Part 37: Postgame, On The Air!
At the end of the credits, we're given the option to save our game. And, like always, this is a good idea.
The next time we load up the game, we're greeted by an image of Geo's head! This is the first star we can earn - a tradition in the Battle Network-style games as little challenges to complete that usually unlock a powerful version of the final boss. This one is for beating Andromeda and saving.
Perfect. Time to grind, grind, grind unless you were doing sporadic amounts of it throughout the game.
The save puts us right back in the Living Module, in front of the point of no return. No sense heading back to fight Andromeda again, so back to Earth we go.
First thing on the list is cleaning up my standard library. I forgot to grab this GhostPulse3 earlier in the first zone of the space station.
Yeah, this game is bad about introducing massive amounts of new viruses in the last area of the game. It only increases the chances of you missing anything.
Next up, cleaning out the shops I hadn't picked up before. This one is the SubCard shop in the secret underground rocket area.
I hadn't grabbed the last cards from Ken, so that's AntiSword. Actually an incredible card considering how powerful the sword cards are in this game. BreakerSword gets stuffed by this.
Yep, lots of Zenny farming. Yeti only needs to buy one of most of these, though.
And finally, the PoisonApple card from the card seller in the City Dump EM road.
Next up: this guy, who only appears in the post-game.
: Y-You mean, he's an enemy!?
: You, what do you think you're... Do you dare defy my royal crown!?: Wha? Defy?He flickers a lot, which makes it very annoying to take screenshots.
: ...of the Jour Jovonne family.: I-Is that so...? Anyways, what's that sticking out of your back?
He disappeared! ooo000OOOoo000
: Huh!? An arrow!? Doesn't that hurt!?: Hmph! Of course not. I'm already dead!!: Really!?: You could say I'm a ghost.: ...I-I don't believe it.Geo he is hovering in the air, has blue skin, and is see-through. How can you think he's anything else...
...which, now that I type that, could actually be a regular Mr. Hertz so never mind, carry on.
Maybe it's a hologram. They have those in the future...right?
: Do you have the ability to wave change?: Uh? Yeah, I guess. But what does that have to do with anything?: I once was a normal human, until an alien, a ghost alien of all things, came and took over my body...: You mean an FM-ian...: That's right!
: I must preserve the Jour Jovonne name by waging battle. Yet, as this is a peaceful land, I am quite battle-starved! I want you to fight me!: But, what if I don't want to?: Silence! I will not tolerate insolence! I shall wait for you on the city Dump Wave Road!As you might have guessed, this guy is the third (and final) optional FM fight. Let's go find out what he wants.
Look at his shoes
He's swagging, man.
: I, Couronne the XIV, master of the Jour Jovonne family desire to engage in spirited battle with you. Face me now!
: Get ready, Geo!!
This is a little lad that loves berries and cream if I've ever seen one.
Alright so, Crown Thunder. This guy is the hardest of the optional bosses, not that it's saying much consdering one of them is Cancer Bubble. He's Elec element, with 2000 HP, so watch out if you're using Pegasus mode.
He's got a fairly simple attack pattern - hop three times, summon a ghost servant; repeat 3x, then summon lightning bolts. However, as befitting a post-game boss, he hits hard.
Pictured: Summon Servant. He's got three ghosts, and each of them has a different attack. They all do 80 damage on a hit, each with a different property - Menacing Bowgun (purple) pierces Invis, Assault Lance (orange) breaks shields, and Wavy Hammer (green) removes barriers and auras.
Pictured: Fall Thunder. Three lightning bolts strike random panels, though one of the panels is guaranteed to be where MegaMan is standing. It's only 80 damage and a stun...
But if you get hit, Crown Thunder will instantly summon every living servant he has to hit you. That means getting hit once is really 320 damage, so be careful.
Once he gets later in the fight, he can summon two servants at once. The little ghosts can be destroyed temporarily by doing enough damage, but they regenerate after a little bit.
Sadly for him, he's Elec element and loves hanging out in the second row, so VulcanSeed chews through his 2000 HP.
As shown.
: Your skills are praiseworthy.Anyway, we need to beat him up for his cards.
EX form only has 2300 HP, but the SP form jumps straight to 3000. I retooled my folder a little bit to deal with him a little bit better (adding more Wood cards) and took him on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCymuWN7M6I
Crown Thunder is alright. He was the old-school money farm guy back in the day. With Zenny Finder you'd get...5,000 if memory serves. The shops in this game are expensiveeeee.
One thing I don't like about mmsf's combat is that sometimes you hit a boss, and they just....snap to a different panel. It makes getting combos off really stupid. You see this at the start to Crown Thunder's fight.
Remember. It doesn't matter how much damage I take, as long as I get an S rank.
I don't like Crown Thunder's card. 250 damage centered in an X shape, so only 5 tiles are getting hit, and it's not very flexible. I guess the numbers work out pretty well, but Gemini's card is just as powerful if you want a good Elec mega card and is better for boss fights.
It also paralyzes, but causes iframes as well, so, eh.
Next up, WolfWoods SP! Very quick, very dange-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRS6wpULwMA
...Oh.
Lucky.
Yeah so Pegasus mode kinda just chunks WolfWoods. His card does 170 damage (340 if both swipes hit) on max.
This is my second sub-10 second Mega card I actually blew Cancer Bubble up off-screen while grinding him for money to buy out the shops.
Gratz on your 10 second victories. I find that maximizing my SP chips is a nice thought exercise, coupled with good execution. One part of the postgame I really, really enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woYo4_RqvbI
For any who care to watch me roasting a crab to steal his lunch money.
Cancer Bubble always, always, always, starts with the Bubble Attack. Pop a StickyRain (formally named SkillRain by yours truly) to get a free, consistent counter. Follow it up, of course and it should be yours with the right build.
One last thing before we're done with the clean up - I somehow actually missed ever seeing a MegaBase virus in the school!
Neat. But, more importantly, that means we've found every card available on the planet. So, what's next?
What's next is the Wave hole that appeared here in Vista Point after beating Andromeda. As far as I know there's nothing that tells you this is here, but you'll probably run into it while trying to fight Harp Note.
It takes us... someplace new.
Neat look of the area. Always liked it.
: We're in space.
: Welcome, chosen ones. Overcome the obstacles one by one. If you clear them all, I shall bestow a fragment of my power upon you. Come, you who are the chosen ones...
: Who is that!? And what did they mean by "overcome the obstacles"?: Heh, no idea there. But if they're just testing us, we'll make it! Let's go for it, Geo!!: Roger!
Anyone familiar with the usual post-game areas of the Battle Network series will have a pretty good idea of what the obstacles are, but we'll get to them shortly. First, a new area means new viruses, and this place has a LOT of new viruses.
Mageri, the second form of the wizard virus. Uses water-element attacks instead of fire element.
A nice upgrade, I guess. It's more numbers.
Two new viruses, the second and third forms of the Eyez family.
Once again, the virus pacing in this game is real awkward.
I'll grab the VolticEye3 later, it's easier to do in a different fight formation.
VolticEye is the very worthy successor of Magnum, baby. Never sleep on it.
Two of them here - the second form of the Black Hole family, and the second form of the Berserk family.
BlackHole is an interesting card for virus clearing, but not so much for boss killing. It's functionally a 130 damage card that you don't need to target, and we're trying to eat through 3000 HP.
Still a good card. I'm not using it because I want to try different cards, but you can't really go wrong with auto-target 210 damage.
And for the final virus, the third forms of the Time Bomb virus.
Lmao, Yeti.
Shut up I got the card that's what matters.
It's not BreakTimeBomb but it's not bad.
Whew. That was a lot of them, huh? Well, moving on to DeepSpace1 itself. It's basically a giant loop, plus some good stuff.
I'll be back for you in a second.
You can only go one way, and this locked data is around the end. It's a very good one.
You know what's stupid? JammingPunch is inside Green Mystery Waves...in this same area! They did the same with JamMachineGun. It's inside purple data in Ophiuca's Dungeon...and in Green Waves outside her dungeon.
260 breaking damage is pretty damn good. Especially since we're using Pegasus, which means that with just a charge shot I can turn that 260 damage into 520.
: ...savage bull...Back to the gate earlier. The only way to get deeper into the area is to open this game. They aren't explicit about this, but you've probably guessed that I had reasons to fight the SP viruses beyond just getting their cards.
To open that gate, you need to beat TaurusFire SP. I'm pretty sure it's not a spoiler to tell you that the rest of the EM bosses count too.
As shown.
To get to the teleporter, we need to have defeated the SP forms of the first three bosses.
: ...cards may pass.It's not that easy, though! Gotta make sure you have at least 100 standard cards. I have more than enough thanks to earlier in the update.
Clearing the 100 standard card gate leads us to DeepSpace2. And, as expected, there's a whole lot of new viruses.
The third form of the Berserk viruses, already.
240 damage, now. Almost on par with JamminPunch.
This is where I prefer to get the ProtectEyez's card - the formations aren't as annoying as the ones in DeepSpace1.
Good man. Paying attention to the formations. Nice.
Not an S. Pls.
VolticEye3 is still incredible, you should be using it.
Yep. Use it. SkillEye, people.
How did you even get up here, junk robot? And where are you getting junk from?
I will, however, refuse to ask those questions about my junk cube.
For the record, this card breaks. That's 500 damage against a frozen target. Use it.
This formation has all new viruses in here, actually! They're all the third-level forms of their respective enemies.
Forgot to grab an image of this one's effect, but it deletes enemies with less than 160 health.
Seriously, these things are brutal. Hit with everything, that's 360 damage.
Counter, sword, and Wood element. These cards are just generically good.
As Yeti gets more powerful cards....he gets lower ranks.
The third form of the Mage viruses.
This one gets you elec element. I'll be putting that to good use shortly.
And, the final UFO virus.
Someone somewhere has put time and effort into making a punch-only folder. I wish them luck with their endeavour and also mock them mercilessly.
The SyncHook card does NOT pierce shields, even when the special effect goes off. Boo.
And, finally, the last of the Magna viruses with BigAx3. Use it if you're having trouble with the Black Hole viruses, because guess what! That's a LifeSword range that can one-shot even the level 3 version.
Okay. That's done. Now, back to exploring the area! This target point... doesn't really need to exist? I'm not really sure why it does, honestly. Probably just trying to fit in some DS touchscreen stuff for contractual reasons.
Yeah....very thrown-in isn't it.
This shows up pretty much immediately after the warp point. Always useful!
: ...may proceed...The text may have changed but it's the same old gate. Libra Scales needs to have been toppled to get through here.
This looks shorter than it is but there's a chunk of road we skipped over. The path is linear though, so we haven't reached it yet.
This wraps back around to that pair of one-way conveyor belts we saw earlier.
Hello, Jammer! This guy has stuff we really, really want.
Namely, the last of basically everything we want (and an infinite supply of BreakSabre!).
And, the third Giga Card. There's five of them in the game and the three left are all locked behind the post-game. DarkSword is the first one, based off of the dark chip of the same name.
Terrible Giga Card, actually. Completely outclassed when you get it.
In Leo, you'd find LifeAura for sale. It's a more powerful Aura that blocks anything up to 200 damage.
And with HolyPanel here you can make the annoying HolyAura strat, blocking everything that's not Wind or 400 damage
And in Dragon, you'll find PoisonPharaoh, which lets you kill Bass in that scripted battle in Battle Network 3. In this game, it does the same thing as the program advance.
Unfortunately, I forgot how expensive everything was. Just buying the HPMems wiped out my cash, so... we'll just come back later for those.
Yep, Starforce 1 is expensive, man.
Hopping across the entrance puts us to the other side of the area.
Even if I didn't already have one, there's no reason to blow money on BreakSabre in the card shop. Just farm GMD for them.
We have an option of which gate to go through. We'll leave the bottom gate for later, the top one is more interesting.
That's the one that requires Gemini to be dead.
Seriously, don't waste money on BreakSabre. We just got two of them for the price of an Unlocker, so I already have a full set.
What the fuck is this distribution.
Aaaand now we run into a problem. We don't have all 150 cards, but the only ones I'm missing are from the Jammer's shop. I don't want to leave until I've finished exploring, so back to that other gate I skipped past earlier.
Hey, remember that lonely Mr. Hertz we talked to? Who gave us the LonelyHeart item? Yeah, that's this gate.
Normally, you'd need to delete all of your in-game Brothers to open this up. That means all of them, in-game and Real Brothers too. That wouldn't do more than inconvenience me (since I only have the in-game Brothers and they'll redo their BrotherBand if you cut them for any reason) but if you had a full set of Brothers, obviously you wouldn't want to do that. Getting that LonelyHeart lets us open up the door without doing that.
How nice of the game to let you get past without actually doing that. If only we had the reverse...a way to generate Link Power without needing a connection. Starforce 2!
Thanks to that, it lets us into DeepSpace3 without having to go through that other door.
How wonderful! Plus, a PMD we can't get quite yet.
And, at the very end of the short area, there's... this thing.
...Oh.
...Wow, a gate needing either Lonely Heart or No Brothers in order to find an item that reminds you of your dad. Damn.
: Hm? There's something still on it...
...Oh.
We'll take a look at that in a second, but there's something we need to check out in the key items.
: ...this Transer's memory...
: "My dear Geo, if you're reading this data, then I'm probably lost in space somewhere. I met this alien named Mega, borrowed his power and changed into this EM body.: "I don't know if I'll ever see you again, and I'll probably wander the stars forever, but I don't want you to be sad, because we'll always be connected in our hearts.: "Whenever you're down or having a hard time, I hope you'll look up at the stars and think of me. I'll always be watching over you, Geo. Take care of your mom, OK?: "Oh! And if the alien, Mega, should show up, please give him the attached Mega weapon."Kelvin, how did you get this?
Anyway! The Kaiser Knuckle is the strongest weapon in the game, with 4 power, 3 speed, and 4 charge. Strictly speaking there's a better weapon called the SF Power, with 5-2-4, but unfortunately it's only in the Japanese version of the game.
There's not actually a reason to come in here beyond the final HPMem20 and the Kaiser Knuckle, since there aren't any new viruses. That said, if you're struggling to find a few of the third-level viruses, they spawn here way more frequently than in DeepSpace2.
Time to pulse out and grab the zenny.
A couple fights with Cancer Bubble later and I'm back with enough money.
Breaking the economy with stonks yet again.
The final two counters, our third giga card, and the last of the knuckles. This one also freezes, so it combos well with the ElecNukle and JamminPunch cards.
This honestly looks pretty satisfying. That's everything we can get so far.
As soon as we open that gate, though, an email arrives.
: I bestow this unto you...
Heheheheh...
HAHAHAHAHA.
Leo and Dragon get the appropriate elemental +50 card. And... this is why I generally regard Leo as the weakest and Dragon as the strongest version. There just aren't that many multi-hit fire cards. Meanwhile, compare that to StickyRain, and VulcanSeed.
I generally place Dragon above Pegasus because there's not actually any fire-element bosses except for TaurusFire, and... I guess 80-damage
But, this is a good spot to break the update. There's a lot of things to do in DeepSpace3, and I don't want to have to squeeze it all into a single post.
-----
Optional fights:
The optional fights never show their EM beings in the first game, but the anime has some of them. We've already seen Cancer's appearance.
Wolf actually shows up later on in the series, so that's where I'm pulling this image from.
This is the best view we get of Crown, so... Sure?