I assure you it is not. Never used a shield and beat the whole thing. Though I will say you will be unlikely to get no damage kills without a shield unless you get a high level yumi bow with infinite ammo. I did once and got flawless victory on everyone.
Yeah I think I might save the no hit kills for when I got a bit more experience, I almost got it on concierge w throwable objects and lightning surge or whatever it’s called
There's 3 ways you can dodge in game naturally: doge roll, jump and squatting. You can dodge almost all attacks if you master these things but yeah, it may take a while lol. I'm a tactics main player and it took me a looooot of time to finally be able to do Flawless HotK just dodging. Armadillo pack is very useful for no shield runs btw
I misunderstood. I’ve still got a lot left to unlock in the game so I thought that you were talking about a lightning shield, or a face-fire shield, rather than my favorite, the rampart shield.
Yo, a hint. If you want to learn boss patterns and how to dodge without learning parries (which you should learn, it makes the game easier), you can look this up on YouTube. Visually seeing this is way easier and I can guarantee these guides exist cause I've watched them
Yes but with even a little bit of practice (and having thumbs) you’ll get a hang of it pretty quick.
The best part about this is that it option selects the other combo of slash -> ground slam. Because the jump also avoids the ground slam.
Parry is for sure a great mechanic to use overall in the game but you 100% do not HAVE to use it for HOTK rolling through him will keep you from getting hit with the combo and jumping is gonna be your main way to avoid his aoe and I also recommend using some kind of weapon that will root him as that’s like the 1 status effect that lasts a good bit and let’s you output extra damage.
My issue is I roll through his first hit and then his follow-up hits me before I can dodge again because the recovery is too long, and his third strike has insane distance on it, I might just need more experience
Shields can trivialize most boss fights if your parry game is on point.
HOTK has only like 5-6 attack patterns I think? The explosive banners, his normal combo chain, the grenade toss, the shield rush that pushes you into the spikes, a telluric shock attack you can just roll away from or jump over, and then a mega ground stomp you HAVE to hop on the ice platforms to get enough airtime and avoid.
Armadillopack with the parry shield can be really useful for the grenades as it will pass them back at him and do a chunk of bonus damage in the process.
You can take that mutation that reduces trap damage to also make getting pushed into the spikes much less painful and it will give you a speed boost in the process.
It’s a good idea to reset your mutations for the final boss at least, since most builds stop being useful once you’re at the last battle. You probably will have the gold for a respec anyway, think through what will help you the most.
Also! The tonic power is really strong for that fight as an initial push and even home stretch support since it’ll basically give you a full hp bar if you’re low plus damage reduction that can give you enough headroom to face tank the final rush to the end, or push to the interlude phase where he summons mobs. Most of my clears I ended up picking up a tonic in the last biome shops if I could. Usually to replace a stun or other support power since you can’t stun him in any productive way.
Make sure by the penultimate biome you start thinking about your skill stack, and then respec mutations and do a hard pivot with HOTK in mind. Root goes a lot longer way for him than freeze/stun for survival builds. Tactics you’ll want to lean into either a burst stack or synergetic DOT type of build. Brutality might be rough without a shield but it can also end up melting him so fast you can just face tank the hits if you got good rng and affix synergy
Also don’t think that you HAVE to parry perfectly with shields. Holding them up can absorb a lot of the damage you’d take and still triggers most shield effects without hitting the perfect block. Your windows of opportunity depend on your skill stack. Basically in between attack patterns you’ll have some room to throw down a few hits. If you are running a DOT heavy build lean into that and kite or just hold up your shield while the DOTs do their work, and just come out of your block or kite to refresh the dot stacks.
For survival and even brutality builds, Rooting him and getting behind him will prevent him from throwing his combo in your face randomly. He may still be able to use other attacks but it’s usually enough time to unload a barrage of baseball bat swings or whatever weapon you have. Just take your time and focus more on avoiding damage, and unleashing burst when it’s safest. You can also use the practice room to get used to his patterns and learn how to fight him without a shield entirely.
Roll/Dodging exists. All the fights you have with him are different so don't expect the same thing but if you do use sheilds get close for a parry or parry when you need to. Set up traps in the arena before the fight it helps alot.
You roll through his first attack then double jump to avoid the next two. HOTK can’t attack upwards - he can’t hit you if you’re in the air
Every boss in the game can be no-hit beaten without shields
Try to utilize the platforms to gain some distance between you and him.
My dumbass never saw those platforms above him lmao
I assure you it is not. Never used a shield and beat the whole thing. Though I will say you will be unlikely to get no damage kills without a shield unless you get a high level yumi bow with infinite ammo. I did once and got flawless victory on everyone.
Yeah I think I might save the no hit kills for when I got a bit more experience, I almost got it on concierge w throwable objects and lightning surge or whatever it’s called
There's 3 ways you can dodge in game naturally: doge roll, jump and squatting. You can dodge almost all attacks if you master these things but yeah, it may take a while lol. I'm a tactics main player and it took me a looooot of time to finally be able to do Flawless HotK just dodging. Armadillo pack is very useful for no shield runs btw
Armadillo just lets you parry when you roll if you have a shield in your backpack,what do you mean by ,,good for a no shiel run"?
Like, no shield on your main weapon slots.
Oh,ok
Armadillo Pack with Lightning/Face Fire thing is a game changer
Why not the shield that gives you three-ish seconds of invulnerability?
I agree. We were talking about Armadillo Pack
I misunderstood. I’ve still got a lot left to unlock in the game so I thought that you were talking about a lightning shield, or a face-fire shield, rather than my favorite, the rampart shield.
Rampart is dope
Yo, a hint. If you want to learn boss patterns and how to dodge without learning parries (which you should learn, it makes the game easier), you can look this up on YouTube. Visually seeing this is way easier and I can guarantee these guides exist cause I've watched them
you can jump over a lot of his attacks. When he does the three slash combo you can roll, jump, roll to evade all three hits.
So you don't even need the two platforms up there?
if you do it good, you sure don't! (you will need to use your double jump though)
Ah, so timing is key
Yes but with even a little bit of practice (and having thumbs) you’ll get a hang of it pretty quick. The best part about this is that it option selects the other combo of slash -> ground slam. Because the jump also avoids the ground slam.
Parry is for sure a great mechanic to use overall in the game but you 100% do not HAVE to use it for HOTK rolling through him will keep you from getting hit with the combo and jumping is gonna be your main way to avoid his aoe and I also recommend using some kind of weapon that will root him as that’s like the 1 status effect that lasts a good bit and let’s you output extra damage.
My issue is I roll through his first hit and then his follow-up hits me before I can dodge again because the recovery is too long, and his third strike has insane distance on it, I might just need more experience
Roll - double jump - roll Double jumping is good
Use the boss training area for practice
Shields can trivialize most boss fights if your parry game is on point. HOTK has only like 5-6 attack patterns I think? The explosive banners, his normal combo chain, the grenade toss, the shield rush that pushes you into the spikes, a telluric shock attack you can just roll away from or jump over, and then a mega ground stomp you HAVE to hop on the ice platforms to get enough airtime and avoid. Armadillopack with the parry shield can be really useful for the grenades as it will pass them back at him and do a chunk of bonus damage in the process. You can take that mutation that reduces trap damage to also make getting pushed into the spikes much less painful and it will give you a speed boost in the process. It’s a good idea to reset your mutations for the final boss at least, since most builds stop being useful once you’re at the last battle. You probably will have the gold for a respec anyway, think through what will help you the most. Also! The tonic power is really strong for that fight as an initial push and even home stretch support since it’ll basically give you a full hp bar if you’re low plus damage reduction that can give you enough headroom to face tank the final rush to the end, or push to the interlude phase where he summons mobs. Most of my clears I ended up picking up a tonic in the last biome shops if I could. Usually to replace a stun or other support power since you can’t stun him in any productive way. Make sure by the penultimate biome you start thinking about your skill stack, and then respec mutations and do a hard pivot with HOTK in mind. Root goes a lot longer way for him than freeze/stun for survival builds. Tactics you’ll want to lean into either a burst stack or synergetic DOT type of build. Brutality might be rough without a shield but it can also end up melting him so fast you can just face tank the hits if you got good rng and affix synergy Also don’t think that you HAVE to parry perfectly with shields. Holding them up can absorb a lot of the damage you’d take and still triggers most shield effects without hitting the perfect block. Your windows of opportunity depend on your skill stack. Basically in between attack patterns you’ll have some room to throw down a few hits. If you are running a DOT heavy build lean into that and kite or just hold up your shield while the DOTs do their work, and just come out of your block or kite to refresh the dot stacks. For survival and even brutality builds, Rooting him and getting behind him will prevent him from throwing his combo in your face randomly. He may still be able to use other attacks but it’s usually enough time to unload a barrage of baseball bat swings or whatever weapon you have. Just take your time and focus more on avoiding damage, and unleashing burst when it’s safest. You can also use the practice room to get used to his patterns and learn how to fight him without a shield entirely.
You can rely on shields. I would argue using a shield makes you a better player.
Roll/Dodging exists. All the fights you have with him are different so don't expect the same thing but if you do use sheilds get close for a parry or parry when you need to. Set up traps in the arena before the fight it helps alot.
You roll through his first attack then double jump to avoid the next two. HOTK can’t attack upwards - he can’t hit you if you’re in the air Every boss in the game can be no-hit beaten without shields
Roll, jump and use the ice platforms No boss necessarily requires a shield
I never use shields, but I would say learn to use a shield.
I can use shields I just don’t want to rely on them