Soulstice – Enemy Guide

Enemy Guide: Best, Worst and Most Interesting

Corrupted

Best:

• I think the thick ol’ knight Captain guys, that are above the normal Corrupted Guards, and below Champions (if i remember the names well) are amongst the most fun to fight where it regards the base roster. Certainly hard-hitting attacks and dangerous in groups, but oh so nice to stun, get into combos, and juggle.
• Sometimes they come equipped with shields, and with the right weapons you can try to break said shields. I believe it makes them a lot more resistant to being stunned, unless you manage to strike them while they’re in a wind-up or recovery animation.
• So the choice is yours in how you may deal with them in this prospect.

Worst:

• Good question, one that i’m not sure i know the answer to. I’m going to share it with MOST INTERESTING, because i don’t really have a particular pick for either one.
• I would want to say the Blighted (explosive guys), but that’s mainly due to level design.
• To me, they don’t work as nicely in tight spaces with a very aggressive and mobile enemy like the Scorpion Stinger Corrupted where there are also Banishment Explosives.
• Otherwise… perhaps the Mongrels or Shriekers (Harpies), but they’re not terribly egregious. They’re certainly annoying, but the Tearing Penance and the Huntress work perfectly well for Shriekers. Tearing Penance especially if you can lock on, because it brings you close for damaging with the help of other combos.
• Mongrels have a fair enough mechanic, where they’ll be more aggressive and damaging for a bit if you kill a packmate (if i remember correctly). Both Mongrels and Shriekers just like the Guards and Captains, also have a kind of relationship with a “pack leader” so to speak, which can add for new scenarios in a fight.
• The Champion’s generally alright, i just can’t get the hang of avoiding that spinning attack consistently. Does one have to dodge through the hammer swings, or try to stay above the hammer? The Buckler weapon has a horrid parry, so i’m not including that as an option.
• I think… i’m going with the Mongrel Alpha enemy as the worst one. Can’t rightly explain why –perhaps someone else can– but i enjoyed fighting these the least out of the Corrupted Enemy variety.

For the upcoming two categories, i’ll be leaving the Fields mechanic largely out of the equation, and will be looking purely at what i remember of the moveset and behaviour.

Wraiths

Best:

• I believe the Preacher to be a strong enemy type in a positive way. Dangerous attacks, but large windup animations. It may play more defensively teleport a lot, unless you are able to get it in a stun/combo loop and don’t let it touch the ground. Tearing Penance, Huntress and the dual punch daggers are your friend. Mainly the Tearing Penance, again, for getting up close to be able to perform rapid hits with the punch daggers.

Worst & Most Interesting:

• If I could include the Weavers, i would, but they’re a boss, so i don’t.
• But i’m not sure of this category either, so it’s a twofer again.
• The basic Grievers and Revilers are perfectly servicable, on account of being the Basic and Ranged/Speedy variations of the Wraith ranks. And the Reviler’s most dangerous attacks, appearing out of the ground and the laserbeam, have pretty lengthy windups either.
• More than fine on what they have been designed to do, and thus their main danger comes from mixups with other enemy types.

However, the lore point of Wraiths appearing out of Possessed enemies -while logical in the lore- may be a point of annoyance regarding some Possessed enemy types. Which brings us to the…

Possessed

Best:

• The Mauler, bar none. Dangerous attacks close-up as well as ranged that isn’t just one line straight-ahead, stun/comboability is solid and generally attacks at fair speeds, which you will feel if the attacks land. If i’m not mistaken, it also has an attack to clear close room around it and a running/charging attack to cross a distance, but that’s been a while.
• Either way, Maulers are on the level of Captains for me.

Worst:

• Oh boy, here we go. The Possessed enemy variety is the most full of issues where it regards enemy design for me. Furies’ rapid attacks that lead into knockback and recovery animation fups me uck something fierce, and they do damage while they’re at it. They’re not exactly glass cannons either, are very mobile, and seem to have a TON of stun and combo resistance.
• Kinda torn on that carpet bombing move, that seems like it could make for a fair danger, and so does its kick combo. You just need to be very quick in reacting to that one, which i don’t always do around other enemies.
• Which i concede is something that could be trained on my own.
• In any case, one Fury is a danger i’m willing enough to face as is, but multiple ones in a single fight tick me off somethin’ fierce.

• On the other end of the weight scale is the Abomination, who seems to like getting close to live up to its namesake.
• Hard to stun and combo –fair enough, makes sense considering its girth, and i believe it shares this property with the Champions. But I find that the Abomination forces one into trying to find a strategy of “do the most damage” way too much in a game where you’re very much encouraged to make use of everything however you want, optimal weapons and moves for specific enemies notwithstanding.
• Granted, the arena in which it is fought with the Banishment bomb growths does it NO favors. Using the environment to one’s advantage is all well and good, but this strategy doesn’t feel very fun. And the bombs hamper the freedom of manouverability, too.
• The Honda Sumo Stomp is all well and good, kind of comical even. So is that straight charge it performs. But its up-close swiping attacks are stupid to dodge if you want to stay close to try and perform dem combos. It seems to be able to follow them up quickly, too.
• Stingers are at their worst when they burrow underground. They’re… fine, i guess, but just a slight bit over the negative side of average when it’s paired up with certain other enemies (like Blighted).
• And a thing that exacerbates the unsatisfying nature of fighting them all, is fighting a Wraith that pops out upon being conked out, and defeating it before it can return to its host to revive it with a bit of health.
• It’s not a bad idea at all, the normal Grievers are perfectly fine as stated before. But with these three enemy (mainly Fury and Abomination, really) types, it especially becomes a case of “oh no NOT AGAIN” rather than something tense in a fun, challenging kind of way.

Most Interesting:

• The Chorus. I admit i haven’t really looked at all the different strategies it employs depending on the head it is wearing in the moment– but the idea of an enemy using a kind of “stance” system is very interesting!
• I know it has an attack where it throws a red crystal spear into the ground, which then makes a horizontal laser beam go around in a circle that can be a real danger on the battlefield, until it’s destroyed. That’s cool.
• And the Chorus itself is decently stunnable/comboable too. On the level of the Preacher and Repentant of the Wraith variety, i believe.
• The most annoying attack is definitely the one where it has the crystal shards circle around Lute & Briar, that will spin around her for a bit and then hit in. Best avoided in the last moment. But for its special position as an enemy, i’ll let it slide.
• To an extent. It’s NOT fun when this attack stunlocks you and gives other enemies the opportunity to do extra damage as well. Which i suppose can be seen as extra incentive to get good at the game, but eh, just kinda got bad memories from it.