Is Sponge Stone OP?

[mnmkami]

I mean, I love the game so far. I've just finished my first run and won the 300 years thing. It was all fun, until I figured out the "degenerative" strategy.

I don't know aobut you guys, but Sponge Stone seems a bit broken. Sure, the whole - 30% HP thing might seem a lot, but that 30% pales in comparison to how much HP you'll be healing off of Sponge Stone.

Sure, we can all argue that things can 1-shot you if you don't have enough HP, but that rarely happens once you have good enough armor.

Quite literally everyone on my team would pack a Sponge Stone. It just makes all the other items seem so pointless. Sure, the Wunderpants might be good VS Wrinklers and Lapses, but that's a special case. Even then, I'd still pack Sponge Stone on everything but the oldest units.

So, what do you guys think of the Sponge Stone?

[RockType]

Balanced by the fact that you can only carry one item....
And the fact that it puts hunters at great risk...
And that It's really most useful on caberjacks...
And that caberjacks could really use the Wunderpants and Haste hooch just as well...
...And if we ever get some actually dangerous enemies (besides cradels) that -30% is gonna sstart a-hurting

So it is popular, but I don't think it's op. Had a guy argue that it was underpowered on the other forum, so that's a pretty good sign of balance :)

[mnmkami]

Maybe it was the unique set of circumstances that just so happened to make Sponge Stone op for almost every single one of my fights?

Also, I find it infinitely more useful on Alchemists, who can chain-heal off of Explosive Carapace explosions.

Alchemists also have the added "OPness" of being able to carry more stuff?

IDK. Just seems to me that Alchemists wouldn't want to use anything else, really, which makes it degenerative.

Though, again, I was doing a playthrough wherein my party was 4 Alchemists and 1 Hunter.

[RockType]

Ok, haven't tried it on alchemist so idk. (that's a really cool combo!)

I like the alchemists most as well, and they seem to be pretty strong right now. they, however, are balanced by the fact that once or twice per playthrough one of them will spazz out and kill one of his comrades with an errant flask :)

[mnmkami]

Hahaha. Errant Flasks are the worst, but that's why I usually use them as Melee-oriented AoE damage. However, that was mainly because my starting bloodlines had no Caberjacks in them :P

You should try Sponge Stone on alchemists. They heal off of it so often. At least 3 times in a single turn. One from your attack/flask. One from the Crapace Explosion. One from Toxic on the enemy.

All of that makes a single Alchemist able to tank 3 Advanced Cradles (along with all the Advanced Seeds).

You should try it. ^_^

[doty]

I haven't experimented with the Carapace Explosion yet. I'm guessing friendly fire is a possibility? Does it do decent damage?

[mnmkami]

Originally posted by LuckyDeuce:

I haven't experimented with the Carapace Explosion yet. I'm guessing friendly fire is a possibility? Does it do decent damage?

It, on average, deals 5 damage to everything in the immediate vicinity. Note that the explosions can crit off of your weapons. This critical damage can go to as high as 10-15 damage.

Friendly fire is a thing. However, if said friendly is another Alchemist with the Explosive Carapace, it will only deal around 1 damage to them (with the exception of Crits). This will prompt that friendly to explode as well, causing 2 explosions to happen every time an enemy hits one of your guys. If there are a lot of enemies, you'll explode around 6 times in a single turn. That's, on average, 30 damage for free. @_@

You can see how this leads to 2 Alchemists being able to clear entire maps just by walking up to things. This is ESPECIALLY amazing against Cradles.

[doty]

Wow, that's insane! Thanks for the response.

[mnmkami]

Originally posted by LuckyDeuce:

Wow, that's insane! Thanks for the response.

Which is what prompted me to make this topic. ^_^

Enjoy wrecking Cradles.

[buchecker]

Sponge stones only make sense when you get hit ;). Focussed fire with 3-4 Hunters will take a Cradle out and then i rather take the XP-Sash. There is no turn limit (afaik) but there is a hard xp limit every mission, so raising that (alchemists can equip 2) is more beneficial in the long run.

[BBB]

I'm enjoying equiping Alchemists with the vitaliband and then the spongestone. No hp penalty, and inbattle hp regeneration. It's really rather beautiful.

[mnmkami]

Originally posted by buchecker:

Sponge stones only make sense when you get hit ;). Focussed fire with 3-4 Hunters will take a Cradle out and then i rather take the XP-Sash. There is no turn limit (afaik) but there is a hard xp limit every mission, so raising that (alchemists can equip 2) is more beneficial in the long run.

There's that, but the game has the aweful habit of swarming you with a lot of enemies. I get impatient and running in and exploding is much easier to execute.

Let's also say that I dislike the RNG hit chance.