[Xillia 2] Ludger Solo: Rideaux

Stay Free.
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Previous Version:    • When you drop the combo but he has no...  

Rideaux is a nice refresher of a boss after the absolute hell that Muzét was. Rideaux is a strong contender for "Most free fight in the entire game", which on this channel just means I have more incentive to add a bunch of stupid stuff to the combo.

Setting Ludger's starting weapon to Guns and setting his starting position to one of the back two rows on the strategy screen puts Ludger in a great position to stay safe with Blaze Bloom as the combo starter. Rideaux can counter on the first hit like Julius, but all of his counters can get spaced out from this position. Even better, if he decides to use Hellstorm or Spartan Relay, Blaze Bloom's last hit will tag him right after his counter Iron Stance wears off.

Speaking of Iron Stance, Rideaux has none of his own. This means he has no hard OTG limit. I wanted to do a bunch of silly stuff with Mine Collapse to capitalize off of that, but even in this situation you're still disincentivized on doing too many knockdowns in such a short timeframe, as knockdown RNG will come into effect and turn any future mines into a coinflip on whether or not you'll knockdown at all, which also applies to the groundbounce effect it has on enemies already knocked down. Originally this combo was going to have three mine setups in it, but getting the third one to connect, on top of landing a Hammer Flail stun proved to be too much of a headache lmao.

What else... The Armor Crusher reset is surprisingly enough one of the most consistent things in this combo. There's a small chance of him being able to counter but it almost never came up. If anything, I'm more likely to have Rideaux fall behind me after using that, if the preceding Mine messes with his placement. In this instance, having knockdown RNG disable the knockdown/pushback on the second Mine is actually idea, though not required.

Lastly, I wanted to make up for not doing my third mine setup, with a Heatwave setup instead. On the surface, this move is pretty bad, allowing the boss to recover near instantly after it lands. It becomes a lot better if you weapon swap after it, getting rid of that recovery window, but here, I wanted to use it in it's "intended" manner, chaining it into Fearful Wing for the instant startup on the latter arte. Despite what it looks like here, this is not consistent in the slightest and at least 2/3 times Rideaux will recover before Fearful Wing connects and use Overlimit. A truly sad state of affairs, but if this is the worst bit of RNG in the fight then it's still miles better than Muzét, lol.
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[Restrictions]
⚔️ Ludger Solo
⚔️ Unknown Mode
⚔️ No Damage
⚔️ No Free Run
⚔️ No Menu Usage
⚔️ No Power Charge 2 & 3
⚔️ No Immunity Skills/Equipment
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[Modifications]
📝 Removed other party members
📝 Enabled Twin Lotus
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[Stats]
📈 Ludger Lv. 28 = Rideaux Lv. 28
⚔️ Promethus (Darkness)
🔨 The Longshank
🔫 Remus (Light)
💍 Knight Crest
✨ Sky Soldier
🎓 Triple Crit
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[Music]
🎵 Battle Theme (Fate/Extra)
🎵 Wayside Stone (Under Night: In-Birth)