Part 85: Jojo

Jojo


Video





Abitus is now completed; Navox is next. The third of five systems along the initial forced route. Only seven more systems to go, unless there are 'hidden' ones somewhere(not counting that out).




They should probably decide whether each 'star' is called a system or a sector. Think I'll go with system though.







It's not much of a choice, since I don't really know what is what and where is where until after we land.










As mentioned, the choice is between the three smaller, inner planets, with Flick and Tiplex waiting until later. It is at least a choice; getting to pick what Story mission comes next is a new thing to the CW series, so we can salute it a bit even if it's not a very meaningful one. I go with Jojo, which seems to be the odd one out of the three, at least visually.













So Spores are back from the first game as well - but this time they are no longer powered by the mysterious force known as Offscreen.










Layers upon layers. Perhaps there is some mysterious entity beyond even Platius aiding us for some reason?







That large central island does seem to be the most defensible location.




The Beams have a decent range, so I put one on each side after painting this area in collectors.




Then I relay my way to the other islands behind us, all of which have ore deposits to make them worth the effort.




Shortly after finishing up that expansion, we get our first warning of incoming Spores.




Takes a bit of time to take out the spores, but this beam placement on the right has enough firepower to knock out two of them before they land. Unlike the SAMs from the first game, it's a gradual wearing down of the spore projectile. They are pretty loud too.




I use a sprayer to create a 'wedge' push forward, which works ... at first.




I lose a few cannons that aren't placed optimally, and then a spore strikes a key Relay here. I was able to target it a bit just before it hit, but mostly it just found a weak spot in the defenses ... the Beams on the central island are a bit too far back to guard this area. I also was tight on energy here.




After taking out the central emitter, this beam gets moved to the power zone, and the spores will no longer be a threat. It can cover nearly the entire width of the map from here, and spores are swatted from the sky in about three seconds at most.




After taking out the western emitter, I try a big landing on this island to the east to push towards the final one. It ... didn't work well. I lost a cannon and had to retreat. Still working out exactly how to best attack in this version.

After this, I thought it was over. I was wrong. We need to take out the towers too. The other significant thing I messed up on this mission was not building reactors to boost the energy soon enough. That would have allowed more weapons and just being able to overwhelm the thing with more firepower. There was more resistance(I think the emitters here were all 20 per 0.5 seconds). The Navox System appears to be a bit of an upgrade in difficulty, so I can't just assume any longer that a few cannons with a single mortar and sprayer will be enough to steamroll it. Quite a few things got blown up unnecessarily on this mission, which is why it took as long as it did.




The Spore Towers also leave behind power zones. I'm assuming anything we have to use a nullifier on does. That'll bear remembering for the future.