13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim Part #110

Part 110: Destruction 13

Chapter 110: Destruction 13

Well, I fucked up. I thought my PS4 was set to only download patches when I requested it to, but I turned it on recently and found it downloading a new patch for 13 Sentinels. This patch mainly serves to bring it up to parity with the more recent Switch version of the game, which featured a number of new abilities and balance changes. I can’t list all of these changes because I sincerely do not know all of them, but the main balance change I am aware of is a nerf to Sentry Guns, oh joy. Sentry Guns used to have 1300x12 (which was apparently mistakenly written as 1300x10 ingame) POW, now they have 1000x12. This means they do less damage per shot. Believe me, we’ll be feeling the difference.

Here’s the PS4 patch notes. You’ll see that they’ve added new armaments, yes, but they also fixed an issue where EP wouldn’t fully regenerate after completing a stage in Destruction, which I had assumed was intentional. So that’s why Gouto and Ryoko always started maps with such low EP! :argh:

Music: Voyage To Tomorrow (Hitoshi Sakimoto)

If we drop in and check the Customize menus of each of our pilots, we’ll notice some new details. Ei here has four red markers above Anti-Ground Multi-Lock Missiles, an armament we never unlocked. If we were to unlock this armament and upgrade it four times, we would unlock a brand new armament for Ei to use. Every pilot has two of these to unlock now.

If we shift over to Nenji, for instance, we’ll see that he has already unlocked the High-Performance Charger armament, because we have already upgraded the prerequisite armament, EMP Attractor, four times. I’ll go ahead and list everything we’ve unlocked so far:

Nenji: High Performance Charger from EMP Attractor. High-Performance Charger decreases wait time after defending from 8 seconds to 6 seconds, and increases EP regeneration upon defending from 30% to 60%. Fucking amazing. I equipped this one immediately, even though Nenji is generally making his Demolisher Blade EP costs back immediately upon use. Nenji also has another armament locked behind Anti-Ground Multi-Lock Missiles.
Hijiyama: Optimized Actuator from Leap Attack and Anti-Air Demolisher Blade from what else, Demolisher Blade. Optimized Actuator increases his setup movement before attacking by 1.3x, and Anti-Air Demolisher Blade is just an anti-air Demolisher Blade, with the same power. Okay, but nothing special, honestly.
Ei: Hurricane Rush from Rush Attack. Hurricane Rush is “a high-speed double-fisted barrage [that] attacks surrounding kaiju several times.” So it’s Rush Attack, but as an AoE targeted all around you. Ei also has another armament locked behind Anti-Ground Multi-Lock Missiles.
Juro: Arm-Mounted Piercing Cannons locked behind Arm-Mounted Machine Cannons. The Piercing Cannons are basically a version of the Machine Cannons, but they ignore armor. Less powerful than you’d want, though. Juro also has another armament locked behind Plasma Arc Fusion Cutter. I have heard that Juro is pretty bad now, all things considered, with the changes to Sentries and not getting much in the way of good new tools.
Iori: Multi Rocket Distance Launchers from Multi Rocket Launchers, and Plasmic Wrecker from Plasma Arc Fusion Cutter. I haven’t tried out the Multi Rocket Distance Launchers, which seem to just be a longer-range version of their prerequisite, but the Plasmic Wrecker does pretty okay damage for a 2nd-generation Sentinel, having a lot of setup movement, a fairly large AoE, and ignoring armor and slowing movement.
Ryoko: Cyberattack Missiles from Multi Rocket Launchers and another armament locked behind Anti-Ground Piercing Rocket Launchers. Cyberattack Missiles are conceptually interesting: they “hijack the AI” of the kaiju in the target area. Now, this has some caveats: you can still damage the enemies, and I believe they can still damage you. But still, that’s twenty seconds that the enemy is on your side. And yes, it does work on boss enemies. I fail to utilize this properly in these waves, but now that I know more about them I’ll hopefully get more use out of them.
Natsuno: Wide-Range Railgun from Main Battery Heavy Railgun, as well as a not-yet-unlocked armament from 6 Multi-Launching Rapid Cannons. I did a little off-camera experimenting with Wide-Range Railgun just now, and sure enough, it’s a wider, less powerful version of Natsuno’s main railgun… but it has a tiiiiiny amount of setup movement, meaning Natsuno can now actually take advantage of her Warmup Run skill to boost her attack after moving, instead of never activating that skill and being functionally a turret. Pretty good. I hear her other skill is also very good, so I’ll have to unlock it.
Miura: Long-Range EMP Missiles from EMP Stunner. It’s a set of missiles you can fire that detonate into an EMP. What’s not to love? He also has another armament unlocked from Anti-Air Bombardment.
Tomi: Tomi has unlocked nothing so far, but her new stuff isn’t amazing anyway. Thankfully, she was maybe the best 3rd-gen pilot before, so being outclassed now just means the others are good. Her unlocks come from Anti-Ground Hunter Missile and Long-Range Missiles.
Megumi: High-Energy Pulse Laser from Arm-Mounted Pulse Lasers. Much more powerful, much bigger AoE… but it costs EP where the original doesn’t. Fair tradeoff, but most 4th-gens have tendencies to bottom out on EP, so it could be a problem. She has another armament unlocked from Multi-Lock Missiles.
Yuki: Quad Leg Spikes from Leg Spike. I didn’t equip this because misread what it did, but… no, it’s just a better version of Leg Spike. Same WT, 50 more EP cost, but Leg Spike has 3880 total POW at +8 and Quad Leg Spike has 3600 total POW at base. Maxed out it’s 5680 POW, which is nuts. That’s not quite enough to bring her up to Nenji level between the Hyper Condenser and Limiter Removal, but I’ll definitely be going for this later. We also need to increase her Shield Matrix for her final armament.
Gouto: Nothing unlocked. Leg Spike and Gravity Missiles are the things we need to unlock his armaments.
Shu: Point-Lock Missiles from Multi-Lock Missiles. It attacks kaiju within a target area and slows their movement, just like Multi-Lock Missiles. It’s a bit more powerful, though. His other armament comes from upgrading Shield Repair.

I’d normally blitz unlocking all of those, but the balance changes have made things a bit more annoying, and I’ll have to smartly prioritize what purchases I make to come out ahead. Don’t worry, I’ll unlock everything before the final battle, at least. The real issue is upgrading these new armaments, as they’re much more expensive to upgrade.

We need Natsuno and Miura for this one.

We equip Plasmic Wrecker on Iori to replace Plasma Arc Fusion Cutter, but don’t upgrade it.

For Ei, we upgrade Anti-Ground Multi-Lock Missiles to +4 to unlock a new armament, Anti-Ground Missile Barrage, which we upgrade to +5. This skill fires a random barrage of missiles toward ground kaiju in the area of effect. We equip it, replacing Limiter Removal.

Finally, for Juro, we upgrade Arm-Mounted Piercing Cannons to +4. We also unlock and upgrade Plasma Arc Fusion Cutter to +4 to unlock his other armament, Elite Plasma Arc Fusion Cutter. It’s a stronger Fusion Cutter, but we weren’t really using that thing anyway.

This’ll do.

Music: (THREONINE) (Rikako Watanabe)

……

Natsuno-san?

Y’know, Miura-kun… you kinda remind me of BJ.

Uh… I do?

Weird, right? It’s not like the two of you are that similar, even.

Uhhhhh, about that…

If I had to guess… it’s because he felt the same way. You can withdraw, Natsuno-san. I’ll stay here, as a shield.

I’m not going anywhere. No. 17’s gonna win this for us. It’s BJ’s own Sentinel, after all.

…… You’re right… He and that Sentinel are one and the same. And I know that I can count on him to protect you.

Well, nothing else for it… Please, cover me.

Video: Destruction Wave 3-6

If we activate Aegis on all the terminals, time as we know it will stop in this world.

We’ll stop time!? You gotta be shittin’ me…

Everyone but us will disappear. They’ll never come back.

And that’s not all. We’d be completely isolated. Trapped in a dead world. Just us and the ruined city until the day we die.

…So this Aegis isn’t gonna save our asses after all.

If Morimura believed the Sentinel Project was a lost cause, this must have seemed like her only option.

Miura’s Tactics Drill increases his attack “when the total number of combos exceeds 100,” whatever the fuck that means. Apparently it’s really easy to get over 100 combos, so eh, free boost. In the process of looking this up I also discovered what city damage actually is: kaiju that are left alive for too long will target a city block instead of a Sentinel or the terminal, damaging it. The goal is already naturally to kill kaiju ASAP, so whatever.

Ei’s Saw That Coming gives him a high chance to dodge close-quarter attacks.

Megumi’s Watch Me, Juro significantly increases her Attack whenever Juro is nearby.

Unfortunately, we need both Juro and Megumi for this next wave, and we only have Megumi available. Fine, whatever.

Fine, whatever. I’ll knock out the Wave 2-9 S-Rank real quick.

Nenji upgrades his Anti-Ground Multi-Lock Missiles to +4 to unlock Wide-Range Suppression Rockets, which he upgrades to +5. This is basically Missile Rain but only for ground kaiju and in a more focused AoE. It’s pretty good, considering Nenji’s lack of ranged options.

Iori upgrades her Plasmic Wrecker to +3.

Ryoko equips Cyberattack Missiles to replace Heavy Knuckles and upgrades it to +3. She also upgrades Anti-Ground Piercing Rocket Launchers to +4 to unlock her other armament, Anti-Ground Salvo. Anti-Ground Salvo fires a random barrage of armor-piercing rockets around the Sentinel.

Finally, Tomi upgrades Anti-Ground Hunter Missile to +4 to unlock High-Performance Charger, which is the exact same as Nenji’s High-Performance Charger. It’s less useful on her, but we’ll equip it anyway because it’s a good way to get the EP to use Super Large Missile. We slot it in to replace Long-Range Missiles. We also upgrade EMP Stunner from +2 to +3.

Okay, let’s knock this one out.

Yuki’s My Only Friend increases her Attack significantly for a time whenever Natsuno is attacked.

Gouto’s Just As Planned is a weird one. If he defeats many kaiju in a single hit, his Attack, WT recovery speed, move speed, and damage received increase temporarily.

Okay, back to the real action.

It’s going to cost a ton, but let’s just get Nenji’s Wide-Range Suppression Rockets maxed out.

Megumi gets her Multi-Lock Missiles upgraded from +2 to +4 to unlock Piercing Multi-Lock Missiles, which are like regular Multi-Lock Missiles, but they ignore armor. We also upgrade her Interceptors from +6 to +8.

Natsuno gets her Missile Rain upgraded from +4 to +5.

Let’s go.

Music: (THREONINE) (Rikako Watanabe)

Ms. Morimura probably didn’t know how tough it would be…

Tetsuya Ida probably never realized Sentinel combat would get this rough.

Even the one they called 426 couldn’t have predicted this.

You’re right… No turning back now. All we can do is see it through.

Video: Destruction Wave 3-7

So… Kisaragi! There’s somethin’ I gotta tell you.

Wait, didn’t you already do this?

Now hold on!

Gah! What!?

Seriously!? Here, now!? You are such an ass! You have no idea how to do this!

What, that’s bad!? But… this is how they always do this stuff in the movies…

…Sorry, Kurabe, but… That shit just makes me feel even worse…

Ha!

Nenji’s Get Away From Her! increases his Attack significantly for a time whenever Tomi is attacked. Cute that we got it right after that scene.

Clear within sixty seconds and without a Sentinel being immobilized. All right, then.

For Yuki, we upgrade Shield Matrix to +4 to unlock her armament Active Cooling Device. This shortens the time needed for allies in an area to take action again by 50%, nifty. We upgrade it to +5, but all that really does is increase the range.