Version info

• v. 1.0 Just the first version, should contain all the relevant info for now.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to the Knights Contract any% NG+ speedrun guide by AKheon, the current moderator of the Knights Contract leaderboards as well as the only known runner of the game in existence.

So, why did I personally pick up this game for speedrunning? In short, I thought it deserved a run because it had all these cool glitches and skips and no one else was gonna do a run of it. Besides, I felt sympathy for the game because it's an unknown hack 'n' slash and it has a pretty awesome soundtrack to boot. Even if the game is very flawed, I felt like it deserved a little extra attention.

What follows is a listing of my personal tactics for running Knights Contract. I glitched and routed this game all by myself, so there might be some bias or sub-optimal strategies here - a different perspective on things might not hurt.

Regardless, here are the currently known best tactics available...

Quick facts about Knights Contract as a speedgame

• it's a medium-length speedgame. A NG+ run takes 90 to 100 minutes to complete once you know the main tactics.

• the game has a fair amount of downtime in the form of long loading screens and some unskippable boss finishing cutscenes. However, I'm under the impression that the X360 version actually has much shorter loading times, so that might be the best version for speedrunning this game?

• the game in general has a ton of RNG.

• it has plenty of glitches and skips.

• it has some meme potential.

• it has quick-time events.

• most of the game is an escort mission. Sadly, the escort happens to have a somewhat inept A.I.

• the game is very stable - I've never seen it crash. However, it has other type of random bugs (like checkpoints not activating) that can cause time loss.

• sparse checkpoints, long loading times and randomness means that mistakes can happen easily and they often cost a lot of time. In other words, the game could be said to be "unforgiving" at times.

• to start running New Game+, you have to grind some gear unlocks first, which is a drag.

A quick word about Gretchen

She's an escort character who is present at almost every level in the game, has a woefully inadequate A.I. and no self-preservation instincts to speak of. She'll get herself killed pretty quick if you leave her alone, but fortunately you can carry her to temporarily keep her out of trouble. You basically have to plan ahead in the run where you want to carry Gretchen to avoid untimely game overs.

Always try to pick up Gretchen (or Minukelsus later on) while running, because otherwise you have to watch a few seconds long pick-up animation which wastes time.

Heinrich and Gretchen cannot go too far apart from each other for plot reasons. Whenever Gretchen ends up out of range, she will helpfully shout "Heinrich!" to alarm the player. At first being out of range doesn't do anything, other than that it disables you from using magic and special moves, but if Gretchen is out of range for too long, she will become paralyzed and lose health rapidly.

Sometimes sequence breaking will separate Heinrich and Gretchen in an irrevocable way. In this case, entering a cutscene or retrying from last checkpoint has to be used to teleport Gretchen back to Heinrich.

If Heinrich blows into pieces from too much damage, you can ask Gretchen to instantly revive him by holding down "summon / R1" button. This takes away a decent chunk of Gretchen's health, though.

You play with Gretchen solo in two of the Episodes. She has her own movelist, most of which won't really be used in a speedrun, but you should do well to master all three variations of her "circle" attacks at least. Just a quick press of the button shoots out a light projectile. A slightly longer press shoots out a semi-charged projectile which deals more damage. Finally, a long press of the button does a very damaging, localized area blast.

A quick word about Minukelsus

You get Minukelsus as your tag-along in Episode 12 and 14. He is like Gretchen in most respects, except he doesn't take damage from being left alone and can't revive Heinrich if he gets blown to pieces. He has four unique specials which basically fill the same role as Gretchen's magic, although I don't think cooldown reducing gear helps speed up Minukelsus' specials at all.

• "Stab" does extreme damage and is enough to insta-kill most enemies in one shot. It is therefore natural that is has a slow wind-up and a pathetic range, so it's very easy for enemies to avoid getting hit by it. And yet, it is the main damage dealer in Minukelsus' arsenal - you just gotta pray it hits. Try to distract enemies with Heinrich while Minukelsus stabs them in the back for maximum chance of success. Rarely stab can hit more than one enemy at a time, but don't count on that.

• "Freeze Potion" does slight damage and freezes most weaker enemies upon contact, making them subject to getting insta-killed by melee attacks afterwards. Very useful for Phantoms or regular mooks of all types. This is the second main damage dealer in Minukelsus' arsenal, and it has a faster cooldown too than "Stab". Too bad Minukelsus has a terrible aim and it's nearly pure RNG whether his throws hit or not.

• "Exploding Potion" causes a localized explosion, dealing decent damage and knocking everyone in the range back - even your own characters. It's the third main damage dealer in Minukelsus' arsenal, but usually not worth using unless you're facing off against Phantoms, Dire Wolves or all better attacks are in cooldown. Also note that it's possible to suicide by accident with this attack if you cast it at a wrong time near chasms.

• "Melee Flurry" is the least useful of Minukelsus' specials, but I guess it does some decent damage. A kind of last-ditch attack, as far as I can tell.

A quick word about magic

Magic can be cast whenever Gretchen is around - she's a witch after all.

The magic in this game can be divided into three different categories: general utility magic, pure damage magic and special magic.

The first category of magic is mainly used for stunning or trapping enemies. These attacks only do light to medium damage and also segue into automatic finishers when done to weakened enemies. Mag Mell's Rose, Vlad's Impaler, Colchis' Trap and Enoch's Hammer all belong in this category. Incidentally, most of these attacks aren't useful in a speedrun.

Second category of magic simply causes a lot of damage to enemies. Halifax's Blade, Maar's Lance, Elizabeth's Fangs, Fafrotskies Rain, Hildebrand's Sword, Kaspar's Rifle and Spirit Cannon all belong in this category. Naturally, these are the spells that we focus on in a speedrun.

Third category of magic only consists of the unique Tannhauser's Illuson, which temporarily buffs Heinrich's attack power.

A few of these magic attacks require Heinrich's participation and lock him down for several seconds while casting. These magics are Halifax's Blade, Maar's Lance, Kaspar's Rifle and Spirit Cannon. You should use these magics very situationally - only if there is no other tool that would work in a given combat situation. After all, if Heinrich is locked down, that only slows things down.

Because of the balancing in this game, Heinrich's melee attacks tend to be relatively weak while magic is strong. Hence, it's worth it to get cooldown reducing gear as soon as possible and (almost) never take it off. Spamming magic is the key to quick victory!

You can only have 4 magics allotted for quick use at any given time. Going to menu to switch magic or gear costs a small amount of time - not to mention you have to wait a cooldown before being able to use the newly switched magic anyway - so it's best to plan in advance what you want to use to minimize menu use and other hindrances.

A quick word about melee

If you just HAVE to fight enemies with Heinrich, I recommend spamming the Up Slash (s, t, back-t) because - as far as I know - it does far more damage than any other melee attack in the game.

Up Slash is also one of the rare ways to be able to damage shields on shielded enemies without getting knocked back, so it comes in handy in Episode 14.

For crowd control against many weak enemies, 2x Cyclone (s, s, t, t) can also rarely come in handy.

Grabbing and throwing enemies is useful whenever you are facing humanoid enemies and there are chasms nearby. Yes - environmental kills are a thing in this game.

Sometimes it's useful to do a small Jump with Heinrich. Jumping is useful for hitting Phantoms with melee or doing short navigation shortcuts (like in Episode 6). It's fastest to do this attack from lock-on (back-t, x), but sometimes it can come in handy to use the slower combo variation (s, back-t, x) if there are enemies around and you don't want them to mess up your direction.

A quick word about spirit power

Spirit power is used to fuel two super attacks: Witch's Embrace and Knight's Fury. You get more spirit power by killing enemies or smashing down some objects around the levels. You also get a full meter at the start of each level.

• Witch's Embrace uses a full meter of Spirit Energy in exchange for defeating all enemies in the area in under 5 seconds. You can also breach almost all walls in the game at will while casting Witch's Embrace - just keep rolling or running towards collision during the casting cutscene and you'll pass through. Sometimes success is a bit finicky - and there are a few walls where it outright doesn't work - but it's still universal enough to break the game in half. Most of your accumulated spirit energy will be used for casting this overpowered and nifty skill in nearly every level.

• Knight's Fury turns Heinrich into a massive beast for a moment. This lets him move quicker and become immune to lava, which sometimes helps with navigation. In addition, Gretchen is automatically carried with you while in this mode. This wouldn't be a bad skill otherwise, but you need enemies to be around or else the Fury ends almost instantly. In addition, you usually need all the spirit energy that you can get for doing those ever-useful wall clips with Witch's Embrace instead.

List of useful gear for NG+

Here's a short list of the most important gear that is needed for NG+.

• Seal of Magic and Seal of Wisdom. These are two pieces of equipment which reduce cooldown by 50% and 25% respectively, and their effect overlaps. Keep both of these equipped for most of the run.

• Seal of Rage. This gear increases Gretchen's magic damage output by a certain percentage. Its use is pretty situational as a shorter cooldown is usually more helpful than increased damage, at least on Easy-difficulty, but it can help on occasion.

List of useful magic for NG+

• Colchis' Trap. This is a general utility magic that traps enemies and keeps them stunned temporarily. Trap lv. 2 and lv. 3 are sometimes useful around the game, for instance when fighting with Gretchen solo and you want to do some crowd control.

• Maar's Lance (hereafter referred to as "Spear magic"). This is a pure damage magic that requires Heinrich's participation, which means it's somewhat slow to cast and it also cannot be used in Gretchen solo levels. On the plus side, the spear projectiles tend to have huge damage and a very long range, so they're useful in wide variety of combat situations.

Spear lv. 2 is a fast, pretty damaging projectile that also does area damage. Very good for Phantoms, spiders or finishing off other weakened enemies. Be careful: if you hold lock-on while casting this magic, you do not get to aim the projectile yourself. Rather, Heinrich will automatically throw it at whatever was locked on at the time. The same applies to Spear lv. 3 as well.

Spear lv. 3 is an upgraded spear lv. 2 that automatically steers towards enemies and hits them around 6 times total. It does extreme damage, enough to make short work of anything in this game - even most bosses. Its four main problems are its very long cooldown, its semi-random damage output, the inability of the projectile to change vertical direction (which means your throwing angle matters a LOT) and also the fact that it doesn't have the area effect of Spear lv. 2, making it less reliable against certain type of enemy groups.

• Elizabeth's Fangs (hereafter referred to as "Spikes magic"). This is a semi-secret pure damage magic that can't be upgraded. It hits one or several enemies in an enclosed area with a cluster of spikes for heavy damage. It's the best damage-focused magic that doesn't require Heinrich's participation, and it has a pretty fast cooldown as well. However, its damage is somewhat random, depending on how many of the spikes in the cluster actually hit the foe. In addition, this magic CANNOT hit flying enemies at all, which is a very bothersome limitation in some areas.

• Fafrotskies Rain (hereafter referred to as "Rain magic"). This is another semi-secret damage magic that can't be upgraded. It does light to medium damage to a single enemy while stunning it. It's useful for breaking shields on Shield Wights or knocking down Dendrites. However, it can sometimes arbitrarily miss - especially noticeable in Episode 13. This magic also cannot hit anything that is on walls or in air, so it has the same limitation as spikes.

• Hildebrand's Sword (hereafter referred to as "Sword magic"). This is a third semi-secret magic that can't be upgraded. It's another pure damage magic, and hey, you can never have enough pure damage. This magic automatically targets up to 4 enemies in the vicinity, sending a small beacon of light at them. Once the beacon hits them, a sword pops up from the ground, dealing medium damage. This magic doesn't do all that much damage by itself, but it can be spammed pretty quickly since it has a fast cooldown and is great for groups of enemies. It also works well with other attacks like Spikes. As a drawback, this magic cannot hit any flying enemies either.

• Spirit Cannon. This bad boy is only available on NG+ after getting a combined S-rank on some difficulty in the game. Yeah, it's an annoying chore to unlock, but definitely worth it since it does such absurd damage that it can insta-kill most bosses. It also allows you to "long jump" if you blow up yourself. The cooldown is tremendous, though, so it has to be used at very select moments.

• Kaspar's Rifle. It's a joke magic, really, but even it has its day in the limelight because of its unique rapid fire property that lets you one-cycle the very final boss of the game.

(Honorable mentions)

• Enoch's Hammer. Well, I guess this magic could come situationally handy in knocking down Phantoms or spiders, but I never put it into use in my route. It doesn't do much damage by itself either.

• Vlad's Impaler. The level 3 version actually does half-decent damage and hits repeatedly while homing towards enemies. Perhaps I underestimated this magic?

• Tannhauser's Illusion. While a seemingly good idea for the rare situations where you have to use melee, like final Faust fight, it causes IMMENSE lag. So I don't think using it would actually save real-time.

A quick word about unlocking Spirit Cannon for NG+ runs

To get S-ranks in levels, you have to complete a level while fighting a lot of enemies in a "stylish" way, going fast and avoiding dying. That's pretty much it. You naturally get an S-rank in many levels if you just speedrun through them. However, sometimes (like in Episode 6) you actually have to go out of your way to grind for enemies to get enough style for S-rank.

I got my S-rank on Normal-mode - I can't really say if it would be easier or harder on other difficulty modes.

Using finishers is necessary to get more style points from enemy encounters. Learn the perfect finisher timing and spam them against the weaker enemies.

An extra tip: if you get a game over while trying to get good rankings, open the PS3 (or X360) menu and entirely quit the game from there. This way the death does not count against you in the ranking screen. Yeah, it's a cheap tactic. But this game is full of cheap deaths, so I feel using it is entirely justified.

A quick word about costumes

The bonus costumes in this game are silly for sure, but it appears they slightly increase loading times during transitions. So for serious run attempts, you'll want to use the default costumes instead.

A quick word about various speed techniques

• Universal wall breach.

This is the most crucial glitch in the run and allows many sequence breaks around the game. Cast Witch's Embrace next to a wall and keep moving during the cutscene - this should let you breach the wall. Some walls, angles and situations are a bit finicky, so you have to be careful with it sometimes.

Sometimes you want to end up right inside a wall instead of all the way through it, for instance if there's barely any floor out of bounds. In this case, you should do a roll towards a wall and quickly cast Witch's Embrace, then don't hold L-stick at all during the cutscene.

Witch's Embrace is unavailable in Episodes 12 and 14, where Gretchen is not with you. It also needs a full spirit energy meter each time, so it can't be spammed too often in levels.

• Spirit Cannon launch.

Shooting with Spirit Cannon right at Heinrich's feet blows him into pieces while knocking him backwards in an arc. It's basically a long jump technique, although sadly it has a bit of a wind-up time and getting back together after being blown up is often slow.

It comes in handy in the speedrun a couple of times, for instance to do a bit of a shortcut in Episode 18.

• Invisible wall bypass.

If Heinrich gets knocked around by damage, he automatically flies through certain invisible walls. Spirit Cannon launch is the easiest way to knock Heinrich around like this. A far inferior and more annoying method is to use Minukelsus' exploding potion to knock Heinrich around. Unfortunately this is a crucial part of a difficult sequence break in Episode 14.

• Fast movement.

Rolling is just marginally faster than normal running, so you should typically roll everywhere in this game. Same is true even when carrying Gretchen. Just to note, rolling while carrying Gretchen is slightly slower than rolling solo, so that gives a reason to minimize the amount of time you carry Gretchen in this game.

Rolling also gives Heinrich and Gretchen invincibility-frames (i-frames), which let you pass through some environmental hazards or enemy attacks safely.

Route Notes - Basics and setup

Finally, here's a more in-depth look at what tactics I use in each level and what potential pitfalls there are to avoid in each section of the game.

It's necessary to check that you have the correct magic / gear selected before you start the run. I usually do this by starting Episode 18, setting up everything right, then rolling into the next cutscene. Getting auto-saved will save your gear setup for later, so you'll have it when you start the run from Episode 1.

Personally, I found it most convenient to start the game with the magics Spear lv. 3, Spirit Cannon, Spikes and Rain.

The following description uses timestamps from the video time of my current WR run, so use it to follow along if you want to.

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Route Notes - Episode 1

• 0:32 - Fight 1. In this fight you face off against two waves of smaller and larger Undead with Heinrich solo. Smaller Undead die of a single weak swipe, while the stronger ones require a full combo. I suggest using the Cyclone x2 combo for a very wide area swipe that deals with any smaller Undead in the range instantly.

• 1:09 - Navigation. Just go down the pathway. Heinrich might get knocked back by emerging Undead near the end of the path. Try to time the roll's i-frames so that it doesn't happen.

• 1:40 - Fight 2. There are three Wights total that appear in two waves.

First wave - a single Shield Wight. Because of its shield, you need two attacks to defeat it. Rain and Spikes does it 100% consistently and quickly.

Second wave - a Shield Wight and a Sword Wight. Fire with Spirit Cannon so that both the projectile and the explosion hit the foes, without blowing yourself up by accident. This should take care of both. If the Shield Wight survives, cast Spikes on it.

• 2:38 - Boss fight (Straeggele). Spirit Cannon kills her instantly - however, she can sometimes do a flying attack before you can fire, which may mess up your rhythm or ruin the shot. So it's instead recommended to stun her with Rain first, then shoot with Spirit Cannon as she is recovering.

• 3:00 - Skip. If you wall clip to the right, you reach straight to level exit instead of having to go around. Doesn't save much time, but still enough that I feel it's warranted to spare a full spirit energy meter for this occasion.

Route Notes - Episode 2

• 3:41 - Two chase scenes. Not difficult, but there are a few details of note.

While usually dodging is faster than running, for some reason in this part the boss tends to catch up to you quicker if you dodge. Perhaps the developers increased the default speed of running for this part? In any case, I think it's better to just run.

Both chase scenes end after you reach a sharp corner and the boss does a rush move. The boss may decide to do the rush earlier or later, so you may lose a bit of time here depending on RNG. I think the worst-case-scenario is that the boss does the rush so early that Heinrich and Gretchen cannot avoid getting hit by it, causing a game over. So... RNG may already screw you over in this part if you're very unlucky.

• 4:57 - Boss fight (Straeggele 2). Once again, Spirit Cannon kills her instantly. As a general time save tip versus all bosses that you defeat with Spirit Cannon: if you aim slightly downwards, the projectile of the Cannon has to travel a shorter length and it explodes quicker, saving a second. Aim too low, though, and the explosion no longer hits the boss. It's a subtle optimization, but has its risks if you are careless.

• 5:04 - QTE. On PS3, this QTE is X, L-stick wiggle sideways, X, L-stick up, T (spam).

The QTEs are not randomized in Knights Contract, so you can memorize them to get them over with pretty effortlessly. However, the programming isn't perfect here, and I think rarely QTEs can just fail without it being the player's fault. QTEs will also fail if you press the correct button too fast, so don't try to be frame perfect here or spam buttons when not needed.

Route Notes - Episode 3

• 6:51 - Skip. There are two possible glitched routes through the first half of Episode 3, and this run uses the one I think is faster. Basically, breach wall to the left right after the level has started. This lets Heinrich fall into the caverns beneath. If you quickly keep rolling after landing, you can get past some Dire Wolves too before they have time to spawn.

Heinrich and Gretchen are separated at the moment, which is a problem. You now have a time limit to reach the next checkpoint, or else the skip will fail - but this isn't too hard to manage. You have to fight a single Sword Wight, but you can just grab and throw him to the nearby chasm. After climbing the emerging vine wall, you should hit the next checkpoint, so just retry and continue on your way.

There's a rare bug where this checkpoint doesn't activate, has happened to me only once. In that case, the skip will automatically fail and you lose a lot of time as a result.

• 8:10 - Fight 1. There are two Wights here. Spirit Cannon them so that the projective and the explosion hit them both. It almost never fails.

• 8:25 - Fight 2. A single Dendrolord. Rain knocks it down and Spikes (once it's fully down) finishes it off. Should work 99% of the time.

Route Notes - Episode 4

• 9:09 - Skip. This entire Episode is skipped by going through the fight barrier. This prevents the avalanche from ever happening and gives you a straight line to the exit.

This wall clip is a bit finicky to do. My setup is to try to breach the wall a little to the left from the "root" sticking out of the ground on the edge of the path. If your positioning is wrong, you might not breach the wall, forcing you to restart the level.

Note: not only is Episode 4 skipped, but it is skipped so hard that you never visit the score screen between Episodes and instead pop right up into Episode 5. In addition, this means the player does NOT get a spirit energy refill between these two Episodes, which slows things down a little bit in Episode 5.

Route Notes - Episode 5

• 9:30 - Skip. The loading screen leading to Episode 5 is glitched and you are able to keep moving during it. If you keep rolling while holding L-stick to up and very gently right, it's possible to roll past the first snake boss before the level starts properly, saving a bit of time.

If you don't get it, it's not too big a deal. You have to fight one extra snake head. The snake dies from a single Spikes magic, but you have to time casting the magic so that the snake has settled down and is close to ground level. Casting it too early seems to do almost no damage.

• 9:55 - Fight 1. There's a Dendrolord here. Like in Episode 3, Rain and Spikes should deal with it. However, I find that this particular Dendrolord does often manage to survive this combo, which means you may have to finish it off with melee. Some more consistent tactic for this part wouldn't hurt.

• 10:09 - Fight 2. Second snake head! I use Spear lv. 3 because I can spare one.

• 10:20 - Fight 3. A Shield Wight and an Ice Phantom. I use Rain to destroy the Wight's shield and push it backwards, then Spikes both to death. This should work 99% consistently.

• 10:29 - Fight 4. Third snake head! Once again, a well-timed spikes should kill it instantly. If you miss with Spikes, you can use Spear lv. 3 to finish it off instead, but that will cause time loss in the next fight.

• 10:47 - Fight 5. There are two waves of Phantoms here. Optimally, you want to throw Spear lv. 3 to the enemy to your front-left as you emerge from the cave. The single Spear will kill the entire first wave and sometimes part of the second wave too, allowing you to finish off the remaining Phantoms with Spikes and Rain.

If you don't have Spear lv. 3 available, then you just have to use Spikes and Rain and melee to finish off enemies as well as you can, and it will be a lot more chaotic that way.

• 11:14 - Gear change. I switch Rain to Spear lv. 2 because some extra long range will be helpful in the next boss fight (and some levels afterwards too).

• 11:33 - Boss fight (Snake). My tactic for this boss is to simply throw a Spear lv. 3 in front of Heinrich. It will instantly kill the big snake if it follows up with one of the correct attacks. If not, then the fight will take a bit longer. So, this is sadly a bit RNG heavy tactic...

• 11:59 - Boss Fight (Trude). Trude herself is shielded behind an invisible wall at the start of the fight. She will come out once you deal with the two snake heads on the side or wait long enough (or a combination of the two factors). In any case, in a speedrun it's simply faster to deal with the snakes first.

I use Spikes to the snake on the right because it's close enough to ground. Then I throw the Spear lv. 2 to the snake on the left. Be careful with aiming with lock-on here - I think it can cause Heinrich to aim at Trude instead, wasting your shot. Finally, after Trude comes out, whip out Spirit Cannon and destroy her.

12:08 - QTE. For PS3, the QTE sequence is L-stick down, T, S (spam), O.

Route Notes - Episode 6

• 13:28 - Fight 1. Magmites. Spear lv. 3 will destroy everything.

• 14:25 - Fight 2. There are two Phantoms. Spear lv. 3 without lock-on or aiming should kill both quick.

• 14:35 - Navigation. There's a small navigation shortcut here by Jumping on the ledge.

• 14:52 - Fight 3. Homunculi. Spear lv. 3 will destroy everything.

• 15:22 - Fight 4. Two waves of Phantoms. If you shoot with Spirit Cannon to the bench on the opposite side of the area after most Phantoms have emerged, you kill the first wave in pretty much one shot. Don't shoot too early, though, or you'll miss one or two. After that, Spear lv. 2 and 3 deal with the two remaining Phantoms.

• 16:18 - Fight 5. A lava golem. The fastest tactic is to roll past it, then throw Spear lv. 3. This can kill the mini-boss instantly, but it requires cooperation from the boss as well, i.e. RNG.

A safer tactic is to throw Spear lv. 2 at the boss' face, then as it kneels down cast Spikes. This should always kill it, but it is some seconds slower.

• 16:50 - Skip. This is the most effective place I've found in this level where to use a wall breach.

After opening floodgates, roll along the fence and breach a wall at the corner. You have to touch the loading zone to the next area from out of bounds. Succeeding in this skip requires you to have a good angle - otherwise you may fall to the bottom of the map or end up back in-bounds, both of which will force you to retry.

• 17:18 - Navigation. After loading time is over, you can do a small navigation shortcut by Jumping to the right. However, make sure to not press X too close to the loading zone or else you'll be sent back and you lose a LOT of time over this insignificant little shortcut.

Just roll through the area leaving Gretchen behind - it should be safe.

• 17:40 - Fight 6. Another lava golem. Same thing as last time, really. However, make sure not to roll too close to the golem or else it may knock Heinrich or Gretchen into the lava as it is spawning - that can quickly lead to a game over.

• 17:51 - Navigation. The environmental hazards might cause damage to Gretchen, but she usually shouldn't die from it. However, her having a low health is a problem in the next map as well, so you might want to carry her for a short while if she's in danger.

Also, if Gretchen does happen to die in the very final stretch before the loading zone, make a mad dash to the loading zone. If you're fast enough, Gretchen will be revived by the loading screen.

• 18:44 - Navigation. There is a Fire Phantom nearby who can kill Gretchen if you leave her alone with it, especially if Gretchen is at low health. So either shoot it down, take a risk and ignore it or carry Gretchen past it.

There's another small navigation shortcut using Jump around the corner.

Route Notes - Episode 7

• 19:33 - Fight 1. Lava golem and some Phantoms. Spear lv. 3 aimed straight can optimally kill everything in the room in 2 seconds flat. But this requires a bit of RNG. Realistically, some of the enemies will survive, so use Spear lv. 2 and Spikes to finish them off.

• 20:00 - Navigation. Make sure to carry Gretchen past the first hole in the ground - otherwise she may fall into it, which is an annoying time loss.

My recommended route is to use Knight's Fury next. This lets you quickly navigate past the lava and up the stairs too while taking Gretchen with you. Helps a lot compared to waiting around for Gretchen to catch up.

Don't start Fury too early, or else it will end early too. After all, you need enemies around for the Fury to continue indefinitely, and enemies don't spawn until a bit later up the stairs.

• 20:37 - Navigation. There's a Fire Phantom here. It doesn't matter if it hits Heinrich with fire balls, really. As long as you're not on fire when you finally reach the climbing wall, because you can't climb while on fire.

Gretchen may take some damage from the Fire Phantom, but in my run attempts she's never been killed by it. You don't need Gretchen for anything up ahead, other than that she stays close enough for you to cast magic.

• 20:50 - Fight 2. Two waves of Phantoms. My tactic is to first throw Spear lv. 3 at first Phantom. Then wait until both Phantoms of second wave spawn close to each other and take them both out with a single Spear lv. 2. Don't use lock-on here, just to be sure. Also don't throw Spear lv. 2 too early or else it will only kill one of the Phantoms, forcing you to wait an extra cooldown or use Spirit Cannon (both are somewhat slow options).

• 21:09 - Navigation. My recommendation is to make a mad dash to the exit, leaving Gretchen behind. She shouldn't get killed by enemies. And even if she does, you can still reach the exit in time if you're close enough to the ladder.

• 21:40 - Boss Fight (Holda 1). Spirit Cannon aimed at ground.

• 22:05 - Boss Fight (Holda 2). Same.

• 22:13 - QTE. On PS3, the QTE here is X, L-stick left, L-stick right, L-stick up, O (spam), T.

Route Notes - Episode 8

• 24:00 - Two fights.

These fights are short, and you have basically three tools to take care of it all instantly: Spear lv. 3, Witch's Embrace and Spirit Cannon. However, we want to save Spear lv. 3 against Faust, who will be the third fight in this Episode. Also, tests suggest that using Spirit Cannon for Fight 1 and Witch's Embrace for Fight 2 is 5 seconds faster than the other way around, for whatever reason. So you should do just that.

Note: if you aim poorly or just have bad luck, Spirit Cannon can knock enemies, Heinrich or Gretchen to unexpected directions in this part. If either main character falls off the bridge, it's game over.

• 24:32 - Boss Fight (Faust). Spear lv. 3 is this guy's greatest weakness. Just throw the Spear without lock-on and it should automatically kill the boss in a matter of seconds.

Route Notes - Episode 9

• 25:27 - Skip. The best skip I found for the early level is to clip through the middle gate here. You can't roll against it since it has that X-prompt, so I instead do a grab against it while casting Witch's Embrace.

After clipping through, you have to backtrack and open the door to Gretchen for her to pass through as well. If you activate the gate too early after Witch's Embrace, you may activate a cutscene break-out. It might look weird, but don't panic - just press Pause to skip the cutscene like usual.

Doing this skip and using the castle door early doesn't send the player to where they SHOULD end up after passing through the doorway, but they still end up fairly close by.

• 26:27 - Fight 1. Three spiders. I want to save Spear lv. 3 for later, so I instead use Spikes to one of the grounded spiders, melee for the other and Spear lv. 2 to the spider on the wall.

Sword magic works surprisingly well in this part too, but I still prefer using Spear lv. 2 here since it will be more helpful when saving Minukelsus just a few rooms later.

• 27:02 - Fight 2. Three waves of spiders.

This is something of a special event where you'd normally have to go through a loop to get upstairs and save Minukelsus. However, you can skip a large part of it by staying downstairs and just killing the spiders threatening him with projectile attacks.

This is a very RNG heavy part since it's difficult to hit the spiders consistently from downstairs, and every miss will force you to wait cooldowns so that you can retry. Regardless, my so far pretty inconsistent tactic for this part is this:

• Spear lv. 2 on the first wave of spiders.
• Afterwards, two more spiders spawn on the balconies both to the left and right. I back up close to the stairs while locking on to the left spiders and Spike them. This usually kills both that are up there.
• Then I turn and shoot at the right balcony with Spirit Cannon, hopefully without hitting Heinrich in the process.
• Optimally, all other spiders are now dead and the third wave will spawn around Minukelsus. A single Spear lv. 2 or 3 will take care of them.

Sometimes Spirit Cannon doesn't kill the spiders on the right side. Rather, it may even fling one of them to somewhere unexpected, only increasing the randomness in this part.

Spear lv. 3 helps in thinning out the enemy hordes on the balconies, but it is very inconsistent at hitting more than one spider at a time when you throw it blind.

• 27:54 - Fight 3. Five spiders. Three of them spawn on the stairs behind Heinrich, the rest either on the floor or the left balcony. I usually throw Spear lv. 3 to the group behind Heinrich and then Spikes and Spear lv. 2 to the remaining two. Note that sometimes one spider spawns in air or on the left balcony, which can make it hard to notice.

• 28:25 - Fight 4. Three Wights. A fast tactic is to whip out Spirit Cannon and shoot at the angle of the ceiling in front of you. This often kills all three at once, but not always. Alternatively, Spear lv. 3 and spikes also deal with the Wights very well since they're in a tight group.

• 28:42 - Navigation. There are stray (optional) spiders and Phantoms on the basement floor, which means it's extremely hazardous to leave Gretchen behind when you go there. She can get killed randomly, so you should carry her past enemies or at least thin out the enemy ranks with Spear lv. 3 or such.

Activating the switches in the area teleports Gretchen close by, so that's one way to tactically get her to safety, if things come to that.

Note that the spirit energy meter has probably filled up again since doing the skip at the start of the level. However, it's best to save using it for later.

• 30:00 - Fight 5. Spiders. This is the only mandatory fight in the area, and it's somewhat hairy too since the spiders shoot their web very eagerly in this part, often paralyzing either Gretchen or Heinrich. Try to get rid of the enemies as fast as you can with Spear lv. 2 and 3 to the aerial spiders and Spikes to ground-based spiders.

• 30:27 - Navigation. You need Gretchen close by upstairs since new enemies spawn. If she gets grabbed by the Wight and you're too far ahead, you literally cannot avoid getting a game over. So you might as well carry her most of the way there.

• 30:50 - Fight 6. While the area has plenty of foes in it, only the Thunder Phantoms are necessary to kill to clear the fight barrier. One convenient way to do this is to step a few steps to the right after entering the room, then waiting with Spear lv. 2 in hand. The Phantoms soon cluster close to Heinrich in a predictable way, allowing you to hit them all in one shot. If this alone doesn't kill them, try to Spike the remaining ones that are knocked down, then just leave the area.

• 31:17 - Fight 7. Three Wights, including a Silver Wight. A fairly consistent tactic for me is to roll up the stairs a little bit, then aim with Spirit Cannon to the bottom of the stairs and shoot. Optimally, it will kill all enemies without hitting Heinrich. If the explosion does hit Heinrich, he'll at least fly up the stairs and gets closer to your destination.

• 32:04 - Fight 8. Plenty of spiders and a few Wights and two waves of Thunder Phantoms. With this many enemies of different types around, it's the best to use Witch's Embrace. Afterwards, only two Thunder Phantoms remain, who can be quickly taken care of with Spear lv. 2 and 3.

Route Notes - Episode 10

• 32:55 - Boss Fight (Trendula 1). Whip out Spirit Cannon, wait for a few seconds and shoot. It should instantly end the fight. If you fire too soon, the boss will still be invulnerable, wasting the shot.

• 33:43 - Fight 1. Three Wights, one of them is a Silver Wight. My most recent tactic is insta-killing the first Wight who jumps off the pedestal with Spikes - but once again, remember good timing, and only cast Spikes once Wight has fully landed. After that, I Spear Lv. 3 to weaken the two remaining Wights. Then Spikes or melee to finish them both off.

• 34:10 - Fight 2. Two Thunder Phantoms. This one is simple: take out Spear Lv. 2 and aim to up-right. Soon Trendula will punch through the wall, sending both Phantoms flying up to a specific spot on the wall. If you time your Spear lv. 2 shot right, you'll kill both of the Phantoms as they hit the wall.

• 34:26 - Navigation. There are three Thunder Phantoms here, plus Trendula will punch through the wall at one point (at the top of first staircase). Leaving Gretchen behind is a safety hazard, so best to just carry her past here. The 3rd Phantom will always cast lightning ball, but it isn't too hard to dodge around.

• 34:47 - Fight 3. Wights and three Thunder Phantoms. However, only the Phantoms are necessary to kill to clear the fight barrier. Like in Episode 9, just activate the fight, take out Spear lv. 2 and wait for the Phantoms to cluster near Heinrich. They will predictably do so, and can all be taken out with one hit.

• 34:58 - Navigation. There are spiders here, so personally I found it most convenient to carry Gretchen through this part. Also note that Trendula will punch through the wall at two places, so stop moving as the screen shakes to avoid getting hit by her - if you do get hit, that will also spawn extra Phantoms you got to fight.

• 35:14 - Fight 4. Spiders. Since the area has so many spiders in both floors, I thought Witch's Embrace is a good way to get rid of 'em all at once.

• 35:38 - Fight 5. Three Thunder Phantoms. They are clustered at the start of the fight, so quickly Spear lv. 2 to hit all at once. This doesn't usually kill all of them, so use Spikes and Spear lv. 3 to deal with rest.

• 35:50 - Gear change. I feel like switching on Seal of Rage helps a bit with Trendula RNG up ahead. Actually, maybe switching this gear on earlier would have helped with previous fight too? Something to consider for the future.

• 36:17 - Boss fight (Trendula 2). This is a somewhat RNG-heavy boss fight. Well, before I write down my tactic, let me go through the three worst things that can happen during the fight.

First of all, Trendula starts the fight by vanishing and re-appearing somewhere else. She may rarely grab Gretchen while doing this, and if this happens, it will not only prevent you from starting your offensive for a while but it might also cause Gretchen to drop off the map in some inexplicable way, causing a game over. So this fight can be (at worst) over before it even starts.

Second of all, you should avoid the first bridge to the right at all costs. It doesn't have a floor, and you will fall through if you try to walk to that direction. It's some weird bug in the game. If you retry and try again, it WILL have a floor and is safe to walk on, but if you're on your first attempt... avoid it.

Third of all, it's not safe to shoot with Spirit Cannon in many places on this map. The invisible wall can detonate your shots instantly, also blowing Heinrich up in the process. The second bridge to the right is one of the safe places where to shoot from, so keep that in mind.

Okay, so my tactic. I throw Spear lv. 3 without lock-on as the first thing. The Spear will fly a while, but it will eventually find Trendula, wherever she teleports to, and causes a decent if also a slightly random amount of damage to her.

After Trendula has settled down somewhere, go to a safe spot on the level for shooting with Spirit Cannon and fire at her. This should take out most of her health, and combined with Spear lv. 3, that alone might be enough to end the boss fight.

If the Spear lv. 3 didn't hit enough times, Trendula will teleport one more time before the fight ends. Just throwing Spear lv. 2 at her is enough to finish her off, so do so at earliest possible convenience.

• 36:57 - QTE. On PS3, the QTE for this part is T, X, L-stick up, S, O (spam).

Route Notes - Episode 11

• 38:52 - Fight 1. Three Wights, one of them is a Silver Wight. Shoot them with Spirit Cannon before they have the opportunity to leave their initial formation.

• 39:00 - Gear change. If you hadn't already at the end of previous Episode, switch back to cooldown reducing gear as soon as possible. You need the maximum reduced cooldown to fire with Spirit Cannon twice on this map.

• 39:13 - Fight 2. Spiders and Wights. I have no other use for Witch's Embrace in this level, so I just use it here. Otherwise fighting this bunch of enemies is quite chaotic.

• 39:45 - Skip. Here's one of the rare skips in this game that doesn't use Witch's Embrace! If you stop before reaching the top of the staircase and shoot at your feet with Spirit Cannon, you can send Heinrich flying over the low wall and thus skip a fight trigger. With some luck, Gretchen also lands close by and can revive Heinrich pretty quick afterwards.

Alternatively, you could just activate the fight and use Witch's Embrace to instantly get it over with, if you still had spirit energy to spare. But I believe this is actually slower than just skipping the fight altogether, and doing the skip also allows you spare the Witch's Embrace for Fight 2 instead.

• 40:25 - Boss fight (Rapunzel). Spirit Cannon kills instantly. Sometimes the boss refuses to die and instead finishes some action before the QTE starts, which wastes some seconds.

• 40:50 - QTE. On PS3, the QTE for this part is O, S, L-stick right, R1, T.

Route Notes - Episode 12

Here starts the part in the game that is both a boring slump with a lot of uneventful running and not many skips as well as a run ender with some really RNG-heavy spots to endure past! Good luck.

• 43:14 - Fight 1. Two Wights spawning in two waves, the second one has a shield. Time to put those unique skills by Minukelsus to good use. My tactic for this part is to freeze and shatter first Wight, then Stab and throw the second Wight.

• 44:58 - Fight 2. Three aberrations. My tactic is to freeze and shatter first one and have Minukelsus stab the second one. Optimally, only one is left alive after that point. Grab it and run with it next to the fight barrier and get ready to shatter it as soon as cooldown has resolved again.

• 45:49 - Fight 3. Two Wights. Optimally, you'll freeze the left one and stab the right one and the fight is over almost instantly. However, the Freeze Potion can miss, and sometimes Stab doesn't instantly kill the other Wight. In that case, you should either wait an extra cooldown or try to finish the surviving Wight off with the strongest melee attacks.

• 46:23 - Fight 4. Two Wights, one of which is a Silver Shield Wight. Freeze the left one and attempt to stab the right one. Again, Minukelsus' attacks can miss, in which case you'll have to wait for extra cooldowns. If things went optimally, the Silver Wight is now down a shield and can be grabbed. Do so, then run next to fight barrier and freeze & shatter it at earliest convenience.

• 46:58 - Fight 5. Three Phantoms in three waves. My tactic is to Explosive Potion the first one as it is spawning (should hit with 100% accuracy), then melee the other one with Heinrich as it spawns close by. After that, keep spamming Potions at the last Phantom until you hit, or if you're desperate, go melee that one to death as well.

This is one of the fights where Minukelsus can accidentally suicide or kill Heinrich if he tries to throw an Explosive Potion at a Phantom that swoops in close for a melee attack, so watch out for that.

• 47:30 - Fight 6. A bunch of Dire Wolves. This fight is pure chaos since these enemies are fast and durable, plus Freeze Potion merely does light damage to them so you're down one overpowered special move.

Try to stab these enemies as well as you can. Manipulate them to stay still with Heinrich as Minukelsus goes and stabs them. And while waiting for cooldowns, try to deal melee damage with Up Slash as well as explosive potions. That's pretty much all you can do in this fight.

This is another fight where Minukelsus can accidentally kill himself or Heinrich by throwing explosive potions at a wrong time. The sides of the arenas have some insta-death collision to them, so watch out.

• 49:14 - Chase scene? Fight? I'm still kind of confused as to what the game expects of you in this part. I do know, however, that if you try to escape while carrying Minukelsus, the enemy will catch up to you and usually kills everyone in just a few swipes.

The tactic I settled on using is to have Minukelsus use the "Flurry" special attack on the spot to distract the giant Wight as it is spawning. Meanwhile, have Heinrich quick roll through the area and try not to get hit by the meteors. This way you don't have to fight anything, but your chance of success is still somewhat average. Mentally prepare yourself for game overs at this point.

Would Freeze Potion work to slow down the enemy? I got that impression from a FAQ I just read. I guess it's worth trying in the future.

• 50:30 - Fight 7. Two waves of aberrations, maybe eight of them in total. Try to Freeze or Stab the first three. After second wave spawns, things get a lot more hectic. Continue along the same lines - Freeze or Stab whenever possible, but feel free to try to damage kill a few of the aberrations with Explosive Potion and Up Slash as well.

Route Notes - Episode 13

• 52:00 - Gear change. In this Episode we play as Gretchen solo. Her default equipped magic is terrible, so quickly switch it to something more reasonable. Remember that there are a few magics that require Heinrich's participation, like the Spear magics, so those can't be used with Gretchen solo.

My favored setup is Trap lv. 3, Spikes, Rain and Sword.

• 52:24 - Fight 1. Two Wights. Spikes kill the other one instantly. Meanwhile, stunning and doing a charge blast to other should kill that one instantly too.

The charge blast is one of the most powerful moves in Gretchen's arsenal, so get used to doing it a lot. It has a rather short range, though, so it's helpful to stun enemies before using it.

Note that Rain can be a bit unreliable in this level, as if its projectile passed through the floor every now and then instead of making an impact. So sometimes it's worth it to try to stun with Sword instead, just to be safe.

• 52:37 - Fight 2. Two Wights. Similar tactics, although these guys have a bit more health than the two previous ones. Sword is a helpful passive damage dealer that can finish off multiple foes at once.

• 54:04 - Skip. Since Gretchen can use Witch's Embrace while solo, it's possible to do the wall clip with her.

Your objective is to get through the fight barrier up ahead. This is a rather finicky skip, and worst case scenario is that you don't pass through and have to retry from last checkpoint. It's all about good positioning, I think. My setup is to look for the small black "square" on the ground roughly at the center of the barrier, then try to breach the wall a little to the left of it.

• 54:23 - Navigation. Some Phantoms spawn, and while they're technically optional, they'll get in the way later on if you let them live. Just do a simple locked on charge shot to take care of one. As for the second and third wave of Phantoms, casting Sword gets rid of all of them at once.

Since spirit energy is needed for another skip later in the level, it's worth it to stop and break those weird shiny objects behind the gate to get extra energy.

• 54:55 - Fight 3. Three Wights, one of which is a Silver Wight. My suggested tactic is to Sword them all as they're spawning, then Trap lv. 3 to keep them in place. Target the one on the left for Spikes - this should kill it. Then do a well-positioned charge blast to kill the remaining two Wights at once.

If the above doesn't work, then you need extra change blasts or Spikes to deal with the rest.

• 55:35 - Fight 4. Three Phantoms. Just cast Sword before they leave the ground and the fight is over.

• 55:50 - Fight 5. Three Wights, one of which is a Silver Wight. Similar tactics as before, nothing new to mention. Oh, these enemies can also "grab" Gretchen, causing an unnecessary and slow QTE. It's annoying if it happens.

• 56:42 - Navigation. Break two more shiny objects to fill the spirit bar before progressing onward.

• 57:05 - Fight 6. Three Wights, one of which is a Silver Wight. Similar tactics as before.

• 57:32 - Skip. Slightly finicky, so be careful. My setup is to place Gretchen on top of the "crack" on the stairs right of the circular hole on the wall.

Now, unlike usual where you want to keep running while doing a wall clip, you do NOT want to do that here. Because you're breaching a wall near stairs, if you keep holding L-stick chances are you'll clip through the floor as well. So instead cast Witch's Embrace early on during your evade and then don't hold L-stick at all.

• 57:45 - Fight 7. Some more Wights. Same old. I guess theoretically environmental kills could speed things up, if you had a way to consistently knock enemies off the platform?

• 58:09 - Navigation. Some enemies spawn but you can just ignore them.

• 59:37 - Fight 8. Various Phantoms. Some are killed by a moderately charged shot, but most are not. So my tactic for these guys is to knock them off the sky with a moderately charged shot, then cast Sword to finish them off while they're grounded. I guess Hammer magic could come in handy in a fight like this too, but I didn't play around with that setup much.

• 59:56 - Fight 9. Plenty of aberrations. Two Sword castings will kill 4 of them at once. Meanwhile, Spikes or charge blast will kill one in one shot.

• 1:00:18 - Fight 10. Two waves of Wights, including Silver Wights. This is a somewhat hectic battle, but the tactics remain the same as always - Sword, Spikes, Rain, Trap, Charge Blast.

• 1:01:25 - Fight 11. Plenty of aberrations. Same tactics as previously.

Route Notes - Episode 14

• 1:02:22 - Navigation. If you examine the wall vines while carrying Minukelsus, this prompts him to climb the vines faster than normal, so it's an useful small time save.

• 1:02:39 - Skip. This is in my opinion the most difficult skip in the entire game, so it's a shame it has to be done 1 hour into the run.

The key idea here is to get knocked through an invisible wall next to the key barrier by using Minukelsus' explosive potion. The best way to accomplish this is to bring one of the nearby Wight enemies with you to the key barrier up ahead, then position Heinrich very carefully and throw the Potion. It's still finicky as heck, and you only got two shots at doing this skip before the Wight dies of damage - in which case the skip has failed and you got to retry.

My setup is to kill the other Wight of the two that spawn right off the bat. Lure the other Wight closer to the key barrier. After reaching the wider area, try to Stab it to break its shield. If that doesn't work, simply wait extra cooldowns. Eventually, the Wight is without its shield, so you should grab it. Run in front of the elevated area to the right of the key barrier while carrying the Wight and wait until it breaks free of its own volition.

Now comes the precise positioning part. Grab the Wight again and walk some steps to the right and back. I use one of the intersections between floor tiles as a visual cue as to where I want to stand with the Wight. Heinrich's angle is also important, as it dictates to what direction he is launched after being knocked by the blast. Try to stand at an angle where Heinrich is facing the pillar to the opposite side of the key barrier, perhaps leaning just slightly to the left.

Then comes the blowing up part. Throw the Potion so that it coincides with the Wight breaking free of Heinrich's grasp pretty well - otherwise you might miss Heinrich entirely and only hit the Wight. And remember, there are only two shots at this.

Sometimes Minukelsus succeeds at blowing up Heinrich all too well, sending him flying all the way off the map. It's a game over if this happens. I'm guessing there is some randomness to the result here, which makes this a particularly unpleasant skip to pull off in a run.

If any of the above fails but the Wight is still alive, re-position yourself and the Wight and try again. Otherwise, retry.

After getting past the invisible wall, you're on a small elevated area to the right of the key barrier. Now you have to squeeze past two tight spots. First one can be got past by simply running against the corner between the key barrier and collision. Alternatively, if you Jump, you can get to another piece of collision above and skip to the next part of this skip instantly.

After slipping through the first tight spot, there's one more challenging and random part to this skip left. You have to do a roll through the second tight spot, and your angle is very important. If you lean too much to the right, you'll fall off the map. If you go straight but too far, you hit death collision even if you don't fall off the map, failing the skip anyway. You have to very precisely clip through the tight spot, yet avoid going any deeper out of bounds, all the while fighting the unpredictable collision... Yeah, not fun.

But it's a big enough skip that it's worth it in a run even if you perform it very slowly or fail it once.

• 1:04:24 - Fight 1. Two Fire Phantoms and a Silver Shield Wight. Now, this fight is pretty interesting because you were never intended to fight these guys with Heinrich solo. Heinrich can barely make a dent to the Wight's shield with regular attacks - therefore, the only reasonable option is to do Up Slash against it until it shatters. It does the best damage and Heinrich doesn't get knocked back while doing it either.

A good setup for doing an Up Slash to the Wight is to start doing a regular combo away from the Wight, then right before the Up Slash attack lock-on and hold forward (opposite direction from intended) and t. Once the Wight has lost its shield, just grab and throw it off the platform.

Meanwhile, get rid of Fire Phantoms when possible with Jump and air grab, for instance. If they light Heinrich on fire, that prevents him from doing Up Slash for a while and is a real pain.

• 1:05:08 - Navigation. The meteors on the upcoming path can drop Heinrich off the map. Fortunately you just recently hit a checkpoint, so you don't have to retry from too far away if it happens.

• 1:06:41 - Fight 2. A bunch of aberrations and later Fire Phantoms. Stab and Freeze the enemies as well as you can, and possibly damage kill one or two. Phantoms are dealt with Potions or air melee, as usual.

• 1:07:27 - Navigation. You can do a small platforming shortcut to the left. However, you still have to wait for Minukelsus before entering the spike wall corridor up ahead - just to make sure no one dies - so this doesn't save too much time. But I think it does save a little bit of time since Minukelsus runs faster than Heinrich and can catch up after you do the shortcut.

The spike walls are just a pure chaos. Carry Minukelsus and hope you don't get hit by enemies. You should keep carrying Minukelsus all the way until you reach the next fight.

• 1:08:02 - Fight 3. Phantoms. You only have to deal with the Phantoms to clear the fight barrier, so do your best to ignore the aberrations. Have Minukelsus target the Phantoms specifically with lock-on, and also use air melee to speed things up.

• 1:08:37 - Boss Fight (Shadow Gretchen). This is a somewhat RNG-heavy boss that can get out of hand if you're very unlucky.

Shadow Gretchen doesn't take much damage from most attacks. Stab is the most effective move against her, but the problem is that she's pretty nimble and it's difficult to hit her at will. I try to setup the Stab by knocking her down with Smash and then using the special when she's getting up. But it still doesn't have a 100% hit chance.

You can sometimes freeze her with Freeze Potions, but it's even more difficult to get those to hit her.

Things become a pure chaos if Shadow Gretchen summons two or more Wights in the area. You can't control when or if that happens, so just try to finish off the boss as soon as possible to prevent it.

Route Notes - Episode 15

• 1:10:34 - Gear change. Once again, switch Gretchen's magic to something better before it's too late.

• 1:10:55 - Fight 1. Wights, same old, same old.

• 1:10:25 - Fight 2. Wights. Yeah...

• 1:11:42 - Skip. This is similar to the previous skip with Gretchen. Find the right positioning, evade, cast Witch's Embrace but do NOT hold L-stick while the cutscene is playing. My setup for this one is to breach the wall right in front of the circular key hole.

• 1:12:02 - Fight 3. Aberrations. Sword and Spikes and Blast for the win.

• 1:13:09 - Fight 4. Plenty of Phantoms. Use semi-charged shot to instantly kill some Phantoms. Sword to kill grounded Phantoms. Hope the Thunder Phantoms don't teleport around all the time, wasting previous tens of seconds off your time. Also, try not to get hit, because there will be more enemies up ahead and having low health could spell a game over for you.

• 1:13:51 - Navigation. Have to travel up the tower while Phantoms all around are shooting at you. This is a bit risky segment. Try to time your dodges well and avoid getting hit. Gretchen has a somewhat low health, after all.

• 1:14:37 - Boss Fight (Shadow Heinrich). Heinrich is a bit like a Wight, except a bit faster and more durable and with the ability to teleport arbitrarily. But many same tactics apply: first stun him, then charge blast him for maximum damage. Only need a few charge blasts to end the fight.

• 1:15:22 - Gear change. It's highly recommended to switch magic now to get ready for Episode 16 boss. Switch Spear lv. 3 and Spirit Cannon back to their usual slots.

Route Notes - Episode 16

• 1:16:08 - Boss Fight (Verderinde). She has a huge damage protection at the start of the fight, so you can't just insta-kill her with Spirit Cannon. Instead, point the Cannon at her and wait for her to move. If she dodges or leaps in air, she becomes fully vulnerable and can be insta-killed. If she dodges or leaps too far away, you risk missing the the Spirit Cannon projectile. In that case, it's probably best to just retry from last checkpoint.

• 1:16:34 - QTE. On PS3, this QTE is T, R1, O (spam), L-stick right.

Route Notes - Episode 17

• 1:18:58 - Skip. You can skip the first half of Episode 17 by breaching a wall nearby. Ignore the enemies and instead make your way to the back wall. Find a soft corner there a bit to the right and face the corner as well as you can - you should be at around a 45 degree angle. This wall breach works consistently, but getting the angle right is a bit finicky. Failing this skip after getting this far in the run is really annoying.

After the skip, Heinrich and Gretchen are separated once again. So climb the nearby vine wall and hit a checkpoint. Retry to teleport Gretchen back close.

• 1:20:01 - Fight 1. Some stone monsters. Spear lv. 3 usually kills all but one of them. The last one can then be finished with Spikes.

• 1:20:29 - Navigation. The dropping rock formations deal a TON of damage, so try to avoid getting hit.

• 1:20:37 - Fight 2. Aberrations and Dire Wolves. Only the Dire Wolves have to be fought in order to clear the fight barrier, so prepare the Spirit Cannon and kill them all in one shot as they spawn to the center of the area.

• 1:20:54 - Fight 3. A rock titan. Get it stunned by Rain or Spear lv. 3, then Spikes to the core to finish it off.

Route Notes - Episode 18

• 1:21:40 - Skip. Run past the save point, then breach a wall to your left with Witch's Embrace. Once again you don't want to keep running during the cutscene because there isn't much floor outside bounds.

So, get inside the wall, then turn almost 180 degrees around, aim towards the floor with Spirit Cannon and blow up Heinrich so that he flies into a corridor that's nearby. Spam X to rise up as fast as possible and hope that in the meanwhile Gretchen doesn't run into the saw blades like a fool (although even if she does, this shouldn't kill her in one shot).

From there, the path to end level is clear, so just roll there.

• 1:22:41 - Boss Fight (big homunculus). This boss doesn't die from a single Spirit Cannon shot, so instead soften it up with Spikes, and only THEN Spirit Cannon its ass.

Route Notes - Episode 19

• 1:23:34 - Boss Fight (Faust 2). Lock-on with Spear lv. 3 and fire away. This should end the fight within seconds.

• 1:24:00 - Boss Fight (Faust 3a). This boss is mostly vulnerable to ranged damage, so you can't just cheese past him with Spirit Cannon or Spear lv. 3. Instead, hit his feet with all your strength. Eventually, he'll collapse down, at which point you can get on him and Up Slash to do great damage.

• 1:24:39 - QTE. On PS3, this QTE is L-stick left, (fail). Yes, failing this QTE after first prompt is faster than fully completing it, as far as I can tell.

• 1:25:00 - Boss Fight (Faust 3b). Almost similar to Faust 3a, but the boss attacks more aggressively and can protect his feet with barriers every now and then.

First, use Witch's Embrace to drain a few health bars away from the boss. This allows you to one-cycle him.

After that, repeat the same procedure as with Faust 3. Hurt the legs, then jump on and use Up Slash as many times as you can.

• 1:25:33 - Gear change. This is very important: switch gear to prepare for Episode 20 boss fight before beating Faust. Put on Seal of Rage. Also, switch Rain for Trap lv. 2 and Spirit Cannon for Kaspar's Rifle.

• 1:25:53 - QTE. On PS3, this QTE is T, R1, X, L-stick left, T, S (spam), L-stick down.

Be careful: if you fail QTEs in these final bosses, you get a game over and the time loss will be especially scathing.

Route Notes - Episode 20

• 1:27:40 - Boss Fight (Verderinde 2a). Cast Trap lv. 2 and throw Spear lv. 3 at her. Win instantly.

• 1:27:52 - QTE. On PS3, this QTE is O (spam), L-stick up, T.

• 1:28:44 - Boss Fight (Verderinde 2b). Normally, you are only able to damage this boss for full damage once every 30-40 seconds or so. All the other damage while waiting is just pathetic chip damage. So, at first I thought this prevented the player from getting a quick kill, but then I found the answer... Kaspar's Rifle.

First, cast Spikes to deal full damage to her. Then, without pressing L-stick to any direction or locking on, just start firing with Kaspar's Rifle. The boss doesn't know how to properly avoid it and gets hit by enough chip damage to kill her, even though she is in a near-invulnerable state at the moment.

• 1:28:57 - QTE. On PS3, this QTE is L-stick left, S, T, O.

Timing ends when you press "Next" in the Mission results screen.

Credits

This guide was written by AKheon and... (add name if you choose to edit this guide, I guess!)

Shout-outs to the Knights Contract walkthrough on GameFAQs by DomZ Ninja, which was helpful while planning the run.