Castlevania: Lament of Innocence/Combat

Action Canceling

Leon and Pumpkin can cancel into other things, such as jumping, using items, and sub-weapons. There's a small window during (almost) every action where you can start another action before the current action's animation finishes. Doing this immediately cancels whatever action you're currently in the middle of and begins the next one. Not everything can be canceled into though. Whips can only be canceled into Sub-weapons and jumps, but not items. Sub-weapons can be canceled into anything, and items can be canceled into anything most of the time. It seems to depend on what item is being used. Jumping can't be canceled per se, but the moment you land you can start another action immediately.

Combo Damage

Every hit beyond the first adds roughly 5% damage. This means that high combos have the ability to increase damage to levels that are completely broken. In most boss fights you try and keep the combo going for as long as possible

Example of Action Cancel with Sub-Weapon and Combo Damage

Gems

Thanks to Item Duplication jewel crusher is the core of Leon and Pumpkin categories. It destroys Jewels and releases their hidden magical potential. When equipped, the description of the Jewels changes as follows:

• Diamond - Grants a full HP, MP, and Heart restore.
• Ruby - Deals 119 damage to everything in the room. Can be mitigated by special defense, and won't affect anything that's immune to damage at the time.
• Sapphire - Deals 50 damage to everything within view, and restores 8 HP for every hit. Can be mitigated by special defense.
• Turquoise - Randomly changes the sub weapon to something that's not the current subweapon.

All of these gems are vital to a run. Rubies destroy entire rooms with impunity, and make good combo extenders in boss fights. Sapphires make decent substitutes for Rubies when you need to conserve them. Diamonds allow you to spam Hi-Speed Edge continuously to get around faster. Turquoises make it possible to have the optimal sub weapon for every situation.

Subweapons

Every sub weapon is used but not every orb combination is. Some notable ones in Any%:

• Axe (No Orb) - Important in Garden Forgotten by Time, and against Medusa.
• Spiral Axe (Axe + Red) - Used twice in House of Sacred Remains, Primarily to conserve the gems
• Wind Axe / Axe Tornado (Axe + Purple) - Used Three times
  • Primarily to take down ogers Cyclops
  • Setup in the first room for Dark Palace of the Waterfall
• Hi-Speed Edge (Axe + Green) - Used everywhere after the Green Orb is obtained. Fastest form of movement in the game
  • Roughly 50% faster than walking ~ DragonDarchSDA
• Spirit Ripper (Axe + Yellow) - Used against Walter to get a high combo
• Michael's Sword (Cross + Purple) Used twice in Dark Palace to deal with enemies and once in Anti-Soul Mysteries Lab
  • Primary damage source against Joachim
  • Also core on golem’s second phase before the ruby spam
• Holy Light (Cross + Green) - Used against Golem phase 1. Keeps him constantly going in and out of his guard stance, and does significant damage due to double hits.
• Satellite (Crystal + Yellow) - Used against Doppelganger 2 to keep him stunlocked.
• Roaring Flames (Holy Water + Red) - Used for Undead Parasite phase 2. Hits 4 times and allows just enough time to cancel into a whip without dropping combo.
• Cross Blazer (Holy Water + Purple) - Used for Undead Parasite phase 1
  • Able to hit 2 eyes at once, speeding up phase 1 considerably
  • Can also be used against doppleganger 2 for safer option
• Force Cannon (Knife + Green) - Used against Succubus, and the Ogre duo outside of her room.