Quirks, Strengths, Weaknesses, and how to be effective with each.
Introduction
This game suffers a bit with this, as I’ve seen many people not understand its elements, which could lead to frustration/irritation, instead of the fun the game is supposed to deliver. If you understand what you need to do, the limitations of what you can do and the possibilities, you can enjoy the game much more.
So, with this guide, I hope I can help and/or expand your knowledge of the game’s mechanics based on elements, and help improve your enjoyment of the game. There will be some minor spoilers so, be aware of that.
Characteristics of Lilliputs
Therefore, I’ll be talking about Fire, Ice and Wind Lilliputs, the actual three elements of the game. Each has a different idea when approaching combat (95% of the game) and normally don’t synergize that well with each other. A miss opportunity perhaps.
Fire focuses on powerful melee attacks, can burn enemies for extra damage, as well as interrupting them. Ice focuses on attacking from a distance, with a focus on getting critical hits, as well as having a chance to freeze enemies in place. Wind focuses on hitting multiple times with quick attacks, and on maintaining a hit combo going to increase more and more its damage.
Elements follow a bit some of the ideas we see in RPGs. With this info, we can see that Fire portraits melee fighters, Ice portraits spell casters, and Wind portraits agile rogues. This comparison can help undestand each elements role in the game, even if they might not be so powerful in some situations.
Another aspect of the elements is their role on the environment. To see this aspect well, you should see what each Lilliput does as attack and as skill. We can notice Fire does not have attacks or skills with long range, but we can also notice that some Fire Lilliputs have extra effects if they hit the ground. This means it’s a good idea to attack with these Lilliputs while staying on the ground, which also means hitting enemies while on the air is not so good. Flying enemies will take a bit longer to be dealt with.
Analyzing Ice, we can see it doesn’t have that extra effect, but also has much higher range on attacks. It’s actually interesting to see that even though Queen, probably the strongest Lilliput in the game, is really, really powerful as a ranged attack, but as a skill, it becomes a melee effect that can still be powerful if used with a Melee build up. So Ice is more versatile.
Looking at Wind, we see the Lilliputs hits multiple times in many situations. These hits are not so powerful, but combined deals its intended damage. Sure, 9 damage isn’t much, but Chuck, probably the best Wind Lilliput, hits five times per uppercut. And if we pay attention, a good amount of Wind Lilliputs move Noah while attacking. So Wind is about hitting multiple times and also being quite mobile, going all around the field.
So we can see some of the aspects of the elements by their Lilliputs, but we can’t see the full picture with just them. We must look at other two aspects of the game’s mechanics regarding elements.
Crystals
First a question: These are the three crystals you can get. With the previous information on this guide, which crystal would fit each element best?
It’s pretty on the nose eh. The Crystals are one of the ways to focus your build up while playing the game. It might feel like you are required to use a certain Lilliput for each crystal, but it should be the opposite: Choose the crystals for the Lilliputs you have at the moment. One crystal will not make much difference, so if you get one crystal that becomes “obsolete” for getting a different, more powerful Lilliput, it’s okay. Just focus on the new Lilliput.
Crystal actually play a minor role compared to accessories, but if you can focus on one single type, they can give you a lot of extra damage. But, getting the same crystal will diminish your health increase, not that it matters much. So, those “obsolete” crystals actually gave you stats that help you, even if their major effect is not being used.
So Red is meant for Fire Lilliputs, Blue is meant for Ice Lilliputs, and Green is meant for Wind Lilliputs.
Red is the Melee Archetype: More damage when in Melee range (although it’s hard to tell what is melee range in this game), also a good amount of health increase (30%). Blue is a more Ranged/Spellcaster Archetype: Not as much health increase (20%) but more damage (18%), as well as increased damage when the enemy is in a distance. And Green is more balanced, but clearly it’s meant to assist Wind Lilliputs, being the Rogue Archetype: multiple hits = more damage, with a huge potential for Snowball.
So, the Crystals also help you making a more solid build up while in a run, since if you have certain types of Lilliputs, you know exactly which kind of Crystal you should focus on getting. But there is still more we need to look into, now with the Accessories.
Accessories
It’s really important to differentiate Attack, Skill, and Damage types in this accessories.
Attack means using the Lilliput in your Attack Lineup. Whatever effect tells you “Attack damage”, it means only attack damage. Skill means only skill damage, although I’m not sure if the burst counts as a skill. If not, it could, since it is a skill. Unfortunately there is a type of accesory that increases only burst damage, which makes me guess that it does not count as a skill. Damage means (probably) every type of attack of that kind. So we should be able to differentiate each and get it when it helps us the most.
Now, once again I’m here to tell you that Fire is supposed to be used for Melee Attacks. If you don’t believe my word, believe the items in the game. There is an accessory called “Combustion Amulet” which creates an explosion every time you hit an enemy in melee range. If my words are not enough, well.
That is a pretty good damage increase if you ask me. The accessories in the game also helps us understand each element’s role, and also tells you that I’m not making all of this up.
As I said before, Fire has many Lilliputs that have extra effects when hitting the ground. Felicity, the Bunny Girl with the big Morning Star, Lionel Messi, pretty skilled football player, Tristan and King are some of the options. Unfortunately, because the final boss levitates, that Extra Effect is pretty hard to hit on it. Which can be a big deal. King deals much more damage when hitting the ground, so that’s a big set back to Fire: It’s not that good against the final boss of the game.
Something I couldn’t talk earlier is how Wind Lilliputs are supposed to be used more often while on the air. The reason I couldn’t say that earlier is because I didn’t had a way to prove it.
Now I do, because accessories tell us what to do. But it’s interesting to notice that, the Thunderbolt Amulet does not mention the need of using Wind Lilliputs. And that’s because it is a Sequential Accessory that is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ pain in the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ass to hunt down that can be used with any Lilliput while on the air. It is actually a brother accessory to the Icicle Amulet and Combustion Amulet. Even though each of them is clearly supposed to be used with each respective element, they are not limited to their element, which is pretty good.
I also said that Wind is about maintaining a hit combo going. If the Green Crystal was not enough to convince you that you are supposed to do that, I have one accessory to show you. While the Green Crystal gives you 1% more damage for each hit, and you can have multiple green crystals, some could say that Green crystals can be used with any element to increase the damage.
If we are supposed to hit hard with Fire, we’ll deal a lot of damage with not many hits, so 10% extra damage is better. Wind hits multiple times which allows for snowballing effect for the effect of the Green Crystal, and for the effect of this ring.
Let’s do a bit of Math really quickly here: Let’s say we have three green crystals and this Chain Ring. If we use Chuck, the best Wind Lilliput, to attack, it will hit 5 times per attack. Three crystals means 3% more damage per hit, the Chain Ring also gives 3%, so every Chuck attack, we are going to get 30% extra damage (6*5). I had runs where I could easily reach 50 hits with Chuck and Heidi combo. Well, my New Game Any% Speedrun actually utilizes Chuck and Heidi to reach over 200 hits on the final boss, so 6*200=1200% more damage. That’s how you go wind.
Also, I would like to recommend that you use a Wind Avatar for Noah. Not that they are the best ones, but because Wind is tied to burst damage, for some reason. So if you get burst items, you might as well want to go with a Wind build up, to increase more of your damage with burst, and since a Wind Burst gets extra Wind damage with Wind Items, that’s a lot of extra damage.
If you have 5 Wind Lilliputs in your Attack Lineup, that is 150% more burst damage. More than double of the Fury Bracelet +, and obviously, with these two combined, that’s 220% more damage.
Here’s a video showing a wind snowball against the final boss (spoilers)
And now for the actual most powerful element of the game. Ice is SO unbalanced. You can attack from a safe distance while delivering devastating attacks, all thanks to how powerful some of the Lilliputs are, and how much damage you can get with Ice Accessories.
That’s Ice for you. If you want to play safe, go Ice. I would like to share a video showcasing how powerful Ice is against the final boss, so you can click the link to watch that (Spoilers): Only Queen Needed.
There’s more videos on my channel like this one, but I won’t be updating this guide with them that often. There is one more I’ll be posting here thought, since Ice is so powerful.
This is pretty much it, of an explanation on how the elements work. You could just play the game and figure it out, but if you were having trouble, I hope this helped understand what was going on.
Extra Considerations
Animation Canceling is one of the most powerful things in games. If the game allows for it, it can be used for non-intended purposes. People think Dark Souls is hard, but in reality, it is slightly more challenging than others game, for not allowing for Animation Canceling. All animations in Dark Souls are played to their whole extended, which means you have to intentionally choose your moves and not change your mind in the middle of it, because if you do, you can’t stop the animation playing.
So, what does that means for this game? Since we can cancel animations, this means we can, in the middle of an attack, get out of its intended animation, to do something else. That gives us an advantage compared to someone who does not do that, since we can move away from an attack that is coming towards us, or position ourselves in better locations.
What it means for Melee? For that, we have to look again at the conditions of melee attacks.
Attacking a nearby foe means attacking when they are close to Noah, and NOT by attacking them with a “Melee Lilliput”. Noah needs to be close to the enemy to count as melee, not the attacking Lilliput. But we, as players, don’t really want to stay around enemies. Melee requires us to have Noah close to them to have the extra effects, but we can Cancel Animations.
If we cancel the attack animation, the attack will still play out, but we can get closer or get away from the enemy. Which would be best?
Well it would actually depend on the situation. If we have heavy hitters like King or Felicity, they can stop enemies of attacking, which allow us to stay safe next to them, even though that is not the best idea in most situations. But if we are focusing on using Queen and/or Waterwheel to deal damage, not only they have a good range on their attacks, they don’t have impact, which means enemies that don’t get defeated, will not stop their attacks. Good to mention it’s still risky to get near an enemy in those challenges with the dark Lilliputs, since they are more powerful than regular ones.
How do you cancel animations? By jumping or dashing. You can also reset your attack lineup by using a skill, although that will start a different animation, which can be canceled by jumping or dashing. So a thing that is pretty good to do against bosses is use all your Attack Lilliputs, use a skill Lilliput, and jump/dash to cancel the animation so you can start attacking earlier, with a refreshed attack lineup.
Another thing to consider is that some Lilliput move you. Personally, I find that annoying. You can cancel the movement by jumping or dashing, but having to do that is obnoxious. It should be in mind that some Lilliputs can move you exactly into attacks, or just move you away from where you want to be. Even if they can be powerful, if they’ll make you get hit, it might be better to avoid using it. That’s a reason for me to not really like Jack, even if he is powerful.
Now for something unrelated to elements, but it’s good to mention:Wicked Stitches.
Why this accessory exists is a question I won’t be able to answer. It won’t work in some situations, and some bosses. But it other situations, it’s completely broken.
There is one miniboss and one boss that gets completely destroyed if you have this item. And obviously, Ice is focus on dealing critical hits. How convinient to have a guaranteed critical hit.
I‘ve talked about how you can freeze enemies with Ice, and burn with Fire, but each element has a status effect that can happen against enemies. I didn’t talk much about this because it’s a pretty minor thing.
Fire can burn enemies for some extra ticks of damage. There is an item that makes burn turn into Immolate. What does it mean?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Probably more damage. It’s hard to tell when doing runs, as you barely see these effects happening.
But, it’s not useless, as some Fire Lilliputs are guaranteed to burn the enemy when used as a skill, and we have another accessory that doubles the damage caused to enemies affected by burn/immolate.
Good to notice that it says “Increases damage dealt to” but does not specifies what kind of damage. This might mean every kind of damage is increased, making Lilliputs like Fire Dragon actually pretty interesting, since as a skill, Fire Dragon will burn the target, increasing your damage dealt to it with the clip item.
What does Dizzy and Enfeeble mean?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
At least you can get 50% extra damage against these enemies.
It might decrease the damage caused by enemies but, I don’t really get hit often while the enemy has that effect on them, and even if I do, I don’t pay attention to numbers. So it’s hard to tell what the effect does.
This is the most simple of them but it’s interesting to noticed that this time, you don’t get an increase of damage against frozen enemies. Still a pretty powerful effect, and it’s easy to get as well, since Sophie is one of the best Lilliputs to use as a skill, guaranted to hit the enemy multiple times with the frostbite/glaciate effect, freezing them into place.
Fire Lilliputs
Also, I’ll rate their damage and usefullness as attack, skill and ability.
Also² Recharge Rate is how long it takes for Lilliput to recharge the Attack Line Up after finishing attacking.
My favorite element, so of course I’ll start with it.
Spike★☆☆
It would be a fine Lilliput if not for the fact that it hits too high to hit some enemies.
Skill takes too long to do something. Brawny Ability is pretty good (30% more Attack damage when this Lilliput attacks), unfortunately requires using this Lilliput before every other attack.
Damage: ★☆☆☆☆
Attack:★☆☆☆☆
Skill:★☆☆☆☆
Ability:★☆☆☆☆
Doomflap★☆☆
Attack is too slow to be reliable, skill barely has range. Ability Hot-Blooded is fine for 10% extra Fire Damage.
Damage: ★☆☆☆☆
Attack:★☆☆☆☆
Skill:★☆☆☆☆
Ability:★★☆☆☆
Maverick★☆☆
It’s not that great of an attack, skill is fine at best. Ability Efficient is nice, for 10% extra cooldown for skills.
Damage: ★☆☆☆☆
Attack:★☆☆☆☆
Skill:★☆☆☆☆
Ability:★★☆☆☆
Drake★☆☆
Attack may miss some really short enemies, and has short recharge rate. Skill gives invulnerability which can be really useful. Ability Specialist can be useful if it activates while using the ability, if only activates when attacking, that’s weird (30% more Skill Damage when this Lilliput attacks).
Damage: ★☆☆☆☆
Attack:★☆☆☆☆
Skill:★★☆☆☆
Ability:★★☆☆☆
Buzz★★☆
Really weak attack that might cause an interesting effect, but nothing too big. Skill can deal a good amount of damage, but not that great. Ability Efficient is nice.
Damage: ★☆☆☆☆
Attack:★☆☆☆☆
Skill:★★☆☆☆
Ability:★★☆☆☆
Lionel Messi★★☆
Good attack if it can hit the enemy on the ground*, dealing a good amount of damage with a mid long recharge rate. Skill is fine. Ability Heavy-Hitter is unfortunate (Increases likelihood of stun by 100% when used as skill attack).
Damage: ★★☆☆☆/★★★☆☆*
Attack:★★★☆☆
Skill:★★☆☆☆
Ability:★☆☆☆☆
Felicity★★☆
Pretty Cute Bunny Girl with Big Morning Star. Has a small amount of extra damage while hitting the ground*. Heavy attacker with mid long recharge rate. Skill can be really useful. Ability Heavy-Hitter is unfortunate.
Damage: ★★★☆☆
Attack:★★★☆☆
Skill:★★★☆☆
Ability:★☆☆☆☆
Flame Dragon★★☆
Slow powerful Attack for Impact. Can knock enemies down easily. Mid Long recharge rate. Skill guarantees Burn. Ability Brawny can be quite useful, not so unfortunate to use as a first attacker. Really Cute.
Damage: ★★★☆☆
Attack:★★★☆☆
Skill:★★★☆☆
Ability:★★★☆☆
Tomoe★★★
My Girl. My Queen. Extremely cute. I Love you.
Attacks twice per use, with good damage and a mid long recharge rate. Skill is good, but it’s better as an attacker, although it does guarantee burn. Ability Specialist is unfortunate, but still useful.
Damage: ★★★★★
Attack:★★★★★
Skill:★★★★☆
Ability:★★★☆☆
Tristan★★★
Good attack, better on the ground*, quite long recharge rate. Skill is good, but requires hitting the ground*. Ability Hot-Blooded is fine.
Damage: ★★★☆☆
Attack:★★★☆☆/★★★★☆*
Skill:★★★☆☆/★★★★☆*
Ability:★★☆☆☆
King★★★
Powerful heavy attack, with better results on the ground*. Skill is a bit of an overkill, but has a nice damage while finishing up mimicking attack. Skill Brawny is pretty good, even if launching enemies away, since it has quite a long recharge rate.
Damage: ★★★★☆/★★★★★*
Attack:★★★☆☆/★★★★★*
Skill:★★★☆☆/★★★★★*
Ability:★★★★☆
At max bound status, increases your attack damage by 10%.
Ice Lilliputs
Triptrap★☆☆
Interesting Attack idea, not so useful. Short recharge rate. Skill is okay at best since it hits just once. Ability Focused is unfortunate, as requires it attacking first. (Increases 20% critical rate when this Lilliput attacks).
Damage: ★☆☆☆☆
Attack:★☆☆☆☆
Skill:★★☆☆☆
Ability:★★☆☆☆
Penquin Knight★☆☆
Quick short range attack, with short recharge rate. Too short of a range to be a decent Ice attacker. Skill is more interesting, with a low cooldown. Ability Vicious is fine, it does require attacking or using it as skill. (Increases critical damage by 30% when this Lilliput attacks).
Damage: ★☆☆☆☆
Attack:★☆☆☆☆
Skill:★★☆☆☆
Ability:★★☆☆☆
Trey★☆☆
Unreliable hook attack, with somewhat short recharge rate. Unreliable hook skill. Ability Sticky Fingers is weird but nice (10% more gold drop while in the inventory).
Damage: ★☆☆☆☆
Attack:★☆☆☆☆
Skill:★☆☆☆☆
Ability:★★☆☆☆
Kunoichi★★☆
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥. One of the worst enemies to fight because of course it has to have a counter attack which makes it invencible. Uppercut Attack is interesting but may cause bad positioning for combos. At least has short recharge rate. Skill is fine. Ability Assassin is not reliable (increases likelihood to inflict death by 20%).
Damage: ★★★☆☆
Attack:★★★☆☆
Skill:★★☆☆☆
Ability:★☆☆☆☆
Sophie★★☆
Homing attack that is not that great, mid-long recharge rate. One of the best skills in the game, hitting multiple times with frostbite. Ability Chilled Out is fine (10% more ice damage while on inventory).
Damage: ★★★☆☆
Attack:★★☆☆☆
Skill:★★★★☆
Ability:★★☆☆☆
Whaterwell★★☆
Fine ranged attack with mid-long recharge rate. A more reliable triptrap. Skill is fine, focus on ground* makes it not very useful. Ability Chill Out is fine.
Damage: ★★★☆☆
Attack:★★★☆☆
Skill:★★☆☆☆/★★★☆☆
Ability:★★☆☆☆
Frost Dragon★★☆
Really good tackle attack, although not as impactful as Flame Dragon’s. Mid-long recharge rate. Skill is good, with good damage but not hitting multiple times with frostbite is unfortunate. Skill Vicious is pretty good since it is a reliable first attacker. Really cute.
Damage: ★★★☆☆
Attack:★★★☆☆
Skill:★★★☆☆
Ability:★★★★☆
Freya★★★
Fastest Lilliput in the game, way too reliable, way too powerful, lots of damage as attacker with the fastest recharge rate possible. Skill it not as good but goddess gracious, this thing is vicious. And Vicious is its ability which is also extremely good. Skill does have good AoE.
Damage: ★★★★★
Attack:★★★★★
Skill:★★★★☆
Ability:★★★★★
Check again later for a link to an insane video of this Lilliput against the final boss.
Reaper★★★
Attack is unreliable, hits twice but, should deal more damage. Really long recharge rate. Skill is good, with a chance of instant death. Ability Assassin is unfortunate.
Damage: ★★★★☆
Attack:★★☆☆☆
Skill:★★★★☆
Ability:★☆☆☆☆
Queen★★★
Strong Contender to Strongest Lilliput in the game. Really powerful homing attack, with mid-long recharge rate. Skill is a good alternative for melee builds. Ability Focused is broken (20% critical rate when this Lilliput attacks).
Damage: ★★★★★
Attack:★★★★★
Skill:★★★★☆
Ability:★★★★★
At max bound status, increases your critical rate by 15%.
It’s good to mention that all of these Lilliputs can be extremely powerful if you have good critical rate/damage, since Ice is all about attacking from a safe distance and with high chance of critical.
Wind Lilliputs
Peck★☆☆
Okay idea for an attack, unfortunately hits only once. Somewhat mid long recharge rate. Skill is the same as the attack, but more useful as it goes further. Ability Caffeinated is weak (Increase Burst Gauge fill rate by 30% when this Lilliput Attacks).
Damage:★☆☆☆☆
Attack:★☆☆☆☆
Skill:★★☆☆☆
Ability:★☆☆☆☆
Claire★☆☆
Pretty cute Chinchilla Girl who’s done with your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Pretty weak attack although it does hit multiple times, which is helpful for Wind. Somewhat short recharge rate. Skill is not that interesting, Health steal is not that powerful in this game, I would prefer more damage or more hits. Ability Vampire is unfortunate (Increases HP drain rate by 10% when this Lilliput uses a skill attack).
Damage:★☆☆☆☆
Attack:★★☆☆☆
Skill:★☆☆☆☆
Ability:★☆☆☆☆
Buttons★☆☆
Really bad attack, with short recharge rate. Skill is okay but a bit unreliable. Ability Bouncy is good (Increases burst damage by 30% when in your inventory).
Damage:★★☆☆☆
Attack:★☆☆☆☆
Skill:★★☆☆☆
Ability:★★☆☆☆
Angela★★☆
Unreliable whirlwind attack which requires a knock-back from a different Lilliput to be really effective. Can be a fun combo. Mid long recharge rate. Skill is not so interesting unless it repel projectiles, if so, it can be fine. Ability Pharmacist is fine (10% more healing from Potions).
Damage:★☆☆☆☆
Attack:★★☆☆☆
Skill:★★☆☆☆
Ability:★★☆☆☆
Chuck★★☆
Great hit combo achiever with 5 hit per uppercut attack with short recharge rate, unfortunately moves you upward. I don’t normally use as skill which is inferior compared to the attack. Ability Airheaded is fine (10% more wind damage while on inventory). Should date Heidi.
Damage:★★☆☆☆
Attack:★★★☆☆
Skill:★★☆☆☆
Ability:★★☆☆☆
Heidi★★☆
Really good stomp attack which can make enemies hit the ground, with mid long recharge rate, unfortunately forces you downwards to the ground as well, which is helpful most times, but not as much against the final boss. Skill is strong, but there are better options for Skills. Still useful. Ability Caffeinated is fine. Should date Chuck.
Damage:★★☆☆☆
Attack:★★☆☆☆
Skill:★★☆☆☆
Ability:★★☆☆☆
Storm Dragon★★☆
Not as powerful tackle upwards as Chuck’s uppercut, still a fine option for hit combos, with short recharge rate. Skill can deal a good amount of damage, but pretty situational. Ability Bouncy is good.
Damage:★★☆☆☆
Attack:★★☆☆☆
Skill:★★★☆☆
Ability:★★☆☆☆
Pierce★★★
Atrocious attack with short recharge rate, but it’s so bad you should avoid it. Skill is the most useful this guy’s will ever be, hitting a really good amount of times. Good to keep hit combos going. Ability Airheaded is fine.
Damage:★★☆☆☆
Attack:★☆☆☆☆
Skill:★★★☆☆
Ability:★★☆☆☆
Bramwell★★★
Interesting attack, tricky to use, but can be pretty powerful, with somewhat mid long recharge rate. Skill is also pretty good, with a decent health steal but I would prefer more damage. Ability Vampire is unfortunate.
Damage:★★★★☆
Attack:★★★★☆
Skill:★★★★☆
Ability:★☆☆☆☆
Jack★★★
Pretty powerful multi hit attack with short recharge rate. Unfortunately moves you forward which is obnoxious and only recharges after finishing the full attack, which takes a second to complete. Skill is pretty good, with multiple hits. Ability Speedy is a joke. (10% more speed when in the inventory).
Damage:★★★★★
Attack:★★★★★
Skill:★★★★★
Ability:★☆☆☆☆
At max bound status, increases Burst Gauge rate by 25%.
BUT WHY IS THE ABILITY SO BAD? You can move faster by dash on the ground, jumping and quickly dashing again.
Also, I haven’t talked about Max Bound because only three Lilliputs have an actual interesting max bound status: Jack, King and Queen. I did mention about it, because they are actually relevant. Queen increases your critical rate by 3% for each bound level. King increases your attack by 2% for each level, and Jack, well, 5% burst guage rate. Other Lilliputs do have these extra attribute bonuses but they are mixed, with different ideas. Some gives you critical rate yeah, but it does not give you only critical rate.
And that’s it for my guide. Hopefully it helped. You can see I like this game a lot. It was quite a waste of my time to do this guide lmao. Well, it wasn’t a waste of time because I enjoyed writting about this game. Hopefully it can be helpful too.
