Rivals of Aether II (Patch 1.1.0) - Clairen Arcade Mode - Hard Difficulty - Abyssal Medal (04:29:91)
23I'd been playing this game and the wider Aetherverse series quite a bit towards the end of last year. After a bit of a break, I decided to try this challenge as they actually added a reward for it, being the Abyssal Palettes. They also seem to have fixed a memory leak bug in the game that used to cause it to crash after I restarted Arcade Mode too many times in a row, so it was a bit less frustrating to do now.
I'll offer a few tips for each stage:
VS Fleet: Fleet is unlikely to get more than a hit or two on you if you're decent with Clairen, but she has a very annoying capacity to waste time on the clock if you don't cleanly finish her thanks to her tendency to stall off-stage or even near the top blast zone with her float, so I tend to try and beat her within 20 seconds. The method I used here is fairly reliable - you can knock her off stage, let her dilly dally off-stage while you charge Neutral Special, and then finish her in one hit. In some cases, you can try ledge trumping her recovery as well since her off-stage movements are very predictable. Those are the two most reliable methods to quickly finish her if you slip up getting her out in a clean combo.
VS Zetterburn & Forsburn: Due to the presence of the Ranno ally, Clairen can cheese this fight with fully charged Neutral Special. The Ranno ally will often keep the opponents busy, allowing you to charge it for free. This can be luck based though, as sometimes the opponents turn their attention to you at random, or Ranno can hit them while they are stunned from the Neutral Special blast, cancelling your strong knockback for weak knockback. If you're really lucky though, this fight can be over in seconds. I didn't get quite that lucky, but it was still a solid enough run.
VS Orcane: Orcane's AI here isn't that aggressive in my experience compared to the other fights, and will often run straight into your attacks, but he can be a bit slippery and he is surprisingly heavy. I find you can get him pretty easily with partially charged, tippered Neutral Specials. Doing that repeatedly can eventually set up for a fully charged one. You could also gimp him if he doesn't have a puddle on stage.
Target Test: Clairen has the easiest Target Test in the game IMO, so just follow my movements in the video, it's fairly easy to do, and you can afford to mess up. It's best to try and get it within 20 seconds as that is the Abyss medal pace.
VS Kragg: Kragg is the one I have the most trouble with typically, and I don't have a concrete strategy for him, this is the best run I've ever gotten against him by far (I usually take a minute to beat him). His AI does seem susceptible to U-tilt juggles though, and like Orcane, Neutral Special pokes can be effective.
Flock of Wrastors: Not much to say here, they usually go flying off-stage within 2 Strong Attacks. I find Down Strong is best for covering both sides, but just use which one seems best in the moment. I don't focus much on defense as their AI is very odd, and can catch you in little wombo combos sometimes, so best to get it over with.
VS Loxodont: Since this stage is so large, I honestly think your best bet is to go for the fully charged Neutral Special, which is honestly easy enough to do given the space you have. Since Loxodont is so heavy and the stage is also quite tall, though, you will need to pile some damage on him first, but it's not that hard to do, he's susceptible to N-air and U-tilt combos.
Final Boss: Getting his shield down is just a matter of playing well, and trying to keep him in a good combo. Again, U-tilt and N-air are great for that. After that, you guessed it, fully charged Neutral Special is just your best bet for a quick finish. Forsburn is pretty easy to get with this out of his recovery, so it's a reliable strategy.
It's very unfortunate that this wasn't a deathless run, I got very unlucky at the end of that first attempt of the final stage when I was so close to finishing it. But it seemed the rest of the run was good enough to where I could still get the Abyssal Medal even with the time penalty for continuing. I ain't going to try and get a deathless run any time soon after this experience, lol.
I did not unlock the skin for some reason, but this game has a history of rewards not always unlocking shortly after they have been added, so I will hope it gets added to my account soon.
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