Trying to get to those bonus missions isn't too terribly hard, but making the most of them can be! You really do, I know you do, because as you progress through them, you'll see those lovely words "drop rate increased" appear. Plus, there's that 3rd wave of boxes that boasts boss box drops. A lot of this is just common sense stuff, but it's nice to see written in one cozy place.
I will update this when we get the Colony and Neudiaz missions. This is written from the point of view of a Halarod Happy Fortetecher, Cubo/Rabol Dungaholic Beast Fortegunner and a Stereotypical Cast Fortegunner. Plus seeing what some of my utterly pro Fortefighter/Fighgunner friends use.
Here's what I've done and seen so far to get the most out of your EX mission time.
Before the Cup Mission
-Buy scape dolls.
Sure, the death penalty is gone, but there's a new one in the form of "I'm wasting time being dead, not killing."
-Buy Photon Charges.
If you're a fighter or a techer, I cannot stress this enough. Unless you have enough 50% weapons to never need one, BRING EM!
-On Carrying Traps...
Not always a necessity. The only mission I've seen this come in somewhat handy with is the Kog Nadd/Vanda mission on Moatoob. Any of the "stopper" traps like Freeze, Sleep or Shock can come in handy here. If you have any leftover from the regular mission you want to burn off to make space in your inventory, why the heck not.
Pre-Bonus Mission Preparations!
-Adjust Item Distribution.
You can set it separately from the regular mission.
I've always tried to use Random or Set in Order to be fair to techers. But if you were in a random group, getting shafted with a techer that just spammed diga never healing, Give Finder is good revenge.
-Optimize your equipment.
The stuff you used to destroy the boss may not be the greatest to use in the bonus missions.
That 25% Lightning Teroline that saved your behind against the Magus bot will be a huge liability if you take on the Bil de Vear/Naval mission.
-Optimize item pallet.
Check to see if your goggles are still here. If so, replace them with Photon Charges. I usually put Dimate, Trimate, Sol Atomizer, Star Atomzer, Photon Charge on mine. I may have traps in there depending on the mission. Otherwise, antimates.
Damage traps, if you can use them, are win.
Fighters:
Strip your pallet down to weapons of elements the enemies are weak to. Stick with PAs that don't send enemies flying back on the first hit. PAs that just knock the enemy off their feet like Rising Strike are cool and should be kept.
PAs that just OWN:
-Gravity Break(Long Sword Ult)
-Das Majarra(Spear Ult)
-Assault Crush@21(Twin Saber)
-Spinning Strike(Saber)
Spinny PAs:
-Tornado Break(Long Sword)
-Renkai Buyou-zan(Twin Dagger)
-Das Robado(Spear)
-Gravity Dance(Double Saber)
Fast Knockover PAs:
-Rising Strike(Saber)
-Rising Crush(Twin Saber)
-Assault Crush@21(Twin Saber)
-Tornado Dance(Doublesaber)
Mobility PAs:
-Tornado Dance(Double Saber)
-Buten Shuren-zan(Dagger)
-Hikai Shuha-zan(Dagger, be careful w/2nd hit!)
Rangers:
Switch over your damage-dealing weapon bullets to whatever the enemies are weak to. Add your traps to your pallets.
Keep a fast "box breaker" handy too. This varies by mission.
*Moatoob: Machine gun or level 21+ bullet Crossbow.
*Parum: Shotgun, 21+ Crossbow, Rifle possibly Laser Cannon with the right bumper trick.
EDIT: Machine guns just don't have the range for Parum. Plus they deplete too quickly(esp. on Fighgunner.) Shotguns can be effective if aimed right. Crossbow's faster rate of fire wins over, again, if your bullets are 21+.
-And because it bears mentioning, if you have Yak Zagenga 21+, you are going to be one vicious killer no matter where you go!
Techers:
Gi-techs are your best friends, by and large. Dam techs are too. Picking techs can get finicky by mission though, so I'll go into more detail later.
Fully buff the party at the gate. All 4 arrows+Gi Resta if possible. Thank you. Love you! <3
Keep a resta/reverser wand handy for certain missions, as well as a buff rod(or wand with Shifta and Zodial.) Otherwise, even techers should use dimates and trimates to heal.
If you can, switch to your quick unit. If you don't have a quick unit, an attack boosting unit(Sori Tech Charge, Sori Force, Gi Magic) with a wand works well too.
WANDS! Do you love them? I hope you do! Their increase in casting speed is highly worth it! Even with the power of the rod, the sheer speed of the wands just own. I had my techer do the 1st Moatoob bonus mission with a Majimra. It went so much better relative to the many times before that I used my Halarod. *EDIT: Magic Wands are a girl techer's best friend. If you grind them, they're even friendlier to you.*
-=Beast/Cast tips=-
And now for a bit of PSU Racism. Casts with their SUV weapons have an advantage.
For beasts, I do not recommend using your nanoblast willy nilly. In beast form, you may hit 2 targets really hard! You've also got superior mobility, which you think would be a great advantage!
HOWEVER!
-You will waste time going into your blast and coming out of it.
-Assuming you're a fighter type such as Fortefighter, Fighgunner or even Wartecher, you've got access to melee PAs that hit way more targets, faster.
-If you've got some decent(20+%) element on those melee weapons and ~level 20 on the PAs, you're definitely going to be faster!
-Way to blind your teammates!
-You can't heal yourself(not an issue if you're invincible...)
-You can use your melee PAs to do damage and get somewhere fast. The single dagger PA, Buten Shuren-zan is also known as a mode of transportation.
Especially if you have this PA over 11! This PA levels really fast. If you don't have it over 11, you can have it over 11 in no time, especially doing bonus missions.
That's my case against blasting without thought behind it. If you're really having that much trouble dishing out damage without the blast(I could see that in the 2nd Moatoob mission with the Kog Nadds, frankly) then use your Nanoblast when the time clock has blast duration - 5 seconds on it. All blasts last 50 seconds except for Invincibility, which lasts 30. If you have a 50 second blast, start using it when the time clock read 45 seconds remaining.
I've had teammates use the pink attack boosting blast with a very high level of success.
Casts! SUVs RULE! Uber rule. WAY WAY WAY rule!
If you time your SUV blasts wisely, you can speed things along greatly. Use your SUVs to kill the last wave before a box spawn, and hopefully blast open all the boxes with the remaining few moments of your SUV.
EDIT: If you hare having trouble building up your SUV weapon, change your armor to the OPPOSITE element. Going against Badiras? Use that 11% Ice Sori Senba.
At the very least, switch to relatively neutral armor such as the Sori-Senba vs the Vahras & Polavoras.
Recommended SUV weapons:
-Sturm Buster/Attacker. The homing missile launcher that seeks and destroys. And knocks over. And burns. Seriously, you can't miss with this one.
-Grom and Rafal series.
The Grom is the stationary laser blaster that fans out a bit. The Rafal is the stationary Gatling gun SUV.
Positioned correctly, both of these are capable of blanketing the EX mission arenas.
The Parum arena is practically square, although I'd recommend NOT facing the door or having your back to the door when using these.
With Moatoob, the arena is certainly not square. Boxes are clumped together. It's a lot easier to bust these up quickly.
I haven't tested the use of the sweeping or Rock'em Sock'em SUV yet, but having used them in other situations, I doubt their efficacy. Especially the Meteor Attacker. Its duration is too short to do much more than break the row of boxes as well as the wave of monsters before it.
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Parum!
Boxes are spread out here. If you're a Laser Lover, these nice neat rows of boxes are a dream for you. Machine guns, rifles, single handguns and 21+ Crossbows are also good for box bashing.
Most of the critters will hop around to make matters more annoying.
Mission 1
Critter Roster:
Badira(Fire)
Jarba(Fire)
Rappy(Light)
Fighters will have to stay mobile.
A swarm of Badiras will go down quickly with a "spinny" art such as Tornado Break(Long Sword,) Renkai Buyou-zan(Twin Dagger) or Das Robado(Spear.)
Stick with the first 2 hits so if they aren't killed, they won't be sent flying. If you are certain the enemies will die with that 3rd hit, go for it, but otherwise you could be making a mess.
Jarbas need some thing that hits fast and hard. Assault Crush(Twin Saber,) Spinning Strike(Ult. Single Saber) and Das Majarra(Ult. Spear) are good examples of PAs that fit that bill.
Gratuitous love for my new Cubo/Rabol Dunga set: Yak Riga at 25 w/buffs has destroyed Badiras when point blanked in a single shot 90% of the time. Must grind Cubo higher! And the bullet was only level 25. </gratuitous>
Otherwise, Rangers can just go about the usual formula of use rifle on thing. Watch thing die after a few hits.
Techers, as tempting as it can be, Dambarta is conical. Gibarta/Rabarta can be a lot more versatile as far as letting you hit and move. And maybe even loot.
Megiverse can rock those tech-weak Badiras while the heavy hitters can take out the Jarbas.
Mission 2
Critter Roster:
Vahra(Lightning)
Polavora(Lightning)
Rappy(Light)
Vahras. Those punks jump around, ruining everyone's day. They may have less hp, but they still hit hard!
Fighters.
Assault crush eats PP like nobody's beezewax but when aimed right, it can be complete and utter love. Especially that delicious 3rd hit. Polavoras are essentially Jarbas that don't use megid in a sense that they're slow, they won't move much before they die. That is, if you're paying attention to them.
Rangers.
Using ice against the Vahras isn't exactly a bad thing. If you haven't really leveled your Grav bullets seriously, switch over to ice. Freezing the Vahras in place so the rest of us can hit them without fear is very convenient.
Techers.
ALL Diga techs are your friends.
Gi-Diga, when high level hits a lot of stuff and from a mighty good distance. If the Vahras aren't facing you, it can hit from a SAFE distance! It also clears out boxes nicely. You can't get every box with 1 casting alas.
Nozu-Diga is powerful, but careful of Vahras messing up its homing but knocking you around.
Regular Diga: I point blank a lot of things with that, especially Vahras from behind. Dodge this!
Mission 3
Critter Roster:
Vahra(Lightning)
Gol Dova(Fire)
Jaggos(Light)
Happiness is Big Pigs roasting on a Sweet Death spit...
Moatoob!
Boxes are nicely clustered for the gi-tech happy techer. Or the sword happy fighter.
Mission 1
Critter Roster:
Bil De Vear(Earth)
Naval(Earth)
Rappy(Light)
This mission is a breeze. Seriously! Enemies will move right up to the center. Sure they'll beat on you too, but at least they're all in one place. Area of effect stuff is just godly here.
Fighters, the Bil Des are up to you. Especially when the bullet resistant fully enhanced mofos are out, then a good boot(with 26% Lightning) to the head really comes in handy. The Bils like to bunch up around your rugged self so Das Majarra(Ult. Spear) can really beat the snot out of these towers of beef.
Those first 2 hits...Mmmm
What do you normally like to use to kill the Bils?
Rangers, you're gonna hear more crossbow love. It mows down Navals nicely. It doesn't run out of PP super fast like a machine gun, and it's a good box mower.
Techers. Gi. ZONDE! It's all you need! I like linking extra zonde techs to the rod to get the damage bonus. That and Zodial boosting every now and then keeps the war machines humming smoothly.
Gi-zonde is a miracle tech! Breaks boxes! Destroys Navals in 1(maybe 2) hits!
Mission 2
Critter Roster:
Kog Nadd(Light)
Vanda(Fire)
Rappy(Light)
Rappies on a cracker. This mission is hard for the following reasons:
-When you first start, there's a Kog Nadd right on your heels that will likely knock your party off its feet.
-Curse you Vandas, quit backing up! 1/4th of a lot of HP is still a lot. They punish frontal assaults hard with a blast of fire breath.
Remember the spawn order of the Kog Nadds in general terms(not relative like "left" or "right.")
-1 East
-1 West
-1 South
-2 West
Spare absolutely NO expense if you want to get far in this mission. Burn traps. Burn trap Gs. Ask additional members of the party to carry extras for you and drop them before the bonus mission starts. Maybe even Silence Traps to force the Vandas to go over and melee you instead of standing back and throwing Digas.
Have more Antimates than the antimate factory. Sol atomizers too. Vandas have a knack for setting you on fire.
Fighters:
Keep monsters off their feet or they will keep you off yours. Fast Knockover PAs are supreme here! An experienced fighgunner that can go in a tight circle while doing Tornado Dance(it's how I beat Offline mode, I was doing rings around the Kagajibari!) may be an asset. For non fighgunners, good ole Rising Strike. Flank your enemies and get em off their feet.
Rangers:
Find a "safe" corner relatively away from the action, camp out in first person and just shoot anything that moves. If it moves again, shoot it some more. When it stops moving, eat it loot it. Burning shot burninates and exterminates.
I tried to use grenades, but they ended up being too slow. My 21+ frozen Crossbow lacked the range. I was moving around waay too much and the vandas like to spawn in all directions like the Vahras.
Techers:
You have it rough. You have it extremely rough. You have little HP. You get sent flying often. If you have Giresta, use it.
I had the best results with Rabarta, like everyone below suggested. Hell, I ended up just using that on the neutral rod with Dambarta/Resta I linked. Just watch your backs for those nasty Kog Naddss.
Mission 3
Critter Roster:
Vanda(Fire)
Druna Gohra(Fire)
Jaggos(Light)
Where's the Crocodile Hunter when you really need him?!
Neudiaz!
The boxes are spread out in the same formation as Parum. Either time your SUV blasts if there's a cast or if there's a FO, 21+ megiverse will break everything.
Mission 1
Critter Roster:
Baisha Type 21(Earth)
Ageeta(Ice)
Rappy(Light)
I forsee a lot of Killer Shot in the future...
Mission 2
Critter Roster:
Gohmons(Ice)
Ageeta(Ice)
Rappy(Light)
Wow. This goes FAST. The main problem with this run has less to do with the monsters and more to do with the party being disorganized and keeping zones not covered.
This is by far the easiest bonus mission out there.
Fighters:
Use "mobility" PAs like the single daggers, and heck, maybe even Tornado dance to get around. All the monsters here are highly vulnerable to your attacks. I was using the first hit of the ultimate single dagger PA just to cruise around and demolish. If you don't have any PA frags, then you'll do just fine with the first single dagger PA too.
I did some Assault Crush spamming as well, but I ended up sticking with the mobility that Hikai Shuha-zan gave me.
Rangers:
Your close range weapons rock here. Shotguns, crossbows, machine guns and the like. Everything here is weak to your attacks as well.
Techers:
Go about your usual business. Sure, the Gohmons are tech resistant, but they have such little HP, if your techs are 21+, they'll be total pushovers.
Unlike some of the other missions, having a force is not a liability.
Keep an eye on your party and make sure no one gets frozen. This is highly unlikely if you're in a decent group, but as a Japanese proverb states,
"Even monkeys fall from trees."
Mission 3
Critter Roster:
Ageeta(Ice)
Kamatoze(Ice)
Jaggos(Light)
More ice critters to be ruthlessly slaughtered by the throngs of 2-Head Ragnuses out there....
Colony!
The box formations are a pain here! The first spawn is the same spread out grid as Parum and Neudiaz. The second spawn is 2 boxes along each of the 4 fences. High levels of megiverse will still reach.
Mission 1
Critter Roster:
Delseban(Dark)
Gaozoran(Dark)
Rappy(Light)
Fighters:
Try and memorize where shield variants of monsters spawn after the 2nd boxes so you can mop those up right away.
If there's more than one of you, pick a side of the arena as your territory and stay within it. If a monster wanders off out of your zone, don't chase it. Another is likely to spawn in soon.
Rangers:
Pick your corner and fire away. If there are fighters in the party, keep them covered. If they're wailing on a Gaozoran and there's an unsuspecting Delseban sneaking up on them, shoot 'em!
Techers:
If you have high level bow bullets, you can pretend to be a ranger. Especially since Gaozorans are nasty tech resistant. On B and A, Deljebans hop around all the time, being a complete and utter pain to foie or even Nozu-diga.
BUT WHAT ABOUT REGRANT? But what indeed!
Be sure you watch your HP when you use it, especially on low levels where you can deal out a lotta damage.
Delsebans/Deljebans will go flying! They'll slide along the fence even if you've got them backed up there. Watch your radar to see what's going on.
Mission 2
Critter Roster:
Delseban(Dark)
Dinilzen(Dark)
Rappy(Light)
Fighters:
These infernal jackelopes can really knock you around. Flank them and spam a power PA.
Rangers:
Prioritize picking off the Deljebans. Shooting the Dinilzens make them jump at you and knock you over and anyone near you. Leave them to the fighters and techers unless there's nothing but Dinilzens spawning(which happens towards the end.) You can "melee" them by just shooting them point blank.
Fortegunners can dish out decent damage for bonus missions' sake with a spear or saber. Especially with spinning strike.
Forces:
Regrant will be a bit easier to use against the death bunnies. You won't knock them over and they aren't so utterly tech resistant. Just watch your HP!
If you can, cast Gi-Resta before the bonus mission starts and equip an HP restoring unit. Still, be sure to pop a mate from time to time.
Mission 3
Critter Roster:
Delseban(Dark)
Carriguine(Dark)
Jaggos(Light)
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: haruna on 2007-11-03 12:16 ]</font>
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If you're "forced" into it (lol?), stand in a corner where vanda aren't silencing you from all sides, and pick off a few with rabarta.
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