Part 147: Episode CXLI: Bunny Hop

Episode CXLI: Bunny Hop



I was going to just do this all off-screen. But I figure it’s worth showing off since it’s kinda essential to the completion of the rest of the game’s extraneous content. Today we’re going to buff our androids to Level 99 because all of the high end post game content involves enemies at the level cap as well. There’s a few way to go about this, but there’s only really one smart way...



For today’s session, we’re going to be heading back to the Amusement Park zone with 9S. It doesn’t matter if it’s in Route B or C. We just need Nines to be taking the lead as playable character.


Music: Amusement Park (Vocal)



Ahead of the mission, we’re gonna need to do a bit of prep work with our Plug-in Chip loadouts. To make this go fastest, we’re gonna need to make two dedicated configurations. The first should be one that ups our physical damage output and lowers the Pod Program cooldown time. The latter is the more important of the two. It’s possible to halve the cooldown time of Pod Programs via chips all told.



Our second chip loadout consists entirely of chips that buff XP gain and maybe item drop for flavor. It’s pretty easy to cap out +100% experience gain via chips and have a ton of space to spare. Either way, we’re going to equip the damage dealing/Pod Program cooldown timer lowering loadout first.



As for Pod Programs, we’re going to be utilizing one I’ve rarely been a fan of myself – R040: Blade. This Pod Program is actually the highest DPS of anything in the game... assuming it’s a stationary target that stays exact at ground level at all times. We’ll just toss that on any old Pod and head on out to our destination...



...The main square of the Amusement Park. It was quite the scene first venturing into this area. There’s one feature of this area that is a bit of an anomaly: The giant golden bunny mascot statue. No, there’s no hidden laboratory slotting an emblem at its base or anything like that. What’s odd about it is that...



...It reacts to being attacked. Well, it doesn’t react. More like weapon strikes react to hitting it. No other environmental object in the game does that. The YoRHa androids’ weapons will readily clip through the inverse during combat. But not this thing. It’s even possible to land critical hits on it (which causes action to stop for a split second and a satisfying sound to occur.) Hmm.



So if you’re having a hard time guessing: this isn’t actually a statue. It never was a statue. This thing is a weirdo machine lifeform playing possum. The trouble is that this is a Level 80 machine lifeform in disguise. One which has the highest single pool of HP of any enemy in the game. It’s also the best source of experience by a landslide. The trouble is... actually destroying the thing. Being the low end of Level 60 taking on something 15+ levels higher than ourselves would be a tall order even if this wasn’t a hidden super enemy.



That’s where the Blade Pod Program comes in. I mentioned early that it is the highest damage per second of any attack in the game... assuming it’s a stationary target at ground level. Welp... I think this punches that ticket. What we’re going to need to do is to charge up a Level 3 Blade Pod Program and... just kinda camp here letting its do its thing. Then charge and repeat.

It is uhh... it’s gonna take like 10-15 minutes. No, there is not an easier way to do this. Just stick with me here... We’ve got to drain this enemy’s HP to 90% before it... Well...


Music: The Sound of the End (Vocal)



Ngh... Die!
Proposal: Defeat the giant machine lifeform.
Why y’all swingin’ at cute ol’ me now!? Ain’t you androids got no respect what fer livin’ things!? Fer cryin’ out loud, when it comes to cute, I’m the goldurn BOSS’a cute, ya hear!?





Now that the Amusement Park Rabbit has “awakened” and is quite pissed, this whole process gets a lot simpler. In gameplay terms, the golden bunny machine is a hugely oversized Stubby with a unique energy orb firing attack using its trumpet. None of its abilities are particularly hard to evade but they all do HURT if they connect, given the 17 Level difference between 9S and the enemy.



But that’s why we brought 9S in the first place. A2 or 2B can beat this thing in combat... sure... That is a thing you could possible do at this point. It’d probably take about half an hour of your life with no tangible benefit other than saying that you did it. Go you! That could be done or...





9S can just hack the thing. In fact, 9S hacking it is what makes this such a good source of experience points to begin with so it’s actively a way worse idea to fight thing enemy normally. I have no idea how hacking experience is calculated. Zero of that is documented anywhere. But it’s partially based on 9S’s currently level and the enemy’s level. Hacking this thing one time gets us more experience in a single go than all most of the Route C boss fights.





And it’s even more once we swap in that Plug-in chip configuration that buffs XP gain we set-up earlier. At Level 64 (starting at 63 he leveled up from the hacking) it took 9S three hack sessions to successfully destroy the Amusement Park Rabbit.



Doing so shot him up five levels to Level 69. Nice. Yeah... destroying that thing one time yields more XP every Route C boss combined. Sure, it took like 20 minutes to take it out... this time. But now we’re six levels higher from where we started.



At this point, we can save the game, reload and the rabbit respawns. We’ve got to go through the same rigmarole in waking it up again with Blade Pod program. But with those new levels it only takes like five minutes to wake it up and repeat the process. Then three... then two... then by a few more shots just using a Level 3 Blade once it’ll be enough to wake up and reap the easy experience gain.



Likewise, 9S’s hacking attempts will eventually only drop to two sessions. And then one will one-shot it. By that point the hacking will be giving us more EXP than actually killing it.



Fun fact: This used to be WAY easier to do to the point it is one of the sole things patched out in all versions of the game. On launch, it was possible to return to Route B with 9S back when the Amusement Park was far more active.



There, 9S could hack one of the numerous friendly machines going around celebrating in the square. Since they’re all neutral machine lifeforms by default, 9S can just hijack ‘em without any problem. From there, it was possible to trot over a hijacked Stubby and immediately target the Amusement Park Bunny for Hacking. Since hacking damage is percentage based, it still only took like 3-4 hacks to destroy the thing, even if 9S was only in his 30s Level wise.





So... kinda busted. Not that this method isn’t either it’s just... there’s about an extra half hour of dicking around to get the results we want with the whole waking up the Golden Bunny business to start the hacking cheese train. Anyway, in all this took maybe 40 minutes to jump from Level 63 to the level cap of Level 99. But hey, that’s one thing off the checklist of post-game completion.





What I am definitely going to go do off-screen is round up our weapon upgrade completion status. Really, there’s not much to grind out there. Most of the stuff is purchasable at stores or we’ve got a decent stockpile. Really, the only particular issue is a mess of Beast Hides for basic level upgrades. Unfortunately, those are semi-common drops from any boar or moose that is slain. Shouldn’t take too long to sort that ou—



SWEET JESUS, I FORGOT ALL THE ANIMALS SCALED WITH YOUR CURRENT LEVEL! Ffff—






Video: Amusement Park Rabbit Fight





Amusement Park Concept Art – Remember the simpler times of machine lifeform productions of Shakespeare plays? It all seems so long ago...