Part 32: The Power Plant (Part One)

Yeah, so, Serph just kinda sorta got straight up murdered by one of his best friends. This kinda messed up everyone naturally.



Also Gale is currently in charge which makes sense.



Roland is the only other viable alternative but he doesn't really fit as being in charge of the Embryon.

If we blow the power plant, that should be enough to stop the transmission.



"What would Serph do?" I know that, but...



Well, we need to go to the Power Plant next to try and turn off the HAARP or do something to stop God from eating the planet.



...But first we've got some stuff to do at the Lokapala's base. Mainly selling flowers for a decent chunk of cash.



If someone dies for a cause, then you know they truly lived.



Now that we have over $100,000 we can finally buy the Graven Shard. Not like I'm ever going to remember that we have it now though.



Between that and some other stuff we finally broke 2300 and got a new rank.



This lets us get the other two +6 base stat rings. Very handy and what we'll sort of be using for a while.



Also we gained access to a new set of Boxes. The White Boxes aren't very good...



They mostly cough up the element voiding wall items which are whatever.



They can occasionally give the mirrors as well which helps out nicely if you remember to use them. Not great on the resell though.



The technical best it can let us have is some healing items. Hero Rations are the more common of the two but then it can give us a Medical Tool which isn't as effective but sell for more than 10,000 so it puts us in the black.



Likewise, there are some MP restoratives we can get from this. None sell for as much though.



And, of course, we can get a ring from this very rarely too. Unlike the Rich Ring this one isn't very good.



It increases our maximum damage but since it reduces our minimum, it makes damage wildly fluctuate a bit more than it ought to. Makes things a tad too unpredictable and become, well, a gamble.



...Also while we're here, let's jump back into the Underwater Cable.



Near the first ladder we climbed up, there's a couple of guys hanging around and this one gives us a new ring.



It has kind of a super niche use but it'll come in handy at some point maybe. Mostly in NG+ when you can stick it on someone and shut down bosses in simple ways though.



That done, we'll finally go to the Power Plant.

Power Plant Dome



So, we're here to hopefully shut off the HAARP stuff.



The people inside are most likely guards and the like from the Karma Society. I can see how that wouldn't work out too well.



In a nice and convenient moment, everyone already knows that Cuvier is dead. A bit lazy with how its done but at least it's not going to lead to any generic wacky misunderstandings later.

The Chief Director took over, and she's ordered them to shutting down the electricity. (sic)



But don't worry... I won't let her get anywhere near you. Where I come from, we'd lay down our lives if it meant saving our comrades.



Time to get serious. Fred, take care of Sera.
Leave it to me... I'll be right behind you guys, keeping Sera safe.

Alright, let's step on in...

Rest in Peace, My Friend



The Power Plant's our next dungeon and it manages to both be super short but take forever. So much padding oh my god.



By the entrance there's just some Lokapala dudes bunkering up in a cramped corridor. It's just to prevent the Society goons from getting to us.



If the Lokapala can't hold the enemy back, they'll slowly withdraw. While they delay the enemy, we'll head to the control room.



He's not kidding; once we enter the Power Plant proper, that's a miniature point of no return. We can't leave until we're done.

Are you ready?
Sounds like a plan.
Alright, let's get moving.



Alrighty, so Johnny is right there but we'll ignore him for the moment.



Door on the right gives us our first of many small terminals. There are no large ones here which is kind of annoying but whatever.

Door on the left lets us get a Pink Crystal. Meh.



I don't need to know what happened. I'm sure that silver-haired kid spent his on something precious. Remember, whether it's a life at stake, or profit, it's all the same.

We don't have anything to buy from Johnny or vice-versa right now, so we'll just see what he's got to talk about and move further on in.



What the hell are you guys doing?
It's too late... And, you're about to die, anyway!

Heroic Battle



As we're used to by now, we start off with a forced fight against some common enemies. This time it's two Nagas.



Still weak to Fire. Still have piss-all for HP... except you see this damage? That's the Speedy Ring's first action.



This is it on its second action. It helps with oneshotting stuff, or getting damn close to it, but if you don't do that then your stuck with functionally 2 characters.

Roland The Repairman

Betrayer



So, how the hell are we gonna get past this?











Silence





*whistles*





















End

Rest in Peace, My Friend



Argilla and Roland's flirting aside, we've got the door open now so we can carry on in.

If you also caught a whiff of a dungeon gimmick, you would be right!

Battle for Survival



But first, new things to fight! Nagas are jokes as mentioned above. Also weak to Earth and Argilla has Terazi...

They do occasionally come paired with Yaksinis but pfft whatever.



These guys are seemingly a bit more threatening. Actually less of one than you'd think without Serph around, because all they do is Fire spells. On the other hand being weak to Mute makes them irrelevant either way.



And Black Ooze. It, uh, it's a Black Ooze. Not even remotely a threat; Leech drains both HP and MP but isn't very effective coming from this clown.

Rest in Peace, My Friend



So, about that dungeon gimmick. There are these big doors blocking the way forward. We gotta open them.



The first console is just to the right, in a small room.



Again, we immediately come to another giant steel door and only one way to proceed. Also our second small terminal already.



This path is a little more complex than "go through door, mash button" at least. It's mostly still linear but we can't just follow the cable on the wall this time.



Case in poit being right here, we want to follow it to the west; that's where the control panel is. This path north clearly loops back to the wall we just passed.

There's nothing on this side of it by the way.

Also healing terminal in a tiny room to the south.



After getting past the giant door, we come to a smaller corridor at least.



A couple magic mirrors in the door to the left is pretty kind of nice I guess. Door to the right lets us snag a Revival Gem.



...Well this is certainly more complicated than before. To get past this we need to activate TWO control panels!

Or maybe just one to open the door because those bars are so far apart they might as well not even be there.



Either way, we'll go east first. I got a good feeling about east.

Battle for Survival



There's also new enemies here. Tao Tie come in relatively large packs, drop Wild Cards and have an easily exploitable and silly weakness.



Gorgons are, uh, Gorgons. Just smack 'em with Terazi and they drop. Whatever.

Rest in Peace, My Friend



Oddly enough, we come straight to a giant door blocking our way to the control panel to open a giant door.

Welcome to the one reason this dungeon is as long as it is. Blatant padding. Joy.



As for that alcove to the north, it just leads to a door that not only can we not get past, but doesn't look like we can open at all.



Fortunately, the control panel by the other door does open that one... but at a cost.



Ah great, but we've got to follow it through anyway, so let's just go already.



At least there's a door right here.



The south door (right) leads to a small karma terminal. The left?



Our requisite fight in a box.

Battle for Survival



...Oh, uh, hi there Alilat. She IS a thing from this dungeon believe it or not, but unlike the ones previously she's actually tough to deal with.

Relatively.



See, she does nothing but cast single target Dynes. And gets 2 actions a turn.



Those resistances are pretty nasty to deal with as well, since that means we can only use Phys and Gun to damage her in the first place.

She might be weak to Gun, but Guns are fucking awful and reverting in this fight is a bad idea. Don't do it!

So its a matter of spamming good phys skills, which you might very well have been neglecting. I mean, I totally haven't honest, but you might have.









...okay yes i did and it made this fight take ages



Outside the room, we run into an old friend. Turdak's harder here than in 1 but not saying much. Still weak to Panic though which is great.



There's even Apis who is much more concerned this time with casting all the -ndas. Especially Suku.

Rest in Peace, My Friend



Anyway, back on the main path and we come to another sort of split but not really. This door leads to another Life Terminal.



The path to the left leads to yet another gate-door we cannot get past nor open.



There was also another (much harder to see) door on the right hand wall which lets us grab 2 Dekaja Rocks.



The splits in the path here are completely pointless...



By going through the door to the north, we can get this Chakra Pot a little faster, but it doesn't matter.



All the splits converge immediately. That small room at the north is where the Pot was.

Battle for Survival



Hey look, it's a Shiki-Ouji again. This time, we COULD actually die to one. Purely because they cast Mudo and Mudoon instead of Hama and Hamaon this time around.



Specters are just slightly tougher Shadows. Which is to say not even the slightest bit tougher. Death March is a self-destruct move but they'll never get to use it so it doesn't matter.

Rest in Peace, My Friend



We come to the basement next, which has another small terminal in it. It's also kind of an intermediary pathway more than anything else.



So we leave it just as quickly as we find it. This door is a pretty good door, all things considered.



It lets us grab some more free MP Data which isn't the best, by any means, but it's sufficient.



Might not have seen it before, but we have to go left here. Not actually a split path which is fine.



This, however, IS a split path. We'll go right first, ignoring the stairs up.



Well, at least the panel for this one is right there. Strangely, this one just puts us right back near the second Life Terminal. Right before the redundant split paths. Odd.



So, going back up and we get a slightly different gate. At least this one ALSO has its control panel right there.



...And so we went in a big ol' circle.



It's obvious what we do next, though, so we activate the panel here again. This opens the back gate but closes the front one.



We can go through the other two we just opened to loop around at least. It's kind of a puzzle, I guess if you were to really stretch the definition, even if it is more lazy, tedious backtracking.



At least it's mercifully short and we get to progress further on in now.

Epic Battle ~ Prelude



Oh, there's something different here. Let's ignore its silly warning.

Heroic Battle



So, we get a bit of a different mini-boss this time around. The 20mm Machinegun is a, uh, machine since its an automated security system and all.



The gun itself is weak to Elec and each one has 1600HP.



Gonna need magic buffs, since Phys is resisted and all.

And all its attacks are Gun elemental, so even if it WOULD work going Human would be suicidally stupid. Don't do that.



It has 3 different attacks called Fire. The only difference between them is that they inflict different ailments. One is poison, one is sleep and the third is stun.



Biggest issue I have with this fight is that these things will almost never miss. Sure if you stack Sukukajas and Sukundas you might dodge one or two attacks in the entire fight, if both are capped, but that's it.



Sharpshot manages to care even less. Pretty sure that it outright cannot miss and...



...Is always a critical. I'm sure it might actually rarely not crit, but I wouldn't count on it.



Last is Barrage which is, well, a barrage of random damage.



And by "random" that means it hits everyone at least once and can hit them all up to four times. Very nasty stuff that, especially if it crits someone.



...Thankfully this damage is all Gun elemental so stacking Tarundas will cripple its offence. Being a Machine, it can't do shit about that.



At least its satisfying seeing these things explode once you destroy them. They just take so long to deal with and are not very fun either.

Rest in Peace, My Friend



Also the control panel behind them has somehow been destroyed already as well. Just go with it.



Still, that's one down...



Now the west side to go. At least this half is shorter.



Granted it also does the thing where there's a gate immediately and we have to go open it.



This one is just a bit more straightforward in how we go about that. The door there?



Lets us get some cherry blossoms. The flower selection's pretty nice with its variance, gotta admit.



Further to the west we get another small terminal and can carry on.



Once again, we get a door immediately to the right of the entrance.



This one is our requisite new bullet. Was wondering where this was hiding.



Sadly, we can't quite follow the yellow cable and be done with it, since there's a couple walls in the way.



Especially here. We have to follow the path left. There's another wall around that northern corner.



Both routes here lead to the same spot. Again.



I don't even know why they keep doing that. Just to make it seem bigger than it is I guess.



Another optional door leading to treasures.



This one is actually a new gem, at least. It's the +4 Vitality gem which is pretty nice in its own way. And since its +4, it has a small chance of being +5 instead.



Around the corner, we find the cable again and carry on to the east.



Another small pathway in the basement, that we just leave pretty quickly. Difference being there's no small terminal here this time.



Instead it's in the room immedaitely afterwards. As is the control panel.

Battle for Survival



During the trek back to the gate we just opened, a couple new guys popped in. Chatterskulls are back and allow us to learn that they're even more worthless now.

And that Overload is actually a suicide bombing skill.



There's Raijus hanging out too, which makes the most sense out of everything we've seen to date. Still just blast 'em with Force spells and move on though.



Behind the gate we just opened is another one of these things. Alright then.

Heroic Battle



The Laser Cannons are actually the hardest thing we've fought to date.



Good thing, then, Argilla picked up that there Zionga during that short interim between the machinegun and now.



What makes these things more difficult than the machinegun is that while they do have slightly worse accuracy, their attacks are not nearly as kind. They're all elements that aren't Gun.

So using Argilla/Gale/Roland is a bad idea here. Oops.



Flare Ray, rather predictably, is Fire elemental and the second nicest thing it can do. And these all deal Magic damage, not Phys, so that's why Argilla can tank it better.



...Not this one though, since this is Force. Considering 2/3rds of its attacks are bad for this party (instead of exactly half for if Cielo was in)...



I'd consider seeing your weaknesses get blasted ad nauseum in this fight an inevitability.



And, yes, they DO have an attack for all 5 main elements. Plasma Ray being Electricity. RIP Gale.



Magna Ray rather predictably then falling into Earth.



And Freeze Ray for Ice. Flare and Freeze are the nicest on account of not hitting anyone's weaknesses. Freeze being the nicer of the two because the Hee-Ho Ring nullifies it.



...Their last skill is the worst, though.



Not only does it maintain the high accuracy as normal, but it Reverts someone to Human. Nasty stuff that, since it negates our resistances. It DOES nullify our weaknesses too.

Or at least it does here. If one was to be paired with a 20mm Machinegun this would be insanely nasty. But it's not like that's ever going to happen so whatever.

These also have 1600HP much like the Machineguns. If you can beat one, you can beat the other as well. This one just requires tanking a bit more damage, since getting Makanda here is pretty damn hard to do. Gale ALMOST has Rakukaja at least but I was a bit late in buying the Mantra so it doesn't help here.

Rest in Peace, My Friend



Much like before, at least the control panel is right there once we're done.



And that opens the big gate in the center. Now we can finally move further in for real. At least there's no more tedious busy work to deal with...