Hardtype Extra - Full Moons 2 (Low Level)

his damage is titanic

  / jimsonlytweet1  

Rules:

- This is a low level run of zombero's hardtype mod: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3299/
- The aim is to keep XP gain as low as possible without affecting my sanity.
- Hard mode, obviously
- No stat boosting items
- All other game mechanics are fair game!

In this part: cheeeeeeeese, Gromit. Sorry if you don't like cheese strats, but the First Kalpa contains many of the main story's future FKEs all the way up to Kabukicho, so our best option is often to rely on landing status through Unshaken Will. Also, a lot of the encounters here seem to be pairs i.e. Senri will get Unicorn reinforcements and vice versa.

FIRST KALPA

Matador (0:18) - Right after the already dicey 1st Matador battle we have to take on a version that gets 3 press turns and can use all his 2nd phase skills (Taunt, Andalucia, Focus) immediately. There are a couple of small mercies - he doesn't get Dekunda this time, he follows up Focus with a regular attack rather than Andalucia, and crucially it is possible to inflict status or even land Expel on him (albeit unlikely thanks to Unshaken Will). Mute is the best choice because once you land it he will be stuck trying to use Startle over and over. Makajam Rocks are buyable and have a higher success% rate than Hama, plus I didn't have any appropriate demons with Hama anyway. However setting up on him is no mean feat. It really depends if he spams Taunt or Andalucia too much. Cadenza is necessary here to actually land hits.

Makami (6:33) - This would actually be manageable, except he has a chance to flee every time he gets a turn after the initial Fog Breath (dog breath and dip) which makes it almost impossible to kill him before he gets away. Great. The only realistic strat at this point is to trap him with petrification. Thankfully Medusa Eyes are buyable now. Like most of these new encounters he has Unshaken Will so this took quite a few attempts. Once you get him it's ezmode though.

Senri (8:54) - One of the easier encounters here thanks to Void Force. Ailments and crits are still as annoying as ever though. We get a repeat of the Unicorn encounter as reinforcements but it's much easier this time.

*At this point I had to make a decent Jack Frost since there were 4 back-to-back ice users to deal with. Need that instant turn loss. Fortunately the ingredient demons were already in my party - I fused together Hua Po and Shikigami and used Preta as a sacrifice to make a pretty nifty frost.*

Gui Xian & Kikuri-Hime (12:46) - This battle is a damage check. Kikuri can actually multi-spam Beast Eye a la Mot, and they can heal and boost their defence, so we need to properly set up before we can take them out. Some extra damage while doing this can keep Kikuri distracted with heals. Once you're done deal with her first. They honestly aren't too threatening at all, just annoying. The Aquans go down fast to Maragi Rocks.

Dynamic Attack Sheep (19:12) - Sheep & Arahabaki reinforcements = Ultimate meme squad. Sheep is terrifying even if you manage to set up full buffs on him - his Hell Thrusts hit like a truck and thanks to Chill's freeze even Choronzon isn't safe from an OHKO. After a few attempts I decided it's simply best to mute cheese him like Matador. He has Unshaken Will but is also weak to ailments so you get a 37.5% modifier. Could be worse.

Sati (24:38) - HEHEHEHE, no. Possibly the worst encounter here. Agidyne straight up OHKOs anything that isn't immune to fire and Allure ruins any attempts to set up. Again, cheese is the way to go. Land a lucky petrify or mute through Unshaken Will then set up in case of reinforcements. Flaemis go down very quickly to Mabufu Rocks.

NOTE: The reinforcements she is paired with actually varies throughout the dungeon. You can get groups of Karasu/Koppa in other areas, which is sneakily set up because you have to be weak to force to void fire at this point in the game. I didn't bother demonstrating this because I didn't want to fight her again but the best bet would be to exploit their curse weakness with Makajam Rocks. We'll see them in a later encounter anyways.

IKEBUKURO

Minakata (28:06) - Pretty merciful compared to most of the LoA stuff. The main threat is focussed attacks but they can't take out Demi or Choronzon. He auto-counters buffs with Dekaja so I just debuff him and go to town, he goes down really quickly with 3 Agi casters.