Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 468 - 451 Dynamic Difficulty Starts to Kick In!

Chapter 468: Chapter 451 Dynamic Difficulty Starts to Kick In!

After searching, Zhuge Jun only found a few strategy videos with low play counts.

There was no helping it, after all, "Blood of Lies" had only been released for one day, and most people were still exploring the game; moreover, creating strategies took time.

Even if some players obtained a trial play of Nitiandang for various reasons, they often had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, and couldn’t reveal game content during the first few days after release to avoid spoiling it for other players.

If you really want to watch strategies, you can just wait a few days to play. By then, all sorts of no-damage and truant strategies would be blooming like a hundred flowers. Playing while watching strategies could greatly reduce the game’s difficulty.

But Zhuge Jun couldn’t wait and could only casually click on one of the strategy videos with a low number of plays to check it out.

And what he found was actually a hidden gem of a content creator.

This is played so well!

He looked at the name of the content creator, called "Neighbor Wang." His fan count was quite meager, only a little over eight thousand, not even reaching ten thousand.

This was quite inconceivable, because on the current internet, if you randomly post a video and it becomes a bit popular, you wouldn’t end up with only ten thousand fans.

What’s more, Zhuge Jun looked at this content creator’s submissions, and he turned out to be a speedrunning expert. He had speedrun many games before and even secured spots within the top ten in the world rankings.

And yet he only had so few fans.

Even at that moment, Neighbor Wang was live streaming. When Zhuge Jun clicked in, it was hard to tell if there were even 100 people in the stream.

"It really is a case of good content not getting the attention it deserves. With such top-notch skills, why are there so few viewers?"

"Oh, he doesn’t talk much, and his video editing isn’t great either. That indeed counts against him.

"But that’s fine, a player like this is less likely to be bought out by the game company, since his fan count is so low, the companies can’t afford it."

Zhuge Jun clicked to follow Neighbor Wang, and then began to view the strategy video for the Beastification Furnace Craftsman.

Having fewer fans had its advantages too.

Zhuge Jun was actually beginning to suspect that some streamers might be involved in some shameful under-the-table dealings with the game’s officials. Take Ning Meng for instance; she was so bad at other games, so how come she’s better at "Blood of Lies" than himself? Could it really be a natural ’God Player’ constitution?

While thinking this way might seem like he couldn’t accept losing, Zhuge Jun indeed had such suspicions.

As for a content creator like Neighbor Wang, it was impossible for him to have any underhanded dealings with the officials since his fan count was too low and his presence was too insignificant; the officials likely hadn’t even noticed such a player existed.

Therefore, Neighbor Wang’s strategies must be those of a top player created completely uninfluenced by the officials, and still very much worth referencing.

"Don’t use the Flame Enchantment, or it will trigger the boss’s berserk mode.

"Circle around to its left rear, bait out its right foot stomping move, and GP at just before the peak of the leg raise.

"If it does a headbutt, it’s best to step forward directly in front, get under its belly, and there’ll be an opportunity to deal about three hits..."

Neighbor Wang’s video did not have audio commentary, but he added simple subtitles, which explained the tactics quite clearly.

Zhuge Jun nodded in sudden realization, "Oh? So it’s that simple!"

From the video, the battle seemed quite straightforward, even somewhat uninteresting.

Firstly, Neighbor Wang kept circling to his own left front, which is always standing by the boss’s right leg. The boss initially unleashed several lousy moves, like rolling in place and Tail Swing, all of which Neighbor Wang dodged with ease.

Either he ran in the opposite direction quickly to create distance, or he dodged using the Invincibility Frame of his step.

Then, the boss entered a rather dimwitted phase, suddenly becoming less intelligent and repeatedly using the same right foot stomping move on Neighbor Wang who continued to circle by his right leg.

The move itself posed little threat; its movements were easy to recognize, both the lifting and stomping had fairly long reaction times, and without being triggered to ignite, the stomp wouldn’t cause large-area AOE damage.

Neighbor Wang judged the situation, sometimes dodging with a step, sometimes directly GP-ing, quickly causing part destruction to the right leg and dealing heavy damage, forcing the boss into the second phase at half health.

However, in the second phase, the boss didn’t have any special moves either. It just angrily shook its body, causing the molten iron from the furnace on its back to splash around, and added a head-smashing "headbutt" action.

Neighbor Wang’s response was also very simple, stepping forward to dodge when the boss did a headbutt, and slipping under its belly.

Since the two prosthetic appendages resembling the forearms of a T. rex didn’t deal damage, the area under the boss’s belly was actually a safe zone, very secure as long as you paid attention to its other attacks.

After that, Neighbor Wang continued to barrage the boss’s left leg, causing part destruction again and when the boss fell to the ground, it was nearly out of health and easily killed with a bit of brute force.

"So it’s this simple!

"Indeed, the problem lies with me; I should have thought more about it.

"If I had known, I would have gone for the groin!"

Zhuge Jun reflected on being consistently dominated before, mainly because he hadn’t considered going for the groin. As a result, he was often hit by the boss’s various Swiftness-based large area attacks, getting part-destroyed first, which made the rest of the fight very one-sided.

Thinking about it now, weren’t the boss’s two comically useless forearms hinting at players to go for the groin?

After giving the video a thumbs-up, comment, and share, Zhuge Jun returned to the game, brimming with confidence to challenge the boss again.

"Okay, start by circling around its right leg."

Zhuge Jun began to fight according to the method in the video, yet the first move already caught him off guard.

The Boss didn’t step on the ground with its right foot, instead it lay on the ground and started to roll!

Zhuge Jun was taken by surprise and got crushed under the huge body, immediately receiving a notification that one of his legs suffered minor structural damage, significantly reducing his movement efficiency.

"Holy shit! What’s going on!"

A minute later, Zhuge Jun was back under the gas lamp outside the door.

"I’m speechless! Let’s try again!"

Ten minutes passed, and Zhuge Jun was back under the gas lamp, contemplating his life.

"Something feels off, why does the boss I’m facing seem different from the one in the video?"

Zhuge Jun was baffled; he really wanted to replicate the moves from the video, but no matter how he tried, he couldn’t manage it!

According to the video, before entering the "boss’s right foot stepping cycle," the boss actually has about five or six random moves.

This includes rolling, Tail Swing, and headbutting.

In the video, the guy next door handled these moves very smoothly, rolling in the opposite direction to get away, dodging the Tail Swing, and crawling under its belly when it headbutted.

And he even managed to sneak in several strikes during these intervals.

As a result, the boss would enter the "right foot stepping cycle," and then GP could be used to deal significant damage to the boss, quickly resulting in structural damage.

But Zhuge Jun was stuck at the first step!

He always made small mistakes and got nicked by the boss.

Theoretically, just getting nicked should not be a big deal since, although the characters in this game are fragile, minor damage doesn’t directly cause structural damage.

Take the boss’s Tail Swing for example; its lethality isn’t that strong, and even if one fails to dodge and takes a hit, it just causes a slight loss of health, and the effect on structural damage is minimal. A health potion would restore it.

But when Zhuge Jun excitedly waited for the boss to enter the "right foot stepping cycle," he couldn’t get it to happen, neither by waiting on the left nor on the right!

His boss was not like the one next door; even if it performed the right foot stepping move, it wouldn’t enter a loop, continuing to mix in a variety of other moves instead.

Each new move required a different method to address, undoubtedly increasing the difficulty considerably.

However, according to the video description, the guy next door mentioned that this video is supposed to replicate a standard effect. Although it’s not 100% predictable, he managed to successfully enter this simple cycle every time he played, and it’s the easiest method he has found thus far.

A standard pattern in boss fights is when the player uses a certain method to pin down the boss’s moves, thereby completely avoiding the need for improvisation and able to defeat the boss by simply following the steps.

That is to say, the "right foot stepping cycle" in its simple form does exist, and the guy next door can pull it off every single time.

"Maybe it’s because... I didn’t avoid damage in the first few moves?

"Or maybe I didn’t deal enough damage to the boss in the process of dodging?"

Zhuge Jun had a vague hunch.

The biggest difference between him and the guy next door was how they handled the first few moves.

The guy next door not only avoided damage but also exploited openings to attack, causing significant damage to the boss’s health, almost not wasting any opportunity to deal damage.

But Zhuge Jun was different, he not only got hit, but he also hardly inflicted any damage on the boss.

As a result, the boss’s moves changed.

The guy next door would run around the boss’s right leg, and the boss would just keep stepping on the floor; but when Zhuge Jun did the same, the boss was much smarter, performing rolls, Tail Swings, headbutts, and steps without missing out on any.

And the more Zhuge Jun got hit, the more varied the boss’s moves became, sometimes even doing combos.

For instance, a wide-area roll that caused Zhuge Jun to stagger was quickly followed by a headbutting move that took advantage of the roll’s recovery time, catching Zhuge Jun off guard and taking maximum damage, resulting in him getting his legs smashed and left to die.

"So you mean to say, if I want to enter the simple ’right foot stepping cycle’ like the guy next door, I have to avoid taking damage in the boss’s first few moves?

"No, even just avoiding damage isn’t enough. If the only requirement were to avoid damage, I could just keep running circles around the arena, a marathon, and that would be sufficient, as the difficulty isn’t high when you simply dodge when the boss lunges at you.

"It seems I must also deal a sufficient amount of damage to the boss in the intervals between dodges to trigger this ’simple AI.’

"Which means... first and foremost, I have to be completely familiar with most of the boss’s moves and perform the perfect response to trigger this simpler mode?

"...That’s insane!

"Guess why I look at guides and why I want to play on easy mode?"