SMT: Nocturne Hardtype - Kagutsuchi/Lucifer (Low Level)

Hey Luci, stop hitting yourself twitter.com/JimsOnlyTweet1 Rules: - This is a low level run of zombero's hardtype mod: www.romhacking.net/hacks/3299/ - The aim is to keep XP gain as low as possible without affecting my sanity. - Hard mode, obviously - No stat boosting items - All other game mechanics are fair game! Hardtype changes: - Kagutsuchi HP (both phases): 20000 → 40000 - Megidola → Megidolaon - Phase Shift → Omnipotence (Raises all stats 6 stages) - He now has Antichthon (Heavy almighty dmg + lowers all stats 1 stage) - Vast Light now deals more dmg + removes all -kaja effects - Infinite Light now removes all -kaja/-kunda effects + heals - Lucifer's attack now drains 166 MP and always crits - Prominence → Phlegethon (Severe AoE fire dmg + lowers attack 1 stage) - Mabufudyne → Judecca Tomb (Severe AoE ice dmg + petrify) - Glacial Blast/Megidola/Megidolaon → Carnal Winds (Severe AoE force dmg + charm)/Weeping Heaven (Severe AoE elec dmg + ?)/Hades Blast - Diarama now heals considerably more - Evil Gleam now deals almighty damage and inflicts panic - High King now inflicts mute (is this new?) - Root of Evil now lowers all stats 4 stages (+ should inflict death?) There was always going to be some tradeoff in choosing my final Demi build, and giving up Life Bonus gave disco ball 2 distinct ways to kill me even at max buffs. In phase 1, if the moon phase is at 6/8 and he uses Omnipotence into a regular attack this can OHKO. Not overly likely, you'd think, but it was actually the most common cause of death here - 4 times in a damn row. Secondly, Infinite Light's max damage roll seems to be bang on 700, meaning every time he uses it there's a ~2-3% chance we wipe. WHAT FUN. However, it's still hard to say what else I should've ditched, as the Luci fight requires all 4 element reduction passives and Life Gain. That aside, it's actually a fairly basic battle of fishing for Mjolnir shocks and landing hefty focussed crits. At this point I abandoned most buffs and just farmed Luster Candies, allowing me to fill out the team's skill slots with repels so we don't get screwed by those Dragon Eye turns in phase 2. Try to go into this phase with everyone in good shape with buffs + Focus so you can deal as much damage as possible ASAP. If he starts spamming Infinite Light it becomes difficult to substantially outpace his healing because of the amount of buff management needed (physical skills are useless too because the HP cost means we then die to IL.) It's just a case of waiting for good openings to attack. You can see I only bother using a second candy if he doesn't immediately recharge IL, otherwise I stick with Rakukaja. As for Luci... anyone who knows hardtype knew this was coming, but it's still kind of pitiful to behold. Zombero gave him many new toys - it's basically a completely different battle - but the most noteworthy of these are the insane elemental spells he has. This is why Demi is carrying every element reduction passive, it's why I've been fishing for repel morphs, and it's why this battle is something of an anticlimax. Arahabaki is a no brainer here, as he can repel x1.5 damage on 3 elements thanks to his weaknesses. The healer however was tricky. Luci inflicts all kinds of status so a fast Prayerbot is essential, but there wasn't a way to make one with all the necessary repels. Instead I decided to make 2 healers with Endure, and swap between them whenever it pops. This also handily solves the problem of him messing up your team with ailments and draining your healer's MP. He can only pop Endure with skills that immediately end his turn (since they can come in and tank Evil Gleam/High King at +0 defence) so they are basically invulnerable. Ice Repel blocks the petrify effect of Judecca Tomb, and their ailment immunity protects them from the rest. Jikoku was used for Dekunda as well as his Void Death passive, although this turned out to be unnecessary. Apparently RoE is supposed to inflict death but it doesn't seem to here. I don't know if this was removed or is simply a bug, but it doesn't change too much. I would've just built my healers with Void Death instead of Ice Repel. So yeah, the fight is mostly just waiting for Luci to kill himself. I fire off Divine Shots when there's a chance to (or regular attacks if there's no time to heal.) Once the 2nd phase hits (after dealing ~20k damage) it's essential to end every round at full HP with the team at +2 def and Luci at -2 atk. There's a lot of buff management and MP healing in this phase but just wait it out and you most likely win. The only ways he can kill us are with janky stuff like double almighty spells in the same round (Evil Gleam/High King) or one of these with a Hades Blast crit, but these are pretty rare scenarios. I stand by keeping Anti-Elec, because High King into Weeping Heaven seems to be a common combo that risks killing us if we had Life Bonus instead.