November 17, 2018 November 18, 2018
Empyrea Part 2
New and Old Cheat Types:
An Overview
Cheats are fascinating, aren’t they? I always get amazed when Kingisle adds a new cheat type to our battles. They’re constantly reinventing the battling system and I appreciate that. Some cheats are very annoying, some might feel impossible, but all of them are pretty cool!
In this article, I want to recap what kind of interesting cheats we’ve been seeing in Empyrea Part 2.
Joining Late
The “tardiness cheat” isn’t new at all, but one that keeps returning to battles again and again.It’s triggered both when you first join the battle and when rejoining the battle after fleeing. The cheat isn’t the same for every boss. I rarely join late, so I have fairly little experience with this cheat.
In Empyrea Part 2, the Headmaster in the Reverie will punish you with a Star school Insane Bolt that takes 75% of the player’s MAX health. It ignores his damage stat, his blades and your resist; it just takes an exact 75% of your HP (Ravino figured this one out).
Tumbler is another boss who has this cheat. Tumbler will cast a Mana Burn on any wizard that joins late. This is a painful cheat, especially when you have a full team and Tumbler has his damage aura activated, because his damage will be +400%.
Last but not least, the Frog Prince in the Northwest Aero Plains also has a tardiness cheat. In his case, it’s a Shadow version of Medusa.
Damage Cap Bubble
This is a new cheat! Several bosses in Empyrea Part 2 will at the start of the first round cheat cast a new bubble. The bubble caps damage to a certain value. Currently I’m not sure if it’s the same value for all bosses or whether it’s dependent of the boss.
Vigilant Sargun in the last part of Empyrea Part 2 is an example of a boss that uses this cheat. The bubble caps damage to a maximum of 9,999 damage. This is interesting, because he has 19,999 health. That means, if you just overdo your hits, you’ll be in a situation where after the two initial hits, he will have 1 health left (9,999 + 9,999 + 1 damage = 19,999). This cheat makes Empyrea Part 2 the first world in a while where bringing a wand hit is actually a great idea.
Damage and Resist Auras
Kingsisle has introduced some interesting auras to our boss battles in Empyrea Part 2.
Firstly, Tumbler’s auras are probably the most painful and annoying of the bunch. Every four rounds he will be casting either a damage or a resist bubble. The value of the damage bubble can go all the way up to 400%! You can read more about that cheat in this article.
Neumian Lion also has his own version of this cheat. His aura works as an enhanced Fortify, which reduces incoming damage to -50%. He combines it with six tower shield, which makes for a pretty good defensive strategy! Luckily Shrike, Infallible and Shatter work against this boss.
Another boss with a protective Fortify cheat is Doctor Demented. His aura reduces damage by -120%. This cheat isn’t hard to get rid of though, as it follows a patterns familiar from other cheating bosses. When you kill the minions, Doctor Demented replaces the Fortify aura with a Beserk aura.
Deck manipulation
You’ve seen this cheat type back in Khrysalis when you had to do those three battles from Morganthe’s Perspective in the Chambers of the Mind. It’s back in Empyrea Part 2! I think it is an amazing cheat and I hope to see more of these. Is it strange that I want more cheats?
There are two bosses in Empyrea Part 2 that manipulate your deck. Firstly, we have the Headmaster. You will be using the cards the Headmaster gives you during the first four round of that battle. Interestingly, it’s not just that you are using different cards. In addition, you should be picking the correct one in each turn to avoid repercussions. Every round comes with different cards, which keeps things really interesting!
Secondly, there’s a side quest where you get a brand new deck during the battle as well! The battle against grandmother comes with a cheat where she polymorphs you into a grandmother yourself. As such, it’s not exactly true that she gives you a new deck. As all polymorphs do, this one just comes with some specific cards.
Smaller Cheats
Of course there are other – more boring – cheats. They’re mostly boring because we’ve seen them in so many battles already. The cheats include:
- A Dislike of Feints/Traps: removing them or switching them so the higher percentage is on you.
- Surprise Attacks: either during a certain round or when a cheat is triggers.
- Summoning Minions: this is one of those things you have come to expect when facing bosses.
