Part 31: Day 15 - Gameplay

Day 15: Gameplay

Music: neutral 1


No major changes here, but I've started using spare LOB on bringing some 2 stats up to 3 for more mirror abuse.

Okay, team. Netzach's asked me to get through a day without any _important deaths, and Hod still wants me to suppress four different Abnormalities in a single day.

<sub>Where is Netzach, anyways?

He's probably slacking off in his office.</sub>

Manager, it sounds like you're thinking of doing something incredibly stupid.

I'm thinking, dear Yesod, of revenge.

...Revenge on what?

Angela? The slides.

Yes, Manager.



This is Punishing Bird. As you can see, he is a stretchy boy. That stretch killed Ishmael. So, we're going to kill it back.

Um… Manager, those jaws can kill any one of our agents. Completing both missions that way may be-

Don't worry. I have a plan. All Sephirot, prepare your team to move on my orders!

Sir!

DAY 15 CHALLENGE: PUNISHED BIRD

Rules: Complete Hod's "I Just Want To Be a Good Person" mission and Netzach's "Lethargic Room" mission at the same time. Punishing Bird must be suppressed.





Let's all do our best today!





Ohmigosh, lookit the cute widdle pupper! He's such a good boy!!

Yeah, let's go with that.

Aww, come on, you gotta wook at those widdle eyes, and his widdle paws..! Ohmigosh, did Mizu already get first pick?

Yeah, she's en route right now.



Aww… you're just an extra special widdle cutie, aren't you?

Our new Abnormality is incarnate and not liking him should be punishable via immediate demotion. Just look at him! He wuvs Instinct work, and it's very important to only use it on him, making him a decent Fortitude trainer.

Based on Mizu's report… Medea, it's perfect for getting your Fortitude in order.

Ohboyohboyohboyohboy

Umm… No running in the... halls…



Let me just get one more quick photo…



The boxes from the second work are enough to give us our new dog's name: This is Ppodae. Ppodae is an adorable puppy who just wants pets and food.



...I'm gonna poke it with a stick.

The way Ppodae works is fairly simple: Any work that isn't Instinct has a chance of lowering its QC by 1 upon the work's start. In addition, any Bad results decrease the QC by 1. With a QC of 2, it's entirely possible that any work but Instinct can free Ppodae in a single round.



Like so. When breaching, Ppodae transforms.



Aha! I knew there was an even cuteier cutie beneath the first cutie. Let's play, little guy~

He runs around and attacks for Red damage, but Mizu could honestly win this fight pretty handily because he's just a TETH.

Um… fall back, Mizu! We need to observe what it does for a second!



Finally! I can prove myself by defeating an Abnormality on my own! Then I'll get promoted, and become known as Zeta27, the greatest clerk of all time!



Each swing from Ppodae does low Red damage to anything in its path, so it can damage multiple Agents/Clerks at once.

Are you sure you shouldn't run? You don't have any of the equipment an agent does…

I'm going to be a hero, like the rest of the Zeta name!

We're all going to die. You know that, right?

Not while I'm standi-



BARF!



When Ppodae makes a single kill-be it Agent or Clerk-it changes back to normal and returns to its containment cell. This means it's not likely to do a lot of damage by itself. It also makes it a pain to suppress while there are Clerks around.



Idiot. And now it's our job to clean this up…

I'll grab a mop.



I try making it breach again to get the suppression point towards our mission, but it just kills another Clerk and winds up wasting time.

This does not seem like the best use of your time, X.

Eh. We'll run out of clerks eventually.



Manager! That Scarecrow is melting down, and according to our personnel files we don't have anyone able to work it without causing a breach!

Perfect. Send Mizu to hit it so it's good and angry.

Yes, sir!



Despite my best efforts, Scarecrow is going to be our first suppression of the day. We've seen Scarecrow breach before, and we had significantly fewer strong pieces of gear to deal with it then.



Alright, everyone. On the count of three, we jump in there and stuff this scarecrow!

You got it! Wait-where's Zeta21?

She said it was time for her break! Now! One, two...



Three!!

The fight really doesn't last very long, and since the Scarecrow decides to target D.A.D., we win without incident.



One down, three to go.



Alright. I've stuck most of Information and all of Training in his corridor. This time when Ppodae breaks out, we'll be ready.

Got a normal result. Also he didn't seem to mind the stick this time.

Just keep trying, until-



Right, change of plans. After that work, we move to suppress-



Dammit.

My options here are to try and beat Punishing Bird right now, or to focus on Ppodae and risk losing the bird 'til later. Since Ppodae is less effort to get to breach, I decide to let it just eat a third Clerk. Now, let's talk about Punishing Bird's AI.



Punishing Bird first looks in the room that it's in for any Agents. If there aren't any, it will then check rooms next to it for an Agent. If it finds one, it moves towards them to begin pecking. Because of this, we can steer where it goes relatively easily.



By positioning my Agents like this, with Mizu in the elevator and the rest of them in Training's main room, no matter where Punishing Bird went from the bottom corridor it would find an agent and immediately go towards them. From here it's a simple matter of moving Mizu to the main room, and we're ready to engage.



Alright, team. We're going to engage that bird.

Are you mad?! That thing can bite anyone in two in one chomp!

It's alright. I have a plan.

Alright then, let's hear it.

Mizu. I want you to shoot the thing.



Done. Now what?

Now, when it bites you… you need to not be there.

...this is a terrible plan.

Everyone else, attack!



WOOB WOOB WOOB!!

It's going to kill us. I know how this goes, it's going to-



-do nothing?

Now, once someone hits Punishing Bird, it goes into Red mode. When this happens, Punishing Bird focuses on that single Agent, following after them in order to bite them. Once this happens, every other Agent in the entire facility can gang up on it with reckless abandon. However, we're on a time limit: After a period of time (~a minute or so), if Punishing Bird hasn't managed to kill its prey it decides to go home in a huff and the suppression is failed. Since our facility has a bunch of melee weapons, we don't have time to chase it around by having Mizu just run away from it.

The solution is as badass as it is stupid.



We have Mizu just walk right past the bird, ignoring it.



You know if you screw this up you're instantly dead, right?

HEH. That's why it's awesome!



This is the first frame where Punishing Bird's mouth can actually deal damage. Mizu has only 50 Justice, and is a strong contender for the slowest person in the facility. Despite this, by just running past it she can reach here in the time it takes the bird to decide to chow down.



Tylana, heads up!

I'm fine! The jaws just went around!

Finally, the hitbox only exists for the target Punishing Bird is focused on. If other Agents are caught inside, it doesn't deal any damage to them. As scary as it seems, Punishing Bird is actually incredibly easy to suppress once we know how it works. It takes about 3-4 runbys, but eventually…



Guess what, cutie?



It turns out it's your turn to get punished~



...I'm just gonna say it? I can't believe that worked.

She just… dodged it.

So, Yesod? Am I brilliant or am I brilliant?

You're certainly something, manager.



And with that, we've taken care of two. Just two more to go, and next is going to be Ppodae.



It takes two more works, but Ppodae finally breaches into our five-man killteam.

You are ADORABLE! I ABSOLUTELY regret this! But you NEED to sit!



You know, I think he's actually cuter like this.

That's called 'having bad taste.'

Hey!



The five of them actually beat it up so quickly that Hod's message saying it escaped doesn't even have time to clear off the screen.

Well, that was easy. Now what?

Probably wait for the Manager to decide to let some other Abnormality out, then deal with it.



One final note about Ppodae-when it reappears in its cell after being suppressed, it does so in a cute dog smoke cloud. This is clearly important enough to warrant its own section, and I'm not going to explain why.



Crimson Dawn.



Do you ever get tired of hammering these things every day?

Hell no. I just wish there were more of them.



Crimson Done.



Let's try getting Rudolta angry next. Mr.Blond, think you can do that?

Definitely. Hey, sleigh ride. I heard you liked cookies and milk? Go ahead and have a handful or six.

...And in case that doesn't work, Bishop, can you take care of Forsaken Murderer?



Yeah, I can handle that.



I've got this. You can focus on other stuff, boss.

That makes 4-for-4, then. Let's just take care of Rudolta and make it 5-for-4, while we're here.

As you like, Manager.

Hey, we need to get Ppodae's gear anyways, right?



On a related note, the full dossier of information's been completed. Try not to let it kill any more clerks today, sir.

No promises, but thank you.



Hey, any idea when I'm going to finally get to solo Abnormalities?

That's not up to me. The manager'll put you to work when he thinks you're ready for it.

And when's that going to be?

This is just a guess… but maybe when we're no longer using TETH gear?

Yeah… probably that.



Crimson Noon

Come on, right now?! I was just about done shoving Rudolta's sled down its--I mean, encouraging it to breach!

*He does not, in fact, manage to get it to breach.



...Okay, I hate to admit it, but this thing's kicking our asses.

We should fall back.

Yeah. This thing can't do much but kill clerks anyways. Let's get out of here before-



HAHAHAHAHA! Come, Rudolta, rage of the festive season-let me show you what it is to laugh and have cheer!



Before anything else breaches.



Rudolta slides along slowly through the facility, and periodically inflicts White damage on everyone in its room. It's got more HP than any of the other HE threats we've seen so far, but its attack is rather lackluster to make up for it.



Ooh! It tingles.

Focus, Mizu.

First a cute li'l puppy, now the incarnation of holiday cheer. This just feels wrong.

The fight ends shortly after this. Not even Rudolta can hold a candle to our Agents. The power curve will catch up to us eventually, but for right now our facility has a decisive advantage.

And that's five. Have the Training team intercept the Crimson Noon and take care of it.

Yes sir!



This is an even more decisive stomp than Rudolta received a few moments ago.



Alright, we're finally on the home stretch. All that's left to do is to handle getting Ppodae's equipment and we can relax. How do you like that, Netzach?

zzz…

…...Angela why am I not allowed to fire that man?

The number of rules and bylaws which govern the Sephirot's employment are staggering. Not even the upper management can fire them without complex procedures.

So he's a paper-pusher who doesn't push paper, and I can't fire him because the rules say I can't.

I am pleased to find that you can grasp a complex concept such as this so quickly.

...Do the rules say I'm not allowed to bring an airhorn to work?

Yes.

Dammit. Well, at least I'm almost done. Should just be one more meltdown before we can get Ppodae's gear and get--



...Well, it wouldn't be a day if absolutely everything didn't go wrong.



This is the second time this has happened-while Punishing Bird's meltdown was going on, I assigned someone to work it, but someone else triggered its breach beforehand. Both times, I got a message saying it breached, but it was instantly suppressed and went back home. It seems like a weird glitch with how Punishing Bird works, but it does still count as a breach. This is important because...

Music: First Trumpet


Angela.

Yes, X?

We've dealt with Scarecrow, the damned bird, two flavors of Crimson ordeal, evil gutbag Santa Claus, and a hammerhead prisoner-and we're only just now sounding an alarm?

The number of rules and bylaws which govern the warning system are also staggering. It would take far too long to explain them here.

This is dumb. Everyone, take it out.



I've taken too much damage. I'm pulling back!

I'll keep the cutie busy with some covering fire!



The Scarecrow does manage to suck out the brains of one of our clerks, healing itself by a pretty good amount even while Medea attacked it the entire time.

Music: neutral 2


In the end, though, the combined efforts of the Training Team are too much for the Scarecrow.

...Alright. I guess that makes it 6 out of 4.

Umm... I'm certainly satisfied, at any rate!



Hey, boss? We got enough boxes down here to finish up extracting Ppodae's gear.

Excellent. We'll go ahead and call the day here, then.



Okay everyone, pack it in! It's quitting time!

Hey, team, I'm going to go take care of some business. Get started without me. I'll catch up.

Roger.



Are you really sure you don't know anything about this place?

I already told you, I just get gut urges and I follow them.

Six breaches in one day, and I didn't see anything about any agent deaths. Mizu's one thing, and Talow seems experienced, but Medea and Tylana aren't fighters and they didn't run into any trouble either.

I was just sure somehow that they could do it. Maybe it's the lifebars-I've noticed that they come in really handy.

Yeah, well… Good job today, Manager.



I do my best. That's all I can do.



Noting this down as a reminder-Every day ending in 1 or 6 is a Memory Repository day, meaning our status will be saved, and whatever Abnormality I pick is staying with us forever. Remember that, because…

Music: never frozen bottom flows


F-05-32: This is a forest full of hearts. No matter how many he cuts down, the forest remains dense.
T-04-50: If you feel an abdominal pain and a tingling sensation in your neck, the best thing you can do now is look at the great blue sky you'll never get to see again.
T-04-53: Bearing the hope to return to dust, it shall go back to the grave with all that desires to live.

Hahahahahaha

Let's start with -32. It's a mediocre Temperance trainer with an upper stat limit like Scarecrow, but instead of breaking out it instantly kills someone. We could work it once and then ignore it, but it then becomes a guaranteed miss if we hit it on a meltdown, and I don't want any of those because of an upcoming mission. It's also a HE, making its gear only okay at this point in the game. Next is -50. It can and will level your entire facility just beecause you got kind of unlucky. Work with it is very unstable, and while it has incredibly good gear (and possibly the only helmet-slot item better looking than Laetitia's), it's got a decent chance of outright killing us if we get unlucky until around day 23 or so. Finally, there's -53. Its biggest selling point is a ranged White damage weapon, but it's a very picky Abnormality. It likes to breach, with our current gear it would be a pain to suppress again, and we'd be spending a half an hour real time each day just running it down to get it to go back into its cell.

I want none of these. I like none of these. And not only do I have to pick one, it's going to be stuck in our facility forever, because it's getting Memory Repository'd to our facility. The only way out would be a day 1 reset, which I'm not doing.



After thinking about it, I wind up weighing -32's relative unobtrusiveness against -50's better gear at a higher chance of everyone dying. I then go look up what the gear looks like as a tiebreaker.



In a choice between crushing, injection, and exhaustion, I choose death by injection.



Let's hope it wasn't a horrible mistake!

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: It is time to talk about the second truth.

New Guidelines

Ppodae

New Gear





New Story

Ppodae (Part 1)
Ppodae (Part 2)
Ppodae (Part 3)