Solo PD Thread

[Lyrise]

And then there's this noob with a +35 Union DB affixed with Astral Soul, Love Fever, Modulator, Power III, and Flict Arma, with mildly half-assed Autere Rear + Austere Arm + Whitill Leg units (Union affixes wiped out all my meseta, but all have at least 80 S-Atk and a good chunk of PP) still can't S-Rank with it. I've tried cheesing it a couple times with a BR/HU using Xie Katana and, while it's an easy clear, it wasn't any better than my BO/HU times. I have 6 clears under my belt and none of them have had more than 4 minutes remaining on the clock. Double I can usually take out in under 5 minutes, PD is what gives me a majority of my problems.

If it's not constantly flying around in the air or staying out of reach, it's my frequently whiffed attacks, lock-on never targeting what I want, poor PP management, weapon switch mistakes, and poor timing on using hotbar abilities that get me. Only one of those is RNG, the rest is all on me. Definitely saving those triggers for 80/80 so I have some hope of S-ranking this thing. I don't care if it's cheating, I just want that title.

At the end of the day it's really just about learning the fight, and thinking about how you can exploit every opening it has.

I decided just to go in with my regular gear (which is as mostly removed from atk spec as possible without purposely gimping my entire character, +140 atk Union Katana +Bow, full union unit set affixed with 55atk per unit), came out with 3 minutes left on the clock. When I first started, the furthest I could really go was just past the Persona fight. In retrospect, it feels kind of nice looking at the improvement to my own skills (at least for this fight anyway) since the first day the solo EM became available. Felt kinda discouraging at first not even being able to finish, to consistent S clear (assuming I equip myself properly).

Now I'm really interested in the clear stats for this mission, which I hope KMR will deliver on the next ARKS Live! stream.

[ZER0 DX]

Spoiler!

So close I can taste it, I need to find a way to shave off a minute. A bit better PP management and I can probably do it, the trick seems to rely on using photon blade fever a lot more than I was initially using. Still saving triggers for 80/80 just in case, but If I can do it before then I'll feel a lot better about my skills.

Just bummed I wasted meseta grinding that Katana. Guess I'll give it to an alt.

[Saffran]

I'm still trying to get over the bullshit with Double. All feet are broken fairly easily but after that it's just run away to the max. I can probably shave 4 minutes on there alone with simply good rng.

[vantpers]

Depending on your class combo and equipment you might be able to kill Double right after he spits the cars when all feet are broken. Or at least finish it off during the spinning gate.

[Z-0]

Kermitpls

[Maninbluejumpsuit]

I need to shave off at least 40 seconds. Aside from not being trolled by double, what bits on PD should I kill, and what to ignore?

[Lyrise]

Even if you're trolled by Double, you should be okay if you killed it off in around 4 minutes, preferably less than.

Assuming you're still running that BR/HU you mentioned earlier, you don't actively go for the bits at all, because they will come to you. For the first 2 phases, if you've whittled the bits down to 1 left (out of 4), then chase it down, otherwise it's going to waste your time as after a period of time, it will detonate the bits, and that alone will kill 15-20 seconds of your time. Keep this in mind because there might be the unlikely chance that none of the bits were chasing you, you may need to go after all 4 actively if some time has passed.

In the 3rd phase, don't even bother chasing down the bits if the hands are available to attack (granted you'll probably be taking down some bits at the same time while you are attacking the hands). Keep hacking away at the hands on the platform until it decides to spam beams at you, then go ahead and chase the bits down, since you can't attack it directly anyway, so you may as well waste the bits that you can attack.

Of course it goes without saying but you can ignore all of the bits after the Persona fight.

[pkemr4]

Kermitpls

you going back to being dead again?

[Z-0]

I need to shave off at least 40 seconds. Aside from not being trolled by double, what bits on PD should I kill, and what to ignore?

I personally find that Double is honestly not an issue, and using my pure Katana tree with a Xie Katana (not optimal at all), I can consistently kill Double in about 3 minutes ~ 3:30 minutes.

The important thing for Double is not to keep constantly attacking it, but save your PP for when Double does lasers, walls and DoT pools, and use the time in between to restore your PP and gain gear. I personally also use Katana Combat right at the start for the JA Bonus, although that's probably not a good idea to be honest as you'd be better getting gear from a tower movement and then using KC right after that. Use KC after first flight as well so you can fight without harm during the Carousel.

Since you're hybrid tree, Kamikaze x2 with a Banish after the 3rd tongue will annihilate it before it can fly again. You need to connect the Banish while it's doing its animation before releasing the cars, then Kamikaze while it is releasing the cars and it'll die if you're strong enough. If it does do second flight, it dies shortly after anyway because it does rotating walls which Guren keeps up with perfectly.

When fighting PD, use Hatou if you have a good PP bar, Guren otherwise. Use your KC after first counter (for gear), start of Phase 2 and start of Phase 3 to focus the arm. You want to be using Hatou for the arm during Humanoid phase, or the bits will surround you and you'll hit those instead. KC is almost mandatory to get the arm with Hatou as well, as lasers tend to graze you a lot and Massive Hunter has hitstop if something hits you, which makes you miss the Just Charge. Use KC once again after Persona (you must learn how to fight him without KC for best results) so that you can focus the eyeball and kill him.

Also when PD stuns, you can just Hatou it point-blank, which is much nicer than Guren spam.

you going back to being dead again?

[Zulastar]

Omg. What I'm doing wrong here 'cause best time I can get is like

Spoiler!

With this setup

Spoiler!

on Br/Hu and stock Astra Reap +35. My best Doubles time is 5 mins. And with Xie's blade time gets much worse...
I wish I can find myself a team for that 20% damage buff T_T