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

[Gamerforlife]

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

Level grinding w/boomerang may be cheap, but so is Castle Crashers LOL. I agree with you though, it's better not to start using the boomerang glitch too soon. After beating the game a few times though, when you're really just playing through the game again to unlock characters, level grinding with the boomerang speeds up the process and makes it less annoying.

Levels matter A LOT on Insane mode by the way. Oh, and try the Industrialist since you've unlocked him. He DESTROYS bosses with his buzz saws, even on Insane mode it seems. I think the Fencer is the same, though I haven't used him yet

EDIT: Buzzsaws also give you awesome crowd control from both your front and back. Makes the Troll boss in the forest on Insane mode a cakewalk as I've just discovered

[Gamerforlife]

For anyone else who has trouble with the troll boss on insane. With the industrialist(at level 35 I think) I just stayed behind the fire and buzzsawed anything that got near me, they hit any troll that got behind me too. In fact, I noticed a few times one would stay off screen behind me and not come close LOL. Whenever I got an opening, which was quite often given the clear path the buzzsaws can carve out for you, I went after the boss itself with a buzzsaw or two.

Oh, and when the fight started I took off a HUGE chunk of the boss's health with buzzsaws while he was trying to come out of the mill. Half my work was done before he even came onscreen. My industrialist had maxed magic

Troll boss owned, no potions. Everything up to that point was a royal pain though. Didn't have many points in strength or speed which made those thieves a pain. Really missed my red knight's lightning attack

[RackGaki]

I actually haven't unlocked much of those yet; I gathered this information from someone who had. And I certainly won't be attempting insane mode without being at level 50 or so. I haven't decided if I will take it on with a legitimate character, or if I should just grind one of the newer ones I unlock.

Listening to a podcast with Dan Paladin, I would have to agree with him about the exploit. It was definitely not intended to be in the game, so he thinks that the leaderboards should exclude characters who benefited from it. At the same time, if someone wants to level up quickly, to each their own.

Personally, I would rather unlock all of these creatures quickly. It would take four to five times longer to level up without the exploit.

[Gamerforlife]

I actually haven't unlocked much of those yet; I gathered this information from someone who had. And I certainly won't be attempting insane mode without being at level 50 or so. I haven't decided if I will take it on with a legitimate character, or if I should just grind one of the newer ones I unlock.

Listening to a podcast with Dan Paladin, I would have to agree with him about the exploit. It was definitely not intended to be in the game, so he thinks that the leaderboards should exclude characters who benefited from it. At the same time, if someone wants to level up quickly, to each their own.

Personally, I would rather unlock all of these creatures quickly. It would take four to five times longer to level up without the exploit.

By legit characters, I assume you mean the default ones. If you want a legit character to tackle insane mode with, I recommend red knight. Some players say blue is good too. I didn't like playing as blue on normal, despite my love of characters with ice attacks in other games. Lev 50 sounds like a good idea. Don't level too much since leveling is quicker and easier on insane. Plus, the level ups can be a real life saver at times

Paladin's thoughts regarding the exploit are interesting. The way I see it, it is simply a smart application of the in game mechanics and players shouldn't be punished for that. Although personally, I don't care about leaderboards so it's a non-issue for me, but I do enjoy leveling my characters.

I actually don't view it as a real glitch. The boomerang getting multiple hits makes sense as it can't get back to the player since an enemy is in the way. The easy leveling is due to the developers choosing to base the leveling system on hits rather than a default number of XP per enemy.

This is why I always advocate traditional leveling systems that give you a set amount of XP per enemy, because anything else is too easy to exploit, just as players have figured out how to exploit the odd leveling system in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Another point I would like to make is that I understand people using the boomerang trick because The Behemoth really didn't put in any good leveling spots in the game. Leveling up conventionally just gets way too time consuming after awhile. Unless, you play insane mode, but it can be tough just surviving insane if you're not at a good level unless you're using a very powerful character like red knight or industrialist. Even for them, it's rough if you're playing alone

[RackGaki]

I actually don't view it as a real glitch. The boomerang getting multiple hits makes sense as it can't get back to the player since an enemy is in the way. The easy leveling is due to the developers choosing to base the leveling system on hits rather than a default number of XP per enemy.

If you check it out on Youtube, it's definitely a real glitch. A youtube video shows a level 1 character fighting the aquacat, and the game completely freezes after he uses the boomerang exploit too long. I believe it has something to do with advancing more than two levels in a single round. Again, as Paladin said, he thought they checked the game pretty thoroughly for this sort of thing, but when 200,000 people play your game, they're going to find more than your dozen beta testers.

As far as everything else in your post, I completely agree. While Castle Crashers (not on insane mode) is relatively easy, grinding is emphasized a far too much.

[Gamerforlife]

I actually don't view it as a real glitch. The boomerang getting multiple hits makes sense as it can't get back to the player since an enemy is in the way. The easy leveling is due to the developers choosing to base the leveling system on hits rather than a default number of XP per enemy.

If you check it out on Youtube, it's definitely a real glitch. A youtube video shows a level 1 character fighting the aquacat, and the game completely freezes after he uses the boomerang exploit too long. I believe it has something to do with advancing more than two levels in a single round. Again, as Paladin said, he thought they checked the game pretty thoroughly for this sort of thing, but when 200,000 people play your game, they're going to find more than your dozen beta testers.

As far as everything else in your post, I completely agree. While Castle Crashers (not on insane mode) is relatively easy, grinding is emphasized a far too much.

Well I've experienced the graphics getting all out of whack, but to me THAT is the glitch not the actually leveling process itself. If that makes any sense. In my experience, this only happens if you kill the catfish, or any boss with the boomerang. I always stop the boomerang from damaging a boss when it is close to death, by either moving my character or quitting out to the map. I have NEVER experienced the glitch since doing that. So it is just something that happens at the point of death. I think it is something related to too much visual activity onscreen. The death animation of a boss + the tons of ones appearing onscreen and the weird reddish aura the boomerang sometimes has at it is hitting a boss seems to trigger it. I'm not a programmer though so what do I know.

But whether the boomerang trick is a glitch, an exploit or whatever. It doesn't really matter. It's in the game and thus, people will use it. Personally, I love it when gamers find these mistakes. Some of the most fun I have had in video games has involved fun little glitches, exploits etc. It's just an option. It hasn't ruined the game for me since I have played through the game legit with a couple of different characters with different character builds. I think developers worry too much about regulating everything in games. Let players do what they want.

I'm curious to see if The Behemoth tries to remove this trick with the patch, although the damage is already done and gamers can just delete the patch and go back to using it if they want.

[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.

Funny thing, I exited out to the map the first time I got inside the castle and whenever I died I didn't have to do Flower Fields all over again. That wedding boss is infuriating. Took me a few tries. Mostly because I got sick of how damn long it takes to kill him and would start taking risks. Finally, I lucked out and glitched him into an infinite throw. He just kept bouncing around in mid-air taking damage while I stood next to him and watched. I almost couldn't finish the level though. I had to attack him a bunch of times to get him to fall to the ground. Hate that guy, finished the industrial castle and am moving on to volcano world. I'm finding regular enemies extremely difficult now and falling back on arrow attacks quite a bit.

[Doctor Fugue]

Finally, I lucked out and glitched him into an infinite throw.

That's exactly how I beat him. Well, actually, it was the "dude" I was playing with who locked him into a throw loop against the red bars. And yes, the game will let you start from after the flowery fields IF you don't exit from the game. Same goes in a few other places.

I don't have the patience to do insane mode solo anymore I think. I find myself just being way too careful and everything just takes so damn long to kill. It's turning into a bit of work! Again I say the number of enemies should be scaled to how many people are playing. I imagine with four level 99s playing it would be quite easy and that doesn't make much sense. It should be "insane" no matter how many people are playing...and less tedious for one player!

[Gamerforlife]

Finally, I lucked out and glitched him into an infinite throw.

That's exactly how I beat him. Well, actually, it was the "dude" I was playing with who locked him into a throw loop against the red bars. And yes, the game will let you start from after the flowery fields IF you don't exit from the game. Same goes in a few other places.

I don't have the patience to do insane mode solo anymore I think. I find myself just being way too careful and everything just takes so damn long to kill. It's turning into a bit of work! Again I say the number of enemies should be scaled to how many people are playing. I imagine with four level 99s playing it would be quite easy and that doesn't make much sense. It should be "insane" no matter how many people are playing...and less tedious for one player!

Yeah, I agree with pretty much everything you said. I'm just trying to see how far I get in Insane before I finally get fed up with it. I'm actually going to bounce back and forth between a few characters to see how they fare. I find the bosses a cakewalk with the Industrialist(except the wedding boss), but he sucks against normal enemies. The Blue knight however, seems to handle regular foes easily because he can freeze multiple people and has that infinite x,x,x,y,x,x,x,y, x,x,x,y combo. That combo should make the wedding boss a breeze too. Red knight does well against everything...at least until his magic runs out. Then it takes FOREVER for it to fill back up again. Every character has a disadvantage on Insane mode it seems.

I think in the long run I'll just use Insane mode as a way to level people with the bat boss. Beating Insane mode alone doesn't seem much fun and I honestly don't think the Necromancer boss(if I even make it that far)will be possible alone. Plus, I just downloaded the extra content for Marvel Ultimate Alliance and am finding another outlet for my beat'em up urges

[ZenLogikos]

Finally, I lucked out and glitched him into an infinite throw.

That's exactly how I beat him. Well, actually, it was the "dude" I was playing with who locked him into a throw loop against the red bars.

I meant to do that!