Part 19: Tippacanoe and Mihnwu Too! Mystic Knight Episode 06

Tippacanoe and Mihnwu Too! Mystic Knight Episode 06

Last time we broke through some of the games nastier roadblocks for challenge runs. Today we stop before the next. First, let's finish the one part of the game where Mihnwu isn't included.



Screw the rules, I have money. And that's that. Mihnwu is back. Escape from the castle, clash on the big bridge, yadayadayada.

Note - This instance of Gilgamesh can drop an elixir, if you're desperate enough to reset for one.


Didn't we just fight you?


Gilgamesh is susceptible to old. Since the GBA version makes him immune to silence, I can't do anything about his near-death script. So weakening him in any way is important.


Back to the Main Gauche and Fira sword to heal when needed.


About 300 HP per attack brings about his panic button pretty quick.


Once this phase kicks in, he'll do a regular attack (aged to level 1 it does 0, when it even breaks through evasion), a weak thunder attack, or jump.


Jump is not weak and unavoidable. If Gilgamesh is feeling nasy, you can say goodbye to 700HP between Mihnwu's actions. But Fira Sword heals almost all of it back up.


Oh dear, I fear he has the vapours.

Final Level - 36
Total Deaths - 0

Before and after Gilgamesh, there's 2 spans of the bridge. There are encounter tiles to the left, center or right at defined spots. You can avoid them if you're determined.


So we're thrown half the world away to the middle of nowhere. In a regular game, the Fairy Orcs do virtually nothing. In a single character challenge, they either revive your training weights, or zombify them. Even though it's useless in most of the challenge, having some holy water around to undo their mischief is a good idea. Not that your friends can do anything to hurt you or anyone else.


Mandrakes are undead, so a good strategy for 99% of this portion of the game is a very bad idea for them. Most undead have the decency to look dead.


The next town has some very good things. The sleep blade is one of the less good ones.


As is the gold helm.


The magic shop is another deal altogether. Here we get an alternative to falling on our own flaming sword, we get a sap inflicting attack, and we get very reliable instant death.



Just getting some holy waters in case I need them.


The other item shop guy has These Hi-Potions. The capital T is justified. 500 HP healing rather than 50 or a rare elixir. For Mihnwu they're nice, and probably mitigated to out of battle use, but other Solo challengers aside from a thief or or mage, a true gift from God.

Now a brief interlude I'm calling the Parade of Chumps. These guys you can drain and slowly but surely end them.




This guy crashed the Parade. These guys will ruin you if not paying attention. They attack with Revenge (or ????, but without a prompt telling you), so what starts as 0 or pitiful damage begins to skyrocket. They are susceptible to break so paying attention they aren't a problem (guess who wasn't paying attention? smile:


Oh yeah, this guy.


I was so terrified by him I forgot how I handled it, or what level I was at to survive his onslaught.

Final Level - I guess 56 or something obscene


On the other hand, mastered Mystic Knight. One passive and 6 tiers of skills. Not the most interesting pool, but vv


Ladies and Gentlemen, the Best Weapon (except when it isn't smile:


Konago toaded me, and I took a beating.


This doesn't seem right...


There, all is right in the world again. I'm sad toad doesn't persist in cutscenes.


Because seeing a frog and 3 corpses squaring off with werewolves would have been gold.


One of the irritants of the dancing dagger is proc'ing confusion without doing damage. The forgotten 8th dwarf does not cotton to being confused, and immediately resets the battle.


One of 3 gimmick armors in the game, and the best. In exchange for good status immunity and high defense, you turn undead. Losing the ability to heal in battle from restorative items and getting a weakness to fire and holy. A fire ring corrects the fire handicap, and Holy comes up once much later. Inability to revive is irrelevant to a solo run. Mystic Knight can bypass the item handicap the same way it has since potions became obsolete. Licking their Fire Sword.

TL;DR, this just makes Mihnwu tougher with virtually no downsides.


Now, let's take the Bone Mail for a spin. Each of those five tiny flowers circling the big one does a single special attack with a status effect attached. Bone mail blocks confuse, old, poison and blindness; Four of the flowers. The fifth is paralyze, the one that it doesn't stop.

Unlucky rolls can stun lock you, and about 400 points of unanswered damage will take its toll over several rounds.


Third time is the charm.

The trick is to attack the one at the 8 o'clock position. If you're lucky, Temptango will proc and take him out of the battle for awhile. If you're unlucky you'll instantly destroy it and need to do it again in a turn or two when its respawned.


Several lucky sword dances takes out the main guy. His only use is to respawn the little ankle biters.


After that it's just mopping up the survivors.


It may not be nice to fool mother nature, but it's fun.




Final Level - 37
Total Deaths - 2


Forgot to get this before leaving Bal before. A stronger weapon when I need to avoid the randomness of the dancing dagger.


Next boss, again Gilgamesh has different tricks. Main danger comes from the percentile missile attack if it knocks you weak enough for a simple physical take down.


Sword Dance takes him into the second phase quickly.


Enkidu heals Gilgamesh nearly to full health with the Blue Magic White wind.


There goes about half of Enkidu's life. Enkidu tries out a second blue magic spell.


Remember when I warned you that using drain sword on Mandrake was a bad idea?


Enkidu didn't. And that's why you listen to people on the internet. There are no down sides to this life choice.




Final Level - 38
Total Deaths - 0

Next time, I would kill for a slow-sword.