Part 198: Coyote and the Frog

Welcome back to Coyote's Tales! This is a Mime run, with a few catches:

Coyote must always be alone. (This is a solo Mime run.)

Coyote is of the land, and needs nothing besides what he can get for himself. (This is a "living off the land" run.)

Coyote is restless, and a bit of a coward. (This is a low-level run.)

Coyote is his own worst enemy. (I will eliminate one ability that I use in reach boss battle, after each boss battle. I'll be able to use those abilities between bosses, but not in boss battles. Abilities unusable against bosses or in solo runs will not be party of my list in the first place, so I won't have things like !Revive to lose.)

After just two boss battles, I've already lost !Calm and !Attack. I had to lose !Attack after Karlabos, because I couldn't mess around with that SOB and throw in a worthless ability to sacrifice.

Onward!

Solo Mime, Episode Two:
Coyote and the Frog

Coyote finds himself adrift, cold and hungry.



Soon, he meets a Siren:



Alright, here's what I am going with for this battle:



Why !Aim? Coyote picked up the flail in the Ship Graveyard, and it's hit rate is atrocious. !Aim will let me use that reliably, and !Steal will still let me lift something from Siren in lieu of !Mug. !Steal will also be what I lose when this is over, since it's redundant with !Mug. !Chakra is there for obvious reasons.



Siren opens with Haste, and then Protect. Coyote, on the other hand...



That's when Coyote realized that a creature who deals in souls probably has nothing of material value.

I waste that turn, and she has Protect up by the time I use !Aim. it hits for 48, but it's hard to say how effective that is. It has a wide-ranging damage output. 48 is... ok, I guess. It's as much as Coyote was averaging against the denizens of the dungeon.



Luckily, the Flail seems to not care about Siren's defense while she's in undead mode. It may not even care about Protect, but I doubt it. It's hard to tell with the damage swinging all over the place.

Then Siren starts in with Venomous Clasp. the poison isn't too big of a deal, since Chakra cures it while healing HP. The bigger problem is that she can kill Coyote in three attacks. With her hasted, that's going to be a problem. When she uses Slow, that seals the deal. Coyote can't do enough damage fast enough, and he can't keep up with her attacks. He suffers through a few cycles of it, but soon she finally beats him to the punch and finishes the job.





So !Steal is worthless here. That was a huge mistake. I have to trade it out for something that will help me win. Unfortunately, since I can't buy spells, !White, !Black, and !Red aren't much help. What I really want is a solution to the haste/slow, but I don't have a direct answer.

To make a long story short, I tried a couple more load outs, but neither worked very well. Then I got a bit suspicious and checked the thread.

People are beating Siren at level 12 or more. Coyote is at level 8.

I'll chalk this one up to "Coyote-esque Mistakes" as well. Between my adherence to the low-level challenge and my absence from the game for a few days, I lost my way a bit. Time to level up a bit. Coyote's probably won less than ten random battles, and he's still leveling up every other battle (or so it seems). This won't take long.

Coyote goes from 142 HP to 221. The Flail goes from doing 22-70 damage to 36-96 damage. He's now level 11. So let's try this again with !Aim, !Chakra, and Counter. I still don't have a solution to Slow or Haste, so I'm hoping that Counter will let Coyote hit Siren more often. !Aim stays to make use of the Flail, and !Chakra will still help with poison even though Coyote's HP is not rapidly outpacing it's healing factor. That might be what I choose to lose, actually, since I have better healing options waiting in the wings. Here's Coyote's stats going into his second try at Siren:



She opens with Slow. I'm no that mad because it was inevitable. She doesn't Haste herself for quite a while though, which helps a bit. Coyote has enough HP to survive 4 Venomous Clasps and/or spells with plenty of HP to spare, and that's the biggest help. He's faster, too, so Siren can't bury him under 4-5 actions to his one once she gets Haste and Slow going. Counter works a bunch of times, only missing once. Maybe I was just unlucky with the flail's hit rate earlier. !Aim, of course, makes Coyote's regular attacks always hit.

The best part is the flail's bizarre ability to ignore defense, and seemingly Protect as well:



This happens over and over, while Siren spams Libra, Protect, and Slow uselessly.



Siren plotted and schemed, trying to ensnare Coyote. Coyote's reply was simple:

"You can't trick a trickster. When it's time to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."







Siren
Coyote's Level: 11
Abilities Used: !Aim, !Chakra, Counter
Deaths: 3
Total Boss Deaths: 5
Coyote-esque Mistakes: 2
Total Coyote-esque Mistakes: 4

So now I need to get rid of one of the abilities I just used: !Aim, !Chakra, or Counter. I'm definitely keeping Counter for later. !Aim is a bit redundant with !Mug, !Rapid Fire, and !Jump, but I've already lost !Attack, so it's risky to lose another basic attack ability so early. I'm going to lose !Chakra because it's less essential, and not that great in Coyote's hands to boot. It served me well in the early game, but I won't need it for bosses anymore. (I'll still use it in random battles, though!) If I need serious healing for a boss, I'll use !Lance.

!Items
!Attack
!Guard
!Chakra
!Focus
!Steal
!Mug
!Jump
!Lance
!Image
!Throw
!Mineuchi
!Zeninage
!Ianuki
!Animals
!Aim
!Rapid Fire
!Call
!Check
!Scan
!Calm
!Control
!Catch
!Mix
!Drink
!Recover
!Gaia
!Hide
!Sing
!Flirt
!Dance
!Spellblade
!White
!Black
!Time
!Summon
!Red
!Dualcast
!Blue
!Oath
!Condemn
!Predict
!Open Fire
!Blade Blitz
!Finisher

Equip Shields
Equip Swords
Equip Armor
Equip Ribbon
Equip Lances
Equip Katanas
Equip Axes
Equip Bows
Equip Whips
Equip Harps
Artful Dodger
HP +10%
HP +20%
HP +30%
MP +10%
MP +30%
Barehanded
Two-Handed
Dual-Wield
Pharmacology
Counter
Shirahadori
Learning
Magic Shell
Berserk
Equip Rods
Undead
Long Reach

Coyote wanders into a village, still wet and cold and hungry.



Coyote is drawn always to his natural habitat.



Wait. What does this even mean? It doesn't even insinuate anything all that dirty. Unless you get really extreme with your imagination.

"Leave the drunken, dirty jokes to the professionals."

I get the Frost Rod and play the piano. There's not much else here for me, since I can't buy anything. I ripped off a few Gold Needles out in the field (and ran, incidentally), which are also useless unless I pull the pin on good ol' !Mix at some point.

Next up is North Mountain.

I lift the Silver Specs from a random battle, and I'm disappointed that I can't learn Flash when the tombstones don't have enough MP to cast it properly. Aside form that addition and the shield upgrade I found form the last boss, Coyote is still using the same gear. (I should say how much I love shields in this run, since I just got done with that ranger run. Being able to use a shield feels like cheating to me.)

Going into the fight with Magissa and Forza, here's what I'm going with:



!Aim is because I am still using the Flail. !Blue is mainly for Vampire, to get double-duty out of my healing. Learning is just to learn Aero ASAP, to beef up !Blue a bit more. I'm going to have to lean on !Blue a lot for spellcasting since I can't buy spells.

The battle with Magissa goes well at first. The Flail is still doing 33-96 damage, and I get a few of those in before I see a scare out of her: she tries and fails at Drain. I assume (hope) that it doesn't show up in her script for a while, but I am mistaken:



There isn't much I can do about Drain. Worse yet, I had hit her once for 36 in that battle and she opened up with a Drain for 180 as her second action. My Vampire won't do the same thing. It's limited to my missing HP. Lame.



You know what? I do have an answer to this nonsense.



This is a double-edged sword. It'll more than neutralize Drain and allow it to heal me, but I won't have any other means of healing. I'll have to take out Forza in a hurry. I don't know if this load-out will work, honestly, so we'll see what happens.



It works, and Magissa summons Forza as I am maxed-out on HP. Now I have a tough choice: finish her off (which should only take one or two attacks), or leave her alone and go after Forza. She's essentially my healer, but if she doesn't use Drain, the two of them will kill me fast. I go after her, thinking she is only good for one more Drain anyway. She goes down in one swing of the Flail. Having blocked Forza's first tackle, I'm still at max HP. Now it's just a melee with Forza:





Not pictured: me losing the race.

I got a bunch of solid hits in on him, but I don't get any more help from the Bronze Shield and Coyote dies. Forza is fast.

I'll chalk that one up to a mistake. Undead is a good idea, but I need to experiment to make it work. I need to be able to heal. I'm hoping (and now I think I'm remembering an earlier run ITT) that Vampire will still heal me and not her if I'm undead. That makes conceptual sense, but I just don't remember for certain if Undead just reverses the flow of healing for everything. Let's try this load-out:



Vampire (and Goblin Punch, I suppose) will be my only offense. That's more than enough. Learning is still there for Aero, and if Undead is compatible with Vampire, this should be a cake walk.





Oh, and I got Aero, too:



I end up using Goblin Punch a bunch because they aren't hitting me fast or hard enough for Vampire to deal gobs of damage. This one goes from a challenge to a joke, with just the flip of one ability. This is Mime Life.





Magissa and Forza
Coyote's Level: 11
Abilities Used: !Blue, Undead, Learning
Deaths: 3
Total Boss Deaths: 8
Coyote-esque Mistakes: 1
Total Coyote-esque Mistakes: 5

Now I have to lose one: !Blue, Learning, or Undead. There's no way I'm losing !Blue. I don't know if I'll want to use (or be able to use) Learning in a future boss battle, so I'm going to keep it. Undead worked like a charm here, but it's pretty corner case, and I think that by the time I find another battle that it could help in the same way, I'll have other options anyway. So I'm going to lose Undead.

!Items
!Attack
!Guard
!Chakra
!Focus
!Steal
!Mug
!Jump
!Lance
!Image
!Throw
!Mineuchi
!Zeninage
!Ianuki
!Animals
!Aim
!Rapid Fire
!Call
!Check
!Scan
!Calm
!Control
!Catch
!Mix
!Drink
!Recover
!Gaia
!Hide
!Sing
!Flirt
!Dance
!Spellblade
!White
!Black
!Time
!Summon
!Red
!Dualcast
!Blue
!Oath
!Condemn
!Predict
!Open Fire
!Blade Blitz
!Finisher

Equip Shields
Equip Swords
Equip Armor
Equip Ribbon
Equip Lances
Equip Katanas
Equip Axes
Equip Bows
Equip Whips
Equip Harps
Artful Dodger
HP +10%
HP +20%
HP +30%
MP +10%
MP +30%
Barehanded
Two-Handed
Dual-Wield
Pharmacology
Counter
Shirahadori
Learning
Magic Shell
Berserk
Equip Rods
Undead
Long Reach

I loot Tycoon Castle for some precious, precious consumables, and a few pieces of equipment that might help:

Hi Potion
Cottage
Ether x 2
Elixir x 2
Phoenix Down x 2
Maiden's Kiss
Diamond Bell
Shiruken
Ashura

The Ashura katana gives Coyote 42 attack power and is far and away the strongest weapon available to him right now. (In contrast, the Whip I just got from Magissa gives him 26 and also requires an ability to use, and the flail and frost rod are both a 16.)

Walse and Walse Castle has a few things for Coyote as well:

Silver Specs
Tent
Phoenix Down
Worthless gold

I already have Silver Specs for running !Mug pretty much all the time between bosses. The tent is nice, but otherwise this place sucks.

Oh, wait. There's more.

Here's how I'm dealing with Jackanapes at level 11:



!Flee is necessary to run instantly instead of the risk of waiting through a Jackanapes turn or two or three. Vigilance will prevent those back attacks that basically doom Coyote. Even in the back row, a critical hit is enough to one-shot Coyote at this level, so I can't afford to let Jackanapes go first. I tried the basement run just with that, but it wasn't enough. Jackanapes still got the initiative on me and killed me more often than not. That's where Artful Dodger comes in. It gives Coyote an evasion chance, but more importantly it lets him go first. It's !Flee all the way through from there. Coyote learns a worthless !Time spell (Speed, which I realize now that I forgot to get in Walker's run), gets some more worthless gold, and picks up the Elf Mantle, AKA the Solo Run's Best Friend.

Between that, the Bronze Shield, and the Mythril Helm (that mysteriously appeared in my inventory and I assume is the Tycoon King's helm), I'm feeling pretty good about Coyote's gear:



I make a run at Shiva, and I think I have a good strategy to beat her at such a low level:



I'm not sure how much damage !Bladeblitz is going to do, but a fortuitous random encounter right in front of Shiva lets me try it out. It deals 120-350 damage (to all opponents)! I don't remember the HP of Shiva's guardians, but it's worth a shot.



Yipes. But unfortunately, it doesn't matter how much damage I can do with !Bladeblitz. All of the minions survive it, even if I hit one for 300+, and there's just too many of them. Shiva by herself can almost one-shot Coyote at this level. Coyote dies honorably, but foolishly. She'll have to wait for now. It's a shame because I want to build up !Summon ASAP, because I can't buy spells for other magic schools. But whatever. I have to pick my battles (literally). I won't count this death, since it was an experiment, and an ill-advised one.

I do pick up Pond's Chorus on my way out, but not without another Coyote-esque mistake:



Coyote was turned into a frog.

"Surely I can solve this problem," Coyote said. "I am the most clever being, and I have every thing under the sun at my command."

But the Coyote, despite all his planning, could not cure the curse. He had prepared too well to be turned into a frog, that he simply forgot to pack his medicines.



Yeah. I'm using !Mimic, !Mug, !Blue, and Learning. I have no way to cure Coyote of the condition in combat. I was able to get a Vampire off due to Mimic, but it doesn't work because Coyote is a frog. That means it's a race: I have to slowly beat the frog to death before it does the same to me. I do, but only just. This would be a lot simpler if I had access to the !Item command. #mimeproblems.



Note Coyote's HP at the end of this.

I lift a mythril sword from an ice soldier on the way out. Mimes can't use swords normally, but it's another option if I use Equip Swords. I'm rapidly losing my patience with the flail, so that might be something I do more often in the future.

!Blue has become my go-to ability for walking around between bosses. Aero can deal magic damage, Vampire can heal me, Goblin Punch is free, and Pond's Chorus can hose some nasty encounters. I'm still running like a coward most of the time, and a ton of battles amount to "Mug once and run like the wind." That actually works to take something and leave before the enemies get an action. I feel like I'm cheating when I get the Mythril Sword this way.

Coyote is sly despite his failures, and foolish despite his success.

In Walse Tower, I lift a Mythril Knife, and that finally ends Coyote's use of the flail. The Silk Robe also upgrades Coyote's armor, so now he's completely decked-out with new gear. I get a Silver Armlet that I'll never use, and I lift a Rod from a mage.

So here's what I'm using for Garula:



!Check is useless and is a freebie like !Calm was. !Blue should easily keep Coyote healthy and Goblin Punch is as good as a physical attack at this point. Shirahdori hoses Garula, who just uses physical attacks.

I end up needing Shirahdori. Garula is fast if nothing else. He only does about 20 damage to Coyote in the back row, but he gets three attacks to Coyote's one by the late stages of the battle. But between the Elf Mantle, Bronze Shield, and Shirahdori, Garula can only hit Coyote about 20% of the time. Meanwhile, Coyote sticks to Aero because it hits harder than everythin else I have set up on him. I spam !Mimic to keep using Aero without spending MP, not that it is an big issue. I even give !Check a use, because why not?







Yeah. Garula dies. Nothing else to report.



Garula
Coyote's Level: 12
Abilities Used: !Blue, !Check, Shirahdori
Deaths: 0
Total Boss Deaths: 8
Coyote-esque Mistakes: 1 (This one is from the frog fiasco, above)
Total Coyote-esque Mistakes: 6

So now I have to choose between !Blue, !Check, and Shirahdori to lose. Yeop...

!Items
!Attack
!Guard
!Chakra
!Focus
!Steal
!Mug
!Jump
!Lance
!Image
!Throw
!Mineuchi
!Zeninage
!Ianuki
!Animals
!Aim
!Rapid Fire
!Call
!Check
!Scan
!Calm
!Control
!Catch
!Mix
!Drink
!Recover
!Gaia
!Hide
!Sing
!Flirt
!Dance
!Spellblade
!White
!Black
!Time
!Summon
!Red
!Dualcast
!Blue
!Oath
!Condemn
!Predict
!Open Fire
!Blade Blitz
!Finisher

Equip Shields
Equip Swords
Equip Armor
Equip Ribbon
Equip Lances
Equip Katanas
Equip Axes
Equip Bows
Equip Whips
Equip Harps
Artful Dodger
HP +10%
HP +20%
HP +30%
MP +10%
MP +30%
Barehanded
Two-Handed
Dual-Wield
Pharmacology
Counter
Shirahadori
Learning
Magic Shell
Berserk
Equip Rods
Undead
Long Reach

No surprises, there. It's nice to finally have an uncomplicated boss battle to spend a freebie.

But Coyote is a sketchy customer, and no one trusts him.



Poor Coyote.



Next time: Coyote and the Flame.