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Hey folks, it's me again. Out of curiosity I did a Legend run with an ice Hydraulic, and this was seriously the easiest time I've had yet. The ice Hydro is so powerful I swear it feels like cheating at times. I couldn't have done it without the awesome guide posted here, although I did things a tiny bit different. This is just kind of a diary, not much in depth.

Then again, with only slight variations I used one strategy for almost every fight in the game. The ice Hydro is furnished with what has to be second only to the speed Bio's Crystallize/Withdrawal combo, and you can access it at level 4.

Flash Freeze and Mind Freeze are both powerful attacks as well as crippling de-buffs, with the invaluable bonus that they can't miss. The cool-downs are such that if you equip two of each a lone enemy is completely hosed every time. The general pattern I used is Flash Freeze, whatever, Mind Freeze, whatever, whatever, and start over. It gives steady turn-to-turn damage while keeping the enemy neutered, with plenty of time in the middle to attack, heal, or go Guardian Form as needed. Yeah, it got a little repetitive doing the same thing the entire game, but it just never stopped working. There were maybe three or four encounters I found genuinely difficult, and one that was just overlong.

ZONE 1: NEW ALCATRAZ - The Iron Prison

I started with one level of Regulate to use as a buff killer and one level each of Restore, Mind Freeze, and Flash Freeze, leaving the last ability point unspent. Then at level two I took the second levels of Restore and Flash Freeze. After that the progression went like this:

Level 3: Restore 3
Level 4: Flash Freeze 3
Level 5: Flash Freeze 4
Level 6: Mind Freeze 2

I stuck with Vapour Cannon as my interim attack and skipped Hypothermia and Frost entirely. I found out the hard way that if dispelled by a Shatter the speed increase will often give the enemies an extra turn and ruin the usefulness of the Fragile effect. A fully weaponized Freeze combo is merciless - poor Felicity was stuck with her weak Leading Strike ability, completely unable to do anything useful.

(Okay, I'm probably missing something stupid obvious, but who's in her arms when she makes her exit?)

ZONE 2: OBERURSEL - The Frozen Village

Ability progression:

Level 7: Mind Freeze 3
Level 8: Mind Freeze 4
Level 9: Cold Neurology 1
Level 10: Guardian Form 1
Level 11: Ice Wall 1

With Flash Freeze and Mind Freeze both maxed out, the battles that gave my speed Bio build such a hard time were cake. I only had to reload twice, and both times were due to unlucky critical hits by Captain Hunt's team. The Priests and Mages dropped like rocks to the Freeze combo and Guardian Form is a wondrous thing on every front.

Baron Brixius took a while to put down, but he couldn't do much to me in the meantime. No Tick Tock under Mind Freeze, the only pain in the behind was his lighting-based refocusing buff that I couldn't prevent. I had to wait it out unless Veradux got rid of it for me, then when it wasn't active I'd Flash Freeze and Regulate him until he'd finally use Deep Burning. Scratch one Baron.


ZONE 3: IVORY LINE - The Train

(So does anybody know what the story is with the piece of paper in the unlocked compartment? That and the blood trail in every zone, I'm curious.)

Ability progression:

Level 12: Glacier 1
Level 13: Crystal Ice 1
Level 14: Crystal Ice 2

Here I hit the first genuinely hard fight with the group of three Spectres. They almost always got an extra turn when one of them used Midnight Oil, and they'd invariably gang up on someone hitting him five or six times in a row. I wound up dropping almost every bit of scratch I had on one-handed weapons and Ancient Shields, and learned fast never to let anyone get even slightly low on health.

I felt sorry for Clemons. That's all I have to say.


ZONE 4: LABYRINTH - Tunnel of Illusions

Ability progression:

Level 15: Crystal Ice 3
Level 16: Crystal Ice 4
Level 17: Crystal Ice 5
Level 18: Cold Neurology 2

I started on Cold Neurology instead of Glacier or Shatter. Glacier is very useful, but it would be several levels before I could rapid fire it, and Vapour Cannon was doing more than enough damage with maxed out Crystal Ice. Shatter is a nice thing to have when that extra burst is needed to finish someone off, but to me doesn't seem terribly reliable. My opinion is that the benefit of existing de-buffs usually outweighs the chance at some extra damage that can miss. Plus I was going to need those action bar slots for Restores and such, so all in all I felt the passive damage reduction was the best way to go.

Since every encounter in this zone is a single enemy, nothing here was any trouble and I admit I cheated a little. I knew I wouldn't be able to wear any of the armor or headwear in Zone 5 until after I'd beaten the Mayor, so I turned the autosave off and reloaded a couple of fights to get the Venomsteel Armor, Charged Armor, and Deathbone Armor. Yeah, I'm lame.

The relationship between an ice Hydraulic and the Hydra is well documented already. Any ice attack including a Vapour Cannon shot will take out the Fire Claws in one hit. The Hydra has very good defenses but no attack ability that doesn't require focus, so the Freeze combo renders him totally helpless. This is one of those times when the build feels like cheating. The only way to lose this fight would be to start it and go make a sandwich or something.


ZONE 5: HEW - The Dystopia

Ability progression:

Level 19: Cold Neurology 3
Level 20: Cold Neurology 4
Level 21: Shatter 1

The City Council fight was a cinch. We just pounded one to death and even though the other went into the State of Emergency, the Freeze combo kept him from doing anything remotely worthwhile. Like I said, cheating.

Hounds, apparently to make up for it, were a royal pain in the patookus. Once again I bankrupted myself on Lavastone Barriers, stuck both teammates on Phalanx and kept them under Ice Wall (hey, I found a use for it!) While in Guardian Form, the Hounds couldn't do that much to me unless they got a massive critical. Both fights took several tries and a long time to chip them down.

Fighting the Mayor was where I used Shatter for the first time. The Guardian Cannon's Water Vapours count toward the three-effect requirement and a Mind Freeze kept it from doing anything else, so it was history in five or six turns. I couldn't stop the Mayor from casting his three most obnoxious de-buffs, but the combo still neutralized the rest of his attacks and dealt a mountain of damage in the process.

And that was that. The easiest Legend run I've tried yet, without a single wasted ability and no re-spec needed. To finish out the build I maxed Glacier and Shatter, took Subversion for Doctor Klima, and threw the last two points into Regulate just because there wasn't anything else I'd need taking up space on the Action Bar. So the final build came out:

Regulate 3
Restore 3
Mind Freeze 4
Flash Freeze 4
Ice Wall 1
Glacier 4
Crystal Ice 5
Shatter 4
Cold Neurology 4
Guardian Form 1
Subversion 1

ZONE 6 & ZONE 7

I'm going to be honest, except for finally switching out Vapour Cannon for Glacier as my interim attack, I didn't change a thing. Here's where the only small shortcoming of the build is, as I could not muster the huge burst damage the speed Bio can. I'm not sure how a Hydraulic could earn the Doomsday achievement (on heroic level at least). I made it just seconds under the wire.

I hit the same problem with Yosuke, there was no way I could find to penetrate his Immortal Flame. So I put on some music and sat back for the long haul: Flash Freeze, Regulate, Mind Freeze, Regulate, Regulate, etc for 99 turns. Blah. He was never able to hit for more than 500-1000 damage, so it wasn't a difficult fight, just a long one.

As for the Corruptor, I never even looked at the orbs. I went Guardian Form and took after her while my beloved teammates kept the orb busy healing itself instead of her. She went down long before she got to the Corruptor Form.

Great thanks to DaliuXas for his incredible Hydraulic guide that got me started on this, and all the rest of you while I'm at it. This was a blast.

~N