EP2 C-Mode Time Attack (new website for videos)

[yellow5]

7/19/05: See my signature for a link to my PSO C-mode website.

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First things first: in order to TA, you need to memorize the maps and enemy spawns. Two excellent EPII c-mode websites can be found here:

http://psoep.zdap.jp/challenge/index.html
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/mihara/sakura...nge/index.html

Updated: 2/10/05

My current times:
2-1: 39"05
2-2: 35"24
2-3: 17"03
2-4: 42"52
2-5: 22"49
Total: 2'37"13

I have a JP friend that has a 2-2 time of 28 min and 2-4 time of 38 min. His overall time is 2'03"00! He jokingly said his goal was 1'50"00 O_o

Anyway, I was wondering if people had strategies or tips for each area. If you have a good time for a stage, please describe the team you were in.

Tips that I have gathered:
2-1 (Temple):
-Ignore the first scape doll route
-During the sections where you need to split up the group, always go 3:1, with either the strongest player or the FO going alone.
-In the room where three Rappies fall from the sky, put a damage trap in the middle and get the boxes in the hidden path. When they land, the traps will activate and before you know it, the next wave appears. [pics coming soon]
-In the area where you have to activate the four switches, two people should cover the northeast switch, since it is the longest. One player should take the Belra route, and the last player (preferably an android) should take care of the other two.
-For the boss fight, use Daggers on the head. Learn the "safe" points on the raft where you wont get hit by the spread blast (corner of raft) or laser beam (directly in front of Barba Ray). [pics coming soon]

2-2 (Spaceship):
-In the first room, split up 3:1, with either the strongest player or the FO going alone.
-Ignore the side treasure chests in Area 9.
-Always ignore dubchics, unless you must destroy them to advance.
-The real Gol Dragon is always the one that flies up first after splitting.

2-3 (CCA):
-Ignore all enemies in the first area.
-When splitting up in the first area, 2 should go to the right and take care of that switch. The other 2 should take care of the other three. One of the players should leave the person at the third switch room and take care of the last one. The two that took the right path should release the player before going to the next area.
-When fighting the Mericol mini-boss, have the FO tech it to death while one HU distracts the projectile it throws.
-During the Gal Gryphon fight, the FO should always cast Zalure. Everyone should rally at the center so that the FO can cast Shifta. If there is a HUcaseal, HUmar, or any of the RAs, attack the head with a gun-type. If you find a Mechgun, use it! When Gal does the lightning attack, he lowers his head. As a HU, take this opportunity to deal significant damage, but make sure you don't accidentally touch the lightning. [video coming soon]

2-4 (Seabed)
-In the first area, first player should do, what I call, the Sinow trick, where it knocks you down a floor in the room with two Sinows and a Healing Ring. If successful, you should be on the same route as players 2,3, and 4. Clear a path for them until they catch up to you.
-When fighting Del Depths, Androids should lay a trap while they are sliding around on the ground and activate it to deal some damage before they rise from the ground. FOs can cast Gifoie and deal damage liket this too. When they actually rise, do H-H-N combos, since only connecting with the third attack of a combo prevents them from returning to their sliding animation. Using Hard attacks decreases your chance of connecting during the first two attacks, and then using a Normal attack guarantees connecting. Even if you connect with one of the Hard attacks, the damage will be worth it.
-Only destroy the Recoboxes that spawn Recos.
-During the second form of the Olga battle, all HUs and the FO should stay near his foot. After he does the shockwave attack, he will usually follow with the Divine (Heaven) Punishment attack. To survive this, run into one of the mines strewn about the arena. Don't run into a freeze or shock mine, since you don't get an invincibility period. His attack pattern is always the same: walk, shockwave, Divine Punishment, walk, shockwave, Divine Punishment, walk, shockwave, jump, walk, shockwave, Divine Punishment. Rinse and repeat. Notice after the third shockwave attack that he doesn't follow with a Divine Punishment. Use this opportunity to get in some good damage. He should be dead soon. [video maybe]

2-5 (Control Tower):
-Only destrony Recoboxes that spawn Recos.
-Ignore fighting enemies in rooms with the door already unlocked.
-On Epsilon, HUs should only attack when it is in its lightning or fire forms. The FO should attack Epsilon in all forms (with Barta if you have to). Fire form: FO Zondes, HU attacks; Lightning form: FO Foies, Androids use damage traps, HUs attack; Ice form: FO Bartas from a distance; Megid form: FO Bartas from a distance.

I hope these tips help other EP2 Cmoders, and I hope others have some tips to share also.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: yellow5 on 2005-07-18 18:04 ]</font>


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: yellow5 on 2005-07-19 10:58 ]</font>

[Deus-Irae]

wow, some good tips there. nice work!

im glad people are actually TA-ing EP2 cmode. even after all of the bitching everyone was doing when the no random enemy spawn thing was announced, i knew it would still be fun and worthwhile to TA.

(naysayers: told ya so!)

good luck with your ep2 times.

[SLON]

I think that a great deal of time could be saved by deciding beforehand exactly who is going to do what; too often when the party has to split it's a case of wondering who is going where and wondering what switches have or have not already been pressed.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SLON on 2005-08-23 04:46 ]</font>

[yellow5]

EPII is a lot of fun. More people should try it!

Hey, Bobble, didn't know you posted here! We need to get you and I under 4 hours for EPI. Hehe.

I forgot to mention that, in 2-5, you level up super fast since the experience gained has increased. You should level up every two rooms, so take advantage of this. As FOs, don't worry about running out of fluids, since it gets replenished when you level up. Androids should always spam Freeze Traps; it's essential to just surviving certain areas.

I hope to get some pictures and videos of some of the more specific tips that I mentioned above, like how to avoid the Divine Punishment attack, where to stand on the Barba Ray raft to avoid receiving unneccesary damage, the Sinow trick, and more.

If anyone has anything to add, feel free because I want to learn as much as possible about EPII C-Mode.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: yellow5 on 2004-10-11 00:31 ]</font>

[Sharkyland]

I have stuff to add, but in a little while.

[yellow5]

I almost forgot about this topic. I've been doing some more EP2 TA and have a new strategy for CCA. It's a bit complicated:

I was in a team with two FOs, a RAcaseal, and my HUcast (DEL). The first area is the most important. When splitting up, each team should consist of one FO and a non-FO. The team that goes to the right takes care of that one switch. The second team takes care of #2; here, the FO leaves the character that gets the switch behind and heads for switch #4. The team that goes right releases the the player from #2 and heads to #3. The second FO follows the other FO to the Transporter while the two non-FO characters take care of #3.

This strategy enables the two FO to take care of the Mericol mini-boss in area 2 while the two non-FO characters are still making their way to the Transporter. By the time the other two players get to the second area, the Mericol is dead and you immediately move on to the third area (Mountain).

In Mountain, the two FO Zonde Gi-Gue to death while the other two kill Gees for weapons. The rest of the stage is the same.

For the boss, both FOs should stay near Gal and Zonde. When it lands, spam Barta. If you get good weapons early on (Mechguns w/hit on a HUcaseal ), you can beat this stage in under 12 minutes...



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: yellow5 on 2004-10-11 00:32 ]</font>

[rena-ko]

nice work, nice work

and nice to get to know you on psow, we played together already (at least i have your card, heh)


i second the part about 2c3:
best team would be 2 hucl, 2 fonl
either bet on getting 2 guns on the way (like my one 16 minute run wielded) or be quick and 2 people run for the fixed boxes (at least gibbles and gi gue)

for gal gryphon:
always - from the very beginning - go where gal heads to. dont stay where it starts the flight.
use the area map for that, its easy.

gals air pattern:
turns clockwise, stops, turns clockwise, dives back, makes a rush and either flies over the whole area or does a land.

only the wings do damage, stay where its body crosses the area.

when landing: gunner on head or wing. HHH if two attack same target, NHH if one attacks (because of the cancel).
each force should barta each front foot 4-5 times.

if it shocks, huct/meleefighter should be in already, pounding on its right frontfoot from the inside (gal's head side) and can turn around to the head easily, dealing around 70 per hard hit.

if no huct is present, just stay directly in front of him and shot away.


for 2c4:
its a matter of weapons, so go for the 4 weapon boxes right after the ring in area 1.

practice the start. 4th player should be killing the two depths quickly. either alterning the foie blasts or using freezetraps.

3rd player is easiest route. confuse trap, kill off stuff.

2nd player, confuse the olms, freeze the depth.

1st player. advancing quickly and getting punched down to the ring in the ring room (practice that - easiest way is 2nd player path - there is only one spot where it works (at least afaik)). finish off the sinows and go on clearing the big olm room.

goal is 6 mins for first area or better.

rest is the usual. only care for the fixed box rooms (like the pallasch in the secret room in area 24 i think) and the hp mats / room.


its essential to know what reboxes to kill and what is the easiest route for the whole run.

laserfences can be ignored if youre rushing through it quickly. switches for megidrooms should be as well.

hm, more later, i guess.
i'm happy to see that there is still some space for me in 2c1 ^-^

[haruna]

As true with any TA game, replaying for good weapons at the right time is important, especially in epsiode 2 c-mode.
What do you folks consider to be vital drops?

For C1, running with a FOnl, HUct and HUcl x 2, hand guns(just for trap shooting in general) and a hit % weapon for the HUct are immidiate priorities.
Most of the big nasties of this stage are native(hildies, nests) or dark(belras.) Unfortunately, weapons in the Temple only get %s on one attribute.
Best I've seen is 60%, anyone seen higher?

You'll want A-beast daggers for the boss, but they aren't an immidiate need.

For C2, during the stage itself, machines are the most common pests. A machine % sword could demolish the swathes of Gilchics you have to deal with. A swing from a sword can come in handy for clearing paths.
For the boss, my HUcl found an autogun with 70% native, 20% hit. It allowed me to keep doing damage to the face easily.

On C3, I'd love to try your 2-FO party! Sadly I'm on Xbox and getting c-mode teams together isn't easy.
A very competant TA player experimented offline with his HUcast, beat the griffon at level 19 with a buster or brand and an auto gun.
The face and wing-pits are notable weakpoints and best accessed with a gun.
I've only beaten this stage with a FO. I would barta the wing tips so I could easily avoid the stomp(seems like the blast goes to the tips of his wings-they're a handy measuring reference.)

C4-Haven't cleared yet.

C5-I'm wondering how effective my favorite tactic doing normal mode Epsilon fights is:
-Run tight circles right up against epsilon. Just make sure not to actually bump him so that you stop running.
-When he opens his epsi-guards, you won't get hit and you'll all be right up next to him so you can pound his arse.

[Sharkyland]

e2c4
- When his head gets real close, you can attack him with his saber.
- The fire traps would be nice if you knew which one were the fire traps, but if you a bit tardy from getting out of there, you can take your chances.

e2c5
- If available, use grants on epsilon on red form.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Sharkyland on 2004-10-05 15:28 ]</font>

[rena-ko]

when epsi opens up, the guards are closer than in ult mode. ergo you still get hit.

how much more damage does grants do (on fonl, foml)?
is it really worth it, when found since it takes longer to cast?


epsilon is always semi-weak to barta.
you need enough distance so you dont get hit, then target the rotating shields so that your barta blast hits the core as well. does around 35 with a fonl.


if you play with Js, the fight will most likely lag.
if you, as a force, see the huct attack it, while its closed, just go in and zalure it anyway. it will be zalure'd on the huct's screen.


also, every player should enter the room. its big enough to hide in there, and the more are in the room, the longer epsy seems to stay open.