Part 7: Project Phantasma - Chapter 7: Find Phantasma (Arena Ranks #4 - 1)
Last update, Stinger had revealed himself to have a prototype version of the Phantasma in his hands and the weapon's threat has not diminished. We're gonna look for the weapon and take it down before Stinger can move it. Hopefully.
Information has been gathered on the whereabouts of the Phantasma
Project. It can be located in the subway area of Amber Crown.
I assume Stinger is planning on seizing the operation as well, so be
on the lookout.
Locate your target immediately and destroy it before Stinger arrives.
That's the plan, so let's make haste.
And off we go. First order of business is clear out the enemies up top.
Three Scimitar MTs occupy the top level of the area, and at the range we're firing, it's no contest.
Now, there's a tunnel in the big crater of the map that leads to our destination, but we need to go through some alternate passage ways first.
The reason for that being there are three gate control switches we need to flip before we can go through the main tunnel.
The first mini tunnel is near the crater with the larger tunnel, while the remaining two are further off but very close to each other.
Just go through those two and repeat the process.
Heading through the main tunnel, there are six ceiling turrets and two Papagai MTs, but they're easy to pick off at long range.
Near the end of the tunnel there's a door in the side with a hallway connecting to another room, and there's a surprise waiting for us.
Well, looks like he was here before us. Time to kick his ass again.
This is the third Stinger fight in his AC, and it's just the same as always. Move fast and shoot quickly. The area you fight him in is definitely larger than the first time, and he's not that difficult even without Sumika to serve as a distraction.
I manage to finish the fight with a Moonlight blade swing, though the speed at which Stinger was moving sent him flying right behind me in flames. I was fortunate to see the explosion before the next cutscene triggers.
Man, finishing AC fights with a good melee attack can be so damn satisfying.
Stinger starts to lose it and triggers an explosion to cover his getaway.
But we're not yet finished!
Well...fuck. He did get away.
Sumika sends us another message in light of recent events.
Sender: Sumika
We're still looking into the
whereabouts of both Stinger
and Phantasma. It looks like
it might be somewhat of a long
process, but be ready when the
information comes through.
That's the gist of it. Though technically we don't have to wait too long in game to find out Stinger's location because that's in the following mission, but that's being saved for the following update.
For now, let's wrap up the Arena
Arena Ranks #4 - 1
Here we go, the top four of the Arena. The best of the best, but I'm fucking better.
Reward: 800000 C
Despite having some hard hitting weapons, his bazooka primarily, Tiamat is still held back by the fact he's a heavy weight and is still fairly easy to out maneuver. His only notable PLUS ability is being able to fire energy waves from his Moonlight blade, but he rarely if ever uses it.
Reward: 1000000 C
Special Part: WM-AT
With energy weapon arms and TWO back mounted grenade launchers, this AC's attacks not only hit hard but deal splash damage on every hit. He's also mobile as hell, going into battle overweight on top of being a PLUS. This guy was the only one of the four ACs this update I had to restart the match because he out damaged me, if that says anything about them.
Beating this guy earns us our second to last OP AC part, a heavy missile launcher that fires slow, but extremely powerful warheads. Only four can be held, and they can be easily picked up by anti missile cores, but landing one of these is particularly devastating. It weighs a hell of a lot, though.
Our description stops changing every five ranks to every single rank the closer we get to the top. These blurbs are already quite positive about us.
Reward: 1200000 C
Milicona is the last of the Scorpion AC team, and his behavior isn't that different from the rest of the Scorpion predecessors. Moves fast, hovers a lot, and uses weapon arms to deal significant damage. Nothing really special for the #2 Raven, to be honest.
Coming for you next, Necron.
Reward: 3000000 C
Special Part: WG-FINGER
Here we are, the top ranked Arena AC and he makes the fullest of most of his arsenal. He has the Moonlight blade that can fire energy waves, a machine gun with really good aim, and the back mounted grenade launcher to deal single, hard hitting attacks with splash damage (he rarely uses the missile launcher on his back, though). All the major abilities that come with a Human PLUS as well as ignoring weight restrictions make him absolutely deadly.
The stage I've been using for the last several fights helps with limiting his mobility and letting you focus on horizontal aiming, but the best way to deal with Necron is to just keep attacking and be accurate. With three of his four weapons seeing frequent use, it's difficult to wait out one of his attacks till he runs out of ammo. I still only get by with sub-1000 AP and that's due to the difficulty of avoiding his machine gun fire. He'd be an even bigger nightmare in any other scenario, and weirdly enough I was able to get this guy in one go, yet Pale Horse was technically not as challenging.
Also, a little From Soft trivia. The significance behind the names Necron and Black Dragon are that it's a reference to the King's Field series, where a character named Necron uses magic to summon a Black Dragon as protection, and the only way to defeat it was to use the Moonlight Sword.
Funny enough, we didn't need to use the Moonlight blade on him, and he already has it equipped on his AC.
And there we go. All the Arena fights completed, and along with them the most broken ass weapon in AC history is in our possession. You might just see some of them in action next update as we clear the final mission and the three that we skipped over in previous updates, thus putting a wrap on Project Phantasma.