Player's Tips

I'm not the only one out there that knows a great deal about this game. Basically, if you play it enough, you get to know it. So here's some tips sent in by fellow players like me. Occasionally, I will insert my own tips and comments, and I'll put those in italics. If you want to put up a tip, it has to have the following: A good tip (not something rather obvious that everybody stumbles across), a correct tip (I won't put it up if it's wrong!), and a well written tip (if it's three words wrong, or so full of typos I can't understand it, it's not going up). If it's not any of these things, you won't see it up here.

The wonderous Ring of Arcana (from Robert Delozier): In the inverted castle after you defeat Beezlbub, always get the Ring of Arcana and equip it instantly, so you can get better items from the enemies, like the Rune Sword from the Dodo (which i think is the best weapon in the game. It is third most powerful, and you can throw it across the screen), the Fire Shield from the Fire Demon, which resists fire, even when it's not up, and potions and food too. It is a great item to equip, except when you come to a boss, it's good to put somethng else on, because bosses never drop anything. Maybe something like the King's Stone or the Ankh of Life, etc., etc., etc.
Annie says: ...or maybe even a Ring of Varda. Can't beat that, and the Ring of Arcana is useful in getting that item too.

The easier way to face Scylla
If you want to make fighting Scylla a breeze, make sure you wait a while before you fight her. I know you're anxious to fight the next boss, but she necessarily doesn't have to be the "next" boss. Getting a few levels up, and getting better weapons will help you out. And the big must here is: get the Holy Symbol. Yeah, that means that you have to go through the Underground Caverns twice, but when you walk through the room that fills with water when you have the Holy Symbol, you keep all your precious HP, and are better off for when you face the boss. When you do go up to fight her, kill the snakes as fast as you can (holy water does seem to help), and then hop behind her. Yeah, you get hit, but once you're behind her back, she can't harm you. Then you just whack her with your weapon a few times, and she's toast. That's easy enough, right? Or, to make things even easier, run right up to her, and dump holy water right onto the ledge she's on. I know it says that she's healed by water, but not by holy water. This'll make short work of her.

A good tip, but hard to read... (from alucard52):
Hello you said that we tell you tips you (maybe) put them on i know how to get that stuff in the mist cloud pass just hit the wall after killing the armor lord in the outerwalls brake the wall and stand there for 20 sec's and a plat from will come and take you down there. So if it works for you or not...
Annie says: ...I like the tip, but this is a prime example of what I was talking about. Please make them so I can understand them, and so I don't have to make so many corrections when I finally post it. My apologies to the writer of this tip....yes, I posted it as an example for others, but it's still a good tip, typing or not.

Making fighting Richter a snap
When fighting Richter, make sure you're properly equipped. If you're trying to kill him, put on the Gold Circlet (you get it from killing Salem Witches) so his holy-based attacks will heal you instead of harm you. Use the Mormegil sword. It does a LOT of damange on ol' Belmont. However, if you want to get on with the game, you'll have to wear the Holy Glasses in order to do that. So be sure to equip the Holy Mail when you want to fight Richter in order to save him. All his attacks (except his spinny dagger lunge) will only deal one point of damage. Then wear either the Holy Rod, or the Holy Sword. If you accidentaly hit Richter while trying to kill the green orb that controls him, you won't hurt him at all.

When facing Beezlebub... (from Andy)
First, kill off his legs and thighs. Then change into a bat, fly up to his head, and perform the Wing Smash. When you land you'll want to turn around and kill the bees. Just keep Wing Smashing him and he'll be dead in no time. It took me like 2 hits to kill him.
Annie says: Hey, it works! Wearing two Rings of Varda, it takes two Wing Smashes! Cool.

Getting that 210%
      It's not tough to do, really. You get a different ending when you beat the game with over 200% done, but you've never really beaten it until you've gotten all four known endings, and gotten that 210%. First, make sure that you have all the relics, and that all your familiars are leveled up (the sword will have to be on lvl 99, as you'll see in a moment). Also take care to fill up your entire enemy list, and get every available item in your inventory.
      In order to get all the enemies on the enemy listing, you must either get hit by the enemy, or hit the enemy yourself. So when fighting the Lesser Demon boss fight, be sure you wait around until it produces a Mudman, or else you won't get that enemy. When saving Richter, hit him at least once, so he'll be on the enemy list as well. In order to get Shaft and Dracula on the list, you'll need a Library Card. Go and fight Shaft, and defeat him. Then when Dracula comes along, hit him once, but don't kill him. Once you've hit him, use the Library Card, and teleport out of there. You'll wind up back outside of the Librarian's office with a) Shaft and Dracula on your enemy list and b) the map coverage for the room where you fight the two.
      And the last thing you'll have to do in order to get that 210% is to pull the "flying outside the chapel" trick. Put the Sword Card on, and make sure your Sword Familiar is at level 99. Go to the Royal Chapel, to the bottom left of the first main tower (towards the bottom, there's Skelerangs about). Stand facing the left exit to the next room, and do the spell Sword Brothers (D-DF-F-UF-hold U for 2 seconds, D+ATT). As the sword is spinning, change into a bat, and fly out to the left. Wait a second....you're outside the castle! Fly around outside, and get all the available map coverage that you can. If you get stuck back inside, just pull this trick over again. You'll probably have to stop once or twice to replenish your MP, so having at least one Mystic Pendant to wear is a good idea. Now, when you pull this trick in the inverted castle's chapel, be careful. Imps can fly at you from inside the castle. If you accidentally get hit, you usually keep falling until you land somewhere, and then you recover. Seeing that there's no place for you to land, Alucard will just keep "falling". Basically, if you get hit, you go down until you wind up at the corner of the screen, and then you're stuck. Time to reset the game. So be sure to save before pulling this off.

When facing Beezlebub... (from Megan)
If you make Alucard sit in the chair closest to the telescope in the Telescope Room (in the Outer Wall) leave him there for a while, and he will deside to take a nap and you will hear him snore!
Annie says: I tried this, and then I died laughing. Trust me: though silly, this is a fun thing to do!

A quick win over Doppleganger10 (from Eduardo)
I was reading your CSOTN Page, and I think that it's good and pretty complete. Well, if you are updating it yet, here is a trick for the easier way to beat Doppelganger10: at the Marble Gallery, pick up the clock to freeze the enemies; don't change it until you meet D10 at the Outer Wall. When the battle begins, just press Up+Attack to freeze D10. Slash him until he dies.
Annie says:::Smacks palm to forhead::Damn, why didn't I think of this? It's so simple yet useful.

Leveling up the Sword Familiar (from Ibanez)
The fastest way to get your Sword Familiar up to lv 99 is to go into the Reverse Chapel. Go to the room with the Spectral Sword with all the spears and shields. Turn on your Sword Card and enter the room. Repeat this over and over again until about lv 85. Then go to the reverse entrance with the Orobourous' and the fire wargs and such. This is the room on the extreme right of the reverse entrance right before the courtyard. Repeat this and your Sword Familiar will become lv 99 within about an hour, maybe less. Now you can go to the Chapel and use the trick to get outside the castle.
Annie says:Hey, leveling up a familiar can be a pain, so it's definately a good idea to try new places at different points in time.

Beat that Galamoth (from Ibanez)
For those of you who are having problems defeating Galamoth, equip the circlet that allows you to absorb lightning as HP. Next, equip your Sword Card. If you hang around long enough the sword will attack it by going around in circles over and over again non-stop until he's dead. This also ups his experience.
Annie says:Wow, apparently the Sword Familiar has a use other than getting a full 200%.

Weirdness with the Alucart equipment? (from Ryu)
      There is something funny about the Alucart equipment. It seems that it alters the calculation of Critical Hits, more or less, but read on:
      Using the Luck code, I went and played through the game. However, once I got around to retrieving the Alucart equipment and putiing them on to get ready for item-hunting, I noticed something funny about the Critical Hits I dealt. So far, I've gathered the following information on the critical hit chart while playing the game with Alucart status and Luck code on:
-1 in 2: You will deal a "normal" critical hit, in which your normal attack damage is multiplied by 2 - 5 times.
-1 in 5: you will deal critical damage equal to your luck. This will not happen if your attack power is greater than your LCK stat. Instead the chances of dealing the next two types of critical hits are increased:
-1 in 5: You will deal critical damage equal to your ATT + LCK. and finally...
-1 in 10: You will deal critical damage equal to your ATT+ LCK, multiplied by a factor of 2 or more (possibly with a maximum factor of 5) .
      I am still in the process of testing this, but so far the results were favorable. I dealt constant 166 and 294-damage attacks with an attack power of 17...really!
Annie says:Hmm...this makes sense. I did myself notice that you crit more when your luck his higher. So maybe the Alucart stuff isn't as weak and worthless as I thought.

Duckey-dodgey with the Hippogriff (from Ryu)
THIS is THE last bit of information. Despite what other people say, the Hippogriff's firebreathing attack can be ducked under. And, once you are in this prone position, the Hippogriff will continue attacking with it's breath weapon, even though it won't do any good. Just hack away with whatever weapon you've got and it'll be smooth sailing. Watch out, however, if the Hippogriff gets ready to charge.
Annie says:Heheh, this proves that some of the AI in SotN isn't that good. So take advantage of it.