Walkthrough: Elona Shooter (Hard Mode)

This guide will show how to (rather easily) reach day 150+ in Elona Shooter. It also works in Hard mode, although you might want to make sure to back up your save games from time to time. This is explained in another blog entry.

First, make sure you are familiar with the game and good at aiming. Check out the general section about Elona Shooter; there is a lot of info about what to do in between battles.

Class selection and team members

This guide is based on using the Rapid Bowgun. In my opinion, it is simply the best weapon there is in the game. And since Bowmaster is essential with all bows, there are only two choices regarding class selection: Hunter or Noble. Personally, I prefer the Hunter, because I like having Cripple Shot available and the Noble cannot learn that skill. With it you can slow most enemies to a stop later in the game.

The Noble, on the other hand, has by far the best class skill in the game and can level incredibly fast with this experience bonus. He eventually gets Accountant, Taunt, Active, Cook, and Insurance. I often take one NPC Noble as he can learn a lot of skills and pick up the party skills you don’t have or focus on. In any case, you will need one Hunter in the party for Breeder and Engineering; Scavenger is another nice skill to have.

So, one NPC slot is taken for the Noble. As for the second team member, I recommend Ranger. The Ranger comes with a Big Gun and can learn Da Bomb and Anti Armor. Give him a Gravity Gun and he will wipe the floor with the enemies in no time. Plus, his class skill gives Rampage bonus to the whole party! Some people prefer Milita with Gravity Gun, but that is just a matter of personal taste. I like the Rampage bonus more than the Grenade skill.

That leaves one other teammate. I usually choose the Guardian because of his incredible amount of party skills (Insurance, Supplier, Love, Accountant, Leadership, Defender, Threat). Aside from that, the Guardians class skill helps prevent damage to the castle and, most of all, he is awesome with the Laser Pistol.

In fact, if you choose Hunter as your player class, you will even get a Guardian for free: the Little Girl. Altough it starts out with poor skills (Aiming and Teamwork lvl.1) and the worst weapon ever - the Long Bow. But that little girl will become angel of doom when equipped with a Laser Pistol with 5+ modification slots. Also, I found that she usually improves her aiming and teamwork skills pretty fast. So just keep her in your party, but make sure to exchange her Long Bow for any other Small Gun weapon soon, like Pistol, or preferably a Machine Pistol.

Skill selection

Your Hunter needs to learn Bowmaster and Cripple Shot as soon as possible. Focus on these two skills in the beginning. Your might need to throw in some levelling for Rifle in case you find a nice weapon - maybe even a Rapid Bowgun. But because they are somewhat hard to come by, you will probably have to use a Hunter's Rifle in the meantime.

A Hunter's Rifle is in any case good to take along because you can take out airborne enemies somewhat fast, especially when compared to the bow weapons. But in the long run, the Bowgun is the one to go for.

Once Bowmaster and Cripple Shot are well progressed, switch over to Engineering. Together with Active, it is the most important party skill. Max out Engineering as soon as you can because it will give you a bonus whenever you put a mod into a weapon. Other party skills you should get and ramp up next include Leadership and Breeder.

Once your NPCs cannot improve any more decent other skills, and have a sufficiently high gun skill, I recommend levelling only Reloading from that time on. This will give a nice number of Gravity Gun rounds on the screen and make your life a lot easier.

Item selection

Try to get hold of a Rapid Bowgun with 5 or 6 mod slots as soon as you can. This can take dozens of days, but in the end it will be worth it. In the meantime, use a good Hunter's Rifle or a lesser Bowgun.

Give both your Ranger and your Noble a Gravity Gun as soon as you find some. Until then, let them train Big Gun with a Cheap Worn HMG. Your Guardian should use a Machine Pistol until you can get hold of a Laser Pistol.

Generally, weapons with a high number of mod slots (ideally 5 or 6) are the best you can get because they will become insanely powerful once properly modified. You will need to upgrade them from time to time though. Whenever you upgrade a weapon, the most recently added mod will be destroyed. That's why you need to put some lesser mod into the last slot before upgrading. An never ever put a rare mod into the last slot, because then you cannot upgrade the weapon without losing that mod!

So, since you are a Hunter, you need a 5+ slot Rapid Bowgun. Let's just assume that you have already even found one with six slots. In that case, I recommend the following mod selection:
- 2x Damage lvl3
- 2x Rapid Fire lv3
- 1x Anti Armor lvl3
- 1x Impact

Let me explain that a bit. Impact is an absolute MUST. You should have one installed at all times, even if it is just a lvl1 mod. It makes things so much easier being able to push back enemies who are already attacking the castle. Also, it will keep Archers and Dragons from Shooting!
Because the Impact level doesn't matter as much as with the other mods, and because Impact is not that hard to find, I recommend that you should always install Impact as the last of all mods. That is because during upgrading, the most recently installed mod will be destroyed (as mentioned already).

Anti Armor really helps with the Tanks and Ballistae. Install and watch your Arrows slice through those annoying contraptions.

Damage is an essential mod to any weapon. Particularly in combination with Rapid Fire, this rocks. Some people prefer having more Rapid Fire mods, but for me, having two of both worked out great.

The above applies also to your NPCs weapons, except that their weapons usually don't benefit from Rapid Fire, so you might not want to keep those for yourself.

How to find good items and mods

Whether or not you find good weapons over time all omes down to probabilities. And there are several things that you can do to improve the odds:

First, make sure to max the shop's inventory size out soon: The more slots there are, the more likely it gets that there is an item you actually need.

Second, spend all APs you don't really require on refreshing the shop's selection. It increases the chances to find good stuff.

Third, if you are into that kind of stuff, you can utilize the Reload procedure. Whenever you are about to reach a boss day, and the loot/prize is not satisfactory, just reload and replay the day. Just make sure to do this before the game autosaves, i.e. do it before leaving the summary screen that displays money and skill gains.

How to survive the later days

Once you have survived the first two waves (day 80+), you probably have played with the right strategy. Now you just need to upgrade your weapons and your villa from time to time and perhaps be on the lookout for better weapons and mods.

Usually, around day 100, your villa should be at level 10. With a good bowgun and teammates though, you probably don't even need that.

I hope you can manage to do so. Please let me know if I missed anything!