In a contrast to my usual response to Djinn, I agree almost entirely with Djinn's lists and most of the things he said, too. Except the comment that S5 recruitment is enjoyable with FAQing. That is a great gap in our values.
I want to play Tierkries at some point but lazy.
Anyway, more XF. Time for updates from the sekret base.
3-10 (Asgard and the undead)
Clarissa: Enigmancer; Emu/SS OC, Elem EQ, Widespread, Crisis Rfx Up
Elayne: Emulator; Fant/SS OC, Elem EQ, Mag+25%, Accelerate
Felius: Fantastica; Ext OC, Eva+25%, Gadg EQ, Item Effect Up, Item Range Up
Bit of an odd setup here. I'd totally forgotten Felius was forced here, and I wanted a second Fantastica for Slow Down and Rush, this probably wasn't necessary however. I decide to have Clarissa grab IFF since she's literally one battle for it, even though Emulator is definitely a far better carrier.
Anyway, there are multiple Emulators with Electrigger and Dangerous Matter here, I make sure to grab both with both my Emulators. Otherwise, since all the randoms are undead, they're easy enough to dispatch with Sanctify. Felius' offence is laughably useless due to equipping a wrench, so he doesn't really... do much besides chip in the occasional berry, but he doesn't need to.
Asgard is, of course, the real threat, but with his 75% misery vulnerability there's a limit to how big a threat he can be. This is basically equivalent to destroying his MP, except it can be done in a single, long-range action. Even after this Asgard isn't quite trivial since his Barrier Fist does OHKO physical damage and I'm not packing Mesmerise, but Slow Down and Debilitator greatly limit the turns he can get, and Electrigger + Action Replay + Felius wrench physicals take him out quickly enough. There's a bit of tension as I'm distracted by his flunkies interrupting the fight who take two Sanctifies each to kill, but nothing too bad.
3-11-A (Misery blobs and Anchor Hook)
I consider doing this one with solo Alexia packing Status Lock and some Peppy Acorns, but then decide hey, might as well get the CSP, even if it pretty much has to be Extremist CSP.
Clarissa: Extremist; Emu/Enig OC, Elem EQ, Widespread, IFF
Elayne: Extremist; Enig/Fant OC, Elem EQ, Accelerate, Mag+25%
Vin: Extremist; Gadg/Fant/Sent OC, Weapon Block
Note the presence of Dispel and Mystic to remove Misery. All three PCs pack principally Peppy Acorns in order to heal themselves of the annoying status, too. Besides that, it's a matter of using Anchor Hook to proceed through the map. The blobs are killed with a combination of Anchor Hook to pull them into pits, Heavy Strike to do the same, and magic ranging from Electrigger to Petrify to Devastate. Not terribly hard as long as the misery issue is addressed. Rush to make Anchor Hook more usable.
3-11-B (Felius duel)
Felius: Secutor; Extr/Fant OC, Gadg EQ, Item Effect Up
Felius' defence means Weisheit can only do something like 15 damage to him outside gravity, which makes this battle very easy. I'm not even really twinked for it; Sentinel would be able to null out his damage entirely.
3-11-C (Weisheit gets serious)
Clarissa: Emulator; DS/SS/Extr OC, Elem EQ
Elayne: Emulator; Enig/Fant OC, Elem EQ, Mag+25%, Accelerate
Vin: Strider; Grap/Fant OC, Sec EQ, Atk+25%
Finally Weisheit graduates from "bad joke" status. Still, he's vulnerable to gravity in this form, as well as Rob Turn (in this and every other form). Basic strategy is to hit him with Slow Down and Debilitator and then start using Rob Turn while Dangerous Matter makes my main offence. When the first Rob Turn misses, though, I come up with another, better idea; throw him onto the ground outside the central area. It's 4 panels below the main platform, which is too high for Rank of Death, AND too high for him to climb back up. So this becomes very easy. The same strategy will probably work for Weisheit 5, too.
3-12-A (Asgard's last stand)
Clarissa: Emulator; Extr/SS/Enig OC, Elem EQ
Elayne: Emulator; Fant/SS OC, Elem EQ, Mag+25%, Accelerate
Vin: Strider; Fant/Extr OC, Gadg/Sec EQ, Atk+25%
Once again, Asgard's perilous vulnerability to Misery does him in, and this time I can slap Mesmerise on top of it for good measure so I don't need to fear Barrier Fist as much. Debilitator and Slow Down to draw out the effects, Electrigger and Action Replay benefitting from Exploit Weakness = kaboom. Three-man formation arts wrench attacks for some added spice. Fortunately the game knows better than to throw solo bosses at me after this. Elayne hits Level 50, yay.
3-12-B (A golem hunter never lies!)
Clarissa: Emulator; SS/Enig OC, Elem EQ, Widespread, IFF
Elayne: Emulator; Gadg/SS OC, Elem/Gadg EQ, Mag+25%, Accelerate
Vin: Strider; Fant/Grap OC, Gadg/Sec EQ, Atk+25%
Twelve Asgards! Oh shit. Electrocute everything in sight, heal when necessary... the golems aren't bad on offence but with my massive-ranged 350 damage attacks they're kinda outmatched. Just need to be a little cautious as I do split up to cover the map in a reasonable length of time. Golems, sadly, are nearly status-immune (moreso than Asgard!) so that particular strategy isn't too helpful yet. Don't worry Levin, I'll use you eventually! Probably.
3-13-A (be kind, rewind)
A bit harder, certainly. The same basic offensive strategy applies despite the inclusion of undead; you'll note I already have two PCs packing Sanctify. With Sanctify and Electrigger hitting for massive damage, offence isn't really a problem. I keep Vin with a wrench because the golems are ceratinly the more numerous and dangerous enemies here.
The Smoky Specimen is the map's real danger. His speed is quite competent, and on his sixth turn, it's game over for you. Can you reach him in 6 turns? Not just by walking the old-fashoined way. A few strategies work here, such as IFF Grappler to toss PCs to him quickly, or a Nightstalker (particularly packing something like Blackout or Forcefield). However, I opt with the simplest strategy I have, which is to spam Turn Shift with my two mages like mad. Thanks to Emulator being the broken class it is, I can actually do this without deeply impacting my resources. I don't have to go all out, so I do stop periodically to blow things up with Sanctify (nailing 3 of the initial 4 undead with one, Vin takes out the other) and Electrigger. Finally, I reach the stairs and one range 6 electrigger takes out the bastard.
Only other thing worth noting is the golems who spam Spread Barrier from long range. Since they act all consecutively it's quite threatening, but nothing Widespread Heal and Turn Shift abuse isn't up to handling. If the rest of the enemies were better, it would be quite a problem.
And here I thought Turn Shift would be unbroken from this playthrough. Maybe not...
3-13-B (Queen of the desert)
Clarissa: Emulator; SS/DS OC, Elem EQ, Widespread, IFF
Elayne: Emulator; SS/Extr OC, Elem/Gadg EQ, Mag+25%, Accelerate
Vin: Strider; Fant/Grap OC, Gadg/Sec EQ, Atk+25%
The toughest battle in the Secret Base, and the second toughest battle in the chapter. However, note the lack of resets. Chapter 3 ain't that hard.
Much like the previous Weisheit battle, except the Grappler strategy ain't working this time, and gravity is no longer an option for speeding up the offence. Oh, and there's six rather pesky golems to deal with, too. Rob Turn is Weisheit's only remaining meaningful weakness, and it's one I am quite ready to abuse. It's not perfectly reliable, but it does stop a lot of Weisheit's turns.
The beginning of the battle is particularly dicy. Although Weisheit's first Rank of Death is easy to avoid, it gets tricky thereafter, and the golems demand attention. Fortunately Electrigger still does its thing, Elayne's two-shots all and one-shots some, where Clarissa's ranges from 1HKO to 3HKO but has Widespread. Rob Turning has to be a focus as quickly as possible, too, as does Slow Down and Debilitator. Sadly one of my first key Rob Turns misses and Vin is killed. From there, it's a very tangled mess of Turn Shifts, golem killing, Rob Turning, and reviving, and reapplying negative statuses. In total the golems claim a kill and Weisheit claims two more, and Clarissa gets dangerously low on MP, but I do manage things. The final offensive is mostly launched, after Fragile, in the form of Electrigger and Swift Shock/Drop Kick with Action Replay thrown in for good measure. Action Replay is pretty cool, incidentally. Clarissa is out of MP by the end which is certainly potentially dangerous, so it is quite a bit of a scape through, but in some ways the battle isn't as bad as I feared.
Chapter 3 is complete~
