Arcuz 2 Glitched Guide
For the fastest run possible it is necessary to stack attack potions to massively increase your damage over time. Stacked potion effects however will reset whenever you use the accept button in the skill panel locking you out of learning new skills while maintaining your increased damage. This means that there are only a few discrete points in the run where you learn new skills, because they gain enough time afterwards to warrant resetting your attack power, which splits any run into up to 4 segments, depending on what category you play.
Segment 1: Level 1-6
During the tutorial part of the game the shop as well as any form of duping are not freely accessible and only unlock so towards the end of the segment. This means that you will have to play this segment like a glitchless run and at the same time select suitable skills to learn, doing your early quests and getting “Lore Keeper” for some extra cash. The reason you have to extend this segment up to level 6, in spite of it being possible to complete at a lower level, is because dual-wielding unlocks at 6, allowing you to glitch out your basic attack speed to boost your initial damage massively, meaning that any potion stacking and by extension having the glitches that allow you to obtain the potions needed prior to level 6 is pointless. To speed up segment 1 along the way, it is also quite suitable to get some axe skills and unlock axe reaper, a very powerful aoe skill to be going on with. This however requires 5 skill points atop dual wielding, while you only have 5 points total via levelups, leaving you 1 point short. This means it is very advisable to reset a single levelup during the tutorial part preferably from level 2 to 3 at the earliest possibility to gain that extra skillpoint, which can very well be done while still reaching level 6 at the end within the limited amount of enemies the tutorial gives you to kill without backtracking. Strength is the only stat that should be invested.
Segment 2: Level 6-20
Once you clear the tutorial part of the game at level 6 you will immediately get an attack potion and defence potion which you can start stacking right away. Use the one minute duration to handle the remaining essential tasks. Once the shop unlocks get an other attack, a berserk, and a magic resistance potion as well as some dupe fodder and dupe them up a bit, while starting stack to attack and magic resistance potions, as you are entering the dungeon. You will eventually need enough magic resistance potions to bring your magic resistance to 100% and enough attack potions for the rest of the game. You can use item drops you get along the way as duping fodder. For some healing you can dupe up the small rejuvenation potions you get during the tutorial and use them as needed. While not necessarily worth buying or duping it is advisable to also stack any defence potion you may find along the way for the extra survivability. Once again strength is the only stat that should be invested.
Segment 3: Level 20-61
At level 20 you unlock level 3 Sprint, which is the only skill in the entire game worth resetting your attack stat for, meaning your damage will be reset and has to be stacked up again. In theory one could argue to go for level 10 or 15 for level 1 and 2 Sprint respectively, but since these segments would be very short till the skill improves again, you wouldn't be able to reraise your attack power enough to gain the time back and more crucially would also lack sufficient power to deal with the minotaur at level 17. And while there is not a lot of time between level 20 and 28 aka between getting Sprint level 3 and the beholder fight to reraise your damage either, it is enough time since the beholder is not very tanky. Also since your damage resets you will not only want to learn Sprint level 3 with a level 1 glitched cooldown, you will also want to learn a variety of other skills that increase your damage immediately, to not lose too much time until your attack potions make you op again. This means a level 2 Berserk with a level 1 glitched cooldown and level 2 Fire Elemental. Since you glitched for an extra skillpoint early on you’ll have 20 total, 7 in purple skills, 1 in dual-wield and 5 in axe skills. This leaves you with 8 more points, which is just enough to get axe reaper maxed out, giving it much shorter cooldown and much greater damage upfront. It is also a viable alternative to instead of level 20, reset your stats at level 21, which gives you Fire Elemental level 3, which gives you a much better initial dps boosts then Fire Elemental level 2. With this setup you will progress all the way to Balor which can be fought at level 61 at the earliest. Once again strength is the only stat that should be invested, although swapping it out for agility for some extra block rate could be an option, if your damage is sufficient and you are not playing for Balor 2.
Segment 4: Balor 2
The postgame forces you to reload via the credits, shutting down your potion stacks. But since you need new and more skills for it anyway, this is a nonissue. As you won’t be spending over 5 minutes doing the prepwork for the fight, using potions for 100% magic resistance is not an option, instead keep or buy some item(s) with magic resist compose(s) and stack that to 100%. Since skeleton archers and a few skeleton kings will be all you fight using your own weapon damage, stacking your attack stat is not too important and if you have invested strength for the entire game even a few attack potion stacks will be enough. The prepwork itself apart from setting up magic resist and a little bit of damage is about getting a huge stack of diamond angel tears and some large rejuvenation potions and learning all the skills needed for the fight. You should max out Deflection, Damage Reflection, Berserk, Battle Frenzy, Last Stand and Enlightenment, all of which contribute to your survivability and damage output against Balor 2 and come up to a total of 41 skill points, which works out perfectly from a level 20 last attack reset, but forces you to get an extra point somewhere from level 21 somehow or go level 62 instead. It should be noted that enlightenment, any form of agility investment prior or having any armor apart from a shield for high block rate equipped, will decrease the reflected damage on Balor 2. But at the same time, since battle frenzy causes berserk triggers to occur uncontrollably all over the place, you still want some basic defences to handle skeleton kings and archers spawning in, which is why Enlightenment is still very advisable.
