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flyhighfreebirb · 6 days ago

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Deltarune Chapter 3 Shadow Crystal Boss Guide

The fandom have waited four years for this very moment.

Who is next? Who will be? Who will be the secret boss of adventure No.3?

Some say it's Mike, some say it's Flowey, some even theorized it's a cowboy (cough cough Friend inside me cough cough)

And when the truth dawned on us, everyone were blown right out of their seats. THE KNIGHT? THE ROARING FUCKING KNIGHT? What do they of all people have to do with the word "secret boss"? Aren't they the main antagonist? And why are they holding a Shadow Crystal in the first place?

Anyways, enough ranting! I'll tell you my tips and tricks on how to beat (read: barely surviving after countless failed attempts) the Roaring Knight and obtain your next Shadow Crystal!

To challenge the Roaring Knight, you have to fulfill at least one of the following three prerequisites:

You are a Touhou expert

You are an Undertale AU fangame playtester

You have acquired the Shadow Mantle, which makes this fight much more manageable

If you meet the first two requirements, you can skip to the bossfight immediately. Heck, you may not even need this guide! However, if you are looking to fulfill requirement 3(which, I believe, should be the majority of you people), I wrote a guide on how to obtain the Shadow Mantle!

Shadow Mantle Guide Here:

Now that you have fulfilled the requirements, it is finally time to face the Roaring Knight!

Before I analyze its attacks and gave you tips, let me tell you some gimmicks about the Knight:

The Knight cannot be taken down by peaceful means, you must lower their health to a certain threshold to claim your prize.

The Knight inflicts a "Swoon" effect on downed allies. (Downed targets are set to -999 HP and cannot regenerate over time) Kris is somehow immune to this effect, although their health also can't regenerate.

Kris is throwing this battle for some reason. They deal half the damage of what they usually can. However, if they're the last party member standing, their damage goes back to normal.

The Knight will not target Kris specifically with single-target attacks unless they were the last party member standing.

Recommended loadout:

It is best to give Susie the Shadow Mantle, should you have that armor, since she has the most health and can deal the most damage. Kris can be used for supplying items, since their immunity to the "Swoon" effect can make them last longer on the field. As for Ralsei... just have him do stuff while he still can.

My loadout looks like this:

Kris: Bounceblade (for more defense)/ TennaTie (for even more defense)/ BlueRibbon (more healing when using items)

Susie: ToxicAxe (for more damage)/ ShadowMantle (for surviving the Knight)/ Dealmaker (for more defense & magic)

Ralsei: Ragger2 (he'll not be healing anyways)/ Jevilstail (more attack & magic)/ RoyalPin (it has good stats I suppose)

Recommended items:

ReviveMints (and ReviveDust) are an absolute necessity, since they are the only healing items that work on swooned party members. Also, due to how the BlueRibbon's multiplier works, having Kris equip it and use the ReviveDust on swooned allies will result in a full heal for Ralsei and almost-full heal for Susie instead of 25% like the item said, so keep this in mind.

SpinCake and Execbuffet are powerful items, especially on Kris's hands, as they can heal the entire team at once.

TensionGems (and TensionMax) can be pretty useful, as they can guarantee a turn 1 Rude Buster. Let's just hope Toby won't release fusing recipes requiring them in the future...

For the rest, fill them up with whatever you like. TVDinners or DeluxeDinners are recommended.

Recommended Strategy:

To describe the strategy in one sentence, it will be "Spam Rude Buster". This is how you mainly deal damage to the Knight.

As for the Knight's attacks, they have five kinds of patterns, which gets harder as the battle progresses.

Phase 1:

Star Storm (Target all): The Knight shoots stars out of their fingers, which then explode into shards at the very end. Stay to the left if you wish to play safe, or go to the right if you're confident in your dodging skills and want to farm TP. Before the end of the attack, try to find a vacant space between the stars.

Homing Knife (Single Target): Knives hover around you, and they briefly turn red before slashing at you. Pay close attention to the knives, and move in a direction 90 degrees to where each knife comes from.

Box Slash (Single Target): The Knight splits the battle box in two, and projectiles emerge from the cut. It is advised to hug the walls, but don't get too close to the corners, as you may not have time to outrun the projectiles.

Sword Gallery (Single Target): Two arrays of swords quickly fly across you while randomly moving up and down. At the end, the swords home in on you and shoot towards you in a rhombus pattern. Keep in mind that this attack has very few invincibility frames, and the swords' hitboxes are a bit larger than what you see (God, I SWEAR the swords should not hit me!). Hugging the right wall helps a lot with watching the swords.

Soul Slash (Target all): Red lines appear right on you, rotating for a moment before the Knight slashes. The numbers of slashes are 1-2-2-3-3-4.

If you start on the corners, you have a much bigger space to dodge the slashes, so try going to the corners, and do small adjustments only before the Knight slashes.

Phase 2:

Star Storm (Target all): Same as Phase 1, but there are more shards at the end. The strategy is the same as before.

Homing Knife (Single Target): There are now 6 additional knives circling around you during this attack. Make sure not to move too much, or you may be caught between the knives and take unnecessary damage.

Box Slash (Single Target): The Knight now randomly chooses the direction of the cut. Pay attention to which direction the Knight will slash, the strategy is otherwise the same.

Sword Gallery (Single Target): The swords now change the angle they come from in a counterclockwise manner. Obviously, you can't hug the walls now, but moving slowly in a counterclockwise loop may help you in dodging all the blades.

Soul Slash (Target all): The numbers of slashes are now 3-3-4-4-4-4.

Phase 3:

Star Storm (Target all): Each star now only provide two shards, but they home in on you one by one shortly after exploding. Strafing in circles may help in dodging the shards.

Homing Knife (Single Target): Same as Phase 1, but the Knives are now much faster.

Box Slash (Single Target): The Knight now splits the box diagonally. Honestly, I don't actually know how to dodge this. I just defend and prays I can ultra instinct through all the shards.

This attack was the run-finisher for me 60% of the time. I love it when the battle box closes and it just shoves me towards the shards. Thanks a lot, Toby.

Sword Gallery (Single Target): Same shit as Phase 1, but the swords' gaps are smaller. It doesn't help that this attack has nearly no i-frames....

Soul Slash (Target all): Same as Phase 2, but there is an additional Gaster Blaster Circle-esque finisher. Go near the center and move in a small circle, and you should be fine.

Final Phase:

Soul Slash (Target all): Same as Phase 3. Skipped if you encountered it in Phase 3.

Charge (Target none): Free turn. Use this time to heal up or defend, and Kris's "HoldBreath" Act is very useful for what's coming up next...

The Roaring (I honestly don't know): Screen-wide final attack. Stars will be sucked into the Knight, and then fired outward in a spiral formation. The stars will slow and float toward the Knight once more before exploding, and then the Knight will slash down the middle of the screen.

Honestly, this attack is just Hyper Goner, except the hitboxes are super unforgiving. I am able to no-hit Hyper Goner, but I died to this attack three times. Words cannot describe the pain I've felt...

After the final attack, the Knight will let down their guard. Just attack them and all is done! Enjoy your rewards!

The rewards are here!

Good ol' Shadow Crystal.

The Black Shard. Only equippable on Kris. Currently strongest weapon in the game, giving a whopping +16AT! Additionally, it can smite dark-element enemies, dealing even more damage against them! (Spoilers alert: you can cheese some important battles with this weapon in particular...)

In my first encounter with Jevil, it took me around 40 tries to finally get him.

With Spamton NEO, the number was cut down to 20.

The Knight? Too many times to count.

I finally beat this Sans AU Fangames-ass abomination after 7 rage-filled hours, Susie barely surviving at 30 health, and me contemplating the meaning of my life, making me perhaps the most unskilled player ever to survive the Roaring Knight and obtain the secret rewards.

Difficulty Rating: 10/10. The Roaring Knight pushed my battle skills to unprecedented heights. It was in this fateful battle that I learned to land my attacks, time Rude Busters, and analyze each upcoming attack to its smallest details.

In simpler words, comparing the Knight to Jevil and Spamton NEO is like comparing Jevil and Spamton NEO to King and Queen. This should give you a faint idea of how atrocious this battle was.

Playability Rating: 1.5/10.

I hate to admit it, but for a brief moment, I thought it was... fun.

The thrill of analyzing and surviving each attack, only to fall to the next one.

The happiness of finally seeing the end in sight, only for that hope to be whisked away at the last moment.

Have I become a masochist?

When I finally defeated the Knight, after the short surge of joy, I quickly calmed myself down, take a look at my surroundings, and think of every single desicion that lured me down this path of insanity.

Perhaps I have made my choice long ago, from the moment I chose to fight Jevil for the first time.

Obviously, I have the option to back down, but is it truly worth it? After everything I did to get this far?

By the moment I wrote this, I have already triumphed against the secret boss of Chapter 4.

One year later, when Chapter 5 releases, I will be waiting.

I have started all of this, now I wish only to see the end.

... Oops, I got carried away! Back to the ratings!

Overall Rating: 1/10. Never again.

For those who want a extreme challenge, good luck, and have fun.

For those who just want to collect the third Shadow Crystal, good luck, and may whatever god you believe in have mercy on your soul.

Either way, a challenge unforeseen awaits you.

Good luck.

#deltarune #deltarune chapter 3 #secret boss #the knight deltarune #deltarune secret boss #deltarune spoilers

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flyhighfreebirb · 6 days ago

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HOW TO OBTAIN THE SHADOW MANTLE

If you came here, you were probably struggling on the Knight. The Shadow Mantle is an armor that greatly reduces damage taken from Dark/Star enemies, which makes this battle so much more manageable. However, acquiring the Shadow Mantle is a whole sidequest of its own (I remember it was called Sword Route in deltarune.wiki). And GOD, this sidequest was ATROCIOUS. It was so much longer than the Jevil and Spamton NEO sidequest combined, and you know the worst part? THIS WASN'T EVEN FOR THE SHADOW CRYSTAL BOSS! It's just for an optional item that makes the fight easier! Why did you do this, Toby? The Roaring Knight was already much more difficult than the previous Shadow Crystal holders, why did you make a sidequest that serves only to explore the otherwise nearly-scripted defeat THAT lengthy and menial?

Okay, I apologize for the rant. Considering that (spoilers alert) the chapter 4 secret boss sidequest was much more simple and normal, it seems like Toby make the chapter 3 sidequest lengthy and hard for a reason. Perhaps the details of this sidequest will be important for the story later on? Perhaps it will reveal the secrets of the Knight? There are so many questions, so many theories. Sometimes content repeatedly hinted and hyped up by the fans was revealed to be a red herring, and sometimes a normal line said by a seemingly random NPC turned out to be important at the end. Toby truly works in mysterious ways.

Okay! Time to actually explain the Shadow Mantle sidequest! Although the sidequest was a bit lengthy, it can be divided into five parts:

Step 1: Get S-rank or higher on board 1. So basically, don't be too bad on the battles (Don't get hit too much, end the battles quickly, and finish the fight with lots of TP), answer correctly on the quizzes (all questions except for the thrash machine one have fixed answers, so you can just memorize them), farm a lot of points, uncover secrets (this can aid GREATLY in the final ranking), and finally, survive the final minigame!

If you failed to S-rank here, you can go to the Pippins at the bottom of the Green Room section to buy a counterfeit S-rank for 1500 points. Otherwise, you have to restart this step.

Step 2: Go to the S-rank exclusive room and let Ramb lead you into the backstage, where the original game of Tenna's gameshows can be found and played. Go to the left and you'll find a video game console. Trying to use it will result in it saying "No Controller". Go to your right and pick up the OddController, then go back to the left again and play the game.

Find the sword and kill enemies until you reached LV3. Find the region blocked by two cacti and destroy them. Kill the enemies in the new region until you reached MAX level. Return to the outside, destroy the trees, and go out of bounds until you find a chest and get the Ice Key. This will close the game and you can continue to the next step.

(I'm not sure if you can exit and re-enter the game room during this step, or you have to complete it in one sitting. I'm not risking it though...)

Step 3: Get S-rank or higher on board 2. The tips are the same as board 1. If you failed to S-rank here, you can still buy a counterfeit S-rank for 1500 points, but I heard you can only do this once in board 1 and 2 in total. If you failed this step, reload a previous save or restart this chapter.

Step 4: Go to the S-rank room and activate the console again. Re-obtain the sword. Kill enemies until LV2. Go to the waterfall and clear the blocking branches. Go up through the waterfall and find your way to the northern Ice Palace. You should unlock the palace door with the Ice Key. (If you can't, it means you did something wrong in step 2 and you have to wipe your save.)

You will meet an unkillable blue bird blocking your path (mhm wonder who that might be), ignore it and continue killing enemies until you reach MAX level. Now find the "white cloak" character (mhm again wonder who that might be), and now you can freeze enemies.

Solve puzzles by pushing the enemies' frozen corpses, and finish off that blue bird to proceed on your path. Now you'll enter a maze: follow the white cloak and you'll eventually get to the exit. Unlock the door at the end, tread into the darkness, and get the Shelter Key. This will close the game and now you can continue the story like normal.

Step 5: After you eventually return to the Green Room, enter the S-rank room one last time. You will be spawned in a city-like map with the game's version of Susie and Ralsei. After you find the sword, you will be teleported to a place blocked off by ropes. The ropes can only be destroyed in LV3, so you have to kill off your 8-bit companions in order to progress. (Kris, I apologize for any trauma I may have given you. I will be a better person from now on unless absolutely necessary.)

After that, walk to the right, enter a manhole, and you'll reach the final dungeon. You know the drill: kill enemies, go to MAX level, find the golden trees and cut them down to exit this area. You will enter a cutscene with Tenna monologuing, and you have to kill him to progress. (Kris, I apologize once more. I wasn't given many choices.) Walk down into a region resembling Hometown, walk down into a bunker, and enter it. After all these steps, you will meet the Shadow Mantle boss at last. Phew!

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This boss was a big ramp-up in term of difficulty, I'll place it between the main quest enemies and the secret bosses. I'm not really good at this game, I even failed the previous "become stronger" section three times, so if you guys are struggling on this boss, perhaps I can give you some tips to ease your suffering?

First of all, this boss has four phases, and it deals no contact damage, so try to find some downtime between its attacks and spam the z button. Also, during phase transitions, it will linger in the center of the arena until the background fully changes color, so you can rack up a lot of damage during this time. Lastly, it doesn't seem to be affected by your equipment setup, so the only way you can beat it is to learn its patterns and pray luck is on your side.

Phase 1:

Shadow Mantle Puke (yeah this is the name I gave it): Spits out 2 sets of three bombs that explode in a spreading plus pattern. It will move in straight lines when doing this attack, and is relatively easy to approach when doing this move. Make sure you stay diagonally with the bombs as long as you can, and run up to the boss and hopefully get some hits in.

Flame Burst: Fires 4 sets of six flame orbs in a hexagonal pattern while moving in some sort of curve shape. I suggest playing safe here: hug the lower edge or the walls when the boss is doing this attack.

Phase 2:

Charge: It bursts into flames and charges towards you from the top four times. Hug the lower edge, closely watch the boss, and hope you don't run into it by mistake.

Friend Outside Me: Summons five "Friends" that will randomly move around as the boss laughs for a longer period of time, so you can either clear the way through the "Friends" and get a lot of hits in, or choose to farm them for healing items (I swear they almost never drop it though...).

Phase 3:

Shadow Mantle Puke 2: The boss now spits out four bombs instead of three. It isn't much harder, so same strategy as before.

Flame Burst 2: The boss spits out an extra bomb for each flame burst. Prioritize dodging the bombs, as the flames are easier to dodge last second.

Charge 2: Nothing new, except it gets faster and charges more frequently.

Friend Outside Me 2: The "Friends" move faster now, but the healing items drops more frequent, I believe?

Final Phase:

Flame Spiral (only used once): The boss charges up for a period of time (so yeah, you know the drill, spam the shit out of the z button), and shoots counterclockwise spinning flame beams in a triangular formation as it occasionally spits bombs. The strategy should be similar to Flame Burst 2, as the flame beams deal half damage.

Charge 3 (loops infinitely): Same as Charge 2, but with 2 additional fake cloaks that cannot be hit. My strategy here is to dodge it like usual and spam the sword when it gets close, but it didn't work out too well and I keep getting hit. Thankfully the game decided I hit first in one of these interactions and I finally beat this boss!

Difficulty rating: 6/10. One hell of a bossfight. Still easier than Jevil and Spamton NEO though.

FYI, out of all the UT/DR bosses I've fought so far, Jevil is probably 8/10, and Spamton NEO is 8.5/10 since I suck at aiming stuff.

Playability rating: 3/10. Too much prerequisite to fulfill, and I'm not sure if you can save your game halfway through the dungeon sections, so the sidequests feel a bit long for me.

Good luck with beating this boss and fight the Knight afterwards!

#deltarune #deltarune chapter 3 #secret boss #deltarune secret boss #deltarune spoilers

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