Achievement Discussion

[TopCat]

So here are my ideas for accomplishing some of the achievements/parts:

Get a Bandit to steal 300G in one attack.
The key is to do 150 damage in one attack. Bandit is a 20/20 and he has support. There are a bunch of ways to do it with a defending Bandit, but that's not exactly the safest approach. So for an attacking Bandit my idea is:

1) Surround an enemy land with two of your creatures. (ST+20)
2) Have an Ares in play. (ST+20)
3) Cast Brave Song on yourself. (ST+20)
4) Use Death Scythe as support. (ST+70)

Since Bandit has ST=20, the total is ST=150 and that gets you the money. One other way, if you don't have either Ares or Brave Song, is to play a map with a 4-way intersection, convince the enemy to place there, and surround their land with 4 creatures. That'll get you ST=150.

Snatch a land with Grass Strider on three different occasions.
Have three Gear Lions concurrently in play.

These are necessarily difficult, but the creatures are rare. The key is to get a Grass Strider or Gear Lion once. Not too hard. Then kill it off. Next, use Necromancer to get multiple copies of each. Use the Grass Striders to win battles and play the three Gear Lions. With this method, you only need 1 each of a Metamorph Belt, Sky Gear, Ground Gear, and Beast Gear. Stack 4 Necromancers, 4 Telegnosis, and 4 Revelations to ensure you can get it off quickly. Of course, you do still have to win!

During a fight, get a Redcap to a ST and HP of at least 300.

The idea is easy enough. Have 15 Goblins in play and then get into a battle with a Red Cap. I think I'd try to throw in 4 Goblins, as many Goblin's Lairs as I have, and at least 2 Necromancers. Kill a Goblin off and use the Necromancers to get more quick. Drop 'em fast, and then drop or attack with a Red Cap. A quicksand or two might be useful to force a stoppage if you have to drop the Red Cap early.

[Kuroi Kenshi]

Don't forget to mention Changeling. Toss those in there for a couple reasons. You can force the opponent to gain goblins and hopefully lay them out for you. You can also use it on yourself if you only needed a few more out and already had Redcap. This would be a last ditch option when low on cards for the most part, trying to guarantee a Goblin draw.

[TopCat]

Very good idea. If only you could play against story characters with a 30 card deck. It'd be a lot easier to get these. Though, you can always drop in 4 Prophecies and a Find or two to move through your deck faster.

[Kuroi Kenshi]

It's almost safe to say with any of the similar requirements Find, Prophecy, and possibly even Foresight are going to be extremely helpful and included.

Oh, and where's my Powder Eater challenge?

[TopCat]

Kill a dragon with a Powder Eater.

This used to refer to the red creature Dragon, but now I imagine you can kill any elemental dragon to get the achiement. Since I believe that instant kills, like Senility don't work, here's my particular solution. Since all dragons have First Attack, paralyze it. Then use some combination of Brave Song, Ares, Claymore, and adjacent allies. With two close friends, that's ST=111, enough to kill a dragon on lv5 land.

If you're doing this at the same time that you're doing the "Powder Eater on Every Land", and you get lucky and get a late dragon to kill, you can use Storm Armor which gives you ST+(number of yellow creatures x10). You can probably get the "Have a Creature Attack with ST=200" requirement as well.

Have a creature attack (defend) with ST(HP)=200+.

Last time I did this it was with a Goruda while doing the Powder Eater medal. With 30 PEs on the board that's ST/HP=30 in one fell swoop. I'll do it that way again.

Kill 10 or more creatures at once.

Same time that you get the PE "medal". If it's like Second, then you'd only have to have covered the stage in Powder Eaters at one point during play. That being the case, simply use Tempest to kill them all. Mass spells that do % damage don't kill Powder Eaters. Must be direct damage.

I think I'll wind up getting the following at once:
Win a 90000G game
Cover land in PEs
ST=200
HP=200
Kill 10 creatures at the same time
Level 5 land of each color

[TopCat]

Okay, having performed some of these medals, I can give some better advice now.

With the following method you should be able to get all of the following in one game:
3 Gear Lions
All dragons
All Ogres
All Idols
Defend land 5 times
Defend land 20 times
90000G game
400G toll
10 chain
Receive 20 tolls
Level 5 lands of each element
Take a land 5 times
Take 3 different lands using Grass Striders

(Silly me forgot to put my two Metamorph Belts into my book so I missed out on the Grass Strider achievement. Nor do I have a Gold Idol yet so I couldn't get that one.)

Here are the base cards I put (or would've put) into the book:

1 Kelpie
1 of each ogre
1 of each dragon
1 Dragonewt
1 of each gear
1 of each idol
2 Necromancers
2 Banishing Rays
2 Fistfights
4 Prophecies
2 Telegnosis
2 Metamorph Belts
2 Gaseous Forms

That's 42 cards if I counted correctly, leaving a bit of headroom. Of course, you may not have more than one of some of those cards, so you might have some more room. I would've thrown a couple Revelations in there, but for some reason I don't have any yet. And you'll want to throw in some Little Fossils and Goblins to help hold lands to meet requirements.

Now, here are the important things:

Play on the map with the four separate outer rings (I'll, have to edit in the name later, I forget it now). Play against the earth girl (she's from Melkizekiah and I forget her name, too). She's perfect because she doesn't cast spells and she doesn't use scrolls.

Now, the first goal is to set up Kelpie on a land adjacet to the top castle. Since she doesn't cast spells you can just lap until you gain 1500G to level up the land to 5 right away. Now, that being said, you should wait until you have Telegnosis/Revelation and Fistfight in your hand as well. If you can manage it, lay a place holder creature in the spot until you meet those three requirements. Once you do, I'd suggest using Telegnosis to switch Kelpie in a turn before you pass the spot. Then, next turn, cast Fistfight, pass the spot, and level it up to 5. Now, Kelpie is invincible and will net you much bank.

You have free reign over the bottom loops, so that's where I laid my creatures. With any luck, you got some dragons and cheapies early. Use the cheapies and ogres to meet the dragon land requirements, and change land colors if you need to (Kelpie should net you the money to make that a cinch). Remember to turn Dragonewt into Dragon Lord.

Key point: Don't level all of your lands up too soon as you don't want to jump the gun before your book recycles in case you lost some important cards the first time.

Now, the trickier parts. To do these, wait until you are at about 80000G, then you are free to honorably discharge Kelpie from glorious service. This breaks her prison and she'll start to run around and lay down a lot of creatures.

Now, for the Gear Lions, keep the 3 gears in your hand along with a Banishing Ray and a Telegnosis if you want to be safe. When you have a chance, attack a land with Sky Gear and create Ando Gear. You'll most likely win since her creatures suck and she likes to throw away armor. When there is no threat of there being another battle anywhere, use Banishing Ray to destroy Andro Gear. Next turn(s), hit up Necromancers and get three Andro Gears. You might want to lay one or two down next to enemies to free up hand space. Now attack a land with a Beast Gear so that it dies. Use the same technique to get three Beast Gears. Initiate battles and form your three Gear Lions. This wouldn't be necessary if Gear Lions could be targeted by spells.

The Grass Strider is easy. Just attack lands during the course of the game when you're sure Grass Strider will win. Or, you can kill one off, get more with Necromancer, and then attack with them until you take three separate lands.

Believe me, there is a point where she will intentionally start running into Kelpie, so you're guaranteed to defend 20 times and receive so many tolls. You have to attack at least five times to get your Gear Lions and Grass Striders, and I'm sure they'll win each time. She has few ways to defend an ST80 (90 since Dragon Lord should be out) creature. Also, if you use Greed on Kelpie at some point towards the end you can probably net the "receive a toll greater than 3000G" accomplishment.

Hope that helps, not that it'll benefit many before the game comes out in USA.

[Kuroi Kenshi]

Beautiful. I know you got an amazing amount of medals in one shot the last time around. I should have known you'd do it again this time. This will be a time saver indeed for people currently playing and in the future. I'll most likely follow in your footsteps when I finally get a Kelpie. Somehow it has eluded me this long while in Culdcept II I obtained it instantly.

[TopCat]

Okay, I can confirm that you can still collect avatar parts (and achievements, I assume) if you change the land composition of a map.

Here's an easy way to get the "win within 20 rounds" medal:

Choose Sentana map, and fight our wonderful drone Meltia again (green girl, doesn't cast spells). Change the map to all purple lands and make a book with only one creature color (now all your lands will chain and your bankroll skyrockets). I suggest blue since it has Kelpie and Giant Amoebas (they neutralize green which she can't handle). Also throw in spells to get money quick. I suggest several Triumphs, fours Fames, and a Feast or two at least. Don't forget speed cards to get your lap bonuses faster, such as Haste and Holy Word 8s. Also, throw in a Word of Recall if you have it. If it's turn 19 and you can't reach the castle you'll wish you did.

Okay, building on that, you can get the "make all lands X color" and "win a 10000G+ game with X color book" without too much trouble. Play on Sentana with all purple lands. Choose an opponent that has a single color book and use a book of the same color. Now you'll both be coloring the lands and the CPU is actually helping you out. As you can imagine, green is easy since Meltia is a dunce and doesn't cast spells. A couple of tips. Moving a creature onto a purple land will change the color. Therefore, creatures with the Immediate ability are great since you can lay them down, changing the land color, then move them onto an adjacent purple land afterwards. Also, Revelation is great since that's two rounds of being able to move creatures. Finally, dragons neutralize their color, so pack a couple in your deck and your land most likely won't fall. Throw in a couple Holy Word 0s and you're golden.

... Now I've done red and green and each took about 25 minutes.

Red: Boribaru
Pushover. No way to beat V. Dragon or Salamander. Doesn't cast Drain Magic.

Green: Merutia
Pushover. Can't beat H. Dragon or Spinney Agama. No spells.

Blue: Kuroone
Unsure if she has Drain Magic. Not like she can beat a D. Dragon anyway.

Yellow: Wongen
Same as with Kuroone.

[Kuroi Kenshi]

Adding on to Topcat's suggestions. Adding elemental shields of your all element deck are excellent defense items in case you somehow can't defend a land. Also the weapons which critical against X color as they are very cheap to play. You don't need many as very little fighting will take place. To tack on a couple things since Topcat didn't get around to it. Undine is another good creature to use for blue. By this point everyone understands the obvious uses of the neutralize color when using all X deck against all X deck of elemental cepter so no point in saying what to add in particular. I tossed in 1 or 2 of each of the Holy Words just so I could control where I/AI lands in case of needed a few more lands. Immediate creatures can net you 3 colored lands in 2 turns. As you play them they turn the current purple land their color, then move them ahead one and change that land. Next turn you pass them and can move them again. This means Barbarians, Feys, and Tokebis are a blessing for red.

[ckazz]

purple lands... are they neutral, multi, or something new...?

[Kuroi Kenshi]

Purple lands are something new. They hold the same value as a neutral land at the start of a match. (ie. not as much value as a set land color on the board). When you place a creature on it, it turns into the respective land color of the card. Neutral creature to neutral land; Fire creature to fire land. This does maintain the slightly lower land value, but when it is an elemental land it can still count towards chains and still be leveled up. Once the purple land has changed it is permenantly that color. It will not be changed by another creature being placed on it. Though, it can be changed by other means as a normal land. Hope that helped.

[ckazz]

yep, perfect, thanks !

[Thumpasaurus]

Some questions about the 13-in-1 achievement strategy of Top Cat's.

1. It sounds like the map you are referring to is Zanador. Is this correct?

2. How exactly will setting up a Kelpie next to the top castle earn you money? Won't she simply lap around the bottom castle avoiding it? I've noticed that the AI will avoid high level Kelpies even to the point of never returning to the castle in many cases. It would seem that setting up a Kelpie near the top castle would give you the opposite of having free reign over the bottom loops, since she would go there...

3. Due to the above reasons, wouldn't a map with only one castle be preferable to try this?

4. Meltia does in fact use scrolls... is there one book in particular that doesn't have any in it? And if so, is there any good easy way to differentiate early on whether she's using a non-scroll deck?

[TopCat]

1)Yeah, it's probably Zanadol. I haven't looked at the map recently so I still don't remember the name.

2) She'll still run into it as I have used this method successfully multiple times. I did not do 13-in-1 or whatever I prescribe as I missed out on Grass Strder and Idols and also did the 3 on 1 battle here and thus used my core strategem multiple times. There is a chance she may break the loop and go below; I found it to be fairly small. The chance of a CPU char going to the lower loop was higher when there was more than one CPU present. If you don't want to take the chance you can simply lock her in with two Kelpies or set another one up at the lower castle.

3) As I've had no problems with this map I can't prescribe a map that would be more suitable.

4) She has two books. One book has no scrools, the other one has two, if I remember correctly. It doesn't matter since scrolls are ineffective in a Fistfight environment. What is troublesome is Weretiger. If she get locked she can do 10 dmg to Kelpie with each battle since Fistfight prevents his stat loss. The obvious solution I didn't think of before, as I had no problems, would be to use Reflection and ext the game immediately if she uses the book with scrolls. You can tell by what her book's name is.

[Thumpasaurus]

topcat said:

1)Yeah, it's probably Zanadol. I haven't looked at the map recently so I still don't remember the name.

2) She'll still run into it as I have used this method successfully multiple times. I did not do 13-in-1 or whatever I prescribe as I missed out on Grass Strder and Idols and also did the 3 on 1 battle here and thus used my core strategem multiple times. There is a chance she may break the loop and go below; I found it to be fairly small. The chance of a CPU char going to the lower loop was higher when there was more than one CPU present. If you don't want to take the chance you can simply lock her in with two Kelpies or set another one up at the lower castle.

3) As I've had no problems with this map I can't prescribe a map that would be more suitable.

4) She has two books. One book has no scrools, the other one has two, if I remember correctly. It doesn't matter since scrolls are ineffective in a Fistfight environment. What is troublesome is Weretiger. If she get locked she can do 10 dmg to Kelpie with each battle since Fistfight prevents his stat loss. The obvious solution I didn't think of before, as I had no problems, would be to use Reflection and ext the game immediately if she uses the book with scrolls. You can tell by what her book's name is.

Okay, I just played this match, and with regard to point 2 and 3, I must say that I was absolutely right about this. She will avoid leveled up Kelpies AT ALL COSTS. She will go whatever route will avoid them, even if that means never going to either castle. There is simply no way a single Kelpie can get you tolls on this map, and I must STRONGLY recommend that anyone trying to set this match up consider another board. You can still win on this board, but you won't be getting tolls unless you set up several Kelpies that effectively block all paths (which is a lot on this map).

If you got her to keep landing on a single Kelpie on this map, the only explanation I can think of is that this is another difference between the Japanese and US versions. The AI in the US version is definitely designed to avoid the Kelpie.