Trying To Defeat Zanbamon During The First Encounter At The Jungle Grave (Digimon World 2003)

Welcome to Digimon World 2003. When you go to the South Sector for the first time you are initially unable to make it to the Suzaku City because of Zanbamon blocking your way at the Jungle Grave. He challenges you to a battle which always seems to end with you running away. Usually you strike first but do minimal damage. He then attacks you and does substantial damage, resulting in you fleeing. You have to return later with a Smelly Herb, and the smell of it causes Zanbamon to run away. The game seems to be scripted so that you can't defeat Zanbamon at the Jungle Grave. I was curious as to whether there's anyway of defeating Zanbamon during your first encounter with him, and I therefore put this video together.

I started the game with the Pack which contains Kumamon, Guilmon and Patamon. I also had Agumon added as my partner by the DRI Agent at the Tyranno Valley. This required me to defeat MetalGreymon at the Bulk Bridge. Before challenging Zanbamon I did an enormous amount of grinding with Kumamon and Agumon. I got Kumamon up to Level 72 and got Agumon up to Level 56. On both Digimon I got their Attack and Spirit up to 999. I learned the Digivolutions of Beelzemon and Omnimon, and had Blast Mode, Black Screwer, Inferno and Impact Rush available as Techniques. There were numerous other Digimon and Techniques that I had. I did the majority of the grinding by using the Fishing Rod to battle Divermons at the Divermon's Lake, who earn you 118 Experience Points each. I had to begin with more basic opposition such as the random Digimon in the Central Sector and East Sector. That was followed by me using the Fishing Rod to encounter Coelamons (40 EXP) at the East Wire Forest and Seadramons (58 EXP) at the Kicking Forest, before moving onto Divermons. When I trained at the Gym I made sure that the training went perfectly. I saved before using the Gym and reloaded if my Digimon failed just once while training. If the training went perfectly then I saved before doing more training. I also purchased the best equipment that was available at the Black Market in Smith's Shop.

I swiftly came to the conclusion that the game is fixed so that you always run away after Zanbamon attacks you, regardless of how much HP or Defense you have. His attack seems to always reduce your HP by about 70%. I demonstrated this by showing Zanbamon do 946 damage to a Level 13 Kumamon with 1352 HP and 195 Defense, but only 105 damage to a Level 1 Guilmon with 150 HP and 28 Defense. It then became clear that if I was to defeat Zanbamon then I'd have to defeat him with my first attack so that he doesn't get a turn.

Kumamon was the Rookie Digimon for most of the Digimon that I used against Zanbamon. Kumamon's Attack, Spirit, Speed and Wisdom were all at 999. I first tried to defeat Zanbamon by using Beelzemon (Kumamon) and Blast Mode. This did 1962 damage and reduced Zanbamon's HP to the red, but he did still survive. He then attacked me and that resulted in me running away. I tried again with Beelzemon and used Black Screwer, but this too did 1962 damage. On my third try with Beelzemon I used Impact Rush (Loaded from GranKuwagamon) but it did slightly less damage; 1938. My next try was with Omnimon (Agumon) and Inferno. The amount of damage caused was equal to that of Blast Mode and Black Screwer; 1962. Those were the best attacks that I had, and none of them defeated Zanbamon.

I decided to try and defeat Zanbamon with Gallantmon (Kumamon) by using Counter Attacks. The damage that you inflict with a Counter Attack tends to be greater than the amount of damage that you first sustained from the opposing Digimon. Zanbamon was doing 4566 damage each time he attacked Kumamon, so you can see why Counter Attacks had an appeal. I tried with Final Purification and Counter Strike, but both times the damage was just 1964, despite the fact that it probably should've been in excess of 4566. It looks as if the game is programmed so that Zanbamon's HP can't fall under a certain amount.

I tried defeating Zanbamon with One-Hit-Knock-Outs. I used GranKuwagamon's (Kumamon) Dimension Scissors, and Beelzemon's (Kumamon) Soul Plunder. Zanbamon survived both attacks. My next idea was to try and confuse Zanbamon as a way of stopping him from attacking me. I used Beelzemon's Confuse Nebula, but to no success. I then wondered if I could reduce the amount of damage that Zanbamon causes, either by decreasing his Attack or increasing my Defense. Alternatively, reduce Zanbamon's Speed and hope that I could block his attack as a consequence to this. I used Myotismon's (Kumamon) Grissly Wing to reduce Zanbamon's Attack. On a different try I used Myotismon again and used Mega Protection (Loaded from WarGrowlmon) to improve my Defense. I used MegaGargomon's (Agumon) Mega Break to weaken Zanbamon's Speed. All of these attempts were in vain; it had no impact whatsoever.

I regret to say that I have no further ideas.