I just made it through to level 30 on pain 7 and want to share what worked for me for anyone who wants to attempt this nightmare.
Wave Survival Pain Tips
Note: Credit goes to Linkblade
Intro
Our goal is to reach level 30 in Wave Survival mode on pain levels 6+7.
After beating pain level 5 with only 2 lives, pain level 6 introduces that all weapons only have one shot. That means that projectile shooting weapons are gone after one shot AND that all light sabers too only have one parry contact before they vanish and leave you unarmed and unguarded open for hits. A parry contact is almost every touching of an enemy blade, shield, body or homing energy ball. The only cases where you keep a light saber is when slicing through the soft back of the energy ball shooting bug or through a wasp without hitting its sword. Also included from earlier pain levels is the altered weapon drop probability, so that you will have to fight very often with a light saber.
Pain level 7 makes you do the same as in Pain 6 again, but starting with only one life instead of two.
Every 5 waves you get to choose an upgrade and the next map to play on from two options. These choices are super important. You can choose 5 upgrades in total (at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25) before reaching level 30. Make them count. Reaching the next round/map will fill up missing health points (hp) and reset your shield / chance for shield (if you have any of these upgrades) and will increase enemy count, enemy types possible (e.g. double-bladed wasps can’t spawn at levels 1-5) and enemy speed.
Useful Upgrades
These are my recommendations for upgrades in ordered priority
- More Ammo.
This will give you one more ammo for each weapon (but not for the double barreled plasma gun).
It sounds like not much, but having two instead of only one shot/light saber touch is super helpful and the best upgrade in my opinion.
- Max lives +1
This will give you +1 max life but NOT fill up your hearts! So you then have 1 of 2 hp for the next 5 waves and still die in one hit. Only when reaching the next round/map you will get +1 hp to have 2 of 2 hp. So this upgrade is useful the earlier you get it.
- Shield on Last Life
Since you only have on life this will give you a shield for every round which is much helpful. But beware: you don`t really have a cooldown to get hit. So if you fall into the yellow/orange danger zone you’re still dead in milliseconds. Also hits from enemies are very dangerous because the same blade that hit you can touch you again after 0.1 ms and kill you. This upgrade is still useful for shots and one time touches.
- More Explosives
Changes the spawn probabilities of your weapons, so that MUCH more often explosives spawn. Explosive weapons are not only the bombs, but also rocket launcher, spreadshot rocket launcher and the violet twirling black hole weapon, which is the most useful weapon for wave survival, because it sucks in all enemies in proximity and kills them all, even enemies with a shield. Super useful for the later harder waves with many many enemies. Also the rocket launchers guarantee easy and quick kills from afar. You gotta be careful with those explosions though and keep your distance. Beware: enemies which run into still floating spider explosives will ignite them and turn your explosives against you. When having been sucked into a violet black hole it’s still possible for you to get out, you gotta spam the web in one direction.
- Run faster
Makes you run faster. Super helpful to get in for the kill, especially for the rotating blade enemies.
- Fatigue – Enemies move slower
The higher the wave, the faster the enemies. They get super quick and with enemy numbers increasing makes it super hard to react to all what is happening. Fatigue slows them down and makes it MUCH easier to act and react. In fact, my winning run had Fatigue upgraded twice.
- Enemies suffer more knockback / Particle blades do more knockback
Makes knockbacking enemies into the danger zone easier.
Stay Away Upgrades
Maybe personal preference, but these are argueably bad for Wave Survival:
- Fall slower
Makes you fall slower. But falling is key to get away or in, to move fast and to build up speed for a swing. This alters the spider movement so that it ruins all my habit. My run would be over if I had to choose this upgrade.
- Spiders suffer less knockback
Makes you take less knockback from enemy blade parries, but also messes up the jump pad behaviour. It’s like you’re super heavy, so you end up being hauled by the jump pad in unusual and unintended paths you don’t want.
- Jump higher
Makes you jump higher. It messes up the movement. It’s as if the levels weren’t intended for spiders with this jump power. It’s not as bad as Fall Slower, but still bad.
Maps
Number one rule is stay the hell away from Pachinko. Boxes fall down continuously from above shoving enemies into you, you into enemies, you into the pit below and make your weapons fall down directly into the pit. So on Pachinko you have fast changing situations and less weapons. And you have not much space. Your best bet is to often place yourself under the triangles because the falling boxes can’t reach this spot. If you’re above wave 14 you should never choose Pachinko even if it offers the best upgrade, because it will ruin your run.
Generally you should choose maps with much open space, many escape paths, many weapon spawn positions and good hiding spots near a danger zone at the bottom (for double-bladed wasp kills) like Hexagon, Big Wheel and Hanging.
Enemy Approach Tips
The most dangerous enemy is the double-bladed wasp. It’s super fast, deadly with its swinging blades and hard to hit. There are waves where three of these spawn simultaneously! My best practice was to lure them near the danger zone and knockback them with the light saber into it for an instant kill even if they have a shield.
It seemed to me that they only start their swinging dash move when they have direct sight to you, so hiding behind an obstacle is useful!
The other two wasp types are dangerous as well. With a light saber my best practice was to hide behind a corner while holding the light saber into the wall, letting them come around the corner and then swinging the light saber after them to hit them from behind.
The energy ball shooting bugs will produce so much chaos. They will shoot their homing balls once they have direct sight to you. Hiding helps as well as the corner trick mentioned above. Good practice was to let them fire one shot, dodge it and quickly going in to get the kill on their back with the light saber, because once they shot their ball the recoil will haul them around with their back exposed. Good to know: you won’t be killed when you touch them anywhere, only their energy balls can hit you, so close combat during a shot cooldown is safe.
The purple circles need four light saber touches to be killed. Exhausting, but you need to stay patient on these. They’re not that dangerous. Look out when multiple circles are flying around. They bounce off each other and off jump pads. This also happens when they are sucked into a violet black hole explosion, which makes them bounce OUT OF IT to unknown places which is like they’re teleporting. Be very careful in this situation.
The robots scanning for you which then shoot are very coward and will flee / move away from you once they see you, which makes them hard to approach with a light saber. You can hook onto them to quickly go in for a kill and touching them won’t kill you, but if they touch your light saber from the side it’s gone and they will easily hit you from close range. Better be careful and shoot or throw light saber from afar.
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