Part 14: Destruction 1

Chapter 14: Destruction 1

Video: Destruction Wave 1-1

These battles are going to make a lot more sense in video form, so I’ll be posting those as well.

Music: (VALINE) (Yoshimi Kudo)





I’ve got this weird pressure in my legs, like they’re super cramped… It’s not just me, right?



I mean, I heard about the kind of dreams you’ve been having. It’s super weird to me too… But I kinda figured you might be involved in all this too, Iori.



More time in the pilot’s seat will help condition your body. Eventually you won’t even notice it anymore. Well, a force of 13 Sentinels makes a formidable team. Even accounting for the pilots’ inexperience.



You’re kidding… It’ll be even worse than the attack on my city…?



They’re here… Eyes up, everyone.




Those circles around the terminal are the defenders, for the record.




So, let’s begin.



The first thing that’s going to happen is that Shu Amiguchi is going to immediately fire this rocket at Nenji Ogata.



Don’t worry, it’s a Shield Matrix.



Before the first drop of kaiju has even hit the ground, we’re already laying down a Sentry Gun as Juro near the landing site.





These are the only kaiju we’ll be fighting in this level. I’ll try to show the descriptions for new enemies as they pop up.



Once they’re on the ground, we soften them up with Long-Range Missiles courtesy of Natsuno.



I also decide to at least try to get some use out of Flare Torpedo here.



Leg Spike has a lot of Setup Movement, but not quite enough to get Yuki over to the enemy here, so we have to move her around manually as well.



Same for Nenji. We’re gonna move him and Yuki down to this Hi-Quad and take it down.



Leg Spike is fucking powerful. Dealt almost 4k damage here. Now we just need Nenji to finish it off.



Now, we move Yuki east to help Gouto mop up some enemies on that side.



All the while, we’re continuing to throw out Sentry Guns with Juro and Iori.



Worth noting that it’s fairly easy to run out of EP, especially if the pilots you have using their big moves aren’t the ones getting the big kills. On bigger maps, the people who spam Sentries are generally fine because they’re wiping up a lot of small enemies and getting EP back from it, but in the case of the Hi-Quad Nenji finished off earlier, he got all the EP reward from it despite Yuki doing most of the damage. If someone gets low, it’s often best to just have them Defend for the next several seconds, though the EP regained from that isn’t quite as high as you might like.



Juro here is using his Machine cannons against a pack of enemies, including a Hi-Quad. Unfortunately, the Hi-Quad is armored, so he does piddly damage against it. This is why it’s so important to have armor piercing moves—even Sentry Guns aren’t armor piercing, which severely cuts into their ability to damage big enemies.



This shot depicts a Hi-Quad about to fuck Nenji up with an attack, when Yuki shows up to save the day (don’t worry, he woulda been fine, his turn was about to come up. One of the best parts about using Leg Spike is that because the 4th-generation models are fliers, they can easily move around to hit the back of any enemy for that sweet 1.5x damage bonus. I took this shot at a bad time so the bonus doesn’t actually show up here, but I got it, believe me.




And that’s the whole fight. Pretty simple.





How long you been sittin’ on THAT trick? Why can’t we just do that to all of ‘em?



The Aegis can’t activate unless they get close enough to the terminal.



Their goal is to slip into terminals stationed in various positions across the UFO.
If they seize control of the mainframe, our world is as good as gone. Our current situation demands a defensive approach. To keep the terminals safe, we have to rely on the Aegis.

Weird that we’re just going with the plan that will apparently kill time, but I’m sure that these guys know something I don’t. A lot of somethings, in fact..

So what, the best we can hope for is to keep this one thing safe? Makes it sound like we’re getting the shit kicked out of us.
It’s true… All we can hope for is to protect it to the end.




So, MVP awarding is kind of weird. It derives some formula based on the amount of damage you dealt and how much you took and uses that to figure out who did the most for the team while being the least of a liability. It might even just subtract damage received from damage dealt, who knows? Either way, Somehow Natsuno ended up the top dog here, which is weird because I didn’t feel like I had her do all that much. It would have been Nenji, but he took the most damage. Understandable, as he’s our front-line fighter. These stats determine the amount of experience you gain but you don’t need to think too deeply about them. Just get hit less.



We get 1 Mystery Point for our first clear of any stage, and it also tallies up our score here.



S-Rank! Nice job!



As a reward for getting an S-Rank, we gain a new Mystery File.




And another new mystery file for completing the bonus objective.




We got 1 Mystery Point for completing that stage. Mystery Point gain is largely a function of score, so if we want more we should try to run it up. There’s a couple ways to do this, one of which we’ll get into in a second.

Music: Voyage To Tomorrow (Hitoshi Sakimoto)







So, the six pilots we used in that battle are now halfway to Brain Overload, or BOL. Pilots with Brain Overload need to sit out the next battle. Unfortunately, the Brain Overload meter doesn’t go down over time. The only way to make it decrease is to fill up the meter all the way and then have the pilot take a mandatory break. If we were so inclined, we could simply hit “Recover” and make everyone better instantly, but that would reset the score multiplier, which increases by 10% every time we complete a stage.



Aerial enemies present here, plus we need Iori for the bonus objective. Let’s take Ei, Iori, Ryoko, Miura, Gouto, and Shu. It’s generally good to take at least one of every generation, even if the enemy types are slanted in favor of air or ground.

As for upgrades, we’re going to get the Meta-System up to Level 4, and the Score Multiplier up to Level 2.

Ei will unlock and equip EMP Surrounding. This will be crucial in the next fight.

Juro will unlock and equip Guardian.

Iori will upgrade Sentry Gun to +2 (Lock-on Distance +30 to +60, POW +50 to +100).

Ryoko will upgrade Multi Rocket Launchers to +1 (Lock-on Distance +30, Lock-on Range +20) and Guardian to +1 (Lock-on Distance +30, HP +250). The difference between Lock-on Distance and Lock-on Range is simple: Lock-on Distance determines how far away from your character you can place the attack, while Lock-on Range is the size of the attack’s area of effect, so it would determine from how far away the Guardian pulls enemies to it.

Miura will upgrade Long-Range Missiles to +1 (Lock-on Range +0 to +20, Lock-on Distance +0 to +50) and Main Battery Heavy Railgun to +1 (POW +0 to +50, WT 6.0s to 5.9s).

Shu will upgrade Multi-Lock Missiles to +1 (Number Fired +0 to +3, POW +0 to +2).



Now, let’s deploy.

Video: Destruction Wave 1-2

Music: (VALINE) (Yoshimi Kudo)







Not great for my mech. I can punch like a truck, but I can’t reach the guys in the air.



Pain in the ass, though…



They ended up with a focus on raw power over mobility. They didn’t know they’d have to deal with these flyers.
Hey, hold on a sec, Amiguchi. How do you know all this crap?
Well, uh, funny story. I guess you could say it just… came to me in a dream.
The hell are you talking about?





Again, the first thing we do is put down a Sentry Gun courtesy of Iori. I probably should have given Ryoko Sentry Gun too, but I chose to upgrade those Guardians for some reason instead. Not that they won’t find some use, though.




See, the big problem we’re gonna face here is that these fliers are fast. To protect the terminal, we’re going to need vigilance from the whole squad, including Ei, who’s largely trapped with ground-based armaments. He’s still got a few tricks, though. That EMP Surrounding we just gave him produces a localized electromagnetic pulse around his Sentinel, perfect for dropping and stopping these flyers.




The only problem is that since it’s localized around his Sentinel, Ei’s going to be running around the arena like a madman using this thing and trying to keep up with the enemies.



Ei also has his Anti-Air Defensive Flares, which don’t do much in terms of damage but are handy for preventing flying enemies or missiles from intruding in a certain direction.



Simultaneously, we have Shu make some excursions to take down big enemy clumps with Multi-Lock Missiles.



When he’s not doing that, he’s got his Shield Matrix up to defend allies.



Ei, still using EMPs constantly.



Throw in some Miura railguns for good measure.



Iori, sadly, isn’t going to make much of a dent in this horde with these cannons.



However, while all this is happening, Ryoko is throwing out a Guardian or two for the purpose of drawing enemy eyes away from the terminal or our Sentinels.




A good peppering of sentry fire and weaker moves from there enable us to make short work of these fools. Also, Gouto was here, and I didn’t mention him once.







Um, my head’s been really hurting for a while now… Is something going wrong…?
Ugh, now that you say that, mine’s pounding too… Something messing with our heads?



Piloting the Sentinel is an intensely demanding process. Using it puts massive pressure on your brain. You can’t remain deployed for extended periods, or you start getting backlash.



I suggest you get out of the Sentinel right now. Unless you want to forget your entire life.
Not exactly a user-friendly robot… Let’s get out of these, Fuyusaka.
Y-Yeah…






Ryoko, unfortunately, didn’t deal much damage there. Especially compared to Iori, holy shit! Sentries are ridiculous!



Now that she’s made it to Level 5, Iori got her first skill. We’ll check out what that does in a second.









We won’t be doing another battle immediately, but this is what it looks like when a pilot has Brain Overload. Also worth noting: pilots with Brain Overload are removed from the defense team as well.



Here’s Iori’s skill. Whenever kaiju appear, her defense and WT recovery speed increase for a time. Neat.



For Ryoko, we unlock the Sentry Gun and increase it to +2 (Lock-on Distance +0 to +60, POW +0 to +100).



And for Ei, we increase everything he has to 1. That’s:

• Rush Attack +1 (Number of Attacks +0 to +1)
  
• Demolisher Blade +1 (Number of Attacks +0 to +2, POW +0 to +3)
  
• Anti-Air Defensive Flares +1 (Number Fired +0 to +1)
  
• EMP Surrounding +1 (POW +0 to +20, Lock-on Range +0 to +30)
  

And we can now progress further with Shu’s story… if you’re so inclined.

Juro Kurabe (22% completion)
Iori Fuyusaka (28%)
Megumi Yakushiji (14%)
Natsuno Minami (25%)
Yuki Takamiya (14%)
Shu Amiguchi (14%)
Destruction (23%)

There's also:

Takatoshi Hijiyama (14%, locked behind Ogata)
Ei Sekigahara (28%, locked behind Natsuno)

The poll is here.