Part 69: Monster Time Part 1 - Showdown at the Police Station

Luck doesn't do a damn thing. Well, okay, it does, but it's very niche: Luck helps protect us from certain oddball abilities, such as Defense Down. None of the things it blocks are common or dangerous enough to really pay attention to, though.

I think Luck was suppoed to be your Evasion stat, but we ended up with Speed doing that instead. It definitely has nothing to do with drop rates (those are fixed), criticals (that's Guts), or escaping from battle (Speed).

Basically ignore Luck.


Monsters of Onett, Part 4 (Occupy Eagleland Edition)


The long arm of the law... isn't all that impressive, really, not after all you've been through already. The Cop switches up randomly between regular and strong attacks. Though he hits pretty hard, he doesn't have that much HP. Just remember that you don't get a chance to heal between fights! As with Titanic Ant, I prefer to spend my PP on Bacon and use Hamburgers for healing. Call it the "Bacon-Burger strategy."

I have no idea why Leave was getting SMAAAASHED! so often. Cops have only the normal 1/20 chance for enemies. Weird.

HP 75, Offense 15, Defense 8, Speed 5.
Worth 86 XP and $18. 1/8 chance to drop a Hamburger.



Why exactly is Captain Strong so angry, anyway? Leave was wise to save two uses of Bacon for this guy; you definitely want at least one, or he's going to outlast you. He hits even harder than Titanic Ant, and after four Cop battles you're going to be running out of steam. Fortunately, he doesn't attack every turn, with frequent time-outs to lose his temper or stand on guard; just match him burger for blow until he lets up, then pound on him.

HP 140, Offense 20, Defense 24, Speed 15.
Worth 492 XP and $159. 1/32 chance to drop a Boiled egg. (?)



Me Myself and PSI

Okay, we've learned and/or seen enough different PSI powers that I can start in on them.

The game divides PSI into three categories: Offense, Recovery, and Assist. (Any rumors you may have heard of a fourth category are most certainly false. )


Bacon (Offense)
Nass learns the Alpha version of this power at Level 8. For 10 PP, Nass makes all the bad guys crispy and delicious to the tune of 80 [±50%] damage. At this stage of the game, PSI Bacon Alpha is a win button against any enemy we've seen, excepting only Titanic Ant and Captain Strong.

BUT! Unlike every other damaging power in the game, Bacon isn't auto-hit. While it has a base miss rate of zero, enemies can dodge the PSI exactly like a physical attack. Most enemies are too slow to have much of a chance, but try Baconing some of those fucking crows and you'll see them dodge about one time in three. FUCK CROWS. They are the Keese of Earthbound.

The main drawpack to Bacon is that it's very expensive. You don't get many shots, and it's sharing its power source with Lifeup.

By the way... You know how all the things you can choose at the start have "don't care" options? Well, in the Japanese version, one of the options for this power is SMAP. I have no idea what it means, but it's the best thing ever.


Defense Down (Assist)
Titanic Ant used this; it reduces Defense by 1/16th of its current value. So right now that's basically 1 or 2 points' worth. Wheee. We have a (Luck / 80) chance to resist the effect, just in case this power wasn't worthless enough already.


Fire, Freeze (Offense)
Starman Junior tried to kill us with these. They're attack spells; the latter is single-target, the former multi-target. We'll learn more about them later.


Healing (Recovery)
Nass learns the Alpha version of this power at Level 10. For 5 PP, Nass will cancel the "cold", "sunstroke" or "sleep" condition on himself or one friend. It's invaluable in certain parts of the game (anywhere those conditions are common, basically), as the alternative is to waste valuable pack space on Cold remedies and the like. Not much to say about Healing beyond that.


Hypnosis (Assist)
Nass learns the Alpha version of this power at Level 4. For 6 PP, Nass will try to put one enemy to sleep. This has only a 50% chance of working. Enemies that are vulnerable (such as Black Antoids) have a 99% chance to be affected, while those that are resistant (like Frankystein Mark II) only fall asleep 10% of the time. And some enemies are completely immune, like Attack Slugs. Incidentally, Nass and friends are considered "vulnerable" to everything.

A sleeping enemy (or a sleeping Nass) has a 25% chance to wake up each turn. They also have a 50% chance to wake up when you Bash on them.


Lifeup (Recovery)
Nass learns the Alpha version of this power at Level 2. For 5 PP, Nass restores 100 HP [±25%] to himself or one friend. Right now that's a straight-up full heal, but even later in the game it remains useful when you just want to top off someone's health. I personally consider Lifeup to be far more valuable than Bacon/SMAP, so I don't use the latter much except against bosses.


PSI Magnet (Recovery)
Titanic Ant used this one against us. It drains 2-8 PP from its target - and I do mean "drains," the Ant gets to keep it. We will be seeing, very soon, why exactly I've nicknamed this power PSI Fuck You.


PSI Shield (Assist)
This is what Buzz Buzz used to protect us from Starman Junior. It completely absorbs the next three PSI attacks against the protected person, and otherwise functions much like Shield. There is a way to break a PSI Shield but we haven't seen it yet. A character can't be protected by both types of Shield at once.


Shield (Assist)
Nass learns the Alpha version of this power at Level 12. For 6 PP, he puts a shield of light upon himself or a friend, reducing the damage they take from physical attacks by half. The shield breaks after getting hit three times, and a SMAAAAASH! will break it instantly. You can cast it again to reset the counter to three.