Freedom Five Bunker Unlock Discussion

Games SotM: The Video Game
321

I discarded multiple copies  of each mode card, but specifically discarded 1 of each type for the civilians.

I used the full F5 (base versions). 

Here is how to consistently win against Progeny.

START

Make sure Wraith starts with an eyepiece or an impromptu invention. 

Make sure AZ starts with a null-point, so he can help tank  

If you don’t start with these things, reset. 

 

EARLY GAME

If Legacy starts with any other powers, great. You want to get to a point where he can make himself immune to energy damage and redirect it to protect the others. 

Prioritize Wraith getting dual eyepieces, so that you have greater deck control. It also raises the chance she will get a throat jab. 

Once Wraith has a Throat Jab, KO Tachyon. Her ability to put cards from trash to hand makes sure that you can throat jab every round. 

If the environment plays Rooftop Combat, keep it in play until you are fully set up. Hypersonics/Throat jab as needed. If not, you WILL hit one of those turns where the environment and Progeny combine to lock you out of doing anything for multiple rounds.  It sucks, which is why I prioritize eyepieces and next evolution/lead from the front, so I have a better chance of avoiding it/surviving it.

MID GAME

If Progeny or the Environment card locks you before you have the setup to rank indefinitely, you need to make a judgement call and reset or try and take the hit. If I have the stuff in hand to get the immunity/damage prevention combo, then I’ll usually take the hit. 

My Legacy turns often consist of making myself immune to Energy damage, then motivationally punching AZ. He then heals on his turn. 

If Progeny resets you too much with an unexpected Beginning of the End, reset. I try and avoid this with dual eyepieces and liberal use of the rewind button, but it can happen. 

LATE GAME

Remember that “the inevitable” discards anything that it reveals that isn’t an ongoing, and “form of the harbinger” discards anything it reveals that isn’t a Scion card. This is a great way of getting rid of clumps of stuff that you’ve been shoving to the bottom of the deck via eyepiece.

322

First of all, Wraith's scope is fantastic for fighting progeny.

Second, I tried rotating damage. Beat him too quickly to get more than one rotation off (melee, projectile, energy, fire, in that order). Didn't have time to discard every mode card, but I did make sure that bunker discarded whenever there was a choice. No luck. Gonna keep trying.

Third, he means that he's not doing fire damage one turn and fire damage the next turn too, etc.

323

An unlock on Steam has Bunker discarding an Auxiliary Power Generator, two Upgrade Modes, and a Recharge Mode to Impending Casualty, but never a Turret Mode. So discarding all three mode cards is not required, and I suspect discarding modes is not required either. (Said unlock also had a Beginning of the End that destroyued no equipment at all, Bunker's or others, so an active "Bunker must lose 5 Equipment to BotE" is definitely not present.)

 

A reminder: Christopher's comments say there are two halves to Bunker's unlock game: one is "sacrifice for your allies, but not health," and two is "how Bunker switched Progeny's form in the ARG," and we'll need Megalopolis's help with both.

 

Here's my thought:

Part one is almost certainly "Bunker must discard to every Impending Casualty." I suspect there's nothing more to that (no "modes if you got 'em"). It coudl also be "must discard to at least three ICs," or else, both.

Part two is proabbly where Braithwaite's "damage rotation" point comes in. The point of the "like in the ARG" comment is, I suspect, that when AZ hit Progeny with ice, Progeny shifted himself to ice...at which point Bunker hit Progeny with something else.

Bunker can deal fire, projectile, energy, and (thanks to  Close Quarters Combat) melee damage.

So.

Complete the prerequisites. Then, win against Progeny in Megalopolis with the Freedom Five. Bunker must discard to [this is either all "Impending Casualties that appear," "at least three Impending Casualties," or both]. Each turn that Bunker damages Progeny, Bunker must use a different damage type than the last time Bunker damaged Progeny.

 

With a possibility of "must deal X damage of each of the four types."

 

Time for some testing!

324

Bunker needs to change damage types every time he attacks. Don’t use a Flak Cannon (projectile), and then use a grenade launcher (also projectile).  Don’t use a Flak Cannon one turn, then a Flak Cannon again the next turn (because that would be repeating projectile damage), unless the environment is Close Quarters Combat, because then you would be using a new type of damage (melee). 

I tried to rotate between Flak (projectile) and Omnicannon (energy) on most turns. When I had an External combustion, I would use it. If I had multiple copies of external combustion in hand, I would make sure NOT to play them back to back (via upgrade mode).  

When Close Quarters Combat is in play, Remember that it switches everything to melee, so you need to use only 1 damage dealing card or power. 

Does that make more sense?

 

325

There's an unlock log that disproves that on Steam: https://pastebin.com/eGyDKLTv  Bunker uses Projectile several turns in a row.

 

(Yes, it got posted just as I was writing up my thoughts above.)

326

Could it just be hit Progeny with 4 different types of damage? That would be why we need Megalopolis's help on this- to get the melee damage component.

327

If I did it properly, that log file shows Bunker discarded 28 cards, drew 94, and used 28 powers. Can it be the following? 

"Play the prerequisite games. Fight Progeny in Megalopolis and have Bunker draw 20 cards, use 20 powers, and discard 20 cards. he may not be incapacitated.

 

I'll try and test it tonight. 

328

 

Yeah, I'm thinking it's "minimum X damage of each of the four types," as the unlock log I linked shows over 10 of all four.

329

Do you think it might be a rotation with AZ instead of with himself?

330

Almost certainly not, per Christopher's hints.

331

The unlock log I linked shows exactly one rotation with AZ: on one early round, AZ hit for cold and then Bunker hit for fire. That's literally the only time all game that AZ dealt Progeny damage.

It's possible, but I wouldn't wager on it.

332

I will say that one unknown that we need resolved is whether you can have any Freedom Five variants on your team (say, Wraith).

We're assuming (with cause!) that after the prerequisite games, you need to beat Progeny in Megalopolis with the Freedom Five. It would be useful to know whether that's "with the base variants of the Freedom Five" or with any variants, or with base or FF only.

333

Where did he post these hints?

334

Page six of this forum posted by Braithwhite.

335

Braithwhite's advice is pretty good. I'll just add some extra tips and modifications. I have never reset a game yet, and I've won them all. (I mean the latest ones against Progeny- not every game I've played)

Dual Eyepieces on Wraith is key for deck control. After that, you want Smoke Bombs. Everything else is just a bonus and you're just trying to draw cards to make sure you have Throat Jabs available on the off chance you need them.

Tachyon can cycle through her deck like nobody's business. I stick Push the Limits out and then let it die next turn just to get the extra card draw. Research Lab is great for cycling through the deck. Fleet of Foot and Nimble Attack do the same. Once I get going, with her 3 Hypersonic Assaults in the deck, I can have her nullify Progeny's damage every turn. On the rare times it doesn't happen, Wraith and Legacy are able to take over. Don't worry about keeping a trash full of bursts, just use her to keep Progeny off balance. Both Wraith and Tachyon nullify any ongoing or environment cards that stay out for a turn.

Legacy plays Lead from the Front and makes himself the lowest hp target when Smoke Bombs are in play. This gives everyone the benefit of smoke bombs and shunts all the damage to the highest hp targets. Bunker and Absolute Zero are best due to armor and healing. This is for the times when you can't play cards and need to eat Progeny's damage for a turn. This also lets you use Heroic Interception as another version of Throat Jab/Hypersonic Assault since all damage is shunted away from Legacy. Bolster Allies is good to give everyone cards. If possible, Next Evolution is used to become immune to Energy, but Motivational Charge is also decent. Take Down, as always, is great, especially since Progeny can't deal damage most of the time.

Absolute Zero has some ongoing Destruction. Bunker has some environment control. Otherwise, these two are just there as tanks- to take damage and hit back. Their equipment and ongoings are sacrificed to keep Wraith and Legacy set up well, and even Tachyon somewhat, though she recovers much faster. Wraith and Legacy want an extra equipment (Wraith) and ongoing (Legacy) in play in case they are forced to sacrifice one.

For Progeny, the lightning form is the worst. Never let it out. The rest of the forms are fine, but I avoid blight just to avoid discards. Progeny won't deal damage hardly ever and because of that, you can easily build up power and hit him down, so the ice and fire forms are negligible. I also usually nuke his ongoings just to avoid having to destroy my cards.

This setup practically gives me a lock and by the time Progeny gets a lucky End of Days or prevents me from playing cards, I have a tonne of cards laid out and high health so it's not an issue.

336

I think there is a minimum discard to impending casualties because I did over 10 damage each with all 4 damage types and did not get the unlock.

337

I just parsed the log and what I see is:
Bunker did 4 different types of damage to Progeny.
Bunker at one point had everyone of his modes, all 3 copies of each, in his trash.

Are there any other logs so I can see if the same is true for each of them?

338

Well, here's a fail log from a very long game.  The other thing I had noticed about that one success log we got was that Bunker dropped below 10 HP and then was raised above 10 HP again.  Since this causes Progeny to flip, I thought it was worth a shot.  No luck.

However, I did have Bunker deal only 2 Energy damage and 5 Fire damage (2 of it to himself).  This could have a lot of little fiddly bits that all need to fall into place....

339

I just tried having bunker have all his modes in the trash and dealing each type of damage. This didn't do it. However, no one went below ten. I think going under and over 10 has to do with the conditions. Can we confirm this happens in the successful logs?

340

I apologize if this was said, and I'm just not seeing it, but Bunker does assist in helping shift Progeny's form in the final battle by firing high temperature explosives at him while he's in his ice form.

Maybe that phase of the unlock involves attacking first with Absolute Zero while Progeny has Scion of Frost out and then Bunker needs to attack with Grenade Launcher and/or External Combustion in order to finish him off?