Part 46: Imperfect Future

Today's adventure will take us to the Geno Dome in 2300AD, an area we had no access to until the Epoch upgrade. Every character besides Ayla and Crono has their own side quest to resolve loose plot hooks (well, reviving Crono might count as his), and with Frog and Magus done, today we'll be doing Robo's.

Remains of Factory



We can't enter this area unless Robo is the lead party member.



But since he is...





I haven't seen them in ages. Let me...welcome them. Come closer...



That was certainly ominous, but it did unlock the front door, so...





If you remember our last factory excursion and our fun with conveyor belts, you know what's coming up next.

Battle 1



That's right, a battle gauntlet. Slight weakness to Lightning and barely cracks a thousand HP, but otherwise mundane in its attacks and defenses.



The Proto 4 has identical stats to the Debuggest, just different attacks.

Both are just bulky enough to survive a Lightning 2 from Magus, but follow-up attacks will clean them up nicely.







There are five total fights in this gauntlet, but they aren't too bad.



We even cap it off with Magus learning his sixth tech.

Remains of Factory





Despite opening things off with a battle gauntlet, this dungeon is much more focused on puzzles than combat.



Though there is combat, of course.

Dark Mist does the same damage as Dark Bomb, just targeting all enemies instead of a small area.



Occasionally, the voice from before will chime in with a bit of backstory, though this is old news to us at this point.



We can't get to the doll because the robot guards it and will block our path. We'll have to figure something out later.



There's a couple of rooms with some treasures, though this one triggers enemies when you open one of the chests.





This room has an elevator to the next floor. I go ahead and skip the rest of the first floor for now.



Laser Guards are the final regular enemy here. They're pretty weak, with only 400HP and low defenses, including that same Lightning weakness.



However, if they take non-fatal damage, they'll explode, doing a bit of damage to the entire party. These things also like to shoot each other and make themselves explode. Multi-target attacks avoids all that if you're fast enough.



There's a switch here that's a bit out of reach.



The puzzle here is to sit back and appreciate Robo's mad jumping skills.



All it guards is a tab and a MegaElixir, but considering the latter fully heals the party's HP and MP, it's a nice grab.



This path leads us to...



...a plant processing humans. Yikes.





Aack!
Let us stop the machine!



So turns out some vile things are being done with humans, somehow. The process is pretty vague, leaving only shining elements like the one that remained when Crono died, but suffice to say it's probably not a pleasant experience.



This is where the boss of the dungeon resides, but we have to unlock access to here first.



To do that, we'll need to go up the room to the left of the elevator.



And yet you still want to fight? Why?



For the Tech Points, duh.



This leads us to another elevator, netting us access to a previously-unaccessible area on the bottom floor.



This switch reverses the flow of one of the conveyor belts, which we need to do because there's a timing element we have to do soon here, and we won't have enough time to reach our destination walking against the conveyor.



And this unlocks the one-way path, bringing us back to the rest of the floor.



At the entrance, I skipped a path to the left of the door we can't yet enter. Time to take that path now.



There's a weird hatch that triggers an electrical current, and a computer.



What shall we examine first?



It's now time to go into the gimmicks of this dungeon.

Door

To open locked doors, simply charge the energy pods beside them. Energize first, in the pod to your left, then enter the pod next to a locked door.

That electrical current will unlock doors if you enter the hatch. The current disappears after a certain amount of time, though.

Conveyor Belt

The belt conveyor to the right can be reversed with a switch above it.

Already done. That timing element I mentioned involves bringing that charge to a pod to open a door before the current disappears, thus why we had to reverse the belt.

Guard Machine

The robot guarding the figurine will block anyone that tries to pass. But if you place 2 guards in front of each other, they will short circuit. Return the broken guard to the room upstairs.

That conveyor belt leads to the room with this machine. This is how we'll get that doll.

Doll

You must obtain the 2 figurines on this floor to fight the Mother Brain. Do not leave with them.

And we need that doll to reach the boss. Also this translation spoils we'll be fighting the boss, but if you didn't expect us to beat up the being responsible for processing humans, well, sorry.





There are three doors to unlock. This one just has treasure.



This second one guards one of the dolls. We have to fiddle with the switches until one combination unlocks access to the pod, so we can open the door.



Simple enough.







For this last one, we have to reverse the conveyor belt to charge the pod to open the door to grab the robot to grab the doll to open the door to beat the boss.



There's just one small issue here.



This thing has horrible pathfinding.

That shining thing in the bottom right is the exit, if you desire to do so. That opening gauntlet repeats, and is actually a good grinding spot if you're inclined.





Finally, we short-circuit the guard robot and grab the second doll.



This thing isn't too impressive defense-wise, but it does block all status effects, so it's a solid get.



At any rate, we've got both dolls, so we're ready to face the boss.

Silent Light



...Well, not quite yet. You might recognize this robot from The Legendary Hero ending.






Yes, it's been awhile Prometheus. You can stop pretending and join us.
Pretending?
Mwa, ha... Unlike the other R-series, Prometheus had a special task.



That's a lie!
Tell them, Prometheus...
......





Is Atropos right? Was Robo really a spy this entire time?





Of course not. This is Robo, after all, our best robot buddy until the end of time. Then we're stuck with Gaspar and Spekkio.





Indeed. Mother remade me to eliminate humans more efficiently! Step back, Prometheus!







...This isn't going to be a happy end, is it.



At any rate, the rest of our party won't factor in here.







Boss Battle 1



Atropos has 6000HP and standard defenses.





She basically cycles through Robo's techs, starting with his weakest one and then slowly building up the list.



So she heals herself a couple times...







Followed with Laser Spin, Robo Tackle (or is it Atropos Tackle?), and Uzzi Punch.



And after that she just spams Area Bomb. Which would be bad, except if you have fire absorption then you literally cannot lose at this point.





Eventually, if you don't flat-out beat her, Atropos ultimately explodes for minor damage, ending the battle.

At the Bottom of Night



Atropos...?





My memory bank... Mother must have done something nasty when she reprogrammed me...



If Lucca's in the party, she'll rush over to try to help fix Atropos.



Save your strength! I'll patch you up.
It isn't possi...ble... Vital functions are do...wn... M...memory bank damaged...
Atropos...!





Atropos perishes...



Her ribbon gives Robo a permanent boost to his Magic Defense and Speed. That speed boost alone is phenomenal.



Lavos's children will one day have to leave to seek new planets, and prey. This world COULD sustain them...if humans were not around...



Our "Species" will replace you... So stop your foolish struggle, and succumb to the sleep of eternity...

Bad translation, in that instead of trying to help Lavos, the being speaking here says this world can recover from this travesty, though without humanity.

Even if we want to erase this future, we can't let this Mother get away with what they've done here. It's time to put an end to this.







So we place the two dolls, and finally unlock the path to the boss.

Silent Light



Meet Mother Brain.



Come Prometheus, you must once again join us. I'll reset your circuitry and erase your memories. Then we'll dispose of these filthy humans.
......



Not my precious memories, or my irreplaceable friends.







Ho...! Fu, hu, hu... This is rich...! Don't make me laugh! YOU, have emotions?!



Boss Battle 1



Mother Brain has standard defenses and an underwhelming 5000HP.



Her attacks aren't much to write home about, either.





There are also three displays that will heal Mother Brain for around a thousand HP each. They only have 1HP, though.







Of course, destroying them all means that Mother Brain starts throwing around more powerful attacks, so it might be best to leave only one Display alive so it doesn't trigger these attacks.





Alternatively, just burn through that HP in two rounds like I did. DoublevBomb is disgustingly good.



And with that, we foiled Mother Brain's scheme and saved what's left of humanity.



And we pick up Robo's ultimate weapons as well!







And that's it for Geno Dome!



The Terra Arm, like the rest of Robo's arms, has no special gimmicks. It's also the weakest of the ultimate weapons, only a mere 150 points of attack.



The Crisis Arm, on the other hand (sorry), is the sole Robo weapon with any special properties, and it's a weird one. First off, the translation is wrong, as this thing's attack power depends on the ones digit of Robo's current HP. The higher that is, the more damage Robo does. Thus this thing becomes much more valuable once Robo hits 999 Max HP and can be consistently powerful.

Next time, we'll probably check in on that Rainbow Shell rumor and see what we can dig up.