Adam R. Wood (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} zotmeister) wrote in ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} disgaea,@ 2007-06-18 00:08:00 |
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Hardcore, Item World
I always get a little anxious about the Item World leg of the trip, largely because it's so random. I could be very well rewarded for easy battles, or just as likely put through a living hell with little to show for it. There is, of course, that slight possibility that I'll be given an outright impossible map, but I do get one free reset button. I just hope I won't need it for anything else.
I still haven't decided what item is best to enter. Imperial Seals are very tempting - Etna should be able to handle it - but it's a very scary proposition. Weapons of course can potentially gain the most, given the effect of weapon mastery, but going in a weapon means not having that weapon equipped. Then there's the Specialists within: who's to say how valuable that Statistician or Armsmaster (or even Broker) will be in the course of the campaign? This much I know for certain: Candy is a lousy choice. It's a lousy choice because it can't be equipped, which means Laharl still can't open the gate, which means I fail the hardcore. Yes, I did that once. Yes, that probably was the dumbest thing I've ever done in the long history of my playing tactical roleplaying games.
At any rate, I sell Flonne's Witch's Staff and give her the Dolphin EX I snagged last episode. No Dark Assembly means no teaching Flonne spells, so I give her a gun to make her otherwise as useful as possible with minimum expenditure.
I decide on the Muscle Brawn. It's only a first-rank item, which means lesser experience-gaining potential, but it is correspondingly safer. Since it matches the Muscle Fight's rarity, it makes the pairing more worthwhile, and it includes some decent Specialists, most notably a Statistician 7. I restock on Candy and Faerie Dust and pay the bill for zombie number 3 (nine down, one to go...), and with a deep breath, dive in...
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B1: Crowded map, this one - twelve enemies on a moderate size field; six colors of Geo Panel with only two Symbols, but they're HL +50% and EXP +50%. Crap in the Bonus Gauge. I put the two Geo Symbols on the same color and have Etna and Laharl start merging and KOing on that color. Towards the end I noticed that it wasn't all one landmass - there was actually a detached segment - but it wasn't anything Etna couldn't be thrown across.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B2: Now we're talking. Twelve enemies, six colors and Symbols, three rares and a Mr. Gency's Exit (!) in the Bonus Gauge, and Invinciblity! I've always thought it funny that Disgaea misspells 'invincibility'; it's fun to pronounce the error. In-vin-ci-BLIT-ee! But I digress. That and Recovery 20% are on the same color from the start. HEAL-UP! Flonne - since she has no counters - is put on merging duty (because you always merge ALL enemies together on any map with Invinci-BLIT-y). Meanwhile, Laharl and Etna have a sparring match in safety on adjacent Invinci-BLIT-y panels. The level-29 opponent took awhile to take down - she spent much of her time on Enemy Boost x3 panels (I didn't manage to destroy that Symbol until the end), she snuck onto Recovery twice (I eventually found a place to trap her), and as a gun-wielder she wouldn't stay put (especially when I brought out all the others in order to let them earn the experience boosts in the Bonus Gauge) - but the result of the battle was a foregone conclusion. Since it was a safe battle, I caught up on my MAME Decathalon referreeing duties, sneaking Disgaea turns in when I could between levels and the like. I lost track of time, apparently: over a hundred turns passed before I even tried to end the battle, so I guess I'm (accidentally) guilty of some weapon mastery whoring. In my defense, it wasn't until turn 201 that the Bonus Gauge maxed out, and I finished it shortly thereafter. I've done worse: in case you didn't know, the turn counter stops counting at 999, but the battle can keep going - and I know this from personal experience♥ A team attack ended it (oops); Etna is now level 13 and two zombies are level 7.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B3: Sparse but dangerous Geo Panels; one detached area; nothing of interest in the Bonus Gauge except for the Knight's Lance that I still hadn't bought for Etna in slot 4 and Slippers in both slots 8 and 9 that I have no hope of attaining. I get up to slot 5 with a little combo work and the Geo chain, but as other equipment was above it and there's only one empty slot in the Item Bag, she'll have to wait to equip it.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B4: CHECK! Katrina the Dietician is in a rather inconvenient place, but a throw tower gets Etna there; it's a busy map with dense Geo Panels and weird Symbol combinations (one color is Recovery 20%, ATK -50%, Evade... HEAL-UP!). Crap in the Bonus Gauge; I just pretty much brawl through, although I do trigger the chain at the end becuase I couldn't really think of a reason not to.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B5: Extremely dense Panels, with two Symbols on an isolated area with NO safe spots... I won't be setting off the chain this battle. I do have Invinci-BLIT-y again, though, so you know what I do. Three Big Arrows in slots 6 through 8... what is the Bonus Gauge doing this campaign? Yikes! Anyway, bringing everyone out to speed things up, I topped out the Bonus Gauge on turn 165, and ended the battle two turns later. Laharl got the lion's share of the weapon mastery due to his counters, enough to pass Etna.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B6: CHECK! Maya the Physician is close by, taunting me by not being the Statistician. Only three opponents, but with Enemy Boost x3 and Clone on the map, not to mention No Color Change on the Null Symbol, I decide not to screw around and bail (jump through the Dimensional Portal) quickly.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B7: Very sparse Geo Panels, and only two Symbols for three colors; I only got the Bonus Gauge up to one. The enemies were split across two separated land masses, reducing my options. What I did manage to do was capture a Pumpkin, which I did because it had Heal. I lost one Prinny and one zombie in the process.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B8: With a full complement of Geo Symbols and Panel colors, I set out to complete the chain. Eleven enemies stood in the way, but I lured ten of them to the Base Panel and wiped them out. There was an Oakrot with Mega Heal (!), so I tried to capture it... and failed, meaning I only have Etna, Flonne, and Laharl to finish this with. The eleventh enemy was on an isolated portion of land with two Geo Symbols on it, but I was able to work around that, and the Geo Chain took it out for me.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B9: Hmph. Dense Panels, and Warp on two colors. Setting off the chain was the plan, but given how the Null was on a separated landmass and already on the lead color, I had to put the rest on the lead color. All but one was easy; the last required running the gauntlet of seven of the eight opponents on the map. I decide to send all three at once. Flonne found herself down to one HP and poisoned the first turn of the charge, but undaunted I use items to recover her and press on; she dropped the next turn anyway. Etna found herself on a Warp Panel after moving into position to heal Flonne - bad planning as well as bad luck - but Laharl was able to press on and complete the mission, and Etna was close enough to give him a (small) boost back towards the Base Panel. After one slight detour in which Laharl punched the crap out of the Cleric that hit every member of my party with Poison Arrow, they made it back to the bunker and, after a beautiful 2345 Chain Hit, it was all over.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B10: As it happened, there was a Knight's Lance in that last Bonus Gauge, and since there was now space in the Item Bag, I had Etna equip it promptly. Looking at the map, I saw all three Geo Symbols were Damage 20%, the Item General was on a separate landmass too far to throw across, and (perhaps most importantly) the Statistician was nowhere to be found. Screw it - EM-AR-GENCY EXIT!
Back at the castle I spend half of my now 7k HL on the hospital bill, which included both remaining captured monsters. The other Knight's Lance sitting in the warehouse had a Statistician 9 in it - score! - so I swapped. Flonne also got a better Dolphin EX out of the deal. After selling the rest of the weapons, I'm back up to 7.5k HL. I divvy up the rest of the equipment among the monsters. I also "buy" a rare Blood Orb and a rare Muscle Ace (taking care to pass their thresholds separately - I made that mistake once already this campaign), and seeing I still had plenty of HL, "bought" the rare Muscle Victory (pressing circle-cross-circle-down-cross, like, forty times) and rare Star Orb. I hastily reassign equipment (I'll save the big re-org for after the last floor), make absolutely certain I've replaced the Mr. Gency's Exit in the Item Bag, and re-enter...
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B10, take 2: Hmm... still no Statistician, and I still have a Mr. Gency's Exit in the warehouse in addition to the one in the Item Bag... Muscle Hustle, Slippers, and Imperial Seal in the Bonus Gauge, but a pretty lame Geo layout... Pah.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B10, take 3: Okay, I only have the one reset button left, but this is completely bland. No Geo Panels or Symbols whatever. Few enemies, no Statistician...
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B10, take 4: Even blander than the last map, but I'm stuck with it now. Four enemies, no Statistician. Well, crap. I tried. I take out the Item General (standing right next to the Base Panel) with a Sky Lunge, and Laharl drops another. The last two I merge together and huck into the Base Panel after having removed the Prinnies. I wanted to lose the battle, and I did, though barely. (I'd have lived if the capture took - hey, a level-10 zombie is better than the ones I've got.) I let a Prinny finish it so that it doesn't get to take a turn.
Back at the hospital I pay the full bill, and thanks to the KOs from my failed capture, I claim a rare Dark Rosary. I decide to save off and sort out all the equipment next time.
I now have eleven party members, ranging from a level-3 Pumpkin that knows Heal up to a level-14 Etna with six hundred HP. Looking decent. Episode 3 coming soon. - ZM
I always get a little anxious about the Item World leg of the trip, largely because it's so random. I could be very well rewarded for easy battles, or just as likely put through a living hell with little to show for it. There is, of course, that slight possibility that I'll be given an outright impossible map, but I do get one free reset button. I just hope I won't need it for anything else.
I still haven't decided what item is best to enter. Imperial Seals are very tempting - Etna should be able to handle it - but it's a very scary proposition. Weapons of course can potentially gain the most, given the effect of weapon mastery, but going in a weapon means not having that weapon equipped. Then there's the Specialists within: who's to say how valuable that Statistician or Armsmaster (or even Broker) will be in the course of the campaign? This much I know for certain: Candy is a lousy choice. It's a lousy choice because it can't be equipped, which means Laharl still can't open the gate, which means I fail the hardcore. Yes, I did that once. Yes, that probably was the dumbest thing I've ever done in the long history of my playing tactical roleplaying games.
At any rate, I sell Flonne's Witch's Staff and give her the Dolphin EX I snagged last episode. No Dark Assembly means no teaching Flonne spells, so I give her a gun to make her otherwise as useful as possible with minimum expenditure.
I decide on the Muscle Brawn. It's only a first-rank item, which means lesser experience-gaining potential, but it is correspondingly safer. Since it matches the Muscle Fight's rarity, it makes the pairing more worthwhile, and it includes some decent Specialists, most notably a Statistician 7. I restock on Candy and Faerie Dust and pay the bill for zombie number 3 (nine down, one to go...), and with a deep breath, dive in...
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B1: Crowded map, this one - twelve enemies on a moderate size field; six colors of Geo Panel with only two Symbols, but they're HL +50% and EXP +50%. Crap in the Bonus Gauge. I put the two Geo Symbols on the same color and have Etna and Laharl start merging and KOing on that color. Towards the end I noticed that it wasn't all one landmass - there was actually a detached segment - but it wasn't anything Etna couldn't be thrown across.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B2: Now we're talking. Twelve enemies, six colors and Symbols, three rares and a Mr. Gency's Exit (!) in the Bonus Gauge, and Invinciblity! I've always thought it funny that Disgaea misspells 'invincibility'; it's fun to pronounce the error. In-vin-ci-BLIT-ee! But I digress. That and Recovery 20% are on the same color from the start. HEAL-UP! Flonne - since she has no counters - is put on merging duty (because you always merge ALL enemies together on any map with Invinci-BLIT-y). Meanwhile, Laharl and Etna have a sparring match in safety on adjacent Invinci-BLIT-y panels. The level-29 opponent took awhile to take down - she spent much of her time on Enemy Boost x3 panels (I didn't manage to destroy that Symbol until the end), she snuck onto Recovery twice (I eventually found a place to trap her), and as a gun-wielder she wouldn't stay put (especially when I brought out all the others in order to let them earn the experience boosts in the Bonus Gauge) - but the result of the battle was a foregone conclusion. Since it was a safe battle, I caught up on my MAME Decathalon referreeing duties, sneaking Disgaea turns in when I could between levels and the like. I lost track of time, apparently: over a hundred turns passed before I even tried to end the battle, so I guess I'm (accidentally) guilty of some weapon mastery whoring. In my defense, it wasn't until turn 201 that the Bonus Gauge maxed out, and I finished it shortly thereafter. I've done worse: in case you didn't know, the turn counter stops counting at 999, but the battle can keep going - and I know this from personal experience♥ A team attack ended it (oops); Etna is now level 13 and two zombies are level 7.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B3: Sparse but dangerous Geo Panels; one detached area; nothing of interest in the Bonus Gauge except for the Knight's Lance that I still hadn't bought for Etna in slot 4 and Slippers in both slots 8 and 9 that I have no hope of attaining. I get up to slot 5 with a little combo work and the Geo chain, but as other equipment was above it and there's only one empty slot in the Item Bag, she'll have to wait to equip it.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B4: CHECK! Katrina the Dietician is in a rather inconvenient place, but a throw tower gets Etna there; it's a busy map with dense Geo Panels and weird Symbol combinations (one color is Recovery 20%, ATK -50%, Evade... HEAL-UP!). Crap in the Bonus Gauge; I just pretty much brawl through, although I do trigger the chain at the end becuase I couldn't really think of a reason not to.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B5: Extremely dense Panels, with two Symbols on an isolated area with NO safe spots... I won't be setting off the chain this battle. I do have Invinci-BLIT-y again, though, so you know what I do. Three Big Arrows in slots 6 through 8... what is the Bonus Gauge doing this campaign? Yikes! Anyway, bringing everyone out to speed things up, I topped out the Bonus Gauge on turn 165, and ended the battle two turns later. Laharl got the lion's share of the weapon mastery due to his counters, enough to pass Etna.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B6: CHECK! Maya the Physician is close by, taunting me by not being the Statistician. Only three opponents, but with Enemy Boost x3 and Clone on the map, not to mention No Color Change on the Null Symbol, I decide not to screw around and bail (jump through the Dimensional Portal) quickly.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B7: Very sparse Geo Panels, and only two Symbols for three colors; I only got the Bonus Gauge up to one. The enemies were split across two separated land masses, reducing my options. What I did manage to do was capture a Pumpkin, which I did because it had Heal. I lost one Prinny and one zombie in the process.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B8: With a full complement of Geo Symbols and Panel colors, I set out to complete the chain. Eleven enemies stood in the way, but I lured ten of them to the Base Panel and wiped them out. There was an Oakrot with Mega Heal (!), so I tried to capture it... and failed, meaning I only have Etna, Flonne, and Laharl to finish this with. The eleventh enemy was on an isolated portion of land with two Geo Symbols on it, but I was able to work around that, and the Geo Chain took it out for me.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B9: Hmph. Dense Panels, and Warp on two colors. Setting off the chain was the plan, but given how the Null was on a separated landmass and already on the lead color, I had to put the rest on the lead color. All but one was easy; the last required running the gauntlet of seven of the eight opponents on the map. I decide to send all three at once. Flonne found herself down to one HP and poisoned the first turn of the charge, but undaunted I use items to recover her and press on; she dropped the next turn anyway. Etna found herself on a Warp Panel after moving into position to heal Flonne - bad planning as well as bad luck - but Laharl was able to press on and complete the mission, and Etna was close enough to give him a (small) boost back towards the Base Panel. After one slight detour in which Laharl punched the crap out of the Cleric that hit every member of my party with Poison Arrow, they made it back to the bunker and, after a beautiful 2345 Chain Hit, it was all over.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B10: As it happened, there was a Knight's Lance in that last Bonus Gauge, and since there was now space in the Item Bag, I had Etna equip it promptly. Looking at the map, I saw all three Geo Symbols were Damage 20%, the Item General was on a separate landmass too far to throw across, and (perhaps most importantly) the Statistician was nowhere to be found. Screw it - EM-AR-GENCY EXIT!
Back at the castle I spend half of my now 7k HL on the hospital bill, which included both remaining captured monsters. The other Knight's Lance sitting in the warehouse had a Statistician 9 in it - score! - so I swapped. Flonne also got a better Dolphin EX out of the deal. After selling the rest of the weapons, I'm back up to 7.5k HL. I divvy up the rest of the equipment among the monsters. I also "buy" a rare Blood Orb and a rare Muscle Ace (taking care to pass their thresholds separately - I made that mistake once already this campaign), and seeing I still had plenty of HL, "bought" the rare Muscle Victory (pressing circle-cross-circle-down-cross, like, forty times) and rare Star Orb. I hastily reassign equipment (I'll save the big re-org for after the last floor), make absolutely certain I've replaced the Mr. Gency's Exit in the Item Bag, and re-enter...
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B10, take 2: Hmm... still no Statistician, and I still have a Mr. Gency's Exit in the warehouse in addition to the one in the Item Bag... Muscle Hustle, Slippers, and Imperial Seal in the Bonus Gauge, but a pretty lame Geo layout... Pah.
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B10, take 3: Okay, I only have the one reset button left, but this is completely bland. No Geo Panels or Symbols whatever. Few enemies, no Statistician...
Muscle Brawn World, Floor B10, take 4: Even blander than the last map, but I'm stuck with it now. Four enemies, no Statistician. Well, crap. I tried. I take out the Item General (standing right next to the Base Panel) with a Sky Lunge, and Laharl drops another. The last two I merge together and huck into the Base Panel after having removed the Prinnies. I wanted to lose the battle, and I did, though barely. (I'd have lived if the capture took - hey, a level-10 zombie is better than the ones I've got.) I let a Prinny finish it so that it doesn't get to take a turn.
Back at the hospital I pay the full bill, and thanks to the KOs from my failed capture, I claim a rare Dark Rosary. I decide to save off and sort out all the equipment next time.
I now have eleven party members, ranging from a level-3 Pumpkin that knows Heal up to a level-14 Etna with six hundred HP. Looking decent. Episode 3 coming soon. - ZM
