my second playthrough and realized that I've been basically using the same setup the entire game: The default sword(s), the default pod (Gatling gun and laser), and mostly support chips.

The chips I've stuck with as soon as I've gotten them:

• Deadly heal (heal XX% when an enemy dies)
• Auto-use item (uses a health item automatically when health gets below a certain point)
• Offensive heal (heal X% of damage dealt when attacking)
• Anti-chain damage (grants a short time of invincibility after being hit)
• Drop rate up (enemies more likely to drop items)

It SEEMS to be working alright for me, but should I be branching out and trying a lot of other weird weapon/pod setups? My default swords have all gotten upgrades faster than the other weapons I have and none of the other pods (missiles) or pod weapons (spinning blade has its uses but hammer seems worthless) that I've tried seem all that great compared to the basic Gatling and laser.

Hammer does more damage than laser or any other power I've tried out. Its area of effect is pretty wide and forgiving, so it's great for bunched up enemies. Spears seemed good, but I think I get more use out of Wave since it's area is huge.

For chips I have Auto-Heal, Weapon Up, Range Up, Shockwave, and Evade Up. Auto-use never seemed useful outside of the prologue, especially with all the healing chips there are, and it just seemed to take up slots I could easily use for something else.

Weapon-wise I've been the same as you, mainly using the default 2 swords. I do like to switch between them and a Longsword/Spear set that has a really fun moveset. I'm really glad equipping the different weapons in different slots actually changes up your moveset.

The game is pretty forgiving on what you choose to equip, really. Once you get a hang of the combat, you can use whatever you want. A healing ability almost makes it feel too easy, but whenever I get complacent an enemy cracks my skull and forces me to retreat and focus.

The Bomb pod ability is stupid good. Especially when you charge it up. By the end of the game, I had 2 +6 weapon damage chips, shockwave, auto heal, evade range, deadly heal, offensive heal, chain attack (keep this one low, .5 seconds is all you really need to keep from being juggled), overclock, and a smattering of other less important stuff

HOWEVER

EQUIP AUTO COLLECT ITEM

You can buy it for cheap near the end of route A

Not having to pick up anything ever makes this game so, so, so much more fun

@burncoat: Thanks, maybe I'll give hammer another shot. I'll also check out wave.

@shadow: I didn't even realize there WAS an auto-collect item! I must have scrolled past it in the shop, thinking it was just another "auto-use" item! Is this sold in the resistance camp or is it something sold occasionally by Emil? Hopefully it'll be available relatively soon in route B, since I just started (but have also gotten far enough into not to want to go back and redo)

Light attack: spear, heavy attack: small sword I think was my favorite weapon combo by the end, but you can really just use whatever you enjoy. I used Gauntlet/Spear a lot too, and Gauntlet/Long Sword is kind slow for my taste, but she uses the sword to launch the gauntlets at enemies like a baseball, so that's pretty awesome.

I used the laser pod a lot after I first got it, since it was pretty strong against bosses, but late game I ened up upgrading the gatling first and it gained a grenade in the process, so I ended up sticking to that for most of the end game. I liked the missile at first, but by my second playthrough I almost never used it.

My favorite pod programs were the Laser, Mirage, Hammer, Decoy, Bomb, and Wave. Wave was super fun to use with the Gauntlets, as the combo launches you into the air slightly and you can end it with a big shockwave that hits everything in the area.

My favorite plug-ins were:

- Auto-collect (Self explantory. Can buy from Devola or Popola when their shop opens.)

- Evasive System (a god send for late game bullet hell)

- Item Scan (No more scouring every inch of the map for items)

- Shockwave (alsways good to have some extra range)

- Resiliance (I didn't touch this at first, but eventually I found myself getting knocked out of combos too often and this completely solved that)

- Offensive/Deadly heal (I was always rolling in items, so I probably didn't NEED these, but it was still just convenient)

I filled the rest with stuff like weapon attack up and fast cooldown depending on space. Also I made a few slight modifications to suit each character. Lets just say the taunt chip is godlike with one specific character.

@bbalpert:

Sadly, it's not in Route B since it's sold by Devola and Popola and 9S never meets them in Route B

@shadow: Shiiiiiit. And I don't think I have a save far enough back in Route A to pick it up and restart B. I had a save but then made the stupid conscious decision "well what am I ever gonna have to go back for?" and wrote over it.

UGGHHHH

Both Offensive Heal and Deadly Heal are good, but maybe unnecessary to have both equipped. Offensive Heal is good for boss battles though. I liked having Auto-Heal for any damage I'd take during exploration.

I found Shockwave to be very important to have, especially when dealing with large groups of enemies where you want to keep a little distance but don't want to rely on long-range. It also helps out a lot with the greatsword which has a long wind-up, but it can clump enemies together very well.

Auto-Collect Items!!

From the shop you get Auto-Collect Items, you can also get a chip that slows down time when you're near enemy bullets. It's pretty neat to have but it might make things too easy.

Don't forget to make use of the different loadout slots in order to have totally different chip setups equipped depending on your situation. For example, if you're just gonna be farming some stuff, you can have a loadout that's just Auto-Collect, stacking Drop-Rate Up, and maybe Movement Speed (which I've heard caps at 20% but I haven't verified that).

As for Pods, I just used the Missile pod as much as I could because I didn't really like aiming. It's also useful for those annoying worm enemies. I think I fished it out of a river, if you need some idea where to look. Attack program was usually always either Bombs or Wave later in the game.

Also don't be afraid to remove non-essential HUD chips in order to free up some space. Something like the one that shows you damage values could go pretty easily unless you gotta see the numbers flying.

Auto-collect is amazing, but as far as combat-related chips go I was insanely excited to get Overclock. I picked it up the first time just before the last(?) fight with Adam and have never felt cooler. I've expanded my chip capacity multiple times just so I could fit it in all of my loadouts.

(I really like Bayonetta, by the by.)

I really like having the spinning blade Pod weapon, especially when you get 3 Pods setup. Once fully charged it can rip through the health of bosses like nobody's business.

As for regular weapons I ended my first playthrough with a Short Sword on my light attack and a Spear on my heavy attack. My go to string was to use light attack 2-3 times then if the enemy tries to back away use the heavy attack to do the dash in with the spear attack which resets back to the beginning of the light attack string.

I tried running the Counter plug-in for a while. It can work decently well against a single opponent but I usually felt more comfortable with just dodging and doing a followup attack.

Movement speed, auto collect, auto heal, item find, drop rate/exp up and then just weapon damage/crit. That's pretty much what I'm going with. I've stuck to normal, and the game has been pretty easy, combined with the mechanics allowing you to win any fight without getting hit if you can do it. So I loaded heavy on convenience and utility chips just to keep the game moving. If I get around to doing something harder it'd probably look a bit different.

For weapons I think sword/sword and greatsword/greatsword ended up being the ones I liked the most, I'd switch between the sets mostly for flavor or when the greatswords felt too slow for the enemy type. The thing that made those combinations work for me was that you could actually do a proper infinite chain with light light heavy, and not have the fairly obnoxious slow combo enders of most other combinations. I hate playing as 9S because of this.

What's the Witch Time chip and how do I get it?

I quite liked using spear/greatsword for weapons in fights with numerous enemies as the AoE combo is fun.

Well personally with weapons I find it's very much up to you, I do find great swords are a bit slow as main attack but other than that, whatever pleases. Late game it's more a matter of special abilities... I ended up using the type 3 weapons that explode on a large AOE at the end of the combo, destroying most trash mobs very easily.

As for chips, I used mainly auto-item, auto-heal, melee/range attack, melee defense, offensive heal, movement speed, counter and Shockwave.

I found deadly heal to be kind of useless in the more challenging fights in the game as you aren't fighting many enemies.

As for pod programs, I enjoyed mirage, but the one I ended up using the most was Hammer, specially when you get all 3 pods and charge it up, the aoe is large and it basically destroys any enemy in the game.

Overall my tip is: when in doubt... dodge... the Dodge window is very wide and you can avoid most damage that way.

Loved the game.

The only healing chip you need is offensive heal. Free up those slots for weapon damage / shockwave.

Also mirage is insanely useful on groups, and as with all pod programs, once you have multiple pods you can stack the program multiple times for each pod. Just hold down the button.

@gunslingerpanda:It's called Overclock. Not real sure where to get it, I picked up a few but have no idea when or where.

After having a decent amount of weapons and their upgrades, I finished the game rolling with small/small swords with set 2 being large/spear. I mostly used set 2 with Fang of the Twins because that thing at level 4 is a monster. For Pods I mostly just used Mirage but I didn't use Programs that much. Gravity was useful when I was farming the infinite enemy spawn rooms, helped with clearing them out. The auto collect chip was a lifesaver there