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21 Tips To Help You Brave Ruiner's Madness
Devolver Digital's latest foray into our horrific future, Ruiner, is out today. I had a pretty fun time with it, as it's a pretty good game (you can read my review here). It's also unrepentant in the stark challenge it throws at players. To help you survive the legions of goons and cybernetic monstrosities you'll be toeing off against, here are some tips that helped me get through the campaign.
Skills
1. Get your energy shield skill early and drop some skill points into it ASAP. It's an essential power you need to survive at least two boss fights later on down the line.
2. Upgrade your dash ability at least one tier so you take less damage when you're hit while dashing.
3. The power-up swing is nice if you're building a tankish character, but it's hardly essential.
4. Obtain and upgrade the Resource Optimizer skill as soon as possible. It gives you extra health and energy.
6. The Reflex booster skill is a waste, since you can slow down time by simply picking up weapons.
7. Upgrade the Ruiner throughout the game. It's a weak pistol at the start, yes, but you can turn your base weapon into a deadly submachine gun.
Combat and Exploration
8. Don't worry about wasting ammo in combat. There will always be another gun.
9. Boxes containing karma, Ruiner's answer to experience points, are hidden throughout every level. These are valuable shortcuts to getting you skill points you can use to obtain and upgrade abilities. Be sure to fan out and explore. They're often hidden in dark corners.
10. Picking up weapons during battle slows down time for a couple of seconds. Use this to your advantage, blasting particularly fast enemies, and then dashing to another discarded weapon to repeat the process.
11. The Sonic Cannon shoots through objects and can kill enemies. It can also kill you, too.
12. After every battle, a bot called a Weapons Grinder flies in to recycle every weapon around the battlefield. Be sure to use it so you can get extra karma and a rare weapon that the grinder ejects after it's done recycling.
13. Later on in the game, resource sappers appear. These are machines that will sap both your energy and health. Don't waste gunfire on them, as it takes a while to kill them with that method. Instead, rush in and just melee them to death.
15. Heavier enemies and minibosses usually have a strategic weakness. Some are heavy but slow. Others nimble but can't soak up that much damage. Most of them also move in patterns. Study them, experiment attacking with different weapons. Don't become disheartened if they don't go down on your first, second, third, or 20th attempt.
16. Make sure you're always picking up melee weapons. They're more powerful than your base weapon and can kill most enemies in a single swing.
17. Certain battles have a timer counting down. If that timer hits zero, you die. However, every enemy you kill gives you additional time. During these encounters, go all in on attacking weaker enemies with a dash + melee combo, and then focus on attacking stronger foes with gunfire while strafing.
Bosses (Spoilers)
18. The Mother Boss is a pain and the rhythm of the fight isn't immediately clear. When she charges her laser, be sure to not only have your shield up but also be dashing. Your shield can't take the continuous laser blast.
19. Trafficking's first form is pretty easy, all things considered. Avoid his attacks and slash at the power generators around him. This will take down his forcefield and open him up to you. His second form, which you fight later in the game, is more of a pain. Dash away from him when he tries to do his slam attack. Pepper him with gunfire but don't bother with melee attacks.
20. The final boss is surprisingly easy, given everything that's come before. Stand behind the pod in the middle of the room so that the laser slams into it. Slash the zombies that amble toward you and then, when the laser isn't firing at you, zip out, pepper the boss with fire, and then dash back into cover. Rinse and repeat until they're dead.
21. The last battle can be a grind if you haven't upgraded your shield and poured some points into Resource Collector, so keep that in mind before heading into the true final battle.
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