[DS] Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

Whip's Memory:

I had a lot of trouble with Whip's Memory, but I finally beat him by tricking the AI. If you time it right when jumping over his head he'll keep whipping in front of him and you can hit him twice from behind before he's able to turn around. I used the Kaiser Knuckles for this since they can hit multiple times at ~50 each. The only downside to using those is that you have to stay close. If you want to keep some distance use the Jet Black Whip since it's Dark element.

It's a pretty easy pattern to maintain except for dodging the occassional Cross Crash and resuming. I used the Javelin for those times, but that's only because it was the subweapon I'd leveled the most and it hits 2-3 times.

Oh yeah, and as already stated you need the Holy Mail. It halves the damage you take from him.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Kostaki

Spoiler:

You don't need the Holy Mail at all. All you really need is a fully mastered Shuriken subweapon and a couple of tonics to replenish MP. Once you learn how to make all four Shuriken land, you can take down Richter pretty quickly without getting anywhere near the whip's range. I took him down pretty much right as the fight became available using these tactics without even taking so much as a hit from him.

Spoiler:

That's true, I know someone else who used the mastered Shuriken to easily beat Richter. Honestly, if you want to go through the effort of mastering it that method sounds a lot easier. I never really mastered any subweapons until Wind's quests started requiring it, so that wasn't an option for me.

Oh, and the Holy Mail is dropped by the Mummy boss of the second desert painting I believe.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Kostaki

Spoiler:

What I did to master weapons fairly quickly, was first take Charlotte in LUCK increasing gear + LUCK Spell into the City of Haze where the Peeping Eye is like right there when you go into one of the rooms, and repeatedly kill him quickly (jump in, hit, dive out, repeat) netting up to 9 Eye of Decays (sell for 12500 each), as two runs of that will net you the Master Ring from the shop and double mastery points when equipped.

The subweapon in question doesn't have to outright KILL the target, you just have to use it against the target once to gain points. In the portrait room with the four small portraits and larger portrait, the one on the very right (has graves on it, believe it's the Dark Academy) has an Alura Une about three screens to the left of the entrance. She's worth 11 mastery points and is easy as hell to kill and respawn. Just jump in, fire Shuriken, then use whatever to take her out, and repeat the cycle for 22 mastery points each time you use the Shuriken. I mastered almost every weapon using this very technique, though I'm not sure if having two Mastery Rings would make it 44 points or not. If so, just repeat first paragraph process once more for another Ring.

Spoiler:

Huh, and here I've been slaughtering zombies since they die so easily and respawn in large groups. I wasn't quite sure how mastery points worked, and I thought it was based more on the number of enemies killed with that weapon. I'll use your method to get the three Holy subweapons mastered.

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by Elixir

Can someone tell me what the purpose of wifi is.

I haven't started this game properly yet (only 2 hours in) but I'm thinking of thrashing the hell out of it when I'm ready.

The wi-fi essentially has 3 different functions:

- Co-Op mode online is basically a boss rush, but with a few normal enemies at the beginning of it. It's really easy as long as you get the right partner, and there's an item at the end depending on your time. Usually it's just food, but I've gotten some nifty things like the Invisibility Cloak.

- Shop mode has two different functions. You either go into another person's shop and buy items from them at ridiculous prices that the game itself sets, or you put items on a display list and connect as the shopkeeper. As I said, the prices are already set for each item, but they're a great deal higher than what you'd get normally. You also don't seem to lose the item after it's sold, but I'm not completely positive on that.

The problem with setting up your own shop is that it's the same as Co-Op with partners. It connects you to someone else and you're forced to disconnect after your last customer leaves (I've had two at once before). It would've been great if you could just set up shop and leave your DS sitting there while customers come in and out, but noooo.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I couldn't resist buying a pair of Gambler Glasses towards the beginning in an online shop. Seeing percentages rather than stars is so helpful.

I was speaking idiomatically.