Topic: Jago's Castlevania Harmony of Despair tips

[Jago]

Woohoo, this game is addictive.

I have been playing this game a lot and thought I would share tips with you guys. Mainly for Simon and Yoko because that's who I have been using so far. These are strategies and tricks I found. I am by no means a master and don't know everything yet, and I'm sure a lot of this people know already, but thought I would share some knowledge.

Air combos
---------------
You can attack and then double jump again and be able to attack still in the air. Characters like Simon have fast recovery on their whip so you can whip as soon as you jump, whip again, then double jump, whip, then whip as you land. You can also mix it up and do something like, jump, whip, whip, jump, whip, subweapon. This can be a good tactic against large and slow enemies.

Backdash cancel
------------------------
I've been doing this for as long as I can remember, back since Harmony of Dissonance or SotN is where it first began I believe. You can attack, then as the attack connects, quickly backdash and attack again for a nice "combo" or to get out of the way of an attack. If you backdash cancel into a crouch and attack you won't move back as far and still be close to the enemy.

Jump Cancel
-------------------
I like to do this with characters like Yoko a lot. Do a small jump and do a spell in the air then as soon as you land you are able to do a little hop and repeat the spell again. After you land and do a 2nd spell you can backdash and do another spell or rejump. Now you can holy lightning and blue splash like crazy and you're also able to maneuver out of the way if needed since you're jumping.

Yoko completely destroy's Dracula on stage 6 with this tactic....save your MP and once 2nd form is defeated crouch under, and as he transitions, you can do jump~blue splash,land,jump~bluesplash,land,jump~bluesplash, and so on under the heads. Each time you do the spell it will hit him 5 times if done right, so that's like 300 - 500 damage per blue splash depending on how leveled you are.

BTW a good combo for Yoko...works good on Astarte...jump in holy flame, land, holy flame, backdash holy flame (or holy lightning). If she gets you too close to the wall you can just holyflame, backdash, holyflame backdash, holy flame, backdash, holy flame, backdash...and she's in trouble.

She is also great with this on stage 3. Equip her with an Astral Ring and position yourself so that you can land cancel and spam blue splash repeatedly so that it hits the boss's heart and face at the same time. Make sure to use the zoom functions so you can tell where you are and don't waste MP.

You can double jump then dive kick right before you land and you can do it immediately again. This is good for moving around fast. Don't dive kick from too high or you will recover slower.

Dual Crushes work well on Final Guards, and will do a lot of damage instead of just 1 per hit.

The knife subweapon is pretty good in this game as it costs little MP....especially the R. Dagger...and goes a loooong distance. I zoomed out the map all the way and it seems to travel about half of the entire map. This is good for clearing out long hallways of enemies. A single knife throw will also take out all the corpses Legion drops. Knives also work good on Chapter 3 boss since he can be hard to reach and you can throw them from afar from the left platform.

Richter can whip then kick immediately after. You can also do stuff like sliding kick into spin kick.

If two teammates are dead and you have a life water, if one of them has a life water you should revive them so they can revive the other person. What if you can't tell them apart? Maybe have them talk to you so you can hear the character voice, or use your instincts.

I recommend buying 2 Master Rings as soon as you can. And yes the effect does stack. Sell any extra copies of equipment you have, if you've been playing long enough then you can make the money needed in no time. Also 2 Soul Eater rings for Soma.

Other accessories I like to equip are 2 Artemisian Rings/Apollonian Rings, 2 Sage Rings/Chaos Rings, Staurolite, Megingord, Astral Ring, etc.

Simon can slide under Malachi's fireballs. He can also jump over the 2 small falling blades at the bottom area of Chapter 7.

Hmmm my views on online play

Well first of all I believe my connection is pretty laggy compared to most people probably. I would always have trouble trying to play competitive fighting games online, which is shooting yourself in the foot. So my experience might be worse than yours. Try to connect with people that have the most bars when you can.

Speedrunners finish last. Those Soma guys with their Winged Boots and Crissaegrims who like to get to the boss in one minute while everyone else is still elsewhere. Unless these guys are pro, they usually end up getting thereselves killed. Be paitent, and all players should stick together. Also, by the feel of it, I'm pretty sure the further apart players are on the map, the laggier the match gets. The laggier the game is the harder the enemies are because they are harder to react to, and can teleport around, or they are "there but not really" or other way around.

I can't stand playing stage 6 or 10 online...these always lag very badly for me when I get to Drac. Boy I tell you what, I've had so much weird stuff happen, like he disappears after he changes form and you can never hit him again. The lag can make him literally unbeatable sometimes.

If you died and you're still a skeleton, try your best not to get killed again because it knocks off a lot of time from the countdown. 00.00.00 and it's game over dude.

Most important thing is teamwork. Everyone is only as strong as the weakest link. All for one, one for all. I always heal if I see a teammate around 25% health and always get any Water of Life chests. Healing is important, defense is just as important as offense. I'm a highroller who invests in Super Potions lavishly, I always make sure I have 9 of them before a game. You can never have too many. If you've used one and you get to another Grimoire, be sure to equip another. If you want to rush gung ho to the boss yourself and get killed and make everyone else panic, good for you. I don't mind catching up, but if there's other players left behind that aren't as quick as you, then I'm gonna be backing them up and calmly taking my time.

Also, if you're going to play on stage 7, please consider using a girl character to avoid Astarte's Temptation. Many of a time have a seen an all male team fall victim to her charm.

Be a good sport, be friendly and say Hello. When someone heals or revives you say Thanks. Say Good Work when you successfully beat a boss. If someone is saying Here that usually means they want you to go to where they are. Got It is like "You're welcome" pretty much.

Well, that's it folks. I am still learning the game myself. I'm still trying to get my subweapons to level 9...I almost have it for cross with Simon. Also I know there's good stuff like Miser Rings I hear that are rare to get. I don't know what they do though because I don't want to spoil it for myself yet.