LogFAQs > #972682616

Mercenaries Changelog, Part 3:

In this update, we will be finishing an extra polish pass on a few 2/week mercenaries, and focusing on our 3/week mercs.

Mario: To further cement him as a legitimate 3/week and not just an upjumped 2/week, Mario has received a new character upgrade, allowing him to fish up an additional, high-power randomly selected item every week! In addition, his Boo will now function before battle begins, stealing one non-primary weapon of Mario's choosing from a random post-rosters enemy. This should be less disruptful than the old lightning bolt (which now lives on in the character upgrade), while still retaining the zany nature of Mario Kart. With these changes, we hope Mario has a bright 3/week future ahead of him. Jump up, superstar!

King K. Rool: We are changing K. Rool's filching ability to always cost 1 AP if he steals from a 4/week mercenary or higher. We have no issues with K. Rool getting good hardware on principle, as it's both fun and unique. Allowing him to filch, say, Mini-Nukes for free in mid tier weeks is too much, though, particularly with Kredits. It makes the sneak attack degenerate, when it's supposed to have some natural counterplay to it in mid and high. If you want it to be broken, be ready to pay up for it!

Amaterasu: We are happy with Amaterasu as she is now. We have changed Virtuous Deeds to allow her to donate TP, instead of GP to help with terrain bids, but are otherwise satisfied with her as she is right now.

Ashley Winchester: We've clarified Ashley's The Blaze of Disaster is completely immune to any form of ability interaction as a safeguard against dumb gimmicks like using Rika's (rest in peace, precious babu) base ability to no-sell it every week. We do not want people to dodge the price for this particular faustian bargain, ever -- you'll have to battle through it head-on with your hearts blazing to benefit from Ashley's powers, I'm afraid! However, recognizing that his lack of an active ability is a little painful, we've also granted him a new, cheap, low-impact ability, Accelerate, which grants him first strike in battle under all circumstances when used. Use this to foil ambushes or make creative arguments about him closing into melee! Lastly, we've clarified that Ashley reinforces for AP, unlike most mercenaries on this list, as he is really a Mid Tier mercenary who cheats himself into Low rather than a true 3/week.

Bowser: Bowser was likely the single most underpowered mercenary in the Test Run's entire roster, bought or not. As such, we're giving him a massive overhaul to firmly situate him as a valuable 3/week.

We are reducing his minimum bid to 40 GP from 49 to make him the equal of Mario and making his Lightning In A Bottle ability work on any Villainous mercenaries, not just those of specific classifications, enabling + Bowser's Minions to now work as intended against a wide range of useful targets. In exchange, we're applying Recharge 1 to his effect selection, turned to Recharge 2 should you choose the kidnap (we know exactly how good that stuff is).

We are also moving Showtime! to his baseline, allowing him to transform into more powerful forms from the word go! This should allow Bowser to serve as a better bedrock for a villainous team (perhaps alongside fellow Nintendo alum Ganondorf?), particularly as we've reduced its Recharge from 2 to 1, allowing it to be used much more often.

Lastly, we've swapped out Giga Bowser (which was debatably not even really an upgrade anymore) and replaced it with Dreamy Bowser, from Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, for a massive powerup with just a few Villains on deck...and added a very cheap character upgrade to let him become that form permanently. Bowser can now be exactly the scary low tier tank of your dreams you always wanted, and meaningfully scale up into Mid tier!

...Oh, and also, to play with his terrain gimmick, we've made him able to Reinforce for TP too. Have fun!

Crono: We are afraid of Triple Tech's potential to smash entire teams wholesale. Very afraid. As such, we are adding Recharge 2 to it when used. This does NOT apply to Dual Tech! You can spam that to your heart's content still. Its variability makes it a reasonable daily addition.

Eunie: As part of the global Low Tier mercenary ability adjustment plan, Eunie's Uh-Uh now has Recharge 1. Still strong! Just not a daily.

Ganondorf: We're pleased with the 'dorf as is and he fits the new paradigm just fine. We're giving him the ability to Reinforce for TP to give him that extra touch of versatility. Plus, it's in theme for the Triforce of Power warping Hyrule to his will!

Jacqli: As part of the clarifying pass, Jacqli now Reinforces for TP. EXEC_SPHILIA also received a clarification to make it so teams can counterplay it by killing Jacqli (and she can swap from support songs to offensive ones if her duet buddy dies).

Jinx: This world needs more mayhem! Jinx's A-NAR-CHY ability now costs 2 AP at baseline, and 3 AP when randomizing ability targets. This should encourage chaos nicely. We've also specified she reinforces for TP.

Kazuma Kiryu: Kiryu hasn't changed, but he was far too oppressive in the Test Run - mostly in an environment with few targets, which really was just Low Tier post-cash infusion. As such, we're not nerfing him further, but are holding him back for a somewhat delayed release to let players rack up that one extra merc or two that makes the crucial difference when confronting the Dragon of Dojima. He was fine in mid and high, so we're just not bothering him with requests to return to the Tojo Cla- ahem, Mercenaries until there's enough punks to put up a solid fight against him.