Insane Difficulty: Umm, You Got Some Recommended Levels For Sidequests? - Insane Difficulty

Stann, on 14 November 2012 - 09:07 PM, said:

+1

The sidequests are relatievly short, so it isn't that biog a deal if the last 1 or 2 are a bit on the easy side. The MB sidequest is one of the harder ones, as the boss fight basically necessitates having close to max MDEF and status protection equipment.

It's not a big deal that you need to level up a bit, as you will need to level to get started in the black omen. Even after doing all the sidequests the first Mutant in the Black Omen is still plenty challenging; you essentially need max MDEF and max DEF on most of your characters to have a chance.

Obob, on 14 November 2012 - 09:51 PM, said:

Sounds good. I don't even recall much of the sidequests, particularly their lengths. Didn't even remember the mother brain one until she started talking to me and i was like, oh ya, Soylent Green.

While I think the substance of the question is clear and with merit, I agree that the tone was unnecessarily abrasive. Which is why I didn't wind up responding to it the first time I read it.

Most of why Motherbrain is hard is incidental: her original script structure really lent itself well to a high-challenge battle, while other bosses (such as Son of Sun or Rust Tyrano) would require complete redesigns to be made a real challenge (and I didn't get into doing complete redesigns until the black omen bosses). Another reason, though, is that killing Motherbrain loses you access to one of the best XP areas pre-Black Omen. So it makes sense to put the boss that most tests your Black Omen readiness there. The sidequests can be started in any order, but as for killing the sidequest bosses, I would say Geno and Ozzie's are the hardest, with Sunken Desert falling just below those. In general, the idea is that you can loot the treasure in every sidequest and then go back and kill the bosses (and you'll have the loot and a few extra levels to enable you to do this), but some of the bosses have exploitable weaknesses (FIRE IMMUNITY) that make them easily killable without doing this.

I don't remember what type of damage Motherbrain's beam does, but if it's doing high 3-digits or 4 digits then it is magic, otherwise it is physical. Ignoring buffs must be a unique property of the ability.

Being able to kill the sidequest bosses is less about levels *directly* and more about magic defense. The mdef formula in this game is completely broken. To combat this, Black Omen just assumes you have max mdef, and many pieces of EQ now give +10 mdef (hunting down this EQ in the sidequests is very helpful). Using the hacking skill I have now, I could probably just change the mdef formula, but when I first started this hack I didn't have that skill, and changing it now would require a massive redesign of the entire game... and that's time I'd rather spend on Soul Shepherd now. ^_^;

I've reached a road block that I see no possible way around, but y'all must have, because you're fighting the motherbrain.

The chickbot in Geno Dome is healing herself every other turn for 7650hp, and occasionally hits me for 900hp, killing me instantly. I don't understand how to battle something that heals itself for 10x more damage than I can deal in the same amount of time?

Edit: I waited 90 minutes to bring it up, then just as I do, I finally beat it by just crossing my fingers and hoping it doesn't use either of those abilities. Relying on chance like that is kind of stupid.

Goozman, on 09 December 2012 - 01:18 AM, said:

With this boss, you're just meant to outlast her until she blows up. Suiting up Robo with MDef boosting equips would likely be needed so he survives some of the nastier attacks (Area Bomb I think is one?).

Seems like you got past it though so all's well!

zombero, on 15 November 2012 - 08:34 AM, said:

Why would that require such a massive redesign of the entire game? I'm no hacker, just curious.

Advent, on 09 December 2012 - 07:46 AM, said:

I would have to rebalance all bosses and enemies anywhere near the end of the game, as well as various enemy skills, to suit the new magic defense formula.

zombero, on 10 December 2012 - 08:31 AM, said:

Oh, right. I hadn't thought of that.

I was thinking there was for whatever reason something preventing the NPCs from updating; like, after you fixed it you'd have to update all of them manually.

Related question: What would be recomended levels for Black Omen? I'm level 57 and really struggling with the 5th fight (1 martello + 2 synchrites) !

There isn't really a level recommendation so much as a magic defense recommendation... MAX IT OUT. Other than that, winning fights should just be a matter of getting a good party, equipping them right, and using the right commands, for the most part.

Ok, thanks to your tip, I did it ! I equipped 2 black mails and gave marle and lucca their weapon that inflict stop!

I'm not sure what this is, but here's whats happening. I'm fighting mother brain. Everything is going smoothly. I take out displays, all good. I attack her with Ice Sword 2, or robo tackle, or whatever. All good. But on the second or third Ice Sword, the dmg is halved. I thought that was wierd. But w/e. It's hard mode. After a while though Ice sword 2 is doing like, 100 dmg. Regular attacks are doing 10. I literally ran out of ethers and tonics trying to kill her. At the end, I couldnt do any dmg to her. Seriously, triple techs, double techs, all of them doing less than 100dmg to her at the end.

It really seems like a bug. Is that the way it's supposed to work?

Yes it is. In fact she had this property in the original game, though the player was unlikely to notice. You gotta lay out the big damage quickly before she becomes virtually invulnerable.

Ah. I see. Does that go into effect while monitors are up, or just after they are taken down?

I think it's only once they're down. I can't remember for certain at this point, but that seems right.

Man she's tough. At least for me. Took awhile but i got her

Thanks for the info man.