Part 25: Day 12 - Gameplay

Day 12: Gameplay

Music: neutral 4


We need to promote two Agents today, and with so many rank 5 Agents I decide to bring back a few newbies to level up to ensure we make it. We WANT this mission cleared ASAP, missing it is a huge pain.



Tenebris and Credentia join the Control Team today. Since they need a total of 6 stat levels to become level 2, each one gets Temperance 2, so leveling up any other stat once will promote them.



Ishmael goes to the Training team.





Let's all do our best today!



Orders from the top, everyone!

I see… Tenebris and Credentia, you're alternating working on 1.76 MHz today. Remember: bring a radio and kick it.

Roger!

Don't screw it up.

How are you talking through that belt thing?

With my mouth. Obviously.

...I really hope you panic today, Blondie.



It's time. Remember to follow the protocols.

Hey, where's Mr.Black?

He's already been sent off to work with Rudolta. You're with Laetitia today, to try and get that Temperance up.

Nice! She's always just so darn pleasant.



...it's a bird.

It is indeed a bird.

A tiny bird cutie for the collection. I'm gonna' go say hi!

For there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men.

...I'm going to go check on the scarecrow.

Wait, your Prudence-




I used the mirror to spread my insight into Abnormalities into my other abilities. It's fine.

...Well okay then.



No matter how I look at it, it's just a bird… That's not cute at all, cutie. Oh well… Here's the report, boss!

Insight work..? Umm… but both Mizu and Talow have nearly hit the limit of their Prudence, and the damage it deals means Ishmael might die… Malkuth, do you have anyone free who could use some Insight training?

I have just the guy. Bishop, go get some training in!

Ma'am!



Our new Abnormality, Small Bird, is something of a fan favorite in this game. However, it deals Red damage and prefers Insight work, which makes it less than ideal for training. Bishop will be farming it. If we don't want it to breach, it's imperative to have someone working it before starting any works with any other Abnormalities.



It normally has a QC of 4, but it's already dropped to 1 after our second work on it. This is because its QC has a moderate chance to drop each time another work is started in the facility. This bird is a master escape artist. Another work later and we get its real name:



Punishing Bird? ...Doesn't look very punishing.



Things are uneventful through the Dawn, which is Green. Again. I accidentally spoiled the existence of Violet Ordeals in the thread earlier, so it'd be really nice if you gave me one, game!



Hey, that robot's mutilating the clerk!

...not a bad technique. I'll try it out on this thing!

At this point, not even their corpse attack is able to deal enough damage to our Agents to be threatening. So long as we keep them well away from the level 1 Agents, they've stopped being a threat.



See also: D.A.D. spanking a Doubt by themself, while wearing a suit weak to their primary attack type. Crimson aside, Dawns can be brute forced by having big enough numbers on our Agents.



The ordeal ends without incident.



That's a… Crimson Noon coming, right?

Yes, Manager. Our energy production is completed, so you do have the option-

The day ends when we finish getting every last piece of gear from the new Abnormality, and not a minute before.

As you like, X.



Hey captain, you ever get this feeling of encroaching dread for no reason?

Can't say as I have. I noticed a while ago that for all the talk about how 'dangerous' this place is, for us agent's it's not that big a deal. So long as we follow the orders, we always come out fine.

What about the clerks? They keep dying… can't we do something about it?

Nothing we can do, Tylana. They've got half the training we do, and management gives them peashooters and wet paper to defend themselves.

That's… inhumane.

No, that's life in the Wings! Compared to outside, this is nothing~

Hold on, we've got a signal.



Get used to this message. There's actually a mod to make it stop showing up for specifically this Abnormality because it breaches so often. I will not be using it.

...what.



Manager! Please do something about it! Someone could be hurt!

Yeah… Okay. I'll do something about it. Ishmael, how about you take care of the super dangerous birdie.



I try all things, I achieve what I can.



See? One damage. That's nothing to be concerned about.

I… Umm… Yeah! I guess you're right, manager! Everything's fine!



For there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men!

...Why'd it turn red?

Is that... steam coming out of its ears?





WHAT THE-

Music: First Trumpet


My body is but the lees of my-



Here's the rest of Punishing Bird's gimmick. While it breaks out frequently, the correct answer is to ignore it. If we don't, and try to suppress it, it turns red and murders whoever dared anger it. That attack dealt 843 damage, and our HP growth stops at 100!



...No, this one's on me. I underestimated an Abnormality. That's not happening again.

About time. Every time you're careless, people die.

Clerks still don't count, Yesod--What's the status of the bird?



It's… back in its cell.

On the plus side, once Punishing Bird is done with either pecking people or murdering someone who's angered it, it goes back home on its own. The danger level doesn't go down, however, so we'll be hearing the first trumpet song for a little bit longer.

...alright then. Let's just move on and take care of business.



That's a bit callous, isn't it? This is the first time an agent's died before...

Under this manager. It took a little longer than normal this time, but eventually someone dies. Then someone else. In the end, everyone is expendable.

That's… That just means we have to work even harder to understand the Abnormalities! So this doesn't happen.

Hey, just do your best. That's the most anyone here can do.

...woah. That bird has, like, a mouth in its stomach.

Oooh, so THAT'S why its belly opened up like that! It is a cutie after all~



In addition to counting against our ranking at the end of the day, when Agents die their gear is completely destroyed. Ishmael had one of each of One Sin's gear, and now we're back down to 4 of the 5 maximum. Retrying a day will reset this, and get us back both our employee and their gear-but we're going to press on and just buy back the gear with our spare boxes. We want to avoid losing our more valuable Agents just as much for the stuff they're wearing as for the time we spent building their stats.



A few moments later we hit our Noon, which re-triggers the first trumpet graphic (something which can happen if the danger level goes below 10, but then is booted back above it). Since the music is already playing first trumpet, nothing really changes.

Manager, we've identified the intruder.

What are they?



I instantly regret asking!



Welcome to The Harmony of Skin! One interesting note about these guys is that they only class as a TETH for the purpose of danger level, instead of a HE. This means that if not for Punishing Bird earlier, we wouldn't have heard an alarm at all.



It wipes out a couple clerks with a single stab of its tail. All of its attacks hit multiple targets, so we can't swarm it the same way as we did Scarecrow.

My people are dying. Your orders?

...let's just throw Mizu at it and see what happens.



This cutie's a toughie!

With nearly twice the HP of a Green Noon, Crimson Noon is harder to down-but on the upside we only have to deal with one. Also, claw attack.



Might need some help with this!

..!

Bishop, Medea, head down there and help her. I'll keep an eye out next to the Scarecrow's cell.

Umm… yes! Let's do that!



I'll take point! Take it out while it's focused up close!

Gotcha.

Okee-doke!

The best way to deal with enemies that hit multiple enemies is to rush in with someone to draw its focus, and then pepper it with ranged attacks, or have everyone else hit it from behind. Medea's 0.6x Red resist makes her quite good at tanking despite having lower HP.



It takes her down to half HP, but the three of them combined can take it out. Also: Medea's weapon looks wrong. This is because of a glitch which sometimes randomly changes our Agents' weapons out with weapons from other Abnormalities while attacking. There is a mod to fix this. I will be using it.



Woah, we got a problem! More Crimson Ordeals… The Dawns?

They're teleporting out of here!

...I was afraid of this.

Afraid of what, X?

That wasn't just a clown scorpion… it was a clown car scorpion.

Once defeated, the Noon splits into 3 Dawns, which immediately teleport off.



One of them spawns in 1.76's corridor, but Mr.Blonde is right there to take care of it so it's no trouble. The other two show up in Forsaken Murderer's spot, where… I've forgotten to put anyone.



I send everyone in to take care of it, and one of them DOES die, but the other…



Triggers our third re-entry into first trumpet in about 2 minutes.



The final Dawn teleports over to scarecrow, but I've moved Talow to deal with Forsaken Murderer so I throw Mizu at it instead.



To predictable results.



Meanwhile, Talow joins the badass club alongside Mizu and Bishop by finishing off Forsaken Murderer by himself.

Music: neutral 3


And finally, finally, a full meltdown level later the emergency music stops. Nothing truly bad happened because of how overtuned the facility currently is, but it's an object lesson in how problems can compound quickly if we're not paying attention.



Finally, a quiet moment. Let's just take a look at-

Manager, we have a problem!



...Angela please show me literally anything else right now.

Yes, X.



I see you are. Aren't you just the goodest fella? Just keep right on smiling, that's the way~

Umm… Manager..!



Ow. Ow. Ow.

Y'know what, I don't think I've checked on the bird's full info yet… Let's just pull that up.



The proper way to handle Punishing Bird breaches are to just ignore it and let it bully people until it's satisfied and goes home. The winning move is not to play.



See, that wasn't so bad. It's getting late, though, and we're done gathering energy.



Oh… Um… I mean, good job today, everyone!

Medea got her Prudence back up to 100 again, and will be mirroring again soon in hopes of farming even more later. As for the two agents set to farm Repression back at the start of the day?



They've both been promoted to rank 2.

Music: never frozen bottom flows


T-01-68: Where does one go when they die?
O-01-73: All that remains is the hollow pride of a weathered knight.
O-01-04: In the name of Love and Justice~ Here comes Magical Girl!
And the monkey's paw curls its finger... -68 is a HE-level Justice trainer, but it's unquestionably the worst of the lot. It has a stat cap similar to Scarecrow, deals roomwide damage on a breach, and since today is the first day that WAW Abnormalities can show up it's also a tier below the two Abnormalities right next to it. At the cost of needing to look for good ways to train Justice past level 3, we'll have to pass on this one.

Next is -73, who is interesting for several reasons. First off, she never breaches unless people are dying in the facility, making her very easy to handle, and her special ability benefits our facility barring a very rare downside. She's decent for training Prudence or Temperance, and her E.G.O gift is easily among the best in its slot. On top of all of that, she possesses the only suit below ALEPH-tier to have a Pale resistance of better than 1.5x, making her an excellent way to break into handling Pale Abnormalities safely. She's an insanely solid pick, good for any facility.

Finally there's -04. She's pretty much exactly what it says on the tin: a Magical Girl of Love and Justice, one of three members of a trio of magical girls (-73 is another, for the record). Like Punishing Bird, she's a fan-favorite Abnormality and one of the most memorable in the game. She has unique and very cool gear that lets us make our Agents into magical girls, and a strong E.G.O gift to boot.

She also would unquestionably murder everyone in our entire facility if we took her right now.

Her requirements for being kept safely are very difficult to accomplish without specific researches (that we haven't seen yet) or Abnormalities (again, that we haven't seen yet), and without those our only option would be to rely on an exploit centered around carefully timed works. Putting up with that in order to get an Abnormality that's terrible at any sort of training, just because her gear is cool, would be a bad plan.



The hardest part of this choice is risking the ire of -04's fans. I hope we see her again later, when we have a better way to deal with her.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Angela ruins a perfectly good thing because she can.

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Punishing Bird

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Punishing Bird