Part 27: Update Twenty Six: Weeding The Sanctuary

I need to rob a bank or something. I want that as an avatar so bad.



Welcome back. Last time, on Earthbound, we defeated the vile Master Belch and freed the Mr. Saturn from his clutches. Today, we're going to collect our third Sound Stone melody, so let's get started.



Before we go too far, however, there was a Mr. Saturn that promised some stuff when we returned from the factory. Let's see what he has for us.



Ooh, a life-recovery item.



A new bit of armor for someone (read: Kim).



Well, fine, I didn't want your stupid stag beetle anyway!



Oh, Mr. Saturn, you so crazy.



It's not money, even though it's called a coin.

The Mr. Saturn coin is a pretty bitchin' piece of equipment. How bitchin', you ask?



Quite bitchin'.



If you'll recall, we found a Broken Laser in Belch's base. It requires 24 IQ to repair, and Susan currently has 25.



I got lucky, and Susan repaired this on the first try.



: Hey, Susan, what do you got there?

: It's effective against...Living things.



And indeed, effective against living things it is. Susan now can hit nearly as hard as Nass does, which is awesome on several levels.



That cave just past the hot springs is where we're headed today.



Oh, Goddammit, is that phone ringing again?



...I should have guessed. It's been a while.



For whatever reason, this strikes me as actually a very nice shot.



Alright, back on track, this sign helpfully informs us of where it leads.



Apparently, the Mr. Saturn verbal tic isn't limited to just their speech.





There's a few new enemies in this little "dungeon".



I honestly have no idea how I got a surprise attack here.



cohort.



With this fight, we've encountered all the new foes we're going to this update, excluding the boss. Ranboobs here, in addition to having a name that made my younger self giggle, have 232 HP, and can hit pretty damned hard. Everything here is some sort of plant, so Fire Beta is the way to exploit their weakness.



The Struttin' Evil Mushrooms have 157 HP, and can mushroomize your party. This still sucks, especially now; Nass could deal a ton of damage to anyone with his regular physical and if Kim decided to use PSI Fire or Freeze Beta on someone...



These guys are just basically upgraded versions of the Mobile Sprout, as evidenced by their name. Their offense and defense are a touch higher and they have 179 HP. Other than that, all of the attacks are as they were before.





This is about the average amount of damage to the enemy party; the Ranboob took a bit less, as did the Tough Mobile Sprout.



But it was still sufficient enough to wipe out both of the 'shrooms, and leave both enemies one hit away from defeat.





Like so.



These guys shit out a ton of experience, too. As one poster mentioned earlier, the game seems to do this every so often. It's actually kind of nice, because it helps keep your characters around where they should be, according to the game.



There's a fair amount of them around, too, so it makes it hard to avoid battles.



Outside, there's just a path that leads to the boss. This area isn't very big and I'm hesitant to even call it a dungeon. The music doesn't change coming out here, either.



Ranboobs can drop Picnic Lunches as well, with a 2/128 chance (1/64, simplified, but you didn't need me telling you that, eh? )





Ooh, a Magic Butterfly!



Everyone got a quick Life Up Alpha here, boosting them all back to full HP. Ranboobs can do around 40 damage with their attack.



This cave is the end of the area. I told you it was short.



Just inside here, to the right, is the Third Sanctuary Guardian. But, first, treasure.



Coins of Slumber are pretty badass, too. I'm giving this one to Nass, because I don't remember the last time he got something out of a present box.





Oddly enough, the Coin of Slumber doesn't protect against hypnosis; you'd expect an item with sleep in the name to protect it. At least, I do.



This cave is empty, leading up the boss.



And here he is, in all of his glory.



: But it's mine now... Take it from me, if you dare...



And so, it begins.



He comes with two Tough Mobile Sprout flunkies. All these assholes do is Life Up Alpha and Magnet Alpha, so dropping them is first priority.







Unfortunately, at this time, Susan lacks a full-party attack, so he has to settle for shooting the Trillionage Sprout with his new Laser.



Being a plant, Trillionage Sprout is weak to fire. He also has the most HP of anything we've fought up to this point, with 1048. He's got very high defense and damn good offense, too, along with some nasty attacks.



That just barely allowed the Tough Mobile Sprouts to survive, but they'll be taken care of quickly enough.





Remember, Kim has the best defense in my party. Combined with her "meh" HP, this much damage is frightening.

















Thankfully, the Tough Mobile Sprout tried this on Susan. I hope he feels dumb.



Yeesh, he is tough. To the enemies before, Susan and Nass were doing triple digit damage.



For some dumbassed reason, I had Nass be the one to take out the remaining Tough Mobile Sprout.



But, hey, didn't he do a great job of it?



I told you Trillionage Sprout hit hard. This isn't the best of it, though.



I decided to test Kim's new PSI power, and I thought Nass would benefit the most from it.



And hell, why not try this again?



Five more offense ain't much to sneeze at.









Yeah, five more offense does a hell of a thing.





Since Nass and Susan are best with their physicals (and I'm saving Nass' PP for Life Up usage), I need to get rid of this shield immediately.



Luckily, the first one hit, wiping out his shield. And, unluckily, the second one missed.





Now, it was about here that Trillionage Sprout got tired of Susan's bullshit.



Oh, Jesus, was he tired of Susan's bullshit.





But, hey, fire and physicals will wipe him out soon enough.



Now, if you were around me while I was playing this, you would have heard me inhale so sharply, you'd think one of my lungs had just exploded.



And the sigh of relief here was immense. See, that attack causes a status effect called "Diamondization". It works sort of like Numbness, except that the character afflicted with it, for all intents and purposes, is fucking dead. There are ways to cure it, but right now, outside of the hospital, I don't have access to any of those ways.

If all three characters are diamondized, it's game over, man. Game over.







For whatever reason, he hated Susan. He kept trying to Diamondize him.



Now, don't get me wrong. I wasn't trying to short-change the Trillionage Sprout here. He has access to Flash and Paralysis, but never used them this fight. His immense attack power is also a good indication of that, and since you can be mushroomized before this fight, using attack PSI on him in that state is risky.



Oh, yeah, he also drops a fuckton of exp.



Needless to say, everyone gained a level here, so I'll just get this out of the way now:

Anywho, as for the stat gains here, starting with Nass; Oh, baby! Offense +3, defense +1, speed +2, guts +2, IQ +2, oh baby! Luck +3, HP +2 and that rocks! PP +8!

Kim gained +2 HP., along with learning Defense Down Alpha.

As for Susan, offense +2, defense +2, oh, baby! IQ +4, luck +1 and +9 HP.

Alright, as has become custom, here's a video of the Third Sanctuary Spot, Milky Well.



Seriously, those things tug at my heartstrings. And they'll only do that more as we progress from here.



Anywho, everything now fears us. Sometimes, though, they run in a way that still puts them in my path, so I still do a bit of fighting on the way out of here.





For this level, Susan gained +1 speed and +2 HP.



Now, I may have gone slightly out of my way to get these guys.



But who cares! Nass gained another level!

For this level, he gained an entire +3 HP and +2 PP.



Kim also hit another level.

For this level, she gained +1 offense, and +3 HP.



And here we are, ready to leave. Let's go hit the hotel.





And Susan, with another fix. This one takes a whole 1 IQ!



: Hey, Susan, what'd you make this time?

: Oh, just something that's sure to yellow and mellow those things.

: Man, I could go for a soda now...



This thing has a chance of making an enemy unable to concentrate for four turns. Too bad it has a really shitty success rate.



...Jesus Christ, Foppy meat is just wonderful for burgers, I guess.



Y'know, I think Nass has more in his bank account now than I made the entire last year.



As you can see, were I to go back to the Third Sanctuary dungeon, I could quite easily grind out some levels. But, I'll refrain.



And now we're all saved up.

Status Shots







Next time, let's see how Threed is doing. We haven't been there in a while. I hope it's still standing! Stay tuned!

Bonus Video

Trillionage Sprout Boss Fight. I can't recall ever having this easy of a fight with him before. I guess I got lucky.