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The Genius of Sappheiros/Walkthrough/Stage 26

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Revision as of 19:01, 12 February 2012 by Psieye (talk | contribs) (→‎Darkness Space: Defending Acala Sword)
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Darkness Space

This stage is very similar to the Gorgon Barrier, in that you have a number of sections joined by one or two areas made very disorienting by the fact that their edges loop. The magical sinkholes are your teleports this time around. It should be noted that there are a few of the smaller teleports that link to others within the same screen. You'll build two bridges as you move through the level that will give you access to the starting point as you go.

The enemies here aren't too terribly dangerous for a party around Level 80. Most can be dealt with in a single round without difficulty, and are upgrades from prior foes. There are a couple worth nothing, however: the motorcycle riders should be top priority for killing, as their physical hits the entire party with a slayer effect, potentially killing your mages. Fortunately, they're slow. The Petals of Hatred can sacrifice themselves to inflict Control at low HP, so don't let them linger. The Lamia type monsters have the Allure attack typical of their type, and are durable foes, but their success rate is low enough that good RES will suffice. Finally, the upgrade to the Rashkas holding a wicked-looking spiked mace should probably be avoided unless you have excellent physical resistance gear; they get up to three actions per turn, one of which is almost always Acala Sword, a guaranteed kill for anyone not named Alice. Their other physicals are extremely strong as well. Remilia with Regalia and a good javelin can solo them but if they appear with a turtle then she's in trouble.

Interestingly, even though the enemy icons are mindflayers, there are no evil squid present.

Boss: Existence Hater, Shinakiraku, and Devagaku

Existence Hater's HP: 150,000
Shinakiraku's and Devagaku's HP: 15,000 each

Another trick boss, with a very limited set of options for your offense, awaits you at the end of this stage. The Existence Hater is the main body of the boss, and the one you want to kill. Shinakiraku and Devagaku are the mouths beside and below it, but they're fairly potent in their own right.

Offensively, the boss has a variety of Physical, Mystic, and Dark attacks, most of which hit the entire party, and many that you will not have seen before. Some of the incoming attacks can set Sleep or Venom, and the Existence Hater has Vortex to remove your buffs and its debuffs. Smash the Face is supremely powerful and can kill off weakened characters even through Alice's shield. As the Land power skews further and further towards Dark, it can also add Dark Web, Dark Wall (lowers MDEF), and Demon Tempest to the mix. The Hater has 999 Regen in Dark.

Worse, the obvious solution to the barrage of incoming attacks - killing off Shinakiraku and Devagaku - doesn't really work. In the grand tradition of multi-part bosses, if you kill both of them, the Existence Hater will follow up on the next round with Abyss Wind, a powerful attack that hits the whole team and attempts to set Curse, and then two Raise Dead spells to bring them both back. Even if you just kill one, the Existence Hater has Raise Dead and will eventually use it.

When the Existence Hater or its minions get bored with all of these attacks, they also have powerful healing spells in Elixir and Refresh, either of which will recover 10,000-20,000 HP for one of them. Elixir will also remove any debuffs you may set. Expect to see one of these every few rounds.

Finally, when the Existence Hater hits 25% HP (112,500 damage dealt), it will use Tsunami of Hades, a Mystic-elemental attack that hits the whole party for 999 damage, ignoring all barriers but not Mystic Resistance. It also specifically overrides Reraise and Mokou's commander effect, so don't try those. (Seriously: it has the attached Quick effect "Resist failed!").

Defensively, this boss is also pure hell. The Existence Hater nulls all magic except Mystic and has a whopping 1500 PDF, which more than compensates for the 150% damage it would normally take from all physicals. Shinakiraku is weak to Water, Lightning, and Pierce, while strongly resisting Fire, Earth, and Slash while Devagaku does the exact reverse. Both take normal damage from Light, Dark, Mystic, and Blunt attacks.


So, how to deal with this obscenity? A specific party of Alice, Sanae, Marisa, Satori, and Sakuya is recommended. Use the Sunshine Lunch formation.

First of all, you need to find a way to stop the healing; Hater of Existence has 150,000 HP, and with your limited menu of offensive options (only Marisa, Satori, and Lithos can do any meaningful damage to it and have the staying power to keep on delivering), having the boss recover 10,000-15,000 HP every few rounds is not something you can deal with. Sakuya's Colloseo World is your only means of doing this, but bear in mind that it does mean you will also be unable to heal. Mokou's Phoenix Feather and Sanae's revives will work fine under the effect of Colloseo World, as will Satori's Raise Dead if you have it. Note that Colloseo World also shuts down Meditation abilities, HP drains (but not MP drains), and auto-regen, so the MP you bring to the battle is pretty much all you get.

Then you need to consider your defenses. The large number of full-party attacks means that, for perhaps the first time, you will find that there is an upper limit to the number of attacks Alice's Marionette Parrar will protect you from! If Alice has the Aegis Shield, or another block-all shield, she will run out of blocks during or after the second strike-all, leaving your characters vulnerable to the third attack. It can even cut off partway through an attack. You can sort of game the system by ensuring that you have good Dark protection (solid circle, minimum), and then equipping Alice with a shield that doesn't block Dark. Also, put Alice in the #5 position - Marionette Parrar activates in position order, so if she runs out, she'll take the full force for her usual negligible damage.

You definitely want Dark resistance on everyone, and solid physical defense or resistances really help matters, too.

For your offense, Satori and Marisa, with the appropriate buffs from Sanae, are your best option; though Lithos has a few offensive skills that work, and is durable to boot, none of her skills reach the same level of offense as a well-trained Satori, and certainly not Marisa's Sparks. Satori's Psycho Bind is a Mystic attack with a good chance of debuffing the opponent's MATK and MDEF, so use that if you have it! Once debuffed (or if Satori doesn't have it), Destruction Beam is probably best. Starlight Barrier is also a useful spell to have in order to recover from Tsunami of Hades. Sanae's Wind of Prayers and Wind of Miracles buffs will at least double your damage, and she can also heal the occasional status ailment you will suffer.

Keep Colloseo World up as best you can, revive as needed, and keep pounding away. Whatever you do, don't kill both of the minions, unless you really want to eat an Abyss Wind. Little Legion can stop it, but that still puts you down Alice for a turn, necessitating some sort of alternative protection. Nothing wrong with killing Devagaku via collatoral damage to reduce the incoming damage, however.

You need to track your damage to a degree as well, in order to be ready for Tsunami of Hades. The turn after you pass 112,500 damage, make sure you activate Little Legion. Even with 75% damage reduction in Mystic, Alice will still fall (it's 995 damage total), so be prepared to bring her back immediately. Also make sure you can set up some sort of alternate protection on the turn after Tsunami of Hades (Starlight Barrier is probably enough, especially in conjunction with Mokou's 3-card Commander spell), since Alice is likely to be dead at the beginning of it. It is also possible to recover from this by using a character with strong Mystic resistance and Mokou's revives, but your pace will slow to a crawl. If Colloseo World runs out while you're still recovering, you could be toast.


Fortunately, the Existence Hater doesn't have a parting shot the way many other bosses do, so once it's dead, you're free to go. (Amusingly, if Marisa was to cast Double Spark and someone else kills the Hater, Marisa will charge off the screen and cast it anyway).

Alternative party: Youmu, Alice, Byakuren, Sanae, Patchouli. I didn't know the Existence Hater had 1500 PDEF as a maximally buffed Youmu could still do a respectable 10k damage with 200 Yojana in 1 Slash and several thousand damage with non-spellcards (using Moriya Destruction for the formation). Make sure Byakuren maximally buffs her own IND before she buffs Youmu: Amplifying Scroll, Wind of Miracles and Hyper Trigger before the Weapon Bless, which does not overlap with Mystic Hermit as the latter is a different buff also offering Exorcism.

Only Shinakiraku can cast Elixir. Patchouli's main job is to kill it as soon as it revives - on a lucky crit or double-cast with buffs and maximum Land, this is easy. Otherwise hope it doesn't cast Elixir before it dies on the 2nd turn. As a bonus, Devagaku won't be harmed by ice so Patchouli can cast Ice Giant without worrying about triggering Abyss Wind. The rest of the time, Patchouli is to fight the Land war so it doesn't go too far into Dark and (with 13 points in the Staff tree), cast dispel on Devagaku so it wastes all its time on re-applying Weapon Bless on itself (it is very insistent on having this buff up) instead of hitting you hard.

Alice should always cast London Dolls on Youmu to protect from Dispel. Everyone else is to survive on Byakuren's buffs and equipment. Star Ritual's Godly Wind is a big help for everyone else but is a nuisance for Youmu as it gets in her way (only 5 buffs can be active at a time). To get around this, cast Godly Wind on turn 1 and cast Dispel on Youmu on turn 2. Youmu's stances almost always go last so provided she casts it on turn 2 instead of turn 1, she'll now be free of Godly Wind while everyone else benefits. By the time Godly Wind wears off, everyone should be well-buffed by Byakuren's superior single-target buffs.

Tsunami of Hades CAN be survived with the Hell Shield (best anti-mystic shield crafted at Kourindou), 3 ranks in Mystic resistance and Doll's War (double shield effects). Sanae should have the prestige of surviving it so she can bring everyone back with Source of Rains. Youmu should never be hit by it because of Alice's perpetual London Dolls coverage. Thus Youmu's damage output should never be compensated except to re-cast Mystical Hermit and her stance. Tsunami of Hades seems to have a significant cooldown so you won't need to survive it often if Youmu is well prepared.