Ender Lilies: The bosses are tough - be prepared for this difficulty spike

I have been writing a bunch about Ender Lilies lately solely because of the fact that it is one of the best games I have played in they past year. Metroidvania games are my 2nd favorite type of game so I will admit I am extremely biased so if someone doesn't like that style of game they probably wont feel the same way as I do. I also don't understand how anyone out there could possibly not like MV games because they are awesome.

Warning: Mild spoilers ahead

When I look in forums on Steam or various video websites there is one recurring complaint that people have about this game is that the bosses are "too difficult" and this frustrates many from proceeding in the game and they give up. These people need to understand that this is not a design flaw, it is the way the game was meant to be.

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To be fair to the people that are complaining about the bosses being "too difficult" I will admit that they are extremely tough. There are a couple of them that I had to face 30 times or more before I emerged victorious and this was only by messing around with the various items I had equipped and experimenting.

While a lot of the regular enemies in this game can be eliminated by mad button mashing, this tactic will definitely not work on any of the bosses other than the first one and that boss is a pushover intentionally. You don't face another boss in the game for quite a while after you face the first one.

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The first boss you encounter kind of eases you into the game and if you have a bit of patience and dodge the rather extensively telegraphed and slow movements you'll likely beat this one on your first or in my case, second try.

The thing about all of the bosses in the game is that their attacks do a HUGE amount of damage unlike the other enemies you'll face in the game. Defeating them is more of a case of patience than it is about focusing on dishing out big offense all at once. In fact, if you try to do more strikes than you "should" it will put you in a position where you are vulnerable because you will be stuck in an attack animation for a moment that makes it impossible for you do dodge and/ or block and this is a quick way to get thwacked to death.

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Of all the bosses in the game the largest complaint is about the Dark Witch Eleine and there are a number of reasons why this is the case. In one of her three forms (most main bosses have 3 forms throughout the fight) she introduces the player's first encounter with "bullet hell" and this is quite a surprise the first time you see it. It is understandable why people would get frustrated with this because it is already quite tough to even get to the 3rd form and now you are faced with something that for the uninitiated to be prepared for. Also, there is a good chance that many people will be already low on health during this phase.

With your heals in this game, which they give you quite a lot of opportunities to use, you need a little bit of spare time to actually use them, and obviously you can't initiate this while you are dodging airborne fireballs that cover most of the screen.

I have found that once you calm TF down and simply take in your surroundings that this attack, as well as the rest of her attacks are actually quite easy to avoid entirely if you just forget offense entirely and focus on avoiding taking damage. For me, this consisted of positioning and then saving my "dash" movements until I have no other choice. The dash in Ender Lilies negates ALL DAMAGE from anything in the game and you can use it pretty liberally. So if you just keep your wits about you and focus on movement, this will become easy as well once you figure out the pattern.

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_{I have no idea how this user managed to make it to her without gaining a single level}

Also, many people end up at this boss before they should be there. The above image is taken from a guy who was trying to beat the game by gaining as few levels as possible and honestly, the average player should NOT be facing this boss at level 9. I was in my late 20's and still struggled at this point. The game has a leveling system that goes up to 100 and although it would really suck to do so, in theory you could grind until you were level 100 and then when you faced her you would take 1/4 of her life down each time you struck her. I am not recommending that anyone do this because it would result in a really boring grind of repetitive killing of enemies over and over again but if you ever find yourself at a boss that completely cleans the floor with you or one-hit-kills you, there is a really good chance that you have gone to an area that you are actually not meant to be in yet.

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_{Intentionally small so as to limit spoilers}

This boss is the only boss in the game that I can think of that people are actually capable of getting to before they are supposed to and this is something that people need to keep in mind. This Metroidvania game on occasion will allow you to take multiple paths and some of those paths are going to be well beyond your level's capabilities for the average casual player.

In the case of this boss, instead of proceeding further into the "Witches Thicket" the easier route would have been to go up instead of down and headed to the "Cliffside Hamlet" instead.

It irks me a little bit when I see people moaning in the comments sections about bosses being too hard because guys, I play a lot of games but am not terribly good at any of them. If me, a casual player, can get past this boss after a bunch of tries then honestly, they should be able to as well.

I think about Hollow Knight frequently when it comes to people bitching about things being too difficult and need to say that the boss fights in Ender Lilies are SIGNIFICANTLY easier than in HK. I have faced every single boss that exists in Lilies and defeated all but one of them. There are a number of bosses in Hollow Knight that I have never even seen because simply getting to them is too difficult for me.

The fact of the matter is that most of the regular enemies you will face in this game are extremely easy and have very little chance of killing you once you take the time to actually learn their attack patterns. The bosses are supposed to be tough but if I can manage it, other gamers honestly should be able to do it as well.

Just don't let a boss that is "too tough" frustrate you out of proceeding because this is by design.