always skill magic on level up as it is almost certainly the best stat. If you for some reason do so much damage that you are likely to oneshot paladin, skill speed instead (but thats incredibly unlikely to happen ... you will need at least 2 if not 3 mender's axes for that)
electro bolt is your most accurate move (3.0) so you want to use that to finish off weakened opponents and to attack enemies who activated shadow blend. Don't use shatter bolt on the latter as it is actually your least accurate move (1.5).
[section=ZONE 1] don't visit shop in zone 1. It's not worth it ...
Stage 1: spam quick strike
Stage 2: spam quick strike (getting a crit saves one turn)
LEVEL UP! skill magic bolt (1), put magic bolt into action bar 2x
Stage 3: spam magic bolt. Kill the botton one first (as crit can kill)
get loot but don't equip it yet
Stage 4: spam magic bolt. killing zombie first is probably faster on average (poison wastes one second per turn)
Stage 5: spam magic bolt
LEVEL UP! skill magic bolt (2)
Stage 6: spam magic bolt. kill the metabii first (as crit can kill). Don't use suppression. If you need it your time is probably shit anyway and its 2 minutes into the run, so yolo is always the best strategy here. xD
Stage 7: spam magic bolt. Kill top one (healer) first, kill bottom one second. You can 2hit them with bonus damage on 2nd hit but you can't without. Also, you can 2hit captain with bonus damage if you crit once. Hope to not get trolled by stun.
Sword means run over, so hope to get the rifle. [section=ZONE 2] Go to shop, buy hunter's shoes x2 and eat everything at once (or equip if the slot is empty)
Stage 8: spam magic bolt and hope to not get stunned (you can't 2shot without crit then) or to critical first turn (it can cause frost zombie to use suppression)
LEVEL UP! Skill electro bolt (1), put electro bolt into action bar x2
buy another hunter's boots if you can afford it (42 gold) and eat it.
Stage 9: spam magic bolt. If you got the extra boots, crit will oneshot.
buy another hunter's boots if you can afford it (42 gold) and eat it.
Stage 10: spam magic bolt. Sonny can die here so you might want to use suppression if it doesn't look too hot. Try to delay it as long as possible tho as using it wastes a few seconds.
eat everything that drops. buy another hunter's boots if you can afford it (42 gold) and eat it.
Stage 11: spam magic bolt, enemy is faster. Hope to not crit turn 1 as it will force enemy to use shadow blend.
LEVEL UP! Skill electro bolt (2)
eat everything that drops. buy another hunter's boots if you can afford it (42 gold) and eat it.
Stage 12: oneshot the GSG9 with magic bolt, then spam electro bolt. Hope to not get stunned.
eat everything that drops. buy another hunter's boots if you can afford it (42 gold) and eat it.
Stage 13: use electro bolt once and hope to crit. if no crit, finish with magic bolt, magic bolt will kill even if they cast suppression after electro.
do the usual eating stuff.
Stage 14: magic bolt x2 kills. magic bolt + electro bolt kills after 1 heal with 1 crit. electro crit outright kills when veradux uses his own on the same target. This fight can go either well or horribly (triple stun + triple heal ... yeah ...) so hope to get lucky.
get boots if you are at 51+ gold. You might want to skip them otherwise. hard to tell what is the correct decision here as gold varies from run to run. You definitely want to have 109 gold before boss battle tho ...
eat veradux' equip by picking it from veradux, switching to sonny and clicking somewhere where the item is caused to drop back to its initial place. This way you actually eat your current equip and equip veradux' item instead. This alows you to wear veradux' armor which is hilarious. xD .... and it also causes your damage to skyrocket.
Stage 15: electro bolt on assassin and hope for critical. if no critical or veradux finish, finish with magic bolt. magic bolt + electro bolt will kill samurai. You can also try to yolobolt if in crit kill range (possible after veradux damage).
LEVEL UP! Skill electro bolt (3)
eat loot, don't buy anything.
Stage 16: electro bolt crit oneshots, non crit does around 300 damage, magic bolt + electro bolt definitely kills (and avoids heal range unless magic bolt crits). magic bolt x2 kills with one crit (this all is assuming you bought boots after getting veradux)
If you have less than 109 gold, sell something, get a pulse rifle. If you can't get to 109 gold, buy as many boots as possible instead. Eat everything you have.
Stage 17: magic bolt, electro bolt, magic bolt, electro bolt, spam magic bolt. Easy fight but he has 2 stuns so he can be annoying. [section=ZONE 3] Still unsure which items to eat and which items to sell. For now, I sell destructor armor (not the weapon though) and eat everything else but this might be suboptimal. It might be more efficient to also sell blade shaman equip but this might negatively affect a few battles such as baron. So this definitely needs more testing. Buy and eat ivory mace (512g) whenever possible as it gives you by far the most damage.
eat everything you have.
Stage 18: magic bolt + electro bolt. If he doesn't heal (unlikely), finish with electro bolt, repeat the combo if he heals.
LEVEL UP! Skill flame blast (1). Don't change action bar.
Stage 19: Magic bolt + electro bolt the controller. Hope it kills (critical, veradux support or sword drop in zone 2). You normally want to keep at least 1 electro bolt ready in case golem enrages. Magic bolt + electro bolt + magic bolt against golem. If golem enrages and you don't have electro ready, either use suppresion or yolo and hope he attacks veradux (only if your time is bad).
Stage 20: spam electro bolt.
Stage 21: kill totem with electro bolt (or magic bolt if for some reason your magic bolt non crit can kill), either yolobolt against shaman or magic + electro (can't oneshot but has higher chance to get the 2shot after heal)
Stage 22: magic + electro (+ magic) for each golem. if the other golem enrages, stop combo and electro him. You can die here so be ready to use suppression ....
LEVEL UP! Skill shatter bolt (1), put shatter bolt into action bar x2
kick veradux out of your team, if you have something to eat. If not, you probably should simply let him participate against Rockstar.
Stage 23: shatter bolt, 2x electro bolt (needs one crit unless godlike electro bolt) or shatter bolt, magic bolt, 2x electro bolt (slower but more safe). Electro bolt ignores and removes suppression and iron skin. Pray for mender's axe drop (25% chance).
make sure, veradux is in your team.
Stage 24: kill totem (probably requires electro bolt unless you got gunslinger weapon). Electro bolt shaman and hope for crit (you alternatively can use magic + electro), electro (if ready) or shatter bolt (if electro on cd) golem if it enrages. Finally, kill golem.
Kick Veradux out of your team again.
Stage 25: if crit kills (which it should), yolobolt the top devourer, if no crit, finish with magic bolt or yolobolt the other one if magic bolt doesn't kill. (only if crit kills that one as well. The bottom one has slightly better resistances. Keep that in mind!)
From now on, your kill strategy depends highly on your itemization so I will mention situational strategies from now on.
Stage 26: stun ZPCI and try to kill it asap. You are faster if veradux isn't in the party but slower, if he is. if your damage is godlike, you may want to yolobolt instead. But keep in mind that ZPCI Elite have a decent healing spell.
LEVEL UP! Skill magic bolt (3) - alternatively Skill blood focus (1) and equip blood focus over quick strike. Atm I don't think getting blood focus is that good actually. There might be some runs where you definitely want it, though ...
Stage 27: yolobolt shaman of death, then yolobolt blade shaman if it oneshots. magic + electro otherwise
Stage 28: same strategy
Stage 29: yolobolt either breaker (guaranteed kill) or mender (guaranteed kill with strong electro bolt, has more health), Second, yolobolt striker (only fast way to kill him), kill remaining shaman with magic bolt. This fight is kinda luck based. If you yolobolt mender, you can 3 turn if you crit every attack, but its annoying if you don't crit as they probably won't die then. Also, if you don't critical striker, he will probably heal up again as blade shamans seem to really enjoy crit healing themselves ...... Honestly, i don't like this fight ... once again, hope for the 25% to get mender's axe.
LEVEL UP! Skill aggression (1). Don't change action bar.
Stage 30: electro totem, electro shaman. finish with magic if shaman survives (get it?)
Stage 31: electro first 2 devourer. Finish with magic if necessary. Kill last one with magic (or electro if it is usable again)
If your electro crit does less than 1350 damage (or if you are not confident in your electro piercing), put veradux into your team. Otherwise leave him.
Stage 32: If entered alone, yolobolt one ZPCI until it stops moving, then either yolobolt the other or, if you needed both electros, shatter bolt + poke him to death.
LEVEL UP! Skill heroic motivation (1). Equip heroic motivation over quick strike and suppression (only equip once if you got blood focus)
Stage 33: electro bolt.
if you sell items at this stage of the game, make sure to only sell as much items as you absolutely need to get the mace. You won't get the money for another mace anyway.
Stage 34: yolobolt sniper, yolobolt elite (and hope for crit!), magic bolt against medic. You probably want to shatter bolt him as well ...
if you did the last 3 fights solo, put veradux back into your team. Also, you'd better pray for the RNG gods.... because now it's time ....
Stage 35: (aka "Baron time") Start by using the Shatter + Magic + Electro combo twice. If Baron outright oneshots veradux, he can't move until the second shatter bolt wears off. Otherwise he gets one attack after the first but thats fine. One attack isn't usually an issue. Once Veradux is gone and Baron starts attacking, just use magic bolt to enhance both paladin and your electros. Use heroic motivation to dispel debuffs (also it can critical for up to 1k, dafuq were you doing all the time,Veradux?!?) If you get focus issues, skip further shatter bolts and use your low-focus spells instead and you should be fine. Probably the hardest fight in the run (although the early Golems may compete)
don't eat anything that doesn't actually help you against paladin (basically, only eat if it allows you to oneshot or if it substantially increases your crit chance). If you decide to eat something, throw veradux out of the party. Keep him otherwise.
Stage 36: If your magic is godlike and you can do 2k damage to him, just yolobolt. Otherwise, shatter bolt + 2x electro bolt him. If neither of the electro bolt criticals, he will pobably heal, so hope that doesn't happen. If you are extremely cautious, you could do shatter, electro, shatter, (magic), electro but this is sloooooooow ....
You could do a training fight at the begin of Zone 3. If you are lucky enough to get a menders axe from this fight, it will turn sonny into an absolute beast (and probably save a bunch of time). But you basically need TAS-luck for that (25% for shaman of life to show up, 8% chance for weapon drop - 2% in total). Also, you will get Shatter Bolt one fight early which really helps on Stage 22.
It also seems that gunslinger is faster than destroyer (or at least as the current destroyer strat ... don't know how fast destroyer is when using electro bolt) but it is extremely item-reliant (especially getting menders axe from rockstar is basically a condition for a good run)
