Part 5: Just Nautee Enough

We did it, everyone. Now we can talk to the leader of the Returners and finally get rid of the Empire!



First we gotta do some menuing tho.

The Rage menu itself isn't any different besides the randomized monster names. Hitting 'A' with this special ROM gives us a lot more info! The top part tells us the level and HP of the monster and any auto-statuses and immunities the monster has. The Nautee is immune to Blind and Sleep which are handy.

The bottom part shows which two skills your Rager will use; in vanilla all Rages have Battle and whatever special move was programmed for the monster. Here those two abilities will often include Battle but not always. The Nautee does have Battle, as well as its Special Attack available to the rage. We can also see that it absorbs Wind/Fire, nullifies Ice and is weak to Poison.

The Nautee isn't actually that great of a Rage. A regular Battle command and an ability that turns the enemy invisible isn't very impressive; remember that the Vanish + Doom/X-Zone exploit is fixed.



Coex Ana has some differences. It still has Battle but does not have the monster's Special Attack, as indicated by it not being under Rage Skills and also greyed out under Special. Love Token is very strong.

Love Token is normally used by Goddess, a final dungeon boss, and a handful of other enemies that only show up in the special GBA-only dungeons. "So what, it's just True Knight" you might be thinking. Well, stop that because you're wrong. The character that gets hit with Love Token will take ALL physical attacks aimed at that character, until Death Do You Part. There's a video I can't find where someone uses it on Kefka and also I think Berzerks him somehow. Kefka keeps attacking himself until he dies.



Giveng and Encrut have a couple more things to show off. Giveng reveals how ridiculous some of the immunities can get, including Magitek. Magitek Armor is actually a status given to your characters, in the intro and in Cyan's Dream. Immunity to it means you just have access to your normal battle commands available. There are exploits you can do to get Magitek status outside of those areas. I will not be doing these exploits but here is abyssonym explaining how it works (minor editing for clarity):


Encrut has Near Death and Interceptor status. I did some testing earlier; Interceptor status on a monster does nothing and using Rippler to transfer it to another character also does nothing. You CAN transfer Interceptor from a character to a monster if that monster uses Rippler, then use your own Rippler to get Interceptor on another character. I don't know of a way to clone the status in a way that works so you'll only ever have one dog. Being in Near Death status will also never trigger a Desperation Attack while Raging as no monsters have the Fight command. You can also see that the Encrut doesn't even have a Battle command. Taiga will choose between casting Slow and using their Special attack, which is just Battle at 3x the damage. The highest it can theoretically go is x9 but I've only personally seen x6.5.

Anyway, where were we?



Oh right. We're here to collect tribute.



First, I sell this shitty stick I found in a box. That lets me stock up on Tonics, Potions and some Tents. I feel much safer.



Now we go looting! This Mithril Pike has some good damage but Reverse Cures is not a good thing to have unless you're planning for it. That's the same effect you normally get from the Relic Ring; it basically turns your character undead. All healing spells do damage, casting most varieties of Doom will fully heal them, and any absorbtion spells (Drain, Lifeshaver, etc.) cast on that person will reverse. It can be useful but you need to have a reason to use it normally.



Pardon me, Your Highness.



+1 Speed is alright but that Defense is 10 lower than vanilla.



Lower defenses

I also pick up:

Buckler x2
Fenix Down
Tent
Head Band
Blossom

What a shitty haul.



Her Highness tries to Dragon Warrior our ass but we stick to our guns of saying no, an- HEY

https://i.imgur.com/5GivsNr.gifv

This is bullshit!



All is forgiven, Princess Banon. Look at those stat increases! Sure it has 36 less defense than vanilla but +6 to Speed/Magic Power and +7 to Vigor is huge when I don't have any Espers yet.

In case it isn't clear, Banon gave us the BehemothSuit instead of a Genji Glove.



Banon herself ain't really bringing the cows home. The Magic Power is OK but she's stuck with the Biggs/Wedge Magitek abilities. At least she has Heal Force! She's also a lefty and I'm very glad she's carrying that Guardian and Memento Ring. Assuming it still has the vanilla ability of Instant Death immunity.



I've heard of water bears but this is ridiculous. The Undiesi is the bear, Snuch is the ...crawfish? And Hend is every nightmare about killer robots.

Undiesi and Snuch are fine, Hend has some neat stuff. Attack x3 again with a pretty good ATK, and auto-Runic. This functions in the same way as Celes' normal command. Any spell or command that is affected by Runic will automatically be absorbed as MP. If you encounter a badass magic-throwing enemy but they have auto-Runic, it's an easy win for you. I once had Atma Weapon on the Floating Continent with it.

https://i.imgur.com/7Xwmy3i.gifv

But what is this? They took MP DAMAGE? This is a quirk of the Runic system. Any creature (including Celes in vanilla) that absorbs an element, if they use Runic, will instead take MP damage from that element. This game is weird.



A water battle means a new dance!

It's not great. 7-Flush is the Gems/Diamonds result from vanilla Slots and while it does decent damage, you have a low chance of getting it.



My what nice teeth you have!

Not that they'll do you any good, you delicious little morsel.

Yet another boss that absorbs Water, how exciting. About as exciting as the rest of his stats!



The opening salvo of some water and Megazerk heal him and do nothing, respectively.



Princess Banon lays down the law with her Fire Beam.




This time around, Ultros is basically no threat, unless you jump in the water with him like an idiot, as Taiga does.



We made it, everyone! Let's see what our monkey friend has going on.



I mean...sometimes you gotta eat on the go. Might as well take all your beef jerky with you. The Chain Saw and Dried Meats are maxing out Mog's defenses due to non-equipment being weird when equipped. Dried Meat heals 150 HP, which the game is interpreting as 150 Defense instead because of the way it reads item stats.



Next time, we follow Taiga to his doom.