Others The Shimmering Horizon and Cursed Blacksmith [v0.86c] [Ason]

[ExposedPlace]

Second playthrough and the fourth boss is still kicking my ass.

Just making sure, the right strat is combining vigor along with good movement/haste on an accessory, then just spamming ranged from afar. You probably need like 6 weapons just from the strain from this. and 3 levitation potions obviously

This boss is CBT torture all for the worst waifu in the game. At least it isn't an hour long

Edit: did just that and it was the easiest one in the game by far. I'm an idiot and didn't notice you can exploit the melee phase by jumping the gap between platforms, or floating off the platform and splashing it with water as it sits there and seethes. I don't even know how I beat it while getting constantly spanked before.

When I fought the 4th boss on my playthrough I had absolutely no issues defeating the boss, also because I think I did something that broke the entire bossfight. After fighting the boss for a bit, I wondered if using a Skyeye Stone would help to fix the limited vision you have during the bossfight, and it absolutely did. Basically, if you use a Skyeye Stone in the first phase, you will be able to see all the map and the boss will not show up anymore in the first phase; the only unaffected thing is that enemies will still occasionally spawn.
This happened to me only once (since I only fought that boss once) but I don't think it was intended to be able to make the bossfight so easy.
For dealing with the second phase, I suggest you to have a 3+ tiles jumping ability as it helps with both destroying the enemy spawners fast and avoiding the boss' abilities.
Another suggestion: you should always put your strongest skills in accessories once the weapon with that skill is broken, using preferably accessories that have 3-4 slots, since you can have more abilities all at once or put the same ability more than once to increase its power (a noticeable example is the skill "Jump Strike", which at level 4 allows you to jump 3 tiles instead of 2). In this way, you can you use whatever weapon you want without having to rely on their current skills.

 

[Research Purposes]

Full save / Gallery Here

 

[Katsuie]

Update anyone?

 

[HunLepto]

Does the creator say anything about the full release? I'm very interested in this, but I want to hold it off till the full release for the full experience.

 

[Succubus Hunter]

Does the creator say anything about the full release? I'm very interested in this, but I want to hold it off till the full release for the full experience.

I have been doing the same. I loved their first game so much that I ant to experience this one in all it's glory.

 

[Ironhound]

Does the creator say anything about the full release? I'm very interested in this, but I want to hold it off till the full release for the full experience.

I have been doing the same. I loved their first game so much that I ant to experience this one in all it's glory.

Check the Dev's DLsite page. It says late September 2024

 

[asingh]

Full save / Gallery Here

much appreciated

 

[Ren_Amamiya15]

Hey guys, anyone has some tips or even the save AFTER the Entangled Wishes boss? I just cant seem to beat it and I just want to go to the new areas. Thank you in advance!

 

[mcflappyjaw]

Hey guys, anyone has some tips or even the save AFTER the Entangled Wishes boss? I just cant seem to beat it and I just want to go to the new areas. Thank you in advance!

Search "third boss" in this thread and you will hear the cries of despair and anguish from those that came before you...

There's is no trick for it as far as I can tell. squeeze out a next tier heavy weapon to one shot the gooks, Dark weapons counter all, and Grind for a scepter or two.
Once you reach the end of the gauntlet the boss basically auto-loses, Don't worry about damaging it. Just get to the end.
Well, maybe there's one trick. I didn't try it myself, but it MIGHT be possible for a drill stone through the entire map, or at least skip a big section. That's being hopeful, though.
That, and save scumming. No shame in it, Boss takes hours and you're statistically likely to eventually encounter unblockable bullshit you can do nothing about, Like a maiden being fed to level 14, or spawning 2 monstergirls at once

 

[Ren_Amamiya15]

Search "third boss" in this thread and you will hear the cries of despair and anguish from those that came before you...

There's is no trick for it as far as I can tell. squeeze out a next tier heavy weapon to one shot the gooks, Dark weapons counter all, and Grind for a scepter or two.
Once you reach the end of the gauntlet the boss basically auto-loses, Don't worry about damaging it. Just get to the end.
Well, maybe there's one trick. I didn't try it myself, but it MIGHT be possible for a drill stone through the entire map, or at least skip a big section. That's being hopeful, though.
That, and save scumming. No shame in it, Boss takes hours and you're statistically likely to eventually encounter unblockable bullshit you can do nothing about, Like a maiden being fed to level 14, or spawning 2 monstergirls at once

Oooh, and I was hitting the boss like a motherfucker. Thanks, I will try this. And instead of scepters, I have 10 big potions saved up

 

[Ren_Amamiya15]

Search "third boss" in this thread and you will hear the cries of despair and anguish from those that came before you...

There's is no trick for it as far as I can tell. squeeze out a next tier heavy weapon to one shot the gooks, Dark weapons counter all, and Grind for a scepter or two.
Once you reach the end of the gauntlet the boss basically auto-loses, Don't worry about damaging it. Just get to the end.
Well, maybe there's one trick. I didn't try it myself, but it MIGHT be possible for a drill stone through the entire map, or at least skip a big section. That's being hopeful, though.
That, and save scumming. No shame in it, Boss takes hours and you're statistically likely to eventually encounter unblockable bullshit you can do nothing about, Like a maiden being fed to level 14, or spawning 2 monstergirls at once

One more question. Once I chase it to the end where it "auto-loses", do I have to worry about the NPCs following me? Or do we like get teleported somewhere?

 

[ExposedPlace]

One more question. Once I chase it to the end where it "auto-loses", do I have to worry about the NPCs following me? Or do we like get teleported somewhere?

What I think he meant by "auto-loses" is that he can't teleport away anymore so you can easily defeat him.

Other than that, I suggest you to correctly create weapons capable of doing a good amount of damage (as mcflappyjaw mentioned), mostly by using high tenacity and (preferably) magic materials.
If you still can't oneshot enemies, I suggest you to spam abilities that are simple and accessible but very effective, such as the dash strike skill (150% weapon dmg at lvl 1) or, by far the easiest one to get, the jump strike skill(120% weapon dmg at lvl 1).
To build those cheap weapons you should use weaker materials when forging weapons and after that you should throw them against enemies or obstacles to easily reduce their durability to 0, after which you can get the ability material.
Overall I also suggest you to put important abilities attached to accessories, since the abilities you have access to will not be dependant on the weapon you are currently using.
This way, you can focus on putting full damage onto your weapons and still have the abilities you need to deal with the enemies (i suggest always having a dash/jump ability and an AoE damage ability equipped). You also have the chance (although it's rare) of putting high damage materials into accessories to increase your overall damage, although you need to be lucky to find a red pedestal to do that.
By the way, an overall good weapon I think is the succubus' special weapon ability, since it almost garauntees to put enemies to sleep and it gives you a tempo advantage if you are dealing with multiple enemies or simply can't reach foes that escape from melee range. You should use the ability and then switch to a weapon that actually deals damage to reduce durability consumption.
Also try saving some haste potions for the bossfight as they are very useful (since you have 2 moves against the enemies' one), especially if you want to deal a lot of damage to the boss when he gets stunned (he does nothing for several turns and you can exploit that for double the amount if you use an haste potion) or need to get out of a sticky situation.
Last but not least, I suggest you to not focus too much on healing yourself (potions are fine, but scepters aren't that great in my opinion) and focus more on thinking of ways to prevent damage (move to a more advantageous position if you are surrounded, use moving/leaping skills to get easier from one point to another, etc...).

These are the main suggestions I'd give you, I hope they can help.

 

[Ren_Amamiya15]

What I think he meant by "auto-loses" is that he can't teleport away anymore so you can easily defeat him.

Other than that, I suggest you to correctly create weapons capable of doing a good amount of damage (as mcflappyjaw mentioned), mostly by using high tenacity and (preferably) magic materials.
If you still can't oneshot enemies, I suggest you to spam abilities that are simple and accessible but very effective, such as the dash strike skill (150% weapon dmg at lvl 1) or, by far the easiest one to get, the jump strike skill(120% weapon dmg at lvl 1).
To build those cheap weapons you should use weaker materials when forging weapons and after that you should throw them against enemies or obstacles to easily reduce their durability to 0, after which you can get the ability material.
Overall I also suggest you to put important abilities attached to accessories, since the abilities you have access to will not be dependant on the weapon you are currently using.
This way, you can focus on putting full damage onto your weapons and still have the abilities you need to deal with the enemies (i suggest always having a dash/jump ability and an AoE damage ability equipped). You also have the chance (although it's rare) of putting high damage materials into accessories to increase your overall damage, although you need to be lucky to find a red pedestal to do that.
By the way, an overall good weapon I think is the succubus' special weapon ability, since it almost garauntees to put enemies to sleep and it gives you a tempo advantage if you are dealing with multiple enemies or simply can't reach foes that escape from melee range. You should use the ability and then switch to a weapon that actually deals damage to reduce durability consumption.
Also try saving some haste potions for the bossfight as they are very useful (since you have 2 moves against the enemies' one), especially if you want to deal a lot of damage to the boss when he gets stunned (he does nothing for several turns and you can exploit that for double the amount if you use an haste potion) or need to get out of a sticky situation.
Last but not least, I suggest you to not focus too much on healing yourself (potions are fine, but scepters aren't that great in my opinion) and focus more on thinking of ways to prevent damage (move to a more advantageous position if you are surrounded, use moving/leaping skills to get easier from one point to another, etc...).

These are the main suggestions I'd give you, I hope they can help.

Holy cow! Thanks for writing all that out for me, really appreciate your time and the will to write all that. Thanks for all the advice, heck, it sure sounds rough... A real shame I cannot exploit it like the first boss! I remember I died and I was on edge so I was just sitting on my chair, holding my head when suddenly I hear the boss die as it was standing in fire. Though, if anyone has a save just after this boss, I would truly appreciate it. Thanks again!

 

[JIMPICKEN]

ik having trouble getting the FULL Gallery save to work.. I put the files in the SAVE folder yet to no avail. (im.playing on joi play.. yes it works on joi play just select INDEX.html

 

[JIMPICKEN]

nevermind got the save to work.

 

[JIMPICKEN]

Their still seems to be a few missing scenes in the FULL gallery save. theirs a empty square in the bottom on the right
corner And the bedroom has empty spaces Any one have a save with all the h events or is their only 4 h events.?

 

[Noah Neim]

Fuck, i really wish this game was actually hard and not just unfair

So much of this shit is based on rng and choice sometimes just doesnt matter

Get spawned into a room full of enemies? barely survive? SIKE enemy spawner trap, kill yourself pathetic player

Wish you had more choice in what you actually make, balancing Ms/T/m only to still roll the dice on what weapon you get.

The 1st bosss is fine, i didnt have much trouble and after just throwing shit at him i got through him

But fuck the 2nd boss really doesnt try to hide the unfairness, on top of having to be on the move due to his skills, he spawns enemies and crystals endlessly, enemies like the stupid fucking vampire which for no reason at all have 2 health bars or that fire sword bitch which can shred through your hp like it's nothing
2 hours of save scumming is NOT good game design, if i didnt ssave scum shit would've taken my days to beat, and given that the devs tried to stop you from save scumming makes me think like they made the game unfair on purpose
And not to mention that you still need to spend like half an hour getting to the boss itself, times which keep increasing

Then the 3rd boss, who tf came up with this shit? Like genuinely, based on what i read it seems this one is really the worst one by far, i fucking hope the 4th one doessnt get worse
Like, constantly running away? how tf is that a boss fight? it's litteraly just an endurance match of your patience, enemies along the path, enemies spawning so you can't recover, priests which heal the enemies, a disgustingly long path
I read up on advice so i'll set up better for this stupid shit, but it does NOT need to be this tedious

And i'm really annoyed that meta upgrades are just locked behind game progression, the devs really intentionally made things as annoying as possible so you waste your time and lose out on a lot of souls that could've been used

i wish i chose easy mode

Can't wait for the steam release and having the mfs who expected a generic porn game to get demolished, i know that that implies that the devs make no balance changes but i my hater part is winning over my rationality

 

[TheUnsaid]

Fuck, i really wish this game was actually hard and not just unfair

So much of this shit is based on rng and choice sometimes just doesnt matter

Get spawned into a room full of enemies? barely survive? SIKE enemy spawner trap, kill yourself pathetic player

Wish you had more choice in what you actually make, balancing Ms/T/m only to still roll the dice on what weapon you get.

The 1st bosss is fine, i didnt have much trouble and after just throwing shit at him i got through him

But fuck the 2nd boss really doesnt try to hide the unfairness, on top of having to be on the move due to his skills, he spawns enemies and crystals endlessly, enemies like the stupid fucking vampire which for no reason at all have 2 health bars or that fire sword bitch which can shred through your hp like it's nothing
2 hours of save scumming is NOT good game design, if i didnt ssave scum shit would've taken my days to beat, and given that the devs tried to stop you from save scumming makes me think like they made the game unfair on purpose
And not to mention that you still need to spend like half an hour getting to the boss itself, times which keep increasing

Then the 3rd boss, who tf came up with this shit? Like genuinely, based on what i read it seems this one is really the worst one by far, i fucking hope the 4th one doessnt get worse
Like, constantly running away? how tf is that a boss fight? it's litteraly just an endurance match of your patience, enemies along the path, enemies spawning so you can't recover, priests which heal the enemies, a disgustingly long path
I read up on advice so i'll set up better for this stupid shit, but it does NOT need to be this tedious

And i'm really annoyed that meta upgrades are just locked behind game progression, the devs really intentionally made things as annoying as possible so you waste your time and lose out on a lot of souls that could've been used

i wish i chose easy mode

Can't wait for the steam release and having the mfs who expected a generic porn game to get demolished, i know that that implies that the devs make no balance changes but i my hater part is winning over my rationality

So this is all just my opinion but I do disagree with you. The game is a roguelike and dealing with randomness is actually part of the game. It's how the game can stay fresh and has almost infinite replay value. That being said, I believe the randomness isn't wholly cumulative making it more tolerable than other uses of randomness.

Now regarding difficulty. I disagree that the randomness has so much of an impact that it can effect your runs that significantly.
This is because the game does NOT have too many instances of multiplicative probability.

I can give an example.

===
Baldur's Gate 3 relies heavily on randomness.
Each attack you must roll for accuracy, and then on top of that you must roll for damage as well.

If you attack 10 different times at 70% accuracy that means that to hit 10 times in a row you'd need to get very very lucky. (70% X 70% X 70% X 70% etc...) (btw the answer is just 2%) at the end of it.
The randomness is multiplicative!

On top of just accuracy you need to roll damage, so rolling high for that you need to multiply the probabilities there too.
===

This is randomness stacked on randomness. It's very dangerous in game design.

===
What about Cursed Blacksmith though? Sure you can get lucky or unlucky with maps or traps, but you will consistently land attacks and each attack only has damage variation. You will consistently do good damage.

Regarding weapon skills and other such things, they don't matter THAT much. If you craft good weapons you can make do with just your basic attack and a long range skill to defeat the bosses in the game. The exception being the 3rd and 4th bosses which have gimmiks YOU ARE MEANT TO LOSE TO on your first experience so you can then try again with a plan.

The game isn't supposed to be faceroll easy. It wants you to engage, and there isn't just 1 solution to every problem. There's a lot of them.

Take the second boss. You could get dash striking abilities to reach the legs and strike them. OR you can craft magic weapons that can strike from a distance. If you consistently craft weapons and then enhance them so they become strong. You shouldn't struggle with any non-boss encounter.

When you struggle at a boss, that's when you should come up with a strategy. Relying on a specific weapon isn't necessary. Just a basic framework is enough. "Long Range" magic thing. Stack "Haste" potions. "Dash Attacks." You don't need a specific of any of those.

I do agree that some of these bosses have way too much health tho. 3rd and 4th boss especially. Tenacity's damage increase is not keeping up with the tankyness of the bosses. The regular enemies are well balanced though.

 

[Noah Neim]

So this is all just my opinion but I do disagree with you. The game is a roguelike and dealing with randomness is actually part of the game. It's how the game can stay fresh and has almost infinite replay value.

rouge-like replay value rng and 'pray to the rng gods' are very different rng models
My problem isnt dealing with randomness, it's when the randomness affects the core gameplay mechanic that it's a problem
The game is 'strategic' only when you get lucky, otherwise, you'll be gang raped when you try to switch a weapon to a movement based on just so you can run away from the 7 enemies surronding you, too bad you'll likely still die and get erosion.
And dying once, especially in the 3rd section, is VERY bad, you're unlikely to make it to the boss if you clear out every floor, so your best option is to just rush portals.
And even then, if you get to a boss on high erosion, it's an instant loss, 30+ minutes wasted because of something you couldn't control.

Now regarding difficulty. I disagree that the randomness has so much of an impact that it can effect your runs that significantly.
This is because the game does NOT have too many instances of multiplicative probability.

It most certaintly does, you can get spawned in a room full of enemies (it is NOT rare, and in fact very common) barely win, then step on a trap, boom, one death, nvm the enemy spawner, just 1 confusion trap can finish you, and enemies arent affected by them, purely you, which i think is a pretty stupid mechanic (yes, they should be affected even by the positive ones, not like there are lots of those)

This game has consistenly made me feel like my choice doesnt matter, no matter if a runs starts out good, i'll always be fucked over by lady luck, i don't think this is good difficulty design.

I do agree that some of these bosses have way too much health tho. 3rd and 4th boss especially. Tenacity's damage increase is not keeping up with the tankyness of the bosses. The regular enemies are well balanced though.

It's not just the 3rd or 4th boss (but it seems the 4th one wont be any better) 1st and 2nd are equally fucked up. And it's not that they get to tanky
The 1st boss literally moves at the same speed as you, notmally games would make bigger enemies slow moving, otherwise they would chase the player all around and easily kill them (sound familiar?)
But thankfully, they had some resemblance of a soul, i didnt have enough trouble with this one to complain
The 2nd boss though, goddamn, talk about a difficulty spike, endlessly spawning enemies, required constant movement (which you may have to sacrifice because of tanky ass crystals)
Speaking of crystals, why THE FUCK does every single boss spawn them, not every boss has to spawn enemies, not every single one has to spawn crystals.

This is randomness stacked on randomness. It's very dangerous in game design.

I havent played baldur's gate enough to know but atleast you have parties there, you have several actions YOU CAN take other than attacking that could help you, and there isnt an endless unfair combat encounter after another, you actually get chances to do 'long rests' or whatever they're called, that's all on that




I should make it clear that i dont have anything against you, you can have your opinion, nor am i actually trying to argue, just venting at best

 

[Noah Neim]

This has been my worst gaming experience in my entire life.

single handedly made the game from a 4/5 to a 3/5.

This isnt exegeration, or jokes, genuinely the worst experience in gaming ever.

The 3rd boss is such an awfully designed mess that i'm only 2 stages away from sending someone death threats.

You would think that having 5 health and focus potions, 3 soul drop and 3 digging weapons, and low erosion, that you would win EVEN if you get the worst luck.

I couldn't be more wrong.

Keywords: 3rd boss, third boss.

DO NOT DIG, atleast not how much people tell you to, skip a section or 2 based on your choice, but do NOT outrun the boss, the stupid fucking idiot will literally get stuck.
Take him out once or twice, the way people phrase this strat makes you think you can just ignore the boss until the end. But that's wrong, if you have the opportunity get him to the next phase.
This should be obvious, but you're better of getting good ranged skills instead of movement skills, the fucker runs around non stop even until the end.
All of this is important because if you didnt know, theres THREE FUCKING crystals at the end
So you have the enemies naturally spawned, enemies spawned from the crystal, and the enemies that were already there, you WILL lose if you don't have a ranged skill without a distance limit.

Anyways i'm off to go to the mental hospital and see if i secretly have a mental illness, cause this game might have poor difficulty design, for me to spend 4 hours on this despite the preparation is a clear sign mental degradation.

Extra note: Take some drugs to reduce the stress of playing this game