Charge moves are very powerful. Shuraba+Durga PPPK)K)K) combo can directly kill a lot of enemies, when this happens I start taunting to enrage enemies so they give more points and gain more magic so I can use a Torture Attack on them when they have a slice of health left. Robbing an Affinity of his spear and using the kick attack in the middle of an enraged group will almost always boost your combo score to a Platinum rank, then you can freestyle and finish the remaining ones whichever way you like. Generally, the faster you kill an enemy, the fewer points you´ll be getting from him and charge moves excel at this. What I don´t understand is how a charging and powerful move like Killgores´rockets can boost your multiplier, but the rest of the charging moves just deal great damage but tank your score.
Pillow Talk is the worst offender, if you don´t charge it it´s a dumbed down Shuraba without Wicked Weaves and less reach, but if you charge it you´ll destroy everything in a few hits and loose a lot of possible combo points. I still haven´t found a way to correctly use this weapon.
Yeah, Bayo1's moves/weapons have wildly different combo point :: damage ratios. Another good example is Shuraba against big bosses when Bayonetta's in "serious" mode: Shuraba's Wicked Weaves do more damage than a standard Scarborough Faire Wicked Weave give the same point value (30), which makes it extremely difficult if not outright impossible to Pure Platinum some big bosses with Shuraba.
I haven't tested this extensively, but I'm fairly certain that Bayo2 keeps the exact same combo point :: damage ratio across all moves, which means that you're pretty much guaranteed a Platinum combo rank if you never drop your combo and every move in your arsenal is viable. Charging up the hammer will increase it's combo point generation for instance, and a charged attack from it will net you hundreds of combo points per enemy. I'm not sure if it's the
exact same ratio for all moves, but it's certainly a lot closer than Bayo1.
On the topic of Kilgore rockets, there's a few reasons they're so strong for scoring:
A. They give 30 combo points, which is as much as a Wicked Weave, but do less damage than a Wicked Weave. In other words, arbitrarily good ratio.
B. The game counts them as Wicked Weaves for scoring purposes, which means they they gain the Wicked Weave bonus of +50% combo points if they explode and hit multiple enemies.
C. Since the game counts them as Wicked Weaves, they reset the diminishing returns on your melee attacks (which generally have the best combo::damage ratios in the game) with every hit. This probably doesn't actually make that much of a difference as long as you're using Wicked Weaves, but you could hypothetically use Kilgore rockets in their place and generate even more combo points.
D. There's obviously the infamous Kilgore glitch. The reason this glitch is so strong is because each rocket stacks the +50% Wicked Weave bonus with previous rockets (maybe because they're hitting so close together or maybe just because it's a glitchy attack?) which leads to each rocket generating 60 combo points / attack, which is a pretty crazy good ratio.
Okay, I gues it's finally time for me to get acquainted with system mechanics. What's the best guide out there? Preferably non-video but I'll take what I can get.
If you're looking for combo system tips/explanation, there's
this page on the wiki. Only applies to Bayo1; Bayo2 is much simpler.
If you're looking for general combat discussion,
this guide from GameFAQs is a good place to start. Doesn't cover any one topic super in depth, but it has a bit of everything.
Kulsheda's the whip from Bayo1.
