At the second to last fight before the Mayor (the Specialist and the two Blood Hounds), and I keep getting stuck.  Vera is always put on Phalanx and Ice-walled when I am able, but it doesn't seem to help.  I have Felicity on Tactical, because the HP of all three (Max HP) is the same, though now that I think about it I could just put her on Relentless once the Specialist's HP gets lower than that of the Hounds.  In one attempt, I got one of the dogs down to a third of its max HP (aiming for the Specialist, but with Felicity on Tactical she'll occasionally go for one the dogs, along with Vera when he's low on Focus) before the entire party got systematically slaughtered.  I got two Ice Walls, one Restore (not that it helps much against the Hounds' insane crits), two each of both Freezes, and the Vapor Cannon in my combat wheel.  Any advice?

Hope this guide shows everyone to respect the cold hydraulic as they should

Sorry, i've been away for a couple of days :) TechnoDragon i'm not too sure why you're stuck on that battle. I've always found it quite easy and never had any trouble. Don't put Felicity on Tactical as there is no point. Just keep her on or Aggressive until the Specialists Hp drops belows the other 2 dogs. Ice Wall is the key to winning these types of battles, just make sure you have 2 fully upgraded on your ability bar. Don't be afraid to put an Ice Wall on both your team mates and yourself.Once the Specalist goes down it should be quite easy, as half the time 1 of the dogs will be stunned so you can just kill it. Just keep trying and tbh you shouldn't struggle if you follow the guide.

Also for that battle you can't kill one of the Hounds first like you said kept happening. The Specalist has to go first because if you get them down at the same time it means you're taking damage from 3 opponents instead of 2. Also get Guardian form instead of Restore because as you said it is garbage and that turn when you're healing you could be dealing an additional 1k damage to one of the dogs. Hope this helps.

After a couple failed attempts, I re-spec'd (Part of my problem was that I didn't have Ice wall (one point off), Cold Neurology, or Crystal Ice maxed, so I fixed that) and put about a third of my 95 attribute points in Vitality (that should hopefully help with survivability) with the rest into Instinct as per the guide.  Hopefully that will help.

Doing a little better now, still losing, though Sonny is surviving longer due to the Guardian Form/Ice Wall Combo (seriously, the hounds do single-digit damage while both are active).  On my last attempt I managed to get the Specialist's HP into the red before Sonny and then Felicity (Vera was already dead by this point despite Ice Wall, possibly due to the Hounds getting in some cheap shots at the very beginning of the fight) got killed.  It's frustrating, but I have come far too close to completing my very first Legend Run (and the first as a Cold Hydro) to give up here.  I mean, I'm so close to getting Legend that I can taste it.  Would giving Felicity more Speed help?  When I gave her most of Roald's equips (including Emerald Death as the guide instructed), I had to give her some things for Vitality (her starting Vitality is horrible), but in the process I reduced her speed drastically (which could be bad since that's her best starting stat).  I tried my best to compensate for that while still focusing on Vitality so that she can actually survive longer than one turn, but I'm not sure if I did something wrong here.

Okay, ignore the part of my previous post regarding Speed.  Speed doesn't help here, as I had soon realized after the last post.  Also, it could just be me, but the fact that Vera's Vitality is lower than the others seems to actually be detrimental in this fight as in some of the attempts I actually lose Vera 2 to 4 turns into the fight (if that due to Hound attacks that combined damage him for more than he can heal even without Black Metal in play) even after casting a fully upgraded Ice Wall and placing him on Phalanx, since the AI actually goes for the character with the lowest Vitality/HP most of the time as though they were all placed on Relentless/Aggressive.  I've been following the guide to the letter (some parts I deviated from slightly like the Clemons fight), but I still seem to be doing something wrong...

Honestly i've no idea why you're struggling. As i said i did it on ym first try and without Felicity. All i can say is what i've said already. Start the fight, put Felicity on Aggressive and hope she attacks the Specalist, then whent he Specalist is on the lowest Hp put her on Relentless. And tbh he should go down after 5 or 6 turns. The once the Specialist is down the fight should be won. All i can think is that your team mates haven't got enough Vitality. Also now that you're level 21 have you given yourself Law Binder and Veradux the Shield? Also equip them with the gloves and shoes from the shop. When i did it all 3 of us had around 160 Hp, with Veradux on 158. So that gave us 5k Health. I'm re-doing that battle in the training fight to see if i have any problems. I wasn't able to fight the Specialist but i got the Caretaker and 2 Blood Hounds. Which i know isn't the same but i still found it easy. Just keep the freeze combo on the Specialist, then inbetween 'freezes' use Guardian Form on yourself and Ice Wall on your team mates. I was able to deal 1.8k crits and i was level 22. So they just went down too easy. Hope this helps.

Well, I had equipped Vera with the shield from the Tunnel shop, until I got Law Binder, at which point I equipped Vera with Shandor's Darkstaff as per your guide.  Also, I have equipped Sonny and Felicity with items from the Hew shop and things dropped from the enemies up to the current battle (Vera is at least one level too low for the items in the Hew shop and the drop items, though he's close enough to level up from 20 that after the next battle he should be Lv. 21; not using him in the Clemons fight might've deprived him of XP).  With the exception of Vera, Vitality isn't a huge problem, as Sonny has a Vitality score of around 190, and Felicity around that amount as well (I had equipped her with the Titanium Cranium from an Android Guard before my latest attempt to defeat the Specialist and his dogs).  Vera's is 128, and I haven't made too many attempts to raise that in keeping with the "Vera's Vitality should be the lowest in the party" rule (not that his level is high enough for me to equip much of anything from this zone right now anyway).  I too am unsure as to why I'm having trouble in this fight and frustrated by the fact that I've been asking for more help than I should need to get past this, but sadly I really am having trouble with a fight that is supposed to be as easy to complete as the Tape achievement (if that can really be called an achievement, considering that even the least skilled of Sonny 2 players can get the achievement without even trying to do so as an automatic part of the story regardless of whether or not the player did anything special during the Felicity fight in Zone 1).

In the event that it helps, here's my party's equipment and stats:

Sonny:

Head: Thunder Mask
Gloves: Grips of Command
Weapon: Law Binder
Bodywear: Flamboyant Shirt
Leggings: Riot Leggings
Footwear: Titanium Runners

Vitality: 190
Strength: 53
Instinct: 334
Speed: 105

Veradux:

Headwear: Thunder Mask
Gloves: Ancient Gloves (been meaning to replace those, but will have to wait until Vera levels up)
Weapon: Shandor's Darkstaff
Bodywear: Mining Shirt
Leggings: Bone Braces
Footwear: Beggar Boots (Also intend to replace those)

Vitality: 128
Strength: 82
Instinct: 173
Speed: 136

Felicity:

Head: Titanium Cranium
Gloves: Royal Grips
Weapon: Emerald Death
Bodywear: Imperial Armor
Leggings: Colonel's Leggings
Footwear: Vindication Boots

Vitality: 197
Strength: 381
Instinct: 68
Speed: 117

I didn't include Focus because ignoring Cold Neurology everybody's Focus is the same after removing Felicity's default equipment.  Also I just said "weapon" instead of "Primary Arms" and "Secondary Arms" since everybody is wielding a two-handed weapon (with the exception of Roald who is currently unarmed and not being used in the current party)

I wouldn't say that it is as easy as Felicity but for me it was far from the hardest fight. Just looking at my stats when level 22, Vera has 30 more Vitality than you and 70 more Instinct, but that is probably because of the equipment. Ok try this, use Mind Freeze on the Specialist to stop him from casting Black Metal. Then use Flash Freeze on 1 of the Hounds, and kill the Hound First. Once that Hounds goes down you can either stay with that strategy and leave the Specialist until last. Or you back to the startegy provided and kill the Specialist next leaving the final Hound to last. Id it still isn't working you could try giving Vera the Shield form Z4 along with a decent weapon and put Felicity's Vitality lower than Veradux's however keeping her Strength as high as possible. By doing that it means she is more likely to go down first over Vera and you are still able to complete the battle. If that doesn't work then.... Ok can you just answer this: when you fight the battle are you taking out the Specalist first or taking both the Spec and the Hound down at the same time? Also are you killing any of the opponents? A bit off topic but i'm doing a Bio Legend run and so far it is significantly harder than Hydraulic. Also how has the run been so far; before this fight that is? And have you struggled on any other fights? Cheers i just need some feedback on the guide :)