RAdvantage

By RANews.

RAdvantage is bringing you tips for some of the hardest achievements on the site. As always, our DMs remain open at RANews, if you have tips for any 100 point or other very difficult achievements you have earned please let us and the rest of the community know.

Tip Provided By:

YahwehTzVaoth

Game	Console	Genre
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance	Game Boy Advance	Action-Adventure, Platforming

Achievement	Description
Bested Death	Defeat the Death without getting hit and using only the whip <=36LVL

Death (aka The Grim Reaper, aka The Cheapest Retirement Plan) is a long standing boss in the Castlevania series. One of the achievements in Harmony of Dissonance is to beat the skeletal specter without getting hit. Don’t think about the consequences of killing Death or quote that Lovecraft verse, just follow this guide.

Death has two different forms and both award xp. As a result, if you go into this battle at Level 36, per some of the comments, you will be locked out of getting it. I didn’t have this issue because I was a couple levels under the cap. Generally if you want to badge this set, you will want to stay a few levels below the cap for each boss. Otherwise you will get into a situation where you will need to dodge every enemy in the game and never attack as any point of extra of xp might send you over the level limit. Levels don’t matter much anyway for this set since all the hard achievements require you to beat bosses without being hit so your HP and defense are irrelevant, and leveling up usually only results in one or two more points of damage. You are going to be whipping these monsters a lot, having to do one more hit isn’t going to matter.

It’s also not a bad idea to back up your saves periodically (every two or three bosses). There is an in game method to do this. Also, in case it’s not obvious, you can’t use magic or sub weapons to unlock this cheevo.

As stated, Death has two forms: Sorcerer and Giant, Creepy Ass Skeleton Centipede/Snake Thing.

Sorcerer: The classic, a skeleton in a robe that attacks you while flying mini-scythes try to hit you. These are what you need to pay attention to since Death is very predictable. I recommend crouching and using the slide kick to avoid or destroy the little flying wheat gathering tools. Try to stay behind Death so his big swing can’t hit you. You can also jump and hit the little blades with the whip if you think it’s safe.

The key to this encounter is dodging and dealing with these things.

If you want to save yourself a lot of headache, wait for Death to cast a screen filling attack. This will cause multiple harmless beams of light to fill the screen, to be soon replaced by damage dealing columns of magic. Nothing is happening while this spell plays out, so take this opportunity to whip Death. For better efficiency, try to have Death cast this spell near one of the door so you can stand on the little ramps and whip repeatedly, as opposed to jumping and whipping. You can get a few more hits in this way. You may also get lucky and Death will cast near the ground in the middle of the arena so you can stand and whip. I had more consistent success doing this near the edges.

The most basic and best tip: avoid jumping if you can. This will cause Death to reappear higher on the screen and be much harder to hit. If you can keep him near the bottom then you can constantly whip him and it’ll go much faster.

Giant, Creepy Ass Skeleton Centipede/Snake Thing:

Death doesn’t actually attack in this form, the monstrous thing just mostly travels along the floor and ceiling. Because this is a video game, only the Boss’s head is vulnerable to attack. Jump over Death’s two leg/scythe/front thingies and you can walk along Death’s back safely. That is the best way to attack this form: on Death’s back, crouching and whipping. Jump off and avoid the tail after 2-4 whip attacks.

It is possible to whip Death as he comes at you, but don’t get greedy and whip more than once or twice. Any more and you will not have time or room to jump.

Try to stay in the middle of the arena and you’ll see the monster coming a mile away and be able to either jump on Death’s back (spine?) or quickly slide under Death’s belly (ribs?). Death will either go along the floor at you or go diagonally across the screen. The second form is a simple one but it seems to take forever since the safe window to attack is so narrow.

This guide is a conservative approach but it is effective. Most of these Bested So-And-So cheevos are best approached like this. I would not recommend restarting the instant you mess up and get hit. Play out the whole boss fight, both forms, then reset, load, and race back to Death’s room to try again. Maybe you get hit seven times at first, then four times, then probably a decent number of got-hit-once’s, and then you’ll get it.