Story Progress & Enemies

What to do

1. Choose a Story Act and difficulty you have already reached; check the live list for its area count and entry prompt rather than assuming later content unlocks at a particular account level.
2. Before starting, equip the weapon you handled well in Stage 1, check its current skill and title descriptions, and make sure you can identify your dash, block prompt, and available defensive options.
3. During each run, track Area, Wave, enemies alive, Next Boss, and timer together; clear threatening ranged or added enemies, keep room to move, and watch an unfamiliar boss's attack cues.
4. After a completed run, claim any available result, quest, milestone, or achievement rewards and record the Act, difficulty, full elapsed time, result, and actual payout.
5. Repeat the same route enough times to see whether you can finish consistently; only then compare another route or raise difficulty, including loading, matchmaking, and result time in your comparison.
6. Use the measured route to decide which resource or weapon improvement would help next, and carry that specific need into the Resource Plan.

Ready to move on?

• You can complete the chosen Story route consistently with your current loadout.
• You have a run record with difficulty, completion result, elapsed time, and actual rewards to compare against another route.

If you get stuck

The enemies-left counter reaches zero but the run appears to continue.

Check Area, Wave, and Next Boss together; an empty counter alone does not confirm the full run is over.

A boss attack catches you during a long skill animation.

Observe its cues, preserve room to move, and use a shorter opening or defensive option; exact boss timings and invulnerability windows are not confirmed.

A harder run fails more often or takes longer overall.

Return to the route you can finish and compare completed-run rewards per total session time, including failures and re-entry, before switching farms.

What to spend and save

• Use completed rewards and the equipment you already own to stabilize clears before purchasing another upgrade.
• Defer higher difficulty, unverified fastest-stage claims, and any upgrade whose effect or cost you have not checked in the current menu.

Your next step

Once you meet this stage's checkpoints, continue to Stage 3: Resource plan. If a checkpoint is still difficult, use the fixes above and repeat a manageable run.