Part 15: Update Fifteen: Bringing Lucca To The Factory, Just As I Hoped

Update Fifteen: Bringing Lucca To The Factory, Just As I Hoped

Welcome back, folks! Last time, on Chrono Trigger, we rode the wind, and picked up a new robot companion. Today, we're going to be going through the first half of the Derelict Factory, so let's bounce.



I wonder if being stuck here by herself will remind Marle of when she temporarily didn't exist; it seems pretty cold, what with the snow and all, and it'd be lonely as hell in this place.



Oh well, she'll be fine. We'll be back in two shakes of a lamb's tail.



Let's take a look at our new party member.



Robo, being a robot, is pretty well suited for the physical aspects of combat, having high health, Strength and Stamina. His Magic Defense leaves something to be desired, as does his Magic stat, but he's got gobs of health and plenty of Double Techs to help crush enemies.



He's a really good party member, and if I weren't letting you guys vote on my party makeup, he probably would never leave my party.



We'll be here for a little bit, so strap in and get comfy.



If you'll recall, we couldn't get past this point the last time we were here.



But, with Robo around, he can hack the computer or whatever.



And the laser drops, letting us through.



But this shnook still shows up, but he falls just as he did last time.



And we're earning TP again, as Robo has Techs he needs to learn.



Rocket Punch is your standard "costs MP, but is stronger than a regular physical" ability, while Cure Beam is a great source of healing.

Let's break into a bit of damage formula stuff while we're here. I'm using this guide for these numbers, if you're interested to see them. However, there are some spoilers in there, so if you haven't played the game, peruse at your own risk.

Anywho, let's compare Marle and Robo's healing spells real quick. Aura, Marle's first healing spell, restores HP based on her Magic stat, multiplied by five. That's not too bad, since Marle tends to have a fairly high Magic stat.

Robo's Cure Beam here targets a single ally and heals HP based on his Magic stat, multiplied by 14.25. Granted, Robo has a lower Magic stat than Marle, and generally always will, but with Magic Capsules, it won't be shit to raise his Magic. Even with his Magic at 7 right now, he'll heal for around 100 HP. There's also some random number shenanigans in those formulas, so the numbers will vary, but even so, that's a huge difference there.

While we're talking about this, let's post up the formulas for their regular attacks. For the male party members, the formula is: (PWR × 4/3) + (weapon's attack × 5/9). For Lucca and Marle, it's (HIT + weapon's attack) × 2/3. Hit is what Accuracy was called in the SNES translation, by the way. There's another damage formula we'll get to in just a bit, but here's the formulas for the Techs we have so far.


Chrono
Cyclone: Attack x 1.2
Wind Slash: (Lv + Mag) × 4

Marle
Aura: Magic x 5
Provoke: Causes Confuse

Lucca

Flamethrower: (Lv + Mag) × 2.5
Hypno Wave: Causes Sleep

Robo

Rocket Punch: 4/3× attack damage
Cure Beam: Mag × 14.25



Deverminators are our first foes here; they have 120 HP and are weak to Light.



Rocket Punch in action.



It may not be Light elemental, but it still works pretty well.



They also can shoot lasers at you.



With that fight over, we can look at this note on the wall. Since we came here for the factory, let's head over that way first.



I wonder if we'll end up doing that or not. I can't imagine we would.



Going down!



This side of the Derelict Factory is where we'll spend this update.





And the first door we go through has nothing interesting in it. Or much of anything, really. However, it is entirely possible I just missed whatever is in here.





Our path is blocked by a barrel, despite us killing a Dragon Tank, a Guardian, numerous robots, overgrown insects, mutants, and whatever else we've killed up to this point.



We'll go down that other ladder.



It leads us to here, where we can hop on the conveyor belt.



We've got to run down the conveyor belt, dodging robots as we go.



But what if we touch one of them?





We're unceremoniously dragged and dropped over here.



We've now a series of battles to go through, starting with a single Version 3.0.



Have I talked about these guys? I don't remember, so I'll do it here; they have 266 HP and attacks like their brethren, the Version 2.0. They're also weak to Shadow.



The Bestiary I'm using claims they have no counters, but they seemed to always immediately react with this to whoever hit them. Might just be an odd spot of luck.



Here's Cure Beam in action.



By the formula above, Robo's Magic stat here is 7.15somemorenumbers, so there is some RNG action in the formulas.



And we get Robo's Laser Spin after the battle, which not only targets all enemies, but is also our first Shadow elemental attack. The formula for it is: (Lv + Mag) × 4.25.



And Chrono and Robo learn their first Double Tech, Supersonic Spin. (R¬Lv + R¬Mag) × 6.1 is the formula for it, so it's damage is based heavily off of Robo's level and Magic. Interesting.



On to the next!





This looks like a good spot to test Robo's new Tech.





It's not super effective, but Robo's level and Magic are low, but it does hit all enemies. We don't have any other Techs that can reliably do that. Cyclone and Fire Whirl both rely on enemies being grouped together, while Flamethrower needs them to all be in a line.







You'd think that this looks problematic, and you'd be incorrect. Maybe if there were five Version 3.0s, but as it stands, this is only a problem if you don't like to take the time to go through it.



It also provides a perfect opportunity to use our newest Double Tech.





Supersonic Spin is a useful Tech, and looks rad as hell.



And that ends that little section of gameplay. If we go back through, by getting caught again, the rooms are empty.



We come out down here, where we can try the conveyor belt again, if we so desire.



But there's a door down here, so let's head on through.



Funnily enough, I was just over working at an Orkin office the other day.



These guys are grouped together tightly enough for Cyclone to hit all of them, which is a rare occurrence.



But, before Cyclone can be launched, Chrono counters half the enemies to death. That accessory is really handy.





Now we're above the factory floor.



Our goal here is to clear those barrels out of the way. Why? We don't know, but it's what we're doing.





The treasure around these parts is fairly good.



And plentiful, too.



The other chest holds $400. When people in this time don't even recognize the currency we're using, why the hell is a pile of it sitting in a chest, in a factory?



Remember these; we'll need them in a bit.



And remember that Laser Spin is and is pretty handy around these parts.





We exit that room and go left to another door.





There's a Shelter in the chest in front of me. You can hug the wall to get past the Version 3.0 enemies if you don't want to fight them.



I'm not exactly interested in that sort of thing. There are some battles I've skipped here and there, but not many.



Also, Rocket Punch is . I don't think I've used Robo's regular attack on camera yet.



Upon defeating those two, a couple of Deverminators drop from the ceiling.



They are swiftly dealt with.



Through the doorway, we come to the crane controls. This is where we punch in those codes we found earlier; you can come here and do it before getting the codes, if you're playing along at home.



The first code (X A) picks this barrel up and



deposits it on the conveyor belt.



The second code (B B) moves the second barrel, and we can now pass.





We can go to the right to go back to where we entered this area.



But going to the left will advance us through.



Hey, remember the whole reason I did the Abandoned Sewers early? Yeah, there's one of those swords right here. I could have just waited to get it, I suppose, but the Attack boost was pretty handy, so I can't complain.



We don't know what we need this code for, but we have it.



I work my way back to where the conveyor belt will take you if you touch one of the robots.



We can snag an Ether.



Otherwise, there's no real reason to go ahead and do that. I mostly did that for those of you who hadn't played the game before, in case you wanted to see where it took you.



And the other chest in this room holds a new weapon for Marle, who is still stuck in Proto Dome.





And we're done with the factory part of the Derelict Factory.





This seems like a pretty good spot to take a break; next time, we'll explore around the Lab, so stay tuned!