ReChain, kickin' it up a notch!

BAM!!

So, yeah, ReChain's finally starting to really kick it up on difficulty. I'm on the second set of cards now (Atlantica, Neverland, Hollow Bastion, 100 Acre Wood [yes, 100 Acre Wood]).

First off, I can say that Ursula might surprise you, especially if you're still running sixes and below. She's not as easy as she used to be, and she actually uses level 8 cards really often, so pack some Zero cards and an extra lower-leveled Cure or two to lead your Stocks, especially if you're like me and like to put it all in CP and Sleights, so you're left with very little HP.
So, I WAS able to beat Ursula the first time, though it took a while... BUT...

... The REAL challenge came afterward.

Holy fuck, the first Riku battle, and he kicked my ass at least four times before I finally got a good deck together to beat him. He doesn't even use any Sleights, cause he doesn't have to! His normal attacks are difficult enough to deal with, honestly... He WILL stun you, he WILL abuse his range, and he won't give you a moment's rest, so you may wanna pack an Aqua Tank or two from Atlantica to help with your reloading. Barrel Spiders help, too, but your most valuable might be Jafar, since Riku will actually EFFORTLESSLY break your normal attack combos with Zero cards and lead it into his own combos.
Lethal Flame might be your best bet to get in damage and run off to charge your reload a bit in advance, but Strike Raid DOES stun him. Pack Stops if you picked it up in Wonderland, and pepper your deck with lower-leveled Cure spells (4+) so you can stock as you go, instead of having them all near the back. Being lower-leveled, it's okay to sac 'em- even better if they happen to be Premium, leaving you with more CP for attack cards and such. You'll also want to throw around a couple Zeros instead of just keeping them all at the top or bottom of the deck, and definitely play defensively once Jafar wears off. Watch for cards you can break, and try to break them with your own so you can force him to start reloading more often. If you can, try not to stock cards for Sleights besides the occasional Cura or Sonic Blade.
His attacks usually come in one at a time or in 2-3 hit combos. He has MASSIVE range in that he'll dash straight for you on the second hit of his 2part combo. Slash, dash, slash, and it will rape you. Wait after the first slash, and then dodge roll toward him (right past him!) to avoid it and then come back with a quick counter from behind.

Lord, Riku's friggin' hard in ReChain, worse than Sephiroth... Can't wait till he actually uses Sleights. x_x;;

Just wait until Reverse/Rebirth, Repliku TWICE, Zexion, and Ansem. If Riku's bad now, imagine how hard the hardest bosses will be XD

Lord Ryu wrote:Just wait until Reverse/Rebirth, Repliku TWICE, Zexion, and Ansem. If Riku's bad now, imagine how hard the hardest bosses will be XD

I can see Ansem being difficult in ReChain if they make him just hover around you and hit you over and over again in the most hax way like in the first Kingdom Hearts, and Zexion's SUPPOSEDLY really difficult, but what makes Riku so hard to beat is just how he moves, and how often he'll stun-lock you if you let him. He just covers so much range, it's ridiculous. Like I said, worse than Sephiroth. He'll probably actually be EASIER when he starts using Sleights, cause then I'll at least be able to cancel his attacks with Zeros easier.

Also, that Playing Card enemy card has purpose. Extra swing speed rocks when Riku's stuck reloading. ><;

I always hear about how hard the Riku battles are.

So, KH1, I go, expecting to be absolutely demolished by Riku, and I beat him handily the first time. (I don't power level, by the way, that's for psychotics.)

Chain of Memories, I always lost to the battles AFTER the raplica, especially Larxene. D:

The Popular Pauper wrote:I always hear about how hard the Rikku battles are.

So, KH1, I go, expecting to be absolutely demolished by Rikku, and I beat him handily the first time. (I don't power level, by the way, that's for psychotics.)

Chain of Memories, I always lost to the battles AFTER the raplica, especially Larxene. D:

Riku's harder in ReChain.

I'll also note that, apparently, I went into that battle with REALLY low HP compared to other players (youtube'd videos of the battle from other people), since I really prefer to invest it all in CP and Sleights, more CP than anything...

Shine wrote:

The Popular Pauper wrote:I always hear about how hard the Rikku battles are.

So, KH1, I go, expecting to be absolutely demolished by Rikku, and I beat him handily the first time. (I don't power level, by the way, that's for psychotics.)

Chain of Memories, I always lost to the battles AFTER the raplica, especially Larxene. D:

Riku's harder in ReChain.

I'll also note that, apparently, I went into that battle with REALLY low HP compared to other players (youtube'd videos of the battle from other people), since I really prefer to invest it all in CP and Sleights, more CP than anything...

I go in with small amounts of CP, usually.

Mmkay, so I've been boostin' my HP some since Riku II, which gets a short summary.

Riku II was pretty much on the same level as Riku I with the exception that Riku II uses a Sleight called Helm somethin'. He kinda jumps in the air, and comes down from above you with the tip of his weapon- this is repeated two more times, and on the third time, a mass of shockwaves home in on you. It's easy to cancel with a Zero card, so do so, cause it hurts. Besides that, it's the same as last time. Sprinkle your deck with lower-leveled Cures and Zero cards. He'll Break your Sleights much more often now, so don't rely on things like Summons too much. Lethal Flame, Sonic Blade, and the Raids all are effective against him.

So, besides that, I'm on the last card of the second set, Hollow Bastion, and I got Ars Arcanum. It's a REALLY fun Sleight to work with, and kinda overpowered (on that note, I got Tornado, too, and it's broken as ever). Arcanum's complicated by its formula- three Attack cards ranging from 1-6 in total, meaning 6-0-0, 5-0-1, 4-0-2, etc, etc. There are tons of combinations, but in the end, you're using very low-leveled cards. Generally, that's a bad thing, but there are ways of getting around it.

Useful cards for decks based around Ars Arcanum:

Jafar- Jafar's the primary AA support card. AA is an Attack Sleight, so Jafar keeps it from being broken. Pick it up from the final boss of Agrabah.
Power Wild- Probably the second most important card. Since you're usually being forced to run lower-leveled cards, it might be important to have Power Wilds to REVERSE those numbers- all your ONES become NINES, TWOS become EIGHTS, etc, for a reload, and you can get multiples, unlike Jafar. Pick 'em up at Olympus Coliseum.
Bandit- Bandit is especially useful if you plan to be left with lots of Zeros. Bandit makes it so that all your attacks are equal, in power and animation, to the third (last) hit of any combo. Zeros are easy to break, so since you don't expect to be doing any actual combos anyway, you may as well play defensively. Wait for them to use a card, then break it with a max-power attack. Wait, and repeat. Pick 'em up in Agrabah.

Riku and Marluxia cards are worthy of note, since Riku keeps your Stocked cards from being lost, and Marluxia lets you use two Sleights per Stock, one after the other. However, Ars is easy to break, making them inefficinet for boss battles.

Neverland was kinda laughable, and Captain Hook was just sad. I'm looking forward to Maleficent, though.

Deck Building Tips:
-Fire spells are quick, and make good Zeros for your deck.
-Try to Premium cards that you would put at the front of Stocks, like Aeros for Tornado, and Stops for Lethal Flame. In addition, try to keep them lower-leveled. It saves CP, and since you're likely using higher-leveled Attack cards anyway, you don't really need the high-levels for cards you're gonna be losing to Sleights anyway.

Helm Splitter, I bet.

Probably Helm Splitter, yeah.
Lv. 47
HP: 215
CP: 975

Okay, some things to note since my last update...

Ars Arcanum deck for Heartless and Arcanum deck for Bosses are a little different.

I just beat Vexen for the last time, and of course, the first time I got a Sleight called Freeze. Freeze (Blizzard+Blizzard+Stop) just, well, Freezes all the enemies within a certain radius of Sora. They also take more damage from Attack cards while frozen, soooo... I got the bright idea to lead with Freeze in normal battles, and then Arcanum, and see what happens... Well, did so, and everything basically died within one or two hits thanks to the bonus damage from Freeze, which is MASSIVE.
Now, the thing to note... Sadly, Freeze takes a LONG time, which makes it almost worthless against bosses, so you might wanna mod your Arcanum deck before boss fights, or maybe just have a seperate one... That, or just have a deck better suited to boss fights in general. Arcanum DOES have the advantage of many Zeros, though...
Earlier, I noted that my favorite Arcanum formula was 6-0-0. Well, a couple more useful combinations might include 1-1-1, 3-3-0, and 1-0-0. They all work best with Power Wild support once Jafar runs out and you've gotta reload. Ones become Nines, Threes become Sevens. The last combination is in case you prefer to pack LOTS of Zeros throughout the deck, which is pretty wise.
For Bosses, if you're lacking in Power Wilds (you should have 2-3), go for the 6-0-0.

Blitz Deck!

I admit that this deck's kinda lame, but it's one of my favorites for its simplicity. The idea is to have a bunch of Attack cards- lots of number variety and the likes. The drawback is that you can't do much without Stocking, so you end up grinding your deck away pretty quick. The big advantage is that if you're smart, you've got combinations like 9-6-0 all over the place, so there are Zeros EVERYWHERE throughout the deck, meaning if you're quick with your eyes and hands, you can easily Break most or all a boss's cards while you shift through your deck, lookin' for cards to make Blitz. Another advantage is that since cards are low-leveled in general (Blitz is made with 3 different attack cards adding up to 10-15 points), you have access to Ars Arcanum. I don't pack an enemy card in mine for the sake of having TONS of Blitz opportunities, but Jafar is pretty valuable here.

Fun fact- Once you're past Kingdom Keys, the basic attack combo does more than Blitz. Blitz is just an early Sleight to get players used to searching for the right cards throughout an entire deck to make a relatively powerful combo.

BUT BLITZ DECK BEAT VEXEN II FIRST TRY. Small numbers add up to big numbers and break shit, and those Zeros all over the place bust up Sleights. Generally, you wanna just wait till they use a Sleight or a Zero card before either busting the Sleight with a Zero or Breaking their card with Blitz.

It's fun.

As always, despite that the entire deck's based around Blitz, it's smart to throw in a few Stops for Lethal Flame, cause it's great for buying you search/reload time.

Double-post, sorry, blah blah, BUT IT'S A NEW DAY and no one else has posted here yet.

Lv. 50 somethin'
HP: 215
CP: 1075 (I think)

Okay, so I'm actually in Castle Oblivion now.

Riku's III and IV
Treat them the same as the first two, just with more Zeros, since you've really gotta watch out for Dark Aura. Dark Firaga's not so bad- almost negligible. You can Cure it off. Helm Split and Dark Aura are the real baddies to look out for, aside from his normal ridiculosly over-powered single-card attacks. If he were an organization member, he'd be the strongest.

Vexen I and II
Vexen uses Ice Element, so try fitting a few Fire spells into your deck, if at least for a Fire Raid or two. Vexen's smart, so he packs TONS of Zeros, but he makes the mistake of using them as normal attacks too frequently (not even to break your cards, either, just out of nowhere), so watch for those and bust him up with whatever Sleight you've got up your sleeve. I beat him with a Blitz deck, so yeah. When he says he's gonna freeze you, he means that literally, so don't let him. He'll follow it up with an Attack, which deals more than twice as much damage when you're frozen. All his Sleights are slow, and easy to Break with Zeros, so take advantage of that, and have a Blitz or whatever Sleight you're running (preferably something quick so they can't interrupt it) ready to use right after the Card Break.

As for Castle Oblivion itself, for the easiest time, you might wanna spam Tornado or any other high-level area Sleight. Neo Shadows almost constantly use level 8 cards, which easily fuck over Ars Arcanum. Even if they can't BREAK Arcanum with a level 8 card, they can still prevent it altogether, meaning your deck's almost worthless...
... Unless you modify it. Which I have.

Okay, deck building!
At the top of my Arcanum deck, I pack THREE Blizzard and TWO Stop. LIKE THIS.

Blizzard	Blizzard	Blizzard
Stop	Stop

That way, at the start of the battle, I can just shift over ONE card, Stock three, and end up with Blizzard+Blizzard+Stop, which creates Freeze (yes, you get it after Vexen I). It just Freezes all the enemies within a short distance of you, and doubles the Attack damage they take next.
Now, to use Freeze at its best, you usually need to use it at the very beginning of the battle, against stunned, grouped enemies (assuming you hit them to start the battle, meaning they start off dazed). Mid-battle, this obviously doesn't work out so well, SO...

Aero	Aero	Gravity
Cloud	Cloud	Cloud

... I pack Tornado somewhere mid-deck. With TWO Aeros beside each other, upon reload, there will be a second Tornado all prepped and ready right there. Cloud can be replaced with any other summon, of course- Cloud just deals the most damage. Tinker Bell and Bambi are good alternatives, since Tinker Bell restores your HP out the wazoo, and Bambi drops a bunch of HP balls all over the place while Stunning enemies (only at Paradise Lv3, though), which means more reload/search time for you! With either one, you won't have to pack as many Cure spells.

Understand yet? The idea is the have Tornado pick up all the enemies, and drop 'em right at your feet, in which case you QUICKLY slide over to your Freeze (you will have to have reloaded since you last used it to get the second Blizzard back, unless you pack FOUR Blizzards in a row) and use it, Freezing, well, everything you picked up with Tornado. Then, you just throw up an Arcanum, and they all die in, like, one hit each. XD;

It's GREAT for Neo-Shadows, which are otherwise very troublesome to an Arcanum deck. Creeper Plants, however, will still give you problems, since you can't pull 'em out of the ground with Tornado, and they're generally well-spread out, so you can't Freeze them all, not to mention that they often use Lv6 cards, which will cancel out Arcanum with or without Bracer (Jafar).

Blitz still remains my most effective deck for Bosses, lulz. I pack a few Stops in front so I can use Lethal Flame, which gives me time to search around for a Blitz combo late-game when most of my planned ones are gone (the first run-through is just Triangle over and over again, since I've got 'em all lined up next to each other. ). It has four or five Cures at the back (Lv5+), in ascending order so that the lower-leveled ones are the ones lost to Stock. It doesn't pack any enemy cards right now, but once I have enough CP to spare, I'll throw in Jafar for good measure.

I MIGHT just replace one of my theme decks with a basic Beat 'Em Up- a bunch of high-leveled cards you just beat the living shit out of everything with, like, all Nines, all Oathkeepers or something (can't get Ultima till after Reverse/Rebirth). They're really simple, and I figure they'd go REALLY well with Card Soldier, which boosts your swing speed by A LOT, which is great for bosses that are reloading or recovering from a Break. You could also pack Tornado and a Power Wild. Stun and get everything together with Tornado, then Power Wild all your Nines to Ones, and then Arcanum away. Barrel Spider and Aquatank remain infinitely amazing. Barrel Spider cuts out the shuffle animation when you Reload, and Aquatank automatically reloads all your cards when they run out.

It's just too bad that once the game's through, you can go back to re-fight previous bosses and such... No New Game+ or anything. That'd be pretty bad ass.