Am I the Only One Who Can't Beat Hell?

No in my opinion the nemesis is kinda bad. And yes i know your not supposed to level it up but sometimes you accidently get expierience for it and it gets weak.plus the Blade is to precious to trade in my opinion.

And the machine gun is ok but the spur is better for the Heavy press and Ballos fight.

 

Uhh

Did you just say the Nemesis is bad for Hell? I must have misread you. You must have confused the Nemesis and the Blade.
I think you confused the Spur with the Machine Gun, too.

I will agree with you about the Nemesis, but that doesn't mean some people can't be clever with the blade. But I will disagree with you about the Spur. I can see by watching the best speedruns out there why some people prefer the Snake, but I for one prefer the Spur because it's more powerful. I like having the Spur and Nemesis because you don't need to worry about leveling either of them up/down, and because they're two of the most powerful weapons in the game. And if I were to choose between bringing the Spur, Snake or Machine Gun into hell, the Machine gun would be my absolute last choice. By the time you've gotten there to the Sacred Grounds, the Machine gun is obsolete due to your Booster, and you have to level it up in order to benefit from its propulsion powers, which are quite slow in comparison to the Booster 2.0. I know I linked to a run that used the Machine Gun, but it actually barely used it in the part during the Sacred Grounds. It's just there because it was a full game run and it was most convenient to have that gun for all the other parts of the game.

 

Well you have to worry about leveling down the Nemesis.

And I believe the Machine Gun is better because you don't need to spend time for it to do significant damage. I'm not a very good button masher, and that makes the Machine Gun better than the Spur for me for dealing out lots of damage quickly. In Hell, you don't usually have time to charge the Spur without getting hurt. The propulsion powers of the Machine Gun have nothing to do with why it's good to have in Hell.

 

I beat Hell within the first few days I got to it. I don't remember it being all that hard, but I was really excited to beat it. If I recall correctly, my first time was around 7-9 minutes.

@Dunc The machine gun is more effective in Hell than the Spur? HAHAHA

 

@Dunc The machine gun is more effective in Hell than the Spur? HAHAHA

Umm. It is. :I
I haven't even gotten far but the machine gun is a big help because of its propelling ability.

 

Umm. It is. :I
I haven't even gotten far but the machine gun is a big help because of its propelling ability.

....Are you telling me you somehow got in Hell without Booster 2.0 ?

 

FWIW, I always play with Spur. And I don't care about times in Hell, I guess my best time ever there is something over 10 minutes. I like Spur mostly because it doesn't need leveling up. I personally hate the Nemesis, because I can't ever seem to avoid the levelups scattering around.

My advice for getting through hell & ballos is this:
1) Make sure you have the life pot when you enter the hell. Yes, this means you can't use it against the Misery-Doctor-Undead Core boss run. Deal with it. If you can't do that, you just need to dodge better (also, see point 2).
2) Prioritize "not getting hit by enemies" over "speed" or "upgrades". Try to find safe spots, and keep your head cool. Learn to watch where the butes are shooting at. Whenever you can safely snipe your enemies instead of risking it (even if it means it takes more time), choose safe sniping over risks. (I guess this is more relevant to Spur, with it's sniper characteristics and slow load-up. You should learn to always keep it recharging whenever possible, even if you're jumping/boosting.
3) There are points in hell where you need to be quick to survive: the corridor with falling blocks and heavy press fight. Unless you're really good with dodging, do not try to recharge your life with killing those endless butes in heavy press. And the falling block corridor is just evil.
4) finally, Ballos: Learn the patterns and keep your head cool. Prioritize your safety over piling the damage on him, i.e. Don't take useless risks with attacks. There will always be another opening to shoot at. Learn to see when you're late to that and that opening and retreat for the next one. That's all there is to it.

...although I have to admit that the last form of Ballos still makes me go gaga and lose my cool. Usually that equals me getting killed... but I lack the skill to fight it any better than that anyways, so...