Any tips for getting better at Devil May Cry 1?

[Yossarian]

Greetings and salutations, ERA.

I trust this finds you well on this crisp Christmas Eve.

While I've dipped into the Devil May Cry series since it was first released, I've never given it the kind of attention it deserves.

As they're all on sale (and I saw some SunhiLegend gifs of V), I decided to buy the lot and play through them chronologically because that's the kind of guy I am; a slave to my whims.

Now, there are plenty of resources out there for DMC 3-5 (and, indeed, DmC), but I'm stumped as to where I can find anything for DMC1 (or indeed 2, but no one gives a shit about 2, do they?).

I'm really keen to get into the meat of the game's mechanics, much like I did for Ninja Gaiden back in the day, so my humble request is two-fold:

1) Can anyone point me to some decent guides? I'm looking for move lists, combo guides, style tips, cancelling tricks - all that jazz.

2) Can any of the DMC-ERA legends here share some pointers on how to 'git gud'?

I completed it when it first released, so I understand the basics - like hesitating mid-combo to change up attacks - but I'd like to step my game up a bit. I realise DMC1 isn't quite as meaty as 3-5, what with it being the first in the series, but I'd really like to dig deeper.

Can you help a poor scrub out, ERA?

 

[PlanetSmasher]

The best advice I can give, and this is an evergreen bit but especially for DMC1, is conserve the hell out of your DT. Only have Trigger up when you need it, and disable it the second you don't or can't benefit from it.

 

[Yossarian]

The best advice I can give, and this is an evergreen bit but especially for DMC1, is conserve the hell out of your DT. Only have Trigger up when you need it, and disable it the second you don't or can't benefit from it.

Click to shrink...

I didn't even know you could turn it off, so that's super useful, thanks! :D

 

[Video Games Are Dumb]

It's an old game. It cheezes ya. Cheez it back. Take the easy way out. Spam combos.

And enjoy! Great game!

 

[TransEuropaExpress]

It can be a pain in the nuts due to the ever-changing camera angles but get comfortable with dodge rolling with the camera.

First time I played through it I never used it at all and found some shit like the first boss' projectiles super hard because of it. Once I learned it, the light bulb went off.

"Rolling can be accomplished with R1 + left/right + jump."

If that was obvious, sorry...shrug lol

 

[PlanetSmasher]

I didn't even know you could turn it off, so that's super useful, thanks! :D

Click to shrink...

Yup. In later games in the series, 3 DT runes is basically "0", since you can't transform at will with less than 3 runes. So once you get enough Trigger gauge I always tend to manually turn Trigger off right before it ticks beneath 3 runes that way I always have access to it, unless I need the extra push to finish a boss off.

 

[Yossarian]

It's an old game. It cheezes ya. Cheez it back. Take the easy way out. Spam combos.

And enjoy! Great game!

Click to shrink...

You uh you got any of them cheezin strategies

It can be a pain in the nuts due to the ever-changing camera angles but get comfortable with dodge rolling with the camera.

First time I played through it I never used it at all and found some shit like the first boss' projectiles super hard because of it. Once I learned it, the light bulb went off.

"Rolling can be accomplished with R1 + left/right + jump."

If that was obvious, sorry...shrug lol

Click to shrink...

You mean the normal roll or doing something special with it (i.e rolling when the camera changes)?

Yup. In later games in the series, 3 DT runes is basically "0", since you can't transform at will with less than 3 runes. So once you get enough Trigger gauge I always tend to manually turn Trigger off right before it ticks beneath 3 runes that way I always have access to it, unless I need the extra push to finish a boss off.

Click to shrink...

Ah, cool. Nice one!

 

[TransEuropaExpress]

You mean the normal roll or doing something special with it (i.e rolling when the camera changes)?

Click to shrink...

I think I spoke more from my early reason for not using it which was the camera and situational direction presses. So yeah, the normal roll in short. I just meant to get used to using it no matter how annoying it feels at first because it certainly did to me and I basically tried to exclusively jump out of every danger instead of learning how to deal with it.

Edit: Sorry typing all this on my phone while on the subway!

 

[Yossarian]

I think I spoke more from my early reason for not using it which was the camera and situational direction presses. So yeah, the normal roll in short. I just meant to get used to using it no matter how annoying it feels at first because it certainly did to me and I basically tried to exclusively jump out of every danger instead of learning how to deal with it.

Edit: Sorry typing all this on my phone while on the subway!

Click to shrink...

Gotcha. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Video Games Are Dumb]

You uh you got any of them cheezin strategies

Click to shrink...

I remember the bosses being so cheap so I'd just run up, use the shotgun and then bail. Took like 20 minutes but was faster than dying over and over for an hour.

 

[MazeHaze]

There's not much depth to the combos, it's a much simpler game than 3-5. There is shotgun cancelling wnd grenade rolling though. And spamming air raid.

 

[Normal]

If you just want to beat the game without even dying then unlock Air Raid and spam it. It's broken.

 

[TechnoSyndrome]

DMC1 feels less like a game about crazy combos and more like a game about knowing tricks. A bunch of the enemies and bosses have tricks to dealing with them, and learning those tricks is key to getting through those fights as quickly as possible.

The other tip I'll give is that taunting is very good because it fills up a big chunk of your DT meter. I believe it's on R2, and depending on if you tap or hold it (or maybe it's a double tap? I've always found it finicky) you get a different taunt. I don't see a ton of first time players use this because the game never really explains it.

 

[Rellodex]

You can still juggle enemies in the air, but you just have to be standing on the ground to do it.

Learn all three (I think) of the combos and alternate through them to keep style up. One of them uses a really weird button press cadence never seen again in the series.

The whole game is call-and-response. Enemies clearly Telegraph all their attacks. Sometimes the best thing you can do at first is just not attack and observe an enemy as it goes through it's cycles.

 

[Yossarian]

I remember the bosses being so cheap so I'd just run up, use the shotgun and then bail. Took like 20 minutes but was faster than dying over and over for an hour.

Click to shrink...

Ha! I don't know if I can bring myself to do that, but thank you! 😂

There's not much depth to the combos, it's a much simpler game than 3-5. There is shotgun cancelling wnd grenade rolling though. And spamming air raid.

Click to shrink...

What are shotgun cancelling and grenade rolling? Are there any other kinds of cancels? Any vids?

If you just want to beat the game without even dying then unlock Air Raid and spam it. It's broken.

Click to shrink...

Ah, it's less about beating it and more about getting the hang of it, but I'll keep it in mind if I get stuck! Thanks!

DMC1 feels less like a game about crazy combos and more like a game about knowing tricks. A bunch of the enemies and bosses have tricks to dealing with them, and learning those tricks is key to getting through those fights as quickly as possible.

Click to shrink...

Cool! Are there any online resources detailing that stuff? Can't find much of anything.

The other tip I'll give is that taunting is very good because it fills up a big chunk of your DT meter. I believe it's on R2, and depending on if you tap or hold it (or maybe it's a double tap? I've always found it finicky) you get a different taunt. I don't see a ton of first time players use this because the game never really explains it.

Click to shrink...

That's really useful, thank you.

You can still juggle enemies in the air, but you just have to be standing on the ground to do it.

Learn all three (I think) of the combos and alternate through them to keep style up. One of them uses a really weird button press cadence never seen again in the series.

The whole game is call-and-response. Enemies clearly Telegraph all their attacks. Sometimes the best thing you can do at first is just not attack and observe an enemy as it goes through it's cycles.

Click to shrink...

I got the three combos down. The one you describe I haven't quite worked out how to use at will though.

In terms of juggling, is that simply repeating the launch part of the High Roller?

Last bit is dead useful, thank you.

 

[MazeHaze]

Ha! I don't know if I can bring myself to do that, but thank you! 😂



What are shotgun cancelling and grenade rolling? Are there any other kinds of cancels? Any vids?



Ah, it's less about beating it and more about getting the hang of it, but I'll keep it in mind if I get stuck! Thanks!



Cool! Are there any online resources detailing that stuff? Can't find much of anything.



That's really useful, thank you.



I got the three combos down. The one you describe I haven't quite worked out how to use at will though.

In terms of juggling, is that simply repeating the launch part of the High Roller?

Last bit is dead useful, thank you.

Click to shrink...

Whenever you shoot the shotgun, you can cancel the reload animation by flicking the left stick. Similarly, you can shorten the grenade reload by rolling right after firing.

 

[Yossarian]

Whenever you shoot the shotgun, you can cancel the reload animation by flicking the left stick. Similarly, you can shorten the grenade reload by rolling right after firing.

Click to shrink...

Oh nice! Thank you. I'll give them a try.

 

[TechnoSyndrome]

Cool! Are there any online resources detailing that stuff? Can't find much of anything.

Click to shrink...

I think the DMC wiki pages for each enemy probably has most of them. Stuff like being able to hit Phantom's (lava scorpion) fireballs to deflect them back, shooting sin scissors head after deflecting their scissors back to instakill them, jumping on Shadow (the cat thing) when it turns its entire body into a horizontal spike (not the vertical ones it shoots out of the ground) and shooting it to instantly put it into its kamikaze mode. Most enemies have some kind of trick associated with them.

 

[mrmickfran]

Taunt

Taunt like your life depends on it

 

[Yossarian]

I think the DMC wiki pages for each enemy probably has most of them. Stuff like being able to hit Phantom's (lava scorpion) fireballs to deflect them back, shooting sin scissors head after deflecting their scissors back to instakill them, jumping on Shadow (the cat thing) when it turns its entire body into a horizontal spike (not the vertical ones it shoots out of the ground) and shooting it to instantly put it into its kamikaze mode. Most enemies have some kind of trick associated with them.

Click to shrink...

Of course it does! I'm a dope.

Those are really useful by themselves. Thank you!

Taunt

Taunt like your life depends on it

Click to shrink...

Like real life then? :D

 

[TechnoSyndrome]

Once you have all of the basics down another thing you can learn is jump canceling. Jump canceling is a lot more important in DMC3 onward, but it's still a technique you can use in DMC1. By using the Enemy Step ability that allows Dante to jump off the head of an enemy, you can cancel out of any animation. This allows you to do another action, which you can once again jump cancel out of. This is most useful with the shotgun in DMC1.

 

[Yossarian]

Once you have all of the basics down another thing you can learn is jump canceling. Jump canceling is a lot more important in DMC3 onward, but it's still a technique you can use in DMC1. By using the Enemy Step ability that allows Dante to jump off the head of an enemy, you can cancel out of any animation. This allows you to do another action, which you can once again jump cancel out of. This is most useful with the shotgun in DMC1.

Click to shrink...

Ah, thanks for this!

Do you have to unlock enemy step in DMC1? I take it it's high roller > jump > shoot > jump... ?

 

[TechnoSyndrome]

Ah, thanks for this!

Do you have to unlock enemy step in DMC1? I take it it's high roller > jump > shoot > jump... ?

Click to shrink...

DMC4 is the first game they made enemy step a skill you had to buy, 1 and 3 (I have no idea if enemy step is even a mechanic in 2) it's just part of your core moveset. High Time isn't an inherent part of the technique but it's going to put you in perfect position to jump cancel. After you're in the air yeah it's just jump, attack, jump, attack, repeat. The timing is something that's going to take getting used to though, the spot Dante has to be in in-relation to the enemy is pretty tight in the original and loosens up as the franchise goes on. Since the player in that clip is right up at a ceiling in that clip the timing isn't too hard but when you're in an area with a high or no ceiling there's going to be more to timing it.

 

[newmoneytrash]

If you just want to beat the game without even dying then unlock Air Raid and spam it. It's broken.

Click to shrink...

this is what i did and i had fun

 

[APOEERA]

Having gotten the Platinum on the PS3 version, here's my advice:

- get all the upgrades before you start Hard mode
-if you can on normal, get all the secret missions done
- Hard mode will be comparatively easier once maxed out
- play through the game about 20 to 30 times to get as many untouchables as you can
- do Dante Must Die mode but make sure get gold orbs. A lot of the bosses (Nelo Angelo 3, Nightmare 2 and 3) are almost impossible. The final boss can be completely cheesed with untouchables
- the game is a lot slower compared to later ones (when I started on the DmC PS3 Platinum run, I was surprised) but it's a great game to master. I'm planning on platinuming DMC 2 soon (ugh) and do DMC3 after that

 

[Yossarian]

DMC4 is the first game they made enemy step a skill you had to buy, 1 and 3 (I have no idea if enemy step is even a mechanic in 2) it's just part of your core moveset. High Time isn't an inherent part of the technique but it's going to put you in perfect position to jump cancel. After you're in the air yeah it's just jump, attack, jump, attack, repeat. The timing is something that's going to take getting used to though, the spot Dante has to be in in-relation to the enemy is pretty tight in the original and loosens up as the franchise goes on. Since the player in that clip is right up at a ceiling in that clip the timing isn't too hard but when you're in an area with a high or no ceiling there's going to be more to timing it.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for the explanation. I'll give it a shot.

Having gotten the Platinum on the PS3 version, here's my advice:

- get all the upgrades before you start Hard mode
-if you can on normal, get all the secret missions done
- Hard mode will be comparatively easier once maxed out
- play through the game about 20 to 30 times to get as many untouchables as you can
- do Dante Must Die mode but make sure get gold orbs. A lot of the bosses (Nelo Angelo 3, Nightmare 2 and 3) are almost impossible. The final boss can be completely cheesed with untouchables
- the game is a lot slower compared to later ones (when I started on the DmC PS3 Platinum run, I was surprised) but it's a great game to master. I'm planning on platinuming DMC 2 soon (ugh) and do DMC3 after that

Click to shrink...

This is great. Thanks!

 

[Jimnymebob]

Grinding red orbs is probably the ideal thing to do early in the game, because it kinda sucks until you get a number of abilities.
On mission 4, you can fight

Spoiler

Phantom

in the corridor, using DT and doing Air Raid and zapping it with lightning, then saving the game, and restarting the mission.

Also jump. You can avoid so many things by just hopping before they hit you.

 

[Yossarian]

Grinding red orbs is probably the ideal thing to do early in the game, because it kinda sucks until you get a number of abilities.
On mission 4, you can fight

Spoiler

Phantom

in the corridor, using DT and doing Air Raid and zapping it with lightning, then saving the game, and restarting the mission.

Also jump. You can avoid so many things by just hopping before they hit you.

Click to shrink...

Ah, fudge. I'm on the last Phantom fight. :( Any other places good for farming?

 

[Jimnymebob]

Ah, fudge. I'm on the last Phantom fight. :( Any other places good for farming?

Click to shrink...

If you're on the last Phantom, the same strategy applies. It's just a bit slower, because you only fight him a bit into the mission. I'm sure there are other ways to farm orbs, but for me Phantom is the best balance between being easy to kill, and giving a decent payout.

 

[Yossarian]

If you're on the last Phantom, the same strategy applies. It's just a bit slower, because you only fight him a bit into the mission. I'm sure there are other ways to farm orbs, but for me Phantom is the best balance between being easy to kill, and giving a decent payout.

Click to shrink...

Aces! Cheers, chief.

 

[eraFROMAN]

Jumping is invincible on ascent, DT is your best friend. Medium pause combo 8s tge best one.

 

[elenarie]

Switch to Easy Automatic and win the game? :p

 

[Yossarian]

Jumping is invincible on ascent, DT is your best friend. Medium pa combo 8s tge best one.

Click to shrink...

Thanks. What does the bolded bit mean?

Switch to Easy Automatic and win the game? :p

Click to shrink...

Knowing me, I'd still have problems :D

 

[chaobreaker]

Unlock the stinger skill.

Look out for health upgrade pieces. Use a guide if you have too. You'll need the extra health for end game chapters.

Conserve red orbs for Dev trigger upgrades.

Every miniboss and boss can be cheesed. Don't be afraid to look up how.

 

[404LinkNotFound]

Any body has any tips on Nigtmare? Im stuck on its 2nd form

 

[elenarie]

Knowing me, I'd still have problems :D

Click to shrink...

That's what I did when I was getting spanked a few months ago. :D

 

[Rubblatus]

Oh shit! A topic I'm qualified to talk about! First thing's first!

Don't use Easy Automatic. Don't. Fucking just never, ever consider it. Easy Automatic does nothing to help you understand what's happening since all it is doing is randomizing your melee inputs with zero regard for what's going on around you or what's effective to help maintain damage uptime on an enemy. It's a massive liability and honestly a lousy feature* that'll make you only want to drop the game faster.

With that out of the way and looking at what some other folks have already said:

2) Can any of the DMC-ERA legends here share some pointers on how to 'git gud'?

Click to shrink...

DMC1 is a game with terrible camera angles and enemies that love to attack from offscreen. Both of these things are explicitly addressed in future games, but in the mean time we got to make due with what we have. Because of that, audio cues are one of the most important things in DMC1. The game has excellent sound design; pay close attention to noises in combat.

If you're comboing a puppet in one corner and you hear the distinct sound of a revolver's ammo chamber spinning, you better get ready to dodge because a Bloody Marionette is about to shoot you from off-screen. If you're fighting a pair of shadows only to have one of them vanish off screen followed by the sound of air whooshing, you're about to be body slammed from above by a giant shadow cat blade thing. Every attack has a distinct tell that's easy to react to as long as you're listening for it.

DT is meant to be spent. You shouldn't waste it frivolously, but try not to sit on a full bar all the time because that lost meter adds up. Also, everyone's losing their mind over Air Raid, but Vortex (I want to say ridiculous I-Frames/Parry coverage), Inferno (High AOE damage) and DT Kick 13 (High single target) should not be slept on depending on what you're going up against. They all have fantastic niches.

OH. ALSO. THERE ARE ELEMENTAL RESISTANCES IN DMC1. Just want to point this out before I forget - Some enemies are weak against fire. Some enemies are resistant to lightning. It should be obvious who's which, but I know everyone ends up slugging it out at least once against a Plasma.

What are shotgun cancelling and grenade rolling? Are there any other kinds of cancels? Any vids?

Click to shrink...

Oh nice! Thank you. I'll give them a try.

Click to shrink...

You can take this one step further - You can cancel the recovery frames of Force Edge/Alastor's first, second and fourth melee attack* by spinning the analog stick. This is great because you remove knockback hits from the picture entirely, and these two hits cleave so wide that you can go straight on into a mosh pit of scarecrows to just rack up that style meter. Also cheeses the Hell out of Nelo Angelo too, who doesn't have a way to get out of it until you hit his hard breakway threshold (Which is 15 smacks, thanks Video).


Edit: I tend to default to 2 when I go ham, forgot about 1 and 4.

 

[eraFROMAN]

Thanks. What does the bolded bit mean?



Knowing me, I'd still have problems :D

Click to shrink...

That's a massive typo hahaha, i meant the mid pause combo. The way combo strings work is that you attack, wait, attack, so if that wait is short enough to be a pause but not so long to get the long attack, you do a double slash that does a lot of damage. Then, you can learn to cancel strings by spinning the left stick (Dante starts his run animation,) and lay on constant damage when the openings present themselves.

Nelo Angelo; you can parry with most of your attacks and do a ton of damage too. Every boss has some "thing" that makes the fight go more smoothly. Phantom, you can hit the fireballs back!

 

[Ryng™]

Once you have all of the basics down another thing you can learn is jump canceling. Jump canceling is a lot more important in DMC3 onward, but it's still a technique you can use in DMC1. By using the Enemy Step ability that allows Dante to jump off the head of an enemy, you can cancel out of any animation. This allows you to do another action, which you can once again jump cancel out of. This is most useful with the shotgun in DMC1.

Click to shrink...

You have no idea how satisfied i feel to know i learned that when i was a fucking 10 years old withouth internet or any friend who had the game. :)

 

[lowhighkang_LHK]

Any body has any tips on Nigtmare? Im stuck on its 2nd form

Click to shrink...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEoP7lYHUoQ

This is on DMD difficulty. So the strat will be much more helpful on normal.

But basically, using charged up Ifrit attacks (hold the melee button) while you are in devil trigger mode does really high damage.

You can quick swap between Alastor and Ifrit by clicking-in R3.

Try to buy blue and purple orbs. Always invest in those over healing stars and other consumables.

As for defense, try to avoid double back on your footsteps. If you keep a singular direction going, most of Nightmare's attacks can't hit you.

Here is a video on normal mode. By speed runner Maxylobes. You don't have to use the holy water. But you can see how powerful devil trigger'ed charged up Ifrit attacks are against him.

https://youtu.be/9FNThoUJdDo?t=1915

 

[TechnoSyndrome]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEoP7lYHUoQ

This is on DMD difficulty. So the strat will be much more helpful on normal.

But basically, using charged up Ifrit attacks (hold the melee button) while you are in devil trigger mode does really high damage.

You can quick swap between Alastor and Ifrit by clicking-in R3.

Try to buy blue and purple orbs. Always invest in those over healing stars and other consumables.

As for defense, try to avoid double back on your footsteps. If you keep a singular direction going, most of Nightmare's attacks can't hit you.

Click to shrink...

One of the reasons you want to do charged Ifrit attacks is because each orb has a set health bar but they are determined by number of hits done rather than damage done. Once an orb is destroyed the attack associated with it stops being used, which usually means it'll rely more on its rarer, harder to dodge attacks. This is only a thing that really matters on DMD though.

 

[Sesha]

I recommend upgrading Alastor in this order: Stinger > Air Raid > Vortex > Air Hike > Roundtrip. Stinger 2 you can get whenever.

When Shadow throws itself at you like a buzzsaw, rolling is the most effective option of dodging, as you can still jump into their line of attack by accident. Be sure not to dodge too early. Give it a second or two before rolling.

You can one-hit Sin Scissors (the first ones you fight with the creepy female voices) by knocking away their scissors, and shooting them in the face. The first secret mission tries to teach you this. There's a specific way to do it:

Wait until they try to snip you. You'll know which is the right attack because they'll slowly approach you first. You can parry the attack with a single blow (just a normal strike by tapping the attack button once will do). It will knock the scissors away, and they will be in a stun state for a few seconds. Then, run a couple steps to your left (their right) up into their face, then press lock--on and fire. If you do it correctly, they will die instantly, and will drop extra orbs as a result.
The best way to know if you've done it correctly is to use Ebony & Ivory and fire a couple of shots. The critical hit will instakill them, even if you hit them a couple of times non-critically. Other guns can kill them instantly without necessarily being counted as a critical hit. This is a quick way to deal with them if you're getting swamped, and on certain missions you need the extra orbs for the Special Bonus rank (effectively the double S rank of the game).

Sometimes they'll be in a short version of the stagger, which will give you a shorter crit window. It can still work, but it's less reliable. They can also be parried when doing other attacks, but again it's less reliable than the above method.

 

[404LinkNotFound]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEoP7lYHUoQ

This is on DMD difficulty. So the strat will be much more helpful on normal.

But basically, using charged up Ifrit attacks (hold the melee button) while you are in devil trigger mode does really high damage.

You can quick swap between Alastor and Ifrit by clicking-in R3.

Try to buy blue and purple orbs. Always invest in those over healing stars and other consumables.

As for defense, try to avoid double back on your footsteps. If you keep a singular direction going, most of Nightmare's attacks can't hit you.

Here is a video on normal mode. By speed runner Maxylobes. You don't have to use the holy water. But you can see how powerful devil trigger'ed charged up Ifrit attacks are against him.

https://youtu.be/9FNThoUJdDo?t=1915

Click to shrink...

One of the reasons you want to do charged Ifrit attacks is because each orb has a set health bar but they are determined by number of hits done rather than damage done. Once an orb is destroyed the attack associated with it stops being used, which usually means it'll rely more on its rarer, harder to dodge attacks. This is only a thing that really matters on DMD though.

Click to shrink...

Hmm thanks guys ,ill try it out!

 

[Rellodex]

I got the three combos down. The one you describe I haven't quite worked out how to use at will though.

In terms of juggling, is that simply repeating the launch part of the High Roller?

Click to shrink...

You get them in the air with the launch, but the enemy will stay suspended in the air if you can hit them with the basic on-ground attack combos as they fall.

Basically you launch them, stay on the ground, wait for the enemy to fall, and use your basic attacks before the enemy hits the ground.

 

[Yossarian]

That's what I did when I was getting spanked a few months ago. :D

Click to shrink...

Oh shit! A topic I'm qualified to talk about! First thing's first!

Don't use Easy Automatic. Don't. Fucking just never, ever consider it. Easy Automatic does nothing to help you understand what's happening since all it is doing is randomizing your melee inputs with zero regard for what's going on around you or what's effective to help maintain damage uptime on an enemy. It's a massive liability and honestly a lousy feature* that'll make you only want to drop the game faster.

With that out of the way and looking at what some other folks have already said:


DMC1 is a game with terrible camera angles and enemies that love to attack from offscreen. Both of these things are explicitly addressed in future games, but in the mean time we got to make due with what we have. Because of that, audio cues are one of the most important things in DMC1. The game has excellent sound design; pay close attention to noises in combat.

If you're comboing a puppet in one corner and you hear the distinct sound of a revolver's ammo chamber spinning, you better get ready to dodge because a Bloody Marionette is about to shoot you from off-screen. If you're fighting a pair of shadows only to have one of them vanish off screen followed by the sound of air whooshing, you're about to be body slammed from above by a giant shadow cat blade thing. Every attack has a distinct tell that's easy to react to as long as you're listening for it.

DT is meant to be spent. You shouldn't waste it frivolously, but try not to sit on a full bar all the time because that lost meter adds up. Also, everyone's losing their mind over Air Raid, but Vortex (I want to say ridiculous I-Frames/Parry coverage), Inferno (High AOE damage) and DT Kick 13 (High single target) should not be slept on depending on what you're going up against. They all have fantastic niches.

OH. ALSO. THERE ARE ELEMENTAL RESISTANCES IN DMC1. Just want to point this out before I forget - Some enemies are weak against fire. Some enemies are resistant to lightning. It should be obvious who's which, but I know everyone ends up slugging it out at least once against a Plasma.

You can take this one step further - You can cancel the recovery frames of Force Edge/Alastor's first, second and fourth melee attack* by spinning the analog stick. This is great because you remove knockback hits from the picture entirely, and these two hits cleave so wide that you can go straight on into a mosh pit of scarecrows to just rack up that style meter. Also cheeses the Hell out of Nelo Angelo too, who doesn't have a way to get out of it until you hit his hard breakway threshold (Which is 15 smacks, thanks Video).


Edit: I tend to default to 2 when I go ham, forgot about 1 and 4.

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That's a massive typo hahaha, i meant the mid pause combo. The way combo strings work is that you attack, wait, attack, so if that wait is short enough to be a pause but not so long to get the long attack, you do a double slash that does a lot of damage. Then, you can learn to cancel strings by spinning the left stick (Dante starts his run animation,) and lay on constant damage when the openings present themselves.

Nelo Angelo; you can parry with most of your attacks and do a ton of damage too. Every boss has some "thing" that makes the fight go more smoothly. Phantom, you can hit the fireballs back!

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I recommend upgrading Alastor in this order: Stinger > Air Raid > Vortex > Air Hike > Roundtrip. Stinger 2 you can get whenever.

When Shadow throws itself at you like a boomerang, rolling is the most effective option of dodging, as you can still jump into their line of attack by accident. Be sure not to dodge too early. Give it a second or two before rolling.

You can one-hit Sin Scissors (the first ones you fight with the creepy female voices) by knocking away their scissors, and shooting them in the face. The first secret mission tries to teach you this. There's a specific way to do it:

Wait until they try to snip you. You'll know which is the right attack because they'll slowly approach you first. You can parry the attack with a single blow (just a normal strike by tapping the attack button once will do). It will knock the scissors away, and they will be in a stun state for a few seconds. Then, run a couple steps to your left (their right) up into their face, then press lock--on and fire. If you do it correctly, they will die instantly, and will drop extra orbs as a result.
The best way to know if you've done it correctly is to use Ebony & Ivory and fire a couple of shots. The critical hit will instakill them, even if you hit them a couple of times non-critically. Other guns can kill them instantly without necessarily being counted as a critical hit. This is a quick way to deal with them if you're getting swamped, and on certain missions you need the extra orbs for the Special Bonus rank (effectively the double S rank of the game).

Sometimes they'll be in a short version of the stagger, which will give you a shorter crit window. It can still work, but it's less reliable. They can also be parried when doing other attacks, but again it's less reliable than the above method.

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You get them in the air with the launch, but the enemy will stay suspended in the air if you can hit them with the basic on-ground attack combos as they fall.

Basically you launch them, stay on the ground, wait for the enemy to fall, and use your basic attacks before the enemy hits the ground.

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Holy moly! What a Christmas gift! Thank you, everyone. Gonna have a read through in a bit.

Merry Christmas!