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Zerky! the Omniserker
Part 9 - Insaneserker
Ghido's Cave is a non-issue.
Curaga, Air Knives, and Diamond gear are nice.
Zerky! needs this. There's no disputing this, Zerky! really wants to block as much magic as possible.
At any rate, Zerky! is more than ready for the Seal Guardians.
code:
Seal (Fire)
HP: 7777
MP: 10000
Absorbs Fire.
Immune to Holy, Poison, Lightning, Ice.
Vulnerable to Death, Blind, Slow.
AI Script:
Condition:HP < 3000{
Change Target:Whole party
Fire3
}
{Fight,Fight,Specialty}
code:
Seal (Earth)
HP: 7777
MP: 10000
Absorbs Earth.
Immune to Holy, Poison, Lightning, Ice.
Vulnerable to Death, Blind, Slow.
AI Script:
Condition:HP < 3000{
Earth Shaker
}
{Fight,Fight,Specialty}
code:
Seal (Water)
HP: 7777
MP: 10000
Absorbs Water.
Immune to Holy, Poison, Lightning, Ice.
Vulnerable to Death, Blind, Slow.
AI Script:
Condition:HP < 3000{
AquaRake
}
{Fight,Fight,Specialty}
code:
Seal (Air)
HP: 7777
MP: 10000
Absorbs Air.
Immune to Holy, Poison, Lightning, Ice.
Vulnerable to Death, Blind, Slow.
AI Script:
Condition:HP < 3000{
Change Target:Whole party
Aero 3
}
{Fight,Fight,Specialty}
From top going clockwise is Fire, Water, Earth, Air. They only do physical attacks until they get under 3000HP, then they spam one move over and over related to the element (except Water with Aqua Rake because AR is not water elemental for some reason). Usually strategies involve using Flame Rings to absorb Firaga and to take each seal down one at a time.
For Zerky!, the strategy is double death while he laughs off the seals' weak physical attacks.
All the death.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1pdhMxzcTg
Video
FINAL LEVEL: 45
DEATHS: 0 
You don't have !White equipped dummy.
Welcome to the team, Krile!
Meat Fort is pretty uneventful. Zerky! is hardy enough to handle the encounters here, though the dragon ones will wear him down quite a bit.
Black Warlocks are Zerky!'s best friends. Bone Mail nullifies Death and Drain, while Aegis nullifies Break, leaving Banish as the only real risk. Of course, with a Reflect Ring equipped they're even more of a joke.
Also, Float rules.
Anyway, it's time for our next Gilgamesh fight.
code:
Gilgamesh
HP: 55000 (Effectively 13000)
MP: 2000
Vulnerable to Slow.
AI Script:
Condition:V00=01{
Display Text: 'Makes me kinda happy...
{Hurricane,Fight,FrogSong}
Display Text: Gilgamesh: By the way...
Display Text: 'Where's that jolly old man?
Display Text: Cara: Exdeath...
Display Text: Gilgamesh: ... I see...
{Time Slip,Fight,Specialty}
Display Text: Gilgamesh: ...........
{Sonic Wave,Fight,TinySong}
Display Text: Gilgamesh: OK, this is
Display Text: 'the end of my warm-up!
Display Text: 'Gilgamesh Change!!
Unhide Monster: Gilgamesh (Morphed)
}
{Sonic Wave,Fight,TinySong}
{Strange Dance,Fight,Specialty}
{Flash,Fight,Specialty}
{Hurricane,Fight,FrogSong}
{Time Slip,Fight,Specialty}
{Rocket Punch,Fight,FrogSong}
Condition:HP < 42000 & V00=00 & HP Damage{
No Interrupt{
Display Text: Gilgamesh: So...
Display Text: 'Let's see...
Display Text: 'This is our fourth time, huh...
Set V00=01
{Flash,Fight,Specialty}
}
}
Gilgamesh is actually a pretty big threat.
Mainly because he has a ton of status effects to inflict, including Mini, Sleep, Blind, Confuse, and Frog. Zerky! is immune to some of these thanks to Bone Mail, but not all.
He also has the level-halving Dischord and the "reduce-to-single-digit-HP" Hurricane.
After a few tries, I opt with Equip Ribbon. This set-up blocks everything but Sleep (no biggie since Gilgamesh uses tons of physical attacks) and Mini (essentially death). It doesn't matter what happens after I trigger his dialogue as long as I survive.
Have I mentioned the Aegis Shield is fantastic? Because it is.
At this point, my HP is high enough that I've won this.
It actually takes a few more tries to win after I switch strategies, but eventually I pull it off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4xWwujWN6s
Video
FINAL LEVEL: 46
DEATHS: 12
Gilgamesh was a bit of a pain, but not too bad as far as RNG battles go. In fact, so far the only battle that was really a pain was Soul Cannon, and even that eventually got pared down to a matter of figuring out the optimal level and going from there.
That's about to change. Exdeath is by far a bigger roadblock than Sandworm or Soul Cannon ever was to Zerky!
code:
Exdeath
HP: 32768
MP: 32768
Weak to Holy.
Immune to Poison.
Vulnerable to Slow. (Don't Slow him)
AI Script:
Condition:HP < 16000{
No Interrupt{
{Fight,Specialty,Nothing}
{Fire3,Bolt3,Fight}
}
No Interrupt{
{Fire3,Fight,Specialty}
{Ice 3,Fight,Nothing}
}
No Interrupt{
{Ice 3,Fight,Nothing}
{Bolt3,Fight,Specialty}
}
}
Condition:HP < 7000{
{Meteo,Meteo,Fight}
{Fire3,Ice 3,Bolt3}
{Fight,Fight,Specialty}
}
{Fight,Condemn,Condemn}
{Dynamo,Dynamo,Specialty}
{Gravity 100,Demi,Fight}
{Fight,Fight,Specialty}
{Earth Shaker,Earth Shaker,Fight}
{Flame,Fight,Specialty}
{Hurricane,Hurricane,Fight}
{Zombie Breath,Zombie Breath,Specialty}
{Fight,Bio,Fight}
{L3 Flare,L3 Flare,Specialty}
React:Physical{
Change Target:?
{Dispel,Nothing,Nothing}
}
React:Magic:Slow{
Haste
}
React:Magic:Slow2{
Haste
}
There are two main cycles to Exdeath, with the second triggering when he hits roughly half HP. Normally in a solo run, the second is much safer, but here Zerky! is pretty fucked with either one.
First off, Exdeath has a 2/3 chance of casting Doom. Doom will kill you. You cannot block it with the Aegis Shield. You cannot avoid dying with the Bone Mail. Your only hope is the 1/3 chance Exdeath does not use Doom or you have a way to get past it (which only Chemists and Time Mages can really do).
This is bad for two reasons. First, I'm going to get fucked in a majority of runs and there's nothing I can do about it. Second, after ten rounds of attacks his attack pattern cycles back to the Doom one and again I have a 2/3 chance of being screwed over. So even more than usual Zerky! needs to be on the offensive. The problem being I have to chip through 16k HP before he goes through ten rounds when Zerky! can average 1.3k on a regular attack.
EXCEPT his second stage has a 2/3 chance of using Reverse Polarity, switching Zerky! to the back row and significantly reducing his offense. Even worse, despite always hitting it randomly misses at times due to Zerky!'s magic evasion, so it ends up being unreliable as hell.
The way it works is that it always works when Zerky! starts in the front row and always fails when Zerky! starts in the back row because fuck you.
His specialty is Vacuum Wave, which ignores defense and inflicts HP Sap. It hurts.
Earth Shaker is a non-threat, only doing 500 damage. Exdeath can nullify Float (either through a reflectable spell or through Dispel) but it's honestly a non-issue.
Blaze does 1/4 Max HP damage, except doubled to 1/2 because of the fire weakness the Bone Mail gives. This is one reason I eventually switched over to the Flame Ring from the Reflect Ring, since instead it heals Zerky! for 1/4 his Max HP.
He also uses Hurricane, reducing Zerky! to single-digit HP. Combined with Vacuum Wave's HP Sap, it's instant death for Zerky!.
So the big threats to Zerky! are Doom, Reverse Polarity, and Hurricane. But there's no way I can get past them with regular damage. I pretty much have to rely on Swords Dance.
Swords Dance does ~5k damage, or ~10k if I Dual-Wield. I actually only need three Swords Dances in addition to a couple regular attacks to defeat Exdeath. At 1/8 odds each. While needing 1/3 odds to survive the first Doom, roughly 1/2 odds to be in the front row, and 1/3 odds to evade Hurricane.
And after all that, even if I make it to the second phase, it's still not enough. Though his -aga spells are no issue with a Reflect Ring, his physicals are still brutal enough to wear Zerky! down and kill him.
I knew Exdeath would be a potential roadblock, but I wasn't prepared for how brutal he was. Hell, Sulla struggled with him with his insanely high-level Berserker. I ended up using his idea of the Flame Ring, which made Blaze a good thing to get and let Firaga heal Zerky! should he make it to phase two (Blizzaga nullified and Thundaga doing half-damage thanks to Diamond Helmet).
I tried all sorts of stuff. I alternated between Dual Wielding and using Long Reach with Aegis Shield. Aegis Shield let me live a lot longer against some of Exdeath's nastier spells plus gave me a nice evasion boost to use against his physicals. I tried Dual Wielding with an Air Knife, a Death Sickle (to quarter his 25 defense), and a Main Gauche (to block some attacks). I even tried fighting with a Staff of Light I got from a Metamorph (first try got the drop, luckily), though since its formula is based on magic it did horrible damage. I ended up grinding twice, up to 50, but honestly with my strategy multipliers weren't a thing.
Ultimately on my winning run, I used Artful Dodger, which let get out a lot more attacks while keeping the Aegis Shield. I evaded Doom, managed to stay in the front row, and got incredibly lucky with a ton of Swords Dances. I'd like to say it was strategy, but it wasn't. There's no way to boost the odds without a ton of grinding. This was brutal as hell, as you'll see once I post the deaths.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QohQwnkpGUw
Video
FINAL LEVEL: 50
DEATHS: 124
That's correct. 124 deaths. 95 of those deaths occurred while I had Doom (5-10 of those were a Doom from a second round of his rotation), though not all were caused by Doom.
Yeah, I'm just glad as hell to be done with this. Fortunately, World 3 is where Zerky! is going to get his vengeance.
Next time, Zerky! gets the Chicken Knife, and the fun really begins.