T H E S U N T H E S U N T H E S U N T H E S U N T H E S U N T H E S U N

chrono_traveller · April 2022

I just got back from seeing this and its 1:38am, so I just have two things to say before I fall asleep:

1) What in the multiverse did I just watch?!

2) Holy cow was it awesome, in the most heart touching way I didn't expect at all

Transporter · April 2022

ph blake wrote: »

How are your 4/5* snipers looking?

There are a lot of solid AA snipers that generally do what Exusai does except with less damage (Blue Poison, Greythroat, Platinum though she's a bit different, Jessica and even Kroos are serviceable 4/3*s). The biggest thing that Exu has over them is that her burst damage and wave clear is much higher, but if you just need someone to kill drones then there are a lot of alternatives.

Silverash is probably the best addition to that lineup in a vacuum, since you have a lot of good sustained damage and ground walls, but could probably use a bit more burst. Thorns and Bagpipe would also be good picks since they are literally always useful.

The only other thing to note is that Silverash is mostly useless until you E2 him, Bagpipe and Thorns are ok-ish at E1 but need E2 to become truly broken, whereas Exu does her job basically right away.

I actually do have a couple of 5* Snipers, Blue Poison and Platinum and....literally every 4* mentioned here so lots to think about. I'm pretty sure...wait no, I can GET the mats to E2 anyone, but I don't have the exp cards just yet. Exu being online from jump is a huge bonus though.

shoeboxjeddy wrote: »

Exia is a great and reliable workhorse, but you don't "need" her. You need 2 to 3 reliable snipers for levels that call for them, and Kroos works fairly well through the first part of the game. Basic units like Meteor and Vermeil can also carry you for quite a ways. My personal favorites of the high tier ones are: Exia, Ash, Platinum, and BP.

As far as your ticket goes, I think Thorns is easily the strongest pick as he's good at wiping out everything except high defense units with high attack... who are attacking him directly. Very few units ARE good at dealing with that, so it's not even appropriate to call it a weakness. SilverAsh is basically a bomb to drop on a problem, but he's not even the best bomb in the game anymore (that would be Surtr).

The Thorns force grows stronger...

Dibby wrote: »

Thorns is a cornerstone unit and is just plain amazing. He holds lanes, he deals some of if not the highest sustained damage in the game. You can have as many burst cd units as you want (to the point of saturation, honestly) but Thorns is like, Ol' Reliable. You can use him literally anywhere everywhere. He regens HP when not attacking, so most of the time he doesn't even need anyone healing him.

SAsh is a great nuke, but requires a lot more investment than most units. S3 is great, but the difference between baseline level 7 S3 and S3M3 is... huge. Baseline S3 takes 30 seconds to charge up. M3 takes 15 seconds to charge up, increases the attack total from 140% to 200%, increases the duration from 26 seconds to 30 seconds, and increases the number of units hit from 5 to 6. It is legit one of the best Masteries in the game, it just takes huge investment. I would honestly say his base S3 is... kind of unwieldy until you start pumping into the Masteries. That said, there's a lotta nukes in the game now (though SAsh still maintains having his gigantic range as an advantage). Less important now but still a good nuke unit.

Eyja's a fair pick if you just want a Stronk Caster to carry you. Her S2 is honestly really good (you won't need S3 til a lot later on, but her S3 is bonkers good), she functions as a ST Caster but also pseudo-AoE, with the splash from her S2 and the multitargeting from her S3. She's just plain solid.

Exu is fucking bonkers from the word go. S1 is already great, S2 is better, S3 is S2 on fuckin' steroids. She will annihilate low def units. She was my first 6* and I'd pair her with Meteor for the -Def debuff and she'd just rip.. Extremely strong pick and still one of the best Snipers in the game. THAT SAID, there's a lot of good 4*/5* Snipers that can perform adequately. Exu is incredible regardless, but somethin' to keep in mind too.

If you want the Operator so fucking broken that they literally had to balance the game around her, there's also Surtr. Surtr melts things. She touches down and suddenly everything vaporizes and evaporates. She is Death, Destroyer of Worlds. Boss killer fucking supreme. She can also function just a plain solid Arts Guard, but her nuke is what makes Surtr what she is. If any sort of boss or otherwise Large Lad is giving you the fits you bust out your Surtr Army Knife and go to town.

Bagpipe is a literal gamechanger for Vanguards. Once she hits E2 you'll see what I mean. Imagine the following: You drop down Myrtle best 6* in the game do not @ me, and her skill charges in like 2 seconds. And then you instantly gain a shitton of DP. And Bagpipe does that for her just by being in the squad, not even deployed. And once deployed? Well shit, she's insane. That saaaaid, Vigna is basically the best 4* On-Kill DP Vanguard, in many cases outclassing most 5* On-Kill Vanguards. Bagpipe is great for the real super hard shit (Annihilation, Contingency Contract, Events, etc) but honestly Vigna can fill the role you need for right now.

Depends on what you need really, but. My reccos would be between Thorns, Exu, Eyja, Surtr.

Yeah, the only reason why I don't get Thorns literally this second is he's supposed to be showing up in the cert shop soon...ish?

Eyja is hella broke but...kinda boring.

Surtr is kind of my elephant in the room, as after this banner there's that 1 in 4 banner where I'm lowHIGHKEY hopeing I luck into her or Saga to power the BLAZE ENGINE.

vagrant_winds · April 2022

Thorns, Blaze, and Mountain are the trio of OP Guards for sustained dps and clear.

Surtr and Silver Ash are the tactical drop nukes.

shoeboxjeddy · April 2022

vagrant_winds wrote: »

Thorns, Blaze, and Mountain are the trio of OP Guards for sustained dps and clear.

Surtr and Silver Ash are the tactical drop nukes.

Lappland is not OP, but her silence on attack is extremely useful for various obnoxious enemy types (bomb spiders!).

Feldorn · May 2022

Blue Poison and Platinum are both very good. I think May is my favorite 4* sniper and I’ll probably M6 her soon.

chrono_traveller · May 2022

Wooo! Took like 95 pulls but finally got guard Nearl. GNarly!

I'll show myself out....😏

emnmnme · May 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxbAbCSQJ3M

Warlock82 · May 2022

emnmnme wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxbAbCSQJ3M

Because his name is in the title (well, the original Japanese title) :P

emnmnme · May 2022

I never did figure out why the Grim Reaper was in Castlevania. All of the bosses featured in movies (Clash of the Titans, Frankenstein, etc.) except Death. Would have made as much sense to have The Headless Horseman guarding Dracula's tower.

Heffling · May 2022

emnmnme wrote: »

I never did figure out why the Grim Reaper was in Castlevania. All of the bosses featured in movies (Clash of the Titans, Frankenstein, etc.) except Death. Would have made as much sense to have The Headless Horseman guarding Dracula's tower.

Death is bound to the Crimson Stone, and whomever Controls the crimson stone controls Death. Currently the crimson stone is in the possession of one Mathias Cronqvist (aka Dracula) who used it to absorb the soul of the first known vampire, Walter Bernhard. Thus becoming a Vampire himself and the Dark Lord, Avatar of Chaos on earth. Death is not a natural force or the personification of natural death. he is a Chaos deity named Death because that's what happens whenever he is around.

rahkeesh2000 · May 2022

emnmnme wrote: »

I never did figure out why the Grim Reaper was in Castlevania. All of the bosses featured in movies (Clash of the Titans, Frankenstein, etc.) except Death. Would have made as much sense to have The Headless Horseman guarding Dracula's tower.

I mean, he shows up eventually.

Kalnaur · May 2022

Heffling wrote: »

emnmnme wrote: »

I never did figure out why the Grim Reaper was in Castlevania. All of the bosses featured in movies (Clash of the Titans, Frankenstein, etc.) except Death. Would have made as much sense to have The Headless Horseman guarding Dracula's tower.

Death is bound to the Crimson Stone, and whomever Controls the crimson stone controls Death. Currently the crimson stone is in the possession of one Mathias Cronqvist (aka Dracula) who used it to absorb the soul of the first known vampire, Walter Bernhard. Thus becoming a Vampire himself and the Dark Lord, Avatar of Chaos on earth. Death is not a natural force or the personification of natural death. he is a Chaos deity named Death because that's what happens whenever he is around.

Right, that's the in universe explanation, but none of that existed when they made the NES Castlevania.

AbsoluteZero · May 2022

Because it's fucking badass that's why.

Feldorn · May 2022

Honeyberry (or Mulberry if you pulled her) is an incredibly good medic for the Annihilation to remove the elemental buildup from the casters in the boats. I bought Honeyberry from the shop and got her to E1L70 for it and used an amalgamation of various strats to fit it to my team since I don't have Thorns.

Capt Howdy · May 2022

I heard Death looks like the Reaper in the game because Konami wouldn't pay likeness rights for Ian McKellen.

Thats what Jack Slater told me, anyway.

Golden Yak · May 2022

I do look forwards to them bringing in Famine, Pestilence, and War one day.

emnmnme · May 2022

The first boss in Castlevania should have been the Wolfman instead of a giant bat. Ain't no giant bat Universal Monsters movie. They somewhat remedied this oversight with the wolf boss in Castlevania Bloodlines that takes place in the same spot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT8h0AtQVk4

cj iwakura · May 2022

Golden Yak wrote: »

I do look forwards to them bringing in Famine, Pestilence, and War one day.

Nocturne cornered the market on using the Horsemen.

Lucascraft · May 2022

cj iwakura wrote: »

Golden Yak wrote: »

I do look forwards to them bringing in Famine, Pestilence, and War one day.

John the Beloved cornered the market on using the Horsemen.

Fixed.

Enlong · May 2022

One thing I thought was neat in Portrait of Ruin was how they brought back the old bosses for the rehash stages towards the end. The pyramid uses the Mummy, the dark academy uses the Creature, burnt paradise uses Medusa.

The one weird thing is that the 13th street uses the werewolf instead of the giant bat. Which is honestly fitting for the location (I mean, come on; it's literally a werewolf of london), but it kinda breaks from the idea of using the bosses of CV1.

Heffling · May 2022

Kalnaur wrote: »

Heffling wrote: »

emnmnme wrote: »

I never did figure out why the Grim Reaper was in Castlevania. All of the bosses featured in movies (Clash of the Titans, Frankenstein, etc.) except Death. Would have made as much sense to have The Headless Horseman guarding Dracula's tower.

Death is bound to the Crimson Stone, and whomever Controls the crimson stone controls Death. Currently the crimson stone is in the possession of one Mathias Cronqvist (aka Dracula) who used it to absorb the soul of the first known vampire, Walter Bernhard. Thus becoming a Vampire himself and the Dark Lord, Avatar of Chaos on earth. Death is not a natural force or the personification of natural death. he is a Chaos deity named Death because that's what happens whenever he is around.

Right, that's the in universe explanation, but none of that existed when they made the NES Castlevania.

This is like complaining that a tv show doesn't have fully developed characters when all you've seen is the pilot. Stuff happens all the time in entertainment that requires convoluted explanations later.

Kalnaur · May 2022

Heffling wrote: »

Kalnaur wrote: »

Heffling wrote: »

emnmnme wrote: »

I never did figure out why the Grim Reaper was in Castlevania. All of the bosses featured in movies (Clash of the Titans, Frankenstein, etc.) except Death. Would have made as much sense to have The Headless Horseman guarding Dracula's tower.

Death is bound to the Crimson Stone, and whomever Controls the crimson stone controls Death. Currently the crimson stone is in the possession of one Mathias Cronqvist (aka Dracula) who used it to absorb the soul of the first known vampire, Walter Bernhard. Thus becoming a Vampire himself and the Dark Lord, Avatar of Chaos on earth. Death is not a natural force or the personification of natural death. he is a Chaos deity named Death because that's what happens whenever he is around.

Right, that's the in universe explanation, but none of that existed when they made the NES Castlevania.

This is like complaining that a tv show doesn't have fully developed characters when all you've seen is the pilot. Stuff happens all the time in entertainment that requires convoluted explanations later.

I guess I should have been clearer. I like the in-universe explanation, I'm not complaining about it, I'm responding more to the idea that the explainer after the fact decades later explains why they put him into the game when they were first making it. The reason was almost certainly more "a personification of Death would be cool in this game", which is a just fine reason to have Death in any game, let's be honest.

shoeboxjeddy · May 2022

Death is in Castlevania because he's a spooky robed skeleton who throws scythes at you, and that's pretty metal. All other reasoning is gilding the lily.

Warlock82 · May 2022

Oh, I probably should have started the event sooner than last night. I didn't realize there was like a daily jobs component thing to it. Oops

Oh well. I am always so lazy on these events but this one said it lasted until the 19th so I thought I had a lot of time. Still I should probably not slack so much :P (I still only did the first four missions)

RidleySaria · May 2022

There's a reason I like that a giant bat is the first boss in Castlevania. Back in the 80's, kids like me didn't know much about games. We didn't have the internet. Later there was Nintendo Power but most kids my age were going in blind. When you start Castlevania you see Simon at the gate of the castle. That's all you get before level 1 begins. You specifically aren't shown the map. You go through a few screens and then you're at the boss. An ignorant kid in the 80's might think that's Dracula. All things considered it's a pretty easy boss, but it's not a complete pushover either. A kid might beat the bat and excitedly think "I beat the game! I killed Dracula!". A lot of us back then were coming off Atari games. A lot of those games didn't have a lot of variety. It was all a high score challenge, playing the same game scenarios over and over again. A kid might assume Castlevania is a short game, or just about high scores. After all, the game takes time to calculate the score after you grab the crystal. But then the map scrolls in showing the future path through the castle. That kid who was full of assumptions would suddenly realize he didn't fight Dracula and it was only the tip of the iceberg. I really like that. I think there's less chance of that happening if the boss was a werewolf or something.

Yeah, these days new players probably know even an old game would be longer than that first level. My feelings are based on an assumption of how a new player would respond in the 80's, and it's quite possible no one had that experience. And yes, any kid who sees the attract mode should realize there's a lot more to the game than that first hallway. However, I like the idea that it could happen and I feel like the game was intentionally designed for that experience.

Feldorn · May 2022

my main reason for jumping into events is extra farming time. I do usually put of the EX stages for awhile.

shoeboxjeddy · May 2022

Pulled Flametail today, I didn't realize her VA was Haruhi. Now I get to sit on this rather nice hoard of pulls I saved up for this event and save it for the next best opportunity. Which one is probably the most exciting after this event?

Transporter · May 2022

shoeboxjeddy wrote: »

Pulled Flametail today, I didn't realize her VA was Haruhi. Now I get to sit on this rather nice hoard of pulls I saved up for this event and save it for the next best opportunity. Which one is probably the most exciting after this event?

Chinese New Year banner is Ling and a good defender, forget his name off-hand, and if you go to pity you can get any of the Limited Chinese New Year characters you missed. Ling is a game changing Summoner, in that she is actually a Summoner, and her S3 can make two Mudrocks.

I'm not kidding.

.....BUT I PERSONALLY NEED HORN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBbNoZAQ1j8

Dibby · May 2022

HEY I recorded EX-4 CM and hoo boy that was real sweaty hours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIyhPlzBWOc

It was a very last minute "Huh maybe I should record this" so the condition screen doesn't show, but, it's Defender/Guard Operators have tripled DP costs.

Did not occur to me at all that I would wanna record EX CMs 1/2/3 cause they were pretty easy oneshots for me, but. I'll definitely record more going forward! I mean obvs my strat was not the Intended Method but yknow what, fuck those archers holy shit

Warlock82 · May 2022

Noice, got a second Flametail in my free summon last night.

Also I am so behind on this event. I really need to get the event missions done already before it's too late.

Feldorn · May 2022

I was sick today so I spent a couple hours going through the EX and S stages.

Went pretty well, Kal and Chen were the MVPs for my account. Seriously though some of these enemies were beefcakes and I pulled out Scwartz to deal with them on NL-S-2.

Also, I will once again sing praises to Honeyberry. Great medic. Do recommend.

shoeboxjeddy · May 2022

Finished off all the EXs and their Challenge modes. I didn't use loaners or strats for any of them so far, feels pretty good. Nealter is a powerful new stick to hit enemies with, very helpful. Still need to do the two access card levels yet.
Edit: S1 done easily.

38thDoe · May 2022

Enlong wrote: »

One thing I thought was neat in Portrait of Ruin was how they brought back the old bosses for the rehash stages towards the end. The pyramid uses the Mummy, the dark academy uses the Creature, burnt paradise uses Medusa.

The one weird thing is that the 13th street uses the werewolf instead of the giant bat. Which is honestly fitting for the location (I mean, come on; it's literally a werewolf of london), but it kinda breaks from the idea of using the bosses of CV1.

Symphony did that too for the reverse castle I'm pretty sure. Medusa, Darkwing Bat (reminded me too much of the Disney Afternoon but), Death, The Creature, Mummies(wait was there a mummy?). The Castlevania 3 boss fight was pretty awesome too. Would be fine seeing more of those throwback fights in the games. If they made any games.

Enlong · May 2022

Yeah, SOTN had a mummy boss in the reverse castle, as Akmodan II.

Rondo of Blood also had a classic boss showcase. Shaft summons the giant bat, Medusa, Mummy, and Creature before fighting Richter directly.

Dibby · May 2022

NL-S-2 Challenge Mode complete!! Oof this one was hard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtZfJMjAPkA

SHHHHHHhhhhh i didn't know about the SAsh spot which makes this whole thing like 10x easier. pain.....

but HEY i still got it but WHOOF that was mega hard

But it is pretty cool I can clear this stuff with my own strats.

chrono_traveller · May 2022

Took me so much time to get the exact right timing to be able to get the space behind all my guys illuminated so that caster dude wouldn't just one shot them...

38thDoe · May 2022

I never played Rondo of Blood. I kept wanting to play the Dracula X one, but never got around to importing it or whatever. Is it in a collection on steam yet?

Kupi · May 2022

38thDoe wrote: »

I never played Rondo of Blood. I kept wanting to play the Dracula X one, but never got around to importing it or whatever. Is it in a collection on steam yet?

Dracula X is part of the Castlevania Advance Collection on Steam, in fact!

38thDoe · May 2022

Thank you! What an odd collection to add Dracula X to.

Steev · May 2022

Rondo of Blood is definitely superior to Dracula X, but they're pretty different games in the end. They just share some of the same sprites.

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