Nex Machina

This trophy will probably be the make or break of your Platinum. Completing the game on Veteran difficulty will be tough, but definitely not impossible. Unlike 1CC, you can use continues on this difficulty. You get 10 continues in total, each continue giving you 4 lives. All in all you’ll have over 40 attempts (excluding extra live pick-ups) to beat this difficulty. Bear in mind that it is extremely difficult to recover from a continue on this difficulty, as you will lose all of your weapon power-ups and shields.

Thankfully you do not need to defeat Nex Machina for this trophy. The trophy will pop after defeating the sixth boss (Supreme AI) on veteran difficulty.

General advice

• Practice – The best tip I could probably give you is to practice. After beating the game on experienced difficulty, you can play single worlds on veteran difficulty. Use this to practice the worlds you are struggling with. Attempt to kill the bosses of these worlds with simply your peashooter and your secondary weapon. This will help immensely in your veteran run. Personally I made sure I could defeat “the Architect” and “Supreme AI” with no powerups at all. After you get a good feeling for these bosses, the veteran run should be much easier.
• Don’t die – Sounds easy, doesn’t it? In all seriousness though, there is no rush to beating a level in this run. Focus on your positioning and movement at all times. Ignore all humans and secret levels. Ignore all secondary objectives. Simply make sure you are in the best position at all times where the least amount of enemies can hit you. Once your positioning is good you can focus on beating the level.
• Secondary Weapons – Personally, I’m heavily biased to using either the Rocket Launcher or the Smart Bomb while going for this run. While more experienced players might recommend different secondaries. You’ll have to find out which secondary weapon works best for you.
• Dash explosions! – If you’re a bit like me, your instinct is to probably run away from anything that wants to touch you or is shooting at you. Once you have the “dash explosion” upgrade though, things change! This upgrade, when combined with “triple dash”, wreaks havoc on your enemies. If you’re facing large amounts of enemies or your entire screen is filled and you have no idea where to go next, dash into the largest group of enemies you see! I generally like to use two of my three dashes to destroy whatever I can and keep one for safety / dashing out. Once you get the hang of using the dash function properly it is probably the strongest “weapon” in the game.
• Rocket Launcher strategy – My weapon of choice during this run was the Rocket Launcher. It’s probably a “noob’s” best pick for the entire run. Just tap whenever something big is running at you and watch it explode. Use the rocket launcher to take out big enemies. When you see anything spawn that’s larger that a square centimetre blast away and it’s gone. The rocket launcher is also great during boss battles, tapping in between shots will almost double your clearing speed, make sure you hit though.
• Dash/Smart Bomb strategy – This strategy is for the more experienced players. Using Dash (especially triple dash) combined with the Smart Bomb power up will almost make you invincible. Perfectly combining these two upgrades will grant you iframes 75% of the time and will blow away everything creeping up on you. It does take a while to master though, and it’s definitely not for everyone. You will not be required to learn this strategy purely for this trophy, but it makes the game a lot easier.

Encounter specific advice

The three most intense fights during your run will be on world 3-15, 5-13 and 6-15.
I’ve made a video and text description on how to beat these bosses from scratch (after a continue). You will most likely be upgraded by the time you reach these bosses so you’ll be in an advantage. Do not lose hope after using a continue on these bosses! It’s very possible to beat them starting off with just a peashooter - practice makes perfect.

• World 3-15, Helltron
  
  
  Helltron has definitely become a bit of an annoyance after his upgrade from Experienced difficulty. The thing to look out for are his dashes in phase one and two, the rest of his abilities are fairly easy to dodge. You want to dash the opposite direction he is dashing in. Triple dash works wonders in this fight, but it’s certainly possible using the single dash. Once his dashing phase has completed he’ll shoot out some purple stuff in the form of a star. Simply stand between the lines and dodge the saw blades he shoots through them. His final phase is fairly straightforward. He’ll move to the top of your screen and start shooting skulls like a madman. “Simply” dodge everything and shoot upwards!
  
  See my video guide for a visual explanation using only the peashooter and a secondary weapon (available in the top left corner of the area).

• World 5-13, The Architect
  
  
  This is probably the toughest boss you’ll need to defeat for the platinum trophy. For this boss I’d recommend you to take the smart bomb secondary.
  
  When engaging this boss you’ll notice he spawns 4 small cannons which all have a different function during this battle. These cannons will keep respawning no matter how often you kill them. To the top left he’ll spawn a cannon that shoots small balls in a wide angle. The cannon will keep aiming at you throughout the fight and taking it out has a high priority. Towards the top right hand side there’s another cannon which shoots an aimed laser at you. As with the first cannon, I prefer taking it out during my fight. On the right hand side of the screen there’s this little box that will keep spawning minions throughout the fight, preferably you’d take this box down too, but there’s simply no time for this. Do focus on the minions as they spawn though. On the left hand side of the screen there’s another laser that will keep moving from the bottom to the top of the screen. This laser can be easily dodged but becomes annoying when there’s a lot of things going on on your screen.
  
  Phase One: Take out the top left cannon as soon as it spawns using a combination of bullets and your smart bomb. Then focus on the top right hand side cannon and take this out too. Once they’re both taken out you’ll have a bit of time to focus on the boss. Try doing as much damage as possible. Rinse and repeat this strategy and keep an eye out for the minions coming from the right hand side. As these spawn, switch between the cannons/boss and the minions, taking them out using your bullets.
  
  Interval Phase: dodge the lasers by dashing downwards.
  
  Phase Two: This phase is similar to phase one. As if there wasn’t enough going on in the first phase there’s now a laser added floating above you that will shoot through the floor making it unusable wherever it shoots. In addition to this, the top right hand laser will now shoot a purple/black beam you can’t dash through. You’ll have to keep an eye out when this laser starts flashing red, as this is the moment it will shoot the beam. Try having the beam as far to either the left or right hand side of your screen as possible. As far as tactics go; do exactly the same thing you were doing in phase one. It’ll be a bit tougher with more things going on but personally I find this the best method.
  
  Interval Phase: dodge the lasers by dashing through the only purple beam available.
  
  Phase Three: This is where all hell breaks loose. He will start spewing purple skulls all over the place and all the cannons and additions to this fight will be trying their best to take you down. Fully focus on taking down the boss as quickly as possible, while using your smart bomb and dashing abilities to either avoid or destroy whatever is coming at you. While doing this hope that luck is on your side and the boss dies before you do.
  
  See my video guide for a visual explanation using only the peashooter and a secondary weapon (available in the top left corner of the area).

• World 6-15, Supreme AI
  
  
  My best advice for this boss would be to use the rocket launcher. The rocket launcher takes this boss down so quickly you won’t even have time to die! It basically nullifies the lasers on his final phase.
  
  Phase One: Try to find a “line” of free space between the projectile’s he’s constantly spewing out. If you feel you’re getting trapped between the borders of the screen dash into another open “line”. When he charges you simply dash over him.
  
  Phase Two: This is where it gets tricky. Again, you’ll need to try and find a “line” between the skulls he is shooting at you. Once every couple of seconds he’ll fire a circular laser, simply dash over to avoid taking damage. What doesn’t help is his targeting system above your head during the entirety of this phase. You’ll need to count his circular attacks when he does them. On his sixth circular attack the targeting system will collapse on you. To avoid this damage you’ll need to time your dash over the circular attack at the same time the targeting system collapses on you.
  
  Phase Three: Once you reach the third phase simply avoid the skulls and go HAM with your rocket launcher. You should be able to finish off the boss well before the purple/black lasers reach you.
  
  See my video guide for a visual explanation using only the peashooter and a secondary weapon (available in the top right corner of the screen).