Part 28: A Children's Crusade On Acid

So last time Urayne did something and everything went black and apparently the hazard suit has to restart Ninja Ranger Good Human Hokage Dick Solomon.


Somehow we've ended up inside Power Plant Zeta.



PU-NuclearZeta.ogg

Good: the opening that's just harsh piano keys over a geiger counter. It's really atmospheric with most of the suit's functions failing in a dark room.

Bad: when it turns into an evil techno track.


Anyway we gotta get a new battery for the suit and also find CURIE, both of which rely on turning the power back on.

You'd think it'd be hard to turn the power back on to a nuclear power plant that had its nuclear fuel stolen, but you'd be wrong.


All the while there are near constant random encounters. Rocket Man and MEGAWEAPON can breeze through them, because Nuclear as a game mechanic encourages high-speed offense, and those two are providential at it.

It also completely screws over defensive 'mons, but that's okay, Uranium has none of those. Everything is geared to kill.


A lot of Zeta is dark hallways and fallen rocks and shit. It's way too much work to navigate when you can't run.


Hey, that's nice, put me in this dark claustrophobic place with endless random encounters and minimal movement speed and give me no healing until I solve the first puzzle, that's great.


Well, let's disengage it!


YIKES!


It's, like, uh... 9.5% damage? I guess?

What?


No clever hint in the readme, I checked.

Why couldn't you have borrowed something from OFF while you were at it?


Anyway the answer is in the next screenshot. look, light!


Did I pass by this door in the dark or did I not notice it over the 50th Trawpint corpse?


Irradiated bread! The best thing since sliced bread!


This works in Fallout, but not here. Is it because the low-key memos are more horrifying when they're over a hundred years old in decayed buildings and about the day-to-day of the military-industrial complex? Or is it because Pokemon has no place having low-key memos from the dead?


You need to do the circuit breaker thing to head north because this door is powered.


The hazard suit whines about power again in this outdoor area. It's in-door mechanically.


This screen, and only this screen, has this new thing in it appearing vaguely infrequently. Geigeroach is not used by any trainer, nuclear horde or no, so your only hint you'd be missing something is that #172 is blank.


It's Bug/Nuclear with no useful traits or abilities.


I choose to go right for arbitrary reasons.


It's even darker than normal!


Man, Alien would've been a hell of a lot worse if Ripley had a backhoe dragon that could effortlessly slay xenomorphs.


Unlike last time the lever is just here, flip it and we cool.


What's immediately after is a stealth segment.

Yes. Again.


This one is enforced via level 75 Trawpints. Yes. 75. They have 220 -243 HP and 118-170 speed.


Rocket Man has over 200 speed and hits a x4 weakness with Earthquake.


Past this is the Power Cell. Not only does it make the suit happy but it also activates SUPER STRENGTH!!!

Which is just Strength if you don't have the move or the key item, since Zeta has a lot of block puzzles.




S51-A would've been waiting for this for ages. It's the only real special steel move.


Left this time.


A known hazard of nuclear fallout is the spontaneous generation of Strength puzzles.


This nets us our own Arbokite.

The 1-2 punch of Intimidate and Petrify along with the new Dark type makes the mega evolution hefty. It almost ensures a turn to pop off one Coil and blow shit away with Gunk Shot. But unlike a lot of other Uranium megas, Arbok really needs the mega to work. Worth it? Maybe.


I like partially obscured strength puzzles even more!


This leads to the other lever, and we need both to open the northern door because [trails off].


Okay seriously is this part of the security system. Clearance levels, monitoring systems, strength puzzles.


BTW during the entire thing, random encounters hit like every 5 steps.


Eventually we reach the door.


The suit's AI literally tells us this is a point of no return. CURIE's in there.


It gives us a yes/no prompt, unlike other times the game forces you into a place from which you cannot exit until you defeat the boss.


Unlike when the suit cited its battery life, this is real.


This is a timed segment.


A timed maze segment with one-way passages.


A timed maze segment with one-way passages and random encounters.


It's not very long, thankfully. This is my time. Think I could've gotten sub-minute times if I used a max repel before entering?


At the end we find CURIE waiting for us.


CURIE has stock villian motivation #55 now. "I had a bad time so EVERYONE should!"


She has Theo captured, and stuck in a stasis pod!


A very weird and edgy stasis pod!


Oh boo hoo if I find your girlfriend dumped you like the last fifty times someone said they suffered endlessly and want to make all of humanity pay I will flip a table.


CURIE's plan is to take both Theo and Dick Solomon hostage, and is talking like they already have it down.


But Dick Solomon is tired of standing around during cutscenes.


Pff okay Dracula.


How is CURIE holding a nuclear ball when those are new Ranger tech?

OST: PU-CurieUranyeBattle.ogg
OFSelects: Electric Six - Nuclear War (On The Dance Floor)


This fight is a bunch of horseshit re. things tossing endless high-power nuclear moves, except when they use their coverage moves for steel-types. MEGAWEAPON is circumventing that by overclocking.


The game is perfectly aware of the power of Atomiziated Hyper Voices. MEGAWEAPON barely hangs on. It's all I need.


A critical +2 Iron Head turns Nucleon into dust.


Only trainers who have passed the six trials and overcome Vaeryn can have the power of mega evolution, hence why this atomic terrorist can use it.


+2 Iron Head.


Xenoqueen is the final form of Xenomite, and it exists basically to use Fallout then do some nuke damage before dying.

Oh yeah.


The damage is dependent on nuclear-resistance. Most of Uranium's guys, being dual-type, would lose 50% HP at the end of turn. It is also supposed to suppress Nuclear's weak-to-everything status, but may be bugged.

I don't know if it is or not. +2 Iron Head.


Intimidate would be a problem, but Arbok is more helpless than most against a steel-type.


It has a pitiful Radioacid besides Gunk Shot, and even the burn proc is worthless against carrot wine and full restores.


I get an easy opening to Shift Gear again. +2 Iron Head.


CURIE's last Pokemon is the big guy itself. Urayne does not fuck around. 170 speed, and Atomic Punch backed by 194 attack. Think about using a steel-type or another nuclear-type? no dice, it has Overheat for no good reason. 227/149/147 defenses are reasonable enough to take one hit that isn't overdone. The only upside is that it can only throw out Overheat once or twice before it stops being a real threat, and then all you have to deal with is Atomic Punch.

Great?


+2 Iron Head.


CURIE is reasonably shocked when all of their plans are foiled and their Pokemon defeated by a fucking backhoe dragon.


Urayne in particular got beaten up so hard it explodes.


Actually it goes to some dormant form, while CURIE just cannot handle getting owned so hard.


One of you was punching for the other.


Urayne starts moving again, and has barely enough energy to teleport itself and CURIE away.


With that, the minovsky particles clear and we can reach HQ again.


We relay the good news, and the not-as-good news.


It's okay, the villain will be defeated off-screen by NPCs. That's what will totally happen, yep.


The stasis tank breaks for no reason.


Theo is glad that CURIE got steamrolled (backhoed?) and bemoans being in suspended animation for the duration of the fight. Despite what CURIE said about being in a single moment's endless agony, Theo doesn't seem to be particularly scarred. I guess that was just bluster from the edgiest edgelord?


Thankfully the game just cutscenes us out.


Ninja Ranger Good Human Hokage Dick Solomon has triumphed over an insane supervillain. Next, the championship.