POSTAL Brain Damaged

POSTAL Brain Damaged

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Guide for Boss Encounters
By naksiloth#vacayshun
Indepth strategy, speedrun techniques and small hints for demolishing Postal: BD bosses easily. Guide written with Postal difficulty in mind so applies every playthrough.
   
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Foreword
This guide written with Postal difficulty in mind so techniques mentioned here applies to any condition. Shortly this guide can be summarized in two words; "piss switching" or with 3 words, "reload canceling rules". There's a really simple guide out there that explains it and you can take a look its video explanation.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2820368906

Simply put, piss switching allow one to shoot single fire weapons such as Holier-than-thou Launcher (refered as rocket launcher at this point) and Hooker Shotgun (shortly, shotgun) much faster. These two weapons are already key weapons to drop bosses quickly and this feature of animation cancel seals it for us.

All you had to do is some reflex input of tap firing. Trick is the moment you complete one fire cycle, pull away your finger from m1 to cease it momentarily and cut fire delay off short by tapping piss button (default: C) lightly inbetween. Rinse and repeat and you'll be able to do that on the move as well. If you keep any of the keys pressed or they overlapse for a split second, it may not give the impact you'd like. You'd want to tap piss button the moment you cease your finger away from fire button while using a single fire weapon.

Slide jumping is important part of this guide as well. You have to know how to navigate effectively which also helps you to position at combat, sometimes help you to find secrets. Simply by pressing crouch (default: Ctrl) and hitting jump (default: Space) as you let go of crouch, to rinse and repeat, you slide jump. You can also kick (default: Q) mid-air to gain a very slight distance boost to to evade incoming projectiles or attacks.

To note, this guide considers you play the episode from the start and have some power ups to begin with. What's written in the "Recommended" section suggests useful power ups in the fight and "Preferred Strategy" summarizes the weapons and strategy you may want to use very briefly from a fresh start.
Without any power ups, boss fight will take longer and become a prolonged struggle at the high difficulties even if you have the entire arsenal available to you. Instead, bringing some power ups from previous levels which won't be provided at the boss arena will help you to cheese the fight. I completed the game at Postal difficulty and it was fun, so you'll know that all information written here applies to any difficulty.

You may be tempted to consume and use everything that game tosses you, but using them nonchalantly might get you in a corner at the upcoming fight. Exact opposite of this might apply to you as well, where you hoard everything only to get frustrated at the fight then end up having unused Akimbos and Ammo Packs at your inventory.
We all know playing the game too safe or too careless would cause unfun gameplay with lots of stress. So I thought by knowing which items you exactly need for the boss fight, would help you to eliminate some of the hoarding instincts you may have after scavenging for so long.

This guide aims to give you an ease of mind while planning the ahead. Certainly how many Health Pipes or Portable Armors you wanna spare for the fight is up to you. What I'm listing here is more or less, minimum requirement to cheese the bosses for opening up some sweet speedrun strats.
Manager Slayer
Karen The Manager Slayer

Recommended: Optional 1x Liquid Nitrogen
Preferred Strategy: 1x Akimbo

You don't exactly need power ups against this boss as you have a very wide space to kite it and recover, along the level until you reach the boss fight area you will have plenty of opportunities for packing up weapons and you have a really long head start as long as you want. There are tons of armor packs laying around in the arena as well as some health.

"Ma'am, I'm the manager."

Against Karen, the moment she appears, just slide jump towards her storming appearence and send a time bubble then swap to shotgun right away and keep pulling piss switch shotgun blasts. When near perfectly pulled, that will damage her about a third of her health after bubble ceased and force her to take guard or spawn enforcements. Then you have to go back to Nailgun to toss another time bubble again, once the first one imploded.

As you hit the second and ongoing time bubbles, remember to switch to BFG69k (hold R or tap its default button of "6") then send a ghost brain at general direction of Karen and her spawns. After you send the ghost brain go back to shotgun and keep repeating the piss switch blasts. Repeat those steps once more and Karen will be defeated in Postal difficulty.

Oddly enough shotgun works perfectly when she's under the time bubble but Gatling or rockets do not work as well as shotgun because she seem to take guard after a number of hits from certain weapons independent of maximum heath thresholds. Even Akimbo Gatling fails to match the damage burst that piss switch shotgun offers under the time bubble.

Avoidant Employee.

Getting close to her with shotgun is actually quite hard as she will retaliate when peed on and if spawns get to be really horrible ones, you might die very often as time bubble ceases.
In case you can not bear to get closer you'd want to welcome her with a barrage of rockets from where you activated the television by using the piss switch technique again. Perhaps Akimbo Penetrator by keeping distance and kiting her spawns with Hot Sauce can help as she seem to ignore the damage output of double Penetrators enough to not guard against them often.

You also should have tons of time stopper bubbles from Nailgun at this point plus enough ammo for exhausting a few BFG69k alt-fire to clear the alley. When you manage to envelope her in time bubble, it's time for rockets, ghost brains and Akimbo wielded Penetrator shots.
Then cycle repeats again after you cleared the area with BFG69k alt fire in time bubble. If you are forced to kite abit due having low health, then Akimbo or Hot Sauce bottles that scattered around the arena helps. The ghost brains can be sent into the time bubble to deny some weak monster spawns, while rockets or Akimbo are great for finishing her as you take care of long range threats.

A purse full of money, buys anything

Karen will spawn lots of different small freaks around her by using her purse. They're usually not a threat but at high difficulties, she will spawn some mildly annoying ones too. You won't see tanky ones like Goliath or Meaner Retriever, relax. However, Lightfifty Sire and Jumping Bean are the ones that you'll see at random and they can one shot a huge chunk of damage in an instant if you stand around like a fool.
Getting rid of any ranged monsters like Cusslingers, Cheerkillers and Prison Guards are easy with your firepower unless you corner yourself but they force you to take cover just like any high threat when the Retrievers are coming up.

Always take cover when you see a green laser pointing at you and check your behind when Karen is close and tossing money around from her purse. She likes to send something right behind you when you stare at her, blocking your rockets or path. Observe Karen when she's spawning monsters after you slide jumped too far away and try to lure monsters toward the red barrels or consume some Hot Sauce after evading the projectiles long enough. Using a BFG69k tesla brain is a good idea at this case.

When you feel overwhelmed or low on health just bail, use explosive red barrels around to thin out the crowd. When you slide jump for too long this will allow her to spawn more and more monsters. That's why I suggest using rockets from afar and pissing on anything that comes close so you can slide jump away safely and consume Hot Sauce or use an Ammo Pack for BFG.

Basic speedrun technique:
You can only find Liquid Nitrogen in a secret at this episode for once, it's in a secret at the first level. Trying to collect this, will lose you some time on a real speedrun but it may as well worth it. So you know that you can use every other item without any worries as long as you don't miss this. I think Karen can not be speedrun by other means as she doesn't show any vulnerabilities to specific weapons. As you enter the boss arena get the Liquid Nitrogen at the ready, draw your shotgun, click the television and slide jump down. Climb the set of escalators as you hear the last bit of Karen's entrance monologue and activate the Nitrogen.

The moment she appears spray pee on her then start piss switch rapid fire with shotgun and spray frosted pee on anything that she spawns. You can easily kill her with this up close, even if she retaliates with shockwaves will be so slow and can easily be out healed with Health Pipes. Immense damage output will force her to take guard a while but this will last short too. She won't be able to melee you with her purse as much as she wanted when she's frozen.
Pandemic
Big Bad Rona

Recommended: 1x Qpillz
Preferred Strategy: 2x Steroids. Optional 1x Liquid Nitrogen.

When you enter the level it's pretty straight forward. Go at the other end of the room with big red malfunctioned monitors. Grab Portable Armors and Health Pipes, refill ammo from vending machines and pull the only lever at the back of the room. Air condition will make you float to the platform tightly hanging from the ceiling in the middle to push the button and initiate the fight.

"I am the cure."

A very quick way to kill Big Bad Rona is abusing Qpillz, Nailgun timebomb and Holier-than-thou Launcher Holy Hand Grenades. Whip out the Nailgun first, switch to your Qpillz and get ready to hit the red button. Once you hit it, all you have to do is directly sending a time bubble at your own feet, then activating the Qpillz, and switching to the Holier-than-thou Launcher. Now, when looking down, just hold down Mouse2 for a small while then tap piss button (default: C) as you release to stack grenades downward.

Due to a small collision bug, you can even climb on top of the holy grenade but commit to it and keep going. After around 5 or 6 shots, Rona will be about to reach the platform you rigged with a piling tower of holy grenades and all you need to do was side stepping away and watching the fireworks.

An unholy creature

For a longer approach, get the shotgun at the ready when you decide to press the big red button. You need to use shotgun here mainly and switch back to the desired weapon when you raced it to the next platform. What you need to do is directly go upward by clinging to rings and away from that monstrosity as you press the big red button. When you lack some power ups or not looking for an achievement wailing at it from a distance is the safest and easiest way.

All you need to do is flinging around and hooking the rings while avoiding the tentacle impale of Big Bad Rona. You supposed to see a red glowing target switch to activate the jab for the next intersection. While jab is engaged, you can catch your breath and burst damage the boss.

It spreads

When vaccine jabs engaged, Rona will spread Lil Ronnies around. They could easily be overwhelmed by holy grenade but if you take too much time charging it, they will get too close. In that case just toss the charged grenade somewhere far away and switch to shotgun to blast them away. They won't be fazed by pissing at their eyes as far as I can tell.

As you were too busy with Ronnies flanking you, the Rona will lose its vaccine engage and float away again. You need shotgun to give a chase so get ready to flip the course and bail if there are so many. After stopping it on activated vaccine jabs, two or three times with usage of few Qpillz, Liquid Nitrogen and perhaps Steroids that monstrosity will be no more.

Stop touching your eyes and wash your hands

When Rona starts to float away from the vaccine zone again, you can easily hook one of its eyes you missed or rings around the arena to catch up again. When it starts floating away be sure you avoided another tentacle because it certainly will not hold back any punches.

Achievement: ANTIVAXXER
You supposed to kill Big bad without activating the vaccine for this and it means, you have to out damage its healing factor or hit it really hard at once. You can use the holy grenade stacking as described above but if that sounds too hard, there are alternatives.

Don't worry. I'm vaccinated.
In case you manage to save two bottles of steroids, you can stay on top of it and shovel it. For a more heroic approach you can stay on top of it again, and spam shotgun at eye stalks by piss-switching. Using Liquid Nitrogen is optional, but when you do, just shoot twice at frozen eye stalks and switch targets right away.
Cruel Dude
Leon Dusk

Recommended: 1x Quickpillz and 1x Liquid Nitrogen,1x Akimbo for second sequence.
Preferred Strategy: 2x Quickpillz, 2 x Akimbo

First Sequence: The Other Dude

Finishing the whole thing quickly is just relies on spamming Quickpillz and along the episode, you'll have abundant amount of it if you explored. If you decided to finish this level from the fresh start, congratz, you're in for the hell of it. Starting room gives you Quick Pillz, Ammo Pack and an Akimbo. If you use all of them smart enough, you'll be victorious. Qpillz for Other Dude, Akimbo for Mecha and Ammo Pack is whenever necessary.

Dawning on the arena

Call the elevator down, approach door to startle Leon and pick up everything while he speaks. As you enter the arena, just slide jump quickly and beeline towards one of the vending machines at either side for a refill in case you need it. Going towards them will not trigger the boss' entrance but going further will.

From there on you have two options. Either align yourself perfectly and land near perfect piss switch rocket shots as he made the entrance or abuse Qpillz for barrages of shotgun rapid fire. Once you slow time with Qpillz, Gun goes BRR's tracker gatling mode or even Meow-meow Launcher works brilliantly. Qpillz is the foolproof way for speedrun but rapidfiring rockets for splash damage is reliable as well if you have low health and don't wanna risk taking damage.

It's like looking up in a...

After you lose your chance to damage him at first dramatic entrance, without extra Qpillz you can't contain him afterwards. He will move around time bubbles but won't be slowed down by them at all. If you can not finish him around a minute as he start moving around just reload your save at this point, it won't really worth it.

If you are up to the challenge, try to use time bubbles conveniently to take cover from shots and send tesla brains from BFG69k at least 2-3 times then send another bubble by stepping outside of it abit. If you have any Liquid Nitrogen, it could help to use it here so you can catch him in splash, ghost brain range, land a gatling tracker or pull some shotgun barrages.

Flow is slide jumping non-stop, get up close, land a bubble near your feet to provide cover and spam BFG69k alt-fire. Remember that staying inside the bubble for long won't be safe when he sends a rocket inside it. When time bubble implodes, you'll be hit with everything the Other Dude shot inside.

I hope you have afew Ammo Packs with you or at least remember to use vending machines around. Because after repeating these steps for a while you may need to reload the BFG69k with an Ammo Pack to keep it going. Having some Liquid Nitrogen can save you from all this, pin him inside the bubble for aligning a few buckshots and help BFG69k ghost brain spam to deal immense damage.

After he got away from the time bubble barely alive around a fraction of health, you can snipe him with pistol for a few cheap shots or shoot his rockets mid air. If you only have limited amount of Akimbo, don't waste it on the Other Dude. You may need it in case second sequence prolongs.

Speedrun Strategy

First sequence of the fight can be easily skipped by using Qpillz and finish the first sequence right away. Press the elevator button and approach the Leon Dusk awaiting at the other side and hoard the weapons in the room while he speaks his small monologue.

Get the Quick Pillz ready as you step out the room and slide jump furiously at the center of arena with shotgun drawn. The Other Dude will dawn into the middle of arena and when you see him, you have to be quick to activate slow motion then piss switch with shotgun to kill him right away with minimal damage. If you don't wanna take damage from his jumping kick, then crouch a few steps ahead of him or circle strafe and keep going.

Second Sequence: Tesloborgerion

Once you finished the Cruel Dude's health, he'll stagger a moment then leap away to enter that giant mecha robot at the corner of the arena. It takes a while so you have time to use some consumables.

[Mechanical dying sound]

As Teslo mecha made the entrance, time to whip out your shotgun then rapidly hook four rings around his armor to reveal the weak spots. If you try it without Qpillz and low on health, only rip out 2-3 armor pieces at once. When you piss on one to interrupt his attack, rip another piece.
After tearing those armor parts, what you want to do here is pissing at his below waist area by sliding in between. If you still have the Akimbo you got from the start of the level, now is a good time to make use of it with Akimbo mode Gun goes BRR to rapidly drain the vulnerable spots.

Crashing your Tesla

In case he bends for scissor attack, quickly rush to slide towards between his legs, rocket jump by sacrificing health or head for a bounce pad. If possible lure his bend over attack activate Qpillz and finish the fight by pissing on its upper body parts. You can stand near his feet to jump over shock waves, you can keep crouched and piss upwards to soak its vulnerable parts. This will also interrupt any and all attack as mecha will go through some animation once you blast its circuits.

As long as you can slide jump and mid-air kick effective enough, the only attack you need to worry is the hot scissor clap charge. Upon hearing that he gonna charge at you, you only have mere seconds to decide if you want to get away to a jumppad, rocket jump or slide toward between its legs by circling him around. Preferably you'd want to activate a batch of extra Qpillz you saved from previous levels and piss on his weak spots placed at limb and shoulder; which interrupts this attack or finishes the fight right here and there.

When you have Qpillz you may wanna keep distance abit, and activate the slow-motion the moment he bends forward to pee on the vulnerable parts by moving around. If you activate Akimbo mode Gun Goes BRR (Gatling, default: 7) is a nice choice to dispatch the rest two vulnerable parts on the upper body to finish the job. After you're done, you'll witness the malfunctioning sounds of Tesloborgerion and all you had to do was clinging at the last ring and meeting the Other Dude.

Long Detour

Along the Tesloborgerion fight you can easily use time bubbles as a way of invincibility spheres against the rocket barrage and perhaps the dakka-dakka minigun attack. You can easily jump or slide jump over the shockwaves and dodge the minigun if you slide jump fast enough. You just need to time a jump pad leap for that sweet opportunity for using Gatling akimbo mid-air.

Luring him next to jump pads to use them as an elevation to pee over it is an option too. Try to air steer towards the Teslo after taking jumppads by letting go off of forward to accelerate faster and change direction. If you can position near the any jumppad and use hook in the middle of arena, you won't have to worry about any attack for a little while. Acceleration will toss you away from jump pads and trying to control it will make you an easy target for Tesloborgerion's minigun attack.

Achievement: PISSIMIST
As been said, you'll not only win the fight easily but score this achievement as well. When you revealed the weak spots of the Teslo mecha, you have to piss at boy parts of the robot below its waist.
Try to utilize jump pads and steer mid-air to reach pee on above waist spots or activate Akimbo Gatling to finish the upper body by using jump pads and cling to the ring floating middle of the arena. If you can spare Quick Pillz from the first session of the fight, pop them when he is charging with the scissor attack to retaliate with crouch-peeing and stop it in its tracks.
Conclusion
I enjoyed the game and brutalized it. It was a fun experiment and I am glad I was so intrigued about the that reload cancel technique. I'm still quite bad at this game but it was a fun journey. I shared what I know and I hope it helps you on your endeavours.

After the patch that doubled the maximum ammo of all weapons game even become easier. For example I find some weapons (Puzz Blower, BFG and Nailgun bubbles) kind of overpowered with that abundant ammo allowing you to save power ups when situation looks dire. So I say don't hesitate to give high difficulties a try because combat really gets hectic and bosses provide some real challenge.

Playing this on Postal difficulty was some kind of a trip for me but in a good vibe. When you finish the game for second-third time and evaluate the combat area, you eventually pick the right tool for the job. So when you have a plan and don't get cornered, even the hardest fight isn't unbeatable.

Notes
* When you try speedrun tactic Karen's retaliation can still be disruptive as her purse slams can toss you to below floors. She becomes more fierce when you use any kind of technique that includes piss function.

* You can use shotgun mainly for anti-vaxxer achievement at the Rona boss. Shotgun deals mad amount of damage per shot, and you'll kill the boss before you make all the eye stalks retract back. I'll try different weapons to stack grenades against it.

* I still haven't managed to find a way to evade the scissor attack of Teslo reliably. If you positoned badly or don't have Quick Pillz, that thing almost one-shots you when you got caught. I'll add a tactic when I figure out a way. I just got lucky a few times when sliding towards it but that's it.
1 Comments
LordMarcel91/TTV 21 Sep, 2023 @ 4:52am 
thank you so much, this will help me speedrun the game :steamthumbsup: