Ultima Shadow's and Trumpet Thief's SMRPG challange!

[Ultima Shadow]

I've had a hard time focusing a lot on videogames lately because of school... however... a SMRPG challange takes priority. xD Nah, but seriously... it has been less work in school the past few days and in 2 weeks I'll get some time off so at the moment I really DO have enough time on my hands for this. So... yeah... this is the PERFECT moment for a SMRPG challange!

The challange will be:
1)ONLY fight bosses. No unecessary EXP at all, so don't even use invincibility stars.
2) Standard equipment. You may only get the very first equipment for each character. After that, the equipment may NEVER be changed.

Trumpet Thief helped coming up with this challange.

So far, these are the ones who will attempt the challange:

Ultima Shadow
Trumpet Thief
bbomber72000

[Trumpet Thief]

chaos: Yaep, I'll be trying it. I've done something similar in SMRPG before, but never anything this hard. I'll post as I get farther.

Rubedo: The fun part will be that the difficulty will greatly grow as I get farther. I can't just level the hell up and just sail through.

chaos: Anybody else attempting the challenge, please post, and give us up to date information on how you're doing.

Albedo: How in the hell are we supposed to pass that bloody Yaridovich?

Trowa: Beats me.

Albedo:

[Cruise Control]

Um, Red essence? If you can play that game in the casino yet.

I\'ll do it too. I\'ll start now. Geno Whirl 9999 will be great for Exor.

edit: He knows about timed hits. Watch it or he\'ll punch your lights out. LUA

I wasted two mushrooms on the hammer bros.

[Cruise Control]

Yeah, I spent forever beating on croco, and he just healed 60 HP. DAMN YOU WEIRD MUSHROOM!

[Trumpet Thief]

chaos: One error. You are only allowed to use THE FIRST set of equipment you get (hammer, pants, shirt) or else it is pretty much impossible. Forgot to note that.

Rubedo: Me and Ultima are gonna start the challenge tomorrow.

[Cruise Control]

Finally beat croco. Due to save-state abuse and the fact his bombs miss often. I pity those of you using a console. He\\\'s one tough cookie.

EDIT If your good at timed defense, mack goes down without much of a fight. It the easiest win so far.

[Ultima Shadow]

Bah, save-state abuse is cheap.

And that's nothing I'll be able to use anyways. But because of the fact that so many attacks can be guarded against because of timed defend (you can take 0 dammage from all the Hammer Guys attacks thanks to timed defend, for example), I'm sure it will be possible anyways. And the whole point is that it SHOULD be as hard as possible, you know.

[Cruise Control]

Not insanely difficult like Croco. This is only my second playthrough.

[Trumpet Thief]

chaos: You'll be surprised how hard it is to actually dodge the creature's around ya.

Albedo: Damn spiny's are all over the place...

[Ultima Shadow]

Very well... here's my progress so far:

After the intro thingy with Bowsers keep and all that stuff, I went to beat the Hammer Brothers. And even though it has been a while since I played SMRPG last time, my timing is still in perfect shape. I beat them on my first try, taking a total of 12 dammage. I took the first one out with 2 Jumps, and then I Jumped a 3th time on the second Hammer Brother. After that, I just did normal attacks until he went down. I managed to block every singel attack they threw at me... and most of their attacks, I even managed to block completely, taking no dammage at all. The Hammer Brothers were the first (and maybe the last) pushover so far. Yay! The hammer! The weapon I'll be using for the rest of the game!

Now, I entered Mushroom Kindom. Time to get the equipment that I'll keep for the rest of the game... the shirt and the pants!

I also spent the rest of my coins on a few Mushrooms, Pick Me Up's and 1 Honey Syrup.


So... next up was Croco. But FIRST, there's something VERY important to do... and that saved my day later on. You MUST get the Kerokerocola which is inside a hidden Treasure Box in Bandit's Way. I'll explain why later.
And I don't know if it was just pure luck but... Croco spammed Normal Attacks and only used 4 Bombs in the entire battle. So I even managed to beat Croco on my first try. A Bomb= 1 Kill, as long as it doesn't hit a defending Mallow (Mario got less defense, so I don't know if he could have survived a bomb even when defending). However... the best thing to do with Mallow in this battle is using items and defend anyways so... yeah, 1 of the bombs actually hit Mallow while he was defending. And another one missed. So out of the 4 Bombs used, only 2 KOed any of my characters. And I had about 4 Pick Me Up's in this battle. However... saying that Croco was easy would be a lie. It was a lot harder to block his normal attacks completely. Most of the time, I only defended for -50% dammage. I only managed to take 0 dammage about 2 or 3 times. So the Mushrooms come in handy. Mario would take 9-10 dammage if he defended, so I usually had to spend a mushroom whenever he got attacked. Mallow only took 4 dammage, though, so he was a perfect meat shield. After spamming Jumps (I had 2 Honey Syrups and I had taken the all the hidden flower tabs up to this point) and doing a few normal attacks with the Hammer, Croco finally went down.


So... now, I got 10 coins from the Croco battle. Yeah... and almost all my items has been used up. In this condition, there's no way I could have taken on Mack. However... one of the few items I have left are... yeah, that's right! The Kerokerocola which I can sell for 200 coins! So... I sell my Kerokerocola, buy 10 Pick Me Up's, 10 Mushroom's and 5 Honey Syrup's. And I still have a few coins left for later on.

Note: Mario is still on Level 1 and mallow on level 2.

I fought Mack, and even HE gets beaten on my first try. I somehow managed to block every singel physical attack from those small jump-dudes and they only used Drain once. However... that one time they used drain, it did 15 dammage to poor Mario. And I really wouldn't say that Mack was the easiest battle so far. In fact, I think he was atleast just as tough as Croco. When Mack used Flame Wall, it did 15 dammage to Mario and 10 dammage to Mallow. And they both only got 20 as max HP. "Flame" did 19 dammage to Mario, so it left him with only 1 HP left... and it did 12 dammage to Mallow. Whenever Mack was alone, Mallow healed Mario with Mushrooms after every Flame Wall while Mario would use Jump. Whenever Mack's next move was another Flame Wall, I would revived Mallow with Mario and then heal Mario with Mallow. If it was Flame and and hit Mario, I just Jumped with Mario and healed Mario with Mallow. And finally, if Flame would hit and KO Mallow, I would Revive Mallow and then defend with Mallow. When the small dudes are up, just use 2 Thunderbolts.

After this battle, I leveled up for the very first time. Mario went to level 2 and Mallow to level 3. I picked "Special Attack + Special Defense" with both.


Edit: And yeah, I agree with you there, TT. That's almost the toughest part so far. xD And when you just fail to run away from the battles after accidently encountering an enemy. Ouch! >_<

[Trumpet Thief]

chaos: Okay, I already told you how hard it was to dodge enemies, but I mean really, IT'S HARD. Especially that stupid little goomba running up when I'm hitting the treasure chest.

Rubedo: The Goomba Bros. Were especially easy. All you need is timed hits. It is awfully time consuming though.

chaos: I'm on my way to Mushroom Kingdom. I took the hammer too, the only weapon I'm allowed to keep.

[Ultima Shadow]

Just wait until you get to the sewers. >_<

Really... those rats and ghosts are just SOOOO freaking annoying!

[Cruise Control]

Not as anoying as the bandits.
Um, nothing so detailed. I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'m in Kero, damn those rats.

Belome is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO easy. Come with 5 Honey Syrups, and 5 mushrooms, and you\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ll be fine.

Just Jump, and mallow uses honey syrups and mushrooms as necessary. But, if you run out of FP and Belome scarecrows Mallow, just attack. He kept doing it, I only used three honey syrups and more importantly no save states.

I divide my items:
10 mushrooms
5 Pick me ups
5 Honey Syrups
3 Able Juices

SELL THE WALLET to have some cash.
Yeah, if you go in like I did, you will still have 2 Honey syrups (I didn\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t get any freebies) and 1-2 mushrooms.

The nok-nok shell fetched 50 coins, so I replenished my items, then upped my count to 10 honey syrups.

THE WOODS ARE A LIVING HELL.

I think we should keep a game over count, and have a competition starting at Kero. I have 16 so far.

I can\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t get past the third screen of the maze because of those damn bees, and thornet is a 1HKO.

I finally made it, now to fight bowyer.
Bowyer killed me. Damn locking the item button.

Beat Bowyer Second try.

Strat
Mario uses jump, Mallow items, Geno attack.
Jump should be in the 45 range, a timed geno hit will do 40.
If you ever run out of mushrooms, have mallow use HP Rain, and Mario feed him Honey Syrups.

You can run from croco\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s flunkies, I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'m trying to do so now, without dying.

Croco 2 is unbeatable. He stealls all your items once he hits 350, and after that, every attack is a 1HKO. If it wasn\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t I could use HP Rain.

Wait... He always steals from Mallow, maybe if Mallow was defending...

[Ultima Shadow]

I just defeated him on my second try. The second Croco, that is. I'll tell you how it was done later in this post.

So... I finally made it trough the Sewers and fought the second pushover so far in this challange. Seriously... Belome was a joke. Almost as easy as the Hammer Brothers.

So... next, I went trough Rose Way. No bosses, but a lot of annoying enemies to avoid. I didn't really bother getting the coin boxes, as they are being guarded by enemies. It's simply not worth risk.

So... I restocked on a few items in Rose Town before entering the forest... where I got my second Game Over so far. And yes, the 2 Game Overs so far were both because I accidently runned into an enemy and just wasn't able to escape before I got owned.

Bowyer wasn't too bad, actually. Another boss that I beat on my first try. But that may be because he NEVER used that Electric attack that hits all the characters. 90% of his attacks were, in fact, just normal attacks which I could survive by blocking... even though I usually just got a -50% block.
I defended with Mario and Mallow almost all the time. And whenever someone got KOed or were at too low HP, I revived/healed with them. A few times, I threw in a Jump with Mario, though. Geno was only doing normal attacks trough the entire battle.

Bothe Mario and mallowed leveled up. I picked Special Attak/Def with Mario and HP with Mallow, simply because Mallow would get a +6HP bonus. I figured that would be better than a +1 boost in S.Atk/Def. I'll try to focus as much as possible on Special Atk/Def as possible, though. Because all physical attacks from enemies can be blocked, while specials can't. Also, the characters physical attacks will be useless later on, so you'll have to rely a lot more on Special Attacks like Super Jump.

Next up is Croco 2 in Molleville. The first BOSS that I got a Game Over on. First, I went back to Rose Town to pick up Geno's first weapon, the Finger Shot, though. And I also bought him a Mega Cape in Molleville. So there... now Geno's equipment won't change for the rest of the game.

The first battle against Croco went pretty much like this: Geno attacks, Mario Jumps, Mallow defends. Croco attacks physically, I block for half dammage. Repeat. And whenever someone was at low HP, I healed them with mushrooms.
Bombs= instant KO's as long as they don't hit Geno. But you'll just have to use Pick Me Up's. However... then, Croco stole my items. THIS is when it gets tough. Croco starts "throwing enemies" at you, for a great deal of dammage. Mario will die in one hit, even if he's defending. And I never managed to get in any 0 dammage blocks... so he got KOed pretty early. Geno and mallow could take one of those without getting KOed, but soon my FP would run out, which would mean no more HP Rains... which means that I'm screwed. Soon, they both got KOed.

Anyways... I didn't just attempt him directly. I knew that I had to come up with a solid strategy. Geno is your main man in this battle since he's the only one who really can survive during the second part. Even Mallow dies in 2 hits, if he blocks. And if he fails to block, 1 hit will be enough. So... how do you beat Croco?
Well... I decided that what I really needed was a nice boost in Defense and Attack power! So...

...I got 4 Frog Coins and went to Tadpole Pond and bought 1 Bracer and 1 Energizer. So... in the very begining of the battle, I used them both on Geno with Mario and Mallow. From now on, Geno could easily take anything Croco would throw at him, while Geno himself would deal about 50-60 dammage every turn. So... bye ,bye Croco!

After the battle against Croco 2, I went back out of the cave to save and restock on a few items. And that's where I currently am.


ps: A total of 3 Game Overs so far.

[Trumpet Thief]

chaos: I've accomplished quite a bit. I went to Mushroom Kingdom, was able to buy a few Pick-Me-Ups (Mushroom Way gave me a hell lot of Mushrooms), I met with Mallow (Good Memories), and I went on to catch that darn thief, Croco.

Rubedo: The area where we were chasing him was actually pretty easy, because I never once got caught be a monster by mistake. Although, it still took a while to get him into battle. When I did fight him....

chaos: My god! That weird mushroom pissed me off so bad. And his hits did damage all right. Major damage.

Trowa: We shut the game off, and tried again today. I guess Lady Luck was on our side. It might've been barely, but hey, we beat him.

Albedo: And now it's on to that fool, Mack. Haha, ma belle peche won't settle for less...

chaos: I sure hope he ain't too hard.