Toggle Background Color

Previous: https://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=166582



OST - Missingno

It's here, it's time. The battle for the sake of Cradle Island; can we beat the living error who the Champion tried to drown the world to rid of?

In the left corner, we have The Wanderer, a being made not just from Salt, but also Shadow, who has fought their way here without any crutches (besides maybe a little bit of non-canon time travelling), a complete underdog; and in the right corner we have-



Oh sweet jesus what are those???



We still have the same team from the Champion fight. That includes an unevolved Alolan Vulpix as one of our leads.

...It's fine. We beat the Champion with this team, we'll get through this. I'll make this work.



First order of business is buffing up with Hubris the Zygarde; we're gonna need some firepower to deal with whatever those are.




Evidently the Decayed Aerodactyl has the same idea; is Sever Bonds just a better Dragon Dance? Wow.



Thankfully Hope the Alolan Vulpix moves faster than the Cartridge Error, so even if the Decayed Aerodactyl attacked them they still would have gotten Aurora Veil off.



um?



UM??? Did it just use Jirachi's signature move? ...I mean that signature move isn't very good, being just steel type future sight, but still. Why did it use "SuperGlitch" and then use Doom Desire? (I'll answer this in a bit )



That speed boost from Sever Bonds allows Decayed Aerodactyl to go first this turn. I can't decide whether Perish as a move name goes incredibly hard or is just really funny, but I'm not complaining.



Coil still remains a good option; presumably Perish is a physical move if Sever Bonds are any indication, and Coil boosts defense as well.



Hope uses a very pitiful ice beam; freeze chance would have been nice but it didn't happen.



Wh- Well there goes Hope I guess! ...Why's it called Lv. Down Wave?



Of course they have a multitarget move that lowers the levels of everything it hits. Of course they do.



Alright, I think the time to start sweeping is sooner rather than later.



First off, never use that level down move again. Or at least, do not use it this turn.



Optimism the Pikachu takes the Perish hit very well. Ideally we should have time to take these guys out before Redcap gets taken out.



Yikes, that is not the amount of damage I wanted to see from a +3 attack Zygarde. We're gonna need to Helping Hand.



A round of applause for Jirachi's signature move. It tried.



Optimism uses Helping Hand and barely survives another Perish. Unfortunately that Doom Desire put us a bit closer to death than I would have liked, but I don't regret mocking the move. It's very funny to mock Doom Desire.



Helping Hand boosted Thousand Arrows is a bit more like it. We can probably take out at least Cartridge Error next turn.



Optimism goes down to another Level Down Wave, but because both Hubris and Decayed Aerodactyl lose 5 levels, Decayed Aerodactyl is in kill range for a non-helping hand Thousand Arrows, and I have an opportunity to bring in some speed control to counter that massive speed boost Aerodactyl has.



Let's get a Second Wind going here...



...Why did I click Core Enforcer. Core Enforcer is a special move and isn't buffed by Coil; I'm a moron.

Cartridge Error goes down at least, but Aerodactyl will still be alive for next turn.



...I had to look up Whimsicotts defense after this, because I was so sure that Whimsicott would have died to basically any attack, much less a +1 attack from a mon 16 levels above it. Uh, good job tanking that, Second Wind? Hopefully it makes a difference!



Bad Egg! I used to get a bunch of these back when I played FireRed. I don't even remember if I was gamesharking around or if I just somehow broke the game, but having boxes filled with a few of them and wondering if they could even hatch sure was a thing. Heck, I think I even sent one out during battle one time. Don't remember what it did, I just remembered that it was on the field.



Sadly we will not be seeing what horrible awful moves this Bad Egg has, because we're just going to plow right through it and also KO Aerodactyl.



...Excuse me did you just instakill Zygarde, rename it, and set it's level to 1 on being killed by it??? What the fuck?



Okay well our heavy hitter is gone now and is probably gone forever and we're now up against a... is that a level 103???? I mean it's paired with a level 1 so I guess that's fair except no no it isn't. And it has Eternatus's ability to wipe stat changes so Zygarde wouldn't have been helpful here anyways. Cool!



With a level that high, we aren't doing damage to it via conventional methods. Thankfully, I had foresight, and Second Wind isn't just good for setting up Tailwind; they can set up priority Leech Seed (drains 1/8th health of opponent's health each turn, gives it to the mon in the user's place). DON'TRUN will hopefully meet their ironic-induced end by, well, not running from this.



We can Muddy Water to try for accuracy drops with Eve and- oh. Oh of course the level 1 itm_SOULSNAG has Wonder Guard (immunity to all attacking moves that aren't super effective). I don't even know what it's weakness is!



I have to give props here; the names of these moves are a really good balance of sounding glitchy but also threatening. Anyways Second Wind goes down, but that Leech Seed might have saved us.



Item Soulsnag also has Level Down Wave, in case you thought we were safe from it. This is actually a minor blessing in disguise; it lowers our levels, but because it's effectively an Earthquake it also hits DON'TRUN, lowering their level and making them a bit more killable. Mr Run Phobia loses 5 levels while Eve loses 4. I think it's a range between 4-7 levels lost; which can either be in or against our favor.



Anyways, 4 of our mons are dead so we have to send out Kyu- wait what is that.



My friend! Look how they massacred my friend!

I guess Hubris... didn't die from that Final Revenge ability? But good lord. What has happened to them???

(ignore the level and stats discrepancy I was a moron and forgot to take a screenshot of their profile when this first happened)



So, uh, "Hubris?" has Neuroforce as an ability, and also comes with a new moveset, and also has a respectable HP stat. There's even some glitch moves here; let's check them out! Been wanting to see what Perish does.







Oh hey, that's the line from the explodey guy we got the Forretress from! I guess nowhere was safe, huh.



Spiky Shield and Mirror Move are both regular Pokémon moves; Spiky Shield is just better Protect that damages mons that make contact with it by 1/8th, and Mirror Move copies whatever the last move the target used was. Both of these are pretty useful; let's start with Spiky Shield! If both of our mons protect this turn, we can hopefully bait Soulsnag into leveling down DON'TRUN some more.



Success! I have the cleverness. Also good to know that Level Down Wave is a contact move; I guess that feels suitably buggy from Missingno.



With that gambit out of the way, I think Soulsnag has outlived it's usefulness. It's weak to Perish, thankfully. I don't think I even need the helping hand boost given it's level 1, but it feels nice.

Fun fact: Soulsnag's BST is 14912. It has incredible stats across the board; but it doesn't matter cause it's level 1. It's just funny knowledge.



Oh hey, we see another Superglitch. I guess I'll spill the beans on what it does; it's Metronome (randomly selects any move in the game) but the only moves it can select are Legendary Signatures... and one other move, which is extremely relevant in this fight given that we can use Superglitch ourselves.



The pitiful amount of damage done by Secret Sword is fully healed back by the Leech Seed, which is paying dividends here and giving Hubris more survivability on top of the really good survivability they have from their HP stat.



What th- of course the final mon Missingno has is a level 160 mon. Of course it's the skeletal Kabutops.



Protecting with Eve in anticipation...




It also has Level Down Wave. A double-edged sword; anything else still alive on Missingno's side of the field, even the level 103 (now level 85) DON'TRUN will go down in time if we survive long enough. On the other hand, this is a level 160 mon that we can barely dent, and will outlast anything we have on our side of the field.



The reason I didn't protect with Hubris was cause I wanted to Mirror Move it; all of it's moves are worth Mirror Moving, and there's one in particular I'd like to copy.



This wasn't the move I wanted to copy, but damn does it feel good to lower my opponent's levels.



DON'TRUN's attack gets blocked by Eve's protect, and all the damage Hubris took from not protecting is healed back up by Leech Seed. Unfortunately we only get at most one more heal off Leech Seed cause DON'TRUN will be dead by the end of next turn one way or another.



Kabutops shows off a new move, Curse?:¿:, which is just better Ghost-type Curse; it drains your opponent's life each turn, but instead of needing to halve your HP to use it, it slightly heals you if it is used on a non-infected target. Scary!



Curse is what I was fishing for with Mirror Move; Curse is also the "one other move" that Superglitch can call. By putting Curse on Kabutops they're on a ticking timer until the fight ends.



Eve finishes off DON'TRUN with a Muddy Water, while also showcasing that holy crap that Kabutops didn't even have it's healthbar move from that attack.



The special "Curse" that is inflicted also is only partially-effective against glitch mons, only doing 1/6th damage instead of 1/4th. We'll need to survive a bit.



Eve is not as lucky, taking 1/4th damage per turn.



Instead of switching out to cure the Curse, I opt to protect with both of them. I don't know if this was a good play or not, but stalling out Kabutop's curse timer is pretty good.



Gonna try a Helping-Hand boosted perish to see if we can't speed things up here.



First though, Eve and Hubris are hit by a Level Down Wave; Eve barely survives, and both lose 7 levels. Because of the Curse, Eve will faint at the end of this turn.



The perish,as expected, barely does anything. Kabutops is beefy...



Oh. It actually did something??? I guess it's one of those moves with a chance to inflict a status effect. What does corruption do though...



We only have to survive 3 more turns thankfully. Eve goes down, but we still have Kyubey, who has a disguise that lets them take a free hit. I think we're doing okay.



Okay that's a bit less great. It didn't heal much off cursing Kyubey, but that's potentially another turn we have to survive, and now Kyubey's on a timer that lasts about as long, if not less.




Yikes. Okay Hubris is one hit away from dead, and Kyubey's on a timer. This. This ain't good.



I had used Spiky Shield the previous turn in anticipation, and opted to Mirror Move in case I got something good. I, uh... I got something?



I don't know if it was something good given Kyubey is doing even worse off now, but... it's something???



Kyubey, meanwhile, set up Trick Room. Kabutops (unsure if that unpronouncable name is meant to be a 404 joke but I could see it) has been outspeeding, and my options are more limited when it outspeeds.



Kabutops is getting really close to dead, but it might not matter. Hubris is one hit from dying, and potentially so is Kyubey.

...Wait. One hit from dying?



If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me.



And here we finally see what that Corruption we inflicted does, though it's not immediately obvious since we haven't been inflicted with it; every turn, two of your moves are replaced with Struggle; with the two moves that are "deleted" changing every turn. I guess Struggle replaced it's only attacking moves. Heh.



Struggle: A move that can normally only be used when a mon has no other moves to use. User takes 1/4 damage recoil on use.

It survived on a sliver... But it's still cursed, and it has less than 1/6th health.



A mon fainting while cursed has a special death message regardless of if it died to the curse or not.

It's funny; I didn't need Destiny Bond to win this. That Kabutops would have been dead by the end of the turn regardless. But. On some level, it feels right, ending things with my starter.



We. Win these.



OST - Silence

Goodbye.




Au revoire.



And good riddance.



With our duty done, and the world-ending evil defeated, we walk out. Out into the darkness.



Into Out of Bounds.

Next Time: The Epilogue.

...Okay, cool narration time is over, gushing time is now. This final boss fight is so fucking cool. I beat it first try here, but by no means is it a pushover of a fight; I just knew what I was doing mostly and the fight allows for a few mistakes in the cases where I didn't. It's simultaneously a fight against a huge overwhelming opponent, and a puzzle fight you can win no matter who you beat the Champion with. It toys with a bunch of cool glitch and creepypasta lore, the fight has several acts to overcome, and it even gives you the tools to win the fight if you don't already have them in the form of the Glitch Porygon. In a game filled with "win with the best you got", the Missingno fight is a classic "Win with the friends you made along the way" fight taken to rule-breaking extremes; where no matter which friends you bring you're going to be pushed to the brink, and one of your friends is likely to be corrupted beyond all hope in a way where you have to wonder if it's still even them. Despite being a puzzle fight with an "intended" solution, you actually have a lot of tools at your disposal to bypass said solution if you know what you're doing. I really want to see if beating Missingno by leaving Bad Egg alive and having the Kabutops kill it with Level Down wave is possible, because that sounds hard but also kinda awesome if it could be pulled off.

I said a lot of words just now but I feel like I haven't said or conveyed just how awesome-feeling this fight is; perhaps it's because the fight is just fine-tuned enough where one mistake isn't necessarily the end if you're paying attention to the fight and overall making good decisions. It's a fight you can theoretically win on your first try without prior knowledge if you're attentive enough, and honestly I really really appreciate that. This is the sort of fight where it can throw bullshit like Level Down Wave and the Final Revenge ability at you and it not being unfair (even if it seems unfair and insane at first). I heard Missingno was getting buffs before I fought them and I was really worried that the fight was going to be way harder, and I'm glad that it's not the case and that they're still manageable; I think Missingno being a "Super Champion" after the Champion would have been a huge narrative misstep; it feels way more thematic that Missingno is a filthy cheater who cheats the entire battle system and uses underhanded tactics like lowering your levels, but they're fighting you, someone who has experience with underhanded tactics. What I'm saying is, I think Missingno is one of the best final bosses I've fought in a Pokémon game.

I said the next update is the Epilogue a few paragraphs up for dramatic effect, but honestly I might do a bonus update before then covering a lot of the Missingno stuff that I didn't show off this attempt, because there's a few easter eggs and stuff you can do. I mean, after all, I didn't bring Ditto into the fight, and I also didn't show off what happens if you lose (which mild spoilers; you don't have to redo the entire E4 gauntlet if you lose)... So who knows, until Next Time?

Bonus Update: https://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=166602