Super Robot Wars W Part #185 - Mission 51 (Plant Route) - At The End of The Path Traveled - Part 2 (Includes Boss Analysis #23

Part 185: Mission 51 (Plant Route) - At The End of The Path Traveled - Part 2 (Includes Boss Analysis #23 - "Angsty Char Clone" Edition)

Three turns to take down Creuset and stop Genesis from firing – all while holding back a swarm of Eviluders!
Most of our slower units will need to stay closer to Creuset as there’s a possibility that they won’t be able to reach him in time if they focus on the Eviluders (unless they have Accelerate and/or Zeal).

First things first, these Nazca ships aren’t going to destroy themselves.

It won’t take very long.

Most units have moved, so Athrun is the last one available to attack.

The Eternal heals the Archangel for some easy experience.

By the by, if you did no care to kill the druggies or only killed a few of them in the previous missions, make sure to send Valzacard and whatever MAPers you have to Creuset's general area.

Enemy Phase!

The farthest Nazca tries shooting at Athrun and takes a big hit in return; the second uses its MAP but doesn’t do lasting damage.

Creuset does not wait around, mind – if you don’t get people inside his sniping range, he’ll start to move over (thankfully).

: Rau le Creuset. This war ends right now, along with you, its puppetmaster.

: The world rejected me! So I reject the world!

: This world isn't yours to reject. I refuse to humor your arrogance.

I didn’t expect Heero to hit but I was pleasantly surprised that he managed to dodge the attack.

Couple of the northern Eidos attack the Nazca but leave it hanging.

As for the rest...nearly all of them converge on Valzacard and it turns into a slaughter: of the seven that attack, six got killed in one shot.

Player Phase!

If you left Orga, Clotho and/or Shiani alive on the previous mission, they'll jump your your group at this point - spawning right by Jachin Due.
Here's what AradoBalanga had to inform about it:

AradoBalanga posted:
So, as I hinted at before, this stage can be altered slightly by sparing the Druggies in stage 50. They appear as neutral units right near Yachin Due, blabbering about losing the Dominion and, most importanly, their drug stashes. You can either face all three, or a combination of the trio depending on your actions (i.e., Clotho and Orga, Shani and Orga, Clotho alone, etc.). Problem is...they show up when you only have two turns left to stop Creuset. So, in order to get the parts you would have received by killing them in stage 50, you essentially have to spend a turn to kill them. THEN pile on everything to kill Creuset in the final turn before you get a game over.

Personally, I only would recommend attempting to face the Druggies on stage 51 under three situations:
1. Replays, since upgrades (to units AND pilots) carry over to successive playthroughs. (Absolutely required)
2. You have positioned ALL of your units around Yachin Due before triggering Creuset's appearance. As mentioned above, the Eviluders do not stop respawning, so you'd be wasting resources on them because they are on the other side of the map. Ignore them unless you absolutely need to farm morale, in that case, use the battleships for that. Granted, the flipside to this plan is that Creuset is stuck on his spawn point with a 30% boost to Defense and Evasion because everyone is in sniping range. Investments in Rust Tornadoes heavily recommended at this juncture.
3. You have a healthy SP bank that knows Resupply* AND Enable. The only unit that you get for this normally is...Million Alpha with the twins Lori and Lolly. And given that you've probably put them aside because they have joined so late in the game, they'll probably have no upgrades (mostly the twins). So, if you do decide to go with this plan, spend a little on them, both Million Alpha (unless you want to use something else...which would be the Venuses and Boss Borot) and the twins.

*=I recommend Resupply (the spirit command) because using a unit with a Resupply module (like Sandrock or Boss Borot) causes the Resupply target to lose 10 morale. Definitely NOT something you want to do in this situation.

I haven't ever done this, as I always killed them on mission 50, but if you're on a first playthrough, you should probably be able to take them out if you know they are coming and have your MAPers lined up.

Tag Creuset with a Rust Tornado and try to get him into the MAP so he'll take extra damage as you deal with the druggies - Valzacard's MAP alone will do massive damage even with the positive terrain of Jachin Due.

Either way, them whippersnappers are long dead, so let's keep the slaughter going!

We don’t need to use Cagalli on Creuset (really, nothing happens if she attacks), so she’ll help hold the Eviluder line.

Good.

Elijah nearly kills a fresh Eido II but it barely survives.

Might as well let Athrun kill everything nearby.

Indeed, the Nazca and four other Eviluders die.

Lacus pairs up with Murrue and takes down an Eido II.

Wufei will also focus on the Eviluder front.

Fine, we can kill that in a counterattack.

Duo picks a target of his own and gets slicing.

Dearka is just in range to get a kill.

Nice but…what is this happening nearby?

Yup, this mission is the point where both Cagalli AND Lacus unlock SEED modes of their own.
Mind you, the game doesn’t do anything to inform you about this (or give a storyline reason for it) but it’s there.
They only gain the 10 bonus points to all stats from SEED – there are no new attacks.

Murrue and Muu snipe an Eido II into oblivion.

Speaking of Muu, there is one other Eido II that is in range.

Good show – you keep yourself occupied until it’s time to gang up on Creuset.

Muu gains a level and learns Prevail L7, too.

Eviluder reinforcements quickly show up to replace the ones that we’ve killed, Benkei quickly getting annoyed at how endless their swarm seems.
It seems useless to waste our energy fighting them now as they’ll just be replaced with new units from their humongous fleet.
Priority now should be to focus on stopping Creuset and Genesis.

Yeah, it’s one of those stages.
Either way, let’s have George use Confuse just in case Creuset decides to MAP us.

Golion and Gai take most of the remaining Nazca’s HP.

Since Tetsuya is moving that way to attack Creuset, he can take this kill.

That’ll do it.

Now, let’s take another look at our upgraded Char Clone:

As expected from a Gundam SEED boss, Creuset’s Providence Gundam has all their strengths and weaknesses: huge stats all across the board, a load of features (Sword Cut, Shoot Down, Anti-Beam Shield, Phase-Shift Armor and Neutron Jammer Canceller) but piddly defenses.
He will dodge the shit out of your units if they don’t cast Strike but, considering that most of them know either that or Love, it shouldn’t be difficult.

Normally, equipped parts aren’t worth mentioning unless they are Barrier Generators but this one is: the Providence is equipped with a Super High Performance Electronic Brain (超高性能電子頭脳) – if you’ve played other SRW games, you’ll know this as a Haro.
I believe this is the only one of its kind in the entire game and it is, by far, the best equippable part for a Real Robot giving it Mobility +20, Weapon Range +2 and Hit Rate +25%.

The Providence’s weapons follow the same suit as the Dreadnought – weak but chainable Rifles and Sabers and powerful DRAGOON System weapons to either snipe or MAP at the enemy (same Area of Effect as Prayer’s but way cheaper).

Creuset’s skills are the same as before but boosted:

Sword Cut

Shoot Down

Shield Block

Counter

Break Morale Limit

Prevail L9

Support Attack L4

Commander L4

Multicombo L2

Conclusion: Creuset’s will close in up until the point where he can use his DRAGOONs and then the lack of Hit & Away means he’ll hang back and snipe; try to bait him into getting as close as possible, pop a Confuse and unload on him – his defenses are low enough that he’ll go down quickly against so many Super Robots.

Let’s see how his new toy stacks up against the original mech.

*newtype-flash*

: Well...

: Who are you?

: Heh, haha... ha ha ha ha ha ha! We're really works of art, aren't we...

: I don't care which of us is the original and which is the copy!

: But you're wrong... and if your life is dedicated to destroying the world, I dedicate mine to stopping you!

Not well enough, it seems.

Kouji doesn’t need to pop Valor on this guy.

: Damn it! Do you know how many lives have been lost because of you?

: It doesn't matter. Even if it's thousands, they don't measure up to the weight of my own!

: I'll take them all from the world that took my own future away from me!

: Then I'll protect that world from you! That's what I'm fighting for!

Good, good.

Everyone else is still closing in, so Lowe will be our last attack for the turn.

: You're going to dismantle world peace just because you're this selfish?

: Breaking is easy! I'll show you how hard it is to build up again!

: Again? There is no again. The world has always been and will always been in darkness!

: There's always a dawn at the end of the night! You're just a cloud blocking the sun, and I'm gonna blow you away!

I believe I should mention that I don’t really see much use of the Red Strike attack: it is, by FAR, the most expensive attack of any real robot in the game (100 EN!) and it doesn’t justify its abusive cost with a whole lot of extra power as Astray Double Blade is only 40 attack power weaker (at less than 1/3rd of the cost).

Sure, you can compensate that with an EN chip or something but there are units that need those much more than the Red Frame.

Enemy Phase!

Creuset is very predictable.

Nothing to worry about.

Cagalli is holding the Eviluders at bay singlehandedly.

Five of them attack her but all survive with a wee bit of health.

The last Eviluder attacks Elijah and gets blasted away.

Player Phase!

We might as well take this time to get Duo and the others some levels.

Packing Valor, he’s able to chain all three into the ground.

Cagalli quickly takes down three of the Eido IIs that attacked her before.

This FINALLY makes Lacus trigger her own SEED…right when it can no longer be of use as there are no mooks in range.

Oh, well. Enough wasting our time on Eviluders – time to take Creuset down, so let’s get some proper music going!

: Creuset! Is this what you wanted?

: Not just me... this is humanity's dream! Their desire! Their destiny!

: To be the strongest, go the furthest, climb the highest!

: To cheat, to envy, to hate!

: You're wrong, and I won't let you get away with this!

: But it's already too late, Muu! I know because I am the endgame!

: Man is destined to be consumed by a darkness of his own making!

Sure, that works.

I’ll have Golion pop valor just in case.

: I'm honored that you'd come all the way across space to see the Earth burn!

: Silence! The Earth is just as precious to me as Altea!

: But what would you know of how precious our one and only world is to us?

: We'll save our world! For ourselves and everyone else who calls it home!

OK. Maybe I didn’t need to.

No combined attacks needed – just keep attacking him nice and slow.

: This guy's been pulling the whole world's strings all this time...

: "This guy"?

: Just this guy! I'm not about to let our world get destroyed because you wanted it to pay for your own problems!

: You may want to destroy the world, but we're going to save it!

Yup, yup.

His Prevail is stacking up but we’re in the clear.

: You have not enveloped the world in darkness, only yourself.

: What?!

: Eventually, the time comes for everyone. But lives are not judged by their duration.

: Enough! What could you know about me?

: I'm a mercenary. My time could come at any moment.

: But that gives me an appreciation of the weight of all life. And I won't waste it like you have.

Slow but steady.

Show him what for, Athrun!

: Your father served me well, Athrun!

: It was you who manipulated my father to cause this war!

: I merely gave him the chance! The chaos you see before you is the inescapable state of humanity!

: Even if that's true, I'll keep fighting!

: I'll defeat you and stop my father!

Hrmm…I should probably take it easy lest he die too quickly.

Just a small hit, Ryouma.

: Give up! Struggle all you like, but the world is doomed!

: This guy...

: The Radam and the Eviluders! The Sol Lords and the Database!

: You can defeat me, but mankind will fall sooner or later to the coming onslaught!

: That may be, but the last day of the world is not going to be today!

: And if Armageddon's coming, you won't be around to see it!

Alright, that’s good.

Only one more before the kill – toss a supernova at his face, Kazuma.

: I don't know how you did it, but you've gained the might of the Database!

: Yeah, what about it?

: You can kill me here, but the world is still doomed for destruction!

: There are threats coming from all over the universe, starting with the Database!

: Oh, shut it! I'll take 'em all on!

: Aria...?

: You don't even know! This world is full of good people!

: And yeah, there are probably people as bad as Critic too...

: But that's not a good reason to just destroy it all!

: Damn straight, Aria! All right, masked mastermind! This ends right here, right now!

There we go.

Let’s wrap things up, Kira.

: Anyone would want to be like you if they knew!

: Just like Canard Pars!

: Don't talk about him that way...

: It's your fault he went that far, little Kira Yamato!

: You, the Super Coordinator that all humanity pins their hopes on!

: But I... even so... I'm not just my powers!

: Who will understand that? What could they understand?

: They won't! Nobody will!

: But I still... I've got to...!

We steal Creuset’s ~~Super High Performance Electronic Brain~~ Haro () and also grab a Multicombo+1 and Gunfight+1.

Creuset concedes that we've won this battle....But says we've lost the war as Genesis is just about ready to fire!
Athrun rushes inside to the control room to find his father and Cagalli follows him.

Creuset says that we are too late to stop it – this’ll be punishment for humanity’s foolishness!
Humans need to be destroyed and no one has the right to stop it!
Kira says that Creuset’s logic is twisted and, even though he refuses to admit it, people are not like he says; Creuset asks HOW are they not? What proof does Kira have?!
This is a world where people live with eyes and souls of hatred, where fingers have no purpose other than to pull triggers!

Kira says that Creuset was just raised not knowing anything else.
Of course not, Creuset argues: people only really know about themselves!

Inside Jachin Due, Patrick seems to have lost control of his subordinates, who refuse to fire Genesis and insist that conditions are ripe for an honorable cease-fire with the Earth - it hardly seems necessary to irradiate the place.
Besides, Zaft can't take the Eviluders and Radam by themselves.
Patrick firmly believes that the Naturals as long as the naturals are still out there, they will attack again and with worse tactics – the only way for this to end is for them to shoot first and annihilate them all!

A member of the bridge crew, either more honorable or more desperate than the rest, shoots Patrick in the chest, saying that they can no longer entrust Plant’s future to him.
Right then, Athrun and Cagalli rush in.
Patrick’s uses his last words, at Athrun’s arms, to simply order for Genesis to be fired and to make the world theirs.

Cagalli demands to know why, if the officer meant to stop Patrick all along, didn't he try stop him with words before things got this out of hand.
The officer again claims that it was for the sake of Plant’s future but Cagalli quickly gets very frustrated at the whole situation – things would never have gotten this far if people weren’t so willing to use violence in the first place.
Neither this nor the events that led up to it needed to be resolved like this…

There’s no time to think, though, as the alarm indicates that Genesis has now entered the final firing sequence; worse, at this point it can be stopped no longer be stopped.
If they try to stop the weapon, the accumulated energy will overload the nuclear reactors and the resulting explosion would irradiate Plant, instead.
The best you can do is aim it somewhere other than the Earth, but there are still many other populated locations that could suffer a hit: the colonies, the federation bases at the Orbital Ring…

At this moment, Ruri phones up with just the place: the Radam ship that's emerged on the lunar surface.
This hardly seems like a good idea, considering that so many of our troops are there; still, Ruri assures that they’ll clear the area in time and Ryouma and others know that it’s our best chance.
The Radam need to be eliminated NOW, as their Trees will bloom at any moment, and this is our chance of taking out both the Tek-System and the one controlling it!
Creuset proclaims that it’s useless – fate has dictated that humanity will vanish today!

Athrun tells his old captain to shut up, saying that he will take care of aiming Genesis to the specified point at the Moon.
Lowe quickly has 8 link with the Jachin Due computer and help Athrun with the retargeting, and Regulate pitches in by connecting via Valzacard’s computers.
Murrue warns all nearby Zaft and Federation troops about the upcoming attack and Muu tells everyone to get out of the way.