The 'Shroom:Issue 232/Strategy Wing
Director's Notes
Written by: Hooded Pitohui (talk)
Hello, all you readers of The 'Shroom! It's July, which means the community is busy, busy, busy! Between games and tournaments, their usual sections, and Awards presentations, folks here are juggling a whole platter of projects. Fortunately, most of these projects are best worked on indoors, where the miracle that is air conditioning protects us from the sweltering midsummer sun!
A few folks here in Strategy Wing have endeavored to bring a taste of the heat inside this month, though! For instance, long-time writer Sparks (talk) has harnessed the unmatched power of the sun! Check out his guest section Here Comes the Sun! to witness how he uses the power of the radiant dragon Aurion and to learn how you can best wield Aurion's strength in your own Kingdom Rush Alliance playthroughs. If this month's read gets a tad too hot for you, get yourself a refreshing drink of water in this month's Killing the Killing Game Roles and mosey on over to some of our walkthroughs.
Fresh off our victory over Liu Bei in So You Want to Romance the Three Kingdoms?, we're working on erecting a stable administration in Ping Yuan, and over in our Mega Man 6 walkthrough, we're storming Mr. X's fortress. We have plenty for you to read beyond even what I've mentioned, so get yourself somewhere comfortable, get a seasonally-appropriate drink in your hand, and go enjoy!
Section of the Month
Let's give Sparks (talk) a big round of applause for that whopper of a Brothership Boss Battle Guide last time around! Reclusa brought out all of the stops for that final battle, and Sparks dutifully covered every phase, every form, and every summoned enemy. Now you know to vary your Bros. Attacks during the Weeping Core phase so all your best moves are at full strength in the following phase - and much more! Thank you, Sparks, for that grand finale, and thank you as well to Zange (talk) for stepping us through the love life of lizards and training our ears for photography. Keep on voting, folks, and we'll keep on writing!
| STRATEGY WING SECTION OF THE MONTH | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place | Section | Votes | % | Writer |
| 1st | Brothership Boss Battle Guide | 9 | 56.25% | Sparks (talk) |
| 2nd | Rhythm Review | 3 | 18.75% | Zange (talk) |
| 3rd | An Overly Detailed and Funny Walkthrough of Mega Man 6 | 2 | 12.50% | Sparks (talk) |
Here Comes the Sun!
Hi! You thought I was done writing two Strategy Wing sections for each issue? Well... you're right. Does that mean I can't write guest sections for it? No! Brothership Boss Battle Guide may have ended, but I wanted to keep the "two Strategy Wing sections per 'Shroom issue" routine going just one last time. That's why I wrote something special for July - Here Comes the Sun!
This is another Kingdom Rush section I just had to make. If you're in the upper hemisphere like me, you're probably experiencing the scorching hot Summer Sun of July. It's so harsh... hopefully you're reading this in an air-conditioned room with a cold beverage beside you! Oh man, now I want iced tea... point is, it's very hot out. It's also the perfect opportunity for me to provide a guide for the most recent hero in the Kingdom Rush franchise - Aurion the Sun dragon! Aurion comes with the "Dragon Wars" DLC (alongside the Dragon Hatchery tower) in Kingdom Rush Alliance at level 5. I'm going to discuss each of his abilities and how to use him most effectively in battle!
Before I go into everything about him, allow me to discuss how Kingdom Rush Alliance works so you all can get a general idea of the core mechanics: the Kingdom Rush franchise is known for its epic tower defense gameplay; you build towers at predetermined spots along paths to stop enemies from reaching the exits. Unlike other TD games, you can place units onto the paths to block and fight enemies - some enemies are designed to take down your troops rather than reach the exit.
All of the games have a hero system. Basically, heroes are powerful units with special abilities that you can send to anywhere on the screen (well, paths that is). As they fight and use abilities, they'll gain experience points and level up, increasing their stats and powering up their special abilities. Starting in Frontiers (the second game in the series), heroes gain Hero Points when they level up in addition to stat increases. You can spend hero points to unlock and upgrade special abilities to your desire. When a hero reaches level 10, they'll have enough Hero Points to fully upgrade their abilities. If a hero is killed, they will respawn after some time. Each hero has their own respawn time.
Starting in Origins (the third game), all heroes now have something called a Hero Spell, which is a super powerful ability that YOU can activate at any time! The effects they cause vary depending on the hero, but they're all useful in their own way. Alliance allows players to bring in two heroes into battle, each with their own Hero Spell. Aurion the Sun Dragon is one of the heroes in this game.
Furthermore, all Kingdom Rush games have upgrades you can get by clearing levels. Once you clear the main Campaign of Alliance, you'll have enough upgrade points to get everything. Because Aurion comes with a post-campaign DLC (Dragon Wars), I will assume that the readers have already finished the main story and are waiting to gather knowledge on how to use Aurion.
One more thing I'll mention is Alliance's faction system. Heroes and towers are either sided with the Linirean forces (the good side) or the Dark Army (villains' side). There are upgrades that can affect both sides, which I'll briefly provide a summary of what they are:
- Linirean towers increase the HP of the heroes, while Dark Army towers increase heroes' attack power.
- Linirean Heroes decrease the basic construction costs of towers (5 gold per Linirean hero), while Dark Army Heroes slightly increase their attack power.
- Linirean Hero Spells fully heal all friendly units and revives killed soldiers (heroes are healed but not revived), while Dark Army Hero Spells temporarily slow down all enemies on the screen.
Here we go! Oh but one last thing:
Some information and images included in this section are from the Kingdom Rush Wiki.
OK, now we're ready!
In-game description
A majestic being of golden scales hailing from an ancient lineage, protector of the Cloud Realm alongside his mate Lunaris. In battle, he channels the Sun's blazing power to unleash devastating bursts of fire and light at his enemies.
Aurion's stats
- Base HP at level 10: 355
- Base attack power at level 10: 22-25
- Armor: 0%
- Magic resistance: 0%
- Respawn time: 30 seconds
- Faction: Linirean
Notes
- Aurion's HP and attack power can increase depending on how many Linirean and Dark Towers are built in a stage (Linirean towers increase Aurion's HP, while Dark towers increase his attack power).
- If Aurion is close to the secondary hero, his armor rating will rise to 10%.
- Due to being a Linirean hero, Aurion reduces the basic construction costs of towers by 5 gold. Does not affect tower special abilities.
- Being a dragon hero, Aurion can be placed anywhere on the map. In other words, he isn't restricted to the path.
- Because he's flying, Aurion cannot block enemies.
- Aurion is immune to damaging effects like poison and fire.
- Aurion's basic attack deals True Damage to enemies, meaning it ignores armor and magic resistance.
- Aurion's basic attack moves a short distance along the path, so enemies may get hit by it more than once.
- Enemies that take damage from Aurion's basic attack will be burned for 2 seconds. Enemies on fire take 5-7 True Damage every 0.3 seconds, making for around 30-50 extra damage.
- If Aurion directly targets a flying enemy, his flames will only strike his target and not move along the path and the flying enemy will not be burned. However, the attack is stronger than usual, doing about 50-70 True Damage.
Aurion's abilities
Worthy Foe
In-game description: Teleports to the strongest enemy on sight and performs a devastating attack that deals 300-400/400-600/500-900 True Damage.
Aurion flies up into the sky and dives on the strongest enemy on the map. The enemy he's targeting will freeze and a large "Sun circle" appears at the feet of the foe. After the dive, Aurion returns to his previous position and the target continues (if they live). This attack only targets ground enemies. Additionally, Aurion only goes for enemies with enough strength; weak enemies will be ignored, allowing for less damage to be wasted.
- Costs 3/3/3 Hero Points for upgrades.
- Cooldown: 40 seconds
Solar Cleansing
In-game description: Heals himself and each nearby ally for 96/192/288 health over 6 seconds.
Aurion activates this ability whenever he or nearby allies get injured. As the description states, Aurion and nearby allies do not receive the listed healing all at once - they heal that HP over 6 seconds. This means they receive 6/9/12 HP every 0.25 seconds, totaling 24/36/48 HP a second.
- Costs 2/2/2 Hero Points for upgrades.
- Cooldown: 35 seconds
Overcharge
In-game description: After 6 seconds without attacking, the next attack will prioritize the strongest enemy in range and deal an extra 75-100/150-200/225-300 damage.
Aurion glows a bright yellow color whenever Overcharge is ready. If the target is a ground enemy, foes close to it will also receive the extra damage. If the target is a flying enemy, only it will be attacked.
- Costs 2/2/2 Hero Points for upgrades.
Solar Stones
In-game description: Places a golden gem on the path that explodes on contact with an enemy, dealing 55-90/100-140/130-190 True Damage in an area.
Aurion must be above a path for him to set solar stones. Stones placed on a path will be slightly buried and won't explode if an enemy touches them. Stones will glow and levitate above the path after 3 seconds have passed, signaling they're ready to explode. Up to 3/4/5 solar stones can be present at a time; if a stone lingers for about a minute, it will explode. Even flying enemies can make the stones explode.
- Costs 1/1/1 Hero Points for upgrades.
- Cooldown: 10 seconds
Sunstorm
In-game description: Invokes a wide ray of pure solar energy that travels forwards along the path, dealing 300-450/450-750/750-1200 True Damage.
Aurion's Hero Spell, meaning it can be activated whenever you want! Choose an area to bring down an incredibly powerful sun beam that travels backwards along the path for a few seconds before disappearing. Enemies with large hitboxes (giant enemies and bosses) will take more damage than smaller foes. If the beam reaches the very start of a path, it will immediately vanish. Also, because Aurion is a Linirean Hero, all friendly units and heroes will be healed to full HP, and killed soldiers (not heroes) will revive whenever Sunstorm is used.
- Costs 3/4/5 Hero Points for upgrades.
- Cooldown: 78 seconds
Tips and tricks
I'm going to be blunt - Aurion is easily the best hero in Kingdom Rush Alliance. He beats out even the premium dragon heroes, like Lumenir and Bonehart, and you'll see why. He makes getting through stages (especially the Dragon Wars DLC) on Impossible difficulty much easier, but simply having him as one of your two heroes doesn't guarantee victory! You must make full use of his abilities if you wish to come out on top. First, let me begin with Aurion's general playstyle.
Aurion is a True Damage machine meant to absolutely demolish foes from above! While his basic attack may seem average on paper, it also burns enemies, adding up to pretty high damage for a normal attack. It doesn't matter if the enemies have armor or magic resistance because True Damage ignores both of them! Furthermore, each of Aurion's special abilities (other than Solar Cleansing) solidify the Sun dragon having the highest DPS (damage per second) out of all the heroes in the game.
- One thing you must be careful about is Aurion's strange targeting for his basic attack. If Aurion is directly above an enemy, he will not attack it. You must place him a good distance from his target for Aurion to breathe fire at it. The image to the left provides a good idea of proper Aurion placement - not too close, but also not too far from the foes he's about to char. Believe me - I did get frustrated a few times with this, especially in moments that mattered most...
Aurion's speed is on the faster side of the hero roster, which is obviously another strong point for him. He's able to dash around to points in need of firepower, which is especially helpful in levels with multiple chokepoints (spots that are designed to stop and kill foes). If you micromanage Aurion well, you will be rewarded. I'll elaborate later on.
Worthy Foe is Aurion's main ability against those pesky strong foes. 500-900 True Damage is insane for a non-Hero Spell, but it has a hefty cooldown of 40 seconds. Thankfully, you don't have to worry about the attack being wasted on a weak enemy! Aurion will only use this move if there's a strong foe on the battlefield. This is also a map-wide ability, which means Aurion will automatically target the strongest foe on the screen! This means Aurion can fight enemies at one spot, use Worthy Foe on something elsewhere, and then return to continue battling enemies.
- If Aurion is moved to a different spot while he performs this attack, he will teleport there after the move is done. It's a nice way of getting to somewhere else in a flash, but because Aurion has a fast movement speed already, this doesn't really matter. Still thought I'd mention it though!
Solar Cleansing is Aurion's only support ability. Like I said earlier, it only activates when either Aurion or nearby allies receive heavy damage. The healing is not done all at once, but over 6 seconds. 288 HP total is a great amount, as that's more than half of Aurion's health and is more than enough for barracks units. There are two ways to use this ability:
- To support himself: If Aurion's attacked by many projectile enemies, he can use this ability to save himself from death. This is mostly seen in the Dragon Wars DLC because of all the hard-hitting ranged enemies found, like Caustic Drak and Gloom Drak.
- To support chokepoints: You will likely see this occur in stages outside the Dragon Wars DLC, as there aren't as many deadly ranged foes. Place Aurion close to strong melee units such as Paladin Covenants or durable heroes like Vesper, Raelyn, and Warhead so that he can heal them when their HP gets low. There is one Dragon Wars stage (Warden Fortress) with powerful melee units that don't respawn later on in the stage, so Aurion can support them as well!
Overcharge gives Aurion the ability for big burst damage potential! If the dragon doesn't attack enemies for 6 seconds, he glows a bright yellow, indicating that he's ready to wreak havoc. Note that this only applies to normal attacks - special abilities will not affect the cooldown of Overcharge in any way. If you manage to defeat all enemies in a wave and you still got time before the next one arrives, try to let Aurion power up before moving on. You could use this to clear out groups of weak enemies easily, or you could have Aurion severely weaken high HP foes. Aurion will prioritize the strongest foe in his range while he is charged up.
- Aurion attacking with multiple Overcharges has a higher DPS than having him attack with his uncharged basic attack constantly. Because of this, I established a "hit-and-run" playstyle where I would send him to strike a strong enemy and the move Aurion far away until he becomes Overcharged. Once he is, I'd send him back to strike again. This is a tactic that pays off and removes big threats from the map, but be sure to keep him away while he's charging! Aurion will have to wait a full 6 seconds if he attacks enemies with his normal attack, so try to move him to a spot where no enemies can come within his range, like a corner of the map or something.
Solar Stones is Aurion's strategical ability. Every 10 seconds, he places a Solar Stone on the path that, after 3 seconds, glows and levitates above the spot it was set in. If an enemy touches a ready stone, they'll take a solid amount of True Damage. The explosion is capable of damaging multiple foes if they're close together, but the radius is rather small. Note that Solar Stones don't last forever, and Aurion must be above the path for him to set one. Like Solar Cleansing, there are multiple ways to use this ability:
- Big burst damage: If Aurion sets up a few stones at a path's entrance, he can wound big foes like Magma Draks, Caustic Draks, and Executhos. If you wish to use this strategy, try to avoid paths with weak enemies, as the resulting damage will be overkill. It's better to have it all dealt to the big guys.
- Catching leaking enemies: Sometimes enemies will get past your soldiers and continue down the path. If you have Aurion set up Solar Stones behind your chokepoints, you'll have a secondary defense past your main defense. Very helpful against the sneaky Shadelings!
Now I talk about Aurion's Hero Spell - Sunstorm! This is just what you need to clear out large lengthy groups of foes, regardless of how much HP they have. This attack obliterates weaker foes while greatly harming the large enemies, so it's always useful regardless of the situation. It's got a very long cooldown even by Hero Spell standards (78 seconds!) so only use it in emergencies or great opportunities.
- When used, all friendly troops and heroes will have their HP fully restored and killed soldiers will respawn instantly due to Aurion being a Linirean hero. Killed heroes will not respawn when this is used, only troops.
- Sunstorm used to take a second before the beam appears, but an update reduced the startup time drastically. Now it only takes a moment to unleash destruction, but I still recommend placing it a little in front of your desired targets.
- Avoid using Sunstorm so close to path/cave entrances because once it reaches the very start, it will instantly vanish before its full duration expires, wasting some damage potential.
A few other things to note:
- Aurion typically places a Solar Stone before Overcharge occurs. If he is not flying above a path however, he won't place a stone and simply become Overcharged.
- When Aurion is commanded to move somewhere, It takes him a moment before he flies towards the chosen spot. Just expect a tiny delay! Nothing major.
- Aurion is tough to take down because he's immune to fire, poison, and can only die from groups of ranged enemies or powerful projectile attackers. Plus, he's got Solar Cleansing to get him out of a bad situation. If that wasn't enough, his own Hero Spell (and other Linirean Hero Spells) will fully heal him! You still don't want him to die, because it takes 30 seconds for him to respawn. You definitely don't want that happening to you in the Dragon Wars DLC.
- You can pair any hero you want with Aurion, as having the Sun dragon alone will greatly help you. If I have to recommend any towers to paint him with, I'd go with Arborean Emissary and Dragon Hatchery.
- Arborean Emissaries weaken struck foes for a short time, making them take up to 50% extra damage when at tier 4! That's HUGE for a hero who already deals an insane amount of damage.
- Dragon Hatcheries slow down foes with their attacks, giving Aurion (and everything else) more time to kill them. Additionally, their roar special ability stuns all nearby enemies for up to 4 seconds!
And there you have it! Aurion is not messing around. Hopefully with your newfound knowledge you can 3-star those tough Dragon Wars stages on Impossible difficulty! Or you could just have fun watching Aurion burn everything. Your call! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get some ice tea as I wait for Kingdom Rush Genesis... Sparks out!
Four Steps for a 3D World
Written by: Hooded Pitohui (talk)
Hello all you readers of The 'Shroom, and welcome back to Four Steps for a 3D World! Here, we look at levels from a selection of 3D Super Mario titles through the lens of a design philosophy Koichi Hayashida discussed in an interview, either mapping out how they use it or contrasting them against it.
In brief, 3D Mario game levels in certain titles are designed around an introduction (
) that lets a player learn a mechanic in a safe environment, further development (
) that builds on what the player is learning and introduces more complicated aspects of a mechanic, a twist (
) that adds some kind of significant wrinkle or challenge to force players to consider the mechanic from a new angle, and a conclusion (
) which gives players one final satisfying chance to show they've mastered the mechanic. We look at 3D Mario levels and see if they conform to this model while trying to get some insight on how a good level is constructed.
The paper often features a number of summer-themed sections at this time of year, so how about a change of pace? I'm yearning for winter, and folks in the southern hemisphere are currently in its depths, so I've decided to head to a galaxy that'll let me frolic about in the snow. That's right, we're returning to World 3 of Super Mario Galaxy 2 and looking at "Bowser on Ice" in the Freezy Flake Galaxy! Bundle up, grab a shovel, and let's move some snow aside to see the mission structure hiding underneath the vast sheet of white!
| Step | Image | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction Pt. 1 |
|
The mission first deposits Mario onto a small and sparsely-decorated disk-shaped planetoid. It introduces one of the mission's main mechanics by gating progress; players cannot leave this planet until they use the Fire Flower to destroy a Launch Star-hiding Goomba snow sculpture on the underside. In that sense, it's a textbook Introduction section. The environment is completely safe and the developers force players to engage with the snow sculpture destruction mechanic at the heart of the mission. I'm not sure the mission guides players to destroying the snow sculptures well, though. The Star Bunny in the cabin mentions that the sculptures creep them out, hinting that the player should do something with them, but that's it. Admittedly, it's not at all a huge leap of logic to go "fire will destroy the snow", and players are likely to be familiar with the Fire Flower at this point in the game. This introduction relies on intuition and there being nothing else on the planetoid that the Fire Flower interacts with (making it likely that players will try burning the sculptures before too long). It's fine, but it feels a little clunky. It might have been worthwhile to put a crate near one of the sculptures, since players previously used the Fire Flower to burn crates and a crate could lure them into hitting a sculpture by accident. A trail of coins to the underside sculpture might have worked, as well. |
| Introduction Pt. 2 |
|
We don't often see a step broken up like this in the Galaxy games, but, the Introduction step undeniably continues on the next planet. The mission sends Mario to a large planet with a snowy hill with a wide-open expanse at its base. This planet encourages exploration, being open and strewn with goodies like Star Bit-containing crystals and a Chance Cube. A Fire Flower sits at the top of the hill, useful for destroying the many snow sculptures littering the planet. There is slightly more danger here, as many Li'l Brrs float around the expanse at the base of the hill, but with how open the space is and how they struggle to regenerate after being snuffed out, they're not a major threat. This is a mostly safe space where players are further encouraged to go and destroy snow sculptures, finding everything from coins to enemies to a Warp Pipe beneath the sculptures. It reinforces the lesson of the first planet; take a Fire Flower and hurry to go destroy sculptures. It also offers two secondary lessons. For one, it teaches players how to handle Li'l Brrs in an environment where they won't regenerate quickly. Those who notice the snowballs left behind by the sculptures can also use this space to learn that rolling the snowballs around makes them larger. Unfortunately, nothing really incentivizes players to roll the snowballs around. That's a misstep, I think, but I'll elaborate at the end. |
 Intermission |
|
After destroying a large Bowser snow sculpture, Mario jumps down into a little icy tube. Players get to enjoy this as a slide, trying to nab a trail of coins as they woosh down the ice tunnel. It's neat-looking, it's fun, and it goes by quickly. It may have nothing to do with the rest of the level mechanically, but it goes by so quickly that it doesn't disrupt anything. Good intermission, no notes. |
| Development(?) |
|
The icy tube deposits Mario on a small planet with a Goomba sculpture, a Fire Flower, and a structure made of brick and snow blocks. Players grab the Fire Flower and destroy snow blocks to make a path through/over the structure to reach a Comet Medal and a Warp Pipe, with the latter leading to the next planet. This is an odd portion of the mission. I'm inclined to call it a Development step in that it builds upon the idea of destroying structures made of snow by tasking players to destroy snow bricks somewhat strategically. The core concept of the mission so far is present and extended. That said... there's no failure condition? Even after destroying all the snow blocks, players can access the Warp Pipe. No strategy is required, which calls into question if this actually extends the core mechanical concept. I can't help but think some sort of reset system could have benefited this. If players could say, exit and re-enter or hop in a Warp Pipe that'd spit them right back out here with the structure reset, then the developers could have an actual failure state. |
| Twist |
|
Finally, Mario plops down on an island in a large lake of lava. Players must cross multiple islands to make their way over to a Fire Flower. Players then loop back part of the way to use that Fire Flower to destroy a gigantic Bowser snow sculpture in the lake's center, freeing the Power Star. Immediately, it's clear how this setup ties back to the mission's main mechanic. There are two main factors that clearly mark this as a Twist step. The obvious one is the lava. With lava everywhere, players must take much more care in their crossing. The many Li'l Cinders in the area also become more threatening than their Li'l Brr counterparts, reviving immediately if they drop in lava. The second twist becomes apparent when players encounter a gap between islands too large to jump across. To get across, players must roll a snowball across the lava to create a temporary path, optionally making it larger and longer-lasting by rolling it in snow first. Yes, this is where that secondary snowball rolling mechanic comes back into play. I have some quibbles, but I'll circle back to them. |
Now, one might argue that the destruction of the gigantic Bowser sculpture is a Conclusion step. From a certain point of view, it's a big spectacle that requires players have mastered the main sculpture destruction mechanic. I can't say I felt the mission emphasized it enough for it to feel like a Conclusion, though. This is very subjective criteria, but... I don't feel the Bowser sculpture's destruction is set apart from the rest of the level in any way. Compare it to "Head in the Clouds", which both offered an entirely new challenge and scrolled the screen up to this nice view of an open sky with petals streaming through it. I would accept either a new challenge or at least a new view, but there was already a Bowser sculpture that took multiple hits to destroy (albeit a smaller one) and this is... there in the middle of the lake, without even a good change in camera angle to emphasize the sculpture. To me, it ends the level, but it's not a Conclusion step.
Overall, this mission feels... disjointed and inelegant. It's not bad. I still enjoyed myself as I played through this. A casual player likely won't even notice anything amiss. It's an exploration heavy, low-key mission that rewards messing around. Casual players will appreciate the goodies tucked in the snow sculptures, or the whimsy of rolling a snowball over lava. From a mechanical design analysis perspective, even, the mission isn't bad. It just could be tighter.
The most prominent mechanic in this mission is the snow sculpture destruction. It consistently crops up throughout the mission, which is what we want to see, but the way it interacts with the rest of the mission stunts its evolution. I already mentioned how some sort of reset function could have made the Development section more effective. It falls a little short. Then, in the Twist section, the intention seems to be that the twist comes from combining that mechanic with rolling snowballs to make pathways.
Unfortunately, the snowball rolling mechanic is not integrated into the mission well. It has almost no use when it's introduced on the second planet, and it's extremely easy to miss altogether at that point. It's telling that the lava lake has a Star Bunny who straight-up tells players that they can roll the snowballs around to make them larger. I can't help but think there were playtesters missing that mechanic completely, and that the developers added the Star Bunny as a quick fix. It really needed a stronger introduction. Even were the mechanic's introduction improved, it exists in this odd half-in, half-out state at the lava lake. There are only two instances where players are nudged to use a snowball to cross the islands, and they're well before the Fire Flower (both can also be cleared by either long-jumping or taking an alternate route, but, as always, we'll assume the perspective of a notice player). The snowballs crop up very briefly to let players reach the Fire Flower, and then the rest of the mission foregoes them. The mechanics never properly combine. I assume this is because there is a limited supply of snowballs, meaning players have to be able to return to the giant Bowser sculpture without them, but that's solvable by coming up with a way for the snowballs to respawn.
Overall, the mission has a decent core with some rough edges. There may be solutions to its problems that I'm overlooking, so think about how you might change this one. With four planets visited, three stumps around the cabin, two Star Bunnies, and one awkwardly-incorporated snowball rolling mechanic, this has been Four Steps for a 3D World!
Killing the Killing Game Roles
Welcome back, readers, to another edition of Killing the Killing Game Roles, the section where we analyze various player roles from past Mario Boards Killing Games in hope of answering the question, what makes for a good role? By analyzing what's come before, we can discover some tricks and tips that could even help you design your own roles!
I'm between trips and work shifts while writing this, and the summer heat is truly getting to my head. This month's focus will be on a simpler role as a result, although this choice from Awards Killing Game Odyssey might still help us keep cool and hydrated.
And no, this one doesn't belong to any slimy spambot salesmen.
AKGO - Pipis Weldae, the Plumber
Card 1 - Info
- NAME: MSRETROGREEK
- VESSEL: CIRCINUS
- ROOM: STARBOARD-12
You are a professional plumber working for Starline Cruises. Having worked in your trade for many years, busting your back tightening tubes and replacing valves, you're an expert at laying down tubes and working with water utility systems of all kinds.
It won't be long now until you retire, passing the torch to a new, more energetic plumber. Hopefully this final trip out to sea doesn't ask too much of you...
Card 2 - Role
- As the ultimate plumber, you are capable of laying down special tubes wherever you choose, laying down one per night. It will take you some time to lay down your tube, but, once you've laid down a tube, you can crawl through it to reach any other tube that you've laid down.
- These tubes are large, able to fit the average person, and rubbery and translucent. They're quite capable of bending and twisting, so don't worry about them connecting to each other. Take note: you are not the only one who can crawl through them.
- You can have up to three tubes active at one time. If you wish to make more than three connections to your tube network, you must reroute an existing tube. You may reroute one tube per night, unless you are already laying down a tube.
- You will have immediate access to water-focused utilities, and you are capable of manipulating these utility systems without any assistance, thanks to your extensive plumbing knowledge.
- Finally, in your cabin, you will find a handheld portable water filter, taking the form of a plastic bottle with a filter inside. You may retrieve a fresh filter from your cabin once a night. Pass water through this filter, and it will draw any impurities out of the water, leaving you with clean water and a dirtied filter with which you may do whatever you wish.
Card 3 - Stats
- STAMINA: 3/5
- STEALTH: 2/5
- SOCIAL: 3/5
- SPEED: 1/5
- STRENGTH: 4/5
[FORBIDDEN ACTION]
As a professional plumber, you simply cannot tolerate any clogs in your tubes. Anything that might block safe passage through your tubes could leave them clogged, so you may not place any traps on or in your tubes.
Drinking game: take a shot every time this role description narrowly avoids a euphemism.
Yes, this is a shorter read than some of the other roles we've examined so far, and it also had the shortest lifespan of any role thus far, not surviving past the first day of the Circinus Killing Game. MsRetroGeek (talk) possessed this power while she played as Ms. Chalice, but she got caught for her crime and knocked out of the competition before Night 2. This means that the Plumber never got an opportunity to show off its chops - especially for role-restriction reasons that will be discussed later on. Thankfully, we can revitalize this role with some good ol' fashioned speculation. What can the Plumber do, and how does it provide a unique gameplay style for the player who receives it?
General Overview
The Plumber has one pretty specific m.o., and that m.o. is mobility. Mobility roles are a regular fixture of Killing Games, and often obfuscate pathing, or provide unique ways for players to get around a map. The Ultimate Ghost from Awards Killing Game 3, which we've discussed previously, is an example of a mobility role, though perhaps more freeform than one should be; AKG3 also had a role which allowed the player to paint portals to warp between, ala Super Mario Sunshine. Typically, the intention here is to create pathing opportunities that otherwise wouldn't exist on the map, especially for rooms in entirely separate corners of the play field. Oftentimes, these mobility options are also available to other players - though they have to be attentive enough to discover and utilize them.
So the Plumber's game plan is pretty clear. Your goal is to set up a network of definitely-not-Clear-Pipes-from-3D-World to efficiently execute plans during your night, be it a lore hunt, a kill attempt, or an escape sequence. Knowing that other players can also crawl through the tubes is simultaneously a strength and weakness, which will be discussed more thoroughly. The main question is, what specific opportunities for role use do the tubes provide, and how can they best serve the player in the driver's seat?
Ability Application
Starting off, we have the tubes themselves. The Plumber is able to construct a tube a night, in a room of their choosing. From there, they're able to crawl through the tube to any other location with a tube in it. A big boon for this role is that through the magic of Mario logic, these tubes can connect with any other tube, regardless of placement! Already, I'd be curious to hear more about how the "crawl" functions. In the Mario series, characters end up propelled through the pipes instead; does that functionally happen here, or does the Plumber need to physically crawl the entire distance of the tube? I would presume something closer to the latter, but more clarity on this point wouldn't hurt.
Now, what makes these tubes potentially more functional than just personal transport? The fact that they are physically-facilitated tubes that are large enough to fit a person... and as-written, have no limitations on item transport between them. There is also no restriction on where in the space a tube can be constructed. This is significant to their potential as elements of a broader scheme. A super straightforward example: build a tube by your feet. Drop a brick into that tube, and let the brick tumble out of a tube built into the ceiling on the opposite side of the map. With correct timing, that's a kill attempt. Even with murder out of the equation, this is still a remarkably convenient way to transport valuable or necessary items to points of interest around the map. When you start conceptualizing the Plumber's tubes as instruments of transporting anything (within reasonable size) rather than just people, the possibilities become a lot more fun.
As mentioned before, other players being able to use the tubes is both boon and bothersome. To start with the boon, this makes collaborating on kill attempts or other night plans all the more convenient. As much as the host would probably groan about it, I can see a world where the Plumber plants a pipe by the rooftop of a map, and when the final night escape sequence starts up, they simply hop in a new tube with their allies to get up top, therein bypassing the entire slew of dangers ahead of them.
Having access to the map's water-focused utilities out the gate is actually a massive benefit. For one, it allows for super simple poisoning scenarios. Want to incapacitate a solid chunk of the players, or even land a distanced kill attempt? Just open up that clean water and toss in something lethal, and hope someone starts cooking with it. Personally, I think it's much more fun to imagine what opportunities arise when you pair this access with the tubes. Stick one tube right underneath the water filtration system, and watch as an entire area of the map is utterly flooded... Really astounding area of effect potential with this one.
Lastly, there's the portable water filter, which for my money is the weakest aspect of this role. It's hard to imagine what a small-scale water filter would really do for the Plumber, unless they wanted to check certain fluids for signs of poisoning? I guess in a mass-poisoning event, you could pull a Princess Bride battle of wits and pour yourself an untainted glass of something? The filter itself can also be pulled out after use, but that just makes me picture "throw it in the water utilities for poisoning purposes". Surely there's something more creative to do with it than that, right? Do I just have poison on the brain?
Environmental Functionality
Because of the nature of the tubes being magically connected, the majority of this role can work in any setting. That said, if you're keeping to the tube theming, it probably makes sense for the overall environment to be more industrial or manmade? It would potentially feel odd to have a completely naturalistic setting, and also someone sticking plastic around everywhere. At the same time, we do run Killing Games on the Mario Boards, so some level of "Mario-isms" are probably safely expected to be in any games.
Of course, the interaction with water utilities requires there to be water utilities in the first place! This probably wouldn't translate into every map design in the world, but I suppose you could get creative with, like, Roman aqueducts qualifying under this ruling or something.
Drawbacks & Balances
Now, despite a lot of potential I've described for the Plumber, there are some pretty notable limitations on its powerset. Firstly, there's the fact that tube installation takes "some time" to do. KG roles are always going to be a little handwave-y about what timeframes look like for actions to be conducted - there's no counting down the minutes here! - but this is basically communicating that you'll be taking a minute to get them set up. This is a bit of a problem for a few reasons. For one, it makes the role even more visible than it already would be. Having to sit down and work at setting up the tube increases the chances of somebody else walking by and noticing that you're the mysterious tuber. Being seen as the Plumber in action, in turn, limits how you can scheme with these things. If you pour some acid down a newly-installed tube, people are gonna assume that it's the person who built the tube that came up with that murder plan.
Then there's the limitations this puts on spatial setup. It's not as if you can just point your finger and have the tube appear there; you need to physically set yourself up in space to make the construction happen. This means that you'll need some spatial coordination if you want to put these tubes higher up, especially on the ceiling to a room.
I mentioned other players being able to explore the tubes as a boon before, but here's the bothersome bit. Obscuring information about your role is much harder to do when your role is an interactive item. Anybody can stumble upon your tube at night, climb in, and discover the entire network you've been establishing in secret; this can happen just as well during the Day Phase, where players are incentivized to seek out every secret they can on the map. This'll include wondering where that conveniently person-sized tube leads. Using this toolkit in a private way is going to be a challenge overall, for all the reasons mentioned thus far.
But the limitations keep building, because the Plumber can only have three tubes active at once. Admittedly, I'm a little confused about the wording of this part: "If you wish to make more than three connections to your tube network, you must reroute an existing tube." I assume this means that you have to take one tube out of commission, and then put that tube end in a different room? But that would still only be three connections in the network? Maybe this is implying more flexibility than I'm envisioning, but for now, we'll assume that you only get three connection points across the entire map.
My honest take is that this is the least necessary - or maybe least fun - restriction on this role, the main reason being game runtime. The Plumber already doesn't get to utilize their role very fully on Night 1; they only get to install one tube a night, and need a second one elsewhere to actually use the warp technology. Then, by Night 3, the exponential growth of this role's potential is already capped. You've hit the tube limit, and have to start shifting preexisting tubes around. But let's remember a crucial fact about AKGO in particular: it was a split game, where each map was only four to five nights long, and then a new map would be introduced when those split survivors merged into a last game. In this context, knowing that the tube quantities would be refreshed between maps... would it really hurt to allow the Plumber one or two extra tubes? It gives them the chance to have a powerful tube network before having it all washed away and restarted.
But, okay, that's specific to AKGO and its night structure. Some games have upwards of eight, nine, ten cases in total, all on one map. Wouldn't lifting this restriction trivialize the maps of those games by the later stages? Well, let's remember how visible and universal this role is. I would make a wager that, by the time Night 4 rolls around, at least one player in the KG is going to have noticed the Plumber tubes, be it through witnessing the construction of one, or stumbling upon it during day investigation. I would also assume that following this, they discovered there was a network of tubes branching out from the first one they've found. Now, anyone in the game can utilize those tubes that have been discovered. To me, an element like this that universally changes the pathing of the map for every player doesn't require that much restriction. It doesn't fundamentally disrupt the map or confuse the layout; rather, it supplements the map design that's already there, adds new back doors that may or may not be utilized. If these were tubes that only the Plumber themself could use, I would be singing a different tune.
With all that said, I can still see a world where a restriction of, let's say five tubes, feels reasonable. Especially if the Plumber is aiming to flood the map utilizing the water utilities, it probably would be better to not have eight tubes to have water gush out of. But I don't know, if a role is meant to be scaled like this one is, while its powers are relatively "tame" and universal in the scope of KG powers, I wouldn't mind letting it push all the way.
All of that talk, and there's still a Forbidden Action! Thankfully, it's pretty short and sweet - can't stick a trap in or on the edge of a tube. This doesn't seem to apply to items used in a trap that you're simply transporting, so all the analysis from earlier remains relevant. It makes sense, too; putting a death trap at the end of a tube would be too much of a "curiosity killing the cat" kind of kill, and be too much of a disincentive for others to explore the tubes. Though, this FA doesn't account for if other players trap the tubes...
Player Responsibility
Whew, that was a lot of analysis! Let's keep these next parts breezy. There's not a lot of explicit responsibility placed on the player's shoulders for the Plumber. The FA is easy to avoid as it pertains to player intent, so the player simply needs to not submit to do that. The biggest responsibility of this role is determining how to use it effectively and secretively. If the Plumber wants their identity to remain anonymous, they'll need to get creative with disguising, masking their work, or barricading areas so that they have the time and space necessary to get a tube up.
Depending on how collaborative the Plumber is feeling, they might also have some responsibility to coordinate pathing routes with other players. This is very context dependent, though, and is not inherently baked into the role card's text.
Host Responsibility
Host responsibility is also pretty sparse for the Plumber! They can pretty much leave this powerset in the player's capable hands, and trust them to do the work for them. Compared to other roles which require entire mechanical systems to be updated on the backend, a role this simple in practice and execution can feel like a breath of fresh air. The most specific calls a host would have to make are, how long does the tube construction actually take in-context with the rest of the night, and how travel between the tubes functions physically.
Overall Thoughts
The Plumber is a solid example of how a simplistic baseline idea, that being "Clear Pipes from Mario", can be built into a KG role with a strong foundation. There's lots of strengths and possibilities on display here, and plenty of opportunities for interplay with the rest of the players' plans and role powers. The Plumber is also a solid example of how limits can quell a role's greatest potentials, though, and it's always worthwhile to consider how necessary a numerical limitation is on a role. Though a host should always aim for adequate balancing across the board, sometimes the question of game design should return back to "what would be the most fun for the person using this?"
That’s all for this month. Tune in next month for more Killing Game goodness!
Pitohui's Pokémon Academy
Written by: Hooded Pitohui (talk)
Salutations! I trust you've kept well over the brief gap in our course schedule, yes? After that break, I trust you're all brimming with energy. Are you, as they say now, "wired"? Too excited to sleep? Then you are not unlike Vigoroth! Yes, unlike its listless pre-evolved form Slakoth or its idle evolved form, Vigoroth can't sit still for a moment. Fitting, then, that an expert on mayhem at mach speeds suggested the species as our subject for today.
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The following information applies to Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet. | 
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The standard glossary follows below, should you need to consult it. If you are familiar with our terminology, please do skip it!
Base Stats: Base stats are the values associated with a particular Pokémon species, and are the same across every individual Pokémon of a given species. You have no influence on them. You can think of them as traits tied to a species. A chimp isn't ever going to be able to get as good as digging as a mole will be, and, likewise, an Abra is never going to have the defensive prowess a Shuckle has.
Individual Values (IVs): Individual values, as their name implies, are associated with individual Pokémon. They range from 0 to 31 in each stat, with 31 being considered a "perfect" IV and higher numbers corresponding to different stats. Magikarp A and Magikarp B will have the same base stats, but they may very well have different IVs. To stick with the animal analogy, one mole may be born with larger claws than another mole, and that first mole is probably going to have an easier time digging through dirt than the latter. Individual values are set in stone, strictly speaking, but you can use Hyper Training (from Generation VII onwards) to functionally get a perfect IV in a stat.
Effort Values (EVs): Effort values are the one thing you can easily change. A Pokémon can earn, primarily through battling, but also through means like the use of certain items or mechanics like Super Training, up to a total of 510 effort values, with up to 252 in any given stat. To finish off the animal analogy, no matter what kind of claws a mole is born with, moles who have more experience digging are probably going to be better at digging than moles which have never dug.
Nature: A Pokémon's nature is, more or a less, a stat modifier with a name meant to make it sound like a Pokémon has some personality. Natures will raise one stat by ten percent and lower another stat by ten percent. Some natures raise and lower the same stat, canceling out the effect and leaving stats unchanged. Natures can be functionally changed with the use of special mint items from Generation VIII onwards.
STAB: STAB stands for Same-Type Attack Bonus, and refers to the boosted power of moves that match the type of the move's user. To illustrate this, consider the case of a Lombre, a dual-type Pokémon which is both a Water-type and a Grass-type. Any Water-type moves Lombre uses will have their power boosted by 1.5x, and any Grass-type moves Lombre uses will, likewise, have their power boosted by 1.5x. (There are circumstances where this does not apply, and, while the 1.5x multiplier is typical, some games use other multipliers.)
Bulbagarden Archives: Not a term to be defined, but the source of many of the images used in this section. I thank those who maintain it as a resource.
For more information on the terms defined here and how you can raise Pokémon, feel free to consult this guide. It is written with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet in mind, but its broad principles are applicable through many of the main series games beginning with Ruby and Sapphire.
Examining its base stats and nothing else, Vigoroth looks primed to step into the role of a setup sweeper. One can easily imagine Vigoroth switching in on a physically-oriented opponent, using its decent defense to take a few hits while using Bulk Up, and then using its decent speed and its boosted attack to mow through a couple foes. If you feel inclined to take Vigoroth in that direction, you will do well enough. It's a respectable approach. However, I find Vigoroth serves as a useful case study in considering all tools at a Pokémon's disposal before jumping into raising it. Yes, we almost always begin by examining base stats, but if we chart our course with only base stats in mind, we'll miss opportunities!
For instance, we would miss that Vigoroth has a range of moves that can disrupt an opponent. Its hyperactive disposition and base stat distribution obscure the surprising tactics at Vigoroth's disposal. Vigoroth has access to Thunder Wave to paralyze and slow opponents, Roar to force opponents out of battle while dispelling their stat buffs, Yawn to force opponents to switch out or fall asleep, Taunt to ruin setup strategies, and a viable Counter to reflect damage back at physical attackers! Vigoroth have the enviable problem of having too many tools at their disposal! We cannot fit all of these moves in at once! Yes, Vigoroth are capable of far more than hitting hard, and the self-healing Slack Off pairs with all of these disruptive moves to make Vigoroth excellent at seizing a battle's momentum.
With that in mind, we can begin to see the value in Vigoroth's bulk. Yes, it has poor-to-middling base stats across the board, but its HP and defense are decent enough that we can work with them. By investing in Vigoroth's defensive stats, we can help it to endure for long enough to execute its disruptive tactics. Special defense is a major weakness, so we'll give it the full 252 EV investment to shore it up. Knowing that we'll want to incorporate Slack Off, which heals a set percentage of the user's maximum HP, we'll invest another full 252 EVs into HP so we can wring more value out of the move. Higher maximum HP means more health restored, after all.
The remaining EVs go into defense. We then have to choose a nature. Since Vigoroth's base special attack is low, we can decide now we won't incorporate any special moves and treat it as a dump stat. We'll want to raise one of Vigoroth's defensive stats. Unfortunately, no natures boost HP, so, looking at the natures which decrease special attack, we're left choosing between a Impish (raises defense) or Bashful (raises special defense). Since natures apply a 10% increase, we get the bigger increase by choosing the higher stat, which is defense, so we'll go with an Impish nature.
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Name: | Vigoroth | Base HP: | 80 | |
| Category: | Wild Monkey | Base Attack: | 80 | ||
| Type: | Normal | Base Defense: | 80 | ||
| Abilities: | Vital Spirit | Base Special Attack: | 55 | ||
| Base Special Defense: | 55 | ||||
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Base Speed: | 90 | |||
Some of you may still harbor a concern over Vigoroth's special defense, fearing that a base stat of 55 is too low to be usable even with maximum EV investment. An astute concern, but we have a solution! Since Vigoroth is not fully-evolved, we can give it the Eviolite as a held item. As those of you who have attended previous sessions will know, the Eviolite raises the defense and special defense of a Pokémon by 50% if that Pokémon is not at the end of its evolutionary line. While it acts on final stats rather than base stats, for our purposes, we can treat Vigoroth as having base defense of 120 and base special defense of about 83. That raises its defense from "decent" to "great" and its special defense from "poor" to "decent". That boost ultimately makes the strategy of investing in Vigoroth's bulk a viable one. It does introduce a weakness, as well, but we'll discuss that at the session's end.
With the Eviolite addressed, we finally wrap up our discussion of stats. Before we can fill in a moveset, let's quickly touch upon Vigoroth's ability. Vigoroth only has access to Vital Spirit, which serves to keep it from falling asleep. It's a helpful passive immunity, but not all that noteworthy or exceptional.
| Level: 50 | HP IV | 31 | HP EVs: | 252 | HP: | 187 | ||
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Attack IV | 31 | Attack EVs: | 0 | Attack: | 100 | ||
| Defense IV | 31 | Defense EVs: | 6 | Defense: | 111 | |||
| Special Attack IV | 9 | Special Attack EVs: | 0 | Special Attack: | 57 | |||
Item: Eviolite 
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Special Defense IV | 31 | Special Defense EVs: | 252 | Special Defense: | 107 | ||
| Nature: Impish | Speed IV | 31 | Speed EVs: | 0 | Speed: | 110 | ||
I've mentioned Slack Off already, so we'll slot it into Vigoroth's moveset immediately. Slack Off augments Vigoroth's bulk by allowing it to heal itself. If Vigoroth takes a hit or two in the course of disrupting an opponent's plans, try to force your opponent into switching out, and heal up while they make their switch.
We now face the issue of Vigoroth having too many useful tools. With an abundance of options, where do we begin? Well, I suggest Encore. Many, many Pokémon rely on entering battle and immediately using a status move to increase their stats. When they use that move, hit them with Encore. You can trap your opponent into using that status move for the next three turns, protecting you from damage for an exact, known length of time or forcing your opponent into a position where they have to switch out their Pokémon. With Encore, Vigoroth can shut down a setup sweeper, preventing them from using their boosted stats and allowing you to switch Vigoroth for a Pokémon able to put significant pressure on them.
| Name | Category | Power | Accuracy | Description | Base PP | Learns |
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| Slack Off | 
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-- | -- | The user slacks off, restoring its own HP by up to half its max HP. | 5 | Retain from Slakoth |
| Encore |
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-- | 100% | The user compels the target to keep using the move it encored for three turns. | 5 | Lv. 1 |
| Yawn |
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-- | 100% | The user lets loose a huge yawn that lulls the target into falling asleep on the next turn. | 5 | Retain from Slakoth |
| Facade | 
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70 | 100% | This move's power is doubled if the user is poisoned, burned, or paralyzed. | 20 | TM025 |
Of course, if they believe they can take any hits your team dishes out, a setup sweeper can choose to keep raising their stats in hopes of waiting out the Encore and taking vengeance. To counter this scenario and to give Vigoroth some leverage if a foe purposefully avoids using status moves to minimize the risk from Encore, I suggest running Yawn. On turn one, Vigoroth yawns, making the opponent drowsy. At that point, your foe has a choice to make on their next turn. They either leave their drowsy Pokémon in battle, at which point it falls asleep at the end of the turn, or they withdraw the Pokémon. This offers a counter to Pokémon with boosted stats. If they remain on the field and attack Vigoroth, they'll fall asleep, leaving them vulnerable. If they switch out, they lose their stat boosts. Even if an opponent relies purely on offensive moves and never attempts to boost their stats, though, they'll want to avoid falling asleep. You can use Yawn against most any opponent (just beware those immune to sleeping). With Yawn, Vigoroth pressures its opponents to switch out, seizing the momentum of the battle by allowing you to choose what Pokémon you want to face at any given time.
I will caution, though, that any Pokémon already having status conditions won't find Yawn threatening at all. After all, a Pokémon with, say, Paralysis, can't fall asleep! If you plan on having other party members flinging around Paralysis or Burn, swap Yawn out. I suggest considering Roar. When using Roar, Vigoroth will almost always move at the end of the turn, but it will switch out the opponent's Pokémon. It cuts out the middleman and directly forces the switch, rather than just pressuring a foe to switch. On the other hand, there's no chance of putting a daring opponent to sleep. Between that and Vigoroth at least having some chance of moving first when using Yawn, I'd choose Yawn first, but Roar is an alternative for those of you who plan to make extensive use of other status conditions.
| Name | Category | Power | Accuracy | Description | Base PP | Learns |
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| Roar |
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-- | -- | The target is scared off, and a different Pokémon is dragged out. In the wild, this ends a battle against a single Pokémon. | 20 | TM172 |
It wouldn't do to leave Vigoroth without some damage-dealing move, and we should at least consider a STAB move. I've chosen Facade. While it is a little weaker with only 70 base power, it creates a risk for opponents trying to slow Vigoroth by paralyzing it. If Vigoroth is afflicted by paralysis, burn, or poison, Facade doubles in power.
If you don't consider status conditions a concern, you can instead choose Double-Edge, which has 120 base power. Any recoil damage can be patched up with Slack Off, after all. If you don't use Yawn in your moveset, consider Body Slam, as it splits the difference with 85 base power and has a chance to paralyze Vigoroth's opponent. Alternatively, since we didn't invest in Vigoroth's attack stat at all, you can substitute Counter for these moves. It even has potential synergy with Encore, allowing you to trap an opponent into using a physical move so that you can reliably deal double the damage back with Counter! Just be aware, in that scenario, that Vigoroth will have no way of damaging opponents who use special attacks against it.
| Name | Category | Power | Accuracy | Description | Base PP | Learns |
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| Double-Edge |
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120 | 100% | A reckless life-risking tackle in which the user rushes the target. This also damages the user quite a lot. | 15 | TM204 |
| Body Slam |
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85 | 100% | The user attacks by dropping onto the target with its full body weight. This may also leave the target with paralysis. | 15 | TM066 |
| Counter |
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-- | 100% | A retaliatory attack that counters any physical move, inflicting double the damage taken. | 20 | Lv. 33 |
On the topic of pitfalls, I do have to caution you on a few points. With the moveset we currently have, Vigoroth has no way of dealing damage to Ghost-type Pokémon. It can use Yawn or Encore to force a Ghost-type to switch out, but not much else. Vigoroth will rely on its teammates to deal with the paranormal! That's true for any of the Facade substitutes we discussed, as well. Likewise, be cautious if an opponent has the move Knock Off. With it, they can remove Vigoroth's Eviolite, rendering it considerably frailer. At all costs, avoid losing the Eviolite, or the whole strategy unravels!
You must keep these risks in mind, but do not allow acknowledgement of risk to impede experimentation! If there is any message I aim to deliver with these lectures, it is "experiment, and find your own way to raise Pokémon"! Not every experimental Pokémon you raise will work out, and most will not be viable in the competitive circuit, but there is always the chance you find something that has gone overlooked or find a synergy that enhances your particular team. Our time together is almost at an end. We will have two more sessions before the academy's partnership with The 'Shroom reaches its end, so I will stress this lesson. Just as we have done with Vigoroth, look at Pokémon from multiple angles. Be willing to try new things! That will be your everlasting assignment going forward.
Rhythm Review
Hello and welcome back to Rhythm Review! This is Zange, and RHYTHM HEAVEN GROOVE IS REAL GUYS!!! It's here, it's peak, and I didn't know that rhythm games could have genuine surprises and spoilers but this one does and everything here is just a delight. Please play this game if you are able to, it's everything I've ever wanted and then some. I have so much to say about this game, in fact, that I wrote an entire review about it! You can go read it in Critic Corner if you haven't already. Anyways, last month we covered the wonderfully weird Stage 3 of Rhythm Heaven on the Nintendo DS. This time, we're continuing along with Stage 4!
As a reminder: In most Rhythm Heaven games (including this one!), a stage consists of four rhythm minigames, followed by one remix, in which all the other minigames in the stage are put together in a new way to new music. Let's jump in!
Munchy Monk
Starting off the set is Munchy Monk! You play as a monk undergoing training that consists of, uh… eating dumplings? Just go with it. You will tap the touchscreen to eat the dumplings according to the audio cues you are given. With enough training, you can become a munchy master!
Gimmicks
There are three different groupings of dumplings you will encounter in this rhythm minigame, all of which have their own accompanying audio cue. The first one is a single white dumpling, with the audio cue of "One!" When you hear this cue, you will tap the touchscreen once one beat after hearing it. The second one is two pink dumplings stacked on top of each other, with the audio cue "Two-two!" When you hear this cue, you will tap the touchscreen twice, one on the beat and the next on the half beat immediately following, starting one beat after the cue. The final one is a group of three green dumplings, with the audio cue of "Three, go, go go!" When you hear this cue, you will tap the touchscreen three times, each one beat after the other, beginning one beat after "three". The taps for this cue should line up exactly with the "go, go, go" part of the audio.
Additionally, as this rhythm minigame progresses, the monk will begin growing a mustache with every perfect input you make, which is a cute little detail!
How to Get That Superb
Fairly straightforward criteria for a Superb here, you just need to have good timing on your inputs throughout the rhythm minigame. This is especially important in the middle (since it has a lot of the pink dumplings) and the ending (since it has a lot of the green dumplings) segments here.
Difficulty Rating
This one's a bit tricky to rate because it's very short. We'll go for a 1.3/5 though, it's pretty easy once you have all the cues down.
DJ School
Up next we have DJ School! You control a student being taught to DJ (and given audio cues) by your teacher, DJ Yellow. Whenever the DJ says "ooh", you'll tap and hold your stylus on the touchscreen to stop the record. When the DJ says "hey!", you'll flick the stylus to get the record spinning again. You'll be a DJ pro in no time!!
Gimmicks
It's worth noting there's two different lead-ups to the "ooh" signaling you to stop the record. One of these lead-ups is "Break, come on!" while the other is "And stop". These both have timing differences for when you'll hear the "ooh", so be sure you're paying close attention to the DJ's cues! There will also be visual cues for when he signals you to both stop and spin, so that should be a bit helpful!
How to Get That Superb
Again, the Superb criteria is fairly straightforward here. You just need to have good timing when both stopping and spinning the record throughout the rhythm minigame.
Difficulty Rating
I didn't realize the DJ says quite a few things throughout the course of the rhythm minigame that aren't the audio cues you're supposed to be listening for, so we'll give this a 1.4/5 since you really have to pay attention to what's being said.
Drummer Duel
Moving right along, we have Drummer Duel! You play as one of two taiko drummers, with cheerleaders in front of you both cheering you on. The first drummer will drum a specific rhythm, and you'll have to repeat it back by tapping the touchscreen! I hope you like passionate duels involving percussion (which is a phrase I have NEVER typed out before by the way) because only the best drummer is making it out of this one!
Gimmicks
The rhythms given here begin fairly simple, but get trickier as the rhythm minigame progresses. Near the end, the tempo will increase three times before going back to normal at the very end. These are especially tricky because the rhythm here involves multiple taps in a row, so it's easy to mess up if it catches you off guard or you underestimate how fast you need to be tapping.
How to Get That Superb
Okay, simple criteria for a Superb here too. You just need to have good timing throughout, but especially in the segments with the quick successive taps and the end with the tempo increases. It might take a few tries but this one is definitely doable.
Difficulty Rating
Ohhhhh I forgot how much the tempo changes here trip me up… We'll give this a 1.6/5 for that and the fact that you have to remember the rhythms being drummed.
Love Lab
The last regular rhythm minigame of the set is Love Lab! You play as one of the Love Lab Research Scientists. Your fellow researcher will shake a flask in a specific pattern, and you must hold the stylus to the touchscreen and slide it to catch and shake the flask in the exact same pattern in order to create little pink hearts! Once you're done, flick the stylus to pass the flask along! Love is in the air… and then love falls right into a paper bag. But that's how the research goooooes!
Gimmicks
Nothing too wacky going on here, just some good old fashioned repeating the rhythm back! Worth noting that alongside shaking the flask in the same rhythm you do also have to catch it and pass it along in the same rhythm as well.
How to Get That Superb
If nothing else I appreciate Rhythm Heaven DS for how straightforward many of its Superb criteria are. You just need to have good timing when catching, shaking, and passing the flasks throughout the rhythm minigame!
Difficulty Rating
Since there's actually a visual reminder of the rhythms this time, we'll go with a 1.5/5 here.
Remix 4
We've finally reached the remix for this stage! This time, the theme is love! It feels a bit silly considering what rhythm minigame came right before this, but this time the lovey-dovey factor is amped up everywhere!
Gimmicks
It's worth noting that the cue to spin the record in the DJ School segments has slightly different timing here. Otherwise, anything that showed up in the other rhythm minigames in the set is fair game to show back up here!
How to Get That Superb
Y'all are probably sick of hearing me say this but I'm gonna keep saying it until the end of time: all of the remixes share the same lines of text depending on the result you get, so it's a lot harder to tell where the line lies between a Superb and an OK. However, if you can get a Superb on every other rhythm minigame in this set then you shouldn't have too much trouble getting a Superb here as well.
Difficulty Rating
The tempo here is quite fast, and it can throw you off if you're not expecting it (that happened to me, anyways…) so we'll go with a 2.5/5 for this one.
Final Remarks
This is such a fun set of rhythm minigames!! And with Rhythm Heaven Groove now out, I hope that the other games in the series will be discovered and enjoyed by new fans! Anyways, I'll see you back here next month for Stage 5!
So You Want to Romance the Three Kingdoms?
Welcome back to So You Want to Romance the Three Kingdoms?, The 'Shroom's most informative and only strategy guide on Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire for the Super Nintendo. Last month we defeated and executed Liu Bei which really is gonna change the complexion of the Romance of The Three Kingdom's books cause from what I understand Liu Bei is like the guy in those books. This month we deal with the consequences of our history changing victory
Step 27: Distributing the Spoils
The first thing we need to do is distribute the spoils from our victory at Ping Yuan. Now, you might be thinking "aren't all the spoils but one currently in jail"? And yes, that's true, and they will eventually be redistributed. But POWs are only one type of spoil! There's another type of spoil you can get through war, those being items! Found under the ownership of specific officers, items are special possessions that boost the stats of the officers that hold them. Some of them, such as the Red Hare (Lu Bu's famous horse) and Cao Cao's Seven Star Sword, are based on actual items from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but others, such as the Spear of Evil held by Ji Ling, are completely fictional!
For the most part, items fall into three categories: books, horses, weapons. Of the three, horses are the lamest because they don't boost your officers' cavalry stats (probably because specific stats like that don't exist outside of, like, proficiency in cavalry). Instead, they only increase your chances of successfully fleeing if a battle or duel goes wrong. Personally, I never flee, so I don't get a lot of use out of them. A lot of that is because I don't live in the 90s, so I'm using save states and reloading, which kind of negates the need for fleeing. So that's not to say horses are not useful, because fleeing can be super useful. Unlike in Nobunaga's Ambition where it seemed like fleeing was a guarantee to lose your entire force, when you flee in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, there's only a chance that your force will be captured and destroyed. This means that fleeing can actually be helpful. When you flee, there's a chance your generals can be captured as well as chance that your forces are destroyed, so I'd personally advise you to give horses to your powerful generals who're you're sending on the front lines. That'll ensure that at least they can make it back if things go south. Then give one to the lord you're playing as. You never know when you might run into a situation where you're suddenly taking an ass-kicking and need to jet. If your lord is captured, it's (I believe) game over! Well, there is an heir system, but I don't wanna get into it right now (or really understand it). I just don't personally get a lot out of fleeing because this is like my sixth playthrough of this game and I'm laying down save states before each battle and duel 'cause, again, I don't live in the 90s. The next item category is books, such as The War Manual of Sun Tzu or the New Treatise of Meng De, boost intelligence and politics. Books are also different from most items in that they can be obtained from the traveling officers that you get advice from as well as from captured officers! Then there are the weapons, which provide a boost to power. These are the most prevalent items in the game, which makes sense since this is a game about war and not about, like, diplomacy!
There is one other item, and it's perhaps the most valuable thing in all of China - the famed Hereditary Seal. The Imperial Seal of China (which is for some reason called the Hereditary Seal in this game and not it's real name, which is the Heirloom Seal) signifies that the holder has acquired the Mandate of Heaven and is the true and worthy ruler of China! Unless of course you're Yuan Shu, who at some point acquired the Seal and decided to declare himself Emperor, making an enemy of literally everybody for his attempts to betray the Han Dynasty even though everyone else was actively betraying the Han Dynasty already! But that's a story for another day! The Hereditary Seal, the symbol of China itself, boosts an officer's Leadership and Charm to 100, making it one of the most useful items for a ruler to be given in the game. Oh, also, for some reason having the Hereditary Seal can trigger travelers visiting you and being, like, "I THINK THAT SEAL IS FAKE". I'm not really sure what you're supposed to do about that or if items can even be fake? I usually just give the Seal to my ruler to be done with it.
Items can be given to your officers using the "Reward" tab, where instead of rewarding with gold we reward them with an item! With our conquest of Ping Yuan, we are in possession of three famed weapons: the Black Dragon once held by the legendary Guan Yu, the Cobra Blade once held by Zhang Fei, and finally that traitorous weasel Liu Bei's personal blade The Sword of Fate. Now, obviously Liu Bei won't be needing the Sword of Fate where he is now – in hell! ...if he is in hell? Is there a hell in Confucianism? BLOF or LGM, if you're reading this, get back to me on this one! My point is that he doesn't need the blade!
Now, my first thought was to award this to Lord Kong Rong as a trophy for the defeat of Liu Bei and to show the world that fate has been seized by Lord Kong Rong, but Lord Kong Rong refused such an honor, saying that such a blade would be better fit in a warrior's hands rather than his own. Truly he is a man who understands the Confucianist spirit; I weep over how humble he his!
As for the other two blades, had Guan Yu or Zhang Fei agreed to serve Lord Kong Rong, they would have been allowed to keep their swords. Since they didn't and are currently rotting in a cell, it has been decided that such fine blades should go to our fine and loyal heroes of the battle! Luckily, it's pretty easy to doll out the items because we had three commanders during the successful siege, so each one has been awarded a fine blade for their performance. The overall commander of the forces, the ever-loyal Zhao Yun who is currently serving as Governor of Ping Yuan, has been bestowed Guan Yu's Black Dragon, which has brought his power up to 104! Zhang He, who served as the vanguard protecting Zhao Yun's forces from Guan Yu's forces, has been bestowed the Cobra Blade, bringing his power from 93 to 98. Finally, Yan Liang, whose forces set Guan Yu's forces to rout, has been awarded Liu Bei's twin Swords of Fate, bringing his power to 95!
In addition, by decree of Lord Kong Rong, for their services both Zhang He and Yan Liang shall be promoted from General to Marshal (which can be done to certain Generals who meet certain conditions using the "Assign" function in the ruler tab). I believe this allows them to sit in on negotiations with other rulers and you can ask them for advice? Otherwise I don't think the promotion does much besides honoring them with a prestigious title… JUST LIKE REAL CHINA! Finally, for agreeing to serve Lord Kong Rong, former Civilian Officer Zhang Hong has been given back his former office as well as a 100 gold reward.
Our loyal officials, honored by their promotions
Now all of this stuff (the items, promotions, and rewards) would increase an officer's loyalty, but outside of Zhang Hong all our officers in Ping Yuan were already maxed out on loyalty. At least we did manage to bring Zhang Hong from an 89 to 100 on loyalty!
Step 28: Clearing out the Dungeons and Securing the Administration of Ping Yuan
With that, the month of February comes to an end, and with it the cold winds of winter are replaced by the new hope of spring! Unfortunately, winter brings us one last cold breeze. A messenger by the name of Guo Jia from that cretin Dong Zhuo has arrived in Bei Hai. Despite his disgust that anyone could work for that horrible fiend Dong Zhuo, Lord Kong Rong is still a gracious host and agrees to meet him. At least this one seems to be more respectable than the last messenger we've met; he actually spells his name right! He comes bearing a gift of friendship from Dong Zhuo, a paltry nineteen crossbows. To tell you the truth, this gift is an insult to Lord Kong Rong. As if his friendship could be bought for a mere nineteen basic crossbows! Normally calm and levelheaded, Lord Kong Rong cannot swallow this insult and angrily orders Guo Jia to leave!
Unfortunately, either Dong Zhuo doesn't get the message or Guo Jia is afraid to fail the cruel Dong Zhuo, because he returns in March, this time offering 218 gold as a gift! This just enrages Lord Kong Rong and the whole court further! Does he think Lord Kong Rong has a peasant court and would sell his soul for such an insignificant amount of money? Again Guo Jia is forcibly asked to leave Bei Hai. As Lord Kong attempts to calm down over these insults, an urgent report comes from the western mountains, where it seems Ma Teng has begun making moves by claiming the unclaimed city of An Ding. Perhaps a foolish decision because it puts him right on the border of Dong Zhuo's city of Chang An, this could work out for us by requiring Dong Zhuo to commit more resources to his western border!
As spring begins, we are faced with a question. Do we want to expand our army, or do we want to secure the administration of Ping Yuan? With only four officers that's kind of hard to do. Usually, I'd have one officer conscript soldiers (in this case 57,000), have two officers train the conscripts, and have one officer give provisions to the people to earn their loyalty. Here, that's going to make things tough. Normally, I'd be assigning Zhao Yun and Zhang He to train and Zhang Hong to giving provisions, but I only have two officers - Zhao Yun and Zhang Hong - who can recruit. If they're doing that, then they can't be giving provisions, which means that if I conscript soldiers I'm going to have to rely on Yan Liang to give provisions. While he's a hell of a soldier, the gruff and blunt Yan Liang is no politician and has only a 55 charm. That's much lower than Zhang Hong, who has 84 charm, meaning that the rate of return just won't be as good.
Since we're shorthanded in Ping Yuan, we're going to take things just a tad bit slower than I normally would. Instead of doing what I described above, I'm going to prioritize cleaning out the dungeons to build a stable administration in Ping Yuan. Now, you might think I would start out by trying to recruit Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, the two top generals of Liu Bei's army first, but there are two reasons I'm not going to prioritize them. For starters, neither of them has the recruit ability, while the other two officers, Han Sui and Jian Yong, do. The second thing is that in my historical experiences really good generals like that are a bitch to recruit while they're in prison. I don't know if they just have high loyalty to their previous master and are harder to recruit as a result or if it was just a coincidence, but they usually take the longest to recruit. While Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are top-class warriors with high personal honor, Han Sui and Jian Yong are nothing but bureaucrats. While they claimed loyalty to Liu Bei, I'm betting that a stay in the dungeons will change their minds!
Time proves me right! Both of them fold immediately, lol. Each agrees to serve under Lord Kong Rong after only a single month in the dungeons! This is going to change a lot for Ping Yuan, because now I can create a functioning state apparatus with Jian Yong, Han Sui, and Zhang Hong working on civilian projects under the watchful eyes of Zhang He, Yan Liang, and Zhao Yun. I can also now have Han Sui and Jian Yong attempt to convince Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to submit while Zhao Yun trains and Zhang Hong administrates!
Step 29: Fortifying Our Forces and Securing the Supply Lines!
With the administration of Ping Yuan settled (at least for now), it's time to move on to more pressing matters. If there's anything we've learned, it's that we cannot get complacent. We must continue to build our forces for the coming wars! But there is one stumbling block. You see, a lot of our cities are low on provisions. While they might have enough to make it to the harvest in normal times, they do not have enough to accommodate the expansionist policies ordered by Lord Kong Rong! As such, Lord Kong Rong has ordered officers in Xiang Ping, Bei Ping, Dai Xian, and Ping Yuan to consult local merchants to see how much rice can be purchased!
Starting in Xiang Ping, Gongsun Du has unfortunately reported that the markets are not yet sufficiently built for trade yet, with provisions selling for a high 1 barrel per gold. If he spent his 997 gold, he would only get back 997 barrels in return, so it's just not worth it for him to engage in such trade.
In Bei Ping, Governor Guo Tu is having better luck. It appears that the merchants are offering 6 barrels of provisions per 1 gold? I think. I don't know, I've never been able to understand these charts! The point is he managed to get 5,400 barrels of provisions, bringing Bei Ping to 6,300 barrels of provisions! Further orders are issue for Feng Ji to personally escort 6,000 barrels of provisions and 31 horses to Nan Pi.
In Dai Xian, Civilian Officer Ju Shou has purchased 3,500 hundred barrels of provisions that will stay in Dai Xian. Apparently the market is bad, which makes sense, but personally I don't care since we'll make the money back later! With these provisions in hand, Taishi Ci is ordered to issue a fresh round of conscription, managing to recruit 32,000 soldiers and bringing the army to 100,000 even.
Finally, in Ping Yuan, Zhang He has managed to secure from merchants (no doubt trying to gain favor with the new rulers) a staggering 10,000 barrels of provisions! With that, as March comes to an end, officers in Ping Yuan, Nan Pi, and Dai Xian are ordered to bestow provisions to the people to soothe their anger over the coming round of conscription.
Aw man, as March ends, Gongzun Zan appears in Xiang Ping to beg Gongsun Du for aid, having lost his city to that madman Yuan Shao. This happens sometimes with rulers who are released but who haven't yet claimed cities. I don't really know what the benefit of saying "yes" is outside of maybe better relations if they claim a city. I like to say yes because I'm a good guy, but here's the thing. They always seem to appear in a city where I don't have the resources to aid them! Like, Gongsun Zan wants 362 gold and 1,346 provisions. We don't even have that many provisions in Xiang Ping, so I'm forced to decline! And Gongsun Du is very rude about it, calling Gongsun Zan a rat! What the hell, dude? I wanted to help!!! But we can't, so it's time to focus on more pressing matters.
What kind of pressing matters? Pressing matters like building the biggest army since the Former Qin's reportedly 870,000 strong force at the Battle of Fei River… Although I guess that hasn't happened yet since that takes place during the Jin Dynasty era, which is after the Three Kingdoms, which also has not happened yet. That force broke apart and was slaughtered by a force not even reaching 10% of its strength, BUT WHATEVER! THE POINT IS I'M BUILDING A BIG ARMY.
We're going to start in Ping Yuan, where Han Sui is going to recruit 57,000 soldiers. You might wonder why we're using Han Sui, who has low stats, and not somebody like Zhao Yun, but to be honest I don't these stats actually matter? It's not like one officer can recruit more troops than another. Despite a difference of like 30 points, Zhao Yun and Han Sui will recruit the same number of soldiers. Maybe if you use Zhao Yun they'll have higher train or morale? I'm not really sure, but it doesn't really matter that much. That brings us to about 285,000 soldiers.
We're immediately going to have Yan Liang take 150,000 soldiers to Nan Pi while Zhao Yun and Zhang He begin a six month training regimen with the rest. Now you might be wondering why I'm doing this considering that Nan Pi doesn't border anything. The answer is a quirk in how your army's Train rating mixes with conscription. You see, the more troops you have with a higher Train stat when you conscript, the less your Train stat will go down. It makes sense. If you have a large number of very experienced troops, they'll be on average better after adding in fresh conscripts then if you added just fresh conscripts. This is important, because Nan Pi is actually our biggest city and we're capable of conscripting 62,000 troops from it in a single go. If we just recruited 62,000 troops without many experienced troops as a buffer, their Train rating would quite literally be like 15. Instead, since we had 150,000 troops with a train rating of 82, adding 62,000 soldiers only dropped the rating to 65! That will be much easier for us to claw our way back from.
But we're not going to start training yet, because Yan Liang, the strongest officer in Nan Pi, can't begin training until the next month. Instead, we're going to focus on giving provisions to peasants, rewarding officers, and doing all the basic menial stuff I don't always cover. We do try to recruit Guan Yu… it fails, but maybe we'll get him next month. The only other thing we really do in April is send Feng Ji back to Bei Ping so that Bei Ping can have something of a functioning government. Outside of that, nothing really happens, so we end the month of April.
Unfortunately, after our turn and before our next one, we're twice visited by a messenger of Dong Zhuo. This time our visitor is Jia Xue, who has replaced the presumably disgraced Guo Jia. He too comes offering a gift, AND AGAIN IT'S CROSSBOWS! The first month he offers us twenty crossbows, which we of course decline, then the second month HE OFFERS US NINETEEN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? YOU WENT DOWN BY ONE!!! Naturally, we throw him out.
In May, Yan Liang and Zhang Yan begin a six month training program to get our massive army into shape. Some great news comes out of Ping Yuan as Jian Yong manages to convince Guan Yu to stop his stubbornness and join the army of Lord Kong Rong.
It's fantastic news and all throughout the land the people speak of how one of the most legendary and virtuous warriors, Guan Yu, has decided to aid the cause of Lord Kong Rong.
This calls for a celebratory feast, so I'm afraid this is where this month's section ends. I must complete the preparations for the celebratory feast to welcome Guan Yu into Lord Kong Rong's army!
An Overly Detailed and Funny Walkthrough of Mega Man 6
Played by Sparks through the Mega Man Legacy Collection for the Nintendo Switch. Why not the Nintendo Switch 2? That's because I have to figure out how to transfer my data safely... nothing wrong with the first Nintendo Switch, right?
Welcome back to An Overly Detailed and Funny Walkthrough of Mega Man 6! Today, I'll infiltrate Mr. X's fortress and put a stop to his nefarious plans! Like fortresses in previous Mega Man games, weapon energy does not recharge after each stage, so try to conserve as much of it as possible! I'd only use special weapons during the boss fights, but you could always grind from weak enemies. Whatever suits you!
Oh boy, just look at that incredible fortress!
Fittingly, X marks the spot.
Mr. X stage 1
We start outside the fortress, where a nice city can be seen in the background, as well as the beautiful night sky. This first section is a short hallway with those shielded cannons from Knight Man's stage. Take your time and wait for them to lower their guard before attacking. Make sure not to jump so you can avoid the dangerous spikes above you! A ladder will take us up to the next area.
We now must scale the fortress from the outside through a series of small "rooms". Along the way are plenty of spikes, some annoying ground enemies (use charged-up Rush Power Adaptor attacks to destroy them!) and hair dryers from Wind Man's stage. We'll have to make use of the Rush Jet Adaptor to reach some ladders that aren't reachable otherwise. Make sure to destroy any hair dryers that may make progressing difficult!
Along the way, we come across a breakable barricade protecting a shortcut. Leading to it are two "flipping" platforms from Wind Man's stage. Now, you can choose to keep going up to continue on the normal route, or you could use Rush Power Adaptor to destroy the barricade and enter a rewarding shortcut. However, it's difficult to break it as you can easily fall to the previous area or may accidentally leap into the spikes above you. What I did was jump onto the second platform and quickly ran to the right. As I fell, I released a charged attack that successfully destroyed the barricade! Thankfully, it doesn't respawn if you fall, so you can just head on in without any issues... besides the spikes. I highly recommend taking the shortcut as it reduces the length of the stage by a lot!
This shortcut leads to a short hallway with some destructible blocks and several power-ups. This area isn't totally harmless though, as there are a few spikes and several jumping foes from Plant Man's stage. The last block here contains a crazy four 1-Ups! That'll definitely help in the next levels. A ladder takes us up to the boss gate! You don't have to worry about the two wall turrets here. We're already at the first fortress boss!
Moving squares fight
The first boss in Mr. X's fortress is this - two squares that travel along rails at fast speeds. Every so often they open up hatches to drop projectiles directly beneath them. Additionally, they may change directions after some time has passed. Although they share a health bar, each square has half the total HP (14 for each).
They aren't bad to defeat. You just need to pay attention and jump/slide at the right times to dodge them and their attacks. To make things easier, the squares do not have invincibility frames after taking damage, which means you can just keep shooting them with the Mega Buster to inflict lots of damage quickly. However, only the middle of their sides are vulnerable, if you attack from anywhere else, your attacks will be deflected. If you're having trouble, you can use Yamato Spear, AKA their weakness. With it you'll end the battle in seconds!
I'm ready for stage 2!
Mr. X stage 2
We are now inside the fortress! The first section is a somewhat narrow hallway with multiple Mettaurs and drills (the ones from Tomahawk Man's stage). Along the way is a hatch containing weapon energy capsules. My advice for this part is to defeat the enemies before proceeding, especially the drills. If Mettaurs shoot, you'll likely take damage because there isn't enough room to avoid their bullets. At least their damage is low. The final part of this hallway has very stressful spike jumps where you need to leap at the exact height so you can get across but also avoid the ones on the ceiling. Those are always so scary! The room afterwards is shorter with no enemies. First you must run on soon-to-be-falling platforms and then fly across a wide spiky gap with Rush Jet Adaptor.
Now we enter another narrow hallway with some pits, while dealing with more Mettaurs and one drill. There are three pits total here; the first has no danger, so you can fly out of it if you happen to plummet there, but the other two have spikes, so be sure to avoid them completely! Rush Jet Adaptor will make things much easier. What follows is yet another hallway with holes to avoid. We're not dealing with Mettaurs and drills here - remember that one skull enemy from Knight Man's stage? There are many more here, and they have the power to jump across gaps and ledges too! We also see a brand new enemy* that flies above everything and drops spiky projectiles directly beneath it. Not only that, but it'll try to stay above Mega Man to keep attacking him, making this foe a nuisance. It only takes a Mega Buster shot to get rid of it, so fly up with Rush Jet Adaptor and get it before it becomes an issue!
*Not actually a brand new enemy. If you take the main path in Tomahawk Man's stage, you'll find these things.
Only one room to go before the boss fight! It's a short hallway with more - you guessed it - Mettaurs. Easy peasy! The boss however won't be as easy...
Wall climber fight
Here is a contender for the worst boss in the game - a wall climbing machine. This thing stays on the wall on the right side of the room and won't ever get off it. All it does is moves up and down while shooting spreads of bullets at Mega Man every few seconds. These spreads consist of two or three bullets, and they move kinda slowly. The boss also shakes the place, causing rocks to fall from above at a fast rate, adding another obstacle for Mega Man to avoid. These rocks can be destroyed by attacking them, but they break upon hitting the ground anyway.
The main issue - believe it or not - is actually attacking this thing. There's a lot going on, yeah, but it is very difficult to hurt this boss because it usually stays high up on that wall and its movements are unpredictable. The best thing to do is stay on the far left side of the room; you've be safe from the rocks, so you'll only have to worry about the bullets. Now... what can we do to fight it?
One strategy is to charge up the Mega Buster and shoot when the machine gets low enough. There'll be a lot of waiting, but it's better to be safe and take it slow than to risk dying. This was the strategy I used until I drained half of the boss's HP. This thing is weak to Silver Tomahawk, which is the best weapon for this fight! It'll drastically speed up the fight as it curves upwards and deals good damage on each hit. That's what I did to finish this annoyance off! You may have to step away from the western side to hurt the boss, but it'll be worth it. You could also use Rush Jet Adaptor so you can fly up and shoot, but that'll take a while because of the lack of charged attacks. I don't blame you if you use some Silver Tomahawk energy here - it's a stupid boss.
What does stage 3 have in store?
Mr. X stage 3
The first room of this level gives us a choice on which way to go! There are two ladders - one on each side of the room - that lead upwards. Not only that, but there's a 1-Up trapped between two destructible blocks and guarded by two ground enemies. I'm already at the maximum number of lives, so I'll just take the right ladder. It takes me to an intermission area with one of those big samurai guys from Yamato Man's stage. Remember to only attack him after he throws a spear!
If you've taken the leftmost ladder, you'll come across a dead end containing an E Tank, so you must take the right ladder to actually make progress. We now find ourselves in a long hallway containing enemies from Flame Man's stage: those Orange Tellies that drop flames and the stationary ground enemies that occasionally lob bullets; remember to use charged Mega Buster shots to defeat them! As for the hallway itself, we must make it across many gaps with some bits of solid ground along the way. There are also multiple sets of blocks floating in the air; when stepped on, the block Mega Man is on will go down while the other moves upward. There is a limit on how far they'll go. We must use Rush Jet Adaptor to fly across these gaps, but beware of the Fire Tellies! There isn't any oil here, but they will knock you into a pit if you're not careful. Because of them, try to get rid of any coming your way, or try to dodge if they're too high. Those stationary enemies aren't as bad, but you'll have to switch back to the normal form to get rid of them. Watch out for spikes near the end of the hall - don't jump too high!
After that, we find ourselves forced to make another choice: do we go up stairs while avoiding hair dryers or do we take the lower path with ground enemies and destructible blocks? I decided to take the latter path. Rush Power Adaptor is your best friend here as it's the only way to defeat those pests and destroy the blocks. You'll need good timing to avoid damage as there isn't any room to jump over them. One of the blocks even contains an E Tank! Ladders at the end of both paths lead to the next room, which consists of essentially the same thing - a hair dryer guarding the next ladder. Defeat it and proceed!
Unlike the previous choice, neither path leads to a dead end. My path led to a destructible block containing two small health power-ups, restoring me back to full HP. This is also the final room before the boss, and it's another hallway similar to the previous one; once again we must fly across gaps while dealing with Fire Tellies and those stationary enemies. More of those sets of blocks are here too. The middle of this hall has three of these things close together, and I highly recommend dealing with them before continuing. Near the end is a destructible block in the way of a higher gap in a wall, and I destroyed that to make an easier path for myself. One more stationary enemy guards the boss gate, so don't let it get the best of you!
And so, after all of that, it's time to fight the next boss!
Mettaur machine fight
It appears the next boss is a Mettaur controlling a large machine! It has two attacks at its disposal:
- The machine moves left and right. It cannot reach the far left side of the screen.
- It can shoot out three large spherical bullets (one after each other) in one of two ways: either straight ahead or bouncing them along the ground. You can just stand still to avoid the former pattern. While shooting, the boss doesn't move.
Additionally, the battle takes place at an autoscrolling arena. The screen slowly moves to the left, so you'll have to keep up with it. Fortunately, this boss is much easier and better than the wall climber.
To damage this Mettaur Machine, you must attack the cockpit (where the Mettaur is). Always stay on the far left side of the screen so you can avoid the boss and its attack easily. If it bounces its bullets, move into the safe spot(s). I think this thing is weak to Blizzard Man's weapon? Use that if you have trouble (you probably won't).
Only one more stage to go!
Mr. X stage 4
Now we're deep into Mr. X's fortress. The first room has spikes on the ground, and we'll have to reach a ladder located beyond a spiky rotating platform (there was one in Tomahawk Man's stage). Along the way is a large weapon energy capsule, which restored all of my Silver Tomahawk energy. The room above has two wall turrets located between gaps of floating platforms close to ceiling spikes. To make things less stressful, I destroyed the turrets and then used Rush Jet Adaptor to fly up through one of the gaps to reach the next ladder. By doing this, I didn't have to worry about the ceiling spikes as much.
This next room is a hallway with more wall turrets, but also lots of goodies! This hall has multiple "layers" due to floating platforms separating the possible paths to take. The top path has destructible blocks - one of them had a large health power-up. There's an E Tank too if you want to get that! Eventually, the hallway reverts to having one "path" but now there are gaps to traverse. Leave it to Rush Jet Adaptor! Here we have to deal with more wall turrets but also a brand new enemy - a green bird resembling BEAT. Along the ground are these orange "pipes". When Mega Man gets close enough, they will release eggs that slowly float upwards. Once they get to a certain height, the egg hatches, revealing the green bird. Immediately after being hatched, the angry bird flies towards Mega Man at a fast speed. Try not to get knocked into a pit! If you shoot at the egg, it will immediately hatch. The birds also cannot take a Mega Buster shot, so you may want to get rid of them before you regret it. A ladder at the end takes us upwards.
We're taken to a small room with a turret from Plant Man's stage in the way. We can also use Rush Power Adaptor to break destructible blocks leading to three small health power-ups while also avoiding the turret. I recommend going around so that you don't accidentally fall to the previous room and likely to your doom. Anyways, another ladder takes us higher to another small room containing two fast flying shield enemies - look out! We also get another path choice; do we go upwards or continue to the right? I'm going to climb even higher. I believe the other path has cowboys from Tomahawk Man's stage, as well as a few pits.
I'm taken to a narrow corridor filled with many of those bomb enemies from Knight Man's stage. They're easy to defeat and get past, so I recommend taking this path. I also came across a 1-Up, and that's always nice! There's a hole at the end of this corridor we must descend to get to the next room. The other path also leads here, and we must descend further.
One more hallway before the boss! We're dealing with more wall turrets evil BEATs while flying across gaps. There's an E Tank in a low passage for those who want it! The end of this part is pretty rough as there are two pipes that spawn these birds with wall turrets nearby. I purposely took damage so I could use my invincibility frames to reach the boss gate! I don't recommend you do that because I almost fell, so destroy the turret closest to the gate before moving on.
Now, it's time for a showdown with Mr. X!
Mr. X fight
Mr. X is inside of a large spiky spherical machine that swings to the left and right for the entire battle. Every few seconds, the machine drops an energy projectile that splits into two upon hitting the ground. The split projectiles then travel along the ground in both directions at a fast speed. You'll have to jump over them while dodging Mr. X.
I have a strategy for this fight: I stay on the far left side of the battlefield (two fights in a row!) and jump and shoot at the machine with charged Mega Buster shots whenever it moves to the right. I'll also have enough time to jump over the split projectiles as Mr. X's machine will move to the right before I jump. I still need good reflexes and timing, but thankfully the projectiles don't do much damage. This fight is a strange one, but I do know the boss is weak to Flame Man's weapon. I didn't use it, but you might.
After destroying the machine, Mr. X escapes it with his very own flying machine. Mr. X then speaks the following dialogue:
My scheme for world domination has faild![sic] But I still have enough power to destroy you!
Then, in one of the greatest plot twists in a video game (not), Mr. X reveals himself to have been Dr. Wily all along! He escapes in his UFO before the screen goes to black with the following text:
Let the final battle begin!
Yup, we're not finished yet. Dr. Wily has a brand new fortress to get through! Here's the map of it:
Are you excited for the finale? Come back in August to see Wily's rear end kicked once again! Goodbye!
| The 'Shroom: Issue 232 | |
|---|---|
| Staff sections | Staff Notes • The 'Shroom Spotlight • Poochy's Picks • Credits |
| Features | Fake News • Fun Stuff • Palette Swap • Pipe Plaza • Critic Corner • Strategy Wing |
