An overview of the fight itself and the safest strategies for each attack.
Intro
At the very end of your fragment run, you will be faced with one of the most difficult fights in the game. In this guide I will detail what I believe to be the safest strategies for dealing with each of Krystelle’s attacks so you can come out victorious.
Coming into the Hidden Keep, you will pass through a gate and be stripped of all potions, including revives. However, you do keep your berries, and a witch selling infinite revives spawns past this gate along with an extra 15 berries. This alone is enough for 2 revives, and 2 corrodes, and a couple other potions. Consider buying jump potions to get your sword out of the ceiling if it gets launched at an unfortunate angle. I’ve lost this fight to not having any jumps.
Without enough practice, it’s unlikely 2 revives will suffice even after reading this guide, so save as many berries as possible throughout your run to utilize that infinite revive shop.
Know that it takes roughly 60 hits to kill Krystelle.
Basic Positioning
By hugging walls, you can get Krystelle to safely jump over you which is a powerful tool for maintaining proper positioning. Here is a demonstration:
Krystelle does not like flying swords. As long as she is not attacking, she will jump back to avoid thrown swords, which is another powerful tool for positioning. Avoid throwing it directly at her, as hitting her will send it flying. Instead, throw it directly up and perform a jump to grab it. This is useful if you get pushed too far to the left.
The Arena
If you have the berries to spare, you only need to buy 2 corrodes and destroy these blocks.
If you are playing Chapter 1+ and do not have access to a witch, you will not be able to easily destroy these blocks. Utilize your positioning tricks to mitigate the annoyance of that middle block, and be aware that doing the bubble trick mentioned later on the first step instead of the second step will NOT destroy all the bubbles, just most of them.
It’s risky, but if you would like a clean arena without corrodes, here’s how to set it up. First, send the lift up, get Krystelle on the left side, as far away as possible, and wait out a purple orb attack. Bait them to hit these blocks and perform an item hop when they get close. If you go for this trick, remember that you will not have easy access to the bubble strategy while she’s on the other side. A demonstration:
As the fight will (hopefully) be taking place entirely on the left side of the arena, it’s important you have the right arena setup to utilize the strategies I will be mentioning later, because these blocks are really good at getting in your way.
You really want to keep Krystelle in this little corner you’ve made as much as you can by slashing her and utilizing sword throws.
An important note: Pay close attention to the decorative torches in the arena. They glow corresponding with the color of Krystelle’s next attack.
Bubbles
I’ll start by mentioning her most dangerous attack. When you see Krystelle’s wand held high, taking on a blue glow, she will begin charging an attack that releases deadly bubbles which disperse throughout the whole arena. These bubbles do not pop on their own, you must either slash them or throw your sword at them. This very dangerous attack puts a lot of pressure on you to destroy the bubbles as soon as possible, lest they get in your way while she charges up another attack.
Fortunately, if you have the proper arena setup, there exists a cheese strat to completely nullify this attack. This strategy comes courtesy of Matten from the TowerClimb discord.
Get a good few hits in on her to push her into the wall and get some damage in, before item hopping over her and standing on the 3rd step. She will turn to face you, and with her wand inside the wall, all the bubbles will spawn inside, popping them instantly. When the attack is complete, hug the wall, let her jump over you, and safely drop back down to your sword.
If the second step got broken for whatever reason, you can utilize a similar strategy.
What was her most dangerous attack becomes one of the best opportunities for safely getting hits in.
Do be wary that Krystelle can push around lone bubbles.
Laser
This is easily her least threatening attack. Your biggest risk here is mistaking this attack for bubbles. When her wand is held high, watch for a purple glow instead of a blue glow to know she’s about to use her laser. Be aware that the windup is measurably faster than bubbles.
For this attack, you want to stay close, below her wand. Let her aim straight down, get 2-3 slashes in, and run to the left before the beam materializes. Let it dissipate, run back, repeat.
Purple Orb
With the use of the bubble strat, this becomes Krystelle’s new most dangerous attack. With a randomized windup time, speed, homing, and variable amount of shots, this attack can really feel cheap, but there is a decently safe strategy here. While the laser attack and the purple orb both share the same purple glow, for this attack she will hold her wand behind her, as if to hit a baseball. This is your sign to get away as soon as possible.
Begin running to the left, and use your sword to item hop into the left wall, then begin climbing. Drop a bit when a shot approaches, let the shot collide with the wall, climb up again, repeat. Drop back to the floor when she ends the attack.
A note: Don’t worry about accidentally activating the lift. It’s not important for it to be there as it’s not a safe escape strategy. If you are maintaining proper positioning you shouldn’t need it anyways.
Another note: Don’t go for hits like I did in this clip. As soon as you recognize the attack, get as far away as you can as quickly as you can.
Green Orb
This is a tricky one. While the windup is predictable, these orbs do not go away upon hitting a wall (unless you give them enough speed by slashing them) and will sometimes fly in annoying directions when you do slash them. When Krystelle winds up with her wand behind her back and a green glow, she is preparing to launch a homing green orb with medium speed and erratic movement.
I’ve found most success in making some distance, waiting for the orb, and slashing when it comes near. If the orb hits her, she’ll even take some damage, assuming she isn’t blocking. This is less risky than it sounds, as the slash hitbox remains in place for a moment before going away. For this reason I recommend trying to swing sooner rather than later. However, this comes at the risk of the orb flying diagonally over Krystelle’s head. It will then float around somewhere in the arena and eventually float back to you (typically exactly when you don’t want it to) requiring another slash to take care of.
For a strat that does not include the possibility of the orb flying in an annoying direction, what I like to do is stand about 3 blocks away from Krystelle and do a full hop slash as soon as I see the flash and hear the sound. It will almost always hit her or the ground. This strat is consistent, but it does demand precise positioning and timing. I wouldn’t go for it unless you’ve already practiced it.
For an even more dangerous strat, you can sit in the bottom left corner and wait for an opportunity to slash each orb. As these orbs bounce off walls, they cannot hit you here. However, just like with bubbles, Krystelle can also push these around. This trick also comes courtesy of Matten from the TowerClimb discord.
I don’t feel comfortable recommending any of these strategies. Ultimately, properly addressing this attack just comes down to practice and finding out what works best for you.
Fire Orb
Of the three orb attacks, this is the least threatening. It has a very long windup time, and the projectile itself moves slowly. When you see her holding the wand behind her with an orange-red glow, now’s your chance to get some hits in. Be warned though, about halfway through the windup before the orb is even out, her wand will begin flinging lava particles everywhere. At this point you will want to run to the left and wait out the orb. Let it collide with the ground, being aware that when it collides it will explode into a bunch of lava particles.
For a demonstration of the multihit, watch my positioning here. If you get it just right, you not only have the proper setup for a TON of damage, but the lava particles spawned by the windup will mostly spawn inside the wall, allowing you to get even more hits in before you need to run.
Note: Avoid slashing this orb if possible. When it collides with a surface, it explodes into a bunch of lava particles. When slashed it could go straight down and spawn some particles in your face. It’s safer to item hop over it, or even just run away and let it hit a surface.
Ending
When you’ve hit Krystelle about 60-75 times, she will abruptly drop dead awarding you the boiler wand. Being very wary of any remaining bubbles, climb up the left side and enter the door to earn your victory.
