Part 78: Day 35 - Gameplay

Day 35: Gameplay

Music: neutral 4


Don't you give me that!

I'm just saying it because it's true.

Like hell it is!

...What did I just walk in on?

Manager! Gebura here thinks I'm too soft to head the team!

She barely did anything for the WAW suppressions outside of working-and badly at that. Then for fighting that Bird she just hung out in a corridor the entire day. Didn't even hit an egg.

I'm telling you, those were the manager's orders! Am I wrong?!

Well, Red damage didn't really help on either day, for what we were fighting…

So now you're giving her a new E.G.O when she can't even handle the old one?



The Twilight E.G.O requires 110+ in every stat to equip, which Tenebrais meets. Disciplinary Agents get bonuses to damage with E.G.O weapons, and the Twilight E.G.O is the #1 weapon for pure damage in the game by a large margin. They just make sense together.

She's basically the most terrifying agent in the entire facility. _{...maybe second-most.} There's no way I'm wrong about this one.

Then prove it. Tenebrais. We're fighting a Midnight today, so you've got time. Impress me.

Gladly. I wanna see what this thing can do, anyways.

Sure… I'll just. Add it to the pile. Not like I don't have one thing to take care of today already.

DAY 35 CHALLENGE: DISCIPLINARY SPAT

Rules: Complete Gebura's "Our Work" mission. Demonstrate Tenebrais's power. Resolve the Bishop situation.




Twee gets the Mimicry gear due to her insane Attack Speed working with the sword, and since today's a long day and our Agents are all basically maxed out, I've added three more newbies for training.



Alright. Lot of work to do, let's get to it.

Of course, A.





Time to kick some ass.



Tenebrais gets a yellow trail when she moves now, thanks to her E.G.O. It looks pretty neat.

Who's the new guy?

Oh, that's BICEPS. He doesn't say much.



We've got a newbie now? Great.

Oh, he's pretty cool. He punches dudes and doesn't afraid of anything.

…'doesn't afraid?'

Yeah. It's totally pretty cool.

Huh. Well, welcome to the team. Don't screw it up, Biceps.

BICEPS. Like you're releasing it from the bowels of your lungs.

BICEPS. Whatever.

Hey, softie. You've got a work order with the Knight of Despair. Get on it.

I'm not a-! Ugh, you damn tin can!

Alright. Regular work orders are out of the way… _{Guess I should get this over with.} Bishop?



So, should I take that to mean you don't have anything to say?

You're making a mistake, boss. I didn't kill anyone. I don't-

You're a fixer. You work here. You expect me to believe you wouldn't kill someone if they were inconvenient?

You've already made up your mind, huh? Just because I caught you being sloppy back then, I'm the only one who could have done it.

Without you catching them, yes. I told you, I've kind of figured out how this place works now.

Then there's nothing I can really say to you, except that you'll regret this later.

No… I don't think I will. This is Lobotomy Corporation.



Everyone is expendable.

*BANG*





Omni, Chinely, we've stopped receiving a signal from Bishop's vitals. That means you'll be operating together for the rest of the day. Omni, you're captain for the moment.

...What? I can't just…

It might be hard since it's been so long, but things like these happen all the time. If you're unable to deal with it then there could be more problems, so please take any time to grieve right now.

Thanks for the heads up, boss. We'll get on it.

Chinely?! But- He's…

They stopped getting a signal. That means they never found a body.

…Ah!

He can't have died!

Oh, no, he was hit by an Execution bullet. He did leave me these E.G.O gifts, though. They're useless now, but I guess I could put them on a wall somewhere? Would that help?

...oh… shit.

Enkephalin?

And beer. Now.

I'll be waiting!



Let's all do our best today!

We will, boss. Sorcrane, you'll be heading down to Disciplinary to work with their Abnormalities. Switch, you'll be working with Knight of Despair. Both of you need to focus on that Attachment work at first-it's our tried and true plan.

Yes ma'am. I'll get moving right away.

I can't wait to see what the fuss is all about. Pay's pretty huge for such an easy job.



_{Disciplinary, Disciplinary…}

Don't mutter. It wastes energy.

!! Yes ma'am. Um, I'm trying to find the Disciplinary department?

Good news. I am the Disciplinary department.

Thank goodness! How do I get there?

Down the elevator, head to the corridor from Central Command's first level. You can't miss it.



Wow, our Miss Tenebrais, even stopping to help out a newbie.

What are you people babbling about now?

Nothing, miss! Good luck out there today!

Huh? Sure, you too, whatever.

She's so nice!



I swear, it's like everyone wants me to kick them today...



A, you have been unusually quiet. Are you experiencing difficulties?

I'm fine. Kit's useless for the Woodsman now so having him train Temperance is just good planning.

That is not what I meant.



I didn't do anything wrong.

You are the manager, and thus so long as energy is being produced you have not committed any errors.

Right. At the end of the day, I couldn't trust him. Same as all humans. They'll just deceive you for their own ends.

That has consistently been your conclusion, yes.



Yeah, see? Anything goes wrong and they just start panicking. Thanks, Hod.

Um… you're… welcome?

Shall we move to suppress them?



These ears… it gave me these EARS..?! I liked my ears! But these ears are..? But?!

Yeah. Let's handle it.



Sorcrane makes it all the way to the entrance of Blue Star's containment cell before our Agents can properly catch up to them. Everyone in this facility is pretty fast when panicked, and it makes them hard to hit.

TAKE THEM OFF, BLUE STAR! REMOVE MY EARS!! I WANT THE OLD ONES BACK!!

Chill. They look fine.



...oh. Well, alright then.



Manager, the Dawn has shown up.

I don't really care. Just handle it.

Yes… sir.



It's finished.

Yep… Dawns don't even matter. Call me when we hit something that may be a problem.

Of course, sir.



Oh, thanks Hod. I'll have Medea-

DIBS!



It's been a long time coming, but this ends now. You'll see who the stronger one is.



Um… you know you're going to die, right?

Hah! Just watch!

So the Twilight gear is really strong. How strong?





Once the bird gets its one bite off, it returns back to its cell and isn't suppressable anymore-which is lucky for the bird, since it was one attack away from defeat and Tenebrais was going to get an attack off before it got to make another chomp.

She didn't just survive. It gave up just before she killed it.

...well I'll be damned.



Hey. Bird.



Next time, I won't just beat you most of the way to death. Watch your back.



Ah, and the most absurd thing about Twilight?. This damage is already so high that, after the 4 hits at once are taken into account, the second-highest DPS ALEPH weapon only reaches ~64% of the total damage output of this weapon doing its base swing. On top of this, the weapon deals more damage as the Agent using it is closer to death. That was its lowest damage setting.



Here's her base damage before getting eaten by Punishing Bird...



And after. Between the suit's defenses, the weapon dealing damage with all 4 types at once with every swing, and it having a special attack that hits even harder (240-360 base damage after all the hits in all the colors are totaled up), Tenebrais is a god of death. This reward is absolutely worth the fight required to get it.



Manager, she can stay. I think I get why she didn't do anything the last two days.

Oh, you figured out my plan?

Yeah. Putting her to work ends it too fast. The Abnormalities don't even have time to suffer.

...Yep. You got me.



…

Meanwhile, BICEPS is learning to play piano when something odd happens.



I notice that this Clerk has been blessed, and is stuck in here, unmoving. If we execute a blessed employee, it removes the bud-we want to do that since we want to keep it from getting to five.



Trying to do it opens the work menu instead, though. This eventually fixes itself when I send Sorcrane to work with the Tree again, but I'd never seen that bug before.



Again and again…

You seem to be having some difficulty with the new agents, A.

It's not my fault they're not able to keep up! I'm treating them just like the others.

Switch happens to be a wander-type panic, making them incredibly difficult to track down. Luckily, we have a solution.



Get back here, Switch!

They're all normal! I'm telling you, the secret is that they're just PEOPLE IN COSTUMES! Costumes, I tell you!!

Slow bullets! These give their target -50% to move speed for 10 seconds, ensuring Medea will be able to catch up. Unfortunately, her attack's short range and its startup time mean that it takes us a little bit longer than expected to suppress our pankicking newbie.



Oh… geez, thanks guys. I don't know how I thought they were just costumes.

Don't sweat it.

Clearly that Knight of Despair is just some girl on stilts.

...maybe we should shoot 'em again, just to be safe.

Luckily, Central is full of people with very fast ranged White attacks.





Y'know, chonky, sometimes I enjoy quiet days like this one. Just me, a mushroom, and an HVAC to get rid of all the spores it builds up. Shame it's going to get loud again soon.



Oh, hey, where'd you get that?

The shark gave it to me. I was surprised it would be so kind… but now I know the truth.

Truth?

It's grape flavored! Truly, the most insidious of all flavors! Muahahaha, truly that Abnormality is a diabolical fiend!

...Hey, what's wrong with grape?

I dislike it immensely!



It's about now that I remember that I intend to fight a Midnight. Whenever I plan to go deep, I make a habit of clearing out the Clerks in my facility until I have few enough that none of my Clerk's Rights Squad can escape on me anymore. Right now, that would mean 24 or fewer Clerks, so I'll plan to keep around Safety for the healing and possibly Welfare for the extra ammo.



Red Noon.



Hello Medea, ma'am! Pleasure to help you with this suppression!

Appreciate it. This thing won't stop running away.

Maybe it doesn't notice you?

Or it knows what I do to any Abnormality that threatens my team.

...or that.



Time to graze!!

Huh, you can speak.

Just wasn't anything worth saying.



Noon's done. Why are all the Ordeals taking so long today?

We've actually hit the latest possible Noon, and the next level spawning meltdowns means the Dusk will be the latest possible as well. They don't want to fight with us. It's like they know.



Again?!

Um… I'm just telling you what I know, sir!

This is ridiculous! We've never had this many panics! Why can't anyone around here just do their damn job?!

...Geez, man. You sure you don't need some Enkephalin?

Yes, I am very sure.



I dunno what you're on about, but if a wing ever grows from your back it means you just killed a giant bird. That's it.

This time, I just dogpile Sorcrane with every single White weapon in the building.



Thanks again, you guys. Dunno what came over me.

You should really stop making a habit of this. It's a great deal of work to run around after you.

Well, what can you expect of a backstreets-dweller? Speaking of work, has anyone seen Tiphereth today? I've only seen Tiphereth, myself.

Oh yeah, I just saw her. She said I was approved for a break right after this.

Ah, good to know. See you after.

There. Everything's back under control and everyone can focus on doing the works that they can-

Um…

...Please tell me it's Punishing Bird. I need it to be Punishing Bird.



...these damned newbies. The last batch did their job properly! Why can't these ones?! What's so hard about it?!



Maybe you're pushing things too far? Working at an overload of -4 is fine for newbies, but -8 or beyond is probably a bit…

They should be able to handle it. If not, they're useless to me.

Manager…

They're disposable. All of them. Anyone who'd betray my expectations…

Um… sir?

What?!

I think… something seems to be eating at you, sir. Your face looks like Tiphereth's when she hides things from me.

...

Manager, it seems the altercation from earlier may have caused your judgment to become clouded. Please do not lose sight of the goal.

Yes… you're right. It was just an employee. It doesn't matter.



All I need to do is what I've always done.

Are you centered again, A? I would prefer you not fail here.

Yeah. I'm ready.

Good. We've got a Crimson Dusk coming in, from the look of things.

Great. A new kind of clown to deal with. As soon as we get there, we'll have-



I haven't even been working with that thing, how did?!



...Starting now. I'm ready starting now.

SeyserKoze's been in the shelter for over 30 seconds. This was a serious error, and could have cost us dearly-luckily it only freed DRV instead of something truly nasty.



Talow and SeyserKoze can take it down before it does too much damage.



Mizu, your E.G.O is off-balance.

No it isn't.

It's halfway off your face.

It IS part of my face now, it can't be off of itself, silly.

Listen you damn moron, I can see half of your eyeball!

Well you should get your eyes checked, because you should see two-and-a-half of them!

You… that… MANAGER!

I'm working on it.

Meanwhile, THIS happened somehow. It's a common glitch that moves an Agent's eye slot gift out of place, and I don't know what causes it, but it's harmless and fixes itself at the end of the day.



At last we make it to the Dusk, and we finally have a new Ordeal to talk about!



It's rolling this way! Everyone, be on guard!



That… barely hurt at all.

Yeah, it was kind of a letdown.

I guess it's not designed for direct damage?



So, The Struggle at the Climax. It's not 'difficult' so much as 'annoying,' having a speed faster than our fastest Agents-for reference, Twee is our fastest Agent in the entire facility by 30 and her total overall speed is 103. It can't deal any real damage with its roll, however, and it has to stop moving in order to use any of its other attacks-making it a very ineffectual opponent since by the time we can fight them we should be able to handle its attacks with ease. We don't even really need a strategy here, we just have to pick one or two of our ALEPH-geared agents for each opponent and have them go after the Crimson Dusks until they stop moving, at which point our Agents win in a straight fight. We send Tenebrais after this one.



I didn't ask for your help!

I know, but we're helping anyways.

If it rolls through the main room, it'll make a mess I have to clean up. It's just mutual benefit.

Fine, but I get the killing blow!

Sounds good to me.

We have Talow and Twee help out because it stops right next to Welfare, but Tenebrais really doesn't need the help.



We know this because Mizu is up here soloing this one.

A cutie full of cuties… full of cuties. It's cutie-ception-ception! I'm so here for it!



When they die, they burst into a single Crimson Noon.

Tch, still working on yours, Mizu? I already suppressed mine.

I wanted to take it slowly so I could have more fun!

Well, playtime is over.



Each Noon also still pops into three Dawns, meaning we have to keep everyone spread out.

Savor your fear, Ordeal… for the one winged angel has descended to reap your soul!

Oh my god would you stop calling yourself that? We all have one wing!

HAHAHA! I think it's simply sublime to be so into something!



In the end, they barely qualify as a footnote. Unless a facility is hugely underpowered, Crimson Dusks just can't keep up with what the corporation's Agents can do.

Yesod, how much longer until we hit Midnight?



It looks like we have a Violet Midnight coming at the next level, manager.

There are three possible Midnight ordeals, and we got the hardest one by a large margin… while we have three newbies around. That's… not ideal!

Manager, considering your altered mental state, there is no shame in-

We're doing it today. Order everyone to the elevator outside of Training.

...Very well, A.



We gather everyone together in one spot to help make running around easier, get right to the edge of the next level, and…

Here goes.






So, Violet Midnight. When it starts, it spawns four monuments around the map in four random corridors. Three of them are right near the elevator we've chosen to hang out in.



The fourth is in Welfare. Down here we can see the Pale monument, and the eyeball behind it-anything that is within a certain radius of that eye will take constant Pale damage, which slows the Agent so that they take more Pale damage. Without a Pale shield bullet-which we don't have yet-we don't have a good way to deal with it.



Luckily, we don't have to. Pressing the orange button along the bottom of the screen brings us to the Rabbit Protocol window. This allows us to call in a squad of Rabbits to up to 4 different areas, at the cost of 25% of our current energy per area. Central counts as 2 areas and costs 50%.



Defeating the Midnight will give us back 25% of our max energy, so a single area is effectively free. We just select it, hit 'Authorize Call,' and…



Calling for help already?



Alright, team. Enjoy your meal!



Four groups of four rabbits spawn in. Each group has a rabbit with a Red, White, Black, and Pale colored stripe on their gun, which shows the damage they will deal when attacking-this type never changes. Their defenses and offenses are all considered to be WAW tier, and their resistances are a solid 0.6x against everything. They have 150 HP and SP, and if their SP hits 0 their suit terminates them before they can panic-which is a really cool touch to be honest.

According to the information I have here, they have a melee weapon which will have a 70% chance of dealing 17-19 or a 30% chance of dealing 5-7 of their respective damage type, and from range they fire their gun for 2-3 damage every 0.4 seconds for 15 seconds.

Honestly, when I call them I just sort of let them do their thing so I can focus elsewhere so I just assume that's right.



Portals are spawning all over.

Oh, you see stuff like this in the ruins sometimes. It'll pause a second, then fire out through everything.

I could have told him that!

Oh? Do you even remember the ruins?

...We didn't need her help, manager!

Until we get a Pale shield, I'm not having our agents engage with a Pale damage opponent on their own. We're leaving it to the Rabbits.

Least your leader's got a good head on his shoulders.

These portals can appear anywhere, and are the main attacks of the other three monuments. The Red and Black portals fire out only in a straight line, with the Red claw opening up to cover a little more surface area. The White one, on the other hand…



It just hit about half of the Middle Layer at once. Come late game, enemy White attacks tend to be about one order of magnitude bigger than any other color of attack.

With that said, let's get down to the plan:



Outside of proper monument prioritization (Pale/White > Black/Red) there's not a lot else to be said other than 'be very ready to dodge'.

All units, attack the White monument!



...why isn't it doing anything?

That's because-

Look at the resistances, Manager!

That monument has a -1 White modifier, meaning that White damage heals it. On the plus side, Twilight will still deal damage, since the positive multipliers outweigh the -1 White. On the minus side… most of our facility deals White damage. We cannot use them to attack it. It… it takes me a minute or so to remember this.

I swear I'm good at this game.



Here's the approximate attack ranges of each of these portals. It's important to keep an idea of where they'll hit in mind when dodging-just to be safe I pull back from the White Monument.



Well well! We're really making progress now!

Y'know, now that I think about it, it's kind of weird that nobody in Safety uses a White weapon.

It's probably just a managerial oversight. If one of you loses it, I'll just have Yesod or Malkuth send someone over.

Speaking of… is it just me or is Omni kind of… off?

I AM DRINKIN' TO FORGET, PAL.

Dunno if it's more worrying that he's here like that, or impressive that he's still a straight shot with a crossbow.



The Red portal is just close enough to be dicey, so I pull back again.

Let's check on the Rabbits.



We're doing alright. There's plenty of grass left, but my troops came hungry as hell!

They've triggered the first Pale 'counterattack,' which is just where the Eye will automatically show up over the monument's hallway each time it loses 30% of its health. This will inevitably whittle down the Rabbits caught up in the eye, but we have a trump card that ensures the Rabbits will win.



I've circled two groups of Rabbits here who started upstairs and came down the elevator to confront the monument. They're actually outside the range of the eye's attack, and will be able to fire at the monument until it dies. Unless we get incredibly unlucky with the attacks of the other three monuments, they'll be able to finish it off.



A little bit later, our Agents trigger the White Monument's counterattack: Two tentacles, one in each direction. I have everyone run to the bottom of the elevator, but the attack is so huge it'll likely hit them there.



We take precautions, and try to run a bit further.



Nobody panics, but both tentacles do sweep right over the bulk of our forces.



Meanwhile, the Rabbits have triggered the second counterattack, and as predicted it's killed half the team. (This is actually the new version of the quote from the OP, by the by)

Are you going to be able to handle it?

Don't worry about us. We're professionals, not pencil-pushers like your people.

Who're you calling a pencil pusher?



For the second White counterattack, I have everyone move to the circled elevator. I noticed before that it seemed to be just outside of the tentacle attack, so it might be a safe spot.



This is the closest a tentacle manages to come. We have a hiding spot, so from here the problem is just one of waiting and hoping that nothing spawns that can hit our-



Welp, time to run.

THIS is what makes Violet Midnight hard. More than any other ordeal in the game, we can't just stick to a single plan and rely on it to win. We have to see its attacks and respond quickly or we're going to be in big trouble. Opponents we can only react to are rare in this game-usually there's some way to simplify things.



Still, our agents are whittling down the biggest problem monument.



And the Rabbits are nearly done grazing.



Another tentacle pops up, and I have everyone move up an elevator to hide in the blind spot right behind the portal, but the attack never comes.



It's down. What's next?

When we destroy a monument, Violet Midnight loses access to that color entirely-any attacks it's in the middle of simply vanish.

HAH! Take that, you little bunny. My team finished first, how do you like that?

Not bad. You took it down while we were finishing mopping ours up.



When the Rabbits have killed everything in their designated sector, they wander around for a moment to check for any other threats.



Then, any living Rabbits warp out. We can't call them again for the rest of the day-it's important to make any time the Rabbits are called count. I generally think of them as a 1/day 'Get me out of this jam' button and treat them accordingly.



Black's counterattack. At this point we're mostly in mopup mode-the hardest part of the Violet Midnight is when all four monuments are active. Red and Black are too linear to be much of a threat alone.



Not to say they can't still be a threat. Sometimes lineups like this just happen. I decide to burn a Black shield and go up.



The spike stays on my Agents long enough to hit twice, tearing through the shield and dealing notable damage to the ones in the back-but nobody dies, and that's what counts. The Black monument falls shortly after.



And then there was one.

Hey, shouldn't Bishop be back here firing and yelling out orders?

...

...ah.

Not the time to be asking questions like that, kiddo! We've got a fight to win.

…



The Red counterattack, and also an idea as to how wide its claws spread when it attacks.

Manager, it's important to take pride in your decisions as a leader.

Yeah, I know.

Even if they were a model employee, or worked overtime for free, or kept giving you presents, if the decision is to retire them, then it serves to-

Malkuth... are you trying to help or make me feel worse?

Of course I'd help in this situation! We're all a team here.



Once it's down to just a single monument, the fight is basically over. There goes the hardest Midnight in the game, bar none.

Everyone, I've decided to call the day here. We've done plenty of work today. Get a good rest.



Huh! Ending it at the start of a level? Unusual. We could easily have squeezed in a dozen or so more works before hitting any danger.

Eh, it's not worth thinking about. Things are probably going to get a lot rougher from here, so we should take it easy when we can.

What I'm hearing is 'Party time, drinks are on Talow.'

Sure. I'll put it on my tab.



…this isn't a place where we can have things like regrets.

Chiral finally joins the maxout club, and all three newbies are level 5 Agents already. And of course, a new week means...

Music: never frozen bottom flows


T-01-75: The smiling faces are unfamiliar yet sorrowful.
D-03-109: ...and my dear employees, I do hope you all put on the gas masks we distributed to you before we enter.
F-01-02: I am coming to you. You, who will be reduced to ash like me.

Well hello again -109. Unlike Disciplinary, either of the next two departments are terrible places to put this particular Abnormality. They're relatively closed off areas and putting it in either place would be a disaster waiting to happen unless the person working with it was the only one doing work the entire day. With meltdowns on, that's not a thing we can afford. Sorry, -109, but it doesn't look like you'll be getting the nod in this cycle. Maybe another time.

Then there's, -02 which is a TETH. It has one of the best weapons in the game, holding up in terms of damage to many WAW weapons despite being just a TETH, but its suit is weak and we really want to be doing better than TETHs at this point in the game. It's a safe pick, and I don't generally do safe. That leaves -75, which will be our third proper ALEPH Abnormality and one of the best Justice trainers in the game… if our facility can handle it.



We should be fine. With a Memory Repository saving this Abnormality to our facility, we really can't afford not to be.

_{Still, I almost can't believe it. Bishop? Lying to me this entire time? Who else was paying him?}

………..

Well, I guess it's just another reminder. People just aren't trustworthy.

*CRASH*

What the-GAH!



I believe I'm owed an apology, boss.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Everything goes to shit.