Decktamer - Final Boss rematch at the Pioneer difficulty (Fifth boss)

Oh look! After seeing the final boss for the first time earlier, the boss became visible and now can be selected directly :)

I picked the Shell Cat, because it offered both basic tanking and gave me priority against most enemies. I picked the Ants to go along with the Cat. The Ants could act first against most early enemies, put them to sleep and recover health. I can see why some other players consider the Ant to be a top tier. They can use their abilities to farm enemies who deal 1-2 damage only. They do seem to struggle a little vs anything that deals 3 damage or higher.

The first battle featured two interesting paths. The Monomono group was stacked. The monkey himself had an extra tanking mutation and there was the Peacarp too. I probably should have taken this path already. The only thing missing was the lack of the Fish food as a minor reward.
The other Blood Grub party had basically nothing going for it. Not even the Chichuya had any extra mutations. I still ended up picking this weaker option, mostly for the sake of all the Food offered and some Test Subject potential for later.

Next fight had two valid paths. The Batfish group had the easy access to the Vampirism and the Former Human reward. However, both the Woolly and the mutated Sporeplant could hit for a bit. The other Polar Monitor group was not totally safe either, but it offered me many goodies. The Kerabeetle there had several extra mutated moves. Parasitic Water and the Experimental Syringe were both useful and flexible.

The Third fight was huge head scratcher moment. It was a prime example where the difficulty bar was set a bit too high, even by the Pioneer standards. The Sporeplant group featured 4 enemies who could deal 4-5 damage each. Going there was just asking for an early party wipe. The special reward was not good enough either. The other Slusher party had some issues too. The damage was lower, but the Irontail Salamander was among the first three monster. The Salamander was both tanky and had one of the more annoying hit all moves. The Swordbird had a very strong Fast Predator power. Strong enough to warrant a mandatory capture. The rest of the fight went fairly well, other than forgetting about the extra Charm move my Keerabeetle had. I should have used it to capture the Irontail. It would have acted as an excellent mid game tank. As for the Choice event reward, I probably should have picked the full heal option, rather than gamble (again) and not getting much out of it. By this point, I also gave up on the Chichuya potential already.

The following fight made me regret not taking the Peacarp earlier. If possible, that little fish monster always deserves an early party slot. It lets you deal with the threats like the Abyssal Great Elk and alike. The Fusion reward would have been nice, but the fight itself was too dangerous overall. I went with the safer Spinehog path. The damage was much lower and the mutated Tidweaver was an excellent capture target. The special Foraging Reward turned out to be a letdown. I really wanted to get the special Berry out of it, due to extra opportunities it could offer later.

I put the Fifth Battle on hold and started overthinking for no reason. The Karkoplid group and the Silver Beetle reward were both out of reach. There was just too much damage there. Still, I was considering taking the risk, just to get the Bold Grab move for my Keerabettle. In theory, he could use it to tank everything. Then I remembered about the Boss having Sonar and abandoned this bad idea. The other Spinehog group was easier. There was another Scale item for more armor, Nightwalker for more tanking and the Aberration.

The Aberration had many great options available. Sadistic was premium (scaling) and so was the Guidelight (utility + scaling). Onslaught move was okay, but unreliable. The Savagery could deal a lot of damaged, but it could only be used once without refreshing it.

The 6th fight left me thinking about the Blackhole move. It could steal most buffs from the boss. The other Crystalon group had another sleeping move, which was a perfect target for my Experimental Syringe. I also wanted the 3/3 buffs for my Keerabettle and a chance for a 'positive' curse on it. It worked (Timid = permanent +2 to strength).

I did not feel like doing the Howler route again. The Lightbringer route had several good capture targets and two free minor items of my choice.

The boss battle turned almost exactly the same as the last time. I overbuilt my defenses, just in case something unexpected would happen again. And nothing happened. I used the Inkstain power to make my Aberration act first, over the enemy Lightbringer. The Savagery move + buffs demolished both the Lightbringer and the Amalgamate. The boss power was shattered and he lost.

The End

'You have Achieved your goals... but at what cost?'


Updated bestiary entry 0:00

Starting the run 0:17

Aberration 1:05:58

Final boss 1:55:13

Bestiary again: 2:03:35