Part 46: Jimenez
Prayer
Unless I'm forgetting something, this is the last time this route we're going to get a real chance to talk to the crew. We can come back whenever, sure, but...
Mem Aleph, the cause of it all deep within the Schwarzwelt, must be destroyed. Good luck, and may the Lord be with you.
But we have been touched by the Great Will now. He has corrected our path and led us thus far. Let us defeat Mem Aleph, purify the Earth, and create a paradise together.
If you can return to me, I can heal you, but if you fall in your task, nothing can be done... Guard your life with care. You and Zelenin are our only hope...
Our wills rest in the weapons to defeat the demons, and in the armor to protect you from their evil. We stand beside you at all times.
Yet if they transformed into a shape that can be used in our holy battle... The demons' filth will be purified and become the foundation of our new world. The talent our Lord has given to us will bring salvation even to demons. Hmhmhmhm...Dent's dialogue hasn't been updated, so we'll take a look at something slightly different...
Yggdrasil is okay but not very fancy. If he didn't have his own natural Drain Gun passive, he'd just nullify it instead. He DOES start with Grand Tack as well, but Riot Gun is better so.
Except, I really don't want to just give up Kresnik's source anytime ever. But we're still gonna fuse this.
Then gonna go straight to the compendium. Output Password is a VERY important option, for sensible reasons.
Writing the password down and then resetting the game. Immediately, no save.
Then like with Ishtar/Alciel, gonna input that password except this one isn't a phrase or word.
And then we have the Yggdrasil we just made AND we keep Kresnik's source, because it's important.
This is a thing I have been doing a lot since like the end of Eridanus, and will continue to do so. Mainly for special sources or top-tier ones (like Kresnik's or, say, Ammut's).
Silence
Chaos Theme
No matter how many times you try to reach Mistress Mem Aleph... I will crush you! The Earth... The human world... It will not fall into the hands of the light. We demons are going to save the filthy, rotting Earth. Do not interfere, capricious guest. You are an ignorant piece of flesh, duped by those angels.
He saw through the angels' ruses and walked through the gate of power. He will be the standard-bearer of our new workd! If I bring him your carcass, it will be cause for celebration! An Honor Befitting That Name
Surt sure is a guy, I guess. He's pretty much on par with Zhu Yin rather than anything else of note.
Naturally, the big fire dude with a sword on fire is weak to Ice, drains Fire...
And does a lot of Fire attacks. He has 1500HP and jobs out pretty quickly all things considered.
Yggdrasil damn near oneshots the guy with a Charged Riot Gun as is.
He's basically just a glorified random encounter. He even drops a regular Assist forma with the usual base 25% chance or a Life Stone with a 10% rate!
Silence
> Light is shining in from somewhere...
> The light enveloped you...!
Law Theme
But with your power, there is nothing to fear. Nothing save for Mem Aleph... and your friend.
Now that you have the Cosmic Eggs, your next task...
...if to prepare the Vanishing Point to release their energy onto the Earth.
Deep in this sector, the Mother rages and curses, fearful of your arrival. She fears the end of all demons. Now go. The final hour is at hand... Now go. The final hour is at hand... Now go. The final hour is at hand... The hour when you march in triumph to a reborn Earth. The hour when you march in triumph to a reborn Earth. The hour when you march in triumph to a reborn Earth.
Alas... the elevator has been broken... Can you fix it?
It seems we must look for an alternative route to Mem Aleph. I believe there should be another path somewhere in this sector... ...That is an unusual forma you have obtained. Why not return to the Red Sprite and research it further?
We can't do anything else in Horologium without doing this, so this has to be useful and important, right?
Thankfully, it keeps up the pattern of giving us the exact thing we need to continue. At this point, there aren't any hidden/locked doors that we can't open. How nice!
A Scorched Nation
And so now we can enter and explore Horologium for real. Okay, let's do this then.
i have made a huge mistake
Well, at least this is a fairly small area all things considered. Still a pain to deal with, though.
We are under the Lord's protection; we cannot fail. Proceed to Mem Aleph, and do not falter.
With the enhancements to our suits and our love for one another, we will carve a path. Let us go forth until we stand in the world of the Lord...! The Fear of God
A buncha new demons to take a look at, so let's do that right now.
Cabracan is pretty bad. Sure, it resists Fire... but it's weak to Wind, and has a 300% modifier for Paralyze, Poison and Mute. Preeeeetty bad.
Cherub is exactly how he looks, though his source is a bit... weird. It teaches Megidola, Repel Wind (this is important!) and.. Hama. Base Hama. What the heck?
Inside the dark rooms, we have Nidhoggr (of course) and a few others. Mushussu is simple and effective-ish. On the one hand, weak to Wind and nothing else. On the other hand, Reflects Elec and has no other resistances either.
Yamata-no-Orochi is at least a bit more varied. Resists Fire, is immune to Ice and Poison, weak to Elec, 300% modifier for Charm and a 150% modifier for Sleep. Also, he's a Strength demon of course but his only attack skill is Bufudyne. Good job Orochi.
Ananta has one trick: he casts Dormina. Not even Lullaby. At least his base attack is 1-3 hits on a single target. Reistance-wise, he's weak to Wind and nothing else and is immune to Ice, Elec AND Expel.
But his source is ABYSMALLY bad. It teaches Diarahan, Mediarahan and Vigilant. Fucking hell.
A Scorched Nation
That's it for new demons for now, so we'll carry on proper-like. There's a few more dark rooms in this area along with a bunch of Unlock/Gate Search D doors but they might as well be normal doors at this point for all the difference it doesn't make.
This section is more annoying for sheer virtue of there being so many different dark rooms that are all segregated from each other. That dumb 3 tile one in the middle is the most dumb, though.
And after all that, we get to a new elevator. Hopefully this one'll be more useful or helpful or something.
On the one hand, it's more than one floor we can go to.
On the other hand, none of them are B9F. Welp, in that case we'll start with B1F and go from there.
If this keeps up, we might get to see a bit of a pattern. Also fucking shit I don't have Medic equipped.
It takes up so much space and its not perpetually useful any more so it's on rotation! Blargh.
At least we can just walk around that particular set. Except, those paths to the left from here are another set of Poison tiles or...
A set of Sleep tiles. On the one hand, I could absolutely turn back and get Medic.
But I'm arrogant, stupid and don't want to deal with those dark rooms again so...
Kazfiel! We can use this guy now. He's pretty okay, I guess. By default, he's immune to Wind (and neutral to Fire). Ailments are a 50% rate across the board save for Rage and Bomb, which are 100% each. His source is all about the wind too; Garudyne, Wind Amp and... Resist Wind? Sure, okay.
The Fear of God
While I deal with All The Ailments, let's take a look at the new demons around here. Dakini is weak to Ice and nothing else, and resists Fire, Expel and Curse and nothing else. She uses Agidyne, Mamudo and Frolic, irritatingly enough.
Berserker could totally have appeared on the 1st floor but here he is, instead. He's weak to Fire, resists Phys and Ice, he has Tyranny by default and his source gives Luster Candy AND Phys Amp.
Huoniao is exactly how he looks. His source is better than he is, since it drops Fire Breath for Agidyne, Mutudi for Amrita and Kamikaze for, uh, Last Resort. Well, they can't all be winners.
A Scorched Nation
Having navigated past so, so many poison tiles (and that's not even all of them) we get to an Unlock E door. Huh.
And it gates off a singular AC X.
Why. Why bother with an Unlock E for that. Augh.
...Probably should've come to this terminal BEFORE going for the Unlock E door. Whoops.
At least now we have Medic equipped just in time for these damage tiles also gating off an AC X Forma.
And a regular AC Horolite over on the far left. That's everything we can access right now on this floor, but we are FAR from done with the map here.
So, B2F next then. At first glance, there's a single (relatively) giant room that's empty and... that's it.
But there's a Gate Search D door here. And we HAVE to find this sooner or later. It's not exactly hard to get to at least.
Also hey look what's right here. Nice to get this out of the way early.
Divine light shines in like the morning sun and the glow of magma seeps from the cracked ground...
> The data is corrupted, preventing you from reading further.
> You recevied a call over the radio.
It seems you've picked up some data from a black box. I've been compiling all the data we collect. Could you please return to the deck?We'll do that later; for now, we'll keep trying to get... somewhere.
Like this. I'm only pointing out that this is a locked door for a simple reason.
...It leads to a 3x3 poison tile room. That has nothing in it.
That is so insanely dumb and petty and ridiculous that I can't get mad at it. Like, why would you ever do that? Because fuck you, that's why.
Only other thing on this floor that we care about right now is a second elevator. Sure, okay. Maybe this one will take us to B3F.
Or not. It's just a different part of B4F. We were off there next anyway, so might as well use this one first.
Well, this proves that it's not giving each floor its own gimmick. Not sure if that's a good thing or not, really.
Gonna ignore the straight damage tiles for now. Don't wanna have to deal with that right away.
...Well, that's mildly annoying. And by mildly, I mean that now we have to go back through B2F's poison mire later to see what's behind those damage tiles.
The Fear of God
New demon 'round these parts. Vetala has exactly one thing of note that isn't visible right now. His basic attack has a chance to inflict Poison. With a 30% base rate.
An Honor Befitting That Name
Nothing else new on the floor itself, so let's take a look at the Enemy Search demons now. Nergal is pretty simple on paper; he's weak to Ice, resists Fire, is immune to Expel, Curse, Paralyze and Poison. Skill-wise, he has Mudoon, Hamaon and Heaven's Bow which is the MT Heavy Gun skill.
I somehow got in my head for a while that he reflects Gun, so I ended up fighting him legit a few times. It's not difficult but he takes a while compared to most things. Then I stopped being stupid and starting Rock Bullet-ing him.
Nergal has a 20% chance to appear solo, and a 27.5% chance to appear with a Nidhoggr buddy.
Kama's more simple but also kind of annoying. He's weak to Fire, resists Physical and is immune to Gun and Expel. No ailment resistances. But he's immune to Gun so I can't turn him into a statue.
He ALSO has Heaven's Bow, but more annoyingly he has Charm Strike to boot. And Luck is his best stat, yes. It's very appropriate because Kama, but it's also really annoying because Charm.
Spawn rates are the same as Nergal, but repace Nidhoggr with Ananta.
A Scorched Nation
So, B4F is similar to B2F in that it is riddled with tiles but they're more flat-damage than B2F's semi-sneaky Poison stuff.
Except B4F has a Heal Spot so whoops. No longer an issue.
Gonna go back through B2F to the left-side elevator to see what lies beyond the damage tiles over yonder now.
A Summon Stone is actually genuinely more nice now than it normally would be.
More important is that there's another elevator down here as well. This is the only way to get to somewhere we haven't been yet, so this has to be progress.
Plus, look B3F! It exists!
But first we'll head on back to 1F. There's stairs down here, apparently, but I don't see anything like that in here. Might make more sense if/when we see stairs going up.
We COULD use these to get to something special, but we're gonna avoid the fuck outta B1F for a long while.
The real reason we're back here is that there's a hidden door here. It can only be opened from this side, yeah, so we just unlocked our first proper useful shortcut since Eridanus. Thank fucking God.
Also, level 66! Let's make Ongyo-Ki now, sice he's kind of awesome. He's a special fusion of the three other guys.
This is a good Ongyo-Ki base, but...
Yeah, this is better (albeit still not the best!). If for whatever reason you remove that Reflect Gun passive, he nulls it instead. Expel being his only weakness is both annoying and not a big deal.
Sadly, his Source does NOT give Repel Gun fixed but it could be a Bonus Skill which would be very, very good.
Anyway, B3F! Let's see where this leads, shall we?
It's a bit out of a walk to get to these, but the Bead Chain is still very nice. If anything, it's a bit more surprising that there's just one.
And then through that Gate Search door, we can grab a Great Chakra. That's also very, very nice.
And 2 Somas. Two! Well then, don't mind if I do.
Can open a... shortcut(?) from this side between another Heal Spot and Terminal. At least now we can see that the stairs ARE in fact actual stairs.
One-way door from the stairs that sticks us with these ominous green spots. That really looks like some kind of gross waste or, like, bile or something.
But it isn't. It's a conveyer belt.
This part of B2F is a giant tedious, ridiculous conveyer belt maze. Whew boy.
Oh and there's a few holes around here.
...Oh fuck, I forgot. Holes didn't appear in Grus either! Thankfully.
There aren't too many holes here or anything, but there are so many ways of getting stuck needing to use the one over on the right. No other way out of that area.
The Fear of God
A couple new demons around here as well. Let's take a look at them now, shall we?
Aside from what you can see here, Cerberus has a 300% Charm modifier and a 150% Sleep modifier. His basic attack has a 10% chance to inflict Poison and outside of very special Password demons, he's the only source that guarantees Preparedness.
Ganesha is a wee bit more/less intereting. The usable version has these skills but adds Endure to it as well (it is such a giant relief that the enemy version does not have that...). If we make one and remove the Repel Wind passive, he still nulls it at least.
So many conveyer belts. So, so many...
There's also the world's most obvious hole here if we were to beeline for those stairs. Remember what the notes in Bootes said!
"Take the long road" always applies.
So we're gonna do just that, and after about 30 minutes of tediously navigating through all these conveyer belts for the sake of the map, we get to another heal spot.
And more importantly, another terminal. This is much more useful when playing, considering how close it is on paper to the previous one.
But it's a godsend from my perspective.
Stairs are just here around the corner from the terminal.
They lead through a small, super linear series of mini-corridors that lead to B3F in the end.
I heard you'd collected all the Cosmic Eggs, but... You won't have your way with the Earth or Mistress Mem Aleph!
He's solid. I know he won't betray us demons.
But in truth, they can do nothing without a command from on high. There is nothing to fear. And humans? Incoherent creatures who believeth different things from morning to evening. A pack of fools who drive themselves to ruin and seek the cause elsewhere. We must correct these errors. Yes... we must take back the Earth by the power of Mistress Mem Aleph...!
For some reason, there's another Heal Spot right here as well. It's not like it takes very long to get here from the previous one.
There's even a terminal as well. I dunno, I don't get this.
Ah well, at least there's stairs here that lead down to B4F again.
Gate Search E's getting a decent use here, on par with Grus. Makes sense.
...Not been used for anything worth a shit so far, mind you, but it's there.
And then there's ANOTHER Heal Spot and Terminal right here as well! This one I do understand the logic of, at least.
Nothing else over in that area, so we've gotta go over here.
That one way door isn't a big deal, thankfully.
I suppose teleports here were inevitable. Welp, let's deal with this then.
This is ALMOST better than Grus. Almost.
The Fear of God
We'll worry about that in just a moment, though. Last two new demons are around now. Lilith here is semi-unexpected as a random encounter demon (though not unprecedented). Regardless,she's weak to Gun, resists Fire, Ice, Wind and Curse, drains Elec AND is immune to Charm.
Her skills of note include Marin Karin and Charming Bolt. Which is INFINITELY WORSE than you think it is. It is Mazionga with a 25% chance to Charm. It costs 65 MP. Maziodyne costs 30; Mazionga costs 18.
what the everloving fuck
Rangda is, well, Rangda. She reflects Phys and Gun and is weak to Elec. She has Debilitate by default, even in her enemy demon form. And she really likes to use it to set up Magarudynes.
A Scorched Nation
Speaking of Rangda, and all the teleports, we stumbled upon a Rangda here who tells us something important.
I wasn't teleported here last time, I don't reckon... Maybe the warp I'm thinkin' on was the next one over.
This is a very big, very important hint. Very important.
Better be careful, Hitonari, or you'll be teleported in circles. Is there some other trick to this...? I keep ending up here...
There is, in fact. And it's really, really dumb!
So, this teleporter here in the top-right corner? It drops you in the bottom-left room. Except on a full moon.
That puts this weird red glow on the wall.
Taking that one teleporter on a full moon makes it send you somewhere completely different. Why? Because fuck you, that's why!
The difference between this and the funny dumb poison room is that this one is both mandatory and actively bullshit.
Sure, Rangda tells you about it. Sure, that one guy hints at it, but that's it. And Rangda herself is gated behind a teleporter!
The biggest good thing about that dumb idea is that we only need to deal with it the once. And that really is not exactly much of a real high point or anything.
And then over here there's just 3 one way doors that each lead to teleporters. Sure, okay, so long as they don't have a dumb extra gimmick attached.
Mercy of mercies, they don't. The middle teleporter over on the left is the only one we need to take and that brings us to an area that lets us open another shortcut to skip further past this.
This field where Mem Aleph makes her lair is proving to be quite a challenge. But the Lord, His followers and Zelenin are all on our side. We must surely be more than halfway to Mem Aleph. Our resolve shall clear a path!
That item container you probably noticed contains 2 Balms of Rising. Not too shabby, can't really complain too much about that.
Crisis
Hitonari, demons await you further in. Please proceed with caution. A Scorched Nation
So, I guess B5F is gonna be dangerous or something. Fortunately, there's an elevator right here as well that only lets us go to 1F...
Which is kind enough to give us a perfect shortcut from the entrance back to those stairs down to B5F. Which explains nicely why that third heal spot/terminal in quick succession was there.
Prayer
Also gonna take a quick jog back to Irving to see what new things we have, in case we got something useful.
Alas, the Monopole is not that. It's boring, it's basic and its only skill has a super misleading name. Weakshot is just heavy Gun damage on a single target (base power of 150).
AT Horolite x2, Brute Fur Coat x2 (Berserker) and Divine Column x1 (Cherub).
Gigasmash is kind of worse and also kind of not. Shock Shot is Weakshot but it does Elec damage instead. AC Horolite x2, Drake Eyeball x2 (Mushussu) and Drake Kaina x2 (Nidhoggr).
A Land Bringing About Life
So, yeah, anyway, Horologium B5F is... very different to what came before, huh? If this is like with Asherah, whatever waits is going to jump if we take a step ahead.
Silence
And, sure enough!
There's no need to hold back. C'mon over.
Now me, on the other hand... Chaos Theme
I don't know how/why Jimenez can go Super Demon here, but I'm not gonna complain too much about it. It's a fairly simple design, but it's also really cool.
I like it too. Hahaha... But man... I never thought I'd have to beat you. I beat tons of demons, and now I'm fighting humans... No... It's rude to all the folks back on Earth to call weak-asses who gave up life on their own "human."
But I guess those're your true colors, huh? Well, guns, swords, choose your poison... It ain't gonna stop my claws. Now c'mon, Tadano. Let's finish this. I'll stomp you and carry out my real duty... The duty to save those poor schmucks who had the bad luck to be born human!
Soil Jimenez Take The Shield, Raise The Spear 
So, Jimenez is actually a pretty tricky fight on paper. He can be a right bastard depending on what moves he decides to use.
Hellfire is on the lower-side of things he can do, since it is just a more powerful Maragidyne.
A much, MUCH more powerful Maragidyne but still.
Left Hand is a very simple skill, but don't let him do it a lot!
It's just Luster Candy with a different name but if he gets to +4 then that's one of three triggers for Bad Times.
Shuffler is just multi-target Bites the Dust. It's more annoying than it sounds, because his basic attack is a single hit on everyone. Fortunately by the time he really starts adding this to his repertoire, his basic attack is phased out entirely.
Chaos Tack is a very, VERY powerful Gun skill. It deals a ton of damage to random targets but it has a nasty secret bonus: it deals a lot more damage to anyone that isn't Chaos aligned! Yikes!
Dark Matter is his final skill and it's a bit of a bastard, mostly because it's Almighty of course, but there are only three scenarios in which he uses it:
1. He gets to buff to +4
2. His HP dips into the Critical (sub-25%) range
3. You use a Reflect skill/item
Note that despite whatever you read on GameFAQs, number 1 of those does not guarantee it every turn. It doesn't even make it likely; it's just A Possibility.
So, Jimenez's stats are pretty simple. He has 8000HP, infinite MP, 53 Strength, 53 Magic, 53 Vitality, 50 Agility and 53 Luck (he's slightly worse at being an SMTIV demon than your average SMTIV demon basically). Resistance wise, he drains Fire, resists Gun, is immune to Expel and Curse (but notably not all ailments) and he's weak to Ice.
Except he just drained Ice. Jimenez is NOT a barrier change boss. Well, not really. Once his HP dips below 25%, at the start of the next round his Ice weakness just changes into a Drain with no fanfare or mention or anything. It does NOT change back at any point.
The End
Aside from that one wrinkle, the biggest issue by far is how often he uses Chaos Tack and who gets hit by it. Dark Matter is also very nasty if (big if) it ever happens.
No items, piss-all Macca but 592,000 EXP. That's not too shabby I guess? Surprised/annoyed that he doesn't drop anything though.
End Silence
No... We still have... Mother... Mem Aleph...
This time... as a demon... from the start...
Law Theme
The power of light cannot fall to the forces of darkness. ...You are all right, yes? I hope you are not being needlessly sentimental about it...
...I knew well his like on Earth. Now, let us hurry to create a new world of light.