Hello! My name is Andrei and this is the first guide I ever made. I hope you will enjoy your stay!

Tormentor ❌ Punisher is a cruel and perhaps even cryptic game at first. You are thrown in the middle of an arena where Monsters soon start spawning all around you. Not long after, you probably stumbled into a Shield or another enemy that spawned next to you and you died.

Now, you might be wondering what you did wrong when you died. This is the point where you might want to analyse the game a little: most of the time, you will die due to the overwhelming amount of monsters that can often cause an enemy to escape your sight just for long enough for him to sneak right next to you and stop your rampage. Either that, or you just got stuck into something and inevitably died.

If you want to survive for long in this game, you will have to master few important elements:

• Awareness
  
  Whilst you can play abusively replay the game (I personally get this a lot!) in order to become increasingly more Aware of your surroundings and perform those amazing zig-zag Wizard Beam dodges while fighting other enemies at the same time, you will generally not last for too long.
  
  
  
• Upgrade grinding
  
  Certain Upgrades are easier to get, while others can take a much longer while to grind. For some of them, it becomes exponentially more difficult the further the game goes and if you already have other Upgrades.
  
  For instance, how are you going to charge 8 stacks of Thanks in the heat of a boss battle? You need to take into account that bosses generally take your full attention and that they spawn relatively shortly one after another, giving you a too little frame of time to farm up the Upgrades. On a different note, it becomes incredibly tough to gain Hot Stuff if you already have Wizard's Hat.
  
  
  
• Game sense
  
  Finally, even if you come up with a most amazing Upgrade farming Build and somehow manage to get all the Upgrades before the third boss even spawns, it might still not be enough. You need to know how to deal with many other things, like the passive effects that bosses leave behind such as Gutshank's Huge Sawblade and Bigbones' acid pools.
  
  Should you follow the blade in its trail, or will you merely walk around it when it's around you? should you take the acid pools now, or leave them around for a while? It all depends on the context. You might find it more important to kill that party of 5+ Wizards that you just left around while circling around the arena than firing 10 bullets at an acid pool.

It might seem a little overwhelming. But hey! That's why I'm writing this guide. I went through a lot of trial and error to find most of the information you are reading in this guide. However, I'm not the only one who has contributed to the guide.

Plenty of nice people have shared their experience and thoughts in the Discussion threads, which is where we generally share newly found tricks and secrets.

If you want to contribute to this guide in any way, feel free to comment or even add me on Steam and I'll gladly listen to your thoughts!

This is you! The relentless monster slaying chick that never stops cursing.








According to the Trading Cards and confirmed by the dev in one of the Discussion threads, she's known as "TERMINATOR SOMETHING".

You have two weapons (fire modes) at your disposal:

• Machinegun
  
  You can fire up to 10 bullets before needing to reload it. How? By using your Shotgun! Yes, this is the game where you reload your Machinegun by firing your other weapon.
  
  The tenth and final bullet will always leave a blazing trail, setting on fire any monster unfortunate enough to step on the fire.
  
  Slaying enemies using the Machinegun proves as a poor method to climb up the Scoreboards, as it tends to reward you with very little points (we will go through Scoring later in this guide).
  
  
• Shotgun
  
  Now this is the weapon you actually want to use. A short-range shotgun that fires only three pellets? And what about those pesky wizards spitting beams at you, how are you going to deal with them? Let's see what this weapon's true potential is.
  
  The Shotgun can be improved several times and it will slowly and steadily become a Weapon of Destruction. Given that it has been upgraded accordingly, it can electrocute Shields, deflect Wizard Beams and clear Acid Pools. Not only, but the pellets will also split themselves further upon hitting an enemy.

There currently are 4 (5) enemies that you can encounter during your onslaught. I'm putting emphasis on the possibility to encounter them because BolIocks do not always spawn. Additionally, there's a very small chance that either Shielders or Wizards won't show up at all during a Loop.













Whilst not an actual enemy, the Summoning Circle can still pose a threat. When the circle blinks between Red and Yellow, it means an enemy is about to spawn. In this state, you usually want to avoid being around it or risk being instantly attacked by the summoned enemy.

It can be stepped on to make it vanish, causing it to reappear in a different location and spawn the enemy quickly. This could be effective if you want to secure a zone you're about to defend and you don't want an inquisitive enemy to spawn there.











This is the most common enemy you will encounter. They relentlessly walk straight towards you until they get into melee range. If that happens, they will strike at you and most likely miss their attack.

The only circumstance where they can be a threat is when you're standing still. Thus, you can easily deny them by always being on the move. Avoid bumping into a Shielder or something that blocks your way, unless you want your guts to be spread all over the floor.

They can be easily clumped up for the purpose of farming Upgrades.











The Shielder is a rather durable Enemy, being able to deflect most of your attacks. He will walk towards you at a slower pace than the Grunts, eventually pausing for a while to catch a breath. This is where you can either slay him or use his shield to rack up some Thanks stacks. Also, if you get too close to him, he will charge at you at an incredible speed (which is even worse in Hard mode).

It is best to get rid of them before they gain numbers. If there are too many Shielders around, you will find it difficult to walk around and even kill them.

The best way to deal with shielders is by getting Upgrade Wizard's hat which electrocutes them, removing their shield. Be wary that shieldless Shielders will charge at you even faster than before, which will doubtlessly end your run if you're caught off guard.












These guys have got to be the most annoying Regular Enemy in the game. They sit back at a distance, spitting Beams at you and sometimes predicting your movement. If you leave too many Wizards alive around, you will soon find yourself in a deadly rain of Wizard Beams.

Once you get Wizard's Hat, you should prioritise killing Wizards as they can't be electrocuted at range (Duh) and therefore stand as the only danger remaining until a Boss spawns.

If you like gambling, you can spray your Machinegun around the direction the Beams are coming from and hope for a quick off screen kill.











BolIocks seem to spawn only when there are Acid Pools lying around. They spawn so rarely that there isn't much to be said about them.

They walk around, keeping their distance and occasionally firing a slow snotball at you. It can be deflected with the Shotgun.

There are 7 bosses in the game, 8 including the Secret / Final boss which no one really knows how to summon.










After a certain amount of kills, a huge Summoning Circle will appear in the middle of the map. Eliminating exactly ten more Enemies causes a Boss to spawn in.

Each of these bosses has more or less of an attacking pattern, occasionally exposing themselves to damage and generally permanently affecting the Arena's layout by creating Walls, Acid Pools, Sliding Sawblade(s) and such.

• Behaviour

Snitch runs around you for a while until he suddenly stops and aims his Bow at you. Be wary that his Arrow leaves a poisonous trail behind for a short while which can kill you even after it has just faded away (it got me so many times I had to mention it!). After firing at you, Snitch loses balance and his Bow jumps somewhere around. He then goes to pick it up and begins attacking again.

• Weakness

Snitch can only block attacks for as long as he holds his Bow. After he has fired at you, he will be vulnerable until he picks up his Bow. You can easily fire some Machinegun shots at him while he's disarmed.

• Postum Passive

His arrows occasionally leave Acid Pools around. This can be countered by sitting next to the Arena's margin, causing the arrows to travel much less further. This greatly decreases the chance for an Acid Pool to spawn in.

• Behaviour

Slowly slides around, farting protective Gas clouds and Acid Pools, charging a short distance or sucking in Enemies like a vaccum cleaner. It seems that something (possibly removing his Gas cloud) causes Big Bones to start firing at you, much like BolIocks do but at a much higher speed.

• Weakness

Fire removes the Gas clouds which absorb your Bullets and Pellets. Hitting him directly (with a Fire shot or not?) after removing this 'shield' kills him. Hot stuff can help a lot here; otherwise, keep firing with your Machinegun at Big Bones until he dies and make sure your 10th bullet doesn't hit a trash Enemy.

• Postum Passive

Upon dying, Big Bones pops 5 worms that slowly slither around and spread MANY of Acid Pools. You might want to prioritise killing these worms.

• Behaviour

If you're close enough to the Golem, he tosses his boulder at you. It crushes through shots, Enemies, Flesh Walls and Unbreakable Walls alike which can sometimes prove useful for clearing the Arena a little. Oh, and watch out for falling bricks from the ceiling: there is barely any time to dodge them.

• Weakness

The Golem cannot block your shots while he isn't holding a boulder in his hands. Therefore, you can counter-attack him with your Machinegun after he tosses the boulder at you. The frame where he's vulnerable is short, so you better not keep a too long distance!

• Postum Passive

His Boulders and Bricks permanently remain as Walls around the arena, which although doesn't directly affect you, can block you and set up worse traps.

• Behaviour

Carrion leaps high into the air, leaving a circular shadow visible on the ground so that you can track him. Upon landing he quakes the ground, causing Walls to rise in a square's shape around him shortly after; he also fires some Blood Bullets to prevent you from walking up to him and going for the quick kill.

• Weakness

He doesn't have a mean of blocking damage. Thus, you can either shoot at him before his Walls rise from the ground or walk up to him before he leaps again.

• Postum Passive

His Walls permanently remain in the arena, just as with the Golem.

• Behaviour

This guy is a mess. There are two phases he goes through: first, he spins through the arena (very rarely moving up to you without giving you a chance to survive at all) and fires Blood Bullets at you at an impressive fire rate. Do note that these Bullets cannot be deflected and they WILL break any kind of Walls created by the former Bosses. After he's done spinning, once you can see him again, he will Charge at you at a huge speed until he crashes into one of the Arena's margins or until he hits too many walls.

Do note that even if he hits one of the Arena's margins, Craw does not necessarily stop. On rare occasions, he will slide along the wall, essentially crushing everyone unfortunate enough to be sitting on the side of the wall. Thus, you might not always want to hug the wall during this Boss fight.

• Weakness

After Charging, Craw will inevitably hit a wall and become dizzy for a couple of seconds, rendering him vulnerable to damage.

• Postum Passive

None, but he does break quite a lot of Walls with his Charge and his Blood Bullets.

• Behaviour

Gutshank is a chicken. All he does is run away from you and craft Sawblades that bounce around the Arena until you break them.

Funnily enough, he can use your Machinegun bullets to craft Bots that craft even more Sawblades. Oh, and these bots are barely visible too: they might spawn a Sawblade next to you. Welcome to hell!

• Weakness

Vulnerable to Shotgun pellets all the time. This fight is all about finding Gutshank and shooting him before he creates too many Sawblades. When he spawns, you can see the direction he's headed into and immediately kill him after.

• Postum Passive

This has to be the most annoyingly remarkable Passive. Upon dying, Gutshank creates a Huge Sawblade that Slides Clockwise or Counterclockwise around the arena.

An easy way to deal with this Huge Sawblade is to follow it in its trail. Either that, or stick to the middle of the arena.

• Behaviour

The Priestess moves around the Arena in several curvy motions until she burrows underground. Then, she unburrows her tail only which she uses to fire Wizard Beams at you with. If you shoot this tail with your Shotgun you will cause her to moult. But first, she moves underground for a short while until she pops her head out and fires two bursts of five Blood Bullets at you. Only then, the Priestess will emerge to surface, this time without her protective skin. After burrowing again, she regains her skin.

• Weakness

After firing at her unburrowed tail with your shotgun, her head will be vulnerable to damage once she remains skinless. If you cannot kill her during this time, you will have to redo the whole process.

• Postum Passive

The Princess' body segments (if there are any) will turn into Flesh Walls

There are several Upgrades available for your Shotgun. They are steadily unlocked by performing exactly 8 kills in creative ways which includes, but is not limited to: killing Enemies at maximum Shotgun range, setting Enemies on fire with the Shotgun and even killing electrocuted enemies.

Naturally, you want to acquire as many Upgrades as possible. Fortunately or not, this is not an easy task: it can take a while to learn how to efficiently rack up some Upgrades.

It is most suitable to get as many Upgrades as possible early on, so that you can focus on the Boss fights later in the game.

Here's a list containing details on how to achieve every Upgrade, what their effects are and when it is easier to acquire them.

• Requirements: Kill an enemy with a pellet bounced off an Arena's wall.

• Effect: Pellets that hit an enemy will split into 3 smaller pellets.

• Notes: This is possibly the easiest Upgrade you can get. It's very practical against crowds of Enemies.

• Requirements: Kill an enemy at maximum range.

• Effect: Shotgun range increases.

• Notes: You might find that the effort required for this Upgrade is not worth it. It will be much easier to unlock So Long if you have Thanks, with which it also works very well. What a tandem!

• Requirements: Hit an Enemy with a blazing pellet. (Use your Machinegun!)

• Effect: Shotgun automatically fires a blazing pellet.

• Notes: You should get this Upgrade before you unlock Wizard's hat, as it is nearly impossible the other way around.

• Requirements: Kill an electrocuted enemy. Electrocute enemies by deflecting Wizard Beams with your Shotgun!

• Effect: Shotgun automatically fires an electrocuting pellet.

• Notes: This is not as hard as it sounds! It is possible to kill multiple electrocuted Enemies by deflecting a single Wizard Beam. However, Wizard's hat makes it difficult to unlock other Upgrades such as Thanks.

• Requirements: Kill an enemy with a pellet bounced off a Shielder's shield.

• Effect: Pellets return to you after reaching maximum range.

• Notes: You might find it easier to grind this Upgrade on idling (resting) Shielders or by luring them next to a Wall and deflecting the shot multiple times.

(misspelt)

• Requirements: Kill an enemy with every pellet

• Effect: Shotgun fires 5 pellets instead of 3

• Notes: You can get this Upgrade before the first boss even spawns by clumping up the Grunts that initially spawn and shooting them in melee range: aim for the center of the mass.

You are free to grind each of these Upgrades at any point of the game. However, you should experiment with your ability to unlock them and figure out the best way to do so.

I personally prefer getting ♥♥♥♥ you before anything else: I have practiced unlocking it on the first 24 / 27 / 30 Grunts. After that, I go straight for Hot Stuff. I tend to equally grind Thanks and Wizard's Hat because I feel that unlocking one makes acquiring the other much more difficult. In the end, I get Wallie and So Long intentionally or not.

Of course, if I want to play more casually I can completely skip getting less impactful Upgrades such as ♥♥♥♥ you and Hot Stuff.

Once again, you should find by yourself what fits you best. Wizard's Hat is a must in the long run, so you ought to getting it.

Slaying all 7 bosses will cause every Enemy in the Arena to disappear. Then, the green little twerp that taunts you when you die will show up. Killing him will cause the game to Loop.




















If you made it into the Loop Arena: congratulations! You are now a quite seasoned TxP player. However, the game's not over!

During the Loop, the Arena's layout will be visibly changed. Boss Passive effects will remain, causing Walls and Huge Sawblades to further stay in the Arena. Enemy spawns are pretty frequent and, without proper upgrades, you wouldn't be able to survive for too long in here.

If you survive for a little longer, you will notice that Bosses now spawn in pairs. Do you remember how much effort it takes to eliminate the Priestess? Now you will have to do that while fighting another Boss. Oh, God...

With all Upgrades unlocked, it might be possible to kill the Bosses before they even have the chance to attack once. Although rushing too hard to kill them could be a risk, with two Bosses wandering around it is best to deal with them twice as fast.

Therefore, you might want to practice the art of slaying Bosses with your Shotgun the very moment they spawn. The two most noticeable exceptions to this strategy are Craw and Priestess, since they remain invulnerable for much longer than the other Bosses.

All in all, it is essential to be well prepared for the Loop. As for what happens once you kill the bosses again, I'm not too sure myself. I have yet to last that ridiculously long :]

Score gained greatly depends on how you eliminate your enemies. This includes bosses, though slaying them already grants 10.000 points.

Here's a little useful table containing the amount of points gained depending on the way you killed the Enemy.


*Do note that burning Enemies will set on fire other Enemies that make contact with him. These lit Enemies will grant no points when they die.


If you want to Score high, I recommend you to use the Shotgun as often as possible. It helps a lot if you have Wizard's Hat, since it increases your score gain by roughly +60%. Hence you will want to unlock this Upgrade as soon as possible.

In case the game isn't difficult enough for you, there is a Hard Mode to satisfy your needs. The game's pace is drastically increased and the Regular Enemies have become even stronger. Are you still up for the challenge?




















Turning on Hard Mode is done at the beginning of the game. You need to step on one of the first three portals, preferably the one right below you. Next, you will notice that a blazing Red Summoning Circle has appeared in the middle of the Arena, right where you spawned. Stepping on this Summoning circle will activate Hard Mode.

Regular Enemies seem to waddle around twice as fast. Most noticeably, Grunts can run faster than you and charging Shielders have become virtually undodgeable. Thus, walking up to a Shielder in close range (without employing Electric Shots from Wizard's Hat) generally means death.

Wizards aren't left out either: they now spit two Beams at once, occasionally causing them to turn into living machineguns. But it isn't as bad as it sounds, since Wizards can kill other Monsters with their beams and more Bolts make acquiring Wizard's Hat easier.

If in Normal Mode Wizard's Hat used to be very useful due to Shielders potentially overwhelming you, in Hard Mode a single well positioned Shielder can end your run. In Hard Mode, this Upgrade has suddenly become even more important.

You need to raise your Awareness further in order to succeed. Keep playing until you get used to Hard Mode's speed and you will gradually improve.

Funnily enough, after playing Hard Mode you might find Normal Mode much easier than before. Therefore, you can safely practice in Hard Mode until you feel you're ready to unleash hell in Normal Mode.

Here's a complete list of every Achievement in the game and how to unlock it.

The only exception is for HEAD F*CK. Information towards unlocking this Achievement will be added as soon as we will figure a way to summon Deahkcuf.







These Achievements are relatively easy. They require you to kill every Boss at least once, in any playthrough.






You will need to acquire each Upgrade in order to gain these Achievements. Still not that hard!






Kill a Shielder before he exhausts. This implies that you somehow bounced the Shotgun pellets around until they hit his back. Simply electrocuting him might be more practical.






Punch a Wizard's bullet. Pretty straight forward. You might want to just slide along with the Beam and punch it sideways rather than directly walking into it.






Unlock Hard Mode. Start the game, walk down on the Summoning Circle and then walk back up to the spawn point.






Kill a boss with your fists. This is not as complicated as it sounds, but you might find it difficult to kill certain Bosses bare handed. In case you didn't know, you can fist enemies after you have emptied your ten-bullet Machinegun magazine.






Revive your teammate in Coop. You will require a Game Pad (Controller) for unlocking this Achievement.






Punch a saw. You will need to take your time, hoping for Gutshank to spawn next and punch one of his Saws. This is pretty similar to SLEEVE.






Kill all bosses in one run. In other words, Loop the game. This should be your primary goal when you're just starting to play.

It will take a while, but once you will have Achieved it you will begin to realise the game isn't nearly as impossibly-difficult as it might have seemed.






Now this Achievement is a big mystery. Presumingly, it requires you to summon the 8th and Final Boss of the game.

How has it come to such a presumption? I'll have to thank Steam User Ikubi for this finding.

Every Boss has two theme songs: one that plays during the Boss fight and another that plays after the Boss fight. The 10th and final Boss Intro Song in the game's OST[tormentorxpunisherost.bandcamp.com] is called "Deahkcuf" which you can read backwards by yourself and figure out why the achievement is called HEAD F*CK

How to summon Deahkcuf? No one knows. Yes, all you did was just read some rambling.

Update (13th november): Alright, it seems there is a way to summon F*CKHEAD after all. For exactly the first 2 minutes of the game, you will have to avoid killing any monster in order to make him spawn. Then, all enemies will be pulled towards the center of the map. After roughly twenty two more seconds have passed, F*CKHEAD will appear and drop plenty of Flesh Walls around.

I'm not sure myself how to fight this guy, as I have never encountered him in-game. However, here's a link to the video of someone who has managed to kill him! His game seems to be slightly slown down, but it's a neat achievement nevertheless.






Kill all bosses. I droll to see someone who has unlocked HEAD F*CK but not this Achievement.






Reading backwards, it spells "HARDMODE ON LOOP". This not only proves Loop as a canonical term, but also renders the Achievement self explanatory.






Keep a BolIock's snotball around for 20 seconds. I hope you will enjoy keeping the snotball intact for twenty seconds all while also staying alive.






Kill all bosses barehanded in one run. Now this is quite a deal. Killing one boss bare handed takes a lot of practice itself, but SEVEN? I'm not even going to describe how long unlocking this Achievement will take...

I hope this guide has come to your aid and helped you understand the game at least a little better. Don't forget, practice makes best!

I am aware that the guide can be further improved. As such, I invite you to contribute to it in any way you would like to.

Let me know in the Comments whether you liked or disliked the guide and I will eagerly listen to your feedback.

Have fun slaughtering!