Part 61: Scarlets - Part 3

Alright, here we go. Lunatic doesn't change the first part of the chapter much, but all my characters being superpowered certainly does.



More importantly, something to keep in mind here: do not have Cirno use Grit here. Try not to have Marisa, Alice, or (if you got it on her) Dai use Alert either. Being able to nullify damage is going to be really important, so don't waste your SP on the bats.



A lot of these assholes are going to be Defending. It's quite annoying, and definitely one of the downsides to God mode.



I imagine nobody wants to read about how I dealt with the bats, so I'm going to skip ahead.



By Turn 6, I've cleared up most of the bats. I made two dumb mistakes (having Dai Support Defend Keine and having Marisa Support Attack with Stardust Reverie) in the process, but nothing that will seriously hurt me.



Let's talk about Flandre. Lunatic has given her two important tools that make this chapter much more frustrating.



First, Flandre can Defend now. Not only does this mean Starbow Break can't be cheesed anymore, it makes pretty much the entire fight much more of a slog because Lunatic has also increased Flandre's HP. If you can't defeat her fast enough, she'll regenerate huge chunks of her health back. And it's kind of hard to win quickly when you're doing half damage!



Second, and much more importantly, Spirits. Like practically every other boss, Flandre has Strike to ensure she hits you with her overpowered attacks. But unlike every other boss,



Flandre is also packing Fury. If you try and have your units cluster into Support formations (like I've done for every single boss since I could), she's just going to ignore it and smack a unit directly.



Support Defend is still the only real way to handle Flandre's massive damage output though, so you need to get clever and think of a way around Fury.



Method 1 is to not cluster all of your units together into one block. I'm not really sure exactly what causes Flandre to cast Fury, but I've found that splitting up my army into two groups helps. Could have just been luck I suppose.



Method 2, which you'll probably end up doing by accident, is to outlast Flandre's SP. She'll regenerate 5 SP a turn, but if you have her go crazy with the Spirits she'll eventually reach a state where she can only cast something once every other turn.



I will be going with method 2 since I'm using the same strategy as last time.



Oddly enough, she didn't cast either Strike or Fury on the enemy phase afterwards.



I took the opportunity to hammer away at her.



Having units with damage-nullifying spirits start off Support Attacks is the ideal strategy here since it lets you skip past Defend.



And if worst comes to worst, suiciding units is always an option. Sakuya in particular is a great choice for since she's pretty lackluster on Lunatic.



Oh good, I can see her health now.



I was hoping Marisa would get a critical and take down Flandre without losing an Alert, but alas.



At least Alice gets to keep her cast.



On enemy phase, Flandre was polite enough to not cast Fury again! If she had, Dai would be dead right now and I would have to restart.



But she still used Strike, so Cirno and Alice will be attacking first.



Speaking of Alice, I wasn't sure if I should have her do this or Shanghai Doll, since Nitori was in position to join in,



but I'd say I made the right choice.



Also Keine missed a 93% because why not. If Headbutt doesn't connect, there's a hilarious boinging sound as Keine kind of flops away.



Moving on, my final action of the turn is having Reimu cripple Flandre with Rumia's help.



There's nothing stopping me from just taking her down now, but I really don't want to start Four of a Kind like this.







Uh, alright.



Cirno and Keine finish off the second health bar.



Four of a Kind is absolutely horrifying on Lunatic since every clone has both flavors of Support. If I didn't start it on my phase, I'd have to deal with my own strategy.



And of course, the attack itself still hits like a truck.



The best strategy is to freak out and nuke Flandre into the ground. You can regenerate most of your MP back during the next spell, so just go nuts.



Marisa and Alice do 10,000 damage,



Alice and Nitori do 9000,



and I decide to take a risk for the final blow. Rumia uses up my first bomb,



and Sakuya goes for the prize.


Watch my make-shift tribute to the Touhouvania 2 LP!



Sakuya gets a level too, for all the good that'll do her.



Here we go. On Lunatic, And Then Will There Be None? is seven turns long.



And like I mentioned on the Normal playthrough, Flandre will cast Strike to make sure she hits.



Worse, you have to let her do this. You need to make sure she doesn't start Ripples of 495 Years with enough SP to cast Strike, because if she does the final spell turns into a meatgrinder.



Not that this spell isn't a meatgrinder itself. Nitori here has Unfocused Movement Lvl 9, and she can only just barely make it to the safe zone. On a normal playthrough, this attack will rip right through your resources since barring perfect placement there's no way you can save everyone.



This makes Dai incredibly valuable. If you enter this phase of the battle with her dead, you might as well just start over.



Sakuya and Keine couldn't quite make it on turn 6.



Thankfully that was one of the turns Flandre didn't have enough SP for Strike.



Not so thankfully, the safespot on Turn 6 is way out of anybody's reach. And this is a turn where Flandre has Strike!



I have Nitori shove some sake down Keine's throat,



then have everyone just cluster up. I also had everyone who could cast a defensive spirit do so, with the exception of Marisa since she needs to save up for Valor.



And then I remembered that turn 6 is just a fakeout because Flandre is kind of a dick.



So yeah, on Lunatic you're safe for two turns instead of one.



This isn't as kind as it seems since it means that Flandre is going to have enough SP to cast Strike and Fury on the first turn of Ripples of 495 Years no matter what.



So I'm going to have to stall for a turn (and thankfully only a turn). I really, really hope Flandre won't move out of the range of Master Spark.



She didn't!



It's time to wrap this up.



Cirno bombs away the danmaku,



and Reimu slams Flandre for 8662 damage. A nice start I never got to follow up because... do I even need to tell you anymore?

I could restart the chapter and try again but I think you can see how I would have won. Meditation Slash and Sakuya's World would cripple Flandre, then Danmaku Power Lvl 3 + Valor + Master Spark + Shanghai Doll would take her out for good. And if it didn't, everyone else could just bum rush her until she falls.

I imagine at this point you're wondering what the big deal was about, since my trip through this chapter was fairly smooth. Well that's because everyone's maxed out. I really can't stress how much that's leveling the playing field; not only did I enter this spell with everyone at high health (since everyone had the movement range to make it through the Map attack), I actually managed to tank Ripples of 495 Years twice. In a normal run, Flandre would have straight up murdered two units with those (and possibly more if she had enough SP to keep on casting Strike). And if she had hit someone important, like anyone with a finisher, I'd be kind of screwed! And the differences don't just stop there; throughout the entire fight I was hitting for much more damage than I really should've, speeding up the battle dramatically and preventing it from turning into a war of attrition, which Flandre is much better equipped to win.

An actual Lunatic run of Chapter 15 is straight up unfun. And yet, FMW2's final chapter on Lunatic is even worse.



I'll end this update with Marisa's dynamic kill on Flandre. Kind of an odd thing to be shouting at someone you're firing a gigantic laser beam at. _{It's a Nanoha reference.}