Part 59: Hero of the Poor - Karna - Part 2

Karna 2

So before we deep dive into Karna stage 2, a little about his history in the franchise. His first appearance was in Fate/apocrypha as the Lancer of Red (the Lancer affiliated with the Red faction) and one of that faction's strongest assets (especially when, among your comparisons, are Achilles and Mordred). His first appearance was a sparring partner for the Saber of Black, Siegfried, and Jeanne d'Arc. That fight ended with all parties retreating (including Jeanne having to repack her luggage...), and afterwards, Karna continued to serve the Red faction until he questioned its leader, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada.

While Karna was sworn to serve the one who summoned him, he found out that Amakusa had relieved all the Red Masters of their Command Seals, which somewhat made him question his choice in superiors, but, being Karna, he accepted things as they were and continued to fight in the name of the Red faction. He spared the Rider of Black from annihilation near the end of the story in return for the main character, Sieg, rescuing his actual Master from captivity and giving him the rematch he desired. He was defeated after this deal had been carried out to the satisfaction of both parties, after Sieg had pushed Siegfried's (long story) power as a Servant to its limits, namely by using Siegfried's Noble Phantasm, Balmung, several times in a row.

His next appearance was on the Moon, namely in the Sakura Labyrinth. As mentioned in the prior update, his Master was Jinako Carigiri, who was an otaku-type who really didn't want to end up in a war with her life on the line. Karna eventually surrendered his special armor to Jinako to protect her life, which ended up costing his own after Hakuno and her Servant defeated the Hero of Charity. Karna was happy with his own life disappearing so that Jinako could live.

Like most other well-known Servants from this series, Karna has also shown up in Grand Order. For North America-only players of Grand Order, he'll be making his first storyline appearance in the upcoming E Pluribus Unum chapter, where he aids Thomas Edison's army against the Celtic army. In a much later chapter, he fights some pretty powerful prey alongside his third half-brother, and the brothers decide to put aside differences by seeing how many each Hero can kill. His reaction to the summoning of Arjuna, he finds a little awkward, but believes it's okay since it's what his mother always would have wanted.


Karna stage 2

Our Caster had hoped to bring down the Saber armies and unite the new SE.RA.PH, but her aspirations were crushed when she was one step away from victory. Caster had failed against the Forces of Destruction, but that was actually a good thing. She changed her evil ways and decided to fight for the good of SE.RA.PH. With all the power they had left, Caster and her Master attacked the Forces of Destruction's main camp. They were able to front a life-or-death assault, but...

Take a look around, will you, Mr. Karna? We're in the middle of the enemy camp, the fate of SE.RA.PH depends on us, and it's like I'm in the fields of Nasu all over again!

The fields of Nasu were where Tamamo no Mae had been chased to after she was run out of Emperor Toba's court and the place where she met her earthly end.

...I understand. If we don't make it through, there'll be no tomorrow for SE.RA.PH. Caster, I'll take the lead here. The wounds Altera gave you haven't healed yet, have they? So it's my duty as your general.

Oh, I'd love nothing more than that, but...Mr. Karna, can I ask why you're so gung-ho about this? I don't remember going above and beyond for you...

You didn't. You've always been yourself. I just now realized how fond I am of you and your group.

What?! Even though we have, like, zero curry shops around here?!

I like that you don't take things so seriously. ...All right. Thank you for the encouragement. Leave the rest to me!



So here's the skinny on this stage. You remember Orchid Words stage 4, right? It was just after Altera had made her first appearance, and we were on this stage, with a super-powered Altera, Corroded Liz, and Jeanne all on the attack. Well, we've got that, but here's why this is harder to get an EX rank on. In Orchid Words, after completing the Regime Matrix you'd summon a portal that would take you to a separate field with Gilgamesh as your final enemy.

Which meant you could complete the Regime Matrix, then go around and take around Sectors at your leisure. Here, once you finish the Matrix, you'll summon Jeanne, and she's the final boss here (as always, Super Altera is completely optional to fight). She will, of course, chase you around and take damage from regular attacks and EMs. So you'd think you could just pace yourself and only taking over the 1-key Sectors, but that would mean that your doom would be sealed by Iskandar taking over your 4-key Sector, and an enemy invasion taking your 2-key Sector. So you can't do that.

Here's how I played it. Since the Forces of Destruction want to be aggressive, let's take the fight to them. I immediately ignored my starting Sector (the westernmost one), and went after Elizabeth before she could launch her invasion. After I deal with Elizabeth, then I go after Iskandar. You might think you could indulge yourself by going after Super Altera (Lu Bu is totally boned. Don't even thinking about bailing him out). I guess, technically speaking, one could run around and gather all the NP circuits about, equip one of the highest-level Mystic Codes with 3 Moon Drive usages, and go after Altera.

However, this is waaaay more effort than is really necessary to finish this stage with an EX rank on Hard or Very Hard. Like in Orchid 4, she'll finish off Lu Bu, go after Medusa, then go about randomly and take over any blue Sectors she can get her hands on. She's fairly easy to ignore since she doesn't chase after you. Your objective near the start should be to blunt the most severe enemy invasions (Elizabeth's and Iskandar's soon-invasion of the southernmost Sector), then secure territorial integrity as much as possible. Plants generate like crazy in this stage, so you'll be running around all over the place.

Generally speaking, my advice if you want to EX this stage, don't. It took me three attempts to do so. To be fair, I didn't use one of the recordings because I wasn't actually capturing any sound that time. How embarrassing.



Luckily Elizabeth didn't take me too long. For some reason some of Karna's attacks seem to be able to stagger powered-up enemies.



See how fast this stage spirals out of control? The Sector we saved from Elizabeth Invasion is under attack, the Iskandar-controlled Sector will shortly be under attack, Medusa is under attack, and I have to go to the south to take out that Plant before IT can launch an attack. It's quite a brouhaha. When an allied or enemy Servant falls in a Sector, the Sector keys that were attached to them (2), get added to that Sector. That's why a previously 1-key Sector became a 3-key one.



Territorial victory, and we've got so much work to do. THIS is why EX rank is so hard. The special dialogue here for Jeanne's appearance is...

This score will be settled. The fake saint will be beaten.

...Heroic Spirit of the Sun, I have no other choice but to show you where you've misstepped. Show me your power.

...Very well. You're worthy of it.

Jeanne actually thinks quite highly of Karna. She thinks of him as a saintly person, what with the whole focus on the poor he has. There's nothing personal going on here.



So it's really hard to conquer so much of the map with Jeanne constantly tagging along and soaking up excess damage. So, you need to be careful of how you fight here. This is one circumstance where S T really comes in handy, because he just fires a fireball straight in front of him, limiting the amount of damage the "fake saint" will take, as long as she's not caught up in it. Charge forward, dragging as many robo-Aggressors as you can, then S Ting them over and over. It's a pleasure.



Another trick is luring Jeanne to a conquered Sector, she'll waste time there, then go to an enemy Sector while she's distracted doing nothing. It's tedious, but I'm committed to this...for some reason.



Sheesh.



After I lured Jeanne away again, I decided to use my NP in the above Sector. Let's see what the old boy's got in store for us.









Vasavi Shakti, the name of Karna's Noble Phantasm, is the true name of his spear. As mentioned before, Indra's spear was bestowed upon Karna after Indra removed Karna's armor, a compensation that Indra felt would not insult his honor, and do justice onto the man who touched him so. The Noble Phantasm animation refers to his armor being taken, and the fragments of his armor adorning his spear to unleash its full power. The power to kill even a god in a single blow.

In a gameplay sense, Karna's NP is unique, and something it shares with Jeanne's NP in this game. These are the only two NPs that apply some demerit after you use them. In Karna's case, his defense significantly drops after usage, and in Jeanne's case...well, that would be telling, wouldn't it?



So, um...just waiting for Altera to move her lazy ass from the last unconquered Sector to the place she started from...but she's sure taking her time.



So, um... I finished the Fate/apocrypha anime about a week and change ago. Overall, I enjoyed it, but it's a very odd beast, I think. It just feels kinda...awkward? Maybe it's because it started out as an MMO that eventually turned into a light novel series, but some parts about it just feel kind of strange. Not to say it didn't have some spectacular moments, of course. I was quite surprised Astolfo survived to the end. Never thought the comic relief character would last the entire story. Maybe someday I'll revisit it.



And Last Encore. I just got past the episode with Drake vs. Nero. This one feels even weirder. I never played Fate/EXTRA so I can't compare it to the game the way an actual player could, but it feels very... It's a very odd show, I will give it that. I'm not sure I'm entirely feeling it right now, but that's certainly not say I won't keep watching it.



Gee thanks for really hustling there. Anyway, last Sector, simple mop-up, Jeanne has very little health, yada yada yada. Hanging out in transition areas is nice because enemies won't chase you there. Which normally is not a huge deal, except when you're waiting for the galaxy's slowest conqueror to move somewhere. Luckily the final Sector only had one Aggressor (not counting Jeanne). Guess the Forces didn't have time to change the sign on the door before I came knocking.

Oh, and if all Aggressors die at the same time the boss Servant dies, it still counts as if you took over the Sector.



I've had quite enough of Karna stage 2 to last a lifetime.



Hold on, Karna. You don't know what Altera truly is. You cannot defeat her head-on. You should fall back and find a way to seal her away instead.

I would agree, except that if we did do that, 70% of SE.RA.PH would be destroyed. The only way to prevent that kind of loss is to hunt Altera down.

...You could defeat her as a Hero. I believe that. But the problem is what comes after... If Altera falls, the White Titan of Tassili n'Ajjer will appear. Take heed, Karna. You must not strike down Altera. If you truly wish to protect the future of SE.RA.PH, you must abandon Caster.

Tassili n'Ajjer is a real place, specifically a park in far southeastern Algeria. It means "Plateau of the rivers" in the Berber languages of northern Africa. It has one of the world's largest collections of prehistoric cave art, and became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1982. In this game's universe, it's where depictions of Sephyr were found, which is why Sephyr is occasionally referred to like that.

...Is that so? Hmm, this is getting complicated...