SH3 challenge log: Salt and murder
One last bit of housekeeping before going to Uyuni Salt Lake: there's an HP+20% accessory (Ashra's Earrings) where Delget was fought. This is kind of a big deal. At the start of Uyuni Salt Lake itself there's a new shop, and it has upgrades for both weapons -and- armour, unusually for the game. This helps a lot! But the enemies have responded in kinda.
Randoms (1 reset):
These guys are a pretty tough bunch. Harukigenias are the small enemy that swarms: fast with low HP. They're more annoying than most because their attacks destroy stock. Thanks guys. They'll also cast Entrance, but this is a complete waste of they cast it on each other as they have no attack magic. If they have allies of different species around, though, they'll target those instead.
Sulagi also doesn't use magic. They just toss respectable physicals around which can add either Apathy (no stock gain, not too bad), or Mental Breakdown (annoying resource tax). They take 2 attacks from Shania, 3 from Johnny to bring down, in general.
Ludiris has physicals which paralyse. This is bad. Very bad. They'll also use Rock Javelin after Entrance (but never otherwise). Entranced Rock Javelin is a 3HKO which is very solid for a random, and is very dangerous if it hits two people.
Finally there's the Ikcheon, a big sack of HP which is also the heavy hitter of the dungeon, with physicals that solidly 4HKO, as well as Hail Exceed, which does the same thing to a line. Flying Shania is immune to this one, though. Their physicals can add Accel Ring (generally worth a status heal). They die in two solid rounds of attacking (Rage Shania, two physicals, Red Bounce) but nothing less than that.
The enemies here and mostly immune to fatal status (only the Harukigenias are exceptions, they can be petrified, but Shania OHKOs them anyway, so Johnny gets Petrify 2 as he can't OHKO them until he gets Rock Javelin mid-dungeon). Fortunately they have a pretty big weakness, as they can all be paralysed, which is pretty much a fatal status (no action for 5 turns). Sadly I don't have Paralysis 2.. having this is pretty much a reward for staying up to date with Natan's UMA hunts, as it's from the UMA in Aito Cave. But Paralysis 1 suffices, and it's always welcome when it kicks in first try on an Ikcheon.
On the other end of things, paralysis can of course ruin my day as well, but accessory slots are pretty valuable. In the end I settle on Shania with a belt, Warning Device, and Small Jug to maximise her offence, while Johnny gets a paralysis blocker and Ashra's Earrings so he can take hits better. He also gets the Panoramic Lens at dungeon's start, followed by Ascetic's Earrings for soul gain once I have a handle on things.
Killer 2
First off, accessory changes: Johnny keeps Ashra's Earrings, gets Blood Jewel and Leonardo's Bear. Shania gets a belt, Leonardo's Bear, and Ascetic's Earrings.
So Killer is kinda the easiest boss since Malice Edna. DL bosses not as impressive as giant monsters.
First of all, his biggest gimmick is that his physicals add instant death. This is terrible so of course I buy an extra Leonardo's Bear and equip them on both PCs. His other attacks are Vice Needle, which makes its return and adds chain status, and Red Gravity, which has a big radius and kills your stock. But luckilly for me, thanks to Ashra's Earrings on Johnny, none of his attacks actually 2HKO anyone. This is hugely liberating. (I should note that according to the stat topic, he does have a 2HKO, but one HP booster and one Shania being Shania nullify this.)
Of course, his Doubles (and to a lesser extent doubleturns) are still evil. Vice Blade into Red Gravity, the chain bonus allows the whole combo to easily OHKO, and takes your stock too since he's a jerk. And I'm absolutely guaranteed to see one, since Killer 2 is the first boss who starts with 2 stock gauges (and for me he went before Shania). It's okay, as long as I'm at full HP when one hits, the surviving PC can resurrect easily enough. Since his damage is low, Johnny can revive Shania with a Talisman of Mercy, which restores 50/60% HP, enough to not die immediately.
However, of course I don't want to see much death anyway, as it gets rid of buffs. Rage and Aqua Edge on Shania are of course good ideas, Arc Gale helps get me more turns, and Arc Shield is a decent filler move since his physicals are close to 2HKO and do overwhelm Arc Cure. Heal with Arc Cure and Cure Plus as needed, Hard Hit whenever I get a sniff of a double coming in the near future, Blood Jewel takes care of Johnny SP while Shania periodically uses Howling for her own. Nothing really new here. Johnny does get more use than normal out of Vacuum, as Red Gravity spam leaves me unable to combo or even hard hit, so Vacuum both acts as a damageless Hard Hit while restoring Johnny's stock, not bad.
There are still a couple hairy points in the battle. The first is when, as soon as Killer drops below half HP, he casts Gale on himself. At this point I have to fight him very defensively, keeping all my buffs in place, healing often, and attacking only when hard hit outweighs other options. Fortunately, it wears off, and then I'm able to continue. The second trouble point is that towards the end, I miss a key ring and he decides to Vice Blade two people and suddenly I'm in a bad place. I fight for something like five minutes with him being at under 400 HP, trying to find an opening between all the forced heals/revives/vacuums. Not too big a deal, just kinda scary. Notably, unlike Delget, I am able to beat him before needing to restore either PC's MP.
Killer's also vulnerable to P-Attack Down, so of course I should have used that! Second boss in a row! I'm definitely looking up the next boss ahead of time, because I know what HE does at low HP. Spoiler: he's a dick.
Levels were 34.
