How does Black Knight's Barrier determine the element to be weak to? I can't tell if him getting two Ice-s or two Thunder-s in a row is just random chance or not?
Going full Defense build at him would work, if I had something to counter his Rock Wall. But in any case, the Laser Lens is basically never the right shield for him.
EDIT: And maybe I shouldn't tab out, since apparently it can stop the graphics from updating. Weird.
Viewing post in 0.3.5 P2 - Bugfix Patch 2 comments
Black Knight 2 is very tough for the point he appears at, and you'll need every advantage you can get against him. His Barrier Shift is random, with an equal chance for each element. Packing at least a few potions of each type is a good plan, so you can take advantage of a given weakness if you get the chance.
You can build up status effects even if BK isn't weak to them at the moment, and they'll take effect when they can; if he switches to Ice weakness while he has a 40% Chill, for instance, he'll suddenly have to deal with the effective 60% slowdown from that, and some extra Cold Snap damage if you've hit him with that too. The caveat being, whether he switches to it at all is random, so you'll need a little luck.
He'll also use Twister more often when he's Burned or Softened even if he isn't weak to those elements at the moment.
Rock Wall stacking is a powerful strategy in general; Super Powder of Rock + Molten Iron will give you +18 Defense before any other modifiers, and if you have Stone's Throw, that translates to a solid attack boost too. Just be sure to pack extras as Black Knight can cast Torrent II to chip away at a Rock Wall.
Erosive Phials will break down a Rock Wall even if Black Knight is currently immune to their damage, and have 15%/15% timing to Shaker II's 20%/30%. It'll take two to break the 4-turn wall that Shaker II creates, but timing just one so that it comes out while Black Knight spends a turn on Iron Ball would leave him wide open.
Another option is Catalyst formulas, as the Trigger deals Neutral damage, Catalysts can be stacked whether the foe's Blocking or not, and Catalyzer Focus has no issues since the Black Knight has no Gravity attacks. If you've got a bunch of Jelly Jewels, you can potentially blast him down in one explosion, or get him close enough for a Grav Formula to finish the job.
Finally, there's one available sidequest in particular with a reward that's both generally useful and very strong against the Black Knight's signature Block/Iron Ball combo.
EDIT: Wait, tabbing out can stop the graphics from updating? I've never experienced this issue, where did this happen?
The graphics stop happened when I was facing two Challenger Pharoarchers.
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On Black Knight 2:
Well, I seem to be able to consistently get Black Knight 2 to ~100 HP with a 26 Defense build and using single elemental Formulae I and II. If I got better at timing my few level II Formulae, I'd probably be able to win.
So glad I saved the Banes I got from the Orb Guardian drops.
I'd probably like to remember where Jelly Jewels come from, but the Rebel's Helmet might be nicer, and maybe if I actually eat some Defense food. Probably won't be able to find 15 more enemies to wear a 5th Defense focus. heh.
33 Defense while also drinking Regen II. Probably basically totally safe.
It's a solid plan. With 33 Defense, even a maxed out Star Burst will only hit for 52 (or 55 if you've got a Soften from Torrent).
Figured out what's delaying the Journal window updates. There's a "cooldown" variable in the plugin that purposely waits so many ticks before refreshing the window. I lowered that, as it was set to an excessively high value; you should be able to flip through your quests much faster now.
Pharoarchers don't have any special graphical effects that might cause some kind of graphics issue, but I'm not sure what would have caused it, aside from maybe lag on your system. I'll go ahead and release another minor fix in just a bit with the Journal and Winning Streak patched, but I'll also keep an eye out for any issues when tabbing.