The trophy/achievement run for Sea of Stars is pretty straightforward. However, you’ll sometimes come across challenges that require specific Relics in order to progress. In this guide, I’ll go over everything you need to know about the Artful Gambit relic, specifically where to find it, its functions, and some tips to help your quest to slay 10 bosses with it equipped.
It all starts with the What a Technique! trophy/achievement. It requires you to defeat 10 bosses with the Artful Gambit relic on. It sounds simple enough. Until you get to the part when you find out what it actually does to you.
Where to get the Artful Gambit Relic?
To get the Artful Gambit, you’ll need to near the end of the game and accept Serai’s request to hunt down The Queen That Was. This optional quest is easily skippable if you aren’t keen on talking to everyone for some campfire banter.
The short version of getting to the Gun Goddess’s throne goes as follows:
- Decrypt the message felt behind by the doomed expedition.
- Go to the Cerulean Expanse and proceed through the exits exactly as ordered.
- With any luck, you’ll end up in front of a speedball loader, ready to transport you to the queen’s throne.
The Artful Gambit is located inside a chest above the resting spot. (As pictured above.) You don’t really have much to stay after picking it up. But there is a Legendary weapon waiting for you should you defeat the Gun Goddess. Might as well take her down while you’re there.
What is the Artful Gambit Relic?
According to the relic’s description, it is “a mystical and dangerous relic. For the daring only.” Dangerous and daring, indeed.
These are the effects of the relics once activated:
- HP -95%
- Enemies are invincible while casting
- Timed blocks reduce damage to 1
- Timed hits bonus damage x2
There’s a lot to unpack here. Firstly, the -95% health thing is very significant. If your character has, let’s say, 200 HP. Then this will result in them only going as high up as 10 HP. It almost doesn’t even matter how much defense you have either. Getting hit for 2-3 is already going to be painful enough if you don’t end the battle quickly.
The good news is that your timed hits are increased for twice the damage. That should cut the battle times by a significant amount. All that’s going to mess you up are the timings.
With the Artful Gambit relic equipped, enemies casting their Skills are invincible. Meaning that not only can you not break them via locks but you are left twiddling your thumbs until they are ready to cast. The only way to defend yourself is to time your blocks perfectly every single time. But that only means that the damage is only going to be limited to 1. It’s going to kill you instantly but you’re always to be in the danger zone against enemies that do multi-hit attacks.
So what else can you do to help?
Well, you can activate other Relics to help boost your chances. The game provides you with a couple of handy ones from the very start. These are the Amulet of Storytelling and the Sequent Flame.
The Amulet of Storytelling increases your max health by 100% and auto-heals after combat. The only advantage it brings is doubling your max health. Your character’s previous 14 max health is now 28. The Sequent Flame is an interesting addition. It actually helps you train your timing by giving you a clear visual indicator for your timed actions. It’s much more helpful than you think.
The final bit of advice I can give is that you are allowed to deactivate the Artful Gambit relic outside of a boss fight. Remember, you are only required to have it on during 10 different boss fights. They don’t have to be 10 subsequent boss encounters. You can pick and choose which boss patterns you are most familiar with.
And that’s about for this Artful Gambit relic guide. We hope it’s been hopeful for you in some shape or form. You’re really going to need a lot of help to pull this one off with no issues. Unless you’re really into that kind of challenge. Then all I can say is have fun.
If you want our thoughts on Sea of Stars, check out the review I did for it. You can also check out the trophy guide I’m slowly building towards.