So a few hours of grinding and Chip Trader usage later I have all two-hundred Standard chips, which means that a blue star gets added to the title screen. I don’t think this goes for later games, but here the Chip Traders (and the Bug Frag Trader) can be quite useful in filling out the library because they’ve been programmed to have a good chance of giving out a chip that the player doesn’t have yet as opposed to being completely random. What this means is that by the time the library’s mostly filled up they have a very good chance of dropping the last few chips needed for completion. It’ll still take a bit of time and lots of Vendor Trash chips, but it works.
So, now it’s time to open that door at the top of the giant staircase in Secret 3. The screen darkens and a voice begins to muse about Darkman and Japanman. Darkman apparently had a promise with Serenade that once he got ten-thousand kills the two would have a duel, while Japanman was formerly a member of SciLab’s Elite Corps. Since Megaman defeated both of them, his power is recognized. Serenade himself appears before Megaman, saying that he will allow him to fight for the title of Under King. Lan thinks that it’ll be an easy fight since Serenade looks like a vaguely Arabian-themed humanoid Navi instead of Satan, but Megaman warns that he’s massively strong. Indeed, Serenade explains that the secret to his strength is that he’s attained enlightenment, essentially. In this nirvana-like state he knows unending compassion and mercy, and thus cannot be defeated.
And before the battle starts I wanna point something out. See Serenade’s Navi emblem in the art below? If you look back at Mamoru’s official artwork you can see the same emblem on the side of his wheelchair. It’s not clear whether this means that Mamoru himself is Serenade’s operator, or if it’s there to show that they’re related (after all, Yuuichiro isn’t Megaman’s operator yet he wears his emblem on his tunic since it’s the Hikari family crest), but it’s a nice touch. Incidentally, according to the Complete Works artbook Serenade’s emblem was apparently inspired by an insult of some sort. I guess it could be construed as depicting a middle finger, but that’s pretty strange, to say the least.
Serenade
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HP: 2000
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Sonic Boom – When hit by an attack Serenade will twirl over to an adjacent panel, deflecting the strike in the form of a small air slash that travels down one row and deals 100 damage.
- Saint’s Light – A small star will appear and move down the field in an oscillating pattern for 100 damage.
- Holy Shock – Serenade protects himself with a forward blast of energy while smaller strikes randomly hit panels on Megaman’s side of the field for 100 damage per hit. If a panel is hit twice it will crack, and if hit a third it will break.
Serenade is a tough nut to crack because his reflection ability is absolute – everything gets reflected, including attacks that normally stop time like Navi chips. Thus, there are two ways to fight him. The “proper” way is to wait until he uses Holy Shock, as he stands still during this attack and thus will not reflect anything. However, he’s still protected from frontal attacks by the shield of green energy so the player has to use something that can pierce through or otherwise go around the shield. This makes for a protracted battle as Serenade has a lot of HP.
The other way of taking him down is by using three Area Grabs to lock him down to a single panel, since Sonic Boom needs an adjacent panel for Serenade to move to in order to activate. This has the added bonus of spreading Holy Shock’s attacks out. So yeah, the Under King is essentially a Barrier Warrior of sorts.
After the battle Serenade gives Megaman the Rank 1 certificate, finally bringing that subplot to a close. With this Megaman is officially the strongest Navi in Cyberworld, Serenade explains, but there’s one other that’s slowly regaining power by absorbing bugs, the incarnation of destruction. Serenade warns that His (he refers to this entity with the universal capitalized H usually reserved for God) is about to awaken. Only after Megaman defeats this foe will he be truly recognized as the strongest. With that, he bids Megaman farewell and leaves him and his operator to chew on his warning.
That’s all for Serenade. He doesn’t have any Alpha or Beta forms to find, nor does he have any Navi chips to collect, at least in this version. Time to focus on this new threat.
In order to fight the final Bonus Boss of the game we have to help its revival along by using the Bug Frag Trader. Specifically it needs to be used thirty times, for a total of three-hundred Bug Frags. You’ll know once you’ve hit the mark as once that thirtieth use goes through the Trader will let out a giant roar. This part can be done before Serenade is fought, and you can still freely use the Trader afterwards.
Once Serenade is defeated and the above requirement is met, we have to leave the Secret Area and then come back. The place will be a little more populated with Ghost Navis, each of them mentioning how they feel a tremendous power brewing deeper in the area. When Megaman approaches the Bug Frag Trader the screen will begin to shake and darken one final time as the final enemy appears – Bass.
Only he doesn’t recognize Megaman, or even his own name. It seems that he lost his memory while inside of Alpha. Despite this he’s more powerful than ever before, and still seeks to do battle with strong opponents. Since we last saw him he’s absorbed the power of Gospel, the beast inadvertently created at the end of Battle Network 2. At first I wondered how that was possible but then I had a flash of Fridge Brilliance. It was mentioned that Alpha was riddled with bugs, and we now know that Gospel is created when multiple bugs are in proximity with one another. And plus all of those additional Bug Frags that were dumped into the Trader certainly didn’t hurt. It’s going to be a very difficult battle.
Bass GS
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HP: 2000
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Airburst – Bass shoots an energy blast down one row for 300 damage.
- Explosion – Bass randomly fires shots down all rows for 300 damage per hit.
- Earthbreaker – Bass moves into Megaman’s area and smashes the column in front of him, breaking the panels and dealing 300 damage.
- Shooting Claw – Bass points and two claws will strike a random panel each on Megaman’s side of the field, cracking them and dealing 300 damage.
- Gospel Cannon – Bass pulls out Gospel’s head to breath fire on the panel in front of him and the column following for 300 Fire damage.
- Vanishing World – Bass pulls out Gospel’s head to shoot a massive blast that strikes all panels before him, cracking them all and dealing 500 damage.
- Life Aura – Bass is protected by a regenerating aura that blocks all attacks that do less than 200 damage.
This is definitely the most difficult battle in the series so far. Bass has excellent offensive capabilities (he doesn’t even have to charge Explosion any more) and Life Aura has been beefed up considerably (and returned to its purple color). That’s what really makes this fight challenging, bringing it down. None of the chips in my folder except for a Program Advance or two can bring it down, which means that I have to rely on the North Wind chip to remove it. Since Bass’s damage output is so high it’s wise to pack some defensive chips as well, like Invisible or the Mole series. Using Sanctuary to turn all of Megaman’s panels into holy panels is a good strategy, especially if you can use Life Aura atop them, as that will block everything but Vanishing World. I feel no shame in using Folder Back in this battle, since you can’t let a single chip go to waste.
Winning gives us Bass + X. This is the third Giga chip, and it has Bass attack the nearest enemy with Earthbreaker for a flat 550 damage. White gets Bass X, which has him use Explosion instead. Both chips require dark holes to be active to be used.
Bass once again goes into “how can this be?!” mode when he’s defeated, and Megaman gives him the same speech he gave Protoman back in Battle Network 1, that the reason he lost is because he’s fighting all alone. He says that even Bass, long ago, had a human that he could trust. Bass seems to momentarily remember Cossak, but quickly brushes the memory off and shouts that destruction is his only purpose before screaming and disappearing. Once he’s gone Lan says that it would’ve been terrible had Bass gotten loose in the main Cyberworld, but Megaman says that if that happened they’d just have to beat him again. Afterwards Lan makes a joke about how they could probably take over Cyberworld by themselves now before saying that it’s time for them to go home.
Now that Bass GS has been put down a green star has been added to the title screen. On top of that, the Rank 1 certificate means that we can finally clean out Undernet 7. Since we’ve beaten Serenade the curtains will let us pass, allowing us to snag an HP Memory (putting me at 980 HP, which means I missed one at a shop somewhere) and Guardian O. The door at the very top of the area crumbles now that we’ve beaten Bass GS, allowing us access to a PMD containing the program Giga Folder + 1. This lets us put two Giga chips into a single folder, but the program itself is pretty unwieldy in shape and is purple, meaning that it’ll produce an error no matter what.
So, the Under King Serenade is beaten, Bass is beaten, what else is there to do? That will be the subject of the upcoming final installment in this liveblog.
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