Hi.
So I've been trying to farm the Royal Jelly solo for a while. The problem is that by the time I make it to him, the two stages before him just brutalize me! I've got no pills left so I inevitably fall to his legions of slimes.
I've read guides about the Royal Jelly and could probably take him if I could just keep my resources. Anyone have any tips for the stages leading up to him?
The floor right before the JK can be really tough (the right side of the main hall especially) but the best advice I can give you is just to take your time and be patient when fighting. Don't be afraid to dodge and shield, even if that means you're getting in fewer hits. Bring a good gun and/or bomb, too, as they'll help you deal damage without taking any.
On the floor above that one (2 floors above the JK), there's a small courtyard with some auto-generating bomb boxes and stuff. Break the boxes and hit the buttons BEFORE you enter the rooms on either side, so you won't trigger another spawn afterwards. Then, when you go inside the rooms, lure all the monsters to the center courtyard as soon as they spawn. That way you're not fighting around gun puppies and spike traps.
My gear is:
Sinister Skelly set.
Vile Striker
Pepperbox.
Most are around level 6-7.
Bomb it into oblivion.
Preferably mad bomb it into oblivion.
Stupid jellies, blackcurrant flavour is rubbish anyway.
If you need pills that much you're doing it horribly wrong and not dodging enough.
Without knowing your gear, the best advice I can give you is: kite. Kite like the wind. A calibur in particular, is extremely powerful for kiting. It gives you space when it knocks enemies back. Simply charge your Calibur while you run around enemies, then once it's charged, hit as many enemies as you can, then run around and charge some more. Of course, shielding when necessary. Draw enemies back into more open spaces, or create a strategy in order to take out particular rooms on your own.
Example: for the top right room on depth 16. this is probably the most difficult.
Once you reach the blue cube, wait until the spikes go back down. When the spikes directly behind you go down, hit the cute, and run across that particular spike platform. Run alll the way across the room, and across the spikes directly in front of the top left gun puppy while you charge your weapon. Quickly kill this gunpuppy, so you don't have to worry about it. Making your escape out of this small area from the bottom spikes by the lower gunpuppy. Don't kill this one, ignore it for now. There's a block behind it that will protect you from its incoming fire. Now, stay in the middle, and charge/kite. Pass over the far lower right spike platform every so often, in order to not be overwhelmed by the lumbers.
I've cleared this room many times, without getting hit. It may be difficult to understand through text, but the strategy works well for me. The major thing I took advantage of, was making sure the spikes went up/down where I needed them to be when starting the room. This way I can immediately kill the gunpuppy at the top, which gave me the most trouble.
Take a gun. Pull the enemies away from the rooms with spikes and turrets. Kill the enemies in the areas you've already cleared. This is possible with all the fights except for two rooms on the east side of the four keys room. (You'll know what I'm talking about when you get there.) I would avoid the room in the ne corner of that room unless you are really good.
Other than that it doesn't matter what gear you take. Garden of Goo and Red Carpet Runaround can be easily soloed with 2 * gear. (the one exception is the room in the ne corner of the four keys room. Thankfully you can skip that room.)
As for Royal Jelly itself, you need a 4* sword and 4* piercing/normal resist armor. I've recently killed it with 3* brute jelly set and a 4* venom striker, so it's possible with 3* armor. But I died several times doing it. I recommend 4* gear to take him on.
-edit-
Also, you can't pull the enemies away from the two fights at the end of Garden of Goo and Red Carpet Runaround, but those areas have enough room to kite the slimes indefinitely..
Best advice I can give you is to upgrade to the Vile Striker immediately. That weapon is amazing for soloing jellies (I do it all the time straight through Red Carpet Runaround) with its heavy poison. It's very easy to whack the jellies a few times then immediately shield to protect against their attacks. If you practice your timing and be very patient (i.e. shield often) you can breeze through those levels with ease.
Update:
I was able to acquire a Sealed Sword for 50.000 Crowns and a Faust recipe for 10.000. I had more than enough from all my failed attempts at the Royal Jelly.
I think the Faust will make short work of those pesky slimes. I just hope I won't miss the Vile Striker's poison once I am at the boss...
I find Jelly Palace to be incredibly easy and have never beaten Jelly King.
That said, bombs are your friend; either fiery vaporizer line or blast bomb line.
Faust will help, curse and poison are both great against JK. That having been said, however, you're also wearing an armor set with a TON of shadow resist into a set of levels with, correct me if I'm wrong, no shadow dmg whatsoever (unless the first half of the tier is undead or fiend)--all normal/piercing/elemental. If you have another set you can wear that provides more normal and piercing or elemental resist, that would also make a big difference on the levels leading up to JK himself--and if the first half of the tier IS undead or fiend, you can still wear skelly and then swap for the other set at the terminal before the final descent to JK.
To amuse myself, I went and tried to solo the Jelly Palace using standard 2* equipment: Calibur, Blaster, Defender, Cobalt Armor, and Cobalt Helm. It worked well for depths 15 and 16, though I royally messed up the fight with the Jelly King and died having done little damage. It helps that I used an armor set that has good piercing resistance, as well as having soloed JK enough times to know how the whole thing works. Elemental helps against lumbers and gun puppies but those are less frequent and a lot easier to avoid than the jellies.
The way equipment and the strata are set up, you should be perfectly fine with 3* equipment against JK; 4* and 5* equipment provide only a tiny bit more damage or resistance. Only reason to go higher is special equipment functionality like the Vile Striker or Faust, though you don't need either of those to take down JK. 2* shouldn't be impossible but it'd require you to be almost perfect with your attacks, as opposed to somewhat perfect with better gear.
What kind of gear are you in?