#2nd gig | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

untilteddocument · 1 year

Text

After-Action Archive Phoenix Point 2nd Gig - Hack the Planet, Part 2

Note: Being that this is an ending-related entry, unmarked spoilers ahead!

Welcome back, one and all, to my After-Action Archive! This is the second part of my recap of the final Phoenix Point mission when aligned with the Disciples of Anu. Let's get to it.

Last we left off, we'd just gotten past the Pandoran gatekeepers. The only thing left between the Exalted hijacking the Yuggothian Receptacle and turning into Good Nyarlathotep is...the Yuggothian Receptacle itself, plus a few elite guards and gradual but endless reinforcements.

First off, we parked ourselves at the gate, waited for the fire to burn out (it was a little close and I didn't want any careless moves to result in unnecessary damage), and slowly refreshed our Willpower Points. It took a few rounds, but we weren't speedrunning this, so patience was our ally. After everyone was good and ready, we put in.

The final charge was a bit trickier than the gatekeeper battle. For one, fewer and tougher enemies with more space between them and starting farther away from us means even a Terminator or Jedi would have trouble starting and sustaining the kill chain.

Micaela was able to get some shots in on the Siren and Chiron who were crowded together over on the right side, and the Siren in the central hallway was pretty easy pickings, but that Chiron on the left side was able to get off a shot...

...that totally missed, so fuck 'em! Ms. Howard and Ms. Brown with some support fire from friends below paid it a visit and brought it down.

There were some reinforcements that managed to catch us, but they were of little concern. However, it wasn't entirely sunshine and rainbows.

The Yuggothian Receptacle doesn't have immediate power on its side, but Mark of the Void offers inevitability, and every turn we spent dealing with the bodyguards was one more turn it had to wear us down. The good thing is, thanks to the Legacy of Ancients weapons having no ammo requirements, we definitely had more kick than it had ass. The trick was bringing it to bear fast enough. Cue montage.

Aside from a few required heal-ups from the Technicians, it was pretty steady going. There were a few rocks in the grind, though, in the form of those reinforcements. Two of them had the Tar Shadow ability, and I was running low on incendiary grenades. 'Course, killing them with fire isn't the only way to deal with the problem.

There's also...not killing them.

The first one, a gun-toting, grenade-launching Scourge which appeared during our approach, I had the Exalted mind control. No need to worry about it dying if it's helping us out. As a plus, Ms. El-Haddad's Synod head was paying the upkeep cost of the mind control, so all the Exalted had to do was stick nearby her.

Next up was another Scourge that came up from the rear, and Milas Johnston was the rearguard. In addition to sidestepping Tar Shadow, the benefit of not killing reinforcements is they don't send more reinforcements to replace them. Aside from mind control, the other way to safely not-kill them?

Paralysis.

That Athena sniper rifle put its two cents in nicely, stymieing both the Scourge and a Shieldbearer that tried to hold the line. Two shots each was all it took, and while the Scourge did manage a Return Fire burst on him, it wasn't anything that a Technician couldn't patch up.

Turns basically started to blur together.

Step 1) Find hole

Step 2) Fill with bullet

It's like the most bare-bones summary for TF2 porn ever.

Still, we kept the pressure on, and before long, we were listening to the sweet, sweet sounds of victory.

The Exalted was able to handle her end of the plan, and we were able to head out, fulfilled and comforted by the knowledge that our god was a hot giant squid lady, and she was right over there.

Thanks to everyone who stuck with me for this recap, and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it! I'm not sure if I'll do any more of these even if I do another playthrough, but never say never, I guess, so until next time.

#phoenix point #after-action archive #2nd gig #long post

0 notes

untilteddocument · 1 year

Text

After-Action Archive Phoenix Point 2nd Gig - Hack the Planet, Part 1

Note: Being that this is an ending-related entry, unmarked spoilers ahead!

Welcome back, one and all, to my After-Action Archive! This post, the last I'll be doing for my second playthrough of Phoenix Point, will be detailing the final mission of the game, this time aligning with the Disciples of Anu! I've been helping them throughout this campaign, which in a gameplay sense has mostly been the same as my first playthrough. The story, however...well, we've found out the Exalted's secret, after fending off a coup attempt from her scheming yes-being (bonus points if you get the joke), the Synod of Yearning.

It's kind of refreshing to see a faction so rooted in Freaky Meat Time revealed as genuinely heroic like they've been claiming all along, though this is also the funniest way they could have done it. The usual trope has the middle management operating in good faith and being deceived by their messiah-figure, and this holds true here, but it's the declared foundations of their faith itself that are dangerous, and the messiah's long con is on behalf of the rank-and-file faithful. I love it.

Anyways, so with the briefing, we were brought fully on board with the Exalted's plan, and we had only to do our homework while waiting for the Yuggothian Entity to get to its endgame...so we, in turn, could get to ours.

Upon completing the final research, the Pandoran Palace appears, and we're able to take a team of our best and show the Dead God how we do things downtown. Speaking of teams...

Roll Call

My absolute first recruit (and the redheaded lady on the title screen), Sophia Brown has gone through a bit different journey than she did the first time around. This time, she's putting her Assault skills to work in combination with the stealth bonuses of the Infiltrator class. Coupling Sneak Attack's absurd damage boost with her Shard Gun (some top-tier equipment I can thank the Legacy of the Ancients DLC for) means she's capable of some quick kills, and her Echo bionic head means she'll be able to do it without them even knowing where the hit came from.

For distance work, I've got her outfitted with a Crystal Crossbow, and for scouting and extra targets for enemies to hit, she's packing an Arachni spider drone launcher plus reload. A spare medkit wouldn't go to waste either.

-----------------------------------------

Somewhat less recent an addition to my team is Milas Johnston, who is here showing off the interaction between the Berserker class and non-Berserker weapons. Turns out, Armor Break and Adrenaline Rush work even better when all your Action Points can be used for attacking instead of movement, so coupled with sniper rifles (proficiency thanks to the Sniperist personal skill) doing loads of damage but not shredding any armor, it's an excellent weapon choice if available.

The combination of the Scorpion sniper rifle (another Legacy of Ancients special), the damage boost of Sniperist, and the damage boost of Sneak Attack means that he can do some real numbers when hidden, but his crappy stealth score means he has to be far away to do it, or else patch it with Vanish. Still, having the option of Vanish means it can work, and with an Athena paralyzing sniper rifle and a Destiny back-mounted laser cannon with plenty of reloads to round out his arsenal, he's loaded for bear, or Lovecraftian god.

-----------------------------------------

Being that most of this crew was on a squad with a vehicle, it's only reasonable to include a few specialists in that line. Asia Howard is one of them. Assault/Technician is a pretty common combo (Dash + any other class is almost never a wrong choice), and while there aren't any utterly broken interactions here (Rapid Clearance plus the Self-Defense Specialist personal skill and a Gorgon Eye PDW wouldn't be bad, but that's not why she's on the team), her main niche is of working with whatever robo-buddies we have deployed on the mission. Whether her Watcher and Rattlesnake turrets or Sophia's spider drones or any vehicle we have on site, she can compound their effectiveness with Remote Control.

Outside of that, she's also an effective medic, what with her high mobility and Tech Arms. For this mission, I packed a couple of reloads, spare medkits, and a Purifier incendiary grenade. I had a feeling that I'd be needing some of those.

-----------------------------------------

Next up is the next Assault/Technician on the team, Ruth Manda, who joined up with me when I saved her (New-Jericho-aligned) haven from Pandoran attack. The funny thing is, I was experimenting with her build shortly before this mission, and her being the second technician on the team was actually very recent. Instead of the Neural bionic torso like I had with Ms. Howard, I had her using the Juggernaut bionic torso with an eye towards using her as a frontliner. She worked well enough in that role, but for this mission, I thought a second combat medic wouldn't be uncalled-for.

Aside from her Shard Gun (its high burst of 15 plays very well with her Biochemist personal skill, which adds 1 Virus damage for every projectile), I also have her equipped with a Synedrion-standard Deimos laser assault rifle, in case longer range is needed. No turrets, but two Purifier grenades. As I said, thinking I'll need those.

-----------------------------------------

Another joiner, this time from a Disciples of Anu haven, Pauline El-Haddad also started with a much different build compared to now. Whereas she was a pure Berserker with a Tentacle torso mutation, I figured the team needed some support in a different area.

Cross-training her as a Priest, I figured the team could use some assistance with how willpower-intensive their styles were, so I outfitted her with a Synod head mutation, which comes with the Radiant Hope aura that restores two Willpower Points to everyone inside it every round. In addition to the obvious Gorgon Eye PDW for defense (and Biochemist for Virus damage, which synergizes with her Priest abilities), she has the Priest standard stuff, most prominently Mind Control and Induce Panic. The latter especially has proven extremely useful on previous missions, giving me a crucial long-range safety valve to neutralize any given enemy for a turn. Aside from plenty of reloads for the PDW, she's packing a Subjugator virus sniper rifle, some medkits, and...another Purifier grenade. I think I'll be needing some of those.

-----------------------------------------

Normally, this would be where I showcase the vehicle they roll with, but given this mission, I wanted three extra soldiers more than a vehicle. To that end, I brought on a trio of fixers from a different squad. First off is the table-setter, Louise Brahim. Packing a Scorpion sniper rifle, Piranha piercing assault rifle, and Enforcer piercing PDW, she does good damage over various ranges.

Her main draw here, however, lies (as it often does) in the Priest's access to unique abilities. In this case, her Judgement head mutation gives her a massive boost to Willpower and gives her access to the Instill Frenzy skill, which bestows the Frenzy buff on all allies within twenty spaces of her upon use. Not only does it give those allies immunity to Panic as long as it lasts, it ups their movement speed by a whopping 50%. While it doesn't affect the user, as a Sniper/Priest, she's well-equipped to compensate with range, and her Agile leg mutation means she's not exactly slow either.

So why is Instill Frenzy so important? Well...

-----------------------------------------

Say hello to the first of my hammers, Micaela Jammeh. This saultry binch was one of my earliest recruits, and she is a classic example of the infamous Terminator build. By exploiting the synergy between the Assault class's Rapid Clearance, the Berserker class's Adrenaline Rush, the Strongman personal skill which grants proficiency with - among other things - a fully-loaded New Jericho Deceptor machine gun, plenty of mobility, and an Armored head mutation to soak up the next-round Daze she'd otherwise get, she is well-set to run all around the map clearing it in one massive kill chain.

This can stall out against groups of tougher enemies that take more than one burst to bring down, but this isn't a character action game, so that's fine. Aside from a full brace of reloads, I also gave her a Shard Gun juuust in case she runs out. Shard Gun isn't exactly bad for damage output either.

Neither is...

-----------------------------------------

...one of our Ms. Brown's earliest compatriots, Omar Ashour. Similar yet distinct from Ms. Jammeh, Mr. Ashour here is an ideal example of what I call the Jedi build. See, Rapid Clearance is, overall, the most broken skill in the game if you can cheat the Action Point cost of whatever massively-damaging weapon you're using. The Terminator does so with Adrenaline Rush, which is Willpower-intensive, but works great anyway. The Jedi build, meantime, does it with a Vengeance bionic torso, which reduces melee attacks' Action Point cost by 1. This, in turn, synergizes with the Scyther, another Legacy of Ancients special and everyone's favorite Pokemon, I'm told.

The only two-handed melee weapon in the game, the Scyther is outlandishly powerful. Already, it's got the highest single-hit damage in the game (300, though the Deceptor can manage 420 on an armorless opponent if all shots hit), and on top of that, it shreds 30 armor and it doesn't strike just a single enemy, but rather attacks in a short-range cone. This not only allows for a bit of fudging for barely-insufficient mobility, it also allows multiple kills with a single attack. Combine this with the Close Quarters Specialist's 20% damage bonus to melee weapons and the Heavy class's Brawler skill adding 50%, and you've got a brutally-effective weapon that can put the fear of it into anything from Scyllas on down. Its only real weakness is the on-death explosions from Venomous and Acid Myrmidons, but Self-Defense Specialist plus a Gorgon Eye PDW means he has some recourse for distance work.

To round out his kit, I included a Legacy of Ancients Rebuke grenade launcher, some reloads for the Gorgon Eye, and a Neurazer paralyzer.

Okay, so that's all settled. Let's go birth a god.

My aircraft of choice for this outing, as shown in the screenshot above and implied by the size of my squad, is the Devilfish, a Masked Manticore and the very same aircraft that I deployed to take down the Pandoran Behemoth on both playthroughs. My squad deployed as usual and rendezvous'd with our special guest.

That's right, the Exalted herself is key to the plan, and necessity means she's not gonna Galadriel this from the shadows. Best part is, she's definitely not dead weight either.

While she lacks direct offensive capability other than Mind Crush, she's basically a dream support. Not only is she Lady Dimitrescu-sized with tentacles, she has a laundry list of Priest skills, some juiced up, like Mind Controlled (the extra "led" stands for Limitations Easily Destroyed, I guess) costing no Action Points. She's not a bad tank either.

With our team assembled, we took to the first corner, stacked up there, and then the squad Frenzied up (unfortunately, large entities like vehicles, Mutogs, and the Exalted do not gain benefits from Frenzy either) and I sent Omar out to get eyes on what we had waiting for us at the gate.

Well, then! There's our welcoming party. Six Arthrons, two Tritons, two Chirons, a Siren, an Acheron, and a Scylla. Notably, two of those Arthrons have the reason I'm bringing Purifier grenades, namely the Tar Shadow ability. Quick refresher, the ability means that if they die by almost anything (notable exception: fire, hence the grenades), an Arthron Umbra will rise from their corpse and get at least one turn of crab-hammering in before we even get to attack it outside of overwatch shots.

Interestingly, last time replaced the Acheron with an extra Chiron and added a Scylla, so maybe I lucked out, or maybe they adjusted the distribution. Either way, they're certainly baring their teeth at us, so how is this going to go?

Yeah. Jedi build is not to be fucked with. All that damage except for anything aimed at the Scylla and some good shots at the Acheron was all thanks to Mr. Ashour's deft scythe-play. He could have probably taken everything out except the Scylla (starting where I put him, I think getting to the Acheron would have been tricky if he had gone for the bottom two Arthrons instead, though) but due to Tar Shadow and those other two Arthrons panicking, I did what work I could with the rest of my team.

Asia Howard leaped up to one of the high ledges to throw out one of her turrets, which put some work in on softening the Scylla up. Milas Johnston did some work on the Acheron, everyone else aimed at the Scylla with whatever they had on hand, and the Scylla's willpower was low enough thanks to Omar's incredibly-demoralizing rampage that the Exalted could force it to Panic as well. That meant a free round where I could finish everyone off.

First order of business, those Tar Shadow Arthrons. They had fled the fire and holed up behind the Chiron corpses, so I threw down a second grenade and popped them with just enough damage to ensure they die in a fire next turn. The other two Arthrons were pretty easy. They just fled behind the pillars where my folks were ready to take them apart. As for the Scylla...

Cake.

That was just the opener, though. Beyond the gate were two Sirens, two Chirons - and unlike the two at the gate, these were explosive mortar types - and our main target: the Yuggothian Receptacle.

Nothing changed from last time. Still a damage sponge, still a ticking clock thanks to Mark of the Void. We had to run the gauntlet and then play whack-a-mole, trying to shoot it from whichever of those shields fails to come up. All the while, reinforcements would be periodically coming up from the pits scattered around. There'll be lots of camping, but it's not a picnic.

This is getting a bit long and I'm running out of attachments for this post, so I'll split this into two parts. Part 2 is here.

#phoenix point #after-action archive #2nd gig #long post

0 notes