Addendum VII: Koron Nagataka, (Unit 13's Vice-Captain, Class: Psychic) Tactical Overview, Part 2
Koron's class overview, and
Part 61: Self-Esteem Fund || SSLP Test Poster mirror.
the beginning of Chapter 2.
7th Dragon 2020 ~ Sympathy for Chisa Inomiko (an LP EOV Anniversary Project)
You get a two-fer today, because I forgot my own update roadmap.
Addendum VII: Koron Nagataka, (Unit 13's Vice-Captain, Class: Psychic) Tactical Overview, Part 2
Koron's class overview, and
Part 61: Self-Esteem Fund || SSLP Test Poster mirror.
the beginning of Chapter 2.
Addendum VII: Koron Nagataka, (Unit 13's Vice-Captain, Class: Psychic) Tactical Overview, Part 2
Koron's class overview, and
Part 61: Self-Esteem Fund || SSLP Test Poster mirror.
the beginning of Chapter 2.
Welcome to 7th Dragon! 
Frostburn is very very stupid. It's a meme amongst the glimpses of the playerbase I saw because of how blatantly imbalanced it is and before VFD came along, it was one of the biggest examples of something utterly broken in the series. Psychics basically skyrocketed to the best class in the game thanks to this skill. The funny thing is if it was put in VFD it... actually wouldn't be that broken. It'd be alright, just so many other things do what it does better. That should speak volumes about the baseline power level in that game.
Frostburn is very very stupid. It's a meme amongst the glimpses of the playerbase I saw because of how blatantly imbalanced it is and before VFD came along, it was one of the biggest examples of something utterly broken in the series. Psychics basically skyrocketed to the best class in the game thanks to this skill. The funny thing is if it was put in VFD it... actually wouldn't be that broken. It'd be alright, just so many other things do what it does better. That should speak volumes about the baseline power level in that game.
The franchise in a nutshell.
Ah yes, VFD, the game where one class could just casually bust out 5k every other turn. And probably some other stuff that I wasn't big brained enough to figure out. Frostburn is *funnier* though, I think I managed to completely invalide the final boss my second playthrough with it.
Decoy Mirror is a skill I'd like better if it didn't take damage as though it had 0 defenses, as is it kind of makes investing in it a bit pointless.
Asshole politicians, rampant American exceptionalism, and horrifically murderous acid rain. 7th Dragon 2020-II, folks!
Decoy Mirror is a skill I'd like better if it didn't take damage as though it had 0 defenses, as is it kind of makes investing in it a bit pointless.
Asshole politicians, rampant American exceptionalism, and horrifically murderous acid rain. 7th Dragon 2020-II, folks!
Part 62: Adrenal Vapor || SSLP Test Poster mirror.
Welcome to the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower! Please enjoy your stay.
Yeah these games get fucking bleak.
The music for this dungeon's great! I recommend giving it a listen.
While this dungeon isn't turbo harrowing, it can and will wear down unprepared teams. Some of the formations can get a bit annoying to deal with, and the supply tax the entrance demands doesn't exactly help matters. Once you get to the green save point you're about in the clear if I remember right.
That reminds me. The encounter rate in 2020-II is noticeably higher than in 2020 due to them dialing up the rates the encounter meter builds up. Won't bore you with the specifics, but on average the frequency of encounters is about 50% higher in II. (VFD for whatever reason dialed it up even more.)
Oh of course they jacked up the encounter rate between each game.
Also that. That happened, yes.
Also that. That happened, yes.
Overall I think raising the encounter rate was sensible for 2020-2, most of the dungeons are less open and a bit smaller in size, and the rate up isn't Star Force 2 levels of "nonstop fighting", meanwhile yeah welcome to Mori Tower, its Painful, Fomalhaut did not skimp on the Doom and Misery quotients, its super fun! 2020-2 does not hold back its punchs.
Part 63: Reconstructing More Science || SSLP Test Poster mirror.
Series producer Rieko Kodama, a veteran of the industry and a really important part of the 7D2020 games, recently passed away. In lieu of any pithy comments, I'd like to say, rest in peace, and thank you.
Somewhere in this there's a valuable lesson in not going in underequipped.
At least the mandatory damage gimmick doesn't overstay its welcome in this game.
Also while we have a better boss than what we used to have we still don't have an actually good boss.
At least the mandatory damage gimmick doesn't overstay its welcome in this game.
Also while we have a better boss than what we used to have we still don't have an actually good boss.
Part 64: Soldier of Dance || SSLP Test Poster mirror.
In this one, Richter gets covered in Kirino's goo.
Oh yeah a bunch of enemy magic attacks got buffed because. (Well in fairness 0.2x is a pretty chumpy multiplier, but the buff is really rude on stuff that poisons you). Tower Dragons, naturally, remain incredible jerks because of this.
Somebody took a look at Tower Dragons in 2020 and decided they weren't horrible enough. So they got buffed into outer space in 2020-II.
Not only are their moves stronger, in 2020, the fact that they're Bloom Wall dragons prevents getting a preemptive on them, which actually makes dealing with them much more annoying.
You see, Tower Dragons in all games past DS (they're unremarkable in DS, they're just a normal dragon in that game) only Jump under 2 conditions. If the turn count is equal to 1, and if they're at or below 40% HP. This means if you get a pre-emptive on them, they'll skip the first jump entirely, letting you possibly burst them down before they can use their second jump.
Not so in 2020-II. Since they're Bloom Wall dragons now, that first option is out the window. Even then they're a lot more durable in 2020-II, so bursting past the 2nd jump isn't typically an option in most parties. You might think you can just time an ailment to hopefully skip past the first Jump, but guess again! They gave Jump priority in this game!
Not only are their moves stronger, in 2020, the fact that they're Bloom Wall dragons prevents getting a preemptive on them, which actually makes dealing with them much more annoying.
You see, Tower Dragons in all games past DS (they're unremarkable in DS, they're just a normal dragon in that game) only Jump under 2 conditions. If the turn count is equal to 1, and if they're at or below 40% HP. This means if you get a pre-emptive on them, they'll skip the first jump entirely, letting you possibly burst them down before they can use their second jump.
Not so in 2020-II. Since they're Bloom Wall dragons now, that first option is out the window. Even then they're a lot more durable in 2020-II, so bursting past the 2nd jump isn't typically an option in most parties. You might think you can just time an ailment to hopefully skip past the first Jump, but guess again! They gave Jump priority in this game!
2020 wrote:Tower Dragon
-Venom Breath: Non-elemental Breath attack to all party members. MAT-based. 0.2x damage. 99% chance to inflict Poison for 4 turns. The Poison ticks for 23 damage.
-Venom Meteor: Non-elemental Ranged attack to one party member. MAT-based. 0.5x damage. 99% chance to inflict Poison for 4 turns. The Poison ticks for 23 damage.
-Jump: Sends the user into the air for 2 turns, making them completely invulnerable to everything for the duration.
-Landing: Ends the jump effect.
Yeah they got turbo buffed in 2020-II and are a lot more annoying to deal with now.2020-II wrote:Tower Dragon (LV. 27/24)
-Venom Breath: Non-elemental Breath attack to all party members. MAT-based. 1x damage. 25% chance to inflict Poison for 2 turns. The Poison ticks for 33 damage.
-Venom Meteor: Non-elemental Ranged attack to one party member. MAT-based. 1.3x damage. 100% chance to inflict Poison for 5 turns. The Poison ticks for 33 damage.
-Jump: Sends the user into the air for 2 turns, making them completely invulnerable to everything for the duration. Has a priority level of 1.
-Landing: Ends the jump effect.
Part 65: The Future Starts With You (Synchro) || SSLP Test Poster mirror.
It's time to face the second Imperial Dragon of 2020-2.
Why -is- it always Richter.
Oh Oceanus exists I don't really have anything to say about him.
Oh Oceanus exists I don't really have anything to say about him.
Oceanus is a massive difficulty drop from Tiamat and isn't nearly as bad to deal with.
Stats are higher, but by this point you have actual equipment and skills to beef up your party with, so it can't kill you as easily, nor does the fight take nearly as long. Also for some reason it's weak to aerial attacks, even though it's not a flying enemy?
And no, Rain Prayer doesn't get around this. Equipment resistance is a separate RNG roll from unit resistance and is rolled after an infliction attempt succeeds. If you're immune to an ailment thanks to equipment, you are immune period. Nothing in the game can get around this.
Notice how there are a bunch of targeting routines that are not default targeting, particularly "attack the lowest leveled party member." Obviously this can't apply if all the party members are at the same level, but in that case, the game just chooses completely randomly. A 1 in 3 chance for any party member to get attacked. Aggro increases from the Destroyer's counters are completely ignored in that case, so Youka only had a 1 in 3 chance to be attacked. Not a high chance.
In fact Fomalhaut appears to have invested a bit in anti-Destroyer measures, as nearly every new enemy and dragon has a lot of routines where they go after a specific party member type, as a targeted nerf to make Destroyer counters less reliable. Don't panic, this isn't a major nerf. Namely because Imageepoch didn't have the time and budget to redo every single enemy AI. Only the new assets have such measures, but returning assets from 2020 were mostly left intact, and are very susceptible to being aggro'd by a Destroyer. The new fights though, yeah don't expect them to be as reliable at countering.
If you're wondering why Richter is getting attacked constantly, that's just bad RNG. Nothing special going on there.
Speaking of which, Venomous Ball is Venom Boost given to the enemy. It's Oceanus's desperation move, and only brought out once it's in its final phase, at or below 40% LIFE. But the circumstances to use it are extremely rare.
The first routine is its opening move. However the problem with this routine is that global counter 1 is incremented in phase 2 (70% LIFE), and never gets set back to 0. You would have to somehow burst it down from 70% to 40% LIFE in one turn without it getting a chance to act. A very tall ask in a 7th Dragon game that is not VFD.
The second routine is actually feasible to see if you neglect to heal the poison off, however global counter 0 only gets reset back to 0 when Oceanus reaches the end of its attack pattern, so depending on how you fight it, it may just never even reach that point in its attack pattern by the time you get to phase 3.
The third routine is legitimately impossible to see. As the conditions for it can never be met without also filling the conditions for the earlier routines at global counter 0 being at 1 due to the 2nd routine being impossible to make false under that circumstance. Due to improper routine ordering, the Venomous Ball routine there can never be reached. (Essentially a bad case of failing FizzBuzz essentially.)
The move being used is so rare, that plenty of guide fansites never knew this mechanic even existed, funnily enough.
Stats are higher, but by this point you have actual equipment and skills to beef up your party with, so it can't kill you as easily, nor does the fight take nearly as long. Also for some reason it's weak to aerial attacks, even though it's not a flying enemy?
Its skillset revolves around poisoning your party, but this is so telegraphed by the game that pretty much everyone comes in with poison protection, completely killing its mechanics.Oceanus (LV. 27/24)
-Water Wings: Ice-elemental Ranged attack to one party member. ATK-based. 1.3x damage. Debuffs the target. Multiplies ATK damage taken by 1.3x for 3 turns
-Acid Rain: Ice-elemental Ranged attack to all party members. MAT-based. 0.9x damage. 50% chance to inflict Poison for 3 turns. The Poison ticks for 43 damage.
-Rain Prayer: Debuffs the party. Multiplies MAT damage taken by 1.3x for 3 turns. Multiplies ailment susceptibility by 1.5x for 3 turns.
-Acid Ball: Ice-elemental Ranged attack to one party member. MAT-based. 1x damage. 90% chance to inflict Poison for 3 turns. The Poison ticks for 23 damage.
-Chew: Non-elemental Fang attack to one party member. ATK-based. 1.5x damage.
-Venomous Ball: Ice-elemental Ranged attack to one party member. MAT-based. 0.7x damage. Multiplies existing Poison damage by 2x and sets the duration of the existing Poison ailment to 4 turns.
And no, Rain Prayer doesn't get around this. Equipment resistance is a separate RNG roll from unit resistance and is rolled after an infliction attempt succeeds. If you're immune to an ailment thanks to equipment, you are immune period. Nothing in the game can get around this.
As it turns out, this is actually not a case of horrible RNG! I can explain what happened here. In 7th Dragon DS, aggro skills are applied first in aggro calculations. If that fails, then the game checks the targeting type in the enemy's AI routine and goes from there. The rest of the series handles this differently. The target type is checked for first, then aggro calculations are run. But things get a bit more complicated from there.Oceanus ignoring Youka
This is a very small snippet of Oceanus's AI (Yes really, AI files in 2020-II are a bit nightmarish in length compared to 2020.) If no targeting routine is listed, it just uses the default target routine, high chance to smack the party member with the highest LIFE, but not guaranteed to attack them. Aggro increases only work on default targeting routines.-If global counter 0 is at 4, at least 1 party member is not inflicted with Poison, and it is the first action in the turn:
--2/3 chance to use Acid Ball (Targets party members that are not inflicted with Poison). Add 1 to global counter 0.
--1/3 chance to use a Fang attack (Targets the party member with the lowest level). Add 1 to global counter 0.
-If global counter 0 is at 4 and it is the first action in the turn:
--Use a Fang attack. Add 1 to global counter 0.
-If global counter 0 is at 3, at least 1 party member does not have a DEF debuff, and it is the second action in the turn:
--1/3 chance to use a Fang attack (Targets the party member with the lowest level). Add 1 to global counter 0.
--2/3 chance to use Water Wings (Targets party members that do not have a DEF debuff). Add 1 to global counter 0.
-If global counter 0 is at 3 and it is the second action in the turn:
--Use a Fang attack (Targets the party member with the lowest level). Add 1 to global counter 0.
-If global counter 0 is at 2 and it is the first action in the turn:
--1/2 chance to use Chew (Targets the party member with the lowest level). Add 1 to global counter 0.
--1/2 chance to use a Fang attack. Add 1 to global counter 0.
-If global counter 0 is at 1, at least 1 party member is not inflicted with Poison, and it is the second action in the turn:
--2/3 chance to use Acid Ball (Targets party members that are not inflicted with Poison). Add 1 to global counter 0.
--1/3 chance to use a Fang attack. Add 1 to global counter 0.
-If global counter 0 is at 1 and it is the second action in the turn:
--Use a Fang attack. Add 1 to global counter 0.
-If global counter 0 is at 0, at least 1 party member has a DEF debuff, and it is the first action in the turn:
--Use a Fang attack. Add 1 to global counter 0.
-If global counter 0 is at 0 and it is the first action in the turn:
--1/2 chance to use Water Wings (Targets party members that do not have a DEF debuff). Add 1 to global counter 0.
--1/2 chance to use a Fang attack. Add 1 to global counter 0.
Notice how there are a bunch of targeting routines that are not default targeting, particularly "attack the lowest leveled party member." Obviously this can't apply if all the party members are at the same level, but in that case, the game just chooses completely randomly. A 1 in 3 chance for any party member to get attacked. Aggro increases from the Destroyer's counters are completely ignored in that case, so Youka only had a 1 in 3 chance to be attacked. Not a high chance.
In fact Fomalhaut appears to have invested a bit in anti-Destroyer measures, as nearly every new enemy and dragon has a lot of routines where they go after a specific party member type, as a targeted nerf to make Destroyer counters less reliable. Don't panic, this isn't a major nerf. Namely because Imageepoch didn't have the time and budget to redo every single enemy AI. Only the new assets have such measures, but returning assets from 2020 were mostly left intact, and are very susceptible to being aggro'd by a Destroyer. The new fights though, yeah don't expect them to be as reliable at countering.
If you're wondering why Richter is getting attacked constantly, that's just bad RNG. Nothing special going on there.
It very much is! The AI can check for those as well as buffs and ailments on the party....Is checking player debuffs even an AI function enemies have? I don't think so.
Speaking of which, Venomous Ball is Venom Boost given to the enemy. It's Oceanus's desperation move, and only brought out once it's in its final phase, at or below 40% LIFE. But the circumstances to use it are extremely rare.
Firstly if your party has poison immunity, you'll never see it, as someone needs to be inflicted with poison for Oceanus to even consider using it. Even if you went in with absolutely no poison protection, it's still very unlikely to see.-If global counter 1 is at 0, any party member is inflicted with Poison, and it is the second action in the turn:
--Use Venomous Ball (Targets party members that are inflicted with Poison). Set global counter 1 to 10.
-If global counter 0 is at 3, any party member is inflicted with Poison, and it is the second action in the turn:
--Use Venomous Ball (Targets party members that are inflicted with Poison). Add 1 to global counter 0.
-If global counter 0 is at 1, at least 1 party member is not inflicted with Poison, and it is the second action in the turn:
--3/4 chance to use Acid Ball (Targets party members that are not inflicted with Poison). Add 1 to global counter 0.
--1/4 chance to use a Fang attack. Add 1 to global counter 0.
-If global counter 0 is at 1 and it is the second action in the turn:
--Use a Fang attack. Add 1 to global counter 0.
-If global counter 0 is at 0, any party member is inflicted with Poison, and it is the second action in the turn:
--Use Venomous Ball (Targets party members that are inflicted with Poison). Add 1 to global counter 0.
The first routine is its opening move. However the problem with this routine is that global counter 1 is incremented in phase 2 (70% LIFE), and never gets set back to 0. You would have to somehow burst it down from 70% to 40% LIFE in one turn without it getting a chance to act. A very tall ask in a 7th Dragon game that is not VFD.
The second routine is actually feasible to see if you neglect to heal the poison off, however global counter 0 only gets reset back to 0 when Oceanus reaches the end of its attack pattern, so depending on how you fight it, it may just never even reach that point in its attack pattern by the time you get to phase 3.
The third routine is legitimately impossible to see. As the conditions for it can never be met without also filling the conditions for the earlier routines at global counter 0 being at 1 due to the 2nd routine being impossible to make false under that circumstance. Due to improper routine ordering, the Venomous Ball routine there can never be reached. (Essentially a bad case of failing FizzBuzz essentially.)
The move being used is so rare, that plenty of guide fansites never knew this mechanic even existed, funnily enough.
You can only get good at chess if you love the game.
-Grandmaster, Bobby Fischer.
I hate chess. I hate chess. I hate chess.
-World champion, Bobby Fischer.
Richter Esslinger's Reminiscence, I ~ Silent Voice
-Grandmaster, Bobby Fischer.
I hate chess. I hate chess. I hate chess.
-World champion, Bobby Fischer.
Richter Esslinger's Reminiscence, I ~ Silent Voice
OH, I CAN'T HELP BELIEVIN' YOU
Ever since that day, I believed that if I called you with my heart, we'd meet for sure
Ah, a trace in the sky
That's a sign, a prayer that's stronger than anything,
of an infinite energy awakening
Ah, let's look for what we can do before hurting each other—please!
Richter Esslinger's Reminiscence, II ~ Believe in the Starry Sky
Ever since that day, I believed that if I called you with my heart, we'd meet for sure
Ah, a trace in the sky
That's a sign, a prayer that's stronger than anything,
of an infinite energy awakening
Ah, let's look for what we can do before hurting each other—please!
Richter Esslinger's Reminiscence, II ~ Believe in the Starry Sky
Addendum VIII: Richter Esslinger (Unit 13's Secretary, Class: Hacker) Tactical Overview Part 2
Okay, now we can focus on people who aren't Richter for a bit.
Hackers in 2020-II were unfortunately hit very hard for a myriad of reasons. They're still a good class, but they're not as strong as they were in the first game.
This was not an intentional nerf to Regenerator, as advertisement materials and strategy guides for 2020-II claim that Regenerator is still a percentile heal. Whoops. I dunno how easy it would be to fix, but one way to do that would be to somehow import the regeneration code from 2020, make that a new unique effect, and assign it to Regenerator.
Nanomachine 119 going last is a nice buff to the skill since it only affects party members who were dead at the moment of cast.
Feedback is only pretty much usable on hacked targets due to the massive infliction rate nerf.
The TROYs are at least a nice boon for the sheer nerfs Hackers got, since they're no longer reliant on other party members to make it easier to hack enemies.
As for the Hacker rebalancing. Well, they were supposed to get something that made them easier to use. You see, they were intended to have EX gain on their support skills, making it easier for them to toss out EX-boosted Hacks to counteract the nerfs. Unfortunately, the EX gain code only works when you deal damage to enemies or use a Dragon Egg. These support skills were given high EX gain values, but because of how EX functions, that doesn't work at all! The funny thing is they didn't seem to be aware of this, as VFD tried giving the same buff to other skills, but the EX code wasn't fixed to add that function. Whoops!
The Regenerator bug is a funny oversight. So in 2020, regeneration skills were coded as percentile heals. 2020-II changed them to work as set healing instead. This was an intentional balance change, but it seems they forgot to assign a new skill effect code to Regenerator to offset that. As a result the skill ended up being complete garbage after the early game.I wonder how complex the bug actually is? I bet it's like, one character off, like the gems in Sonic 2006.
This was not an intentional nerf to Regenerator, as advertisement materials and strategy guides for 2020-II claim that Regenerator is still a percentile heal. Whoops. I dunno how easy it would be to fix, but one way to do that would be to somehow import the regeneration code from 2020, make that a new unique effect, and assign it to Regenerator.
Nanomachine 119 going last is a nice buff to the skill since it only affects party members who were dead at the moment of cast.
Feedback is only pretty much usable on hacked targets due to the massive infliction rate nerf.
The TROYs are at least a nice boon for the sheer nerfs Hackers got, since they're no longer reliant on other party members to make it easier to hack enemies.
As for the Hacker rebalancing. Well, they were supposed to get something that made them easier to use. You see, they were intended to have EX gain on their support skills, making it easier for them to toss out EX-boosted Hacks to counteract the nerfs. Unfortunately, the EX gain code only works when you deal damage to enemies or use a Dragon Egg. These support skills were given high EX gain values, but because of how EX functions, that doesn't work at all! The funny thing is they didn't seem to be aware of this, as VFD tried giving the same buff to other skills, but the EX code wasn't fixed to add that function. Whoops!
Part 66: In the Interval of War || SSLP Test Poster mirror.
It's the beginning of Chapter 3, so naturally, let's do some normal sidequests.
So we're just gonna ignore that other guy who was there, that totally seems like something that's not gonna come back and haunt people later.
Part 67: The Question of Her || SSLP Test Poster mirror.
Let's head back to Shibuya, where nothing abnormal will happen.
Part 68: Alchemist of Swaying Heart || SSLP Test Poster mirror.
Okay, maybe some abnormal things happened, but let's talk about dragon classification instead of worrying about that.
Poison Birds would probably be something of a rude surprise if they were a dragon and not a trash mob. As is, eh. Which kind of is about how I feel about this chapter in general.
Catraptor is a pretty apt name for Stabdragons though.
Catraptor is a pretty apt name for Stabdragons though.
Well, Sleepy Hollow, at least you tried to be different (I'm pretty sure I actually got trolled by it using sleep more than once). Too bad about that stop proc i didn't even know bush trap could do that in this game.
Yeah there's a rather bizarre inverse difficulty curve since Tiamat. Sleepy Hollow despite its new tricks, isn't all that difficult in this game.
The Imperial is rather fragile by this point, and Sleep is just a much easier ailment to play around than Chaos. It is more aggressive at least but that doesn't really help it much. I guess it does make sense story wise what with you all mega preparing for it and just curbstomping it as a result.
That Stop proc in the update was turbo lucky, as Bush Trap's Stop rate isn't particularly high, and Sleepy Hollow heavily resists it.
Its stat spread is similar to its 2020 version, but it's considerably more fragile with that HP cut. Granted Sleepy Hollow is a chapter 5 boss in 2020 and a chapter 3 boss in II.
As for Confusion Scales, it was likely supposed to use it early in the fight to show that the Confusion Cutters were working, and that Sleepy Hollow realized it needed to change tactics by that point, instead of being aggressive from the get-go.
As for what else changed, well...
Pretty simple and easy to grasp, right? It's also very rigid with pretty much no variance, so it's a very predictable boss.
Now this is a portion of Sleepy Hollow's AI in 2020-II:
Yeah anything that isn't reusing its AI from 2020 is now more aggressive and unpredictable. Though in this case it doesn't help Sleepy Hollow too much as it's very fragile and goes down pretty quickly.
The Imperial is rather fragile by this point, and Sleep is just a much easier ailment to play around than Chaos. It is more aggressive at least but that doesn't really help it much. I guess it does make sense story wise what with you all mega preparing for it and just curbstomping it as a result.
That Stop proc in the update was turbo lucky, as Bush Trap's Stop rate isn't particularly high, and Sleepy Hollow heavily resists it.
Its stat spread is similar to its 2020 version, but it's considerably more fragile with that HP cut. Granted Sleepy Hollow is a chapter 5 boss in 2020 and a chapter 3 boss in II.
It kept most of its skills from 2020, with a few new additions. It's not guaranteed to use Venomous Scratch on sleeping party members, as its AI gives it a 1 in 10 chance of targeting someone else entirely for some reason. Dunno why.Sleepy Hollow (LV. 34/30)
-Madness Flight: Non-elemental Ranged attack to all party members. MAT-based. 0.8x damage. 0% chance to inflict Chaos for 5 turns.
-Sleep Scales: Targets all party members. 100% chance to inflict Sleep for 3 turns.
-Poison Scales: Targets one party member. 99% chance to inflict Poison for 5 turns. The Poison ticks for 38 damage.
-Double Claw: Non-elemental Claw attack to random party members. ATK-based. 1.1x damage. Hits 2 times. 1.5x accuracy.
-Gather Power: Buffs the user. Multiplies ATK damage dealt by 1.25x for 2 turns.
-Sleep React: Buffs the user. For 6 turns, the user will be granted an extra turn if they inflict Sleep.
-Venomous Scratch: Non-elemental Melee attack to random party members. ATK-based. 0.7x damage. Hits 2 times. 0.5x accuracy. 99% chance to inflict Poison for 5 turns. The Poison ticks for 33 damage.
-Sleeper Lock-on: Telegraph skill.
Funnily enough, Confusion Scales was planned to be in its moveset, and yes it and Madness Flight actually has a 0% infliction rate. The code is there, the rate is just dialed down to 0%. A meta way of showing the Confusion Cutters are working I suppose?-Confusion Scales: Targets one party member. 0% chance to inflict Chaos for 4 turns.
As for Confusion Scales, it was likely supposed to use it early in the fight to show that the Confusion Cutters were working, and that Sleepy Hollow realized it needed to change tactics by that point, instead of being aggressive from the get-go.
Not too many changes to its existing moveset from 2020. Madness Flight got significantly weaker with the loss of Chaos, but it also deals significantly less damage now. Double Claw got a bit weaker in the 2020-II version.Sleepy Hollow
-Madness Flight: Non-elemental Ranged attack to all party members. MAT-based. 1.5x damage. Cannot miss. 100% chance to inflict Chaos for 5 turns.
-Confusion Scales: Targets one party member. 100% chance to inflict Chaos for 4 turns.
-Sleep Scales: Targets one party member. 99% chance to inflict Sleep for 3 turns.
-Poison Scales: Targets one party member. 99% chance to inflict Poison for 5 turns. The Poison ticks for 38 damage.
-Double Claw: Non-elemental Claw attack to random party members. ATK-based. 1.25x damage. Hits 2 times. 1.5x accuracy.
-Gather Power: Telegraph skill.
As for what else changed, well...
This is probably a good time for me to elaborate on this post I made earlier. For example, this is the entirety of Sleepy Hollow's AI in 2020:Araxxor wrote: The reason I bring this up now is because that tip no longer applies to 2020-II. Dragon behaviors and boss AI now involve way more RNG and are nowhere near as predictable as they were in 2020. A dragon that behaves one way won't necessarily mean another of the same kind will behave another way. And if you're having trouble with a boss, taking note of its behaviors won't help you as much as it did in 2020.
Pretty simple and easy to grasp, right? It's also very rigid with pretty much no variance, so it's a very predictable boss.
Now this is a portion of Sleepy Hollow's AI in 2020-II:
Yeah anything that isn't reusing its AI from 2020 is now more aggressive and unpredictable. Though in this case it doesn't help Sleepy Hollow too much as it's very fragile and goes down pretty quickly.
Part 70: Exceedingly Near, in a World Endlessly Far || SSLP Test Poster mirror.
It's only Christmas Eve in my jurisdiction, but Merry Christmas anyway! Have Izumi getting beaten up as my present to you.
tbh "god rolled a one in a billion chance and i was born an atlantean elf" sounds easier to explain to than getting double isekai'd.
also this is the first time i've actually noticed what that road sign says. good road sign.
also this is the first time i've actually noticed what that road sign says. good road sign.
Izumi has rather lackluster aim for whatever reason. Her inherent accuracy isn't any worse though, it's set to 100% like most other enemies. As a result she really doesn't handle evasion buffs or accuracy debuffs well. Her most threatening part is the partywide charge skill.Izumi (LV. 36/32)
-Air Slash: Non-elemental Melee attack to all party members. ATK-based. 1x damage. 0.8x accuracy.
-Straight Cut: Non-elemental Melee attack to one party member. ATK-based. 1.1x damage. 0.8x accuracy.
-Pour It On: Multiplies the damage of the next ATK-based attack from all enemies by 1.5x.
Unfortunately the US army is filled with Stormtroopers.Assault Soldier (LV. 35/31)
-Full-auto Sweep: Non-elemental Ranged attack to all party members. ATK-based. 1x damage. 0.5x accuracy.
-Flashbang Toss: Fire-elemental Ranged attack to all party members. ATK-based. 0.75x damage. 60% chance to inflict Blind for 3 turns. Blinded targets have their accuracy multiplied by 0.4x.
Flashbang Toss is nasty though. No accuracy penalties and if you thought you could treat Blind as a nothing ailment like in 2020, this will be glad to hammer in that you should respect it this time.
Addendum IX: Youka Fudoji (Unit 13's Vanguard, Class: Destroyer) Tactical Overview Part 2
Maybe one day, Youka's wrath will finally be gone...
Destroyers were known by the devs and the playerbase to be the best class in 2020, so they of course got smacked with the nerf bat in 2020-II. They're still a good class though.
And then when God Hands came along in VFD, the nerfs were either partially reverted, reverted entirely, or the skills were made even stronger than they were in 2020. And they're not even close to the strongest class in that game, but you can read the VFD LP for more details on that bout of power creep.
Destroy React got basically destroyed with a whopping lowering from 70% to 40%. On the other hand, the Destroyers can actually reset D-Depth now, so they can continually get extra turns instead of getting 3 at most and that being it for the next couple of turns.
Quintet and Drill Crawler are less potent, but Drill Crawler basically got a hefty nerf in the lifesteal department. In fact, lifesteal in general got a huge nerf in this game. There's a cap on the amount of life they can heal to prevent easy full heals. Enemies however have this cap set to 999, so they functionally don't have a cap. Thanks. This nerf was removed entirely in VFD.
Stop wasn't an ailment you could use in 2020, though it was functional. It's finally implemented in this game, and a few classes have access to it now. That being said because of how powerful a true stun is, the infliction rates are pretty low, and bosses resist them heavily, so don't expect to land this reliably. If you do, the fight just got a whole lot easier though.
Earth Breaker (not to be confused with the EX skills in DS and VFD, the Japanese name in 2020-II is Land Crusher) is pretty much your way of resetting D-Depth for continuous combos. The damage multipliers are 1x for no D-Depth, 1.1x for 1 D-Depth, 1.4x for 2 D-Depth, and 2x for 3 D-Depth.
Crippling Kicks uses a standard ailment weakness rider, so it stacks with the Hacker's Buffer Overun's unique effect. Unfortunately it does not stack with the Samurai's Payback skill, as its extra effect is the same type of debuff as Crippling Kicks.
Homicide Hold is handled weirdly in the code. It uses a lookup table to decide what ailments are legal and how much damage should be multiplied by. Here's the table for damage multipliers:
There's also a few indirect nerfs they got. In 2020, they had a 45% or 50% chance of landing D-Depth on most enemies. In 2020-II, this was lowered down to 25%, 30%, 40%, 45%, or 50%. And I also talked about how their counter skills were made more unreliable on certain enemies, but fortunately that doesn't apply to most enemies and bosses.
And then when God Hands came along in VFD, the nerfs were either partially reverted, reverted entirely, or the skills were made even stronger than they were in 2020. And they're not even close to the strongest class in that game, but you can read the VFD LP for more details on that bout of power creep.
Destroy React got basically destroyed with a whopping lowering from 70% to 40%. On the other hand, the Destroyers can actually reset D-Depth now, so they can continually get extra turns instead of getting 3 at most and that being it for the next couple of turns.
Quintet and Drill Crawler are less potent, but Drill Crawler basically got a hefty nerf in the lifesteal department. In fact, lifesteal in general got a huge nerf in this game. There's a cap on the amount of life they can heal to prevent easy full heals. Enemies however have this cap set to 999, so they functionally don't have a cap. Thanks. This nerf was removed entirely in VFD.
Stop wasn't an ailment you could use in 2020, though it was functional. It's finally implemented in this game, and a few classes have access to it now. That being said because of how powerful a true stun is, the infliction rates are pretty low, and bosses resist them heavily, so don't expect to land this reliably. If you do, the fight just got a whole lot easier though.
Earth Breaker (not to be confused with the EX skills in DS and VFD, the Japanese name in 2020-II is Land Crusher) is pretty much your way of resetting D-Depth for continuous combos. The damage multipliers are 1x for no D-Depth, 1.1x for 1 D-Depth, 1.4x for 2 D-Depth, and 2x for 3 D-Depth.
Crippling Kicks uses a standard ailment weakness rider, so it stacks with the Hacker's Buffer Overun's unique effect. Unfortunately it does not stack with the Samurai's Payback skill, as its extra effect is the same type of debuff as Crippling Kicks.
Homicide Hold is handled weirdly in the code. It uses a lookup table to decide what ailments are legal and how much damage should be multiplied by. Here's the table for damage multipliers:
Hack, D-Depth, and Stun do not count towards increasing Homicide Hold's damage. They also forgot to flag Stop as a legal ailment so it doesn't count toward this either.1 ailment: 1.1x
2 ailments: 1.3x
3 ailments: 1.5x
4 ailments: 1.7x
5 ailments: 1.9x
6 ailments: 2.1x
7 ailments: 2.3x
8+ ailments: 2.5x
There's also a few indirect nerfs they got. In 2020, they had a 45% or 50% chance of landing D-Depth on most enemies. In 2020-II, this was lowered down to 25%, 30%, 40%, 45%, or 50%. And I also talked about how their counter skills were made more unreliable on certain enemies, but fortunately that doesn't apply to most enemies and bosses.
Happy New Year! Or, as Sharon would say, "Akeomew year!" As far as overall progress on the LP goes, my update backlog is pretty deep (having reached pretty deep into Chapter 5), so I'll be able to manage regular updates for some time to come. Let's take a moment to deliver our good feelings to those still trapped in September 2021—my goal is to finish the LP by the end of June, so hopefully Unit 13 will be able to break free and enjoy future years with us, too. Please continue to believe in them.
Machine Dragons are weird in this game. Their stats got heavy adjustments to be fought as a solo dragon since they attacked you in swarms last game. But the rest of them didn't really get much adjustment, so they behave the same way as in 2020. Seems like they were intended to get more of a revamp according to their internal file designation (it's considered an entirely separate species from the 2020 Machine Dragons), but probably ran outta time.
Idols are absolutely bugfuck bonkers and the class designers were absolutely deranged when creating this abomination. It is one of the most fun classes in the series.
Then Star Sanctuary activates. And they become the dragons' worst nightmare. The half damage and 50% evasion effectively give them quadruple their effective HP, turning them into ubertanks that won't die!
Not only do they get a ridiculous damage boost, certain skills get buffed into the stratosphere! Shuffle Pitch is not a bad skill! It's one of the Idol's best attacking skills! And then Superstar makes it even better.
For the record, Idols are not a bad class on their own! In fact they don't even need Star Sanctuary. It's just another strong as hell tool they happen to have. Their skillset is already incredibly strong without it. It's not a case of a shitty class becoming good for a few turns (Hi EO2U Fafnir). It's an already strong class becoming an utter god during that time!
Idols are absolutely bugfuck bonkers and the class designers were absolutely deranged when creating this abomination. It is one of the most fun classes in the series.
So Idol's stat spread is actually not that great and actually pretty bad in some places.Idol's Stat Spread:
HP: Same as Samurai's (Great!)
MANA: Same as Psychic's (The best!!)
ATK: Same as Trickster's (Average.)
DEF: Same as Psychic's (The worst...)
MAT: Same as Trickster's (Average.)
MDF: Same as Samurai's (Bad.)
SPD: Same as Hacker's (Average.)
Then Star Sanctuary activates. And they become the dragons' worst nightmare. The half damage and 50% evasion effectively give them quadruple their effective HP, turning them into ubertanks that won't die!
Not only do they get a ridiculous damage boost, certain skills get buffed into the stratosphere! Shuffle Pitch is not a bad skill! It's one of the Idol's best attacking skills! And then Superstar makes it even better.
For the record, Idols are not a bad class on their own! In fact they don't even need Star Sanctuary. It's just another strong as hell tool they happen to have. Their skillset is already incredibly strong without it. It's not a case of a shitty class becoming good for a few turns (Hi EO2U Fafnir). It's an already strong class becoming an utter god during that time!
