Part 39: S-ploring the UnderNet.

It's time we made up for our lack of virus busting in the last update.



Time to start our new mission! We need to head to Under Square for this.

Man do we love the UnderNet. IT'S JUST SO COOL.



Remember this guy who kept blocking us? By equipping BlackMind, we can rep our mad skills and show them that we are, in fact, one of the homeboys.



MegaMan.EXE in the house



WELCOME TO DIE!

Looks like a pretty enough spot for it



Mr. Progs don't have BlackMind, so why aren't they shunned?



Um obviously Mr Progs are just naturally tough. ....









I'm telling on you.

Don't be a nark, man.

Oh no wait, that's literally your job at the moment, huh?





Not TOO bad, but for our purposes, the only thing that interests us is Battery. That's the electrical equivalent of Fish and OilBody, letting us search for Elec-element enemies in a given area. So I bought that.

And you didn't buy Beat or Tango? What about all the multiplayer you 100% plan on doing, all the time?

Ah, Beat and Tango are Navi Customizer Programs that only work in a multiplayer environment. Beat activates when your opponent uses a MegaChip. Beat, the bird from the Classic series, swoops down and steals the chip. And no, you don't get to use the chip.

Tango activates when your HP hits red. Tango the cat swoops in and gives you a healing orb, restoring about 30%(?) of your HP and gives you a free Barrier100.

Naturally, since the community is both nearly dead and this being an emulator, I won't be focusing on PvP too much. Guess we'll have to wait for that project's online mode to come out.



Ha yeah man, whip it out



YES BABY! A third code of TimeBomb!? That means we can make a Program Advance off of it! Not only that, but that's basically one more chip that ensures an S-rank. And OldWood? Oh, we are going to be having FUN with that chip! If you guys don't know what OldWood does, then you'll find out before the end of this update.

That guy gave you his old wood.

OK I'll stop.

AirSword is just a WideSword that pushes enemies back instead of causing flinching. If you're into swords, this is worth considering. It deals 100 damage and comes in * code.



Gonna leave the HP Memories for now. Buy, buy, buy. Spend, spend, spend.

You better be back for that! Completionism!!



No, these games are a waste of time.



Screw the plot, I want to explore more.

For reals, I know I already said it, but UnderSquare is hella pretty. Bad navis got style, dammit.



Welcome to Undernet 5! Where's Undernet 4 you might ask? We'll get to that later.



The Heel Navi Guard rears its ugly head once again. Even with BlackMind equipped, he still won't let us through. Prick.

Maybe you need a program to make you look like less of a wimp?



And the other teleporter you saw leads to a tiny island. What's the point of this? The development team was just trolling. No, really, that's the most likely answer.

So if we want to check out the virus population, then we have to run around that big square at the beginning.






Gloomers are the Level 2 variants. I covered this before, but Gloomers can use PanlGrab on your middle row, thereby making it harder to dodge subsequent attacks. You can counter that by standing on your front, middle square to counter it.

Best staple-remover-inspired enemies ever.

Also, fuck Rattys.

They are indeed adorable little bastards.



Begone, ye pest.




An alternative place to grind for Shake1 chips if you want.

Shake it, baby




WELL NOW.

BrushMan: Support viruses. They will use their ass brushes to paint helpful panels on their own side called "Holy Panels". Holy Panels reduce the damage taken on that square to half. That's not all, after 1 to 2 rounds of creating holy panels, they will warp to a random square on your side and paint a disadvantageous panel. Those can include Lava, Ice or a Poison panel.

Dominerd: Called Domiturd by some. These guys are the bane of a lot of NetBattler's existence because they are utter nuisances and pricks. They take only one damage from most attacks in the game in Battle Network 2, but were upgraded to take 0 in this game without chips with Breaking properties. They will always stand in front of another virus, thereby blocking frontal damage. If you hit them in any way, they will retaliate by warping to the square you are on (they are probably the only enemy that can do this) and after about half a second, open their mouths to hit you for damage. Remember, they are on the square you are at this point, so attacks WILL NOT hit them unless you back up. If you summon a Navi Chip while a Dominerd is on your body, the Navi Chip won't work. Worse yet, when they defend an enemy, they occupy their own square, but they are INVISIBLE!

See why they're hated? No? Well, just wait until we see higher versions of Dominerds. Now, watch carefully. I'm going to be choosing only Sensor2 and Metagel2



I fuckin' hate Dominerds, man. They're THE WORST



Metagel2 the BrushMan to remove it. As you can see, the Dominerd went invisible. He could not defend the BrushMan, because in order to do so, he would need to occupy a square and then he would be on my side of the field.



Lay down the Sensor and BLAM! The Dominerd constantly moves to defend the viruses from frontal attacks. It's a prick like that. However, Sensor is one of your best answers to them. It pierces a Dominerd's shield, letting us both deal full damage to them AND hit enemies behind them.

Yes, I could have just used Sensor, but that would mean the Ratty2 HAS to go into the back square for the multi-delete. And if he went into the middle square, then the Dominerd would be elsewhere, meaning that my shot at an S-rank would have gone down the shitter. If the Dominerd is the only thing alive, just forget an S-rank.

that's ... hell yes



Bam. These chips work like a Guard * chip. Except the enemy gets hit for 160/210/260 damage depending on the version. I would use it, but I want to S-rank. CrsShield can only hit one enemy, whereas Guard *'s shockwave can hit multiple opponents.

I don't think I've ever used one of these chips. I honestly didn't even know what they did, haha



And we're done here. This chip right here is a waste if you ask me. Use one chip to make ONE panel on holy (the panel in front of the one you use it on). Not only are there ways to make your entire side into holy panels, but it's very easy to disrupt a single panel. Many attacks break panels and/or change the stage in some way. Although, this chip in this code is needed for a Program Advance, so we'll take it regardless.

There's not a whole lot you can do with one holy panel. And since it's MMBN there's soooo many other things you could do with that chip space, mwaha.



Having exterminated the vermin, we can advance the story.

Wait here, near the grumpy-looking setpiece.



Nah, the denizens of the Undernet are all trustworthy.

If I ever had to pick one thing to learn from this game, that would not be it.



Ah, hell! It's gonna be a gang shootout.

You say "Ah, hell" I say "AH HELL YES"





10 on 1?

Time for a decuple delete!

If they all go the traditional route and use viruses to fight for 'em it'll be more than that, I bet.







Elimination round, is it? We need to kill these 10 noobs in order to work our way up the ranks.

Because why the hell not?





Let's-a-go.

Yeah, we love the UnderNet.



OH HAI GUYS!

Wow these guys are terrible at this. Protip: standing around looking out into space is not netbattling, even if you're in the UnderNet.



GASP! Our first Omega level virus!

Viruses come in 4 levels in Battle Network 3: Level 1, 2, 3 and Omega. Most viruses on the Omega level gain some sort of new property or ability. In this case, the Mettaur Omega can create cracked panels.



I'll say this now, bosses also come in 4 levels: Normal, Alpha, Beta and Omega. In fact, I just might show off an Omega level boss before we take on DrillMan.



You should be starting to see why I love this scenario so much. We got loads of fun fights. And some endurance rounds to boot. I love difficult endurance rounds. Shrimpy Omegas can hit in a 3x3 pattern if their bubble makes contact with anything.

This scenario is about a million times better than running back and forth across the internet popping bubbles/putting out fires/bwargh.



Some Omega level viruses simply get speed, damage and HP increases -- like this Canodumb.

Ummm he also clearly gets a much radder colour scheme.



OOH! SWORDY OMEGA! Needless to say, knock him out QUICK. Those Beetles are weak, you can easily tank a few shots, but let the Swordy Omega live for too long and it's over.

Swordys = jerks



Get wrecked, noobs.







And yet we had no problems dealing with a four on one. This now makes me even more frustrated when MegaMan had trouble with just 3 Heel Navis last scenario. Yes, you could argue that the WWW Navis are beefed up in comparison to the Undernet denizens, but really, how big an increase can it really be to make a meaningful difference?

Maybe he was just tired OK. At least he was able to take on Bass no problem.

haha



Heading back to Undernet 2 and following that path to Undernet 1, we find this guy.



Already throwing us encounters with only Omega levels? I love you, game.

It don't use the kid gloves on you this late in the game!

Now in White version, many of the mandatory fights are different. Not sure if it's worth transcribing or talking about. I guess I'll have to see.





We go to Undernet 2 for this fellow.

I don't think being a brat is generally a reason to go easy on someone.



Glad to see this game is throwing Omega levels at us like no tomorrow.



And more importantly these guys just really want a hug.







Too bad that applies to you.

This guy thinks he's tough, man. Show 'im what tough is!



Not bad. The Mettaur can cracks panels, like I said. That sets you up to get hit by the Metrod. Too bad it's a METTAUR.



Aren't you a little short for a stormt... shut up man.





NOOOOOO! RATTTYS!!!!!!

Ratty omega? Looks like FUN ON A BUN.



FUCK YOU, JUST DIE!



CHECKMATE, BITCH!

Terrible.



Back to Undernet 1 for the last two battles.

Man those bright blue walkways? Hilarious.



WOW! Just wow. If you are playing in Blue version and if you don't explore everywhere like I do, this should be your first encounter with a Dominerd! Really! The only other time we saw them was in Undernet 5, and that was only earlier in this update!

I LOVE IT! KILL THE PLAYER!!

Still don't see why they are hated?

oh god dominerd omega noooooo



Curse my frame perfection sometimes. I wish I can be more patient, but yes, higher levels of Dominerds and above use fucking Geddon after they attack a few times. Naturally, since they crack all your panels, you basically have to pray your panels come back before they lay the smackdown on you. Dominerd Omega hits upwards of 200 damage, which is pretty damn hefty, especially when you've been fighting viruses in the Undernet.

Dominerd Omega you utter, utter bastard.



The way to deal with Geddon usage is to only move off the panels when NECESSARY! Don't be a spazz and break your panels early. By waiting as long as you can before you move, you are giving the panels already broken a chance to regenerate. This means before you find yourself stuck, you can walk back on the regenerated panels, thus escaping total annihilation! Now, I used MistManV4, but remember that chip series doesn't work if it can't spawn on the enemy's side. So, if I want to use those on Dominerds, I need to be in the front row.

Full disclosure: I always spaz out and break panels like an idiot. And then I am sad.





Holy shit! Three Omega levels in one battle? And they provide a decent combo!? Fantastic. Bunny Omega's paralysis lasts almost as long as it takes to attack again. So if it's paralysis lasts 2 seconds, but it takes 2.3 seconds to attack, you essentially have no window of opportunity to get away before you get stunned a second time.

Now, factor in the Yort. It deals a lot of damage and the yoyo hits multiple times, causing hitstun with each blow. So, combine the bunny's zapring with the Yort's yoyo and you can basically get stunlocked until you die.

I'm not sure what the Canodumb really adds to this fight. It should be replaced with a VaccuumFan or something.

Also, for those of you who might go: "DIS R UNFAIR111," I'd like to remind you that the player can stunlock enemies to death without a care in the world as well. No one seems to care about how the enemies feel.

NO ONE CARES ABOUT HOW THE MR PROGS FEEL wait this probably isn't the best time for this huh

That, and you could just put a RockCube down. In my second update I said obstacles will break the Yort's yoyo, causing them to be useless for a little bit, but you will need to be fast because Bunny Omega can two shot your RockCube.



So fucking good.





Sweet, we have the permission to fight a ranked Navi!

Yaay sempai noticed us!







I hope you guys can remember dialogue from several scenarios ago.

Ooh, me me me, I -.... forgot already.



Let's do this shit. "Where evil fall" = "those sentenced to eternal damnation are skewered here"


You better equip Press, too.

Ohhhhh yeah.





FIGHT ME, I'M AN ELEVEN YEAR OLD BOY!

Dude how is he floating? Best special effects everrrr.







Gladly. I probably would take the long route of fighting the most enemies anyway.

Yessss more viruses busting! More! More!!



Not too bad, but the Fanfare just gets nuked down too fast to be of any real annoyance. One cool thing about this fight is that they use the Great Battlers theme for this fight. No really, they do.

Here's a much needed re-listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVGLWZoTxME

The other cool thing about this fight is that virus's awesome moustache.





Our first gym badge!

Do we really need to be bringing back pokemon references?

yes, yes we do.







But I must collect all the chips. No chip shall be left behind.

So noble, *sniff*







Oh, don't worry, this whole thing is never referenced or mentioned in a future Battle Network game. Isn't that nice?

I'm going to assume it's because when you beat the guy who's currently top of it, any challengers have to go through him.

and I doubt anybody but Lan could beat him.

And he logs out.



Noobs, now we're stuck.





Emergency plot saving lifeboat!

Yay it's Mayl!!!





Oh, you got to be fucking kidding me.

This seems on-the-level.





No fucking shit. Did she get hacked or something? WHAT DID I FUCKING TELL THOSE TWO!?

C'mon kiddo, let's roll.



I TOLD YOU NOT TO BOTHER ME!



YOU--oh, she ain't here. Maybe she really is in trouble. I ASKED YOU TO DO ONE THING, MAYL! ONE THING!

I like that you broke into her house to check on her. That's dedication to friendship, man.





I'm gonna spank this bitch if she doesn't show.





See what happens when I'm "nice" and "help" my "friends?" Never trust those guys, MissEchelon.

Maybe don't trust anybody who ends their email with 'kiddo'. Always trust everybody, except for those guys. HAVE YOU TRIED BEFRIENDING THIS HEELNAVI?



Really?

Dude raises an excellent point.



These losers again?





Wow, you even had the "save Roll pls" part down. Stalkers.

To be fair that happens all the time, they could've just seen it in passing online what with how often it happens.





These guys give 0 fucks. Gotta respect that.



And they bothered to make them all dash at you. How nice. OOH BUT WAIT! We can't handle this, can we? After all, we couldn't handle 3 last time, and now there are 4 gangi- ah, fuck it. Kick the fight music.

Yeah buddy!



You guys DOWNGRADED.

Well... an effort was made?



Okay, this one can be annoying. But I still aced the fight.

I thought you liked rattys??



Our first time seeing the Level 2 of Eleballs.



Trumpy Omega just makes the viruses invincible like the first level counterpart. Geetles are the Level 3 of the virus that drops the Singlebomb chip series. We can't actually see those until much later in the game.



You guys got WORSE!

Well you did delete their best viruses, silly.



Since when did MegaMan become a badass?

Is this a side-effect of that new rad program?



And they warp out. Good riddance.



Not sure how they expected that to go. Bloody geniuses, this lot.





Not as much skill, though.

Which is rather sad as that's a low bar to pass.







Rank #10 is gonna help us out, for some reason.

Probably contractually obliged to. Or hates #9 for being a higher rank than him.



Screw that.



How the hell did they know to impersonate you, is my question. And why don't more people do that sort of thing?

Well it didn't seem to work real well, so maybe that's why people don't try it. Then again, those idiots had no follow through.

Anyways, it's time for a plot break. I'm going to be equipping Battery and check out everywhere I unlocked to double check if I missed any viruses.



I hate what's coming up. I really do.



WELCOME TO HELL!

Hell has excellent virus designs.

Elebee/Elewasp/Elehornet: Nasty little insects. When these bastards move, they become invisible and invincible! They appear for a grand total of .7/.4/.2 seconds depending on the version. That is your window to deal damage. After moving around for a little bit, they will spawn on a random square in your area and attack you, ala BeastMan. However, these guys can attack you diagonally! I HATE these things!

Consider what you are seeing for a minute: Elebee can be found in the final dungeon, Elewasp can be found in the post-game dungeon, while the level 3 is a rare virus inside a starter area. You are now seeing a virus that is so difficult it cannot be found in a post-game area.

Worse yet? When I played this on my cartridge one day and jacked into here (to get that free RockCube *, of course) I ran into these completely by accident. Naturally, since the virus was too strong, I couldn't run away, meaning I died horribly. This was at the start of the game! I wasn't even fighting FlashMan! If you never found these things at ALL, consider yourselves lucky.

That's hilarious. These guys are awesome. I don't think I ever found 'em.



Fuck this shit, man. At first, all three bees appear and disappear at the same time, making it easy to get multiple deletes and see what's coming, but once one of them attacks, he will reset his cycle, ensuring that he appears and disappears at a different time than the others! Which means, this battle can become a headache since you have 3 enemies becoming invincible every .2 seconds and appearing in random spots or your side of the field.

Sounds like fun, yes?



Worst ever.



You can meet KillerEyes in here too. If you had the patience, you could get Sensor1 before FlashMan.



My pride does not allow me to give up. EVER!

It's true, it doesn't.

ROUND TWO!



Have you ever been so angry that you were calm? That is me right now.

The game's just fucking with you now.



We're gonna whip out some alternate strategy shit, now.

SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!



THE GIVING TREE, BITCH!

Whoah, nice



OldWood is an underused chip. You need a broken panel to summon it, and it starts at a measly 100 damage. However, for each grass panel on the field, it gains 20 damage. It doesn't matter whether the grass is on your side or your opponent's, it still counts. So, a max of 17 squares (you need one hole to summon, so we can't get the full 18) x 20 damage per square + base damage = 440 damage. That is without any atk+ boosts and it hits the entire field. We can hit for 440 with a measly 3 chips: GrassStage, PanelOut and Old Wood.

Now, Custom Style S-ranks forbid NaviChips, but this isn't a NaviChip! There are even really strong enemies late game that can only die when you take out their HP in one hit, so strong one-shot wonders are your best bet. Guess what we just have!

Giver's Giving Tree Gives Death.

OldWood sounds a little ridiculous with the right set up. I am OK with this. Give 'em deletion, Giver!


I'm still on my plot break, guys.



Now that we are finally ranked, this guy in Undernet 2 will let us pass.

I like that this guy is standing around ensuring little dudes who might get deleted don't wander off into the dangerous areas. And they say UnderNet navis are all arseholes.





Welcome to Undernet 4.











Nothing we haven't already seen.

oh boy dominerds





Oh, it's finally maxed. Reflect basically lets us return damage to our shield back to the opponent -- 100 at that. How is it different than AntiDmg? The timing window for Reflect is more lenient and it's faster. However, it can't stop all types of attacks. AntiDmg, on the other hand can stop ANY attack, including Navi Chips used on you in PvP, and can eliminate more types of defenses. Reflect comes in a more common NaviCust color (blue), so it's easier to fit it into your setup, plus the program itself is smaller. Using one over the over is situational, to be sure.

OK just how many virus battles have you been doing to max this out so quick?



Yum.

This area is divided into two distinct sections. Just explore the ends of which one to find differing goodies.





Moar StepSwords? MOAR SWORDS!

Chips for the chip god!



Boo.





NICE! We are really starting to see some solid stuff now.

Love the dealers in the UnderNet. Best dealers on the net.



Wow, I can't afford everything.

Awwww if only S-ranking ridiculous fights had given you more zenny, huh? haha



Make sure to equip BlakMind when talking to this guy.





S2S? That's an error code for a program we can only get MUCH later. Let's not worry about that right now.

Haaaa thank god we have the internet to look this stuff up so we don't have to write it down or remember it.



This is the power of StepCross. It steps two squares ahead and slashes in "x" formation, dealing double damage at the center of the "x" and normal damage on the other squares. So, 260, and then 130 for anyone looking.



Mystery data grinding time!



Fuck off with that chump change.



Now that's more like it.

..yes. That's acceptable. Money for nothing.



Garbage since you can get Fan * from the virus quite easily.

Chips for the chip trader.



Nice. Slashers can only be used once an enemy steps into your area, so it has very limited uses. This is given to us in this scenario for a reason. Hint, hint, guys.



WHAT!?



Hahahaha, holy shit! First Salamander, and now this! Hmm, where are the other two Style-only chips?



In all seriousness, I went back to this area at LEAST 12 times to check if I missed any chip data. And as it
turns out, I was missing the Fountain chip. I had only gotten 3 chips from the green mystery datas, which told me something was up as there are usually 4. But since I came back so many times, I kept getting the 5000 Zenny pickup. Now that, coupled with virus busting put some more cheddar in my pocket, allowing me to get the rest of the chips he sells.

I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM!

Admitting you don't have a problem is the first step to... something



Hmm, an exit?



Oh, Undernet 5!



I'm disappointed.

It's no Fountain, but hey it's better than nothin.






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV_rCSZsT90

You can see a couple of things I did in the video. Namely, I used Wood Tornado and PlantMan's own attack to my advantage. You see, after a certain frame, the attack becomes autonomous, meaning that even if we hit the user of the attack, it will still keep going. Wood Tornado and PlantMan's thorns have this property, so, using that to my advantage let me combo tornado and antidamage back to back.

The second thing is putting a Fanfare in the enemy's back column. It's a really fun and troll-ish strategy since there's very little any person can do about it. They can't destroy the fanfare that's behind them without special chips. So, you can reap all the benefits of Fanfare's invincibility!

Giver ain't afraid of no ghost. I'm sure I've already said that, but still. I'm going to have to remember that cheap fanfare move, sounds like a blast!



PlantMan's chip is fucking ridiculous. It's definitely a God tier-level chip. What it does is hit ALL enemies on the field three times, whether they be on your side or your opponent's. It also applies additional damage over time whilst holding them in place -- just like what the Rope chip does. What makes PlantMan exceptional is the fact that it can kill any and all field obstacles without repercussion! This chip is so damn good that I'm not using it in this Let's Play. Doing that will actually force me to invent creative strategies and make this more fun.




PlantMan! Come out and fight me!

PlaaaantMan! Come out to plaaaay!



We really should be using Jungle for this -- the Wood equivalent of all the elemental attractors, but to hell with it. PlantMan Beta spawns in Hospital Comp 3.



How you doing? I'm Giver. But others call me Killer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RCDozhc73c



You see what happens when we work together, game? We get shit DONE!

And embarrass the heck out of a poor flowery navi.



All right, let's get his reward and end our update.



Eh, it's okay.

Yay, an adequate reward!



Huh? Where did my Lance S go? It became Lance R when it went to my pack.

I'm not sure what to say about this. Capcom pls.

Yay, an adequately buggy reward!