I caught them all. Pokemon I mean. A simple guide to catch'em all.

I have completed the Kalos Pokedex!!!!!

It's by no means an easy task, but it's entirely possible. And I'm gonna teach you a few steps to follow on how to complete the Pokedex.

1. Beat the game fast.
Beating the game fast allows you to have access to Victory Road, which is a key area for leveling up hard to level-up Pokemons. By the time you beat the game, you would have access to the Friend Safari, which might help you complete the Kalos Pokedex (provided you have a good amount of friends). Also, you need the Battle Maison if you wanna get Sneasel and Gligar's evolution.

2. Breed (a lot).
The thing about Kalos is that it's so big that you'll almost always find a new set of Pokemon in each route, which means that you're less likely to have encountered the pre-evolved form of the Pokemon at later routes (unless you find them in horde battles). So you'll most likely need a Ditto (found in the Pokemon Village at the 8th Gym) to breed all the evolved Pokemons. Also, breed your starters, they're high in value at the GTS at the moment, so you use them to get other starters as well.

3. Find a good place to train hard-to-train Pokemons.
Go to Coumarine City to get the Lucky Egg from the girl at the hotel by showing her a Pokemon with max happiness. You'll need it for pseudolegendaries that evolve pretty late. While there are many ways to level up your Pokemons like battling in restaurants or fighting the Elite 4 and Battle Chateau members, my training method of choice is to use Sweet Scent in Victory Road to fight Floatzel hordes (and using Earthquake/Petal Blizzard on them). A Floatzel horde gives 3.5k Exp, so that's pretty amazing for a wild Pokemon encounter.

4. Find a trading partner.
Find people who plays Y (if you play X) to get the version exclusives, or someone who uses different starters from you (GTS works for starters too), or people who used the other fossil Pokemon. You'll need someone who'll trade you their exclusives for yours, and someone who'll help you evolve Pokemons by trade.

5. Catch every Pokemon species you can find (duh).
Check on websites like Serebii to find out what Pokemon can be found in which location, and how to encounter the Pokemon as some Pokemons can only be found in horde battles. Also, check with gaming forms like Gamefaqs often if you have trouble finding certain Pokemon.

6. Be patient in catching the Legendary Bird
You'll encounter Articuno, Zapdos, or Moltres depending on which starter you choose. The problem with their encounters is that they'll flee straight away without giving you the chance to do anything. You'll have to try to increase you chance of encountering the bird in the wild. After several encounters, the bird will be residing in the Sea Shrine Cavern (that thing North of Coumarine City), and that's when you can fight it in a proper battle.

7. Make sure you hatch eggs the same time you raise your Pokemon's happiness
Pokemons like Golbat and Riolu only evolve by happiness. Make sure when you're hatching the eggs you got from the day care that you bring these Pokemons along for the ride to raise their happiness. That way, you could save time and money in increasing their happiness.

I guess that's all the advice I have at the moment. It's a good thing I completed the Pokedex now since my exams are coming soon. Also, I wanna focus on playing Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies too.

My Pokemon X Update:

If you have not noticed, I have not been making posts in a while. I not only have assignments to finish, but every moment I spent when I'm not doing my assignments I spend playing Pokemon X.

Now that every assignment for the semester is done, exams are coming soon. But I have some time to play and today, I'm gonna do a little quick update on what's going on in my Pokemon game.

So I've already beaten the game, now I'm just trying to complete all 3 Kalos Pokedex. It's kinda hard since you'll need to do trading and a lot of help from people with Pokemon Y, but so far, I've managed to own around 382 out of the 450+ Pokemon in the region, which is no small feat since some have to be trained, some needs breeding, and some needs to be traded.

How do I train the Pokemons is by using Sweet Scent to encounter a Floatzel horde as those are the highest exp. yielding wild Pokemon I can find. For catching them I use my Aegislash that has False Swipe and my Vileplume/Bellossom (I have both, and they're both awesome). I used Dittos for breeding (obviously, and bought those incense in Coumarine City for baby Pokes. There's still 70 more Pokemons two own before I complete the Pokedex and I hope that I can do it.

Today, I was also very, very fortunate to have encountered a Shiny Floatzel while training my Pokemons. It was the first ever shiny that I've encountered (apart from Red Gyrados).

Anyways, that's all the update I have.

Pokemon X - Thoughts

So, I got my game last Saturday. There was a launch party over here where I'm at. Over 100 people came to collect their copy of Pokemon X and/or Y, so I was able to get the achievement of 100 Streetpass tags in a day (yay!).

Enough about that, how about my experience with Pokemon X? It was fantastic. I chose Chespin because I had an affinity for Grass starters since Gen IV (Before that I was part of the Fire Starter Master Race). The plan was to beat the game as fast as possible so that I can unlock more stuff.

My original plan was to have a team of 6 Pokemon that are all Gen VI Pokemon. I knew I wanted Chespin, Amaura, Honedge, and Fletchling in my team, but I wasn't sure for the last two. In the end, I used the other starter (Squirtle) instead, and I caught a Goomy along the way. Was it a good team? Not really (In terms of competitive battling wise, or maybe it's cuz I suck), but it did the job.

The game looks amazing and sounds amazing. However I did notice a drop in framerate during certain scenes in Pokemon battles (which is more obvious when 3D is turned on), but it didn't really bother me a bit. While the story was on a lighter note (compared to the great story that was on Gen V), it's not too bad. It had a proper conclusion, a great lore of the region, and Team Flare is an alright team, nearly as menacing as Team Rocket, slightly fanatical like Team Plasma, and not like the joke that is Team Galactic.

Travelling the region has never been so accessible in this game. You can walk, run, skate, and ride a bike in 8 directions, which is a new addition to Pokemon. It makes a lot of sense cuz this game is on the 3DS. which has the circle pad. Embarking on your journey has never been so fun.

Also, this is the first game where you're able to customize the player character. You can choose the character's skin tone from the very start (apart from gender, of course), and throughout the game, you'll find shops selling hats, accessories, bags, shirts, dresses and more. It just brings out the inner shopper in you. I spent around 400k Pokedollars on clothes alone, that's saying something. You could also change your hairstyle, hair colour, as well as the colour of your eyes using contact lens, giving tons of variation in each player's characters.

The region of Kalos is really beautiful, having plenty of landmarks across the region. From fountains, to palaces, to waterfalls, and to historical landmarks, this place has lots of it. Plus, you can take a picture of your character in those backgrounds using the camera options in the game, and post these pics online. You could also make a PR video and share it with other friends, and the PR video making procedure is very vast, and like clothing, every trainer could have a different PR video.

Everything in X and Y is faster and more accessible. When not connected to the internet, saving the game takes less than a second, which is a vast improvement from the Diamond and Pearl days, where saving could take up to 20 seconds or more. The Player Search System (PSS) is a pretty handy tool, allowing you to interact with players around the world anytime, anywhere (when connected online of course). Trading Pokemon has never been so easy in X and Y, and with the Wonder Trade, expect random stuff to happen when trading away your Pokemon. The PSS is a really amazing tool for trading with strangers, battling with them, or just giving shout outs.

You could also chat with people online with the Game Chat feature in the game. I was able to chat with my friends when trading and when battling, which is pretty nice. Chatting (with my internet connection) was alright, not many hiccups.

While X and Y are pretty amazing, there are some flaws to it. The most obvious argument people have is the design of the Pokemon. I don't find them horrible looking, but it's a matter of preference, and some didn't really like the newer Pokemon. Also, there were lack of new Pokemon in this game, with the total number of new Pokemon only being around 70. That being said, this number does not include the Mega Evolutions that older Pokemons got. Also, X and Y did a huge balance patch by including the Fairy type, which affected several old Pokemon (compared to Gold and Silver's Dark and Metal typing only affecting the Magnemite line from Gen I), so you could say it is justifiable for having so little Pokemon (or not).

Also, this game was rather easy. If you're thinking I'm saying this game is easy because of the Exp Share, you're partially right. The Exp Share does make your team levels way ahead of the opponents (which takes away the strategy of playing the game), but you can turn it off if you want to. The easiness of the game comes from the Gym Puzzles in my opinion. None of them remotely resemble a puzzle except for the last gym.

Another flaw in the game was the game breaking glitch in Luminose City. Apparently, saving the game in the city (but not inside buildings) cause your game to freeze when you load the save file, which may force you to restart your entire progress. It's a bit sad to see your save file go to waste in this city, but for me, I have always saved my games in the Pokemon centers (in the middle of the Pokeball logo) or in front of the Gym Leaders/Elite 4/Champions. So, to anyone not aware of this glitch, DO NOT SAVE OUTSIDE OF BUILDINGS IN LUMINOSE CITY.

Apart from the flaws, the game does place some really cool touches, like how you're able to see your Pokemon's sprite in the screen of the Pokemon center, how your character stretches himself if you go idle for too long, how the Zangoose horde will attack the sole Seviper in their horde before attacking you, and how the world map shows you surfing on an actual Lapras when you use Lapras for surf. There are a lot of little things in this game that makes the game awesome, and makes the Kalos region feel real. How every house in this game feels bigger, how each city/town has a hotel (being a beautiful region). The scale of the game is huge and alive.

Overall, if you're a fan of RPGs, and once loved the Pokemon series, you should give this game a go as it will not disappoint.

Haven't been blogging much cuz I was playing Pokemon X

And I just beaten it. My team was all Gen VI except for 1.

I used Goodra (Fio), Chesnaught (Yurnero), Talonflame (Soraruda), Aegislash (Falchion), Amaurus (Frosty), and Blastoise (Kamina).

Will post my full thoughts soon.

My Top 5 Hopes For Pokemon X and Y

Pokemon X and Y is out in 10 days, how exciting. I've heard that there's some people around the world getting their hands on a review copy, some of them even leaking some of the info bit by bit.

While that's all fine and dandy, some people don't really like spoilers. I'm not the type that refuse to look at spoilers, but I would like it if those people follow the rules they were given, and not reveal any info until the proper date. I heard that the official day for all info to break loose is Oct 4th, which is the day the reviewers who got the review copy to actually release their review of the game. So I wouldn't mind if any info revealed after that date since it's official.

Anyways, not the main point of the topic. While the leakers revealed stuff bit by bit, I still didn't see a whole lot in the game, which is good. So I can keep my hopes up on what they might have added in the game itself.

Here's my top 5 hopes for Pokemon X and Y (not in any order):

5. Pokemons Walking With You.

I really like the idea in Heart Gold and Soul Silver where the Pokemon in your first slot follows you wherever you go. It's really adorable (even though sometimes the Pokemon aren't, haha). And the fact that you get to interact with them makes it so nice, like you bonded with them a bit. 

It's sad that this feature did not appear in Gen V, which is strange. Considering how N was urging people not to keep their Pokemons in the Pokeballs, you would think that you could walk with your Pokemon right?

Since it is shown that you can ride certain Pokemon like Gogoat, I really do hope you can walk with them too. But even if you can't, I really wouldn't mind.

4. Easy Understanding of IVs.

I knew what were EVs and EV training since I learnt that sometime last December, but I never understood IVs. They just seemed so complex. Getting the perfect Pokemon is hard enough, but the fact that the game never really tells you directly what are your Pokemon's IVs makes it very confusing sometimes. I really respect those guys who play Pokemon competitively, cuz I never really understood how they were able to breed such perfect Pokemon and yet have such good skills at battling with people.

In X & Y they revealed this thing called 'Super Training', which seems like an easier way for EV training your Pokemon. I think this is a good idea, since EV training will take a while, but I would also like if they add some features to help people understand IVs better, or make people get perfect Pokemon a lot easier.

3. Awesome Streetpass Features.

I live in a country where there aren't many 3DS users, but we do have a community of 3DS users in my country. Sometimes (usually once a month), they will have this thing called a 'Streetpass Gathering', where people with 3DS would meet up and play some games like Mario Kart, Monster Hunter, and Animal Crossing.

Games like Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem has this Streetpass feature that lets you sent your team (in Fire Emblem) or you house (in Animal Crossing) to other 3DS users who have the game. I am 100% certain that Pokemon X & Y will have Streetpass functionality, but I do wonder what would it be, and how awesome will it be?

I would like it if they have this feature where you not only send your trainer card to others, but also your team. And you can have your Streetpass team (controlled by AI) fight with the opponent's team like how Pokemon battles are played in the Battle Tower/Subway/PWT. It would be even cooler if you could 'trade' one of your Pokemon for one of the Streetpasser's Pokemon, but I doubt that would happen. 

2. Special Outfits for Spotpass.

As we all know, we can dress up in Pokemon X and Y. So I guess it would be a no brainer for Nintendo to regularly release some special outfits to wear on Spotpass like Red's attire. Dressing up as your favourite characters in Pokemon would be really cool if they do release tons of outfits from Spotpass. Then we can see people dress as Gym Leaders, Champions, and even Evil Organizations from previous generations. 

I could imagine the sheer amount of people who would be wearing Red's outfit should they release it, or even a whole gang of people in Rocket's uniform when they group up in the union room. That would be so cool to see.

1. Version Exclusive Mega Forms for Certain Pokemons.

It was revealed a while ago that Mewtwo has two Mega forms, exclusive for each game. It has also been revealed from the Pokemon Origins OVA that was aired in Japan a few hours ago that Charizard also has version exclusive forms. And we see a lot of people cancelling their pre-orders for Pokemon Y in favour of a Fire/Dragon Charizard in Pokemon X ( and my decision to get Pokemon X doesn't seem like a bad idea anymore, in fact it just gets better and better). 

Overall, it's still a bit unfair that they revealed Mega Charizard X and not reveal the fact on whether the other two Kanto starters will have version exclusive Mega forms or not. In fact, it's still a bit unfair that there is Mega Blaziken but no Mega Swampert or Sceptile in sight. 

While I'm pretty certain that other Megas like Absol and Ampharos won't be getting a version exclusive form, I would like it if the remaining Kanto starters would have it, and that all remaining starter Pokemon that has not have a Mega form have one (and version exclusive ones too) since starter Pokemons are usually the more 'special' Pokemon.

Anyways, this is just my hopes and ramblings on what I hope for in the new Pokemon game. I really hope that it lived up to it's hype. 10 more days for the release of the game that will dominate this October!

Why I prefer Pokemon Black/White even though Black 2 and White to is better.

I'll be honest with you. When Pokemon Black and White came out, it was really amazing. I thoroughly enjoy the game, the story, and the music. Then they decided to not a 'Yellow' or 'Crystal' version for this generation, and instead released Pokemon Black 2 and White 2, which are sequels set a few years after the events of Black and White.

Was B2/W2 good? Yeah, it had tons of additions, more Pokemon in the Unova Pokedex, and Pokemon from older games in it. But despite the advancements the game has made over B/W, I still prefer B/W. And here's my reasons.

Note: I do acknowledged that B2 and W2 are far better games with the sheer amount of content it has. It's more of a personal preference on why I prefer Black and White.

Also, spoilers.

1. The Story
When Pokemon Black and White came out, I felt that the story was quite amazing. Gym Leaders played a bigger role in the game compared to previous games as they also had other jobs to do. They even help you out on your journey when facing Team Plasma. You see them outside their gyms more often in the main story compared with other gym leaders (who you only see when you wanna fight them in a rematch post-game).
Also, you don't exactly fight the champion on your main story due to N interrupting the battle. Instead you face three battles without break where you catch the main Legendary of the game, face N, and then his backstabbing adopted father. This was very refreshing. You hardly see boss rushes like these where you can't reshuffle your team on who to go first (like a competitive battle).
Defeating this boss rush feels extremely satisfying, and the ending was someone bittersweet, but was quite awesome too.

Compared to B2 and W2, the story is still good. They did continue where it left off from B and W, but it just doesn't feel as nice as the former. Sure, you get a boss rush in the form of facing Kyurem followed by Ghetsis, but it doesn't feel the same compared with facing Reshiram/Zekrom, N, then Ghetsis.

2. The Ending Theme.
What I don't like about Pokemon is that whenever I beat the game, I am usually greeted by slow-paced music along with the main character cycling/running away. Sure that didn't happen in Heart Gold/ Soul Silver, and at least in R/S/E they showed you the Pokemon you've caught in your Pokedex in the ending, but I didn't really enjoyed it.
Pokemon Black and White on the other hand had their ending sequence extremely simple - A white or black background with scrolling text (with Reshiram or Zekrom being the White or Black in the background if this is the first time you watched the ending sequence). While there's nothing to watch, it's far from boring, as the theme playing is by far the best ending theme in the Pokemon main games ever. It's so fast paced, it's so amazing, it has a message saying 'it's not the end of your epic journey yet'. It is a great way to finish a great game.
Though I give props to Black 2 and White 2, for showing us, the players, that we didn't just simply teleported back home after entering the hall of fame, as the player gets congratulated by the Elite Four and Champion, and celebrated on his way back through all the towns he visited along with the Gym Leaders, ending with him running back to home to his mom (which is pretty sweet, in my opinion).

3. The Pokemon.
The great thing about Black and White is that the Pokedex is filled with only Gen V Pokemon, meaning your journey in the game will feel like a fresh one since you will not encounter any familiar faces until you've beaten the game. It gives attention to some of the newer Pokemon, that are usually hated upon by older fans for several reasons. While I seem to notice that the design of Pokemon is starting to shift a little, with Pokemon somewhat resembling Digimon in certain ways, I don't really mind it one bit since I'm a fan of both series.
Also, Because of being unable to use older generation Pokemons, I had to use only Gen V Pokemons, and that made me realize that these Pokemons are kinda cool. In fact, a lot of my new favourites in Pokemon comes from Gen V like Haxorus (who reminds me of a Digimon), Serperior, and Excadrill (whose drill is the drill that will pierce the heavens).
That was the slight problem I had with Black 2 and White 2. Because I was able to use Pokemons from previous games, I really end up using them. Four of my six Pokemon in my final team was from an older generation (Gen I-II). It's not like I don't wanna use new Pokemons, it's the fact that if you give a users a way to access stuff they're familiar with (older Pokemon), they will use those stuff. I could have easily used Joltik instead of Mareep. But since you catch Mareep so early in the game, and the fact that I used Mareep in my Soul Silver file made me had an attachment to it, so I ended up using it.

4. The theme of the game.
The Sinnoh games' Team Galactic was really weird. I mean, I find the theme of the game really strange. They tried to one-up what they did in Hoenn (which was creating two organizations, one wanting to fill the landmass, and the other doing the exact opposite) by trying to make things even more epic with Poke-Gods and Time/Space distorting Pokemons. Yeah, on sheer scale, Team Galactic do seem really evil on trying to create a new world with the legendaries. But if you look at the bigger picture, it's kinda dumb. The grunts don't appear to be serious most of the time (despite world destroying being something rather serious), and Cyrus has so little charisma that it's a wonder how he recruited so many blue haired spacemen.

In B & W, we have N and a bunch of medieval armoured grunts called Team Plasma. What they did was they stopped trying to make the bad guys evil in a sense of the sheer scale of destruction they will cause, but make people think that the bad guys are more towards being misunderstood, with them talking about 'Pokemons should't be kept in Pokeballs'. Also, you can tell that they're serious about their motives, but somehow you feel like there's an ulterior motif by someone, but you can't figure out whom, until the final battle, where you found out that Ghetsis was evil by doing what he did to his adopted son N. They went for a more ideological approach instead of a 'destroy stuff with legendaries' approach, which I like.

While the Team Plasma in Black 2 are somewhat similar to Team Rocket in the older games and Team Aqua and Magma of Hoenn - being evil by trying to take over the region by using a legendary to change the landscape of the region (by freezing it). While having motives similar to previous evil organization, I do like it when you see Plasma members having conflicts, with some siding with N, and others with Ghetsis. You then realize that some people who joined Team Plasma in B and W really supported N's ideas, and they were caring to Pokemon. And that made Team Plasma a really great organization. However, the motives of Plasma has changed to something similar to that of older games, so it was an average experience to me, when facing Plasma.

In conclusion, I don't think Black 2 and White 2 is bad, it's just that Black and White made a bigger impact on me compared to their sequels. B2 and W2 made a lot of advancements that I do like (like asking you whether you wanna continue using a repel, that is just genius), but I guess I'm one of the very few who likes the older game better.

What I learnt from Apotheosis

Hooray for having less assignments now!

Haven't been posting much on the blog cuz I just got Shin Megami Tensei IV second hand (which is eating up a lot of my time), as well as Pokemon Black (which I'll be using to transfer Pokemons to GEN VI).

Anyways, back to Apotheosis. So on my previous posts I did mention that I learnt a lot of stuff from playing this map. And here's the stuff I learnt.

1. Hawkeye combined with Luna+ sucks ass.
I have not tried Lunatic or Lunatic+ yet (cuz I'm still playing my Hard/Classic playthrough). I know that in Lunatic+ whenever this skill combo appears, you have to restart the game since you have no chance of defeating the opponent. But in Apotheosis, while this skill indeed sucks, you can counter it (though it's hard). This skill combo really sucks cuz it hurts you a lot and that it always hits, and that I died from the Berserker boss that uses these skills multiple times because of it. But there are some important things that you have at your disposal to counter this stuff.

2. Optimal pairings are important in children characters too.
A lot of people say that it is important to pair the right parents together to get a better (or more versatile) child character. But I think in preparation for this map, you'll also need optimal pairings for children characters because pair ups are so important in this map. One example was my Lon'Qu! Inigo (Assassin) who got S-Support with Virion! Kjelle (Swordmaster). When Kjelle paired with Inigo along with the use of rallies and speed tonics, Inigo hit a Speed stat of 84, which is enough to double any opponent in this map (since the highest speed units in the map has a speed of 70, anything 75 or higher can double them).

3. Support skills are important in this map.
Pair ups are vital in Apotheosis. In order to maximize on this, your supporting characters should be equipped with Dual Guard+ (most importantly) and some with Dual Support+. These skills can help a lot against opponents with Hawkeyes that hits hard (like the aforementioned Berserker). I didn't have units with these skills (which made the map hard), only Laurent and Chrom had it (but I used Chrom as a convoy, so it's quite useless for him to have it, and Laurent was paired with Nah, and she hardly attacked as I used Laurent as  a support healer).

4. Galeforce is good (again).
One of the best skills in the game (and in some situations the most overrated of all the better skills) is Galeforce. While Galeforce is extremely useful for clearing a map of weak units ridiculously fast, or speeding your way to the boss, or even performing hit-and-runs against stronger enemies, it's greatest weakness is that if you fail to kill your opponent, you just wasted a skill slot as you can't move again. However, this skill is extremely good in Apotheosis as you would be prepared with max stats and paired up characters with stat boosts from rallies and you would be strong enough to defeat opponents and move again in this scenario. That being said there were occasions when the RNG didn't work in my favour and I didn't manage to kill the opponent to activate Galefore, and that Galeforce is not good for a Streetpass team (mostly cuz they can't pair up).

5. I didn't prepare enough Waste and Celica's Gale tomes.
Doubling an opponent is important in this map, and capitalizing your ability to outspeed your opponent with forged weapons is a must to complete this map. The best weapons to use in this map are weapons that allow you to attack four times if you double the enemy, so Brave weapons are essential in the map. However, I didn't prepare enough Celica's Gale and Waste (which are the Brave weapon versions for tomes), so my magic users (Owain, Noire, Laurent, and Brady), weren't able to capitalize on the kill. Fortunately Brady was paired with Cynthia who has Brave Lance and Bows, and Noire was paired with Yarne who has Brave Bows and Swords. Laurent was playing a support role, so it was okay I think.

6. I realized how useful Bows are again.
Don't get me wrong, Bows are good weapons for their ability to deal tripe damage to fliers. It's just that the Sniper and Bow Knight class (which are primary bow users) aren't the best classes in the game. However, in the hands of Gerome, Yarne, Inigo, and Cynthia, it really helped defeat the enemy fliers in one turn (even when they had Aegis+ with them), and Inigo was able to defeat Anna in a turn.

7. Mounted units are good, even though my main attacking force aren't mounted units.
Falcon Knights are extremely useful supporting units are they negate terrains and can use Staves (and Rally). Also, mounted units have great mobility and their some of their stats aren't that bad. The problem is I never use them for my attacking force (aka the children) because they have weakness. If you're able to defeat everyone in the area with mounted units then good for you. But if your units fail to kill that one Archer with Pavise+, you're screwed if you have a Flier nearby and Dual Guard did not trigger.

8. The best attacking skills in this map are Luna, Vengeance, and Astra.
Sol is still a top tier skill (especially against people with Counter), but if you almost always defeat the opponent in one turn with no damage received, then it's not that good. Ignis is okay, but it doesn't have a good damage output if you didn't max either Strength or Magic out (or if either one of those stats are your flaws). Aether is not really worth using, to be honest.
Luna is good in this map because it helps damage the opponent even more since they have Aegis+ and Pavise+. Vengeance is particularly useful against people with Hawkeye that deals a lot of damage since you'll be able to dish out the damage back to them if you're hit (it's even better if the Vengeance user is a Sorcerer with Nosferatu/Averssa's Night). And Astra, well, this is one godlike skill that enables you to deal a maximum of 28 hits to the opponent (Brave weapons on both paired units, Astra and Dual Strike triggered all the time), which will surely kill the enemy.

So yeah, Apotheosis Secret Path was one of the best experience I had with this game despite being tough. It is the best strategy experience you can get in Awakening. Even Normal Path is good too, since they also use different skill setups for the enemies that require you to think a bit more (but not to the extent of Secret Path, and you don't need the same amount of prep for Normal Path). Overall, this is one great DLC that you should buy if you have a stat capped team.