Finally beat Musk Reef. Ugh, that was a slog.
Final team used;
2x Nycto Lawachurls with Geo Lawachurl minions.
4x Geo Samachurls with Nycto Specter minions.
1x Hydro Samachurl with Nycto Spector minons.
1x Unusual Hilichurl with Nycto Spector minons.
So, what's going on here, and how does it work? I'm not sure if it's just due to high abysalfication, or if it's musk reef itself, but there's a persistent Nycto elemental effect in the dungeon. So any team not lead by an abyssal needs to have high nycto resistance, or it'll take parsistant damage. And we don't want to realy on nycto leaders for our damage, as the second fight has enemies that are resistant to nycto damage, and the mimiflora are completely invulnerable to it. So we need our primary damage dealers to be something other than nycto units. And if we are using nycto sub-units, the Spectors give us extreamly high initiative. Very expensive to field though, even without a num boost (which I ignored deliberately for this game.). That doesn't mean we can't use nycto units, however. We'll still need something to tank fights, and there's nothing better than the Nycto lawachurl with lawachurl support. So, that's the role the lawachurls play for us; bouncing into the enemy lines, being disruptive, and drawing enemy fire away from our lines. Geo Lawachurl minons gives us a powerful disruptive secondary attack, and a Geo Shield, which is really good at absorbing elemental damage. As for our primary damage dealers, the Geo Samachurls are what I ended up deciding on. I looked at the files a bit, and samachurls have a stronger ranged attack than the basic elementals. And if I'm going to be fighting a flying enemy, I don't want to be using the dendro samachurl. And, honestly? A pack of Geo Samachurls is surprisingly effective. Their elemental burst attack doesn't care what unit setup the pillars and spikes, so if the fields covered in spikes, the enemies going to take a lot of damage. Plus, since thier spikes restrict movement, it really helps with crowd control. Then, of course, we've go the designated healer. Hydro Samachurls are almost maditory for long engagements, having HP recovery is quite important so we don't take additional loses. Finally, the unusual Hilichurl is our dedicated anti-flyer unit. Since the final battle is against a bluddy flier, it's helpful to have a unit that can just instantly ground that unit. And the bonus damage and slower enemies isn't unwelcome in earlier fights.
As for the fights themselves? The 4 elemental abyssals are farily easy. Try to take out the cryo or hydro early, followed by the pyro or electro. The ranged totem's damage can stack up fast if you aren't careful, and it's a lot easier to handle if only one team is spawning them. Keep the two melee units away from your backline with spikes and the lawachurls jumping, and they should go down easy.
The 4 Nycto Lawachurl's are also relatively easy. It's a harder fight since they no-sell nycto damage (at first), but it's fairly simple to burst down individual units. The two mitachurl supported teams are the harder units to deal with, since they'll disrupt your pillars. But the samachurl teams are a joke - Samachurls have really good recover, but thier defense is atrocious. They can typcially be outrite destroyed in one turn of sustained fire, and may even be killed as a footnote when using the geo samachurl's burst.
The Mimiflora are anoying to deal with, more than anything else. They are invulnerable when copying a unit, but hitting them with non-nycto attacks lowers their copying duration. So you'll want to focus fire on one unit at a time. Unfortunitaly this squad gives them some really choice members to copy - Priority should go to keeping the lawachurl away from your backlines, killing any hydro samachurl copies with predjudice, keeping the Geo copies un-pillard, and probably keeping the unusual copies away from your units. Hydros are a priority, because their healing field always seems to trigger when they've been reduced to half hp, healing them up to full. You want to disrupt their illusion before they can setup the healing field, then kill the mimiflora underneath. Geo Samachurl copies are also very dangerous. Unlike your units, mimiflora illusions retain the mimiflora's AP - so their geo samachurls can pillar and fire on the same turn, or spike you with 3 spikes in a single turn. As such, it's important to keep spiking their pillars or having a Lawachurl crash into them. Anything to keep them to a smaller range. Lest you become unable to engage the enemy because their's a 3 tile wide line of spikes going right up the middle of the battle field. The lawachurl copies are perhapse the more dangerous in close combat, but they are also fairly easily distracted by your own lawachurls. The biggest issue is that their shield persists after the illusion drops, and also interferes with you actually dropping that illusion. Samachurl element bursts are your best bet, or taking out everything else first and hoping it copies something else when the illusion drops naturally. As for the Strange clones? I'm not sure the AI actually knows how to use them, I never saw the illusion use any of the strange hilichurl's abilities - and I'm not sure how much damage it'd actually be able to deal. It's just easier to keep it away from the backline with spikes.
Finally, Aether is a b*sterd to fight. Flying, I think 4 actions? Very high movement range, and his attack can hit units half way across the map. Plus, it didn't help that my pillars kept pushing him out of the range of my samachurls. Basic strategy? Bait with the lawachurls acting as sacrifice, While pillaring the geo's and charging the strange hilichurl. Once he's close enough, hit him with everything you've go to ground him. Survive the counter, then net him with the strange hilichurl. Between your pillars, the net, and lawachurls bouncing him around, his turn will be delayed long enough to kill him. If not, keep recharging the strange hilichurl and use it whenever needed to ground him. Might take a few rounds if the geo spikes keep pushing him out of range, but it's worth it for the element burst damage. Just make sure he doesn't kill your strange hilichurl, the geo's don't have enough damage alone to ensure he's grounded.
Final team used;
2x Nycto Lawachurls with Geo Lawachurl minions.
4x Geo Samachurls with Nycto Specter minions.
1x Hydro Samachurl with Nycto Spector minons.
1x Unusual Hilichurl with Nycto Spector minons.
So, what's going on here, and how does it work? I'm not sure if it's just due to high abysalfication, or if it's musk reef itself, but there's a persistent Nycto elemental effect in the dungeon. So any team not lead by an abyssal needs to have high nycto resistance, or it'll take parsistant damage. And we don't want to realy on nycto leaders for our damage, as the second fight has enemies that are resistant to nycto damage, and the mimiflora are completely invulnerable to it. So we need our primary damage dealers to be something other than nycto units. And if we are using nycto sub-units, the Spectors give us extreamly high initiative. Very expensive to field though, even without a num boost (which I ignored deliberately for this game.). That doesn't mean we can't use nycto units, however. We'll still need something to tank fights, and there's nothing better than the Nycto lawachurl with lawachurl support. So, that's the role the lawachurls play for us; bouncing into the enemy lines, being disruptive, and drawing enemy fire away from our lines. Geo Lawachurl minons gives us a powerful disruptive secondary attack, and a Geo Shield, which is really good at absorbing elemental damage. As for our primary damage dealers, the Geo Samachurls are what I ended up deciding on. I looked at the files a bit, and samachurls have a stronger ranged attack than the basic elementals. And if I'm going to be fighting a flying enemy, I don't want to be using the dendro samachurl. And, honestly? A pack of Geo Samachurls is surprisingly effective. Their elemental burst attack doesn't care what unit setup the pillars and spikes, so if the fields covered in spikes, the enemies going to take a lot of damage. Plus, since thier spikes restrict movement, it really helps with crowd control. Then, of course, we've go the designated healer. Hydro Samachurls are almost maditory for long engagements, having HP recovery is quite important so we don't take additional loses. Finally, the unusual Hilichurl is our dedicated anti-flyer unit. Since the final battle is against a bluddy flier, it's helpful to have a unit that can just instantly ground that unit. And the bonus damage and slower enemies isn't unwelcome in earlier fights.
As for the fights themselves? The 4 elemental abyssals are farily easy. Try to take out the cryo or hydro early, followed by the pyro or electro. The ranged totem's damage can stack up fast if you aren't careful, and it's a lot easier to handle if only one team is spawning them. Keep the two melee units away from your backline with spikes and the lawachurls jumping, and they should go down easy.
The 4 Nycto Lawachurl's are also relatively easy. It's a harder fight since they no-sell nycto damage (at first), but it's fairly simple to burst down individual units. The two mitachurl supported teams are the harder units to deal with, since they'll disrupt your pillars. But the samachurl teams are a joke - Samachurls have really good recover, but thier defense is atrocious. They can typcially be outrite destroyed in one turn of sustained fire, and may even be killed as a footnote when using the geo samachurl's burst.
The Mimiflora are anoying to deal with, more than anything else. They are invulnerable when copying a unit, but hitting them with non-nycto attacks lowers their copying duration. So you'll want to focus fire on one unit at a time. Unfortunitaly this squad gives them some really choice members to copy - Priority should go to keeping the lawachurl away from your backlines, killing any hydro samachurl copies with predjudice, keeping the Geo copies un-pillard, and probably keeping the unusual copies away from your units. Hydros are a priority, because their healing field always seems to trigger when they've been reduced to half hp, healing them up to full. You want to disrupt their illusion before they can setup the healing field, then kill the mimiflora underneath. Geo Samachurl copies are also very dangerous. Unlike your units, mimiflora illusions retain the mimiflora's AP - so their geo samachurls can pillar and fire on the same turn, or spike you with 3 spikes in a single turn. As such, it's important to keep spiking their pillars or having a Lawachurl crash into them. Anything to keep them to a smaller range. Lest you become unable to engage the enemy because their's a 3 tile wide line of spikes going right up the middle of the battle field. The lawachurl copies are perhapse the more dangerous in close combat, but they are also fairly easily distracted by your own lawachurls. The biggest issue is that their shield persists after the illusion drops, and also interferes with you actually dropping that illusion. Samachurl element bursts are your best bet, or taking out everything else first and hoping it copies something else when the illusion drops naturally. As for the Strange clones? I'm not sure the AI actually knows how to use them, I never saw the illusion use any of the strange hilichurl's abilities - and I'm not sure how much damage it'd actually be able to deal. It's just easier to keep it away from the backline with spikes.
Finally, Aether is a b*sterd to fight. Flying, I think 4 actions? Very high movement range, and his attack can hit units half way across the map. Plus, it didn't help that my pillars kept pushing him out of the range of my samachurls. Basic strategy? Bait with the lawachurls acting as sacrifice, While pillaring the geo's and charging the strange hilichurl. Once he's close enough, hit him with everything you've go to ground him. Survive the counter, then net him with the strange hilichurl. Between your pillars, the net, and lawachurls bouncing him around, his turn will be delayed long enough to kill him. If not, keep recharging the strange hilichurl and use it whenever needed to ground him. Might take a few rounds if the geo spikes keep pushing him out of range, but it's worth it for the element burst damage. Just make sure he doesn't kill your strange hilichurl, the geo's don't have enough damage alone to ensure he's grounded.
