Part 103: Gotta Catch 'Em All.

Finally, the postgame area. I could have gone in here just after beating the game, 100 standard chips is not at all difficult to have just by casually playing the game. I had something like 130 by the end, and I've got about 150 at this point.



The minute we enter, we get an email that says something to the effect of "You have defeated a great evil. I will be watching you..." Considering the chip, I think it's obvious who sent it. Sup Duo.



Welcome to the Graveyard. The music here is extremely atmospheric, few tracks in the series can be described as 'oppressive' so I recommend listening to it.



Every single Navi in the game has a grave here. This is the legendary 'Graveyard of the Cyberworld' mentioned as a rumor by the SkyArea coffee shop.

To my immense disappointment, the patch doesn't recreate the original Graveyard area. The area you see here is actually Graveyard2. Graveyard1 contained graves for every single Navi in the entire series, which is one hell of a way to open up the final postgame of the series. The reason it was cut? Graveyard1 linked to Immortal Area, which contained Boktai crossover content that was butchered out of the game. It's one of the biggest criticisms I have of MMBN6. Capcom ruined the postgame.

You know, I was under the misconception that the patch restored all this, that's why I chose to LP it rather than the vanilla game.



The CrossDivide D GigaChip is for sale here. As I now have to start worrying about Library completion, expect to see my Zenny drop like a stone from here on out. The most notable chip here is the BlizzardBall chip, which is identical in function to BlizzardMan's NaviChip from MMBN5.



RareSnakeArm! This update is when I'll be covering the Virus Battler minigames at last, so I'll spoil things ahead of time and tell you I'm very grateful to have gotten this virus for my collection.



Not just LinkNavis, but Navis like BlastMan, ProtoMan, CircusMan, Colonel, etc. are here.



The BatKey we got from the early bird Bass fight originally opened the way to Immortal Area.



Now it just leads to the nigh-worthless AttackMax program. The game is mocking me! Serenade Omega flashbacks...



To progress any further into the Graveyard, we need to get all 200 standard chips. Hoo boy. Expect the next few updates to come slowly due to lots of postgame grinding required like this.



Consolation prize: the Meteors R chip! I'm happy to see this, because it lets me complete a P.A. I've been working on that fits right into my folder. Prepare for irony.



Once I get the HauntedCandle virus for the battler, that is.



Meteors R! Attack+30 *! Uninstall R! I INVOKE THE UNHOLY POWERS OF MMBN4!



First, the Red Sun fires 5 meteors into the third panel ahead. Each of them do 50 damage, I think.



Then the Blue Moon laser is fired at the same panel, dealing 200 damage and removing all beneficial programs from the target if in a NetBattle with a friend.



Finally, the Red Sun crashes into the panel, dealing another 200 damage and cracking all panels around it. This is the closest I can get to actually using Anger Impact in the series.



BlackDragons are one of two RareDragon types, the other being a WhiteDragon. But at this point, I have literally nothing to do, so I begin the dreaded grind for BugFrags and chips.



MechSword (changed to MachSword by the patch for some reason) slashes all enemies that are paralyzed for 200 damage instantly. ElemSword does 220 to any enemy on an elemental panel. AssassinSword does both and deals 240 damage. I can order it in R code from Tab, but sadly, only one. This is why I have IceSeed * in my folder, to slash every enemy on the field with immediate 240 slash damage. My grand R-V synergy folder is falling into place.



Not shown: Me going through the Cyberworld in search of elemental barriers to dispel and obtain the prizes hidden behind. Although DoublePoint * is going straight into the folder. As a reminder, it sacrifices a column of panels in order to power up a chip by 60 points.



This stalemate situation was just funny to me. Neither of us could do anything for several seconds.



More importantly, there are two elemental gates in the Graveyard, so you know there's good stuff behind them.



Christ! Just to underscore how much of a massive dick move that one fucking job is, you can't even complete the PoisonPharaoh P.A. until the postgame! And it's a TWO STAR JOB! I seriously think this is an error. That job should be a four-star job, no way in hell should it be two.



TomahawkMan is required to be brought here though, because this tree blocks the way to BlastMan's grave. We need to have all the graves accessible for later.



With that taken care of, I felt it was time to begin the Virus Battles. The first Virus Battle program is in the Robodog featured at the beginning of the game bothering Iris and being nicknamed Pooch by that kid last update.



Those RareVirus battles I've been showing off have all been building up to this. Each virus has an HP value, an attack value, and a MB value. Stronger viruses have a higher MB, and the MB of the two viruses you select for the battle cannot exceed 50. And due to the way things are set up, you can only use one copy of a virus, never two of the same type.

The game will, of course, ignore these limitations entirely.



As you can see, virus battles use a shared HP system.

The first battle is against a Gunner and a Mettaur. I choose Quaker and BigHat. I later find that BigHat is nearly useless, but Quaker becomes a mainstay because of the way it jumps around and can avoid attacks.



Battle 2: Champy and OldStove. Since Champys are immobile unless you line yourself up with them, I bring out a PulsBulb, which is immune to non-breaking damage most of the time. Another easy victory.



And the last battle, by chance, shows off the combo that will become my absolute favorite over the course of the virus battles: Quaker and DarkMech. DarkMech tears viruses apart, locking them down with paralyzing electricity balls and then slashing them for massive damage.



Our reward is a WindRack * chip and a hint where to find the next program. A computer related to water could be a lot of places.



It's in the water tank FBeast MegaMan was floating on top of.



The first virus battler program was red and had fire viruses. This one is blue. Sense a theme?



Battle 1: two Piranhas! Out comes PulsBulb, which bathes them in electric waves and stunlocks them to death while Quaker bounces around easily avoiding the retalitory harpoons. I hope you guys have been paying attention to the virus descriptions I've been posting, or these battles won't make much sense.



The enemy Quaker starts in the front column, so I send out a Swordy to teach the enemy why that's a bad idea. And because Puffys are stationary enemies, a KillerEye makes short work of the fight by blasting it with paralyzing electricity beams over and over.



Attempting to use Quaker and Catack in the third battle failed miserably. Quaker's shockwaves don't do much damage, so they just pissed the Puffy right off into launching spikes over and over at the slow-moving Catack.



Despite having an elemental disadvantage, Champy pulls through and punches the Puffy in the face repeatedly for a victory. A Puffy of my own fires spikes at the immobile StarFish, meanwhile, racking up more damage.



Battle 4: Piranha and Quaker. Oh look, PulsBulb. Cue the Piranha floating atop an ice panel, getting the PulsBulb's attention, and taking quadruple damage.



The last round was more of a near-miss than I would have liked. In hindsight, sending a Gunner (rapid fire weak damage) against a Puffy (attacks more and more viciously when hit) was a horrible idea, but the Catack's cannon blasting away at both enemy viruses was enough to secure a win.



An HP+500 program and the next hint are our reward. The hint should be fairly obvious, I mean, the place is called the Punishment Room.



So just jack into the courthouse's electric chair. Despite the location, we're up against wood-themed viruses this time.



The SnakeArm+Armadill combo is very effective. Armadill rams itself into enemies, vulnerable only to breaking damage while curled up, while the SnakeArm bashes into them from behind. Due to the SnakeArm getting priority, if an enemy enters my side of the field, they'll likely get smacked by the SnakeArm while it jumps around for extra damage.



EarthDragon is a bit more situational than DarkMech, but when it gets going, it just wrecks the enemy. It warps around randomly, letting it avoid most attacks, and it leaves the field entirely for a few seconds before attacking two whole columns. Did I mention it's fire type?



Due to BombCorn viruses staying on one row, Quaker and SnakeArm make short work of them with a mix of shockwaves and tackles.



Likewise, OldStove does horrible things to BombCorn. It just blows fire down the row and roasts the poor thing.



EarthDragon! GrassPanels! Overkill!



BugFix * and the next hint. Off to the oxygen canisters in SkyTown!



Here's where things get really tough. And I mean really, really tough.



First of all, ScareCrow's HP recovery is nullified, dashing my hopes to cheese the fight by having the PulsBulb heal it with electrical attacks over and over. This match up was a loss, and a bad sign of things to come.



Quaker and EarthDragon do a much better job. By the way, see that bar at the top? These matches are timed. If time runs out, you lose, no matter what HP the enemy viruses are at. Grumble.



Oh god damn. Not shown: 20 or so subsequent tries on this hellish battle.

The problem with this fight is that the enemy gets priority. In other words, every time there's any sort of conflict of equals, the AI wins. Which is a massive pain in the ass with the Catack, because so many viruses rely on slamming themselves into things to damage them, or standing in front of things to launch a projectile. This is an issue because whenever the Catack is moving forwards, you get damaged instead of it. Armadill comes to mind in particular, which is especially ridiculous because that virus is BREAKING element. By the way, PulsBulb and Catack isn't a combination the player can actually use. I love it when game developers give you a ton of options, and rather than play by the same limits set on the player, they just give the enemies a whole bunch of ridiculous bonuses. I feel like I'm in FFTA2's Brightmoon Tor or something. Not helping matters is the fact that the Catack deals a ton of damage while the PulsBulb is invincible most of the time. Real fun to fight an opponent with no weaknesses at all. In a minigame where you have no control.

You know, I take back anything good I've said about this, this is horrible. The entire premise of the battle system in MMBN is using skill and control to use powerful attacks at the right moments while avoiding attacks. That sounds basic, but this minigame takes ALL of that away from you. You do pathetic damage, you have no control, and you can't avoid most of everything.



Upon reflecting on that, however, the solution seemed obvious. Focus on evasion with a Quaker and overwhelming offense via DarkMech. The paralysis locking down the Catack helped a lot.



The following battle is nowhere near as awful as the previous. First try with a Quaker and an EarthDragon took care of the Catacks tidily. Seriously, we just went from an almost impregnable defense combined with a tough offense to a pair of enemies that just move forwards uselessly and attack the back column. No synergy between these two.



Likewise, the pair of planes falls easily to the Armadill+SandWorm combo. The Armadill just keeps slamming into the upper plane over and over while the SandWorm jumps at them from behind. I like this combo of viruses.



It even works on this pair of PulsBulbs, surprisingly enough! And these viruses are probably the most annoying of the bunch, I wish the game would stop throwing them at me because they work terribly with the virus AI of "Attack Attack Attack".



Another round of two Catacks. Well, okay. DarkMech and Quaker make easy work of them, the slow-moving tanks easy prey for the DarkMech.



Same story here. DarkMechs just slaughter Catacks mercilessly, while Quaker bounces around out of attacking range. Probably my personal favorite virus combo.



Due to the way the FighterPlanes move, EarthDragon works as an especially good counter against them. The planes fly forwards, and the EarthDragon slams into one or even both of them when they stop moving to open fire.



SnakeArm and Armadill yet again. By this point, I'll start skipping over virus battles since you have the general idea of how I handle them. Only notable ones will be shown off.



Our reward for that gauntlet is the FolderPack2 program. And the last hint for the final virus battle.



On the way to it, I snag a Reflector3 * from a RareMettaur2. These are some of the most useful chips in the game, and I think I already detailed why. But to reiterate, instead of sending out shockwaves like the old Guard chips, they fire an instant beam of damage. And look at that, 200 of it!



This golden program is the very last one. He has his own nasty viruses, DarkMechs, Nightmares, etc. However, the very last battle he has in store is something hilarious.



PFFFHAHAHA. Oh GOD. I actually started laughing when I saw this. I had completely forgotten about this fight. Just to underscore how weak BlastMan is, he gets pitted against viruses like this. And his little Mettaur pet as well.



DarkMechs are just...complete violation.



Our reward for all this is well worth it though! SuperVulcan V! Into the folder with you! At last, I have the wonderfully powerful Silver Bullet combo back! Double Point and SuperVulcan are just absurdly powerful. And if I can't access Sun-Moon, I can use the Attack+30 * on it as well! Considering what you have to go through to get SuperVulcan though, I think the developers were acutely aware of what it can do.



While idly combing through my library, I came across a bizarre glitch. Uh, Prof. 9? MegaRock? I did not acquire these chips at any point in time. Nowhere in my collection of chips do I have StepCross or BusterMax, and I've abstained from Chip Traders the whole game. I have no idea when these first showed up, but I'm guessing you guys might want to check the battles that award them for programming quirks.

Edit: It was pointed out to me that these two chips are not a glitch, they're included in one of the ExtraFolders provided in the StuffedToyZone. Nevermind!



At last, after MANY hours of grinding!



To my horror, I've just realized I'll need to get BubbleWrap and NeoVari as well. I think you can get NeoVari later in the Graveyard though, I might be mistaken. I don't remember having to grind THAT much...



You order the second PoisonSeed P from Tab.



PoisonSeed P, PoisonSeed P, Anubis P! PoisonPharaoh! I'm finally done with this godawful sidequest!



Even the client is surprised.



With this, we can get back on track to clearing out the JobBBS.



The award for this hellish mission? The Number Trader code for the Beat NaviCust program, which only works in linked NetBattles. Of course it'd be worthless.