Knights Contract

You unlock Witchslayer difficulty by beating the game on Hexen Knight, while to unlock Hexen Knight you must complete the game on Squire or harder. All of your equipment and magic gained from previous difficulties will carry over and it is highly recommended that you acquired them all and leveled them up completely (I don't know how you couldn't have by this point, though). Witchslayer, being the hardest difficulty on the game, is really only so because it allows the game's technical pitfalls to shine through more than normal. While enemies will be far more powerful and aggressive, the real problem will come from two main aspects: Boss QTEs and times when you and Gretch--"The Betch"--en are separated.

When fighting bosses, either have their QTE memorized or have the button-presses written in front of you. Here is a link for reference:

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?t=29...

The QTEs on Witchslayer are horrible. Hitting a button too late OR too early in some cases will cause failure and will regenerate a few bars of the boss's health. Matters are even worse for when you fight episode 19 and 20's bosses as failing their QTEs will make you START THAT SECTION OF THE BOSS FIGHT OVER. No bueno. Sometimes what I did was rhythmically (not too fast or too slow) hit the next button that I knew was in line along the QTE. This pretty much insured that I would hit the button along the time that it appeared on screen. When you know a "mash __" button segment is coming up, go ahead and start mashing that button before it even appears on screen. This strategy worked like a charm except for Faust's final form of episode 19, where as SOON as the "mash X" prompt appeared on the screen it said I failed it, but maybe you'll have better luck. Broken? Yes.

The most excruciating moments come when Heinrich and Gretchen get separated. Episodes of note are episode 4 & 12-15, the latter being the most miserable point of this whole game. In episode 4 you will only command Heinrich as you look for Gretchen's unconscious ass. I think there were at least two instances where you must fight a group of 3 Wights by yourself all the while being TIMED, though the timer didn't seem to move hardly at all for me. This part isn't too bad but be prepared to rapidly hit A for several minutes as you spend the majority of your time in pieces.

Episodes 12 and 14 will see Heinrich with Minukelsus instead of Gretchen. Minukelsus's freeze bomb (RT+Y) and powerful sword thrust attack (RT+X) are highly useful WHEN they connect, though his other two skills are only partially useful in a handful of situations. Two main places to worry about are when you are in a room where you fight four(!) dire wolves and later in episode 14 when you fight Shadow Gretchen, aka the cheapest boss in existence. Luck will play a huge factor in these fights as they are extremely cheeeaaap. Minukelsus's two moves I mentioned above are critical to winning them with the least amount of headache, though you will probably miss with them more than your fair share of times. It is important to note that when you get Shadow Gretchen down to about half health it is possible that just repeatedly spamming X on her into a corner will keep her from using any of her stupid ass spells or summoning Wights. This method will take a few minutes but is SO worth it if you're able to pull it off.

Episodes 13 and 15 have Gretchen all by herself, which really isn't as bad as you think. Make use of Colchis' Trap and Maar's Lance to quickly bounce any enemies you see. Also, using Gretchen's charged Blast attack (hold B) will usually kill trapped enemies in one hit. This move is key to defeating Shadow Heinrich, who is a much more aggressive but slightly easier shadow person to handle. Simply bust out spells like Mag Mell's Rose, Elizabeth's Fangs, or Fafrotskies Rain on Shadow Heinrich not to damage but to subdue him for a second. As soon as he stops from the spell's effect, run over to him and unleash a charged B attack to deal significant damage to him. The timing window for this is extremely short so don't be too distant from him when you attempt it.

Other than these moments, the rest of the game is comparable to Hexen Knight and may be frustrating, but remains very doable if you've made it to this point. Good luck and let me know how to improve this guide!

To make this game easier I recommend starting on Squire difficulty for the first playthrough.Try to get as many S rank as possible. It is on this difficulty I recommend getting all the S rank for another achievement. Lost pages carry over by the way to other playthroughs. Just be sure to save after the last episode after the credits when the game ask you. And then to continue for another playthrough don´t chose new game. Instead load that save and choose the difficulty you want to play on and then continue.

That is were you can also replay later on Squire difficulty to get all the S rank. I never used the weapon you get from S ranking all the levels on one difficulty. But this weapon could help a bit on witchcraft difficulty. But it is not crucial if you ask me.

So start with Squire and try to do as many finishers as possible so you get more energy you use to level up your weapons as they also carry over. The lance and vlads impaler and colchis trap are the most important for the bosses.



The video above helps out a great deal! Credit to the person making it!

Memorise when the QTE shows up. What is the scene before it shows up. And you can press the guide button to pause. Then look at the video for the next scene were the next QTE comes up. The repeat press QTE can sometimes be pressed in advance. Makes it much easier. Some of the QTE require you to be faster than others. I believe it depends on how the big circle is when the QTE shows up. You can see in the video that they are smaller sometimes. For example Episode 19 when fighting that boss for phase 3. The second input for the QTE is RB and that one is very tough. I believe the one after with the X input is very tough as well. Both those circles are small. For those I just memorised when they show up and it made it much easier. But I could not press in advance before the circle showed up. But I was like ready because I knew exactly when. So that should really help.

Here are all the QTE inputs for each of the bosses: (I mark them in spoiler tags to avoid spoilers).