Part 74: Mission 21 - An Assassin Dispatched - Part 2(includes Boss Analysis #7 - "And you thought the Predator was ugly?" Edition)
On the moon, our people have caught up to the Primevals and Arm is looking forward to wiping out Gai and J, the relics of the Green and Red planets, in one fell swoop.
The Primevals start getting in a strange formation and Arm proclaims that we’ll now see the true power of the Magnificent Seven Primevals!
The seven Primevals combine, creating an even bigger monster than EI-01.
The Primevals figure they can restart their Zondar Metal Plant project using the massive power source on the moon once they've gotten rid of you.
This comes as a surprise to our people, who had no idea of any such thing being here.
All that is left for them to do before mechanizing the world is to destroy us but J tells them to shut up as they’ll be the defeated ones today.
The Primevals tells J that his fate will be the same as the Red Planet’s – that is, to die.
The Primevals summon a bunch of Zondar robots to fight and Gai tells J that they’ll need to work together if they want to beat this enemy.
J admits that there’s no other choice... provided that the mysterious ally does so, too.
: I understand. I will also cooperate with you guys.
: Well then, why don’t you start by giving us a name, since you hate it being called “you” so much.: Aria…that’s my name.
: Aria?!
: Father…
: J! Aria! If we’re going to defeat this monster, we’re gonna need you to lend us your power!: Let’s go, Magnificent Seven Primevals! Let’s see which is greater: yours or our combined strength! Fight! Here’s a quick look at this mission’s boss – Combined Primeval:
Aye, he is rather bulky (though his armor is surprisingly low but that’s probably due to his size). He’s got a crapton of HP and high stats on par with our best guys.
He’s the first instance of a boss with a Multicombo Skill but you don’t need to worry about it – he doesn’t have any attacks to chain with
Nevertheless, he also comes with Prevail L5 so keep an eye out when his HP gets low (especially if he decides to MAP you).
His attacks are all long range but have average accuracy. Most of the time he’ll be using Arm’s Gravity Wave (which’ll apply the -50% mobility debuff); he’s got some weak-ish Missiles that he’ll only use when you attack him with someone closer than range 2.
Finally, he does have a MAP of his Gravity Wave but, for whatever reason, I’ve never seen him use it – he seems to prioritize using his stronger version to snipe (or maybe I’m just lucky).
Conclusion: The Combined Primeval is, like the game said, quite similar to EI-01 and should be dealt with accordingly. Get everyone in position to throw everything at him, use your debuffs (preferably as assists) and try to kill him in one turn – he doesn’t come with any surprises aside from his Prevail.
J has a lot of high-morale attacks so it’s best to get to work right away.
One step at a time, we’ll get there.
Oh, yes. I forgot to also take a quick gander at Aria’s Arm Arcus:
This unit is built quite nicely, being both dodgy and resilient (and Aria’s good at both those things).
The best thing about the Arm Arcus is that it’s PACKED with debuffs – its first attack applies the -50% mobility debuff, its 2nd attack applies -30% Accuracy and its strongest (the only one that’s not post movement) will apply the -50% Attack Power debuff.
Mind you, I won’t be showing any of that yet. These Zondar are spread out and far away, which means it’s best to huddle up and wait for them to gather.
Enemy Phase!
All mooks move in but only a few get close enough to attack – this EI-15 actually manages to make me worry for a second.
Thankfully, Mao doesn’t care about high-ish hit %.
This EI-21 decides to go after Gai, of all things.
Yup, yup.
Player Phase!
Lemme try to get Mike’s morale up some to show off his new tricks. Sousuke will help finish it.
That’s the power of rock, bitch.
Mike levels up from it and learns Fury (next attack pierces the target’s defensive buffs, skills, supports).
Does he ever learn Spirit? I can’t remember…
Kurz does his thing.
Mao, always making use of the buddy system, moves right over and tags the nearby EI-11.
The enemy cluster is a clear invitation for a chain-attack.
Good, good.
Hayato swoops in and drops the birdie off the sky.
There’s a mook conga-line happening there. Kazuma does not approve.
Very good.
Volfogg and Bless quickly handle the stray EI-11.
Next up is that there EI-13.
Sadly, it didn’t crit but it was still decent damage.
Enough damage to feed this thing to Kouji.
Last one on the left side is that EI-02. I’ll just have Bless weaken it some.
Perfect.
This gives J the chance to move in and kill it for extra morale.
With that done, Heero finishes Kazuma’s work and moves over.
Bouncing off Kazuma’s last target, Ryouko will also slap the other full-health EI-13.
Good.
Aria also comes with a Multicombo L1 so let’s make good use of it.
There. That’s just right.
Chaining the attack off the stronger EI-13 allows Gai to nab two kills for the price of one.
Which levels him up and teaches him Prevail L4 and Valor!
Only Hikaru has a movement left so she might as well take a lil’ bit off this EI-21’s HP (though he’ll regen some of it back).
Enemy Phase!
EI-27 tries to take a potshot of Gai but we all know that doesn’t fly.
Hikaru’s target tries his hand at Aria and gets punished.
The remaining EI-11 goes for Duo.
Denied.
Finally, that EI-15 also goes for Aria and lives to regret it.
Player Phase!
Kurz and Mao prove that you don’t need to be super-upgraded to oneshot a mook.
Mao can only get close enough for a rifle shot at the EI-15.
Still, any port in a storm.
Eh, that was actually unnecessary. Getter really needs the morale and it’d probably do more damage than what it had.
Yup, yup.
Moving on, Kazuma starts working on the remaining EI-13.
With Ryouko getting started on the other EI-21.
I was hoping for a crit but that still works…
Gotta keep that morale rolling.
Even more so when there are mooks to be fed.
Very nice.
I try to feed this one to Izumi but she’s being picky…
Which leaves the kill for Hikaru.
Next up, Heero can handle the other EI-21.
Boom.
This gives him a level and Multicombo L1.
Sousuke might as well take the last weak mook to get his Lambda Driver going.
Time to work on the fake Zondar Kings. Duo begins.
Aria has a command aura so we might as well spread it along.
The loss of Accuracy is a nice bonus.
Gai also needs morale so he might as well take the kill with his Gatling Driver.
Also, I’m hoping to show off his MAP if those other 3 Zondar stay by the Primeval.
GATORINGU DORAIVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
As an extra bonus, that kill pushed Kouji over the edge.
Enemy Phase!
EI-27 is still failing at sniping.
EI-28 might’ve noticed the possibility of a MAP’ing…he got way the fuck away, targeting the Nadesico (who has Alert cast, mind).
There, there.
EI-29 went after Gai, as expected (he had invincible), but moved out of his MAP range…unexpectedly.
See that? If his MAP targets like I think it does, in a straight line, he had a chance to tag at 3 to 5 units but he instead chose to go for the Nadesico.
I defended but I think it’s a cool attack.
Player Phase!
It’s no longer worth it to use Gai’s MAP but Heero is still good. To get Gai out of the way, I have him attack EI-27.
Now Heero can MAP all 3 remaining Zondar-mooks.
Very good.
Getter and Ryouko take out EI-28.
Giving all 3 pilots a level up and teaching Ryouma Multicombo L1.
Sousuke will move in to finish EI-29.
I never get tired of his dynamic kills.
NOW! Mike has built up 120 morale which opens up the MAP version of Disc P and M – this allows us to give +5 morale to all that group there (sadly, unlike Alpha 3, the effect can’t be doubled with Valor).
Before anyone asks, Disc X requires 130 morale to use and the MAP version requires 140.
Duo further weakens EI-27.
Which clears the way for Volfogg to steal a kill.
And he learns Valor!
With all the trash mobs cleared, it’s time to get the story rolling.
I had Tomoro cast Iron Wall before moving in, mind.
The Combined Primeval has far greater regenerative powers than the Zondar Robots, thanks to Liver.
In that case, Ryouko says we’ll have to hit it so fast that it can't regenerate; Yurika agrees and orders the Gravity Blaster to be fired while J does the same with his Anti-Meson Cannons.
It does not work – the Combined Primeval laughing it up, saying that it’s useless and that he is beyond their comprehension.
This starts worrying our people, who know that we won’t win a battle of attrition against an enemy that regenerates this quickly.
Aria tells them not go give up, though, she’s sure that we still have a chance; Gai agrees with her, reminding us that, unless we defeat them here, the Primevals will mechanize the whole planet!
At J’s request, Tomoro starts calculating a weak-spot in the Primeval; the Primeval’s say that they don’t have any more time to play with us and summon some assistance.
Once again Primeval Brain shows up and Bless know that we’ve got to end this fast, lest another troublesome ES Window get opened.
The Victory Condition has changed from Rout (thanks Fire Emblem!) to “Destroy Primeval Brain”.
However, he’s way up there and most of our guys have the potential to get MAP’d by the combined one – let’s make sure he doesn’t amount to anything with Aria’s strongest attack (which will cut his damage by 50%).
The Combined Primeval once again regenerates, saying that it’s impossible for us to win against his regenerative powers.
Akatsuki is inclined to agree, and Yurika tells everyone to shift focus to Primeval Brain.
Prospector asks what she’s thinking and she defers to Ines:, Omoikane and Tomoro are still crunching numbers to find the weakness on the Combined Priemval, so we need to buy them more time.
Oh well, there’s no cheesing this mission – I’ll need to move the group up there to deal with Brainiac first but I think this update has gone on long enough.
Next time, we’ll wrap things up by taking down ZX-06 and, possibly, the Combined Primeval as well.
See you all then!