SMT IV: Apocalypse - Explosive Epidemic in Mikado (Apocalypse Difficulty, No Skill Inheritance)

Anyone who has attempted this DLC quest should know that what makes it so difficult is the hard turn count limit. Due to the reduction in inflicted damage on War and Apocalypse difficulties, it is very difficult to win within 25 turns, even with well-built teams. I had to break the fusion level limit to fuse Krishna for Dream Raga and Combat Tara, otherwise this wouldn't be remotely possible without fusion skill inheritance. Additionally, I fused Inanna for Debilitate and her offensive skills, both of which help to save valuable turns in several battles. Even with those two and the strongest skills I could get on Nanashi with the High Fire Pleroma accessory, it still took 22 turns to win with great RNG, which is still cutting it very close.


Demonic Samurai: These two have no weaknesses and about 3000 HP, which rules out a one-turn victory. They only use physical attacks, so an Attack Mirror works well. This battle takes two turns as long as Nanashi's attacks don't miss.

Demonic Hope: This is one of only two battles that is actually notable for being somewhat challenging in a traditional manner, rather than just a waste of turns. Hope has a unique skill combination with Revelation and Judgement Strike, which fully buffs his attack and grants him smirk, then allows him to attack the entire party with a piercing physical skill that also can inflict bind and still get another attack in. This actually isn't as bad as it sounds, since Judgement Strike doesn't do that much damage anyway and the odds of bind aren't outrageous. Also, his only other attacking skill is Mortal Jihad, so using an Attack Mirror will protect the team. He also has three unique single-target debuff skills in Forfeit, Nightmare, and Bind, although these typically aren't major factors if the battle ends quickly. He has weaknesses to fire and dark and a sizable 20000 HP, so Inanna's Raging Hellfire helps a lot to end the battle quickly. Normally it takes four or five turns to win, but I was quite fortunate in this attempt and won in only three turns.

Demonic Citizens: These four actually all have different skillsets, not that it matters since if you're not able to win this battle in two turns, you're probably not going to be completing the quest anyway. From left to right, they're weak to ice, fire, gun, and dark, but that also doesn't matter since they only have 2000 HP each and Nanashi should be able to take them out in two turns regardless.

Demonic Hordes: These two hordes also don't really matter for anything other than the overall turn count. The first horde uses physical moves and the second uses magic, although it's more than likely that Dream Raga will incapacitate them anyway. The second horde gets first strike after the first horde is defeated, so it's worth throwing up a Magic Mirror to make it waste a turn with Makarabreak. The first horde is weak to fire and the second is weak to gun, although they should only take two turns each to defeat.

Demonic Hugo 1: Like Hope, Hugo is actually a fairly interesting boss with a variety of unique moves. He shares some skills with Hope, such as Revelation, Forfeit, Nightmare, and Bind, but he also has Heavenly Punishment, which is like a weaker gun-type Antichthon, Evil-Crushing Flash, a powered-up Hamaon, and Irrational Glimmer, which reduces the HP of all targets by 65%. Interestingly, Irrational Glimmer is just a reskin of Asmodeus' Hell's Torment from SMT IV, all the way down to the attack animation. Along with Riot Gun and Dekunda, these skills make him a formidable opponent, especially with the turn count limit.

This is the battle where it's most likely that something will go wrong. Not only does Hugo have a great chance of killing a demon or two to waste turns, but his unique debuff moves like Forfeit can be catastrophic if used on Nanashi, severely hindering his damage output. It's also not as easy to deal damage to Hugo as it was for Hope since he only has a weakness to dark and the strongest dark attack Nanashi can have is Mudoon, so Trisagion is a better choice anyway. This battle ends after dealing about 10000 damage to Hugo, which usually takes about five turns, but I got through in four here.

Demonic Horde 3: Funnily enough, Dagda despises Hugo enough to buff Nanashi's team to +2, which is more power than he granted in the YHVH fights of both routes...combined. Although it's not enough of a boost to win in one turn, it provides some much-needed momentum to begin the second phase of Hugo's battle. The horde itself is pretty unremarkable and should die within two turns.

Demonic Hugo 2: Hugo reappears and gets first strike, but he doesn't appear to be much different than before. He has about 20000 HP, so some very good luck is needed to win within the turn limit. Hugo has several skill combinations that can make the battle unwinnable within the turn limit or kill Nanashi, but I managed to pull through here.