Guidus One Royal Palace Swordsman Combat Guide

To clear the Royal Palace in Guidus One with the Swordsman Prince, eliminate backline ranged snipers immediately before engaging frontal armored guards, and never attack shielded defenders from the front. Because the Swordsman relies on direct melee slashes rather than wide area spells, lingering in open rooms leaves you vulnerable to tracking magic and heavy weapon cleaves.

Target Elimination Order

Palace rooms pair long-range shooters with armored frontliners. Engaging the front line first allows ranged projectiles to track across the room and whittle down your health. Clear threats in this sequence upon entering each room:

Defeating Shield Guards and Heavy Knights

Attacking a palace guard directly against a raised shield reflects melee damage and staggers the Swordsman. Royal heavy knights also feature hyper-armor during their attack animations, preventing standard sword swings from interrupting their cleaves. Unless you carry armor-piercing relics, defeat these targets using a three-step cycle:

1. Trigger the windup: Walk forward to provoke the enemy's attack telegraph, then immediately step backward or dash diagonally out of the strike area.
2. Move to the flank: Once the attack lands on empty ground, move to the side or back while the enemy recovers. The shield provides no defense during recovery frames.
3. Attack twice and disengage: Land two slashes, then immediately back away before nearby guards initiate follow-up swings.

Positioning and Choke Points

Fighting in the center of an open room gives ranged units clear firing lanes and allows melee mobs to encircle you. Use the environment to control engagement numbers:

• Archways and doorways: Retreat back toward room entrances after drawing enemy attention. Bottlenecks force advancing foes into single-file lines, allowing a single horizontal slash to damage multiple targets at once.
• Columns and pillars: Keep marble pillars between your character and distant mages to block tracking spells. Circling pillars also separates fast pursuit enemies from slow heavy knights, creating safe 1-on-1 duels while your dash stamina recovers.

Build Priorities for Palace Encounters

Palace enemies have high health pools and heavy armor, making drawn-out battles of attrition risky. Balance offensive range and defense when selecting relics and blessings:

• Attack reach and cleave: Boons that widen sword arcs or add shockwaves let you damage foes safely outside their guard hitboxes.
• Dash mobility and defense: Relics that reduce dash cooldowns or grant temporary shields upon dodging ensure clean repositioning past heavy cleave arcs.
• Bleed and critical strikes: High-tier enemies drop significantly faster when hit with percentage-based bleed damage and critical multipliers.

Elite and Boss Discipline

Elite palace encounters require strict hit-and-fade timing rather than extended attack combos:

• Maintain lateral movement around the target instead of retreating in a straight line, which remains vulnerable to long-range thrusts.
• Deliver one or two slashes during boss recovery pauses, and keep at least one dash charge held in reserve for emergency dodges.
• When a boss begins a multi-stage arena attack or enters an enraged state, stop attacking completely. Dodge ground telegraphs and secondary projectiles, waiting for the boss to return to a neutral stance before engaging again.