castle crashers- best way to gain levels? *minor spoils*

[Gamerforlife]

This game turned out better than I expected. The Behemoth surprised me. They've blown Alien Hominid right out of the water with this game in my opinion

yeah- i wasn't really a fan of Alien Hominid. I downloaded the demo, but never picked it up. It seemed really really difficult.

My problem with Alien Hominid was always that it seems like death was inevitable and you basically were relying on extra lives and continues to make it through the game. People always compare it to the Metal Slug and Contra series, but there's an intelligence behind the design of the best Contra and Metal Slug games. Death is ALWAYS your fault in those games, not the case with Alien Hominid however.

[nickfil]

This game turned out better than I expected. The Behemoth surprised me. They've blown Alien Hominid right out of the water with this game in my opinion

yeah- i wasn't really a fan of Alien Hominid. I downloaded the demo, but never picked it up. It seemed really really difficult.

My problem with Alien Hominid was always that it seems like death was inevitable and you basically were relying on extra lives and continues to make it through the game. People always compare it to the Metal Slug and Contra series, but there's an intelligence behind the design of the best Contra and Metal Slug games. Death is ALWAYS your fault in those games, not the case with Alien Hominid however.

exactly. Every time i played and died, i felt like the game was cheating me and it was completely out of my control.

[Gamerforlife]

I think there is very little chance (for me anyway) of beating insane mode alone. The game really is set up for multiplayer, especially since the number of enemies does not increase with more players. (Actually, I wish it did scale a little bit)

I'm past the parade, but I will probably go no further without continually using 5 potions for every level.

VICTORY!!

I went after that troll boss on insane with my red knight at level 90+, Hawkster for food pick-ups, Necromancer sword for the plus 7 defense(which counts even with max stats) and took him down. Red knight's right trigger+y attack is GODLY. When my magic bar ran out, I surfed across waves of trolls by mashing X over and over in mid-air, I blocked when I got mobbed, super magic jump to get out of it, used a potion or two, though I honestly think it's beatable without potions(at least with the Hawkster orb). I'm up to flower fields now.

[Doctor Fugue]

Well done. Unfortunately for you I think the next part is the hardest in the game. And, if you don't complete the wedding in the same gaming session as the fields, then you will have to start again at the flower fields the next time you boot it up (though you can restart just the wedding if you haven't left the game...but the wedding level itself is a bit too long).

Now, a couple of times I made it to the wedding boss with full life and all my potions, and then he just destroyed me. Mind you, I was at a much lower level then and now I'm at 99 it would probably be somewhat easier. The next few levels after that are a piece of cake.

[Gamerforlife]

Well done. Unfortunately for you I think the next part is the hardest in the game. And, if you don't complete the wedding in the same gaming session as the fields, then you will have to start again at the flower fields the next time you boot it up (though you can restart just the wedding if you haven't left the game...but the wedding level itself is a bit too long).

Now, a couple of times I made it to the wedding boss with full life and all my potions, and then he just destroyed me. Mind you, I was at a much lower level then and now I'm at 99 it would probably be somewhat easier. The next few levels after that are a piece of cake.

Yeah, I'm noticing that whole you die, you go back two stages thing. It happened when I died the first time on the Troll boss and had to do that Forest Entrance stage again. Don't like that at all. The Wedding stage boss was a cheap bastard even on normal, but you could take him out easily by knocking him down a few times with magic attacks and killing him before he got back to the organ. Given the increased health on insane, I can see how this will be a bit trickier.

[RackGaki]

Even though I beat the game, leveled one character up to 21, and my Alien Hominid won the game at 36, but I still don't know how to get the boomerang. Never got it! Isn't it in the forest levels somewhere?

I have the "level up" animal orb as well, but not having the boomerang is kind of dumb. I did beat the game without ever leveling up my strength though, so that has to count for something.

*edit*

The stupid Cardinal. I will have to do the whole game over with him, just to see what I missed out on. I've been going over large parts of the game with the Animal orb for helping me find treasure, but other than that, I just use the level up Animal Orb. Early on, The ram was the only orb I really used, because it helped me fend off melee attacks - which is nice for a character built on distance combat.

[Gamerforlife]

Even though I beat the game, leveled one character up to 21, and my Alien Hominid won the game at 36, but I still don't know how to get the boomerang. Never got it! Isn't it in the forest levels somewhere?

I have the "level up" animal orb as well, but not having the boomerang is kind of dumb. I did beat the game without ever leveling up my strength though, so that has to count for something.

*edit*

The stupid Cardinal. I will have to do the whole game over with him, just to see what I missed out on. I've been going over large parts of the game with the Animal orb for helping me find treasure, but other than that, I just use the level up Animal Orb. Early on, The ram was the only orb I really used, because it helped me fend off melee attacks - which is nice for a character built on distance combat.

There's another animal orb that is handy for getting enemies to drop rare weapons. Hawkster is my fave orb, he CONSTANTLY brings you food from dead enemies. The yeti keeps the Ice Castle boss from freezing you. Some people like Rammy and say he's useful in some situations like duals and the Troll boss in the forest. Bipolar orb is useless but funny, he's fun in the dessert stage, the painter boss and ESPECIALLY funny in the fight against the giant bat.

I hope the two new orbs in the downloadable content are cool. I would LOVE an orb that keeps you from getting knocked down from range attacks, or gives you a really big stat boost

[RackGaki]

Thanks for the run-down - I just got the Animal Handler achievement, and I get to fiddle with a whole lot of creatures while I level up. In the meantime, I got Alien Hominid up to level 43 just tracking down any creature I missed.

It took me a while, but I figured out that a few of them required bombing the walls a few times to get them out...

[Gamerforlife]

Thanks for the run-down - I just got the Animal Handler achievement, and I get to fiddle with a whole lot of creatures while I level up. In the meantime, I got Alien Hominid up to level 43 just tracking down any creature I missed.

It took me a while, but I figured out that a few of them required bombing the walls a few times to get them out...

I commend you for finding so many on your own. I like Alien Hominid He's not one of the best characters, but he is unique in the type of magic he has and the speed at which he can bust out spells. I love that they made him different.

[RackGaki]

I just tried out the boomerang exploit for my Green Knight. I jumped from level 21 to 34 in 25 minutes. It feels like cheating, but at least I beat the game with Alien Hominid boomerang-free.

To whomever wishes to level up, don't bother if you haven't beat the game first. It makes it cheap. For those who have beat the game, this will be a nice way to unlock every other character that's available in this game.

I'm going to include a list of some unlockable characters at this moment. I'm sure it's been posted elsewhere, but I don't see any other reason to gain levels. You have to beat the game with the previous character to unlock a new one - I would have known this earlier, but I beat the game with Alien Hominid, which unlocks <b>nothing<b>.

Green Knight - Royal Guard - Saracen
Red Knight - Skeleton - Royal Guard
Blue Knight - Industrialist - Fencer
Orange Knight - Fire Demon - Ninja
Grey Knight - Stoveface