You might've seen my Ungod slaying guide floating around. Admittedly, it was the first guide I had ever written for any video game, much less one on Steam, and it's kind of a shame that there aren't more strategy guides for this game available by now...

Anyway, new content for Brutal Orchestra came out about a week ago (at the time I'm typing this). I unfortunately wasn't paying attention right away because my job starts getting hellish this time of year, but...I received a special message shortly after the content's release.



I saw this as a challenge. And you know what?
I did it. You asked for it, and now I'm gonna show you how it's done.

So, what's the story with the Unfinished Heir?

Much like the Ungod battle, this is a battle that can get you two achievements: One for killing the beast and surviving, and the other for completing the quest associated with it. Unlike Ungods, however, there is only one Unfinished Heir you can encounter in a run, and it's found in it's own isolated path in The Far Shore.

And if you thought slaying an Ungod was a ridiculous feat, hoo boy, the Heir is even worse! It has three times the health of an Ungod, and although it won't flee, it has a nasty passive ability where it gains an additional action for each round it survives in. There's no defined upper limit to how many actions this enemy can have in a single turn, either, so it can easily get overwhelming if you're unable to hit hard enough. Like an Ungod, the Heir only produces purple pigment after it hatches, but its Unstable passive ability constantly scrambles your pigments anyway, so I wouldn't worry too much about that.

The nice thing about this being on a separate path is that you can have time to collect money and items before throwing your team's lives away. Believe me, you will be tossing lives away for this battle. It's rather difficult not to when facing something like this in only the first realm. To gain access to the separate path, you need to talk to the Emissary (the egg with the hand sticking out of it), which you're guaranteed to bump into if on Hard Mode.

An important thing the Emissary mentions is that the Heir's egg must hatch for The Ungod to be pleased with its death. It needs to be treated like the wriggling sacks used to summon Ungods, so don't be too hasty or it'll all be for nothing. The egg will not give you any pigments when attacking it, but with each turn prior to hatching, it will give you seven pigments of one color. Use this opportunity wisely to get your party members healed up and statuses activated before the real battle begins...

How the hell did I manage to do this?

I ended up destroying the Heir in one of the most insane ways possible (that I'm aware of anyway). I failed to kill it twice, but the third time was indeed the charm for me.

All party members were Level 1 except for Hans, who was Level 2.



Hans was essential for two reasons this time: her weave skill, which I already went over in the Ungod guide, and her malpractice skill. You do not want to use an item that automatically inflicts frail on the Heir because it does self-inflicted damage during the egg rounds, so having malpractice circumvents this issue. I was lucky enough to get the Soggy Bandages in the shop, as I was with the Ungod slaying.

I once again had Dimitri help out with fire damage, though this time it was with his torch skill. I also had him expelling a lot of oil on the Heir, which made the flames even more effective and also healed/refreshed him. Sulfa Drugs' shielding is ultimately what prevented him from dying when...well, you'll see.

Anton's shanking was helpful due to how often the Heir keeps moving around. Someone did comment about rupturing Ungods on my previous guide, and although it might not be as helpful on an enemy bound to flee, the number of extra moves the Heir can have on its turn can make rupturing damage a doozy if it's stacked high enough.

The Blue Bible made managing excess pigments easier, especially in the egg rounds when given seven pigments at once.

Another item that I encountered and used earlier on was Ascetic Egg, which then gave me Colon Coins as one of the prizes (along with the aforementioned Blue Bible). By having Anton equipped with the coins up until the Heir encounter, I accumulated enough money to level up Hans, buy two of my party members, and clean out the whole shop for another achievement!

Gospel was...well, I honestly didn't even use Gospel much for this battle (or the rest of the run, for that matter), but the statue definitely has abilities to take advantage of when it comes to redirecting damage and refreshing other party members. No, in actuality, I just needed a party member to hold the most important item in all of this madness...

The Demon Core

As the name suggests, this is the most dangerous item you could ever have at your disposal. If luck isn't on your side, it will end your run due to the massive potential damage inflicted on all of your party members. However, if you can survive it, it can also be your savior.



As you can see here, the Heir was both oiled and frail when I ended the turn. Detonating the Demon Core gave it a whopping 200 damage right out of the gate. The rest of the Heir's health was then wiped out via the random damage post-explosion, plus the flames it kept stepping on.

This was the aftermath:



Talk about taking a gamble. Dimitri was the only actual survivor!

Some of the tips I gave for Slaying An Ungod can also apply to Unmaking The Heir.

Plaster Cast can prevent one party member from ever becoming frail, and the Heir will cast frail on your party a lot.

Hereafter can be used to keep one party member with you for the entire battle, even after they run out of health. Fun fact: I actually got this item during my second attempt and gave it to Hans for a (seemingly) immortal healer, and I managed to whittle the Heir down to around 20-30 health before I was finally defeated. The Heir had, like, 17 or so moves on its turn by that point. I honestly don't know how I survived for that long...

Smoke Stacks can help with pigment overflow, shielding, and/or dishing out a small amount of damage to all enemies. Yes, all enemies. The Heir can summon lumps that obscure the move order with confusion, which will make the battle even more tense. Thankfully, these lumps don't attack you at all and will only hurt themselves. They're just there to be a nuisance.

One of the newest Fools, Fennec, has pretty decent shielding power that hardly costs anything to activate. His Bone Spurs passive ability can also be stacked with each shield (or shield set) he makes, boosting indirect damage on the Heir.

Speaking of shielding power, Iron Helmet sets down a very thick shield in one position at the start of the battle. Now imagine having that on Gospel...

Leviat can inflict frail like Hans can, as well as do 12+ damage in exchange for slightly damaging a party member.

Thype has a shank skill like Anton does and can be a decent healer, if you're lucky.

Kleiver is another character that can inflict rupture, and he can refresh himself to do even more damage in a single turn.

RAM! can help dish out damage just by having one party member move around a bunch. Obviously, it's more effective when held by someone who can naturally move more than once per turn via a passive ability.

If activated at the right time, the new treasure Wicker Child can give you two Level 1 copies of the party member who dies holding it, essentially restocking your party with either more healing, defense, or damage depending on who is copied.

Feel free to comment with any additional tips and strategies you've discovered! Once more, happy hunting!

If any of you think I'm some "Brutal Orchestra Master" or something, I'm actually not. Just look at how many achievements I'm missing!



Seriously, I suck at keeping everyone alive enough for the endgame, and I still haven't unlocked Bimini yet! I also haven't figured out how to get Mordrake, but it might have something to do with the Mini Mordrake treasure...?

Oh well. That's the beauty of roguelites, I guess. If anything, these super extra battles have helped me learn how to better utilize skills and status effects in different situations, so thank you, developers. I do appreciate it.