Iji

@Pacific: If that's the same secret I'm thinking of, you can also kick the Tasen off the platform and make him shoot the barrel for you.

Oh, and have I mentioned that I consider VNV Nation's Further one of the most epic songs in the universe, even before I heard the LifeForce cover in Iji?

The LifeForce cover that was used in the ending was my first exposure to that awe-inspiring song. I'll have to seek out the original...

*listens*

You know, I think the LifeForce cover is just a little bit better. The driving synth in the original really doesn't cooperate with the lyrics, in my opinion.

edited 30th May '09 1:11:22 PM by Eriksson

Yeah, I prefer the cover version.

Also, what the heck is nanofield resetting? Is it like some way to suddenly re-distribute your nano points? What do you have to do to pay for an ability that sounds this useful?

/me never used it, despite finding the infobox about it

Nanofield reboot drops all your skills back to one, drops all your found weapons on the ground and deletes the hybrid weapons, and gives you back your skill points. However, it takes your health down to one and upgrading Health will not heal you after you've rebooted, so it's best done near a cache of Health powerups.

edited 30th May '09 1:33:56 PM by Eriksson

Oh, so you don't actually lose anything, other than hybrid weapons (which you'll have to re-crack) and health (which you'll have to re-heal).

Yup. It's very important for some of the secrets in the earlier sectors and critical for pacifist-running Sector X.

Hardly critical — but useful, and therefore a fun challenge to do without :)

Anyway, after about seven attempts I beat Proxima with only 7 damage, so with 6 from the rest of the sector my total is now only 36. Looking hopeful! But seriously, why does no-one ever talk about Proxima? I hear an awful lot about how epic and awesome the boss fights are in this game, and I'd agree, except I think something's gone wrong somewhere if you completely forget about the hardest, least fair and least forgiving boss of the whole lot. I feel like I've been put through a blender and somehow just barely managed to come out again alive and able to lift my head slightly off the ground and crawl my way inch by inch to freedom.

Or is talking about Proxima something like talking about Fight Club?

edited 30th May '09 5:08:09 PM by Vilui

Proxima bored me. I think I might've liked it better had it been an all-out firefight instead of a Puzzle Boss.

EDIT: Oh, and about the reboot - you get a failed crack for each cracked weapon you had. It's to balance out the sucessful cracks you made getting the weapons, thus making sure you can't spam rebooting to become a nanomaster.

edited 30th May '09 5:35:46 PM by Sabbo

Who's Proxima?

The sentinel. In Sector 7 I think. Big metal ball which likes to use a bunch of the stronger weapons. Got lots of colored lines on it. Is the only enemy who can use the Nuke. Ring any bells?

Oh, that thing.

All I remember is something to the effect of:

"Identification please: three..."

"Uh..."

"two..."

"I'm Iji..."

"one..."

"Unable to confirm identity."

"Dangit!"

And then a rather entertaining battle, actually. But I'm surprised that the computer terminals are still standing after that amount of punishment.

edited 31st May '09 3:14:54 AM by GlennMagusHarvey

Proxima is easy with the Velocithor. Then again, everything is. Tried not using the electricity on it last time, but the thing flew in without my permission.

Nanofield rebooting does have a cost you guys forgot to mention: all your ammo above ten per gun. If you have two or three points in assimilate before and put them back when redistributing, you're out a lot of ammunition. And all your health.

Also, proxima is a LOT more fun if you engage him with a devastator in tandem with the electricity.

Meh, I tried the Devastator but it always knocked me down long enough that I couldn't avoid Proxima's next attack.

Meanwhile, my challenge run is almost complete: Sector 9 beaten for 27 damage, not bad considering that 18 of that was self-inflicted to get the poster, for a total so far of 68. Should leave enough margin for error for the last sector to be doable. Tor is no problem for me with the aid of the Massacre.

Hey, as long as you're doing everything else, and have the massacre, you might as well add "Maximum Charge Tor" to your list of challenges for this run. You'll still have health to spare.

Heh, tried that, but no, his new weapons are a bit too hard to dodge without putting a lot of practice into the fight, and to be honest I just wanted to get it over :) And now it is — Tor beaten, total of 90 damage, all challenge objectives attained. That was really fun!

Do you have anything else you need to complete, such as the Sudden Death Sectors, or the harder difficulties?

I haven't even tried the harder difficulties yet — this was only my third playthrough, or second if only completed runs count — but Iji has taken over my life for a week and I need a break :)

edited 1st Jun '09 7:34:34 AM by Vilui

That's fair I guess.

Random question: has anybody ever beaten Maximum Charge Tor on Ultimortal? (As if he wasn't hard enough to beat even when he was still giving me red nano every so often on the Hard difficulty)

I don't think I'll ever try that. Getting to Tor on Ultimortal is hard enough as it is (I still haven't been able to do it. I was 5 seconds away once though.), let alone beating him when he's at his best.

That sounds like a challenge! I'll get back to you once I do it. May not be today.

Daniel Remar did it himself and posted the video on Youtube. I'm guessing a few more people have, but noone here.

Mostly after fighting Tor too many times I find him boring, since there's so much waiting for him to let you damage him.

Is the 'no damage' challenge even humanly possible? With so many instant health damagers flying around I'm not sure I can manage it.

You have to be methodical. Once you've mastered the combat system, you should be able to fight anything except annihilators, assasins, beasts and skysmashers without even a slight chance of taking damage. It's just a matter of ducking at the right time. Annihilators can usually be run from or around, especially by the patient, and if somehow you can't it's possible to have a velocithor by the time you see the first ones. Don't ever try to run past one though—if you really can't go around, engage from afar with the devastator. Assasins let go if you hit them with a well-timed nuke. Beasts are only really dangerous in pacifist runs, and skysmashers are only found in Sector X and can be easily dispatched with any explosives. And while bosses can be tricky to bring down unharmed, restarting the fight does not count against your damage taken stat, so you have infinite tries. Really the only things that should cause problems are annihilators and Tor.

The other key is to upgrade your weapon skills like mad—you cannot have a nuke or velocithor or plasma cannon too early. The more overpowered your arsenal, the less capable dangerous situations are of existing.

Do remember however that the level of skill and patience necessary to do this is still pretty high, despite how easy I make it sound. I'm probably skilled enough by this point, but not patient enough.