Part 26: The Highway (1)

No time for recaps, we have an egg to catch!



Oh, but we have plenty of time for new enemies!





When I think of a depraved motorcycle/hog hybrid, this isn't the music I would expect to hear.





That said, the music is a bit warranted on this guy since his attacks are pretty brutal. He's susceptible to crying and burns easily, so he's not too bad. He also has a 10% chance of dropping a Secret Herb if you're inclined to grab those.







This guy's weak to lightning, not that you need it since its HP is low enough to go down to a round of attacks from everyone.





It's also not very threatening, not even hitting your party some of the time (when it hits at all).





You're going the wrong way.







From the looks of it... It appears that you mistakenly threw something into the garbage.



The garbage dump is northeast of here. Please hurry after it and retrieve whatever embarrassing thing it was that you accidentally threw away. Please be very careful not to slip and get in an accident!







...Welp.







That damn Fassad's been tossing banana peels all over the place, so it's easy to slip on 'em. Here, you can take my Pork Bean, if you'd like.

Hey, this chap's not so bad.



This actually isn't GIF fuckery on my end, his backwards step happens in-game.



I'm not sure why, but you smell like a dog and a kid...



You're that kid from Club Titiboo! Maybe you think you can fool everyone else, but there's no fooling my wild nose! You sneaky piece of scum, pretending to be our commander!









So, before we get to the actual boss fight, there's one more stat I need to explain: DCMC Defense. Pretty much every enemy in the game is unaffected by DCMC attacks besides Pigmasks. The Fierce Pork Trooper here is very susceptible to DCMC attacks.







So imagine the entire fight where the Fierce Pork Trooper spending his turns like this. It wears off, but you can reapply it and effectively take no damage the entire fight (besides maybe a lucky shot in the first round).

I forgot that I actually had the Pamphlet in my inventory though so I initially fought him the regular way, which is what I recorded.



He's vulnerable to crying, though he's kinda resistant to it. Got it off first try at least. He's also weak to Fire attacks.





Shield gives three layers of a shield that halves all physical attacks. If reapplied, it brings that number back to three (as opposed to Earthbound, I'm told, where recasting the spell adds three charges). It's very handy against physical-powerhouse bosses like this guy.





VERY useful, because he can hurt.



So first priority is to lower his offense and inflict crying so he's much less threatening.





Shield in action.







That said, this fight does a good job telling you not to rely on shields that much, as Fierce Pork Trooper has an attack that will inflict around seven weak hits to a character. Each hit counts as a separate attack, so it'll smash through a shield no problem.





He'll also restore HP because screw you.





Wow, what a jerk.



Kind of threatening if you can't cheese him, but judicious use of Shields, Lifeup, and boosting Duster and Boney's offense makes this fight very manageable.



It only restores 10HP and is a guaranteed drop. Score?







That looks fun!



That looks not so fun.



(Sparrow Advice! To ride a Pork Bean, use the A Button. To get off a Pork Bean, use the B Button to stop, then press it again to get out. Now to end this with a sparrow-like... chirp chirpa-chirp!)

That's right, we have a (second) Pork Bean now. Works the same way as in Salsa's chapter.



The two roads loop around to each other, but the left road leads to a side road so it's the better path.





While in the Pork Bean, we're invincible against other enemies. We also go significantly faster.





Which is good, because this area is HUGE. The factory we were just in is in the southeastern corner, while we are the giant red dot near the south-center. Our goal is the northeast orange corner. Orange rooms are outdoors, purple are tunnels, blue is a bridge.



While we could just go to the plot, there's quite a few side-things to do here. There's a couple Pigmasks at this location, for instance.

Our Pork Bean ran out of power, you see, and... Yes? A garbage truck? Oh, one just headed north from here.

This recharge device seems to be broken. Oh, but please don't worry. I'll manage somehow.



There's also a Doggy Biscuit.

Before we go the west path, let's go up first.





Pork Bean is stuck on roads, so we'll have to go up this hill on foot. It's a shortcut to the garbage dump, which can be handy.



Kumatora picks up Fire Beta, which does double the damage of Fire Alpha, with double the cost. Not too shabby.





Why are they using such serious music for a rocket with a rhinoceros head.





This thing can be a pain though, at it'll attack the entire party, turn around, and then attack again that same round. Take it down quickly (its Ice weakness helps).





Chic Gloves are a nice weapon upgrade for Kumatora.



Sure.



Especially a Schickhaus from Little Mac's on Jenkinson's Boardwalk. Loaded with chili, cheese, and onions. Mmm. Little Mac's is known for its pizza and cheesesteak, but the hot dogs are fantastic. If you're ever at the Jersey Shore, be sure to stop by! Or, if you ever happen to be in the Pittsburth area, check out the Dirty O. There's some amazing hot dog fare to be had there!

Eh, I'm not a big hot dog guy myself. I'll have them occasionally, but I'll take a good burger anyday. Of course, one of each is also pretty damn good.



The lesson to learn from this is that vandalizing signs will give you tips on where to get good food.



(Oh, me, oh, my. My children went off to play and haven't come home. If you happen to see them, please tell them their mother says to come home. Please. Please. Oh, incidentally, I have seven children in all.)

There's a fetch quest to do, where we look for seven mice to get a reward. It's kind of worth it, and since we're going to visit every inch of this place anyway, might as well.

Anyway, we'll go back south to the charging station with the Pigmasks, then take the west tunnel to explore.



See that roadblock?





It's an enemy.



It apparently can put you to sleep with Hypnosis and summon other enemies, but all it ever did for me was block my way. Otherwise, it's easy to put to sleep and is weak against lightning.







This is another carryover enemy from Earthbound. It can use lasers and heal itself, but otherwise it's not too bad.





At least until it explodes on death. Since it's the end of the battle, it won't outright kill anyone unless they're low on HP to begin with, but it'll do enough damage where you'd rather avoid these guys if possible.



A defense upgrade exclusive to Lucas.



("Thank you for taking the time to read..." Whew. Reading stuff is so hard.) Squeak squeak? (What? My mom's calling for me? Okay. I'll head back right now.)

That's one down.





If we go further in the tunnel, we'll actually get to this area from Salsa's chapter.





Unfortunately, we can't explore the desert or return to Tazmily from here, so there's really only one reason to come down here.



Get the Luxury Banana and Super Bomb here. The Luxury Banana restores 120HP, the highest of any item we've seen so far, while the Super Bomb is the second-highest tier of bombs.







This is the effective version of the Scrapped Robot from before. He apparenty can numb you, though all he did against me was a bum rush before dying. Also weak against lightning.



AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA





(There was an accident here. I saw it with my own eyes. It's scary! The world's become so scary! Huh? What? My mom's calling for me? She's even scarier than the world is, when she wants to be! So I better get home right away, then!)



(I hate this stupid ol' factory. There's nothing to eat here at all. Huh? My mom's calling for me? Yikes! I better get back before she gets REALLY mad at me!)

The next two mice are back where we fought the Fierce Pig Trooper and all the way back at the factory. There's no mice beyond the factory, at least.

We've finished exploring the southern part of the map, so let's finish up the update by going north.



It's my own personal dangerous stuff festival. No one can say no to buying this stuff. You want anything?



These items are crazy expensive, but they're also crazy powerful. The New Year's Eve Bomb, in particular, will drop an enemy down to single-digits apparently. I'm not going to invest in any right now since I've still got a bunch of weaker bombs I need to burn through.

A fascinating bevy of goods, wouldn't you agree? ...Say, you look kinda familiar somehow.



It's self-service, so please use it as you see fit. My job is to stand here and say that this station is self-service.

This is kind of important. We're free to use the Pork Bean as much as we want until we try to cross the bridge to the east of this area. When we do so, if the Pork Bean is uncharged, it'll stop working and we'll have to do everything on foot, which is annoying in a map this large with so many enemies wandering around. It's best to charge it.



Step 1: Place your Pork Bean on the Recharge Panel.
Step 2: Press the A Button on the nearby device to supply the Pork Bean with power.
Step 3: Once the device beeps, the recharge is complete.

WARNING! When the device beeps, BE SURE to press the A Button to turn it off!

If we leave it on too long, we'll blow up our Pork Bean.





I recharge it without event, at least.



(This scent...it's the smell of a Doggy Biscuit! And, as you can see, I happen to be a stray dog! So there's only one logical thing for you to do now. Please give me that Doggy Biscuit.)

No reason not to, unless you really want to give it to Boney. It doesn't heal that much anyway.

Bow wow! (I'm exceptionally happy! I want to thank you guys somehow! ...Oh, I know! You can have this!)



Oh yeah, the stray dog was carrying a bomb around.

Bow wow! (Take good care of my thank-you gift!)

We can talk to it again.

Bow-wow! (I'm a carefree stray dog. We couldn't talk earlier when you were riding your vehicle earlier. So let's talk now.)

Another Yes/No prompt. Yes:

Bow wow bow. (Here, YOU start the conversation.)

No:

Bow. (I'm not very talkative either, actually.)



(Next time I'm reborn, I hope I get to be a sperm whale. I wanna be a sperm whale and eat giant squids and stuff. Huh? My mom's calling for me? Aw, crap! This is no time for me to be dreaming about stuff! Okay, I'm going home now!)



Next time, we'll explore the rest of this area and hopefully get our egg back.