Help with Ricardo

[Kidlat]

I've been getting my ass beat for 2 days and I'm already lost all my marbles. He attacks? He has more power than my EGOs. He's just chilling? He dodges all my ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ EGOs. I need advice on what i should do to beat this guy.

Current lineup is:
Blade lineage Yi Sang
Ncorp Faust
Ncorp Don
Kurokumo Ryoshu
Middle Meursault
District 20 Hong Lu
Ncorp Heathcliff
LCCB Ishmael
Rosespanner Rodion
Blade Lineage Sinclair
Base Outis
Rosespanner Gregor

Their level is around 32-35. I only bring Ishmael, Meursault, Faust and Rodion in that order. My current strategy is to make ishmael tank the dudes from wave 1&2 and use Meursaults defensive skill for guaranteed damage (cuz everyone else cant win clashes consistently) then barrage 1 guy at a time with one sided attacks. At wave 3 everything falls apart cuz now we can barely win a clash even with EGOs. Please help me I'm going insane

[Minh]

Originally posted by Idioms:

He attacks?

Yes.

Originally posted by Idioms:

He's just chilling?

Yes.
Ishmael LCB Sinner & Emil Sinclair N CORP. The One Who Shall Grip.
She redirects all Attack SKILLs that target him. He saves as many Attack SKILLs 2 & 3 as possible. He Clashes if she can't redirect all.

WAVE 3 / 3. If he uses DEFENSE SKILLs Make This Memorable / Swear Vengeance, use his Attack SKILLs 2 & 3. Her DEFENSE SKILLs Clash against those DEFENSE SKILLs to Offset them.

[Birp]

Just borrow N Sinclair.

Also your units are underleveled.

[CarThief]

Godamn. Why do people always try these fights while being 10 levels beneath the suggested level!? You WILL run into roadblocks if you don't keep your level up.

For every 3 levels of difference or so the enemy's clashing power, damage output, and damage resistance increases, or something like that. He's a tough fight on level 40-45, why on God's green earth would you fight him at a level as low as 35!? Level up!!!

Though, I do understand the frustration of time (AKA Fuel) being a literal resource, and not wanting to waste it on training stages. But you really have no choice here. Burn up some Lunacy or boxes at 0-1/10 if you must to get another day's worth of energy.

Edit: Well, maybe that I misremember what the expected level was in that chapter, but still... First thing to do is always to level up if it gets too hard. That's RPG lesson 101. Level up till the beefwall is beatable.

---

What also helps is...
-Bring lots and lots of blunt force.
-Hit him hard while his debuff is active (where he recieves additional damage).
-Stagger him where able. If you can't win an attack, seek to stagger him before he does it.

-If his evades/defends become annoying, your best two options are either E.G.O it, or use your own Defence skill to Offset it, by clashing your defence against his. This nullifies his (and possibly yours too - I dunno). Or just avoid clashing against his defences and maybe they'll trigger after your attacks finish due to his low speed.
(Note: You can't Offset Counter skills, sadly, though..)

-Just keep hitting him until he goes ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and starts AOE spamming, if I recall.
-Ishmael is functionally immortal in this fight unless no other Sinners remain, exploit that.

[|Revenge|]

You are Very underleved, but If you Just want to be done with it you can use n Sinclair and ishmael. Search for a video on yt

[Elzquiem]

I don't know if the minimum required has been increased since then, but at its released time, I think recommended level was 35, so I would not say that you are underleveled, but even at this level, you will suffer, since Ricardo is here to be a "gatekeeper" gameplay wise, in the addition to show how powerful some people in the City can be.

I will parrot myself from an old thread about this boss in the following lines.

This battle is based on the specific buff the boss gaves himself: that is your cue to dogpile damage as much as possible before he can start dishing his "mass summation" on your team. It's not that difficult if you prioritize damage the boss instead of the goons: this is a fight that will force you to make sacrifices in order to get through.

Back when I faced it, I went first with the polyvalent team I use in Story, focused on clashes. The two first waves were easy, but the third was a bloody mess, and I was utterly destroyed when some wannabe Color that cried about hair coupons.

Tried the second time a few days later with a blunt resist/damage oriented team and it went better, to the point where I passed it, staggering the boss each two turns. Clearing waves were however a bit more arduous, since I did not have better clash value, and had to sacrifice N Faust sanity station to Regret Faust in order to dish more damage and tremor.

My comp back then was the following :
- Regret Faust Lvl 35, T IV, for damage + tremor (AOE was just a bonus)
- R Meursault Lvl 35, T IV, for tanking the counter with Capote I
- R Ishmael Lvl 34, T IV, for damage + clash power
- Little sister Don Lvl 35, T III, to tank hits (I was tempted to take Molar Outis, but I wanted more hit "absorbers")
- Rosespanner Rodion Lvl 31, T III, for tremor + tremor burst + one sided damage
- N Sinclair Lvl 35, T III, for raw damage and clash power, but it backfired a bit

I'm not a EGO leveler, unless the uptiers are really worth it, like Faust's Fluid sac.
Only EGO lvl 3/4 I used : Faust's Fluid sac and Sinclair Impeding Day.
I used Capote I on Meursault to get wrath damage reduction ;
I used Ishmael Ardor Blossom Star I to break through the evade skill ;
I never used EGO to counter the high skill slots of the B.B. : this is a waste of ressources, unless you can do a stable overclock to win the clash.

I min-maxed the ratio skill/clash against the boss, to ensure the ones to lose clash would tank the hits (blunt/wrath res) and the winning ones would dish out damage. I let the most of the time the boon hit my sinners, unless if their hits would stagger them. Using AOE attacks helps a lot to clean the goons, especially with Fluid Sac which allows you to heal in the process.

I had an EGO corrosion with Nclair against the boss, who tanked the hits, but got his SP reduced to -45. He only did 26 damage with corroded Impeding Day on my defending Rodion, but be warned that you can get less lucky than that if you use him. Never order him to hit a staggered sinner in this specific case.

If you need some of my sinners as support, here is my ID: D333496331, with Everlasting Faust as picture (I do like her a lot).