In terms of dying a lot, I would recommend a change in overall strategy. Ten seconds of invincibility is not much, especially for the amount of work that goes into making the damn things. What generally works best for me is having just loads of different +1, +2, and +3 health food items on hand, cheap easy things that I can stock up on anywhere and spam for health while pausing during boss fights. Especially good is anything that gives health and regeneration or defense and regeneration, although regen. alone is still good to a lesser extent. Hard bosses or areas get as much energy form shots in as short a time as I can put out; I perhaps had an easier time of this with a USB game controller, but you can take firepower boosters along to supplement that.
Two things I would recommend in particular:
For the mantis, stock up on lots of health items as I say, and then avoid binding the bombs at all. By that time, I had the jellyfish suit, and I would just let the middle bomb come down and hit me, making it explode, just after I had fetched him down with a briar pillar. If I got low on health, I could just hang near the bottom of the bubble and avoid the bombs for a bit. Coming to the forums after beating the game and reading about the "standard" way to beat him just sounds much, much trickier. Really, once you get the jelly suit, any fight becomes a matter of patience and avoidance, if it doesn't wound your pride too much.
For training in dual form, here's a nice tactic: Whenever there's a lull in the action, get into nature form and shoot three briar pillars at a wall. Switch to dual form and shoot them; they count as kills. Now you're charged and ready to go. This works out particularly nicely in the Final Gauntlet, since they tend to set up points of high-numbers low-strength enemies in waves, interspersed with more heavy fire from a few bigger things. The scream takes care of everything but the big guys, and brings them down to a few hits' worth of mop-up.
Edit: Eh heh.... I totally didn't read any of the other threads you've posted, where most of this stuff has come up already. Oh well! : |