SDN computer RPG questions

[MKSheppard]

Shroom:

Thanas will get you oppressed by the other bosses (as at this point in the story he does not yet become a big boss)

Thanas' development into BIG BOSS is an epic storyline which should not be missed.

[PeZook]

Thanks for the advice, guys. I managed to complete Board Culture and got an achievement called "The Spirit Of Testing". I don't seem to be able to find out what bonuses it gives, if any. Is it just one of those meaningless achievements, like "Congratulations, You Managed To Log In"?

Also, I really hate the Internet Tough Guy enemy class. I have two supermods in my party, but these guys just keep spawning everywhere. Weren't they supposed to be nerfed in the last patch?

I obviously don't work for Bioware. I just report on what has already been made public. Besides, Bioware's grandiose proclamations about their "revolutionary" morality system are, at the moment, just that. We'll have to play the game ourselves in order to see if it's truly revolutionary or if it's just typical Bioware hype.

Oh, I'm sorry, you just seemed so knowledgeable I just kinda assumed you worked for Bioware. So you didn't hear anything about what they're doing for morality? Shame...

[Shroom Man 777]

Shroom:

Thanas will get you oppressed by the other bosses (as at this point in the story he does not yet become a big boss)

Thanas' development into BIG BOSS is an epic storyline which should not be missed.

It's a really riveting storyline too. At first he starts out as an antagonist that you must defeat, but later on in the flashbacks it is revealed that in the past he was the true protagonist and big hero but through painful and heart-wrenching ordeals, he becomes what he is through a series of treacheries and manipulations wherein he has no choice but to become BIG BOSS and do what he does for what he believes to be the right thing, a righteous yet bloody act that you must nonetheless stop even though you yourself are being secretly manipulated at the behest of the CONSPIRACY (known as the SENATORS, the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo!). The storyline of Thanas the BIG BOSS is very compelling, a very sweet nigh-Shakespearean tragedy, and he is one of the greatest character in gaming history. His story is one for the ages.

SDN SOLID: THANAS EATER

But it has a whole fuckload of long-ass cutscenes. I don't mind this, I love the cutscenes, but mileage varies.

[Darth Fanboy]

His story is one for the ages.

SDN SOLID: THANAS EATER

Do you think that storyline will make it into the MMO?

[RogueIce]

The Mess achievement can be unlocked by achieving the HAB mastery and by having at least one military class party member or a supermod as Party member.

Be forewarned that if the said party member is a pure supermod (as opposed to military or a combo military/supermod) you will be unable to unlock the coveted Messhole achievement.

I won't spoil the specific quest chain because it was just too much fun, but be aware you'll piss off a lot of NPCs in the process.

[LadyTevar]

It's a pain in the tail to get all the female playable PCs and have them all in your party with a female lead, but if you do they randomly band together to inflict a massive joint attack called "SOS Brigade!" This hits all enemies on the screen doing Estrogen Damage to all of them. This cripples all Male opponents, and any Jerk or Angry Young Virgins are instantly paralyzed.

Completing all of the Zeon Quests and having all the Female Moderators upgrades this attack: Double Damage, Insta-kills Jerk and AYV.

[SirNitram]

For those who are wanting the Nit&Tev pair fully upgraded, there's a hidden quest which is a pain in the ASS to find. It doesn't count to 100% completion, so most haven't noticed. If you head back to Fundyland after you cleared it, you can find some of the Free Thinkers talking about supplies from Virginia. YOU MUST HAVE TEV IN THE PARTY. If you don't, the quest doesn't trigger. If you do, she smacks the bajeezus out of them for confusing West Virginia again. This opens the area, allowing you to go find the Better Apartment upgrade, and the shop where you can combine Nitram's Wedding Ring with the Necklace Chain. After this, any Idiot Teenager has a chance to drop a Viable Liver, though the chances are higher with any type on motorcycles or who are driving. Take this to any Hospital or University, and the pair will be upgraded. Nitram's hit-points double, and Tev gets an auto-revive for Nitram.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

You need at least one gundamechanimumango for the AT-AT Cow Tipping minigame, since you need to tip all the AT-AT cows to harvest their milkbags. You can use the cheapest gundamechanimumango though, since the AT-AT Cows are very easily tipped and they hardly put up a fight at all (it takes them so long to turn around to face you and get a shot with their Pew-Pew Lasers that you can just take a stroll and approach them from their sides, but don't come at them head on because if you do and if they get a hit, that Pew-Pew Laser will do Kiloton Damage!). You can also use ropes, but it takes longer to tie their feet up. Just dropkicking the AT-ATs with a gundamechanimumango is faster, and since they fall to their sides you can reach their udders easier too.

While it is true that a cheap mecha will suffice for the AT-AT Cow Tipping minigame, certain types of cheap mecha are far more suited for it than others. Knightmare Frames are far too small to tip an AT-AT with brute force and must rely on their grappling cables to tie the AT-ATs' legs. Battlemechs are quite flaky, because their actual combat performance very rarely coincides with the stats and fluff given for them; even a Battlemech with high attack and defense stats on paper can have trouble tipping an AT-AT or surviving a direct hit from an AT-AT's laser. Arm Slaves need not apply unless they have the Lambda Driver upgrade, which makes tipping the AT-ATs just as trivial as using a Gundam to do it due to their "Violation of Newton's Laws" special attack. Variable Fighters combine all the weaknesses of aircraft and mecha while having none of their strengths; while they certainly can dropkick AT-ATs, even grazing hits from the AT-ATs' lasers will OHKO them. Only proper Gundams and their relatives are capable of completing the AT-AT Cow Tipping minigame in a timely manner. The Zaku II and its relatives and the GM family are always good choices, as are the GINN and Tieren.

For anyone attempting a Real Robot-only run, here are some more tips regarding your potential choices for mechanical summons. Knightmare Frames are harder to hit due to their size, but they are also by far the weakest of all the Real Robots in terms of HP and DPS; even high-end KMFs like the Lancelot Albion and Guren SEITEN are only roughly equivalent to a Zaku II or GM. Battlemechs are generally avoided due to the aforementioned discrepancies between stats and actual performance. Arm Slaves would otherwise be unremarkable if it wasn't for their Lambda Driver upgrade and the related Violation of Newton's Laws special attack. As mentioned before, Variable Fighters combine all the weaknesses of mecha and aircraft with none of their strengths. Even high-end Variable Fighters such as the VF-25 Messiah can be defeated by mid-tier aircraft like the basic F-14A Tomcat without factoring in any buffs or debuffs; in fact, a fully-upgraded F-14D Super Tomcat has an automatic 3x damage multiplier against all Variable Fighters, which increases to 5x if your F-14D is wearing the Schnee Squadron or Ghost of Razgriz Paint Jobs.

Gundams and their grunt relatives warrant their own section. Those belonging to the Universal Century subtype are generally viewed as the most reliable and versatile of all the Gundamechanimumangoes, with high-end models like the RX-93 and the Sazabi having stats comparable to Super Robots. Future Century subtype Gundamechanimumangoes are the best choice for the Outer Space Karate Tournament quest chain if you absolutely must have to use a Gundamechanimumango, but since the majority of them are largely designed for show instead of actual warfare, they suffer stat penalties outside of the Outer Space Karate Tournament (with a few notable exceptions). After Colony Gundamechanimumangoes are a rather odd lot; the actual Gundams gain a damage bonus inversely proportional to the number of friendly mechanical summons on the field and can gain access to the Plot Armor upgrade, while grunt suits receive a damage penalty proportional to the number of friendly mechanical summons on the field. Cosmic Era Gundamechanimumangoes tend to be similar to their Universal Century counterparts stats-wise and can also gain access to Plot Armor; in fact, high-end units like Strike Freedom automatically start with Plot Armor when purchased. Cosmic Era Gundamechanimumangoes are a particularly special case, as deploying one in front of a Mecha Maniacs member will actually enrage him, with all the stat modifications that entails; however, Plot Armor increases your Gundamechanimumango's stats and usually nullifies enemy attack bonuses, unless said Mecha Maniacs member has the Plot Anti-Armor special attack (which all the bosses from that faction have). Using a Cosmic Era Gundamechanimumango to help complete the Kill the Mecha Scum sidequest can be worth the extra challenge just to hear the Mecha Maniacs' taunts and insults. Anno Domini Gundamechanimumangoes are distinguished from the rest mainly by their increased cost to purchase and deploy; the 00 Raiser is generally seen as a poor investment, particularly when the RX-93 and the Strike Freedom are already available for much cheaper. However, the Tieren is basically the Gundamechanimumango equivalent of the A-10 Warthog, so it's totally cool to have.

[RogueIce]

Is there truth to the rumor that, if Nitram and Tevar are in your party, and you have Nitram target a "Witty Remark" at Tevar, it'll do no damage but Tevar will hammer-whack Nitram and insta-KO? I've heard it's an easter egg the devs put in but never tried it out myself.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

After that Neo-Nazi vs. Black Egyptian fight, if you look closely, you can find a gun which you can use to defend your girlfriend with in the later dating sim mini-games.

Is there any reason you can't, say, just pull out whatever of the legion of weapons you're toting around on your person at any given time for the dating sim defense? I mean, a gun looted from a random battlefield is as good as any other gun looted from a random battlefield, but why can't I pull out, say, my blaster or phaser (from the Trek vs. Wars wars,) or any of the other legion destructive hardware I'll have accumulated by that point?

Because you need that gun to defend her from the KKK Terror Squads, especially if your girlfriend is the Nubian Queen. The KKK Terror Squads have a buff reducing all other damage by 95%.

There's actually a way to get around that, but it requires that you be on VERY good terms with certain NPCs and have high interpersonal stats. Attempt to arrange a double date with Mayabird and DPDarkPrimus; alternately, get the Nubian Queen to meet Civil War Man. If the double date goes through, when the KKK Terror Squads spawn, Mayabird's The South Shall Burn aura will automatically kick in, which is just as effective against these particular Klansmen as it is against any other enemy with the Ku Kluxer, Confederate Soldier, Confederate Revanchist, or Racist Pig-Fucker subtypes; it will also nullify their 95% damage reduction buff. If Civil War Man is allowed to be in your party, his Union Oppression works exactly the same as Thanas' Germanic Oppression, with the addition of a 2x damage multiplier when used on Ku Kluxers, Confederate Soldiers, Confederate Revanchists, or Racist Pig-Fuckers; it will also automatically bypass the damage reduction buff. Both Mayabird and Civil War Man will also start combat with Zombie Sherman already summoned, which has a 95% damage reduction buff of his own against Ku Kluxers, Confederate Soldiers, Confederate Revanchists, and Racist Pig-Fuckers (and, oddly enough, The Other Georgians, but that's not particularly relevant) and automatically deals 5x damage to those enemy types.

If you manage to get both Mayabird and Civil War Man, which can be a difficult task due to the time-sensitive nature of the dating sim portion, you have the option of throwing a party with them for the Nubian Queen, which means that you can invite even more people to join in for the inevitable curb-stomping of the KKK Terror Squads. Stas Bush is always a good choice due to his automatic 2x damage multiplier against all enemies of the Fascist Pig subtype; equipping him with the Mosin-Nagant M91/30 with the PU Scope attachment will increase the multiplier to 4x (6x if you have the unique Mosin-Nagant "Zaitsev's Pride"), meaning that you can just stick him in a safe place and have him plink away to his heart's content. Of course, with both Mayabird and Civil War Man in your group, you now have your own Zombie Sherman clone army to command from the start.

In any case, the restriction on your regular arsenal will be lifted, and you won't have to do the unwinnable pyramid-building level. You can then give the Honor Defender to the Nubian Queen as a memento to remember you by when you break up with her at the end of the dating sim portion.

If you're a 100% completionist, remember that you can retry the dating sim at a later time with the other optional girls. I suggest taking back the petite animu babe with the gigantic bosom from Ford after you kill him in Kill the Mecha Scum or the FROD FROD FROD quests in order to unlock her as one of the possible options.

[The Yosemite Bear]

remeber the Cat vs. Dog quest chain can be even more bitter fighting than IvP, HABvMM, or ASVS quests.

[Mr. Coffee]

Ow. Mr. Coffee kicked my ass near end of the Badass MuthaFucka storyline, and after that I was told that I needed either Flagg, Havok, Chardok or Stark to have a chance. Not having played this part for some time, can someone give me some tips?

Before you do the Badass Muthafucka side-quest you must first defeat Havok in five episode match of Sons Of Anarchy The Drinking Game. After defeating Havok he will grant you the Drinking Buddy feat. Then you go to Mr. Coffee and use Drinking Buddy. He will gain a 50% bonus to damage for the duration of the fight, but his to-hit rolls will be reduced to half since he'll most likely trying to lay his drunken mac on the female members of your party. After defeating Mr. Coffee you'll receive the Greater Summon Mexican Minions ability.

[Zor]

Has anyone tried out The Zombie Survivalist Survival Guide DLC yet? Its definately a fun playthrough, even if the common Zombie Survivalist abilities of "Zombie Anal Evacuation Mass Summoning" and the "You gotta shoot em in the head" buff the survivalists give the Zombies can be a bit annoying/

Zor

[Shroom Man 777]

You can avoid the whole Zombie Survival senareo by using one of Shep's 1960s GRAPHS and then using your mechanical summons to squish the zombies and stop the zombie apocalypse before it even happens. Cluster bombs totally disregard the "You gotta shoot em in the head". This earns you the enmity of fat Zombie Survivalists though, and instead of playing through World War Z, you instead have to deal with World War ZS. The S stands for Survivalists!

However, if you combine Shep's 1960s GRAPHS with NPC STRAK's "Fatty Nerds Are Lame" ability, which is rare as these NPCs HAET each other, dealing with the Zombie Survivalists becomes an easy exercise for farming points. Not only does the 1960s GRAPHS negate all of the Zombies' broken buffs, making them not quite as invincible and scary as previously thought, and get the Survivalists all riled up, but the Fatty Nerds Are Lame ability also exposes a lot of their personal flaws and makes their defenses even lower!

Go find the Filipino NPCs for real weapons like automatic rifles, as well as body armor and night vision goggles and MREs. The American Zombie Survivalists have weaksauce shit and, really, the Filipino Crazies are actually more well-equipped and well-stocked then the Zombie Survivalists (talk to STRAK and he will say that they are a bunch of fatty nerds, lol). You can get dubious garage-built Filipino firearms if you complete the Shoot the Fat Old American Tourists sidequest.

Alternatively, if you play as a Fat Old American Tourist, the dating mini-games become easier because you have the Purchase Mail-Order Filipina Brides ability. Though unlike simply dating gigantic bosom petite animu girls, you have to pay for the Filipina Brides and get married to them and have Fil-Am children, and there is a chance that the Filipina Bride will just divorce you after getting her American citizenship and enough dineros.

But this is where the Breastbleeding Blood from the Milkbags ability comes in handy.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Also complete the Chili and Salmon quests from The Bear, to recieve the Frying Pan, which counts as a Mace/Hammer class weapon. (Yeah I know shameless self plug). However if Shroom gets ahold of the Chili rescipies instead you can trade it for "Death Curry"

[Force Lord]

Does anyone know where I can get the Book of Overdone Metaphorical Mind-Fucks?

[Shroom Man 777]

Get one from NPC ShadowDragon. The Book of Overdone Metaphorical Mind-Fucks is actually not worth the paper its written on, so you're just wasting Gil (or R.O.B.s or whatever), and whenever you use the abilities from that book you just end up failing miserably in all sorts of threads and end up getting screwed over by everyone else. But this is why you give the Book of Overdone Metaphorical Mind-Fucks to someone else who you don't like, so you can watch him get his shit ruined from a safe distance.

Inexperienced players tend to think that the Book of Overdone Metaphorical Mind-Fucks will, like, teach them awesome new abilities and stuff. But that's a very big mistake new players tend to make. The abilities the Book grants you aren't much better then the abilities you start off with at the beginning of the game (actually they're worse).

You'd be better served saving monies for the WHORE WAR WAR JOURNALs or some shit, get the first volume of WHORE WAR 1 (otherwise known as the GREAT WHORE), and then get the WHORE WAR 2 version later (NPC Stas Bush (!) calls it the GREAT PATRIOTIC WHORE*). After that you can choose to get VIETNAM WHORES who can love you longtime, but they tend to have TB so watch out! If you do the SHROOMEDIAN missions, you can shoot a pregnant Vietnam Whore!

*Just like his Motherland, her breasts bled on me. His Motherland is a WHORE.

PS:

As for the KOREAN WHORE, you can find lots of Korean Whores in the Philippine section of the game, after you finish the Impenetrable Tourist Bus of Doom sidequest and successfully get most of the Hong Kong tourists killed.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

You can avoid the whole Zombie Survival senareo by using one of Shep's 1960s GRAPHS and then using your mechanical summons to squish the zombies and stop the zombie apocalypse before it even happens. Cluster bombs totally disregard the "You gotta shoot em in the head". This earns you the enmity of fat Zombie Survivalists though, and instead of playing through World War Z, you instead have to deal with World War ZS. The S stands for Survivalists!

However, if you combine Shep's 1960s GRAPHS with NPC STRAK's "Fatty Nerds Are Lame" ability, which is rare as these NPCs HAET each other, dealing with the Zombie Survivalists becomes an easy exercise for farming points. Not only does the 1960s GRAPHS negate all of the Zombies' broken buffs, making them not quite as invincible and scary as previously thought, and get the Survivalists all riled up, but the Fatty Nerds Are Lame ability also exposes a lot of their personal flaws and makes their defenses even lower!

Go find the Filipino NPCs for real weapons like automatic rifles, as well as body armor and night vision goggles and MREs. The American Zombie Survivalists have weaksauce shit and, really, the Filipino Crazies are actually more well-equipped and well-stocked then the Zombie Survivalists (talk to STRAK and he will say that they are a bunch of fatty nerds, lol). You can get dubious garage-built Filipino firearms if you complete the Shoot the Fat Old American Tourists sidequest.

Alternatively, if you play as a Fat Old American Tourist, the dating mini-games become easier because you have the Purchase Mail-Order Filipina Brides ability. Though unlike simply dating gigantic bosom petite animu girls, you have to pay for the Filipina Brides and get married to them and have Fil-Am children, and there is a chance that the Filipina Bride will just divorce you after getting her American citizenship and enough dineros.

But this is where the Breastbleeding Blood from the Milkbags ability comes in handy.

Ironically, for all the mentions of the zombie survivalists being fat nerds, their character models actually depict them as being as emaciated as the stereotypical supermodel or Ethiopian refugee; in fact, all enemies of the Fat Nerd subtype are depicted as comically thin. The Fat Old American Tourists encountered as enemies in the Philippine portion of the game are truly corpulent, though, to the point loading up even one on a Jeepney without his luggage will use up all the available seats AND cargo space; at least you can accomodate four Fat Old Filipino Cops on a Jeepney, along with all of their kit.

Cluster Bombs obviously aren't the only munitions that can nullify the zombies' You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head trait. All other forms of equippable anti-ground ordinance will work, though it's obviously wasteful to expend AGM-65 Mavericks or AS-14 Kedges on mere zombies. If you have access to tanks, load them up with the Beehive Shell special ammo; alternately, if your tanks know Space Jiujitsu, just have them use Turret Headbutt. The autocannon on any of the available IFVs also works wonders; even a cheapo Technical equipped with a Ma Deuce, DShK, or any of the recoilless rifles can suffice.

As for the Shoot the Fat Old American Tourists quest, the actual reward varies depending on exactly how many Fat Old American Tourists you shoot and how much of a commotion you stir up. Even if most players exceed their quotas, which nets them a modest discount (25%) on all guns they obtain from the Filipino Crazies, they don't bother with sublety when it comes to shooting the tourists (not even bothering to bribe the Fat Old Filipino Cops), which means that they're stuck with the garage-built guns. As mentioned before, exceeding the quota is easy enough to do, but deflecting suspicion from yourself is the really hard part. Simply put, it pays to conceal your involvement in the tourist killings by any way possible, be it by choosing times and places where you can't be spotted, making the deaths look like accidents, setting up the Moro Militants or other Filipino Crazies to take the fall, or just bribing all of the Fat Old Filipino Cops. If you successfully manage to deflect suspicion from yourself by any of the named methods, instead of receiving the garage-built guns, you receive a free Tacticool Grease Gun, along with the MSSR upgrade for the M16 and the ability to use the Enhanced Battle Rifle upgrade for the M1 Garand. All three are useful for completing the Impenetrable Tourist Bus of Doom sidequest, but if you want easier access to Korean Whores, you'll have to let the hostage taker kill the Hong Kong tourists before you move in to kill him.

Playing as a Fat Old American Tourist is one of the worst things you can do in the game, even without taking into account the risks and disadvantages that have already been mentioned. Obviously, you won't be able to do Shoot the Fat Old American Tourists. In addition, if you try to complete Impenetrable Tourist Bus of Doom in order to get at the Korean Whores, you'll wind up as a hostage yourself, and there's a very good chance that you'll be dead by the end of it. On top of that, Filipino Crazies will charge you triple their usual rate for firearms if you need to get some for the Zombie Survival missions.

[Shroom Man 777]

Alternatively you can learn the Filipinos Are More Proficient in Engrish Than Other Asians ability, which you can obtain from NPC Illya Muromets/Schoolteacher Malachuschus (or by doing the Filipino Call Center mini-game!). With this ability, you can recruit a Fat Old American Tourist into your party, finish the Mail Order Filipina Brides mission, Breastbleed the divorced Filipina Bride, and after that you can finish it by shooting the Fat Old American Tourist yourself, thus starting the Shoot the Fat Old American Tourist quest by killing him.

You can also find the Korean Whores at NPC Illya Muromets/Schoolteacher Malachuschus' place, since Koreans come to the Philippines for English Second Language (ESL) courses, and at the ESL School you can find not only Korean Whores but also Korean Man Whores. If you want to customize your character design, get a Horrible Korean Haircut from a Korean Hairdresser, it is very expensive and it's really useless, just for aesthetics and looking cool, but at least you can get Cloud Strife's hairdo. The only good effect this has is that it makes NPC RogueIce more friendly towards you, but I think it is better to just buy a Ridiculously Huge Sword or a Ridiculously Huge Motorcycle since you can actually use these, unlike the Ridiculously Huge Hair. With NPC RogueIce's good graces, you can learn the Lame Up Testing Threads abilities, and after that you can go to Rouge 9 to improve that skill to perfection.

[Thanas]

The Lame up testing ability is very useful if you want to engage thread sniping, for it basically forces bosses to call down an instant oppression.

OTOH, a really useless skill is the "lame up non-testing threads" ability best learned by observing NPC Shadowdragon. It does nothing but lower your influence stats and ensures a quick roasting by the Dragonlord Edi. Note that NPC Shadowdragon apparently tries to increase his skill for the better, but so far the Jury is still out on the effectiveness of that patch.

[Shroom Man 777]

I already covered that with the Book of Overdone Metaphorical Mind-Fucks a few posts ago, Thanas.

[Thanas]

I already covered that with the Book of Overdone Metaphorical Mind-Fucks a few posts ago, Thanas.

Who says an NPC can have only one lame ability? Bioware took extra effort to make the game complex, you know.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

I already covered that with the Book of Overdone Metaphorical Mind-Fucks a few posts ago, Thanas.

Who says an NPC can have only one lame ability? Bioware took extra effort to make the game complex, you know.

I think we're confusing the Square Enix game with the Bioware game here. Remember that no actual details about the Bioware game have been released other than some of the casting choices and the usual vague proclamations about revolutionary morality systems.

As for the Square Enix game, everyone knows that much of the actual programming was done by Atlus, one of the few Japanese developers capable of making a proper role-playing game. The people at Square later decided that they were "dissatisified" by how the Atlus folks were handling it and forcibly took back the development rights. Atlus promptly sued Square for breach of contract and won a truly massive settlement; while Square still has publication and distribution rights to this specific game, Atlus is entitled to 90% of all profits from its sale and has the rights to produce or license any sequels or spinoffs. Or something along those lines. Legalities aren't exactly my strong suit.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

-snip retelling of "alternate" method to finish Impenetrable Tourist Bus of Doom-

You must have a modded game, because there are several problems with that scenario:

• The Philippine cops are further divided into additional subgroups to represent which force they belong to. If you're attempting to pass yourself off as a cop in order to get on the bus, make sure you're wearing the proper uniform, or there will be a random chance that the local police will start shooting at you instead; shooting back will permanently max out your heat with all the Philippine cop factions, and the hijacker will kill the hostages.
• If you're not going to bother with obtaining a police uniform, the local cops will automatically spot you if you're trying to sneak onto the bus. You can try to convince them that you're a relative of the hijacker, but your interpersonal skills need to be high enough to make the check successfully; Fat Old American Tourists will automatically fail the check, while all other non-Filipinos receive a penalty on their skill check. You can bribe the cops, either to bypass having to bluff them or to rectify a failed skill check; however, the bribe needed to get past them and onto the bus is triple the usual going rate. If you decline to offer a bribe, the local cops will open fire unless you vacate the area; if you stand your ground and retaliate, your heat with all the Philippine cop factions will be permanently maxed, and the hijacker will kill the hostages.
• Even if you manage to get on the bus, the hijacker is nowhere near as stupid as he looks. Unless you get a critical success on your Pickpocket check, he will detect any attempts to reverse-pickpocket explosives and detonators into his inventory, and he will turn hostile. While he can be persuaded to drop his M16 and give himself up peacefully, he will not equip detonators under any circumstances if he has them in his inventory; setting off the explosives with your own detonator will obviously kill you. You can get the explosives back by shooting him and bluffing or bribing the local cops, though.

[Ford Prefect]

Before you blow up FROD's gundamechanimumango, and actually before you start your Kill the Mecha Scum sidequest, you can go to FROD when he is still a friendly or neutral NPC and learn a few useful tricks from him. If you do the WHORESWHORESWHORES quests and get FROD a nice petite animu girl with an enormous bossom, he will teach you the coveted ability known as the Space Juijitsu. You can teach this ability to your mechanical summons, normally only gundamechanimumango enemies can do it, but after learning it from FROD now your own T-34s can learn Space Juijitsu and can use Turret Headbutt on the gundamechanimumangos in the Outer Space Karate Tournament Missions. With the Chobham armor upgrades, the Turret Headbutt is actually more damaging then the Robot Headbutt. A modernized T-34 mechanical summon with Space Jiujitsu is actually a better swordsman/lancer build then most (all) gundamechanimumango, so you don't need to get a gundamechanimumango for your party.

Whoa whoa whoa, that is total bullshit. First of all, if you're using the T-34 you're doing it wrong. I know it looks like the best of the tank-type mecha summons on its face due to its really strong growth in DEF and END and all the modernisation upgrades you can get in Motherland and the Balkanised Regions, but that's only if you ignore the fact that all the upgrades totally kill stat growth, like with all tank-types. You can see the problem, right? Without modernisation the T-34 has abysmal RES and only has AP has a special resistance, and its basic attacks are almost pointless. The only tank-type worth a damn is the Leopard 2, especially if you want to use Space Jujitsu. The Leopard 2 has by far the best general stat growth and needs the upgrades even less than the Abrams meaning it can be generally competitive while retaining it's high growth. As it has the highest starting AP, AGI and RES, and because of its good stat growth, you can give one Space Juijitsu, master the skill, max level and do a Replay of it so that Space Jujitsu is a natural skill at level 1. AP, AGI and ATK growth will go through the roof, meaning that by the time you get to max level on its second Replay it will be massively superior to a six Replay T-34 or the M1A6 Mod.0 twinkery.

This is, incidentally, by far the best way to do Gundamechanimumango II: Electric Boogaloo in a second playthrough using tank-type mecha summons. In fact, I'd say it's even better than using the experimental plane-type mecha summons with Space Juijitsu and Thrust Vectoring, despite plane-types generally being way better than tank-types in AP, AGI and ATK (which is obviously the core of Space Juijitsu). A lot of people think this is because the Leopard 2 is glitched and it needs to be patched, but it's the exact same technique you use with the robot-type mecha summons you get through Kill the Mecha Scum. And just like with the robot-types, the Leopard 2's high END and DEF compared to plane-types means it can be way more competitive in Gundamechanimumango II: Electric Boogaloo, because relying on EVADE in those quests - even with Thrust Vectoring for the super high AGI - is really given how good enemy ACR, VAL and DEX is, and pretty much everyone does multi-hits or combos.

Seriously, I'm sick of the wanking that the T-34 gets. You see it on heaps of sites, talking about how after six Replays a fully modernised T-34 leaves all the other tank-types in the dust and is the only way to get through Chapter X on SDN Must Die - Heaven and Hell, but it's a load of crap. I haven't gotten a Leopard 2 through 6 Replays yet, but even at an effective level of 29,984 it's about thirty five times as killy as an effective level 59,994 T-34. Statistically, even taking into account the slightly random growth stats, a six Replay Leopard 2 with Space Juijitsu will be competitive with the high end boss custom robot-types you can get in Gundamechanimumango II: Electric Boogaloo, even though you literally can't give one natural Thrust Vectoring. The Leopard 2 can end up with AP and AGI stat growth better than most high end PCs - only RedImperator's VAL growth is significantly better.