Buddy Rush: The Great Totem Theft

Mission 6 of Chapter 7 is titled 'Who's the real villiain? !'. No, it is not misspelt. Apparently, a 'villain' in Buddy Rush is called a 'villiain'. Look at the title for Mission 8 of the same chapter.

Anyway, in Mission 6, after having discovered Sheriflin's treachery, your party goes to protect the natives' village from an attack by Sheriflin's Oblins. During the attack, the natives' totem is stolen in a great display of cunning and stealth.

Dude! The thief's just standing right behind you!

I like this game.

Update 31 March 2011:
Later, in the next mission, I caught up with the thieving Oblin.

Oblin, you look different today. New hat?

The Oblin was not the only one that has grown bigger. His looted totem looks like it has leveled up too.

Buddy Rush: Contents

Buddy Rush: Too High to Reach

While I was playing, I found yet another item that I cannot use. This one's a little different though:

Level 61 Item!

Not only do I not have an Aikilu, the level requirement is a bit high.

(Level cap for Update 1.1 is Level 60).

What am I to do with it?

Update 31 March 2011:
And now this:

Yay, another rare item I cannot use!

:p
Update 1 April 2011:
And yet another...

No, I don't have a Vivich either.

Is this an April Fools' Day joke?
Update 4 April 2011:
And the requirements just keeps going up...

Level 66!?

At least I have a Nagne.

Buddy Rush: Contents

Buddy Rush: Nagne as Party Member Build Test

I have a Nagne with a Passive build.

My Passive build Nagne.

The logic is that Nagne's Leaf Slash and Kiss of Death makes him immobile (and thus, defenseless) for a while. So to be less annoying when others use my character in their party, I should build my Nagne to use his skills less often but to be absolutely destructive with his regular attack. Thus, my skill points go into Sword Mastery.

I have decent Atk and Def, and I have good Critcal [sic] to do even more damage. The extra Hit Speed is just an unintended bonus. I would have liked more HP Regen but, could not squeeze it in.

I do not put MP and MP Regen in so my Nagne does not use his skills often when he is a passive party member. I also do not invest in Stun. Nagne defeats Oblins quick so Stun is not useful. And against bosses, I would rather use Kiss of Death to more reliably inflict Stun.

However, I wondered whether Nagne's active skills are really good or bad. So I decided to run tests with a variety of Nagne builds as passive party members.

I tested: 

- the Balanced build; Balanced in all skills with decent Atk and Def and even a little MP Regen.
- the Casanova build; Kiss of Death! With decent Atk and Def.
- the Freeloader build; few skill points spent.
- the Divine Wind build; Atk all the way!

I do not have any friends using the Passive build, though.

In summary, it does not matter much which build is used as long as Nagne has enough Atk and Def.  Everyone just dies quickly. Too quickly for high-damage skills to come out. Too quickly for Nagne's immobility (after using Leaf Slash or Kiss of Death) to be an issue.

Oh and Nagne also dies quickly if he gets hit more than once. :p

I had a little trouble with the Divine Wind build since that Nagne's HP went down really quick. A little bit of Def does help reduce potion-usage. But still expect to use one or two HP Potions even with Vivich in the team.

It is over too quick.

In boss fights, the situation is different. The boss can survive long enough to throw out at least one high-damage skill. And there's the chance that a party-member Nagne will be immobile while the boss is targeting his skill (the crosshairs on the ground). A decent Def helps reduce the danger but still expect to use a few potions in boss fights to keep Nagne alive.

And finally, yes, we did it again. We defeated Oblins too quickly.

Oops, we did it again!

Buddy Rush: Contents

Buddy Rush: Overkill

One of the most annoying thing I find is that it is too easy to kill off Oblins with my Botherella's Curse skill. Curse lowers the Oblins' Def so much that each attack is really powerful. As such it is all too easy to accidentally kill an Oblin. Normally, this is not a problem. But for missions where you are not supposed to kill an Oblin in order for some scripted event to occur, this gets annoying.

Oops, we bullied Cutieblin too hard...

Like in the screenshot above taken from the Jailbreaker mission (Chapter 7, Mission 3). My party killed off Cutieblin accidentally so she could not run away and Sheriflin does not appear to chase her.

Botherella annoys again!

Buddy Rush: Contents

Buddy Rush: Vampino vs Esline

Esline the Sercubus (as her race/class/job appears to be called in Buddy Rush) is annoyingly difficult to beat. She isn't particularly tough, it's just that she has the most annoying skills. Yes, she is even more bothersome than Botherella.

She can charm a character to her side for a while. She has Botherella's annoying Curse skill. Botherella users will know how annoying that skill is.

And her special attack stuns in a small targeted area! Though Nagne's Leaf Slash can be used to take advantage of her long casting time for this attack to give party members a few extra hits in.

A screenshot with Boorseye decloaking after he hits Esline:

In your face, Esline!

Did you notice the little extra help in the screenshot above? Right behind the Worrier. Yes, it's Vampino! After the fight with Drablin, he decided to stick around.

Yes, it is another scripting bug.

Apparently, if Drablin is defeated before Vampino appears, Vampino will appear and won't go away. I'd like to claim that my party was so powerful that they overran Drablin in an instant but that was not what happened. (For what really happened, Hint: I used a ranged character to trigger this bug.)

Sweet Victory!

Above is a screenshot taken after Esline was defeated (I was too slow with the PrtScr key again). Vampino was still around and, uh, oops, I missed a treasure chest. Guess I was too occupied taking the screenshot to notice it during the game.

Buddy Rush: Contents

Buddy Rush: Floating Tomb Dumpling!

I just found this in Buddy Rush and I thought it was hilarious. It was during the 'Where is my home ?:(' mission (Chapter 6, Mission 4), where the player is supposed to find the Zomblin's tomb so he could sleep. I saw a giant floating dumpling claiming a tomb!

Sorry, Zomblin, this tomb has been taken.

Dumpling has your tomb, no sleep for you! :p

Yes, it is a bug.

Reminds me of another bug I found at another time during the 'Franken' mission (Chapter 6, Mission 3). In the mission, the player is just supposed to beat Franken into submission, not finish him off. The script is supposed to stop the fight once Franken reaches a minimum threshold. Apparently, the script did not account for Franken getting finished by Botherella's Thornbush. My party was left staring at the spot where Franken had fallen.

Franken, come back and play~

If I had been quicker with the PrtScr key, I could have gotten the screenshot with Franken flat on the ground.

Buddy Rush: Contents

Buddy Rush: Lady Killer

In the past, I did mention that there was no Oblin worthy of a kiss. Well, there now is a boss worthy of one. Meet the Succubus in the Zombie Rush mission (Chapter 6, Mission 2).

Oh no! It's Nagne's estranged ex! :p

Succubus has the nasty ability to charm one of the party members. First time I met her, she used it on my character and I got blasted back to the lobby by a Lightning from my Wizz teammate. As you can see in the screenshot above, I now bring lower level teammates to reduce the effect of friendly fire.

Have a Kiss (of Death)!

And there's the Kiss of Death, ver 1.1, now with added Stun effect! Bless you Succubus. :p

Update 17 Mar 2011:
Oh nos! The final boss of Chapter 6 is going to be Succubus and her annoying charm ability!

Final Boss Mission, unlocked!

Buddy Rush: Contents

Buddy Rush: Botherella Curse Build

I am still playing Buddy Rush on Facebook. One of my characters is Botherella, which is built around the Curse skill.

The Curse Skill

As a second active skill, Curse has decent cool time (compared to the third ability, Thornbush) and MP costs. At level 11 Curse and level 10 Charity it can seriously undermine the Oblins' ability to fight back.

I don't know what Botherella's passive skill Charity does exactly. It may increase Curse's effectiveness or duration or range. I'm unwilling to purchase the chips just to test it out. I can, however, detail the effectiveness of level 11 Curse and level 10 Charity.

For one, Curse covers almost the whole screen (it doesn't reach Oblins at the back of the screen), easily hitting all the Oblins in a big fight.

It seriously cuts down Oblins' defense. What I have noticed is that Oblins tend to have high defense but low HP. Thus, once Cursed, they go down quick.

It also reduces Oblins' attack such that party members will hardly take damage. In the fight with White Tiger, it reduced his buffed-up regular attack (which can take a chunk of HP off a Worrier, by the way) into puny scratches.

It lasts long enough for one big fight. However, it wears off earlier for bosses. I think it affects bosses for half the duration it affects normal Oblins. If the boss is Cursed when Worrier uses his Chopchop on him/her or Boorseye uses his No-yield shot, the boss will go down pretty quick.

In short, Curse helps finish a big fight quick with little damage and it makes boss fights easier.

As such, to take advantage of (i.e. to thoroughly abuse) this skill, I load my Botherella with cool time reduction and MP regeneration items.

Botherella ready to bother Oblins!

With an MP Regen of 8, my Botherella never runs out of MP. Skill cool time is still an issue, though - it is enough for me to use Curse on every other big fight in a mission. Unless I wait for it to cool.

I have not tested this build as a party member yet. The AI is much better than me at draining MP, so I have yet to see if MP Regen+8 is enough to keep the Curses coming. I know the AI is going to happily use it every chance it gets but with the decent range, I expect that at least half the Oblins in a big fight will be Cursed.

The weakness of this build is the low attack. This Botherella depends on party members to dish out the damage. At level 4, Wolfgan cannot be depended upon for this - he's still good for taking a few hits and distracting an Oblin, though. Another problem is that Curse does not work on inanimate objects (towers, barriers, etc.). Doesn't stop the AI from trying to Curse a barrier.

Good party members are those who can deliver a high rate of attack, to take advantage of the Oblins' low defense while Cursed. Nagne with his Sword Mastery is a good choice for general fights. Also good are skills that hit Oblins over time like Aikilu's Blade Typhoon and Wizz's Fire Field.

For fights with tougher Oblins (like bosses), Worrier with his Chopchop and Boorseye with his No-yield Shot are good choices.

I'm pretty much happy with this Botherella build when using her as the active character. Judiciously liberal (ab)use of the Curse skill during a mission makes it fun as Oblins go down quick. And in dungeons, after I'm done with the Cursing, I can go looting while the damage-dealing party members do the work. After all, having a pitiful attack won't add much to the fight. :)

The main problem is if I lose my damage-dealing party member. Then it gets painful. I blame the AI for failing to keep that party member alive as I hoard the HP Potions.

Update 25 March 2011:
I had my Botherella as a party member in the Dungeon so I could see how she fared.

Basically, she never ran out of MP. When she Curses, all Cursed Oblins get defeated fast.

However, her low Def meant that she loses HP quick if left in the line of fire. (I had less Def and slightly more Atk in the Botherella build I brought into that Dungeon.) Atk was not an issue since I had a Boorseye to do all the damage.

Buddy Rush: Barberella Build for Botherella
Buddy Rush: Contents

Nuclear Gastronomy

David Morgan-Mar over at Irregular Webcomic came up with Nuclear Gastronomy, along with some example recipes. I thought the recipe for the Salmon Poached in Uranium-235 was funny. Any physics student should know how important it is to 'replace the control rods' after using the fission reactor to poach the salmon. :p

However, I do wonder if it is safe to subject the plastic bag used to contain the salmon fillet to such temperatures (that's the chemistry student thinking!).

Buddy Rush: Nagne's Skills

(This article is obsolete. An updated version for Update 1.2 can be found here.)

Nagne

I had a query about Nagne's Skills. I imagine people would be looking for information out of the game since the description of his skills in the game left out some important details. So here's what I know.

Leaf Slash

Leaf Slash is an area attack around Nagne. What the words up in the screenshot does not say is that the effect radius increases with level. And the MP cost. Nagne is briefly immobile as he performs the skill, making him vulnerable to attacks, especially the heavily-damaging targeted ones (those cross-hairs on the ground).

Also, the Leaf Slash interrupts the Oblins it hits. That is, if the Oblin starts an attack but is hit by this skill before the Oblin finishes his attack, the attack is canceled. Annoyingly, if an Oblin attempting a targeted attack is interrupted, he will start the attack again - even after he has thrown the projective, effectively giving the Oblin two shots.

Unlike Nagne, who has to wait for a cooldown if stunned before he can complete his skill use. Unfair...

Update 21 March 2011:
It seems the rules are like this:
If the character is interrupted while using a skill, the character uses the skill again. That means that Nagne can attack with the Leaf Slash a second time if interrupted after he does damage but before he completes the animation.

However, if the character is stunned while using a skill, that use of the skill is lost. This applies to Oblins too. Use Kiss of Death (see below) wisely to take advantage of this.

QuickStep Slash

With the QuickStep Slash, Nagne rushes forward to hit Oblin after Oblin. What is not said is that the number of targets he hits increases according to level. It starts at 3 and goes up to 4 at level 5. It is possible that there is another increase further up but I have not made it that far yet. Also, MP cost increases per level.

This skill can be used defensively to avoid targeted projectiles (those cross-hairs on the ground) while attacking as Nagne rushes from target to target.

Update 6 April 2011:
QuickStep Slash's number of targets increases to 5 at level 9.

Kiss of Death

With the Kiss of Death, Nagne will rush straight to the target and deliver a high-damage attack. Granted none of the Oblins I have seen so far in the game are worthy of a kiss. Anyway, what the description does not say is how incredibly cool Nagne will be when he finishes off an opponent with this skill. It is something worth seeing at least once.

The description also does not say that Nagne will be stunned for a brief moment after delivering the Kiss as he poses for coolness. Not sure if MP cost increases per level.

Update: With the 1.1 Content Update (10 March 2011), Kiss of Death now stuns the target too! No more posing like an idiot if Kiss of Death fails to dispatch the opponent - now he'll be posing while politely waiting for the opponent to recover. :p

Annoyingly, all of Nagne's active skills can be interrupted if an Oblin stuns him while he is trying to use it - the MP cost is lost and the skill is unavailable until cooldown is completed if that happens. Also, the QuickStep Slash and Kiss of Death both potentially move Nagne away from team members. As such, Nagne should have good defenses (high Def, Evade and HP) as a precaution. Otherwise, lots of consumables could end up being used to keep him alive.

Having low MP and MP Regen keeps him from using his skills often - when needed, an item to replenish MP can be used. This is one way to control his skill use if he is not the active player.

Sword Mastery

Nagne's passive skill is Sword Mastery. Useful when paired with Stun to increase the chance of stunning an Oblin. Also, this increases the effectiveness of Att bonuses and makes Critcal [sic] more reliable.

Having Aikilu in the team helps increase his firepower. Having Botherella in the team weakens the Oblins' Att and Def, keeping Nagne alive longer and letting him kill faster. Having Worrier in the team gives him someone to hide behind. Having other Nagnes in the team allows simultaneous use of skills - it is cool to watch two Nagnes rush through and dispatch a group of Oblins with QuickStep Slashes.

Nagne is an offensive character with low defense. He is annoying to keep alive. But it is cool to watch him mows down Oblin after Oblin.

Buddy Rush: Nagne's Skills (Update 1.2)
Buddy Rush: Contents