Brütal Legend guide to achieving Metal Glory

Warning: is pretty much destined to contain spoilers.

This is going to be something of an ongoing project, so if anyone happens to read this before it is finished, and finds a section they're wanting missing, bear with me.

I'm not going to outline such things as where the bound serpents are, or where the Buried Metals are located, there are a plethora of maps for this. However, a warning to any PS3 players going for the Metal God (100%) trophy, when you get past 95% completion your save WILL corrupt (there is a fix in a never-to-be-released patch), so once you hit 95% completion, you have to find everything without saving the game, and upon recieving 100% YOU MUST VIEW THE STATS SCREEN TO RECIEVE YOUR TROPHY

I plan to start with Multiplayer Guides, beginning with a guide to playing as the Drowning Doom as that is the faction I feel most comfortable with (having played 102 ranked matches and countless VS AI matches as them.)

Spoiler: Multiplayer

Credits to Kor of the LucasForums for the stats table

Spoiler: Playing as the Drowning Doom

Playing as the Drowning Doom is something which can take a lot of getting used to (though not so much as the Tainted Coil) as whereas Ironheade had a very balanced set of units which specialised in essentially everything, The Drowning Doom has largely weaker units, and relies on support units such as organists, Brides and Dirgibles to debuff and hinder the enemy, rendering them effectively useless. While the Drowning Doom has its fair share of weaknesses, it is more than capable of drowning its enemies

Drowning Doom Units

• Gravedigger - A gravedigger squad costs 6 load and yields 6 gravediggers, these guys are exceptionally good at taking down ranged infantry, and in numbers can swarm the enemy easily, however their lower HP makes them only really useful early game
  
  Double Team:
  Dry my tears with dirt - Ophelia
  A Gravedigger buries Ophelia in the ground, she can then move underground and wait for the opportune moment to erupt, with the same effect as an earthshaker, only doing a lot more damage and having a larger AOE
  this double team is pretty strong for how early you can use it.
  
  
• Bride - costing 2 load the bride is the first debuff unit you have access to and is brilliant... for taking out fan geysers. The bride doesn't actually have an attack per sé, however, when she is attacked, she retaliates with a lightning bolt, the only exception to this is when being attacked by a Metal Beast. The bride's debuff consists of slowing enemy units, and stacks with each bride present (max. 3) If you have any brides remaining by the time you reach tier 3, then it's worth upgrading them.
  
  Double Team:
  So commanding - The Bride
  The Bride and Ophelia join hands in dance while summoning lightning strikes to destroy the enemy, great for driving away enemy avatars or for taking out a fan leech.
  
  
• Frightwig - Costing 3 load, and an asset to your army, the frightwig is a very strong long ranged unit, especially for a tier 1 unit, however, once attacked it becomes effectively useless, so it is essential that they are safeguarded.
  
  Double Team:
  Let me touch that beautiful hair -Ophelia
  Ophelia picks up the frightwig and is able to throw it at enemy units, the affected unit will then fight for the Doom untill either it or the frightwig dies. Tragic.
  
  
• Ratgut One of my favourite units, costing 3 load the ratgut is going to be your best friend the second you hit tier 2, the ratgut specialises in tearing its through enemy infantry, and when used right, 2 or 3 of them can destroy an entire enemy army.
  
  Double Team:
  Lead my rats to victory! -Ratgut
  Ophelia jumps down this guys throat and chills in his stomach with the rats, you then control the ratgut and can position him where you like, when you wish to, you can tell him to vomit his rats out, with you controlling them, allowing you to tear through infantry selectively. Very good for taking out a lot of infantry in little time when you're in a pinch. Also good for ambushing
  
  
• The Organist - A necessary staple in any Tear Drinker's army, the Organist, taking up 4 load, debuffs the enemy's attack greatly, and the effect stacks with each organist (max. 3) which can leave your enemy's attack more than halved.
  
  Double Team:
  You play, I'll drive - Ophelia
  Ophelia jumps in the driver's seat of the Organist's... Organmobile and can drive it around the battlefield. Ophelia can control the organist similar to controlling a puppet, and make him possess an enemy unit, she will then control it manually untill the double team is ended, the unit dies or the organist (the vehicle) dies.
  
  
• Lightning Rod - One of, if not THE most useful Drowning Doom unit, taking up 5 load the lightning rod is a brilliant all rounder, with the ability to stun infantry; and is also extremely useful for taking out merch booths and fan geysers quickly and stealthily.
  
  Double team:
  Here we go, sparky. Let's go see the Governor.
  Yes! A pardon from the Queen!
  - Ophelia and Sparky the Lightning Rod operator
  
  The lightning Rod double team is another one which places Ophelia in the steering wheel, while Sparky focuses on making the most out of his electric chair. Ophelia is able to drive around the battlefield untill finding a suitable place to deploy, at which point sparky will appear from the top of the Lightning Rod strapped into an electric chair, Ophelia can then charge up shots. The longer the charge the more damage and the more people it hits (up to a maximum of 8).
  
  
• Reaper - Yes, you read that right, you get to use the goddamn grim reaper. And he's riding a flaming Ghost horse. WHILE WEARING HEADPHONES. Anywho, this guy can either be bloody brilliant, with a cost of 4 load this guy has the potential to tear through infantry, killing them and avatars alike in 1-2 hits, hoever, if they don't have room to manoeuvre, they'll drop like flies.
  
  Double Team:
  Harvest time -Ophelia
  The reapers double time allows Ophelia to ride on the reapers horse behind him, and take his scythe to swing at enemies with. Infantry will run away at the sight of the terrible duo, making actually hitting them practically impossible, and making using this double team largely pointless.
  
  
• Brood This is, quite literally, a haunted pram/stroller, with evil, biting exploding babies of unspeakable doom. And evil. taking up only 2 load these guys chew through vehicles like.. an exploding biting baby thing.
  
  Double team:
  The good news is you're all about to die -Ophelia
  Ophelia jumps into the infinite depths that are cot's bowels and drives it like a car, to attack, she jumps out and throws it at the enemy, causing it to explode on impact and send little evil babies flying everywhere to latch onto the nearest enemy. Sadly however they all die. Parting is such sweet sorrow.
  
  
• Dirgible - Once the enemy sees this, they know they're ****ed. The dirgible, besides looking absolutely beautiful, even if it is a coffin on a balloon, renders the enemy army USELESS. It severely lowers both the enemy avatar, units and buildings (including megastage) defences, and has a whopping 96hp. Suffice it to say this thing will not go down easily. It does, however, have no way of attacking.
  
  Double team:
  All those people who cry "Death From Above" have no idea what they're talking about. -Ophelia
  Ophelia hangs gracefully from the side of the dirge and is able to fly it, with full control in all 3 dimensions, however it moves rather slowly. Ophelia is able to drop urns filled with black tears onto the battlefield, which will harm enemies and heal allies. Oh and you can fly so high most units can't hit you.
  
  
• Treeback ALRIGHT. Finally, the Drowning Doom's ultimate unit, the Treeback. This is basically a ratgut on steroids, it's tree houses a murder of crows that obliterate infantry in seconds, and deal impressive damage to vehicles as well, dealing a lot of damage in a short amount of time this thing is feared on the battlefield, is only drawback is the fact that it is unbearably slow, and even slower when double teamed with.
  
  Double Team:
  It's called, a murder -Eddie Riggs
  Ok, I promise you you will not have seen this coming. Ophelia jumps atop the tree and the treeback rises from the ground, revealing some huge hunchbacked ogre with a tree on his back, who can now use his fists to pummel his opponents, all the while his crows are still tearing the enemy to pieces. BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID.

Drowned Ophelia's Solos


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• Silence - wraps the enemy avatar's head and guitar in mummy bandages, meaning they can't issue orders or use their guitar. Can really screw them up.
  
  
• summon flag - summons the rally flag to wherever you are, any summoned units automatically go to the flag instead of, y'know, being useful.
  
  
• Fan tribute - claims a merch booth as yours and builds one of those sexy Well of Souls merch booths over it
  
  
• Shadow Blast- Black tears explode away from Ophs, dealing damage, essentially the same as the facemelter and curse solos
  
  
• Baleful Misdirection - Creates a fake ghost unit replicating one you already have, but it does cost load so use it wisely. The enemy will have no way to tell which is the real one.
  
  
• Veil of Deceit - want to make your enemy **** themselves? Use this, makes your army invisible (that are close to you) untill they attack, great for a load of different uses I guess.
  
  
• Summon Hearse - Did I mention Ophelia drives a sexy as hell Hearse?
  
  
• Weeping Heavens - I have no words for how awesome this is. It summons eyes full of black tears, shot from your stage, to crash wherever you land, protip: if you do this next to the enemy base they've pretty much lost since it ALMOST DESTROYS IT COMPLETELY
  
  
• Encompassing Gloom - Gives the map that nice, macabre look I've always loved about the blac tear region, even turns the moon into a skull. Nice. Somehow this stops your enemy from producing units, guess they're suffering from seasonal onset depression DOHOHO INSIDE REFERENCES ONLY PEOPLE WHO ALREADY USE THIS SOLO WILL GET i'm a ******.
  
  
• Black Tear Infusion - makes the place all pretty with petals falling and stuff, heals friendly units, and gets Ophs to say Come and play in the petals children
  
  
  
• Rally Army - makes every unit you have instantly stop doing what they were doing and come to you. Bloody attention whore.

General strategy


There are generally 2 strategies for starting off as the Drowning Doom, sending out 2 gravediggers/frightwigs then a bride, or swarming the battlefield with gravediggers non-stop, the latter being the new player's technique generally. If you're not very good at defending your troops you may want to start off with this opening, however, bear in mind you may find it more difficult to bear with having the weaker units later on, as any anti-infantry unit will be devastating. If you open up with the former opening, bear in mind you'll probably have to defend your troops, and know that the bride (which is excluded from this method on some maps) is only summoned for taking out fan geysers your army isn't yet focusing on, the focus of this opening is getting to tier 2 as quickly as possible, and this is the opening I always use. When attacking/defending your units try to make sure that you or your infantry get to the enemy's ranged units, likewise, try to make sure no-one touches your frightwig (or any of your units really) and make plentiful use of the Black Tear Infusion solo as it will heal your units, if the enemy has a ****-load of units near a few gravediggers use the double team. It's OP for a Tier1 double team. If you are fighting the Tainted Coil then it's a good idea to keep flying over to the enemy stage and kill any battle nuns they've summoned t stop them summoning more troops.

The most important thing at this stage is getting that stage upgrade for Tier 2 units, so it's important to be checking all the time to see if you can afford it yet, the second you can buy it. This is where if you suddenly start dominating the match, if you aren't already. Personally I usually purchase a ratgut first, to finish off any remaining enemy infantry, but purchasing an organist or lightning rod first is equally justified. Also, you now have access to Shadow Blast, which will help you to quickly turn the tide of battle if your units are against the ropes. Try to have 3 organists on the field at all times, and summon either ratguts or lightning rods if the enemy summons infantry or vehicles respectively, if the enemy has no units, try to get 3 ratguts and 2 lightning rods and then upgrade to tier 3. Whenever you're not under attack I would suggest taking a lightning rod and using it to destroy fan leeches/enemy merch booths in order to boost your fan supply.

Once you hit tier 3 I would recommend using encompassing gloom either whenever possible, or before each time you attack, as it stops the enemy from producing units to counter you with, and stops them using weather effects too. Handy.if one or 2 ratguts somehow die then replacing them with a reaper is generally a good idea unless the fighting area is very restricted or filled with enemy units. If you lost a lightning rod replace it with 2 broods, but always have at least 1, and have 3 organists at all time.

Getting the dirgible out as soon as you hit tier3 is also generally a good tactic, as it can make your army pretty much indestructible. If you decide to go for the enemy stage before upgrading to tier 4, I would suggest hiding your units with veil of deceit and then using encompassing gloom as you get close, just to really screw the enemy over.However, I would suggest moving up to tier 4 either before or during as it both enables you to bring in a treeback to destroy any units the enemy summons to defend, and gives you access to the weeping heavens solo for added complete and utter domination.

Also I would try not to break your army into groups, it needs to stay close together as it relies on its debuffs to keep it alive, and if your enemy has ANY decent units, either throw a frightwig at it or possess it with an organist, wait for the unit to die, rinse and repeat. Works every time.

If for whatever reason the enemy does many to overrun you, I would favour the ratgut and lightning rod double teams to suppress them.

Spoiler: Playing as the Tainted Coil

The Tainted Coil is without a doubt the hardest faction to get used to, but it's also the most overpowered, with Doviculus' longer attack range, incredibly strong units, and the hierarchy system, a tainted coil player will either be able to do absolutely nothing or to completely control the battlefield.

Playing as the Tainted Coil isn't something you'll be able to just pick up and do, you'll need to get your head around how it works, as well as practice different methods of keeping hierarchy units alive, upgrading et al.

Tainted Coil Units