Digimon Time Stranger No Digivolution Challenge Part 5 - Vulcanusmon

Challenge playlist:
   • Digimon Story: Time Stranger No Digivoluti...  

The longest of my recorded boss battles in this run so far, and likely to remain one for a while. Question is, is it a hard battle?

Not quite.

Fighting Vulcanusmon is something of a spectacle, as he has multiple phases where he has two arms up, four arms up, then appears alone vulnerable as you rush to break his charge gauge before he unleashes a killer attack - presumably, as he fails to get anywhere close to that.

The eclecticism of the different types at work here is also really novel to the game, with the boss himself being Data type, and his hands being either Vaccine or Virus. We end up employing our party in more complex ways than before, but it's still a battle where we have a great advantage.

The new Digimon from Factorial Area bring some invaluable tools to the table. Clockmon has the highest Int stat in a Digimon we've seen so far, and getting him Combo Magic is a natural way of going about making something out of him. Reverse him for the Virus boss battles, and he'll outperform Tentomon each time, with better bases and a higher level cap to boot. He and another Digimon from the area also learn Spell Boost and Acceleration Boost via level up, to be summarily passed unto whoever else could use them as detachable skills, and these are undoubtedly some of the best support skills in the game.

Mekanorimon may not seem like much on paper, but mine came with Great Embrace, and that's precisely what I need to activate the double Sly Combo Magic strat. Since we get Aura for MT healing immediately after this battle from a quest (it's also available in a shop around the same time), it's almost criminal not to rely on Combo Magic for all future bosses to come.

Tentomon and Aegiomon team up on the Virus arms, while Clockmon deals with the Vaccine ones. Cross Art: Burst is saved for when the four arms are online, as we don't want them to use MT Pummel four times in a row, as that would break our overcast HP. When Vulcanusmon is exposed, he's not weak to any of my magic attackers, but he does become weak to the Vaccines if we inflict Character Reversal. Tentomon doublecasting the multi-strike steel spell really puts a huge dent into him, but the others do a formidable enough job at dishing out punishment as well.

It's actually humorous how the boss being broken triggers an animation that brings the arms back, as Tentomon casting his Thruster Metal I a second time would end the fight prematurely. From here, it's only a matter of time until the boss falls.