Part 21: Update XXI - You can't tell what is waiting for you, X.

Update XXI - You can't tell what is waiting for you, X.

Video: Chapter 7 Objective
Music: Hunter Base


The interference has gotten worse. I can't make a connection at all.

Too bad. Just when we need to report to Redips about the Supra-Force Metal.

And just as we're approaching the final showdown with the Rebellion Army.

Can't we figure out some way to stop their interference?

I have determined the jammer's location. But it's...



The Onovan Desert is a death trap.

It's covered in the most treacherous quicksand you'll ever see. Once it gets you, you’ll never get out! That blasted Rebellion Army... Quite a place to build a facility!

We can’t afford to send you in there...

We have to go!

Yeah, every mission is dangerous when you’re looking to take down the army.







With that out of the way, let me confirm that Spider is gone for good. No fake outs like with Zero, this will be our party from now till the day this LP ends.

Much like everything else in this game, Spider's death was heavily foreshadowed, but unlike everything else, the foreshadowing was in gameplay instead. His weapon tiers go Jack, Queen, King, and Ace, but what could possible beat out an Ace? Spider's weapons had nowhere to grow after this, which gave an early hint after Aces started showing up in Chapter 5. Plus, the Beam Wonder in the Rush Loader's steal list (plus the Beam Miracle, which boosts zenny gain, which is dropped by an enemy that we didn't see last chapter) makes Hearts and Diamonds redundant. It also explains why Stealth Mode is a recolor of Trickstar, the devs didn't want you to spend most of the game with that niche only to take it away halfway through.

I'm also 80% certain the Joker was intended to be his Secret Shop weapon. A gimmick weapon like that would have been a perfect fit with all the other weapons it has, but there's a very real chance a player could have gotten this far without ever getting the Lagrano Key, so the devs probably tweaked the Joker's stats a bit and stuck it somewhere a player could stumble upon it rather than have someone find it long after it becomes unusable.

Oh, and as an extra kick in the pants, any stat boosters you gave Spider get thrown into the void with him. You gave him that Build Hyper from Silver Horn to bolster his measly 2 Hyper turns? Ahahahahaha eat shit you just lost one of the only Build Hypers in the entire game.

On an entirely separate note, I went back to the Mines to grind out two Generators. Right now I have them on Cinnamon (to match the cost of Energy Field), and X (an extra 20% goes a long way for clearing random encounters). I also ended up making an extra Good Luck using a Gain Hyper and Spider's old Item Capture, boosting drops to a minimum 7% rate.



I was even prepared to sacrifice my own life... But losing a friend... is very difficult indeed.



After he took the damage, I tried to check to see if it could be repaired... But he got angry, telling me not to mess with him... He is a stubborn one, that Spider.



And be just like new again... I can't believe this... It was my job to heal his wounds... Spider... When the professor tried to check on you, you refused... Why'd you have to be so stubborn? You should've just told us when things were going rough...

Either some scenes took place entirely off screen, or it turns out party member chats periodically change during a chapter. I am praying to every god that it is the former.



Spider sure was cool, wasn’t he... I bet Zero is really upset about this... Spider saved him twice, you know? Zero's probably at the heliport.



But Spider also had a good heart. If only I had been stronger... If only I were the real Massimo... Perhaps I could have saved him.



This is why I don’t like getting buddy-buddy in the first place. Can you believe it? Sheesh! He even saved me. I ain't turning back now. Let’s smash this Rebellion to bits.

Music: Recapture Hope


And each time I did, I swore I’d become stronger, so that their sacrifice would not be in vain. X, all I want to do now is fight the Rebellion... Fight them with every last ounce of strength I have. Dang! Spider... He left us before I could pay him back.



It's dangerous to go there without proper preparation. You should ask Nana to do some research. There are some Resistance soldiers on the lower floor that came back from the Vanallia Desert. You could ask them about the finer points.

And the award for Longest NPC Name goes to the Governor's Precinct Security Guard Leader.



For his sake as much as anybody else's, we must move on! But, squads often get lost in the Vanallia Desert... I heard there was some trick to it, but I don't know what it is...



They operate on energy provided to them from the enemy facility. The closer to the facility, the higher their energy charge. That should give you a clue on how to proceed. You can easily find out the energy charge by searching the jammer. The closer the jammer is to the facility, the higher its energy charge. Use this fact to navigate the desert.



If you follow the direction of the cable, you should arrive at the next jammer.



My work is much slower than Professor Gaudile’s, but he's inspired me!



All they had to do was follow the signs to the enemy facility! Just what on earth were they doing out there? Oh...X. You’d better be careful about that, too. There are numerous signal jammers on the Vanallia Desert surface, all connected by energy cables. Follow the direction of the cables to get to the next jammer. Just repeat that process all the way to the enemy facility. You might lose sight of the path on the way — be careful not to wander too far in the wrong direction.



So I went with them to the Vanallia Desert... Boy, do I regret that decision! I realized what difficult conditions Resistance soldiers are fighting in. I would never be able to handle that.



First of all, I got lost because there's no way to tell where you’re going. Then, I was brow—beaten in an enemy assault, but somehow survived. I wouldn't go back there if I was ordered!



Thank goodness they made it back safely. Sending search parties out there is no joke! X, before you leave, you should collect as much information as you can. If you get lost out there, it'll be too late to have regrets!





After all, no [sic] can be expected to work around the clock with no chance to rest up.





Music: Central Tower


But it might be less of a problem than people think. Because a new Maverick Hunter Zero has joined the Resistance! Zero the Class S Hunter is a great ally! That's right! Which means He’s just as strong as you and Axl! Feel a bit more confident now?

The new Maverick Hunter Zero, not to be confused with the old Maverick Hunter Zero. I made no errors in transcribing that, by the by, the line is entirely in-game.



He's one of the heroes who saved New Hope... We have lost a valuable friend. This could be real trouble. He was a key member of the Resistance. This is sure to reduce the power of our forces. I hope it doesn’t affect coming battles too much...



Does that mean that the Rebellion Army was too strong even for Spider to handle?! If the Rebellion is that strong... Do we even have a chance?



I just heard, and I can hardly believe it! What on earth could have happened?! This is bad news for all of us. The Resistance needed him.



Even moments after a friend has died, capitalism works to monetize the hell out of it.



Weapon-wise, we got a couple of tier upgrades, plus a few new things. The Z Rapier trades power for a 3-hit combo and a 5% evasion boost, the Beam Dagger is an upgrade for Marino's starting Beam Knife, the Melting Arm is a weapon for Cinnamon with an added Shield debuff, and the Machine Bullets and Noise Cancellor are both weapons for Axl, giving 8% evasion and effective damage against Mechaniloids, respectively.

You might notice my low funds in the corner there, that's because I grabbed the Kitty Gloves for Cinnamon while farming Generators.



The FM Shop has a few new toys. The Resist gives a 10% chance to ignore status debuffs, and is completely outclassed by the Infinite Resists we already have, even if debuff immunity wasn't already a dump stat.

The Fire Resist is the upgraded version of the Guards we've been seeing. Rather than adding a flat amount of resistance, elemental affinity goes on a scale from 150%/100%/75%/50%/25%. A Resist will jump the user two spaces ahead while only needing one slot. These are the only way to give Massimo any kind of resistance without dedicating both his FM slots to it, while Cinnamon would get the same effect as a Guard, since resistances cap at 25%.

The Minus Metal 10 is the star today, being a counterpart to the Neutralizers back at the Secret Shops. Unlike the Neutralizers, the Minus Metal series cuts a flat amount of the user's Erosion, which at this stage of the game gets a fair bit more milage with our lighter FMs. By the end of the game, however, FMs will become expensive enough that the percent-based cut of the Neutralizers will win out.



What? Did I say something wrong? Why is everybody so quiet? Why the long faces? Tell me, why is everybody so quiet? If you know something, tell me!



If there's something you want to talk about, feel free to ask me anytime!



Think about it! That's not the kind of thing that would take Spider out! He must be alive... He just must be!



Spider is alive! Or at least I hope he is...



No! Nooo! Spider is gone!! I looked up to you! I promised to follow in your footsteps! Aaaahhhh! How could you die on me?!!



We have to think about what we must do next! The next deployment is to the Onovan Desert. Are you ready to go?



We have truly lost a great man. But New Hope is safe as long as we have you here, right? This town won't be occupied by the Rebellion again or anything, right?



Even if a Reploid breaks down or ceases to function, a new Reploid can be built from the same body. And when a Reploid is rebuilt, the memory of the old Reploid lives on in his friends’ memory banks. Spider is not dead. He still lives on in all your memories.

Wait, do people just harvest Reploid bodies if they don't explode? God could you imagine going to work and seeing your old friend Bob walking around after dying a week ago, now with an entirely new brain? This is freaky as all hell and it won't ever get elaborated on.



Everybody is crying rivers for Spider. But no amount of wailing will bring Spider back. We just have to try harder, to make up for the loss!



He’s sadder than anybody about Spider’s death, but he's trying to hide it by acting strong.



Darn you, stupid Spider! Going off and dying like that! What am I going to do without you!?! Phew... I feel like I really got that off my chest. Thank goodness, because I know that Spider wouldn’t want me to just sit around moping forever.



I just heard, and I can hardly believe it! What on earth could have happened?! This is bad news for all of us. The Resistance needed him.



Normally, I'd head to the next dungeon now.



But between grinding Generators and talking to everyone, enough time has passed for the Gimialla Key to turn up from Deployments.



While I'm here, the Sky Room's data screen has now dimmed Spider's icon just to make it even more obvious that he's not coming back.

Also, max damage for a single person only tracks up to 4 digits, which is hysterical to me.

(X's ratio is so low because of the grinding spree before Rafflesian, by the way.)



Off to the mines again.

Music: A Comrade's Predicament


At least this has the shortest trip to the locked door, just to B3F.

Music: Irregular Battle II


Clearing Chapter 6 also gives us new battle music! This change is in effect in every location in the game, all the way back to Lagrano.



Cinnamon's Kitty Gloves are kinda incredibly good! Even if the Armor debuff didn't kick in, that's still a lot of damage coming out. Combine that with Iron Maiden's Power boost, and she quickly becomes a physical powerhouse on top of all her other tricks. Just keep in mind that she wouldn't get much out of Power Charge, as only the first hit would be boosted.

And remember that this is the nerfed version of them! If they had their JP Power of 66 she'd be outdamaging Massimo without a care in the world!



Even as is, Massimo only gets a few hundred damage over her, and that's with a Power Charge!

Music: A Comrade's Predicament


Back to the blue Degraver, still dilligently mining the floor.





We get a token.



And another token.



And this Gold Blader blocking a door.

Now, at first glance, this sidetrip seems like a waste.



However...



These are the only two enemies you can fight in this secret area.





The Gold Mettaur and Silver Mettaur are similar enemies. They can run on any turn, and only have a handful of attacks. If they take a hit and survive, the rewards you get from them are halved.



If you can kill them in one attack, however, you get a metric ton of cash!



And again, these are the only things that show up in this area, so you can just grab a bunch of C-type party members and go to town!

Suffice to say, money is now a complete non-issue for the rest of the game.



And unlike Lagrano, I can use a save point to go directly back to base when I'm done!





There are signal jammers set up on the surface of the Vanallia Desert. If you follow the direction of the cables extending from the jammers, they should lead you to the enemy facility. The closer the jammers are to the enemy facility, the higher the energy charge. Use that to narrow down the location. Good luck, everybody!

The Gimialla Mines had a lot of padding if you wanted everything, and was incredibly short otherwise, but was decent overall.

This upcoming dungeon is the worst in the game.



Next time: