Forums → Game Walkthroughs → How To get Black Magic Achievement

Did you even mention the true disguise part?
You just lower his health far enough then he will use "Disguise dropped". Thus allowing you to deal 200% more damage.

Actually the unknown effect isn't retograde, but random grade. Sometimes it reverses, and sometimes it doesn't.(randomly) While hes using that, you want to avoid any healing. But the nice thing about free will is that it absorbs any damage it might create. Still, you do just want to attack, don't bother with defending stuff if you can. Especially since sometimes he will just heal you with his attack.

At this stage of the game, I would not bother with dark psych yet. For example, for a good dark psych, you need dark echos (better then implosion btw) At this stage, especially with a legend run, you don't have enough ability to properly do dark.

What your suggestion really is missing, is traumatize. Tramatize is very useful against him (and alot of foes) Traumatized combined with steady shock attacks will punch through any healing he does, retrograde is not necessary,

Actually I didn't find the black magic achievement difficult at all. There are alot more challenging foes and achievements out there. This one is pretty easy I think.

Also, with a lightning build, you can simply not attack when he is in retrograde mode.(A good time to traumatize him). With dark, its much more problematic.

.... no I've tried almost everything. understand this is my charecter with no training do-overs or anything. I don't think that "random-Grade" has ever done anything besides what retrograde does except I was wrong, it is subversion with a heal srry but it's not really a difference. oh and with the true disguise he still uses the same tactics as he does in step three so you just keep attacking but you may need to heal more. Also he only retrogades for like 2 turns right? thats when you heal/ retrogade yourself. I've never even got past half of his HP with lighting no matter how many times i tried but i won with this strategy in 5 tries.

so yeah
1st off he doesn't EVER go into retrogade mode
2nd You are wrong about Dark echoes... the reason i dont use it is because it doesn't apply to HoT as well as DoT AND I tried doing the lightning build against him on my psycho i quit on because i noticed zone 6 didnt unlock on easy (from when i first started sonny) and even on easy it was impossible for me to beat him alone with lightning build. And yes I know this isn't a &quotroper" shadow build but really when do you ever use a &quotroper" build when dealing with a tough boss? I only built it as a shadow build because I needed:
1.) the 10% degradation so i could heal when he casts retrogade
2.) the hp gen from psych form
3.) a high DoT dmg since you cant attack him 90% of the time without ruining the strategy and dying
4.)the HoT nuke is great for when he strays from his normal attack patterns
5.) Because I tried everything else :P

AND clemons' leading strike-ish attack is based off speed i think so insecurity is good for that too.... but im not sure it is based off speed it seems like it though.

Maybe I am mixing him up with another enemy, but I could have sworn he puts retrograde on himself. Also that the unknown factor sometimes reverses and sometimes doesn't. But maybe I am wrong on those two aspects.

I do know that I beat him in heroic mode with lightning build and almost no training. Traumatize helps alot against him.

It is kind of weird that you suggest to attack him with dark infusion, then say don't attack him with dark infusion no matter what.

After he runs out of Focus he starts attacking with his swords then retrogading like he was before, giving you 1 turn to attack.

a high DoT dmg since you cant attack him 90% of the time without ruining the strategy and dying

)the HoT nuke is great for when he strays from his normal attack patterns

let me clarify...

you have to attack yourself with DI on the first step (cuz you're r-graded) im telling not to attack him cuz it gives him focus so he can start retrograding you and probably kill you.

you only have 1 turn cuz he uses a leading strike-ish attack that gives him a bit of focus and then he uses the retrograde attack then leading strike (which heals you giving you the chance to attack)and over and over so you have 1 turn to attack him while he LS's you.

you have to have a high DoT since most of the time in the third step he will do somthing unexpected alot so you need to heal yourself but you still dmg him with the DoT.

yeah you dont have to worry about attack patterns because you would've died by now.

dark echoes does do good dmg but between healing yourself you wont have the time to stack effects on him, at least with epiphany you can inflict some damage on him while healing and add an effect to make it do more damage when you aren't healing. so yeah implosion is good also cuz it helps with healing over time AND DoT which is good cuz then you have a 2 round 1.4k + heal with about a 600hp shield.

Yeah i normally hate the shadow build so it was the last thing i tried... traumatize doesn't help too much cuz it only stuns him for 2 turns and knows away half of your damage which doesnt work well against a high hp boss who doesn't rely on focus.

If you don't have "time" to stack effects then you really shouldn't bother with implosion. Implosion is only really worth using when your stacking up alot. Hell, shadow build itself is only really worth using if you can do a good number of attacks in a row without interruption.

Traumatize is very handy against him, he does use focus, and it gives you space to heal up. And if he spends a turn lead striking because of the lost focus from traumatize, thats even more space.

but stunning him for 2 turns when you can heal in one turn defeats the point cuz it also only lets you inflict 50% of normal dmg for 2 turns which is basically just that 1 turn u spent casting truamatize....that is why i think it is the worse stun in the game.

It is not about doing damage, but about giving yourself space to recover and about draining focus too.

So it gives Veradux two turns without attack from the enemy to heal everyone up, gives you a turns without attack from the enemy to free will or what ever else you wish to do. If Eoald is faster then sonny, then his attack that turn does full damage, and the next tun he could cast shield.

It gives time for enemy debuffs/buffs to wear off. (especially helpful with enemy stuns)

In this example, it gives you yet another part of a turn by draining focus and forcing him to use leading strike rather then a much more dangerous attack.

Have you actually tried traumatize * 2 against him joker? A well timed traumatize can be a life saver.

Even from a damage perspective, traumatize allows you to get in more damage without attack then you would otherwise. But that is not it's main purpose. Though it is helpful in that regard for enemies that heal themselves at set health levels.

I realized I made a error. Forgot that blackmagic is solo. But it is still helpful against him.

I agree a Shadow Psych is best for Black Magic. I don´t know exactly how I did it, but I think it was Epiphany - Insecurity - Dark Infusion (self) until Epiphany has cooled down. Then repeat. I also used Ultimatum, it was great help. But it was on Challenging, I don´t know if it would work on Heroic...

Ok I have done it, twice now. I have equipped for weapons light mace and wrath from zone 2 (both purchasable) This is a legend run, no repeat bosses or practice battles and heroic settings and only sonny for fighting.

I have
Vitality 62 (2058hp)
Instinct 131
Speed 83

You might be able to play with the other numbers a bit, but you need at least that much vitality for this to work.

Equipped
1 Free will 4/4
3 Shock Therapy's 3/3
1 Electrical storm 2/4
1 Wraith form
2 Traumatize 2/2
Plus Charged blood 4/5

Use shock therapy the first round and he will cast unknown condition.
Then traumatize, shock therapy, traumatize electrical storm.

Keep on using traumatize when ever it becomes available. Never bother with free will unless traunatize is going to allow it to function without unknown condition running so that it can heal you.

When ever he casts unknown condition on you, it heals you, then the traumatize prevents him from attacking afterwards. He will over time do more damage then healing this way.

But with the Vitality/health I recommended you should be able to survive & do enough damage till he "sees right through you" and stops using unknown condition. Hopefully you still have some unknown condition left over at this point, his attacks will heal you until it runs out, likely bringing you to full health.

From this point on continue using the traumize. He should be pretty low on focus at this point which will make the battle easier. The traumatize will help cover you when he breaks through free will. So keep some of it around for then. Remember not to use free will again till the previous one runs out.

Traumatize is also good when he goes into shadow form, shock therapy will dispel it too. Try to have one or the other ready at that time (but with him out of focus this won't happen much)

Shock therapy is also useful when he casts nightmare on himself, dispeling its healing effects.

Remember to wait on wraith form till you have dropped at least 50 focus from max.

Easy battle with the technics I mention here.