Part 5: Update V - Oh no! A time-bomb has been set on the course!

Update V - Oh no! A time-bomb has been set on the course!

Music: Dangerous - Machine - One - Hair


You gotta admit, a two minute timer is much shorter than most time bombs give you. I'll give props to Jango for that.



If you try to go through the other door, R yells at you.

My hunger for loot will have to wait for another day.



I take a moment to put on that second Thunder Guard. Thankfully, the timer stops in menus.



Multiple Guards stack, which will come in handy very soon.



While two minutes seems like a tight time limit, our goal is actually just a few rooms off from that locked door in the last update.



Naturally, it won't be that simple.

Music: Event Battle


Two Bitmasters means they'll have a full group of Bits before X even gets a turn. At the very least, the timer also stops in battle.



The easy solution to this is to spend two turns weakening the Bitmasters, then use a 100% Charge Shot to wipe them all out.

Music: Victory Jingle + Trajectory of Battle I


They happen to drop a Hacking, which inflicts Berserk on one enemy. Despite the name, Berserk in Command Mission is actually more like confusion in other games, a Berserk target will randomly hit anyone on the field.

Music: Dangerous - Machine - One - Hair


Not even 20 seconds into the timer and the locked door is already visible on the minimap.



Just admit that you‘re finished! Here goes!

Another batch of guards.



They aren't a threat.





Almost there!



Comfy looking place, the red lighting really adds to the ambiance.



Ducking into this side room springs a fight.



Shoot, shoot, AT, done.



This detour is extremely worthwhile.



The room has a strangely long hallway, just to waste time.



See? We're already there.



The door ahead is locked, the crystal holds a Tank Energy 25.



Just ahead is the Command Room, but I'm wondering what Jango's goal here is.

I mean, he's blowing up the entire tower, which probably has a lot of infrastructure for dealing with Force Metal, just to wipe out the Resistance. Except Jango's already shown that he can handle Spider, so he can definitely handle X, and those two are pretty much the only threats to the Rebellion at this point. Keep in mind that the Rebellion's hold on this town was ironclad, the skies outside the city were crawling with Rebellion transports. The only reason X had any chance to save R was because Jango wanted R to flip and add legitimacy to the Rebellion's cause. After all, it takes a lot of bite out of any detractors if you can point to a group made to oppose you and say that you got them to see things your way. If that failed, why not just kill them all the old fashion way and hold on to the tower?

...Hold on a second, wasn't I in the middle of someth-



Ah.



Yep, that's what happens if the timer finishes. A fade to white and this menu pops up. They don't even play an explosion sound effect. all around.



Retry kicks you back to Chief R, and while I could run back up...



Savestates are a much faster option.



We will see to it that the Self-Destruct System is allowed to activate!

One last fight between us and safety.



Three Preons at the same time have gone from a major cutscene threat to being another day at the office. Aile would be proud.



The key to shutting everything down?



A single button. No attempts at locking it or anything. Jango could have given it a good kick before he left and the self-destruct would've become impossible to disarm.



.... Switching system to sleep mode.

Music: Hunter Base


Jango is trying to escape from the heliport on the upper floor! I've unlocked the door that leads to the heliport. Hurry over there!



This is the normal music for this area, but I find it a bit strange to play it here when we're actively chasing Jango.





No detours allowed, gotta go fight the boss.



As you'd might expect, there's a save point right before the boss.



This is it, the final ramp.



This hallway has an unusual camera angle. The crystals hold a Backup and a Tank Energy 100.

Video: Spider Joins the Fight, Jango Fight, Post-fight
Music: The Rebellion's Mission


It took well over a minute to get up here. Jango's been loitering around up here so long that the self-destruct would have gotten him if it wasn't disabled. What happened to all those Rebellion transports floating around the city?



It took a single button. You didn't even stick in a puzzle to waste time or anything.





I'm gonna take you down!



X's back was to the entrance. Jango's hit launched X behind him.

Also Aile's ID got knocked out of X's pocket. Again.







Okay, Aile's ID getting picked up usually leads to something happening, so any second now...



Music: Spider Magic


Called it.

Also how the hell is Spider even alive right now? Did Jango just shove him in a broom closet and leave him for the self-destruct?





Although Spider's a bit worse for wear after his clash with Jango.



Creeps like you have no business touching it!





Fine!

For once, X has the numbers advantage.



Hey what are the odds, Jango uses Thunder in a chapter that sold Thunder Guards and a weapon that works best against Thunder!



Music: Final Battle


You got a death wish!?



Ignore Spider limping in the cutscene, everyone knows damage taken in Cutscene Land has no bearing on reality.

At a glance, you can see that Spider's stats actually match up for someone who beat X in a cutscene. A good bit more LE, and an extra 15% starting WE.

Spider also comes with two new Sub Weapons. Twin Missiles fires off two Micro Missles for only a small boost in cost, while Item Capture is this game's version of stealing.



Why does Jango have that? All it would do is make it easier to fight him.



Overall, a good first turn on Spider's part. Jango's response?



Not nearly as good.



Command Mission has a basic elemental triangle. Fire beats Thunder beats Water beats Fire. X's Fire Buster means he'll deal more damage against Jango.

Weakness and critical hits also have a different knockback animation.



Lightning Rod here is a rude attack, debuffing me to buff himself. If his AI decides to use it multiple times, it can easily start to snowball and give himself a bunch of turns while reducing the turns we get.



He can also ditch secondary effects and go for the hard hitting Rolling Assault.



It hurts. That did half of Spider's LE in one shot! And unlike Hippopressor's Shark Missile, it needs no wind-up.



While I should heal him, Spider has an alterative option:



Time for a bite!



His Hyper Mode, Trickstar. Trickstar is a unique Hyper. Right off the bat, it gives a whopping +100% Power, but decreases his speed by 25%, and, as a special bonus, makes all moves against him miss.

That extra power pairs nicely with...



His Action Trigger, Fortune Card.

Using it is simple, you get a hand of cards, you pick any cards you want to swap, then play the result. As you might expect, this means that Spider's AT has a ton of possible choices, which are:

Fumble: No combination. Has an 80% chance of missing, but crits if it manages to hit.
Pair: Two of the same card. Two hits.
Two Pair: Two separate Pairs. Two hits, but the second hit has a higher critical chance.
Tri Card: Three of the same card. Three hits, one Fire, one Water, one Thunder.
Four Penalty: Four of the same card. No damage, but reduces the target's Power, Armor, Shield, and Speed by 25%.
Death House: Pair + a Tri Card. Hits all enemies with a chance to inflict DOA, the game's version of Instant Death.
Straight: Five cards in sequence (so 8, 9, 10, J, Q as an example). Five hits.
Flush: Five cards, all the same suit. Hits all enemies and inflicts Blind.
Straight Flush: Five cards in sequence that are all the same suit. Three hits on all enemies, the last hit will always crit.
RSF: A Straight Flush consisting of a 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace. Deals one massively powerful hit on all foes that ignores Shield. Inflicts DOA unless the targets are immune.

And yes, that is Aile and R's mugs up there as the Jack and King. We'll be meeting the lady on the Queen later.

The more WE Spider has when he uses it, the better his starting hand is.

You can see that we're one card off from an RSF, so I swap out the 10 of Diamonds and hope for good luck.



It didn't pay off.



I won't grab a gif of all of them, most of them use some variant of this animation. You can also see the power of Trickstar here. The weakest hand nearly matched X Collider at 100%!



There are a few drawbacks to Trickstar, however. When I say that all moves against Spider miss.



I mean all moves. Spider being in Trickstar adds an extra layer to rationing out heals. Even if X takes a big hit and has to heal, I can't try and be efficient with a party heal, I have to use two single target heals and pay a higher overall cost.





On the plus side, it also means debuffs can't land either.



Not that it stops Jango from boosting his Speed off of the nothing he stole.



X, now that he doesn't have to waste a turn throwing a heal at Spider, goes on the offensive.



Shame X Collider is non-elemental.



Still hurts, though.



The second drawback to Trickstar is that it has a piddly 2 turn limit, compared to X's 6 and Zero's 3.

This actually puts me in a bit of a tight spot. I want to drop out of Trickstar and save the last turn for another Fortune Card, but Jango has two turns coming, and there's a chance coming out of Hyper might not speed Spider up enough to break that up. If I come out of Hyper Mode and heal, I risk him getting focused down by Rolling Assault.



So I attack and use that last turn to keep Spider safe. Also note that Trickstar on a neutral hit actually outdamages X Fire hitting a weakness. Spider only gets two turns, but he makes them count.





This reduced this move from a good chunk from Spider to a piddly 90 on X. While this move is called Ultra Thunder, it runs off Jango's stats and doesn't do a flat 1000. If it did, X would have taken 250 damage from his two Thunder Guards combined with X Fire halving C/S damage.



I made the right choice, while Spider could have survived that with a full heal, I'd end up having to heal again anyways. Instead, Jango spent two turns to deal double digit damage.



Farewell, Trickstar, it was fun while it lasted.



Now that Spider can be hit again, he finally heals up.



Showing off the difference between X Fire and Trickstar's power.

On Spider's next turn, I break out our own Ultra item, the Ultra Fire.



Being elemental, they can boost themselves off weaknesses.

I originally bought those Mega Fires at the start of the chapter to do 750 damage a shot against Jango, but I completely forgot to use them here.



You can see that Ultra Thunder is much more threatening against targets that can't reduce damage by 75%



Seriously, while X Fire is a bit lower on the offense side, he's a complete tank on defense. I've seen Preons hit harder than that.



Well I have Tri Card right here. Why not swap the 9 and K and aim for a Four Penalty to try and negate those Speed buffs?



Don't gamble, kids. Hey, remember what I said about Tri Card doing elemental hits?



One weakness hit, one neutral hit, and one heal.



Jango responds to that kindness with a Rolling Assault and Spider needs another heal. X has enough HP that he can survive till his next turn without X Fire's boosts, so I manually end it to save a Hyper turn.





Jango takes advantage of it and lands a Shock Nail on X, which somehow inflicts Venom instead of something Thunder related like Bind.



Spider returns the favor and cures it for X.





And with one final Collider...



Jango falls.





As a reward, we get an entire Sub Tank! Getting a free Thunder Buster is the closest X will get to his usual power stealing trick in mainline games.

Music: Grief - Sympathy - Pity - Pain II




X and Spider are now best friends, thanks to the power of brutal murder.

X, you defeated Jango, didn‘t you?!

Chief R! Yes, I did, but... Without Spider, I would have been in trouble...

I see. Spider! I give you my thanks. You fought for our comrade, Aile!



Back when I started bounty hunting. l goofed, and he got wasted for it.

Partners, yet you couldn't even be bothered to call him up and ask what he's been up to.

I see. Hmm... Quite a lucky coincidence that you were here.

A coincidence...? I bet Aile was the one who brought us together.

By blowing himself apart.

How fitting.





Music: Memories of Gigantis


Next time: