It happens all the time in Dirge of Cerberus that I am performing strategies and doing research that, by all likelihood, no player has done before me. Yet Chapter 12 evokes that sensation of "the new" and "treading unique ground" more than most spots in the game.
Ch12-1-3 is a prime example. It starts off with a 25-second on-rails shooter segment where we "fly" as Chaos through Omega's interior. There is no way to look behind you or control Vincent's position. All you can do is change, to a limited degree, where your gun is aiming. These 25 seconds pass by in a flash and you'll have no trouble clearing it with zero damage so long as your gunning is fast and true. This segment will leave the player's mind about as quickly as it entered.
What have I learned about this tunnel?
- Each Omega Bud has 1500 HP. More commonly in Chapter 12 the Omega Buds have 2000 HP each which also happens to be exactly the amount of damage that Death Penalty dishes out.
- A maximum of two Omega Buds hover in front of Chaos at any given time. The flight begins with two Omega Buds already in front of you.
- A total of eight Omega Buds may spawn and fly ahead of Chaos throughout this segment.
- Each Omega Bud is set to spawn at a given interval during the 25-second flight. If you take too long to defeat the Omega Buds in front of you, then the Omega Bud of a given interval will not spawn.
- From the start of the level there are three Omega Buds behind Chaos. These will NEVER fly ahead of Chaos to reveal themselves. Their lasers are unlikely to strike you, as they were probably placed behind Chaos just to add more flashy lasers blazing throughout the stage.
- The only way to strike these Omega Buds is to use Blizzard magic. The Blizzard magic travels slower than Chaos Vincent, so the magic will fall behind and then hit one or two of the hidden Omega Buds if you're lucky. I have so far not managed to strike all three Omega Buds in one fell swoop.
- If you have an active 1-chain then you can instakill one or more of these Omega Buds with Blizzard Lv1. If you have no active killchain then you must use Blizzard Lv3 if you are to one-shot an Omega Bud.
- In total there are thus 8 + 3 = 11 Omega Buds in this on-rails shooter. Each Omega Bud has a unique spot in memory, with their own HP counter, and is thus not a case of the same enemy having their HP restored and then getting respawned to the field.
These three elusive Omega Buds are what I referred to in my previous post.
Shademp said:
Veteran players might also *think* that they've destroyed every target in Ch12-1 but in fact they have not, as I will explain in detail in my next post.
Countless players have easily managed to defeat all 8 front-hovering Omega Buds, but how many may have ever bothered to figure out that you can damage the hidden ones behind you? Maybe a handful of people have fired off Blizzard shots for fun and accidentally hit one of the back-hovering Omega Buds, though they probably figured that all they did was perform an early kill of an Omega Bud that was already in a cue to enter the front (which is certainly a thing that can happen if two Omega Buds aren't currently in the front).
Visualization of the Ch12-1-3 flight tunnel and how the Omega Buds spawn. The tunnel curves in-game but has been simplified to a straight line in the image below:
Because you are firing blind shots it is extremely luck-based if you can manage to defeat the three Omega Buds hidden behind you. If you spam Blizzard you are likely to strike one or even two of them but defeating all three is rare. I have however confirmed in both emulator and in real-time action that it is possible to achieve the result I want: Defeat all 11 Omega Buds and achieve a 10-killchain.
Back when I was fighting Weiss Empowered I was intent on using an Elixir regardless of outcome because I wasn't sure yet if I would end up using magic for Chapter 12. I had to restore Vincent to full MP just in case. The final chapter has no mako points and if you use even a single restorative item then you will lose the S rank for "Items Used". I was disappointed when I found no useful exploits for Thunder Lv3 (or Fire magic for that matter) even with all the killchains I build up.
As it turns out, Ch12-1-3 is where my MP preparation pays off. Because I effectively don't have a killchain, I will always start off by firing Blizzard Lv3 as this is my only way to one-shot the Omega Buds with Blizzard without a damage boost. This Blizzard Lv3 shot is pretty likely to hit one or two of the hidden, back-hovering Omega Buds. When the time is right I will then spam Blizzard Lv1 until I run out of enough MP and pray that it hits the final secret Omega Bud while I still have an active killchain.
THIS CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED! It is by no means required for S rank. I would still end Chapter 12-1 with plenty of room to spare for the categories "Targets Destroyed" and "Killchains". But I have set up the aforementioned arbitrary challenge that I must defeat every available target and max out my killchains...so this is the only path for me to tread.
Of course life isn't easy and even when I do manage to get the 10-chain in this flight section...I am likely to receive damage in the next room and thus render my run FAILED, since I am aiming for zero damage.
Boy oh boy. The price of making-things-needlessly-difficult-for-you is steep.
I already know that Ch12-1-3 has at least three unused Omega Leaf enemies in memory (assuming they aren't restricted to Easy or Normal mode, I haven't checked). Hopefully these are entirely unused and not a case of needlessly obscure flag triggers that need to be nudged in order to unlock those enemies.
