The 'Shroom:Issue 161/Strategy Wing

Director Notes
Written by:

Hello, all you readers of The 'Shroom! This is the third time I'm writing some form of Director's Notes for this issue, and I already said everything important I needed to say in the Staff Notes. There's no major news here in Strategy Wing, which, with Roserade being on vacation with those nasty multicolored viruses being gone, is thankfully pest-free. That all said, I'll make this short so you can get to reading the sections our writers have prepared for you.

Before I let you go, though, I want to offer my sincere thanks to all of you who voted for Strategy for C6. Favorite 'Shroom Team in the Awards! I know we can be a bit of a niche team, so it's wonderful to see you all take interest in what we do heere. Of course, I really can't take the credit for the second-place score. That honor goes to my wonderful team of writers, so let me shower my praise and thanks on, , and for their stellar work month after month and all they do to make this team what it is. I know a couple of you have already approached me post-Awards with ideas for Strategy Wing sections, to which I say, please do join the team! Join any team, for that matter. Wiriting for The 'Shroom is fun and simple and we'll gladly welcome you.

Please do be sure to take a look at the presentations from yesterday's Awards ceremonies, if you happened to miss those. As always, make sure to vote for the racer you want to see covered in next month's Mach Speed Mayhem. We have some big plans for the last third of the year, so, if you have any interest in joining in The 'Shroom, take a look at our Sign-up page! We'd be happy to have you join us as a member of the Strategy Wing Team!

Alright, that's enough from me. Please, go and enjoy reading what our writers have for you this month!

Section of the Month topped the (medical) charts last month with his look at Chansey's Pokédex entries and Mute City's staff kart. Thanks to all of you who voted, and please continue to vote to express your appreciation for the hard work of our writers!

Koops, Your Emblem is on Fire
Written by:

Yo! Yo! Yo! Yooooooo! Welcome, back, everyone! Today's a wonderful day to be... starting off Hector Hard Mode! The hardest mode in the game. Now as of typing this I started off a practice file to actually try the mode before I get to showcase some of it, and... It's hard. Harder than I expected, actually. The enemies kinda still really suck, but the map design of fe7 is kinda finding its own ways to occasionally screw me over. Only occasionally tho. I have played this game too many times to be taken off-guard! But anyway, here, you also get to see me suffer with this first map BEFORE I got to actually get acquainted with Hector Hard Mode. Have Le fun!

And with that, let's go back to Marcus! And Eliwood! Mostly Marcus tho (but Eliwood's also made some really neat progress on his own which is very much appreciated).

NEW UNITS! Let's go! We got an interesting bunch to talk about, today!

Hector
Marquess Ostia's younger brother. Reckless, but loyal.



Level 1 Lord

Bases and Growths:

HP: 19 (90%) Str: 7 (60%) Skl: 4 (45%) Spd: 5 (35%) Luck: 3 (30%) Def: 8 (50%) Res: 0 (25%) Con: 13 (+2 Upon promotion) Move: 5 Weapon Ranks: C Axes.

Hector!

Theoratically, Hector is the best lord you get in this game. Even if I myself don't like putting up with him, he does require relatively minimal investment to become good compared to the other two lords, which definitely is something.

But although he is better than the other lords, Hector is not without his OWN issues. For starters, his accuracy tends to be pretty low, in a game where accuracies tend to be high. It doesn't make him look good and Hector may derp at any moment and just miss a crucial hit, something even you could attest to if you watched the video. And unlike Eliwood, Hector doesn't gain anything significant advantage from his promotion, aside from maybe the +3 speed boost, since he's still locked to the same movement range and only gets swords as a new weapon, which hardly means anything at all, especially when your original weapon type is axes. That, and his base speed of 5 coupled with his growth of 35% will not let him double quite as much as you'd like, but he's no Bartre at least, he CAN double soldiers and Knights at base level. Also for a unit who's supposed to tank hit, he only has 19 base HP and 8 defense, which isn't great for a frontline unit.

But that's about all the bad stuff you can say about him. Hector is the only lord in this game to have the luxury of being locked to axes instead of swords before promotion, and axes being the best weapon type already elevates him above the other two quite easily. And even with his mediocre base durability, Hector can still soak a few hits and will also be able to tank much better later on if given kills consistently, with a 90% and 50% growth in HP and defense respectively. And his strength also gets really good, especially for an axe user, as axes have high might that go really well with that high an offensive stat, so you can be sure that Hector will kill whatever he can double. You may even be able to oneshot mages and such at some point if he grows fast enough.

Hector's fine. He has flaws, but he's someone you can use without much trouble, at least as the game goes on. He has a pretty rocky start on his own mode but other than that, you can see why he's many people's favorite in this game. Not mine, personally, but understandable. Even if I have less patience with him than with Lyn and Eliwood of all people, that doesn't make him as bad as they may be.

Oswin
A knight in service to House Ostia. Hector's sworn man.



Level 9 Knight

Bases and Growths:

HP: 28 (90%) Str: 13 (40%) Skl: 9 (30%) Spd: 5 (30%) Luck: 3 (35%) Def: 13 (55%) Res: 3 (30%) Con: 14 (+2 Upon promotion) Move: 5 (+1 Upon promotion) Weapon Ranks: B Lances.

Ok remember all the bad stuff I said about Wallace back when he joined? Well... to tell the turth, a lot of it applies to Oswin, by virtue of being an armor knight and all, but do not let this deceive you. Despite his class, Oswin is pretty damn good, for one simple reason: he helps a ton. You get Wallace in Lyn mode at a point where your units are probably capable of handling themselves, but Oswin joins surrounded by scrubs + Marcus.

While Marcus definitely is the better unit by a long shot, Oswin is nigh essential in Hector Hard Mode, and a huge help in Eliwood mode. In the early maps, low move is not a huge problem for Oswin, as most enemies either come to you or are condensed in some spots, not to mention the fact that there's quite a few moments where you will need to put someone in the middle of everything to make things go by faster, exactly what Oswin is built for. His low speed is typical of an armor knight, but even he has a shot to start doubling quite a few things should you get lucky enough with his levels, and promote him, since knights gain +3 speed upon promotion, which for a class this slow, usually makes a difference, especially when it's fe7 enemies (to be fair tho he has a lower long-term chance to double stuff than Hector, only slightly tho, but you CAN promote him earlier than you can Hector, that's for sure). Unrelated, but the Oswin I have in the practice file has about 14 speed now, and my god is he unstoppable.

To compensate for his low base speed, Oswin comes with a gigantic 13 strength and a big 13 defense, meaning he's able to bot dish out damage AND take it, and with how earlygame enemies can hurt you in hector hard mode, this is definitely a really good boon to have, to be able to soak in the damage to protect your weaker units. Also, his starting B rank in lances makes him dangerously close to being able to use Silver Lances, if you can get one early on (Spoiler, Marcus comes with one on Hector Hard). Oswin, in a lot of ways, acts as a secondary Jagen for Hector and Eliwood being able to help train other units especially with his lack of doubling, which prevents him from killing outright for a while, and starting out stronger than anyone else, tho he's not promoted and without a horse, that last bit being a thing that holds him back a little.

Oswin is usually nicknamed by the community "Bosswin", and honestly, he earned that title. He may not be the best, but he's definitely pretty great, especially for someone in his class. Now if Oswin was a Paladin... Ohoho! How much even better would he be!

Oh well, that does it for this issue! See ya next time as we... continue Eliwood mode, what else?

(I told you guys the earlygame after Lyn mode is pretty boring. Which is why having Marcus to steamroll it is great.)

Racing Like the Staff
Written by:

Hello readers and welcome to Racing like the Staff, a section where I do 150cc on different Mario Kart games, but the twist is, I take on the Grand Prix by using the combination that a staff and expert staff member used in that Cup. If you're still a little confused, by this I mean if the track is in the Mushroom Cup, then that's the Cup that I race in. Unfortunately, I don't have copies of the Mario Kart games before Mario Kart 7, so it's only that, 8 and Deluxe that will be getting this treatment.

It may not have escaped your notice that it is incredibly hot right now. Even as I write, I have a window fully open, and a fan whirring around, it is uncomfortable to sleep at nights given the amount of heat around, and what we could all do with is a good cooling down, perhaps at a nice water park or swimming pool. Sadly, due to the current coronavirus pandemic, certain pools are closed, or many people are trying to avoid them to not risk overcrowding. But thankfully, in the Mario universe our characters can go to the Water Park, and for today's edition of Racing Like the Staff, that is precisely where we're going to go.

The combination for 150cc staff for Water Park is Baby Luigi with the Mr. Scooty, Roller tyres and the Super Glider, and the stats are as follows:


 * Speed – One bar
 * Acceleration – Five and a half bars
 * Weight – Just over one bar
 * Handling – Five and a half bars
 * Grip – Four bars

Mario Kart Stadium
I'm used to my inside drifting Yoshi Bike, so the outside drifting her initially caught me off-guard. Thankfully, it had no outcome on the race and I made it easily up to second place, just behind Morton. But Morton is a very speedy character, and Baby Luigi on the other hand is not, so while I was able to keep up with him, I couldn't get a pass in until a Mushroom helped me out. I was able to stake out a lead following my pass, and Morton failed to pass me after I was hit with a Boomerang. Something happened to him when I wasn't focusing, because I eventually realised that Bowser had passed him on the map, and while there was a great distance between me and the Koopa king, he decimated that on the final corners, presumably with a Mushroom, but I was able to hold him off and get a first win.

Water Park
Things started off great, as I kept my lead, until Princess Daisy briefly snatched it off me, but I was soon past her, and even a Green Shell didn't put me back into second place. However, my luck would not survive to the second lap, as a Red Shell hit me, allowing Princess Daisy and Bowser past, and a Banana from Bowser right onto me allowed Morton past. I thought I'd get the two of them with a Fire Flower, and while I did, a Red Shell from Morton put me down into fifth as Morton, Bowser and Koopa Troopa all passed me. Triple Mushrooms came to my rescue, putting me past Koopa Troopa and Morton, after the former took out Bowser with a Shell, and a slow-driving Daisy meant I reclaimed the lead in the ticket hall. Morton was close behind me, but the Shells didn't come flying, and Baby Luigi took another win.

Sweet Sweet Canyon
Morton mounted a very early challenge, passing me just as we entered the tunnel, but I regained the lead before we got to the cannon. But I could not shake him off my tail, especially after a Lightning strike, and while I focused on getting coins on the corner leading to the water section, he took the inside line and went past me. At the end of the lap, we did some close wheel-to-wheel racing, and I ultimately came out on top. I was confident that Mr. Scooty would steer me to a third successive victory, but Blooper came on the final corner, and I had to go onto the outside of the corner to avoid a lot of Bananas, with Morton taking the inside line and getting past me, and Princess Daisy using the shortcut to overtake me as well. Thankfully, a boost got me past Daisy, but Morton took the victory by mere inches.

Thwomp Ruins
We had some making up to do after last race's calamitous ending, and making up we did, as we dominated the race from start to end. Even a second lap Spiny Shell from Baby Peach didn't do anything to dent the lead.

Despite the domination on Thwomp Ruins, I can't say I can particularly recommend this combination. It has acceleration to boot, which is handy for when you're near the start of the grid, but that speed made it hard to fend off challengers, or catch up to them when needed. Perhaps a little bit more speed and this combination could be unstoppable.

The Kart of Champions combination for Water Park is Wario with the Sport Bike, Cyber Slick tyres and Parafoil. The stats are as follows:


 * Speed – Just over five bars
 * Acceleration – Just under three bars
 * Weight – Four and a half bars
 * Handling – Three bars
 * Grip – One bar

Mario Kart Stadium
Anyone who has read these Mario Kart 8 Kart of Champions sections knows that these combinations rule the roost, and this time was no different. I made early mistakes, forgetting this was an inside drifting bike, but was up to first by the anti-gravity section, and then my only concern was whether I'd end up lapping Baby Mario and Ludwig. I did not, if you're wondering.

Water Park
Other than the time Donkey Kong torpedoed himself through the ticket hall on the first lap, I don't think I saw a single racer for the entire thing.

Sweet Sweet Canyon
The only thing of note from this race was on the final lap, I did a trick over a Red Shell that was aimed at me. But even if it'd hit me, I would've won with no difficulties.

Thwomp Ruins
I thought we might have a battle on our hands as Donkey Kong was bashing me around at the start, but once I got out in front, it was just a simple cruise to the finish line.

I've waxed lyrical about this combination numerous times. It's great, try it out, etc. Go nuts!

I hope you enjoyed this section, and I'll see you next month.

Mach Speed Mayhem
Written by:



Hello, 'Shroom readers, and welcome to yet another installment in the Year of AX! I'll laugh hard if we actually get the clean sweep in 2020. For this month, we're doing our sixth F-Zero AX debut character - #36: Princia Ramode. Princess of a desert kingdom, she's decided to go out and have some fun - and that fun is, naturally, participating in the F-Zero race!

Main Series

As with all the F-Zero AX debut characters, Princia is free to use from the start in the arcade machine itself. In the home version, the memory card transfer is one of the two methods to use - or you can just clear Chapter 2 of Story Mode on Very Hard, the race from one end of Red Canyon to the other against Samurai Goroh. Sure, Goroh himself has plenty of boost, and rock pounding down on the track to throw you off the course. And on Very Hard, Samurai Goroh gets faster, and his bandit buddies rain down more rocks from above - and he'll start boosting in the final stretch quite a bit earlier. But if you overcome it, you can show him the law here in Red Canyon, and win Princia and the Spark Moon for yourself!



On to Princia herself; the princess of the Desert Kingdom on Planet Magica, she's quite curious and easily intrigued. It's led her into trouble of multiple stripes in the past, and despite that, she decided to go all out - she roped her servants into this mess, and went off to explore a bunch of other worlds! Upon seeing Earth's F-Zero races, she decided "wow cool" and promptly joined them herself... and since there was no way to talk her out, the servants threw up their hands and built her a machine that uses all of their highly advanced kingdom's scientific genius.



In the interviews, Princia makes it clear that a lot of this is rebellion against a strict, boring princess lifestyle. She had the research institute keep the machine a secret from her father - and that wasn't easy - and she says this race was her first real taste of freedom. She mentions that she finds the private parties and tutors of the palace oppressively dull, saying nothing is anywhere nearly as fun as the thrill of F-Zero. Most of all, when she has the opportunity to talk to her fans live across the universe, the one person she chooses to address is her dad - telling him to start treating her like an adult. Seems like being a princess isn't all it's cracked up to be. On some lighter notes, she's very positive about her rivals - she considers her victory largely luck-based, and is happy to race them again, without putting them down. Princia's happy to call herself rough and tumble, saying she likes good fights. And when asked about if any men here catch her fancy, the one she names is Samurai Goroh, saying she's never met anyone like him. It seems like unlocking Princia for Chapter 2 isn't that much of a coincidence!

For an evaluation of her machine, look no further! The Desert Kingdom's Science Technology Development Department (AX machines love their long names, don't they?) built the Spark Moon in secret, making it incredibly beginner friendly so that Princia can post some good results without worry. It's actually got an advanced artificial intelligence to run the show, Princia only having to do a little work as the AI carries the main burden of racing against the top pilots in F-Zero. As well it should, considering the science team used the data from said top pilots to program the AI. It's also got plenty of cutting-edge safety systems. It wouldn't do at all to let the princess get hurt, even in something as chaotic and wild as F-Zero!

From the gameplay perspective, while the Spark Moon claims middle of the road stats - B Body, C Boost, B Grip - it turns out to be... very slidey. Not in the same way as something like the Blood Hawk or Night Thunder, mind you, where you'll start skidding around at the drop of a hat, but the Spark Moon will often turn far more wildly than you'd expect when you're moving. It's surprisingly good for drifting, at least! It's pretty average otherwise - okay body, okay boost, okay top speed... it's a very Okay vehicle. It won't do anything special, but it won't utterly job out like some of the other machines will. Including some of the other AX machines. The machine quality in GX was really over the place, honestly - but isn't that part of the charm of the game?

Other Information

Interestingly, Princia seems to be one of the faces of F-Zero AX and its general promotion. Sure, Phoenix is clearly the one billed as the lead character - front and center in the promos and wallpaper, consistently has the Rainbow Phoenix shown off, very similar to Captain Falcon... but after that, Princia is the most common character to see in things like a promo flyer for AX or a wallpaper alongside Phoenix and Falcon. Perhaps they had more planned for her if they ever got another crack at things? Or perhaps they just thought the cute girl was a better choice of face than the weird aliens or the angry old guy. It is a mystery! Anyhow, go vote and give me another writeup for September! Who knows, maybe the Year of AX will continue? I'll see you next time!

Pokédex Power
Written by:

Hello everyone, it's me, Yoshi876 again with a new edition of Pokédex Power, the section written by the person who recently got a plush toy of Detective Pikachu. And I can confirm that he is as cuddly and adorable as a normal Pikachu plush toy. I have also recently seen the video where the Pikachu plush is cleaned with the carpet cleaner and becomes its brand-new yellow again, and after successive nights of cuddling, both my Pikachu plushes might need that. But we're not here to discuss Pikachu (yet), we're actually focusing on a Galar Pokémon this time, after we skipped it to look at Chansey, as it fit better with the theme.

This time, we're looking at a Pokémon all about emotions, and no, not the one that will go on the rampage after it feels any form of negative emotion. This month, we're looking at Indeedee, a Pokémon I know literally nothing about, because I'm yet to delve into Generation VIII. I do know that these appear to be the almost mandatory cat Pokémon that pop up every generation, but given that one of them appears to be a butler, I highly doubt that it sits on the edge of the fireplace knocking things off, but I could be wrong.

But does my no-knowledge of this Pokémon mean that it won't have Pokédex entries that are particularly interesting? Let's find out…

Male Indeedee Generation VIII

For introducing me to Indeedee, these entries do a decent job, in which we immediately find out find out what the Pokémon uses its horns for, thus explaining why it's known as an Emotion Pokémon, and even that positive emotions are the source of its strength. Having read the entries for the female Indeedee, I am assuming that the male form also serves to feel gratitude, but is anyone else uneasy with this idea of servant Pokémon? I like the idea of a Pokémon that can help you out around the house, or act as mail carriers of sort, but this just feels like it's slightly pushing the boat out to have a full-blown servant. Does this Pokémon draw baths and dust the entire house? Can you buy particularly good Indeedee, or do you still go out into the wild to catch these? I hope these things aren't exploited, but honestly reading the entries it feels like they might be. If Team Plasma were in the Galar region, they would definitely be attempting to free Indeedee.

Female Indeedee Generation VIII

If the entries of the female Indeedee didn't exist, I would question why these Pokémon act as servants, but given that they gather feelings of gratitude, which presumably fuel them as a positive emotion, it does make a bit more sense. I feel it's a bit lazy to throw babysitting onto the female Indeedee, might as well have added how great they are at cleaning, so it would've been interesting to see the male Indeedee do child rearing, while the female Indeedee focuses on something else, like perhaps gardening or landscaping. Or even going out and catch other Pokémon, because if you have an Indeedee as a servant Pokémon, I’m guessing you don't really go out and catch your own.

Conclusion I think the two forms of Indeedee have entries that slightly compliment each other. Although this is more so that the female one perfectly expands on the entry for the male one and clears up the main question I would've had from it. But I wonder what happens if an Indeedee does a bad job, and how does it react to negative emotions? It's a shame that I doubt Indeedee will crossover to future Pokémon generations, so I'm unlikely to get answers to these questions.