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,@ 2008-01-10 10:50:00 |
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Hardcore, Episode 11
[For links to earlier entries, visit my journal's listing.]
Laharl receives a challenge - as do I. Welcome to the second Episode of Suck: it's quite unforgiving, and its final battle is one of my greatest obstacles... At this stage of the game, my party can really dish out the damage, but they can't take it, and there's a lot of it on the menu.
Ghostly Whisper: Double experience, but deadly Giga Star aplenty... I don't screw around here. I'm quite fortunate in that the three right-most Star Skulls are all weak to fire, so I have Etna Spear Storm them - unfortunately, the only place she has to hop away to in order to perform it is right in front of the other group of three. Flonne throws Thursday behind the other three, so that it can Robo Bazooka six enemies at once; the Star Skulls are near defeat, but the Mandrake each lose only about a third of their HP. I want the Skulls gone this turn, but can't forget about Jack Rush. Jennifer and Gordon each take out one of the three - team attacking with both, natch - then Laharl picks up Thursday and throws him between Flonne and Jennifer, such that everyone but Etna is in a straight line of five, too long for more than one to be targeted by a Jack Rush. To get the last Skull - and protect Etna - Choux comes out, team attacking with Olive and Maderas (the latter being the only one that could reach the far side). Olive and Maderas return to the Base Panel (via canceling their movement) and Olive comes out again to finish the slightly-blunted plus-shape formation, softening up a Mandrake with a Stomp-O-Rama because it could.
During the enemy turn, I lose Choux to two Jack Rushes, and Laharl scores a KO by counter (off the blue, sadly). Of the five remaining, two have full health, one of which is standing right in front of Olive. Pounding Spree! There goes about 80% of its HP. I decide to go big, but safely; I want to take advantage of the double experience, but I'm afraid of what may happen if I risk wiping out everyone but Etna in the Base Panel, leaving her alone with someone triple her level. I find the Mandrake with the lowest DEF and merge the others into it, then have Etna Avalanche it to try to get it in one turn (I even pull Maderas back out to give it a Chaos Fire to combo into). It doesn't quite work, but another will do it for certain, and there's no way I'm losing my whole party this turn. Only Jennifer falls before Etna gets double credit for the level-190 opponent.
Rising Fear: We're not here... you don't see us... of course, since you get to locate all the enemies with the Character option on the menu, I'm not sure why they bothered. This battle is practically unfair; those three Skulls with the Omega spells have no qualms charging down on their first turn and demolishing whoever comes out. My only real tactic here is to deploy a decoy. The only party member I have with a significant RES is Choux, at 839. I move it out to the center of the field and tell it to defend; meanwhile, Etna, Thursday, and Flonne line up along the near right to get that one Scarecrow behind the tree there. With just four on the field, I end turn. Choux survives Omega Ice, but a Jack the Ripper drops it; Thursday takes a Giga Fire and a Giga Wind, but still stands (good thing I gave it that King Orb!). After a Spear Storm, the Green Skull is gone, with a Scarecrow down about halfway; after Laharl's Big Bang, the Blue Skull is gone, with the Red Skull down about halfway and another Scarecrow down about a quarter. Flonne tries to finish off the Red Skull with Rapidfire, but fails (not too surprising given the element); Gordon, Thursday, and Axis almost take out the still-full-health Scarecrow right in the middle, but do manage to poison it. It surprises me by surviving the enemy turn (albeit with 6 HP), but it does take out the Red Skull for me when hitting Axis and Thursday with a Jack Rush, which they both barely survive. Retreating them, my next turn is open melee, dropping one enemy with an Earthling team attack and another with a Gordon Punch and a Tri-Burst, Etna getting a third with a Basic Poke with a Stick. Jennifer then promptly falls to a three-way combo of Hurricane Slash, Jack the Ripper, and Jack Rush - the last of the enemies have arrived, and in force. This is when I bring out Olive, and it and Etna make short work of the Rune Knight, Paranoia also softening up one of the last two Scarecrows; Laharl softens up the other. Gordon survives the last enemy turn to be able to merge them together for Etna's Avalanche, which brings her to level 63.
Crawling Terror: Whoever devised this battle was one sick son of a b****. How does someone without a full ten throwers on the team get through this gauntlet? Two words: Rising Dragon. Laharl wastes no time in marching up to the first Alp and knocking it two tiles short of all the way around the planet; Gordon Spark finishes it off. Etna gives Flonne a boost to the throne, and she opens fire on the next Alp. Of course, she can't deal over 40% to it with basic attacks, so I could leech weapon mastery for her here for quite some time if I really wanted to - she'd start dealing permanent damage around level 75 - but I've been enough of a weapon-mastery whore lately as is. I resolve to leech only as long as it takes for it to exhaust its SP. However, I find the Hypnotist in Flonne's firearm to be quite efficacious, and in the interest of finishing the battle today I bring out Etna to be a "crawling terror" as well. After clearing out the shallow end, Etna Avalanches those by the wall's side away, along with the lower of the two on the "steps" leading up the hill; the one above it is taken by Etna and Flonne, each on their own throne. Etna solos the rest of the map, including the Geo Symbols in the back.
Hero's Tomb: Don Joaquin's House of Death, Now Serving: Zotmeister. This battle would be a challenge even if it didn't have Enemy Boost x6 covering so much. Of course, this being a hardcore, I have only five party members capable of throwing, and I don't have access to purchase shoes... so how to quash those Geo Symbols without getting annihilated? Well, there is one little trick up my sleeve, and it all has to do with territory control. See those two Scarecrows on the left front? If they're gone, I can actually go three tiles into the blue on the right and still not be in range of any enemy attacks. I still haven't perfected my technique for this one, and it shows: I first send Andrealphus out to test the water, to see how much damage I can expect to take from a Mega Wind. With that done, I retreat it, send out Etna just out of range, end turn, and then move Etna to the side of the right Scarecrow and Avalanche it. It drops in that one hit (with some 50% overkill, actually), but ending turn one of the Alps closes in on her, so she Avalanches it as well (with only about 10% overkill). Two more Alps advance, and Etna's down to half her HP - I'm forced to retreat her, and adopt a new tactic here: lure those two Alps closer to the Base Panel to be defeated safely. Laharl does this admirably, noting how the Alps have level 4 in Mega Wind and standing just outside its attack range to make it close in. Gordon helps finish them off. Laharl gets poisoned by Hell Pepper, but that's nothing a Flonne-administered Faerie Dust can't fix. A turn later, she helps Etna get into position to finally Avalanche the other Scarecrow. Ugly, but it worked - I still have my full party (albeit quite damaged) and the launchpad is secure. I do a little math, and it comes out evenly: If Flonne throws Jennifer, and Jennifer throws Gordon, then Gordon can just reach the back Geo Symbol and toss it into the enemy six tiles away on the corner mound; from a tile behind that, Etna or Laharl could throw the other, who could reach the front Geo Symbol and smash that into the enemy right across. That way, from safety, I can wipe out both Geo Symbols in the space of a single turn.
Dumbass me, however, in lining up everyone for the throwing, failed to realize that I should have put Gordon and Jennifer on the left instead of the right, and Jennifer was actually standing on a vulnerable tile. Sure enough, two Scarecrows advance, cast Wind on her, and drop her.
Excuse me for a moment.
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I'm back. This is a horrible screw-up, precisely the sort that can kill a campaign. It's not over yet, though. I decide I should still smash one of the Geo Symbols, and I opt for the back one - it's target Scarecrow is still is position. Flonne throws Etna, Etna throws Gordon, Gordon ducks around the corner and throws the Geo Symbol, and I now have only Enemy Boost x3 to deal with. ...Only. Who am I kidding: it's still Enemy Boost x3! Etna, who could still move, retreated; Laharl threw her further away and ran himself; I figure Gordon and Flonne are both toast, but Flonne actually holds up. (Gordon is quite gone.) I lure the two spoiling Scarecrows back to the Base Panel area; once they get close, Laharl and Etna throw them into the clear in a line, and Olive gives them a taste of the Paranoia they'd inflicted on me. Flonne finishes off one of them; Thursday and Axis leave the other with 6 HP (GRRR...), but thankfully Maderas still has a clear shot with Chaos Fire, which does the deed.
With all quiet on the front, I bring out Choux and take the time to heal up the party. With that eventually settled, I prepare to launch another raid in order to get the other Geo Symbol. The best target is an Alp that moved to where the other Geo Symbol was in order to take out Gordon. I VERY carefully measure out the range of the enemies to learn just what is a safe place to start, and what tiles are and are not vulnerable, and line up my three remaining throwers to handle the raid, making CERTAIN none are in vulnerable spots. I tell them to defend anyway, not that anything happens. The next turn, Laharl executes Operation Make It Stop For F*** Sake with perfect success. He even survives the subsequent six-hit combo, with poisoning, losing only about a quarter of his HP. Not totally surrounded, he gives those gathered around him a Lion's Roar for their trouble and retreats, with Flonne and Etna regrouping with him and the rest of the top ten pouring out of the Base Panel. Flonne stands diagonally away from Laharl (naturally) to administer more Faerie Dust (I put four in the bag before every battle). At this point, the entirety of the enemy force - save Don Joaquin himself - charges forward. I meet them head on, taking out six in two turns. The last two - two Corpses - both know Mega Heal, and frankly I could really use that ability. In order to be able to safely attempt a merge and capture, though, Don Joaquin really ought to be dealt with first. While my main force executes a tactical withdrawal to lure the Corpses in, Olive sneaks in on the other side to get at Don Joaquin. I do eventually lose Laharl when he is poisoned a third time, but he was able to succeed in getting both Corpses weakened and lured towards the Base Panel. Several Pounding Sprees take out the 1st Defender, and Olive works back towards the Base Panel, while Thursday (Defending) keeps the Corpses busy. Eventually, Olive makes it back, Flonne makes the merge - and promptly drops - and Etna tosses the level-90 Corpse in... which proceeds to destroy the Base Panel. It apparently had 163 HP too many for a capture. Crud. Etna drops it with a Counter.
Phew! That was a close one. Much too close for my liking. But it's over. Now only three episodes remain, but the next two are a war... - ZM
[For links to earlier entries, visit my journal's listing.]
Laharl receives a challenge - as do I. Welcome to the second Episode of Suck: it's quite unforgiving, and its final battle is one of my greatest obstacles... At this stage of the game, my party can really dish out the damage, but they can't take it, and there's a lot of it on the menu.
Ghostly Whisper: Double experience, but deadly Giga Star aplenty... I don't screw around here. I'm quite fortunate in that the three right-most Star Skulls are all weak to fire, so I have Etna Spear Storm them - unfortunately, the only place she has to hop away to in order to perform it is right in front of the other group of three. Flonne throws Thursday behind the other three, so that it can Robo Bazooka six enemies at once; the Star Skulls are near defeat, but the Mandrake each lose only about a third of their HP. I want the Skulls gone this turn, but can't forget about Jack Rush. Jennifer and Gordon each take out one of the three - team attacking with both, natch - then Laharl picks up Thursday and throws him between Flonne and Jennifer, such that everyone but Etna is in a straight line of five, too long for more than one to be targeted by a Jack Rush. To get the last Skull - and protect Etna - Choux comes out, team attacking with Olive and Maderas (the latter being the only one that could reach the far side). Olive and Maderas return to the Base Panel (via canceling their movement) and Olive comes out again to finish the slightly-blunted plus-shape formation, softening up a Mandrake with a Stomp-O-Rama because it could.
During the enemy turn, I lose Choux to two Jack Rushes, and Laharl scores a KO by counter (off the blue, sadly). Of the five remaining, two have full health, one of which is standing right in front of Olive. Pounding Spree! There goes about 80% of its HP. I decide to go big, but safely; I want to take advantage of the double experience, but I'm afraid of what may happen if I risk wiping out everyone but Etna in the Base Panel, leaving her alone with someone triple her level. I find the Mandrake with the lowest DEF and merge the others into it, then have Etna Avalanche it to try to get it in one turn (I even pull Maderas back out to give it a Chaos Fire to combo into). It doesn't quite work, but another will do it for certain, and there's no way I'm losing my whole party this turn. Only Jennifer falls before Etna gets double credit for the level-190 opponent.
Rising Fear: We're not here... you don't see us... of course, since you get to locate all the enemies with the Character option on the menu, I'm not sure why they bothered. This battle is practically unfair; those three Skulls with the Omega spells have no qualms charging down on their first turn and demolishing whoever comes out. My only real tactic here is to deploy a decoy. The only party member I have with a significant RES is Choux, at 839. I move it out to the center of the field and tell it to defend; meanwhile, Etna, Thursday, and Flonne line up along the near right to get that one Scarecrow behind the tree there. With just four on the field, I end turn. Choux survives Omega Ice, but a Jack the Ripper drops it; Thursday takes a Giga Fire and a Giga Wind, but still stands (good thing I gave it that King Orb!). After a Spear Storm, the Green Skull is gone, with a Scarecrow down about halfway; after Laharl's Big Bang, the Blue Skull is gone, with the Red Skull down about halfway and another Scarecrow down about a quarter. Flonne tries to finish off the Red Skull with Rapidfire, but fails (not too surprising given the element); Gordon, Thursday, and Axis almost take out the still-full-health Scarecrow right in the middle, but do manage to poison it. It surprises me by surviving the enemy turn (albeit with 6 HP), but it does take out the Red Skull for me when hitting Axis and Thursday with a Jack Rush, which they both barely survive. Retreating them, my next turn is open melee, dropping one enemy with an Earthling team attack and another with a Gordon Punch and a Tri-Burst, Etna getting a third with a Basic Poke with a Stick. Jennifer then promptly falls to a three-way combo of Hurricane Slash, Jack the Ripper, and Jack Rush - the last of the enemies have arrived, and in force. This is when I bring out Olive, and it and Etna make short work of the Rune Knight, Paranoia also softening up one of the last two Scarecrows; Laharl softens up the other. Gordon survives the last enemy turn to be able to merge them together for Etna's Avalanche, which brings her to level 63.
Crawling Terror: Whoever devised this battle was one sick son of a b****. How does someone without a full ten throwers on the team get through this gauntlet? Two words: Rising Dragon. Laharl wastes no time in marching up to the first Alp and knocking it two tiles short of all the way around the planet; Gordon Spark finishes it off. Etna gives Flonne a boost to the throne, and she opens fire on the next Alp. Of course, she can't deal over 40% to it with basic attacks, so I could leech weapon mastery for her here for quite some time if I really wanted to - she'd start dealing permanent damage around level 75 - but I've been enough of a weapon-mastery whore lately as is. I resolve to leech only as long as it takes for it to exhaust its SP. However, I find the Hypnotist in Flonne's firearm to be quite efficacious, and in the interest of finishing the battle today I bring out Etna to be a "crawling terror" as well. After clearing out the shallow end, Etna Avalanches those by the wall's side away, along with the lower of the two on the "steps" leading up the hill; the one above it is taken by Etna and Flonne, each on their own throne. Etna solos the rest of the map, including the Geo Symbols in the back.
Hero's Tomb: Don Joaquin's House of Death, Now Serving: Zotmeister. This battle would be a challenge even if it didn't have Enemy Boost x6 covering so much. Of course, this being a hardcore, I have only five party members capable of throwing, and I don't have access to purchase shoes... so how to quash those Geo Symbols without getting annihilated? Well, there is one little trick up my sleeve, and it all has to do with territory control. See those two Scarecrows on the left front? If they're gone, I can actually go three tiles into the blue on the right and still not be in range of any enemy attacks. I still haven't perfected my technique for this one, and it shows: I first send Andrealphus out to test the water, to see how much damage I can expect to take from a Mega Wind. With that done, I retreat it, send out Etna just out of range, end turn, and then move Etna to the side of the right Scarecrow and Avalanche it. It drops in that one hit (with some 50% overkill, actually), but ending turn one of the Alps closes in on her, so she Avalanches it as well (with only about 10% overkill). Two more Alps advance, and Etna's down to half her HP - I'm forced to retreat her, and adopt a new tactic here: lure those two Alps closer to the Base Panel to be defeated safely. Laharl does this admirably, noting how the Alps have level 4 in Mega Wind and standing just outside its attack range to make it close in. Gordon helps finish them off. Laharl gets poisoned by Hell Pepper, but that's nothing a Flonne-administered Faerie Dust can't fix. A turn later, she helps Etna get into position to finally Avalanche the other Scarecrow. Ugly, but it worked - I still have my full party (albeit quite damaged) and the launchpad is secure. I do a little math, and it comes out evenly: If Flonne throws Jennifer, and Jennifer throws Gordon, then Gordon can just reach the back Geo Symbol and toss it into the enemy six tiles away on the corner mound; from a tile behind that, Etna or Laharl could throw the other, who could reach the front Geo Symbol and smash that into the enemy right across. That way, from safety, I can wipe out both Geo Symbols in the space of a single turn.
Dumbass me, however, in lining up everyone for the throwing, failed to realize that I should have put Gordon and Jennifer on the left instead of the right, and Jennifer was actually standing on a vulnerable tile. Sure enough, two Scarecrows advance, cast Wind on her, and drop her.
Excuse me for a moment.
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I'm back. This is a horrible screw-up, precisely the sort that can kill a campaign. It's not over yet, though. I decide I should still smash one of the Geo Symbols, and I opt for the back one - it's target Scarecrow is still is position. Flonne throws Etna, Etna throws Gordon, Gordon ducks around the corner and throws the Geo Symbol, and I now have only Enemy Boost x3 to deal with. ...Only. Who am I kidding: it's still Enemy Boost x3! Etna, who could still move, retreated; Laharl threw her further away and ran himself; I figure Gordon and Flonne are both toast, but Flonne actually holds up. (Gordon is quite gone.) I lure the two spoiling Scarecrows back to the Base Panel area; once they get close, Laharl and Etna throw them into the clear in a line, and Olive gives them a taste of the Paranoia they'd inflicted on me. Flonne finishes off one of them; Thursday and Axis leave the other with 6 HP (GRRR...), but thankfully Maderas still has a clear shot with Chaos Fire, which does the deed.
With all quiet on the front, I bring out Choux and take the time to heal up the party. With that eventually settled, I prepare to launch another raid in order to get the other Geo Symbol. The best target is an Alp that moved to where the other Geo Symbol was in order to take out Gordon. I VERY carefully measure out the range of the enemies to learn just what is a safe place to start, and what tiles are and are not vulnerable, and line up my three remaining throwers to handle the raid, making CERTAIN none are in vulnerable spots. I tell them to defend anyway, not that anything happens. The next turn, Laharl executes Operation Make It Stop For F*** Sake with perfect success. He even survives the subsequent six-hit combo, with poisoning, losing only about a quarter of his HP. Not totally surrounded, he gives those gathered around him a Lion's Roar for their trouble and retreats, with Flonne and Etna regrouping with him and the rest of the top ten pouring out of the Base Panel. Flonne stands diagonally away from Laharl (naturally) to administer more Faerie Dust (I put four in the bag before every battle). At this point, the entirety of the enemy force - save Don Joaquin himself - charges forward. I meet them head on, taking out six in two turns. The last two - two Corpses - both know Mega Heal, and frankly I could really use that ability. In order to be able to safely attempt a merge and capture, though, Don Joaquin really ought to be dealt with first. While my main force executes a tactical withdrawal to lure the Corpses in, Olive sneaks in on the other side to get at Don Joaquin. I do eventually lose Laharl when he is poisoned a third time, but he was able to succeed in getting both Corpses weakened and lured towards the Base Panel. Several Pounding Sprees take out the 1st Defender, and Olive works back towards the Base Panel, while Thursday (Defending) keeps the Corpses busy. Eventually, Olive makes it back, Flonne makes the merge - and promptly drops - and Etna tosses the level-90 Corpse in... which proceeds to destroy the Base Panel. It apparently had 163 HP too many for a capture. Crud. Etna drops it with a Counter.
Phew! That was a close one. Much too close for my liking. But it's over. Now only three episodes remain, but the next two are a war... - ZM
