Tag Archives: Gloomtail

Kappy’s Spotlight — Ms. Mowz

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It’s that time again: #KappySpotlight time, where I talk about badges/items/partners/etc… that are generally seen as “bad” and not used very often by challenge runners. I dive deeper into why they’re perceived the way they are with some cool strategies centered around them mixed in! Today, I’ll be covering a partner in TTYD who’s…ugh, the worst: Ms. Mowz…

 

Ms._Mowz
Moves:
Love Slap — Deals piercing damage to a single enemy (2/3/4 damage) [Front only]
Kiss Thief [2 FP] — Steals enemies’ items and badges.
Tease [3 FP] — Inflicts Dizzy on enemies.
Smooch [10 FP] — Heals Mario for 10 HP.
Glitz Pit Rank: 7th (of 7 Partners)

Ouch, the worst of all partners, but it’s easy to see why. Ms. Mowz is not a combat-oriented partner, so of course she’s the worst, but that might be because she’s entirely optional. If you decide to pick her up, you’ll find subpar HP, lackluster damage, and the ability to steal things from enemies, which makes her worth it all on its own. Unfortunately, being able to steal things translates more to a switch in, steal, then switch out situation because her combat options are, well…terrible. They’re terrible. Let’s break down those moves!

LOVE SLAP

Love Slap isn’t bad, but it’s not great. It pierces, which is awesome, but it only does 4 at Ultra Ranking, meaning even with 1 DEF Bobbery, Vivian, and Flurrie are out-damaging it with their base moves. What really gets me here is that she can’t hit front-spiky or fiery enemies. Don’t get me wrong, others can’t either, but when this is her only move that deals damage. To add onto this, the Stylish command for this move doesn’t actually work. A lot is actively working against her here in this move. Still, the piercing can be quite good, and makes Ms. Mowz and easy third choice in Level Zero runs against Gloomtail, Bonetail, Grodus, Bowser, and the Shadow Queen behind Vivian and Bobbery!

KISS THEIF

Ms. Mowz actually has amazing utility in Kiss Thief. Being able to steal items and badges from enemies is no joke, especially if you get lucky and an enemy is holding a nice badge like P-Down, D-Up P, Power Plus, Close Call, Power Rush (P), etc… with extra badges that you can’t normally get, you can do a lot more than you normally could. Also, it never hurts to steal Life Shrooms, Boo’s Sheets, and the like if an enemy is holding it. You can even steal coins if an enemy isn’t holding anything, but that’s not really useful. For 2 FP, it’s absolutely worth it, and this move alone makes her worth picking up as a partner.

TEASE

Dizzy as a status isn’t amazing. It’s…okay, if not slightly underwhelming. So, Ms. Mowz has a move, like Vivian, that just inflicts status to all enemies, and it’s Dizzy. I’ll admit — I actually think this is better than Infatuation; the issue I have is that this move totally could’ve dealt light piercing damage as well and still function nearly the same while giving Mowz the ability to hit more enemies and get past the spiky/fiery enemy issue that Love Slap has…and, y’know, not only hit the front grounded enemy. Alas… this is an okay move to use in the Pit because a surprising amount of deep Pit enemies can be inflicted with Dizzy. If you don’t have Stop at the ready, this isn’t a bad alternative, and it’s only 3 FP.

SMOOCH

And here we are — the worst partner move in the game. For 10 FP, Mario recovers 10 HP. 10 FP. Can we let that sink in? 10. FP. What was going on when this move was created? It’s such a horrible heal for the FP cost. Even with two Flower Saver P badges, I wouldn’t use this move. Why? because I can Sweet Treat and get 7, or Double Dip two Mushrooms which is only 4 FP, or use a Super Shroom, or do literally anything else. Yeah, this move is bad. I understand that items are limited, but let’s be real… it’s her Ultra Rank move, and with only 10-20 HP, challenge runners don’t need to spend 10 FP to heal what a Super Shroom can or what Sweet Treat can basically heal. If this were less FP or healed way more, I’d consider it usable. EDIT: You can actually determine how much HP this move heals based on how much of the bar you fill, which makes this move much better than a flat 10 for 10. Still, you can probably accomplish the same healing with items rather than spending 10 FP.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way…let’s try a strategy out with Ms. Mowz! One that uses Smooch!

GLOOMTAIL STRAT
15 HP, 15 FP
BADGES: Jumpman, All or Nothing, Mega Rush, P-Up D-Down P, Power Rush P x2, Feeling Fine, Feeling Fine P, Flower Saver P x2, Double Dip P x2 (33 BP, 42 with two FP Plus and HP Plus)
ITEMS: Point Swap, Power Punch, Hot Sauce x2

Click here to see the strategy in action!

T1: Triple Dip (Hot Sauce x2 Mario, Point Swap Mario), Spin Jump (67) *Don’t Guard
T2: Spin Jump, Smooch (48) *Don’t Guard
T3: Jump, Power Punch Mario (32)
T4: Spin Jump, Love Slap [KO]

This strategy aims to have Mario get to every trigger with an attack starting Turn 2 and finish Gloomtail before he can attack with Megabreath. Look at all that BP we need! Let’s get into it:

In order to use Smooch and actually do some damage manipulation with Mario and Ms. Mowz, we needed Mario at 15 HP and can’t guard any attacks, or else Mowz won’t be at 5 HP T4. So, because Mario’s at 15, we need to get creative with how he’s getting into Peril. Luckily, Triple Dip costs 8 FP, down to 6 with two Flower Saver P badges, putting us at 9 FP, which is perfect for a Point Swap. We Point Swap and hand Mario two Hot Sauce badges to temporarily increase his attack with Spin Jump. Remember, Gloomtail’s got 80 HP, 8 ATK, and 2 DEF. We circumvented the DEF with Jumpman and All or Nothing, but we need to make sure we’re dealing 32 damage total Turn 2. After the swap, we’re at 15 FP again with Mario at 9 HP. We then Spin Jump, dealing 5 + 8 = 13 damage. We then opt to not guard Gloomtail’s breath and take 8 damage (Mowz 9 damage). Feeling Fine (P) prevents both from being poisoned. Now, Mario’s at 1, and Ms. Mowz is at 16 since Ms. Mowz at Ultra Rank has 25 HP total. Turn 2, we Spin Jump under Peril, but without the Hot Sauce since we burned them Turn 1. 8 + 11 = 19 damage, which, when adding with the 13 we dealt previously, is a perfect 32, putting Gloomtail at 48 and setting off his first HP trigger. We Smooch as well, putting Mario at 11 HP. Now, Gloomtail always uses Earthquake at 48 HP per his trigger, so he uses it, and deals 10 damage to Mario (11 to Mowz). Mario’s in Peril once again, and Mowz is in perfect Danger, sitting at 5 HP. Turn 3, we do a normal Jump (8 + 8 = 16 damage) to get Gloomtail to his next trigger at 32. We then give Mario a Power Punch for his next attack. As per his 32 HP trigger, Gloomtail charges up for Megabreath. Turn 4, we finish it. Spin Jump now does 10 + 13 = 23 damage, and Ms. Mowz is at 9 ATK thanks to the 5 from two Power Rush P badges and P-Up D-Down P. 23 + 9 = 32 damage total, and with a final Love Slap we take down Gloomtail, Mowz style!

I’ll be honest…coming up with strategies with Mowz can be quite the challenge, so I actually had some fun making this despite my distaste for Ms. Mowz as a battle partner. Maybe I’m just traumatized by my Ms. Mowz Only run…who knows, but what I do know is that she’s not good in combat, and basically everything she has is outclassed. Still, being able to steal things is cool, and is a utility no one else can boast, so even if you never use her in battle, I do suggest you always pick her up in any runs where you’ll be using badges and items!

Next time, I’ll be going back to 64. Will it be a badge? An item? A partner? You’ll have to wait and find out!

Just Sayin’

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Kappy’s Spotlight — Poison Shroom

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It’s that time again: #KappySpotlight time, where I talk about badges/items/partners/etc… that are generally seen as “bad” and not used very often by challenge runners. I dive deeper into why they’re perceived the way they are with some cool strategies centered around them mixed in! Today, I’ll be covering a really unique item in TTYD that’s RNG…for Mario! It’s POISON SHROOM!

Poison_Shroom_TTYD.png
Move: Poisons Mario and takes away half of his HP or fully heals his HP. Poison Shroom is an interesting item. Unlike other items that are random for Mario (Mystery, Peach Tart, etc)…this one just looks like it’s awful at a glance. Hurting Mario with an item…why would you ever want to do that? And you can easily manipulate HP with Point Swap and Double Dip. Plus, it could accidentally do the other thing you didn’t want it to do (for example, it could heal you where you’re wanting it to hurt you). The item itself requires quite a bit of cooking to obtain, although that’s not really a huge issue. To break down the chance of both — poisoning Mario and taking half his HP is an 80% chance and the full heal is a 20% chance. That might sound bad at first, but we can actually use this to our advantage. Let’s adapt a couple strategies to use a Poison Shroom!

GRODUS STRAT
10 HP, 5 FP
BADGES: Last Stand, Power Plus x2, Power Bounce, Mega Rush, Power Rush, All or Nothing, Flower Saver, Flower Saver P (29 BP)
ITEMS: Poison Shroom, Fire Flower

Click here to see the strategy in action!

T1: Fire Flower, Poison Shroom Mario (M: 1)
T2: Spin Jump (25), Rally Wink, Spin Jump [KO]

This is a pretty cool variation on the classic Turn 1 Peril strategy against Grodus. With a
Poison Shroom, if Mario has 10 HP, he’ll be at 5 and poisoned. With Last Stand and a guard, Grodus’ lightning attack that he always does Turn 1 will do 6 / 2 = 3 damage, leaving Mario at 2. Finally, poison kicks in, dealing 1 damage and leaving Mario at 1. Awesome. We use a Fire Flower with Goombella to get rid of the Grodus X’s Turn 1. With two on the field Turn 2, Grodus has 3 DEF, so we need to make up for that with Power Plus and All or Nothing. Our base is 0 with Ultra Boots, brought back to 2 with two Power Plus and All or Nothing. Mega Rush + 2 Power Rushes is 9 extra ATK, leaving us at 11. We Spin Jump once for 25 damage, then use Rally Wink. With Flower Saver and Flower Saver P, two Spin Jumps is 2 FP and Rally Wink is 3 FP for perfect FP use. We then use another Spin Jump to deal the last 25 damage for perfect damage on Grodus!

This next one is a variation with Gloomtail!

GLOOMTAIL STRAT
10 HP, 10 FP
BADGES: Last Stand, Mega Rush, Power Rush x2, Power Plus x2, All or Nothing, Power Bounce, Feeling Fine, Flower Saver, Double Dip P x2 (37 BP, 40 with FP Plus)
ITEMS: Poison Shroom, Power Punch, Hot Sauce x3

Click here to see the strategy in action!

T1: Triple Dip (Power Punch, Hot Sauce x2 Mario), Poison Shroom (Mario)
T2: Hot Sauce Mario, Power Bounce (5-cap) [KO]

This strategy aims to deal perfect damage to Gloomtail T2 with Power Bounce with a Poison Shroom. Gloomtail has 1 DEF, but that’s okay — with all the ATK we’re stacking, Mario ends up being at a staggering 18 ATK. So, how does Poison Shroom get us into Peril? At half, Mario is again at 5 HP. Gloomtail always uses breath T1, and it does 8 damage, so halve that and we’re at 4. Nice! But, we have a small problem — Poison Shroom also poisons Mario! Luckily, Feeling Fine actively prevents the poisoning part, which allows us to get into Peril T1 cleanly. After that, it’s just stacking on ATK and Power Bouncing T2. Perfect FP with Flower Saver since Triple Dip is 8 FP and Power Bounce is 2 FP with Flower Saver. We could remove a Power Rush and deal 81 damage with a 6-cap, but perfect damage is more fun!

I want to draw attention to the fact that Poison Shroom is actually a really cool way to get to peril without the use of Double Pain. Normally, both of these bosses pose a problem getting to Peril T1 with 10 HP. You can easily circumvent this by having 15 HP and equipping Double Pain, but Poison Shroom allows us to do it without those things. Of course, there’s some RNG involved, but since Poison Shroom is used T1, it’s easy to just reset and wait until the desired outcome happens, which is pretty often at 80%.

Besides getting into Danger/Peril from 10 HP or dropping your HP by half if you have higher HP, Poison Shroom doesn’t really offer much use, and even then it’s heavily outclassed by Point Swap as the easy Peril item. That said, it is a really cool way to manipulate your HP, so try it out next time you want to do something weird with your strategies!

Next time, I’ll be covering…Ugh…Ms. Mowz…

Just Sayin’

Kappy’s Spotlight — Charge

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It’s that time again: #KappySpotlight time, where I talk about badges/items/partners/etc… that are generally seen as “bad” and not used very often by challenge runners. I dive deeper into why they’re perceived the way they are with some cool strategies centered around them mixed in! Today, I’ll be covering another badge in TTYD that boasts a lot of power, but little use — CHARGE!

Charge_TTYD
BP Cost: 1
FP Cost: 1
Move: Increases the damage dealt from Mario’s next attack by 2.
Glitz Pit Rank: D+

Charge actually almost barely made the cut into C Tier for the Glitz Pit, and it’s not hard to see why. For only 1 FP, Mario can do quite a bit with +2 ATK. The ability to stack charges can lead to insane damage output, and the fact that it stacks with Spicy Pasta and Hot Sauce means you can get away with some crazy charge-boosted attacks in just a few turns with Double Dip or Triple Dip. The big downside, of course, is that it takes up Mario’s turn, and you can easily achieve the +2 with a Power Punch that a partner can use instead of Mario. For the most part, you don’t need the extra +2 ATK to defeat bosses; Power Punch/Power Lift/Power Rush/Mega Rush is really all you need to take down most bosses in 1-3 turns. Still, there’s definitely some use with Charge, so let’s jump right into the strategies!

RAWK HAWK STRAT

10 HP, 5 FP
BADGES: Charge, Jumpman, Power Plus, Power Plus P x2, Power Bounce (24 BP)
ITEMS: Power Punch

Click here to see the strategy in action!

T1: Charge, Power Punch Mario (M: 7, Y: 7/10)

T2: Power Bounce (6 bounces), Ground Pound (KO)

This is a nice 2-turn strategy that doesn’t use any Danger. Turn 1 is all setup. At this point, Mario has the Super Boots, giving Mario a base of 2 ATK for his Jump. With Jumpman and Power Plus, it’s at 4. With Charge and Power Punch, it’s 8. Now, Rawk Hawk has 40 HP and 0 DEF, and his attacks won’t even put Mario & Yoshi in Danger Turn 1, so we’re not really concerned if we guard or not.

Turn 2 is where it all goes down. (8+7+6+5+4+3) = 33 damage. Yoshi at Base rank does four bounces with Ground Pound, so we just increase his ATK by 2 so it starts at 3. (3+2+1+1) = 7, which is just enough to KO Rawk Hawk. Easy, and no Danger abuse needed!

GLOOMTAIL STRAT

10 HP, 10 FP
BADGES: Charge, Jumpman, Mega Rush, Power Rush, Power Bounce, Feeling Fine (12 BP, 15 with FP Plus)
ITEMS: Point Swap

Click here to see the strategy in action!

T1: Charge, Point Swap Mario (M: 1) *Don’t guard
T2: Power Bounce (5-cap), Rally Wink, Power Bounce (5-cap)

Another two-turn strategy with Charge! It’s Gloomtail (80 HP, 8 ATK, 2 DEF), so we really needed to crank up the power with Peril.

Turn 1, we set up with Charge and a pretty unique way to achieve Peril against Gloomtail on Turn 1 with Point Swap. At this point, we have 9 FP, so Mario will have 9 HP now. Gloomtail always uses Breath first, so we don’t guard to take 8 damage and go down to Peril. We use Feeling Fine to ensure we aren’t poisoned.

Turn 2, we simply Power Bounce twice thanks to Rally Wink. With 10 FP, we have just enough to do this with perfect FP use. We do two 5 bounce Power Bounces for perfect damage. First, Mario starts at 1 ATK with Ultra Boots thanks to Gloomtail’s DEF. Factor in Jumpman, Mega Rush, and Power Rush, and we’re at 9 ATK. With Charge, we’re at 11. So, the first Power Bounce does (11 + 10 + 9 + 8 + 7) = 45 damage. The second Power Bounce deals (9 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 5) = 35 damage. 45 + 35 = 80. Perfect damage!

Charge is an easy substitute for Power Rush and for a quick boost in power. What holds it back is that it’s just so easy to achieve Danger/Peril already, so you can just use a Power Punch or Power Lift to increase your ATK further than a +2. Still, its ability to naturally use 1 FP and increase ATK is something that can be used cleverly. Feel free to use the strategies I’ve made or adapt them to something else!

I’ll putting up another poll for the next spotlight . Look out for it!

Just Sayin’