Part 41: Update Thirty Eight: Woe Is To All Them Guys I Murdered For Their TP

Update Thirty Eight: Woe Is To All Them Guys I Murdered For Their TP

Howdy, folks, and welcome back to Chrono Trigger! Last time, we went through the Mudbeast Den, and today, we're going to scale Mt. Woe, so let's bounce!



Frog and Ayla were the overwhelming winners of the vote, having double the votes of everyone else doubled.



This is Mt. Woe. There's a bunch of chains, a ton of enemies, and the best part is, one of those enemies is that guy right there.



Rubbles don't look very impressive, do they? They show up alone and every other rock enemy we've encountered in the game can be called whatever variation you prefer of "pussy."



Omnilock does exactly what it says; in fights where it is active, you can only use the Attack command. An Ambrosia will cure this status effect, but we can't reach our items.



They have 515 HP, which isn't a whole lot, but they have higher defense than the norm, as well as higher magic defense. They're immune to all elements, too.





Now, Chrono whacked him a good one there; did over half his HP, even.



And Ayla missed. As will most attacks against the Rubble. They have no attacks of their own--at least, nothing that deals damage--and will eventually run away from battle if you don't kill them in time.



I killed every Rubble I encountered, which is kind of lucky. They're fairly hard to hit and you only have about three rounds before they'll flee. I equipped the Speed Ring on Frog and the Speed Belt on Ayla to increase their speed (to 14 and 15, respectively), just to get more attacks in to try and kill these sons of bitches. As the rewards are quite worth it.



1,000 exp is pretty nice, but the real reward?



Every time I see this, I have to clutch my chest and let Elizabeth know I'm coming. It's 100 TP! That's so much! It makes Tech grinding a breeze (which I did do, to catch people up, as the thread demanded), especially since there's one very special Rubble on Mt. Woe.



Mt. Woe isn't merely chained to the planet; it's also fucking chained together. I have no idea what this place is, its history, or why its like this, but I'd really like to know. If anyone knows, I'd like to hear more about it.





All the enemies in this area are new, too. Well, variations on types we've seen before, but this is an RPG, so we've come to expect that kind of thing. As much as I'd like to see an RPG without any palette swap enemies (I want to say I know of one, but I can't think of it off-hand), I'd also feel a little sad not to see them.



Anywho, Bomber Birds are goddamned pains in the ass.



Not out of any actual threat or anything, mind you.



They have 250 HP, so they're easy to kill, and their only real attack is Crimson Rain, which can inflict Sap.



But when you kill the bird, they drop their Stone Imp, who is another 300 HP you have to wipe out. It's not threatening, but kind of irritating.



Though, on occasion, I'll hit the Bomber Bird and the whole kit and caboodle will die, so I don't know what their fucking deal is.



As far as these guys go, they have the same attacks as every standard Imp.





There's a lot of levels to be gained here, as well as good chunks of TP from the regular fights. Nu grinding was a good way to grind before, but we're reaching the point where it's more trouble than its worth.



There's also a good chunk of territory to cover on Mt. Woe (as befitting a mountain), but this is the exit to the first area.







Moving north from the entrance, we find another set of Bomber Birds.





You have to initiate the fight with a Rubble, by the way. You can just skip past them if you want to. I don't know why you would, unless you were hydrocephalic, but you do have the option.



This goes to Chrono, and it's a small boost in defense. He also is still wearing the White Plate, while Ayla has the Black Plate (it fits the image I have of her) and Frog is wearing the Blue Plate, as he's a frog and it amuses me.



Oh, hey, I forgot I took this shot.



~Gettin' some more fuckin' TP with the best shot of this LP~



Frog picks up Water II from the fight, which means he has a means of attacking all enemies at once.



Alright, let's scoot on outta this first area.





Directly to the left here is a Rubble. They're all over the damned place, and it is wonderful.



Ayla picks up Charm, which is a fantastic ability. It allows her to steal an item from the enemy. I don't use it very often, as I'm too busy killing their asses, but there are some items worth snagging.







Moving along, we encounter another new enemy.



I friggin' love Gargoyles.



Not for any real reason, mind you, but mostly because their physical defense is lower than the norm.



They have 260 HP, and your physical people can kill them in one shot (usually). They should be dying before they have a chance to attack.



Even though we pretty much just started this area, there's already a save point. I'm not sure why.



There's a path off to the right and the one in front of us. I'll cover all the spaces here, don't worry.



As there's a friggin' lot of space here.



There's also a good chunk of encounters, too. Mt. Woe is a great place to grind, and not just because of the Rubble.







I fought two Bomber Birds to get to this chest. A Lapis is nice to have, but Frog's Heal kind of makes it irrelevant.





That reminds me, Frog and Ayla have a Double Tech that heals the entire party, called Slurp Kiss, as well as an attack one, called Bubble Burst. We'll see one of those this update.



Also, these guys show up here.











Gasp! Two Bomber Birds and two Gargoyles? Whatever will I do?



Drown their goddamned asses is what I'll do. (Lv + Mag) × 5.75 for damage here.



The party approves of water-based murder.



To the left of the path we took earlier is this treasure chest.



Oh, man, it's a--Barrier Sphere?



For those of you curious about the special Rubble around here, we're nearly to where he makes his lair. I don't remember how these guys kicked the bucket, but it was probably painful and involved swording and punching.





Ah, here he is. I love this son of a bitch.



This provides the Protect status to someone, reducing physical damage by a third. Not bad, but nothing I'll start drooling about.



This matches our fancy hat from earlier, but it goes on Robo; he still had a Magma Vest on, for some reason. It would have provided a defense boost to Chrono or any of the others wearing the plates, but it was one point, and I can't help but feel that elemental absorption is better than a single defense point.



So, for why this Rubble is special. It's not because he helped Chrono learn Frenzy (even though that's nice, too), but an even better reason. See, this Rubble here will respawn when you leave the screen and return. This is the best grinding spot we've encountered thus far, and not just because of this guy. The fights on the way to him also respawn, which means you can net over 150 TP for a couple of minutes of work.





So, yeah, everyone is caught up on their Techs (or pretty close to it). Chrono actually has all of his, while Frog and Ayla are learning their final Techs; Robo is learning his penultimate Tech, as are Lucca and Marle. And it only took me about ten minutes to get that done.



Yeah, you guys gave me permission to go ahead and grind, but I limited myself. It was hard, since I could have been so powerful if I'd kept going. Everyone could have been done with their Tech lists and I could have been a high level, and been so powerful. I could have crushed everything lying ahead of me, and skated through the rest of the game.

And grown only stronger.



Okay, here's something to bring me back to Earth with.





The Gargoyle has one very dangerous attack, especially when paired with other enemies.



He basically kung-fu kicks someone's ass into submission and then blows them up. Gargoyles are awesome.





There's a ton of fucking Rubble around here. It's crazy. If you're playing along and feeling like you need more power, take some time here and grow as strong as you'd like.





This is the third, and final, area of Mt. Woe.



I have no idea why there are so many of these support items scattered around here.



Excuse me, plant-men, I'll come back to you in a minute. Sorry to bug you.



A Hi-Ether is pretty nice. Have we found one of these before? I don't remember. They restore 60 MP to a character.



Well, throw it in the pile. I might use it eventually.



Back to these fellas. They're nothing special, but have a bit higher Magic Defense than the norm.



This is their main attack, which is more annoying than threatening; they also have the Heal ability that the plant-men from the Future had.



Ayla learned this Tech, Tail Spin, when I was wandering around Mt. Woe. (Lv + Mag) × 16.5 is the damage formula, and that reminds me of something.

Does anyone reading this know anything about how to get into a game's files and find specific information? The mechanics guide I'm using doesn't have the formulas for the Triple Techs, and those are going to be relevant soon. If anyone can help me track down that information, I'd definitely appreciate it.



We also get a buttload of exp from that fight.



Did I mention that inactive characters get 75% of the experience from a fight? It's pretty easy to keep everyone around the same level if you switch them out now and again (which this LP is forcing me to do).







Another goddamned Rubble. I didn't count how many are here, but that's five or six, right?



Three Gargoyles pop into this fight, too, and it gives me an opportunity to show off Bubble Burst, a Double Tech between Frog and Ayla.



At some point, I should probably make a video of all these Techs, shouldn't I? Maybe set it to some music...



Also, I fuckin' love Ayla. Not only does her hair stay somehow perfectly conditioned despite her being from 65,000,000 BC and those things not existing, but she also looks so damned pleased during some of these attacks. She's loving this shit, all this monster killing and exotic travel.





This is a couple of shots of Frenzy, where Chrono circles around an enemy and attacks them four times, each doing .9 times regular damage, for 3.6 times regular damage. I would have had a .gif of it, but it's a rather lengthy--Oh, fuck it, here's a little video.





Oh, hey, a Shelter in a chest. It seems to have been a while since I found one of these.





These Gargoyles block our path, but they're easily taken care of.



And we'll stop before the boss fight.



Next time, we'll fight the boss of Mt. Woe and experience some more plot; there's some curve balls coming, so stay tuned!