Easier methods of doing each pattern for phase 2, not all of them guarantee no offscreens but they will never get multiple offscreens off.
Not all patterns have an equal chance of offscreens. Sequence B, C Mirror, and D are significantly more likely to have an offscreen. I'll post slightly harder but somewhat realistic versions for B and C Mirror in a thread below this.
Every phase 2 pattern killed in 4 attacks. For some of these, I'm not 100% sure if you can fully get it off before the offscreen, but I figured I'd post and let people improve upon them if they'd like to. There absolutely are optimizations to be had, or something to make them easier, because a few of these are quite difficult.
2 things Cyv came up with. 1st is a slightly different opener where you spear as the last hit before he dashes, I think it's like 0.1 slower optimally but it avoids the awkward spear nail spear in the other opener, and can't clank. Downside is that if you're slow the spear whiffs entirely
2nd is a nice setup for the dash attack on phase 4, just stand against the left wall and start running as he lands, it's really simple and effective
6fast phase 1 kill, you have to wait for him to extend his body out to get the nail dash nail reset in the air, this timing lines up quite well
2faster phase 1 kill that kills the dancer before he gets to dash to the right and ends with full silk to heal, credit to remto who i think found this or something similar
edit: upslash on the last nail hit before the first dancer attack makes it a lot easier to hit and very very viable to do consistently and in runs
7onaku's fast kill for phase 1 becomes more lenient if you do 2 pogo dash nail refreshes instead of 1
2i haven't seen anyone do this i think but you can usually get 2 hits with a dash nail refresh like this on dancers that are high
note that sometimes their hitbox is smaller for some reason so this won't work 100% of the time, but it usually should, for example in phase 1 on the scripted attack where the right side dancer goes high his hitbox is smaller until he telegraphs his attack (see right dancer at the end of this clip for example)
4Extremely messy but we should be using this throughout a lot of the fight and probaby more bosses, widow comes to mind
scripted first phase w/ parry and a setup(in the first vid) to start 2nd and 3rd phases w/ a parry, as soon as you see the cog dancer move slash and parry. for the last phase you have to slash twice since they are slower.
first video is w/ damage tank scream skip, second video is w/ parry scream "skip", parry scream skip is slower but you dont get hit so its safer.
the timing is slash parry right after the cog dancer hits the floor, dont rush it, its fairly easy to do it too early.
in both you could def do a parry to end the first phase sooner but then you wouldnt be able to start the second phase w/ one, im not sure which option is better but know that reacting to the first attack of the second phase is pretty hard if you start w/ a parry.
also tip for practice, debug has a bind that doubles the game's speed while held, for me its right shift but i dont rember if i changed it, its pretty useful for the big waits in the middle
A bunch of optimized movement that I used during comsob runs :D
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