vs. Cif (Regular Rod, No Burdens)
Current PB: • Void Stranger - vs. Ci...
Ah, the fight we all know and... love...? But now, it's...
Actually, it's not that much harder. The only burden that matters here is Wings, which can easily be worked around and doesn't really come up in Phase 3, normally. We're going for the hard kill, so sword is also irrelevant. And since we can't damage her in Phase 3, the rod limitation only matters in Phases 1 and 2.
The most noticeable difference in the whole fight is that it's much, much harder, perhaps impossible, to skip Phase 2. You'll also see more attacks in that Phase, unless you delay your hits in Phase 1. At least 2, up to maybe 4 if you're unlucky or playing it safe. Otherwise, it's honestly not too different from the regular fight, there's just a larger focus on taking advantage of opportunities to attack. I personally find it ends up being more fun this way.
As for the run itself, it was okay. My first clear of this challenge had some sicker dodges and tricks, but overall wasn't as clean as this one. Speedrun-wise, I got a little screwed over by bad attack RNG. The Sunyata attack (1:31), which is normally very easy, lasts a long time and getting hits in during it is risky. There's also a couple of obvious mistakes/misinputs. Those were caused by a combination of being very tired, and resetting my save each time I died to record the minute-long intro for the video. I'll probably do a better run at a future date, aiming for a sub 2:30-minute time (from fight start to when the kill animation appears). Maybe someone will come up with better strats by then... SURELY I'm not the only one crazy enough to do this, right?
Finally, this was only possible by editing the save file. If you really want to try this challenge yourself (why? seek help), you can find the save file I used here:
bit.ly/cifed
Place it in your %localappdata%/void_stranger folder, but remember to back up your existing save first! If you don't want to mess around with save files, you can disable your burdens in the menu and manually limit your rod usages instead.
Font used in the thumbnail and at the start of the video is the same one the game uses, Alkhemikal by jeti.