Tips for Hashmal Normal

[HeavenlyHost]

Was betting better but always fail at last stage. Which gundam do you suggest against him

[Fish]

Reposting my personal suggestion to boost survival:

Equip auto guard (the component that is given to you for free at the very beginning of the game) + pilot skills that grant you bonuses such as damage reduction, faster guard cancel or infinite guard gauge, etc. that trigger upon using role action (also, if you aren't aware, do the optional tutorials in directory 0 too to practice using some of the mechanisms such as chain break, role action etc. that some ppl seem to be unaware of). I also highly recommend using skill that increase healing speed, and don't wait until you go down before using repair kit, because you heal for less if you use that for self-revive.
This will tremendously increase your survival enough that you can sometimes even brute force and face tank MA as infighter.
Watch for openings and don't blindly attack (think sekiro/dark souls).

Having autoguard will mean that you can attempt to perfect dodge/perfect guard much more safely, because even if you mistime it, auto guard will still kick in and turn a hit into a normal guard. This is way better than screwing up the timing and eating a full attack. Of course, auto guard won't help when you're in the middle of an attack animation so you do still want to watch what the boss is doing and learn its movesets.

For Hashmal specifically, there are landmines scattered around the arena in the final phase of the fight. Make use of those can help give you some free dmg on the boss. Locking onto the mines can be tricky though. I would recommend first disengaging lockon, and walk next to a mine, then look at it and then lock on. Shoot it the moment the boss gets close, and don't worry, the landmine doesn't hurt you. It only hurts the boss.

My first clear against this boss was using Alex, but the general approach above should work for most situations in terms of boosting survival. You could also consider using Freedom as Hashmal mostly attacks with physical (with the exception of the occasional beam spray), so Seed series's PS armor comes in quite handy.

[Stray]

I just used Exia Repair 2 and keep staying in it's face and blocking every now and then
Every Exia attack has a dash to an enemy making it easier to keep up with it, just pay attention to the boss or every now and then between a combo to block and you should be good if anything use, Quick Guard, Steely Resolve and your own personal favorite and just keep swinging till it's dead.

Also make sure you are ON LEVEL for the mission, stats don't mean much but level diffirence does as enemies will take and deal more damage to you based on level diff

[RX-3DR]

If a single partner is dead, draw aggro by while retreating away from the dead partner. The AI will slowly walk over to revive him. If both are dead, just retreat without attacking and you will lose aggro to the story AI and that will be your chance to revive both of them.

It often feels like they don't do anything worth while but they do manage to revive you sometimes if you're lucky enough for the one reviving you to not have aggro. As long as they miraculously manage to stay alive long enough to revive you constantly, the only way to fail is to time out. You can partially control this by watching which AI is walking towards you and getting the other to use his Special. Else just have them bomb their Specials as often as possible just for a bit of damage and have them around for the teamwork buff.

You only lose a bit of time to have to keep reviving them, but I've actually won at least 2 fights while dead. A mistake on the last 10 seconds covered by 2 specials.

[HeavenlyHost]

Originally posted by Stray:

I just used Exia Repair 2 and keep staying in it's face and blocking every now and then
Every Exia attack has a dash to an enemy making it easier to keep up with it, just pay attention to the boss or every now and then between a combo to block and you should be good if anything use, Quick Guard, Steely Resolve and your own personal favorite and just keep swinging till it's dead.

Also make sure you are ON LEVEL for the mission, stats don't mean much but level diffirence does as enemies will take and deal more damage to you based on level diff

Does it mean if I’m higher level than the boss I also do more more damage?

[Aseng]

Yeah level actually affects your damage dealt and taken.

[Army of Optimists]

Originally posted by HeavenlyHost:

Originally posted by Stray:

I just used Exia Repair 2 and keep staying in it's face and blocking every now and then
Every Exia attack has a dash to an enemy making it easier to keep up with it, just pay attention to the boss or every now and then between a combo to block and you should be good if anything use, Quick Guard, Steely Resolve and your own personal favorite and just keep swinging till it's dead.

Also make sure you are ON LEVEL for the mission, stats don't mean much but level diffirence does as enemies will take and deal more damage to you based on level diff

Does it mean if I’m higher level than the boss I also do more more damage?

Up to a point, yes. Being a few levels over a mission makes a noticeable difference in how fast you'll kill enemies and how much damage you can tank. Being extremely overleveled doesn't seem to make it that much better. Going into the first mission with a level 50+ suit doesn't let you one-shot the Barbatos, for instance.

[Stray]

Originally posted by HeavenlyHost:

Originally posted by Stray:

I just used Exia Repair 2 and keep staying in it's face and blocking every now and then
Every Exia attack has a dash to an enemy making it easier to keep up with it, just pay attention to the boss or every now and then between a combo to block and you should be good if anything use, Quick Guard, Steely Resolve and your own personal favorite and just keep swinging till it's dead.

Also make sure you are ON LEVEL for the mission, stats don't mean much but level diffirence does as enemies will take and deal more damage to you based on level diff

Does it mean if I’m higher level than the boss I also do more more damage?

I haven't noticed any real increase being Overleveled, like someone said above me, I did a lvl 30 mission with a lvl 80 Gundam would one shot with Strike Freedom's 2nd Subweapon, but doing the same mission on hard being lvl 76, my Subweapon would leave them with a Pixel of health, while my melee would kill them in maybe 3-4 hits earlier on Normal (Which can save time)

[redeyedraven]

The first time around I've downed Hashmal with Freedom/Cherudim/Hyaku Shiki.
It went fairly smooth actually, but I got downed a few times.

[Darkest Dragon]

If you are using a beam heavy mobile suit, Hasmal is heavily beam resistant. Using a part to change damage type to physical helps or using an early mobile suit that has a more physical attack focus.

Next, guarding instead of button mashing is very important, bring an infighter partner that buffs your shield.