Hero Sword

Hero Sword
Type	Melee, Projectile
Description	Slashes through multiple enemies and fires a slashing projectile.
Unlock	Defeat a Stage Boss without picking up any ground items, powerups, or using shrines.
Upgrades With	Damage, Projectile Count, Projectile Speed, Size
Silver Reward	4
Special Effect	Melee slashes also fire a ranged projectile. Projectiles pierce enemies.

The Hero Sword is an unlockable weapon in Megabonk that serves as a direct upgrade to the standard Sword. It rewards skilled play with a powerful hybrid moveset that combines the familiar close-range slash with a new, long-range slashing projectile.

How to Unlock (Purist Challenge)

Unlocking the Hero Sword requires completing a "purist" run, testing the player's ability to survive using only the core level-up mechanics.

The rule is to defeat any stage boss while adhering to the following restrictions for the entire run:

• DO NOT pick up any items or powerups from the ground.
• DO NOT open any chests or pots.
• DO NOT activate any shrines (Charge Shrines, Greed Totems, etc.) except the Boss Shrine. Charge Shrines must be fully activated to count; simply walking near enough for their timer to start will not break the prohibition.

VERY IMPORTANT: You can still choose upgrades for your weapons and tomes from the normal level-up screen. The restriction only applies to objects on the map.

Challenge Tips:

1. Character Choice: Start with a strong, self-sufficient character.
   • Sir Oofie has high durability, which is crucial when you can't pick up healing items.
   • CL4NK starts with 50 shield, which allows shield-walling and is a reasonable method of sustain if you can avoid hits long enough.
2. Weapon & Tome Focus: Rely on strong starter weapons and tomes. Since you can't find new items, you must make your initial choices powerful through level-ups alone. Stall and sustain weapons can help, but generally killing the boss quicker is better so you don't have to deal with the next Miniboss or Swarm waves.
   • Quantity Tome is the highest value pickup for the nature of its scaling at low levels (almost all weapons start with one projectile, so first added projectile doubles damage, second one is a 50% increase, etc.).
   • Damage Tome scales poorly with low base damage, so consider passing on it unless your loadout is built around it (e.g. Sniper Rifle, Bananarang, Corrupted Sword).
   • Sniper Rifle deals high single-target damage even at low levels and can be aimed to focus it on the boss.
   • Bouncing projectiles (Revolver, Bone, Wireless Dagger) will both help deal with the boss and clear adds, especially during swarm waves. The Lightning Staff tends to be weak at low levels though, so avoid that one.
   • Close weapons (Sword, Axe, Aura, Katana) tend to deal high damage at low levels, if you can handle the higher risk of being near the boss.
   • Without any sustain items chip damage is a real threat, so consider Aegis to supplement your defenses.
3. Play Style: The run becomes a test of dodging and positioning, as you'll need to slowly whittle down the boss. Actively avoid all ground items and learn enemy attack patterns. Agility Tome is thus a high-value pickup, as it gives just enough with one or two levels to easily dodge the boss' attacks.
4. Stage Choice: It is highly recommended to attempt this challenge on the very first Forest stage, as the enemies and the boss are the weakest.
5. Timing: Carefully consider how powerful you are and when to summon the boss.
   • Near the end of the 6:00 Swarm gives you the most time to deal with the boss without an additional event, but after the 2:00 Miniboss would give you more time to scale.
   • If you haven't found the Boss Shrine by 6:00, consider restarting the run. The traversal time to find it after maneuvering around the Swarm will severely cut into your time with the boss.
6. Location: Try to find a relatively open area to fight the boss in both so you have space to maneuver and so the boss isn't constantly climbing the scenery, putting them out of range of your attacks. If you find the Boss Shrine early, fight and level up away from it until you are ready so you don't pollute the area with powerups and chests you then have to avoid.

After defeating a boss under these conditions, the Hero Sword must be purchased from the Unlocks tab for 4 Silver.

Strategy and Synergies

The Hero Sword's strength is its versatility, allowing the player to control both close and mid-range combat simultaneously.

• Projectile Count is an excellent upgrade as it adds more close range and ranged projectiles.
• Size increases the size of the melee slash as well as the ranged slash projectile.
• Projectile Speed increases the maximum range of the ranged slash projectile will travel before disappearing.

Upgrades

The Hero Sword can receive the following upgrades upon leveling up:

Stat	Common	Uncommon	Rare	Epic	Legendary
Damage	2	2.4	2.8	3.2	4
Projectile Count	1	1.2	1.4	1.6	2
Projectile Speed	4	4.8	5.6	6.4	8
Size	15%	18%	21%	24%	30%