Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this! Obviously there’s a lot of debate possible on this, but if there’s one opinion I want to share is that Numb Trooper is a top 3 medal in my eyes. On top of what’s told in the video, all bosses with only single target attacks (which a fair chunk of them are) straight-up lose to Agaric + Taunt on Kabbu w Numb Trooper. They cannot deal any damage and they are easily defeated before the supply of agarics is threatened. For singlehandedly “cancelling” so many bosses under quite realistic conditions I rank it this high despite it not being as effective in other situations and especially uneffective in the CoT/BOSS.
Shock Trooper is definitely a medal that deserves more attention. It's crazy how potent it is really when faced with bosses like Mother Chomper and Zasp.
I've used Leaf Cloak even is RNG, less chance to be the target it's a huge bonus. All depends of the kind of the build you choose to. In my playthrought I use this badge for a very long time even until fighting the last Boss. My strategy was to protect Leif for being attack and let him being my turn giver and my support, has I've use Empower, and mostly all the other Defense Badges was used on Vi or wasn't picked because of their price on MP. Leaf Cloak is a good alternative to orienting the ennemies to the good target at low price. Sure is RNG and became useless against AOE attacks, but not every attacks and everytime an ennemie will decide to used that attack.
I agree that's how I played the majority of the game. But I think a good counter point is if you use Taunt with Kabbu it is useless (although I never really used taunt during my normal playthrough). I just did the Tangybug / cave of trials with the Do Nothing Medals and the medal that makes skills cost HP instead of TP (but one less cost) on Kabbu. So Kabbu could taunt every turn for 1 HP then use the do nothing to heal and restore TP using turn relay from Leif. Miracle Matter on Vi as well as all damage medals besides poison. Kabbu is basically invincible and Vi will come back to life is they die. If Leif dies it's not a big deal since you can win the battles fast enough for him to be revived with 1 HP the next battle. I had some miracle shakes just in case, but the build made it super easy. So I think the Leaf Cloak is good on Leif in the normal game for overworld survivability, but it can be useless if you use Kabbu as a taunt tank. Just situational, probably would put it C (maybe even B) tier not E
I know it's been 3 years, but paring Leaf Cloak with the Bait Hook (or whatever it's called, I've only fished in the new update) is a pretty good combo for my build where I have Kabbu in the back with super guard plus, back support, guard heal, and tardigrade shield (if Leif is down (also might take favorite one since he's so tanky at that point) and Leif as my damage dealer (poison metals, random start)
Great list! Bug Fables usually does an excellent job balancing medals by having some kind of drawback that needs to be made up for by using other party members or using items or something. There's no equivalent to Defend Plus, for example. Last Stand (and Last Attack, as I've gone on about) is the most exploitable because of how easy it is to get in and stay in danger. Big fan of Super Block and Block Heal too. Even though they can be a little busted, it takes skill to superblock. The Do Nothing medals could have used some kind of restriction on stacking or being able to equip multiple kinds on the same bug at once. They're actually fun badges when you only have a couple of them. Imagine having access to an item that heals 4HP, 2TP, and increases defense by 2 every turn for free. Pretty absurd. It doesn't even cause exhaustion. Even just 1 Prayer and both Reflections on one bug is crazy. Funny, I think I recall that in an earlier patch, having both Reflection medals on increased defense by 1 for 2 turns. The change made it even stronger. Some kind of restriction or drawback on HP Core would be healthy too. I think part of how they intended to balance things was with MP cost and the fact that medals only effect one bug, but because of turn relay, in the latter half of the game, one or both bugs that don't have much, if anything, equipped become reduced to an extra turn instead of using their unique skills. The sheer brokenness of medals also makes it hard to justify upgrading HP or TP more than a couple of times, and with the Do Nothing and Core Medals, it detracts from the usefulness of items and cooking. It's for this reason I think the game is most fun in the early and mid game, before you have to make some self-imposed challenge to prevent the balance from squandering the potential of the battle system. Edit: I got more use out of First Plating than any of the badges in B tier. When you're doing normal battles, or you're expecting to dish out big damage to end a boss fight quickly, it's an amazing and cheaper alternative to the other defensive medals, and negates the weaknesses of medals that make you more squishy at the cost of power, like power exchange or berserker. It's also good if you have one or more last attacks before you have last stands, which is for a long time, considering last attacks are gotten from 2 early bounties and last stands are gotten from bounties you can't fight until chapter 6. It allows you to take advantage of in front attack bonus despite the higher likelihood of getting targeted, and if first plating isn't enough, taunt and bubble shield lite exist if you really need to protect your damage dealer.
Oh thanks. Yeah this game has a knack for forcing some creative combos for medals to be strong though there are some that are just straight up strong if not overcentralizing. Defensive medals in particular are genuinely game breaking if Leif's Bubble Shield shenanigans are anything to go by.
i made an all medals tier list not too long ago. i like to put the medals into categories depending on how many situations they're useful, and how strong they are when their time to shine comes. i generally had around 5 tiers. the lowest tier is usually the medals that aren't very strong even in the niche circumstance they are useful. the next tier up is the medals that are strong in some sets, but not always applicable. the one above that for me are medals that are applicable in most situations, but aren't very strong or game changing. the second tier from the top is for medals that are incredibly strong for their specific use, but aren't always applicable. top tier though, is for medals that you have no real reason not to equip, unless maybe you have a specific set that you need to use all your mp for. i think it's a good way of ranking them and sorting them.
Honestly hp pluses feel very slept on a ton. Poison takes 10% of a bugs max hp so reverse toxin plus eternal venom will heal much more the more hp you have. Then there’s heavy sleep which takes 30%-50% of an bugs hp (I don’t know which it is)
@@CaliCosmicGal Sleep, by default, restores 10% of max HP rounded up. So from 7-10 max HP, it'll restore 1, from 11-20, 2, and so on. Since it always rounds up, sleep will restore an unusually large percentage of a bug's max HP if it is just over a multiple of 10. For example, at 11 max HP, it'll restore 2, which is nearly 20% of max HP. Heavy sleeper triples the healing. This is NOT the same as 30% rounded up. At 11 max HP, 30% rounded up would be 4 HP. However, triple the normal healing (2) is 6. With heavy sleeper, a bug with 11 max HP will regain 6 HP, not the 4 that 30% predicts. As such, the unusually large percentage that normal sleep has is magnified by heavy sleeper.
this list is really well formulated and maps pretty accurately with my experience with the game ! (albeit pretty mild as i've only 100%ed it twice, once on hard and another on normal ruigee+mystery) one placement i personally don't agree with is First Plating being in D tier, seeing as it acts pretty much as a free life shroom in every fight for the bug with negative def / low max hp. in my B.O.S.S EX no items playthrough, i had vi as the primary attacker (all atk increasing medals bar poison attackers and berserker equipped), leif using bubble shield / status relay to add charge from favourite one to vi, and kabbu redirecting single-target attacks with taunt and healing hp/tp and boosting def by doing nothing. even with taunting, many enemies (especially the devourer) have a.o.e attacks that ohko vi even with super guarding, seeing as each bug's max hp was only 08, 16, 08 (for vi, kabbu and leif respectively). i did also have miracle matter on both vi and kabbu, but using pep talk every time vi was k.o'd proved to be wasteful of turns per round, and of kabbu's defensive capabilities (kabbu had life cast on to reduce tp usage from taunting). i also didn't know that block heal had that much versatility, as i more-or-less thought of it as a slightly different, more expensive super block+ !
I can't remember the last time I even attempted the Cave of Trials tbh, but that's probably the only time it's worth considering. And that's not going to hold much weight imo
@@PhantomAarantula yeah if I'm being honest it was mainly life cast, the cores, the buzzes, status booster, the needle upgrades, strong start, antlion jaws, resist all, adbp enhancer and front and back support. But other than that, yeah, it was ALL first plating.
Wait why wasn’t reversed toxin and hp plus on the list? Both could technically be used defence ways. Especially hp plus it decreases an important defensive state for one bug. I think it’s diffident enough from an ho level up to be ranked here.
Reverse Toxin actually reduces your defense so I found it difficult to classify as defensive. You could argue for HP Plus, but since that medal just hits your base HP, I'd rather save it for miscellaneous. But we can agree it's easily one of the best medals in the game.
i think 1st Plating is A Life Saver and Probably the medal i have on at least someone it synergizes With Favorite one and basically gives one of your bugs A free turn with something risky like Hard charge
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this!
Obviously there’s a lot of debate possible on this, but if there’s one opinion I want to share is that Numb Trooper is a top 3 medal in my eyes.
On top of what’s told in the video, all bosses with only single target attacks (which a fair chunk of them are) straight-up lose to Agaric + Taunt on Kabbu w Numb Trooper. They cannot deal any damage and they are easily defeated before the supply of agarics is threatened.
For singlehandedly “cancelling” so many bosses under quite realistic conditions I rank it this high despite it not being as effective in other situations and especially uneffective in the CoT/BOSS.
Shock Trooper is definitely a medal that deserves more attention. It's crazy how potent it is really when faced with bosses like Mother Chomper and Zasp.
I've used Leaf Cloak even is RNG, less chance to be the target it's a huge bonus. All depends of the kind of the build you choose to. In my playthrought I use this badge for a very long time even until fighting the last Boss. My strategy was to protect Leif for being attack and let him being my turn giver and my support, has I've use Empower, and mostly all the other Defense Badges was used on Vi or wasn't picked because of their price on MP. Leaf Cloak is a good alternative to orienting the ennemies to the good target at low price. Sure is RNG and became useless against AOE attacks, but not every attacks and everytime an ennemie will decide to used that attack.
Point taken.
I agree that's how I played the majority of the game. But I think a good counter point is if you use Taunt with Kabbu it is useless (although I never really used taunt during my normal playthrough). I just did the Tangybug / cave of trials with the Do Nothing Medals and the medal that makes skills cost HP instead of TP (but one less cost) on Kabbu. So Kabbu could taunt every turn for 1 HP then use the do nothing to heal and restore TP using turn relay from Leif. Miracle Matter on Vi as well as all damage medals besides poison. Kabbu is basically invincible and Vi will come back to life is they die. If Leif dies it's not a big deal since you can win the battles fast enough for him to be revived with 1 HP the next battle. I had some miracle shakes just in case, but the build made it super easy. So I think the Leaf Cloak is good on Leif in the normal game for overworld survivability, but it can be useless if you use Kabbu as a taunt tank. Just situational, probably would put it C (maybe even B) tier not E
I know it's been 3 years, but paring Leaf Cloak with the Bait Hook (or whatever it's called, I've only fished in the new update) is a pretty good combo for my build where I have Kabbu in the back with super guard plus, back support, guard heal, and tardigrade shield (if Leif is down (also might take favorite one since he's so tanky at that point) and Leif as my damage dealer (poison metals, random start)
Great list! Bug Fables usually does an excellent job balancing medals by having some kind of drawback that needs to be made up for by using other party members or using items or something. There's no equivalent to Defend Plus, for example. Last Stand (and Last Attack, as I've gone on about) is the most exploitable because of how easy it is to get in and stay in danger. Big fan of Super Block and Block Heal too. Even though they can be a little busted, it takes skill to superblock.
The Do Nothing medals could have used some kind of restriction on stacking or being able to equip multiple kinds on the same bug at once. They're actually fun badges when you only have a couple of them. Imagine having access to an item that heals 4HP, 2TP, and increases defense by 2 every turn for free. Pretty absurd. It doesn't even cause exhaustion. Even just 1 Prayer and both Reflections on one bug is crazy. Funny, I think I recall that in an earlier patch, having both Reflection medals on increased defense by 1 for 2 turns. The change made it even stronger. Some kind of restriction or drawback on HP Core would be healthy too.
I think part of how they intended to balance things was with MP cost and the fact that medals only effect one bug, but because of turn relay, in the latter half of the game, one or both bugs that don't have much, if anything, equipped become reduced to an extra turn instead of using their unique skills. The sheer brokenness of medals also makes it hard to justify upgrading HP or TP more than a couple of times, and with the Do Nothing and Core Medals, it detracts from the usefulness of items and cooking. It's for this reason I think the game is most fun in the early and mid game, before you have to make some self-imposed challenge to prevent the balance from squandering the potential of the battle system.
Edit: I got more use out of First Plating than any of the badges in B tier. When you're doing normal battles, or you're expecting to dish out big damage to end a boss fight quickly, it's an amazing and cheaper alternative to the other defensive medals, and negates the weaknesses of medals that make you more squishy at the cost of power, like power exchange or berserker. It's also good if you have one or more last attacks before you have last stands, which is for a long time, considering last attacks are gotten from 2 early bounties and last stands are gotten from bounties you can't fight until chapter 6. It allows you to take advantage of in front attack bonus despite the higher likelihood of getting targeted, and if first plating isn't enough, taunt and bubble shield lite exist if you really need to protect your damage dealer.
Oh thanks. Yeah this game has a knack for forcing some creative combos for medals to be strong though there are some that are just straight up strong if not overcentralizing. Defensive medals in particular are genuinely game breaking if Leif's Bubble Shield shenanigans are anything to go by.
Finally a channel for bug fable
I find it funny that there's so many ways to benefit from poison in this game that a poison resisting medals is considered trash, even for one MP.
Ain't it funny?
Found this channel through the attack tier list, pretty cool
👋 Hello!
i made an all medals tier list not too long ago. i like to put the medals into categories depending on how many situations they're useful, and how strong they are when their time to shine comes. i generally had around 5 tiers. the lowest tier is usually the medals that aren't very strong even in the niche circumstance they are useful. the next tier up is the medals that are strong in some sets, but not always applicable. the one above that for me are medals that are applicable in most situations, but aren't very strong or game changing. the second tier from the top is for medals that are incredibly strong for their specific use, but aren't always applicable. top tier though, is for medals that you have no real reason not to equip, unless maybe you have a specific set that you need to use all your mp for.
i think it's a good way of ranking them and sorting them.
Honestly hp pluses feel very slept on a ton. Poison takes 10% of a bugs max hp so reverse toxin plus eternal venom will heal much more the more hp you have.
Then there’s heavy sleep which takes 30%-50% of an bugs hp (I don’t know which it is)
Sleep restores your HP by 10% each turn, but that effect is tripled with Heavy Sleeper.
@@PhantomAarantula that’s what the wiki says but I hade times where it has recovered 50% of my max hp so I don’t lnow
@@CaliCosmicGal Sleep, by default, restores 10% of max HP rounded up. So from 7-10 max HP, it'll restore 1, from 11-20, 2, and so on.
Since it always rounds up, sleep will restore an unusually large percentage of a bug's max HP if it is just over a multiple of 10. For example, at 11 max HP, it'll restore 2, which is nearly 20% of max HP.
Heavy sleeper triples the healing. This is NOT the same as 30% rounded up. At 11 max HP, 30% rounded up would be 4 HP. However, triple the normal healing (2) is 6. With heavy sleeper, a bug with 11 max HP will regain 6 HP, not the 4 that 30% predicts. As such, the unusually large percentage that normal sleep has is magnified by heavy sleeper.
I have just realized that this is a second channel
It is, but it's its own thing. Hopefully the videos put up reflect that since I'd love for this channel to establish its own identity.
this list is really well formulated and maps pretty accurately with my experience with the game ! (albeit pretty mild as i've only 100%ed it twice, once on hard and another on normal ruigee+mystery)
one placement i personally don't agree with is First Plating being in D tier, seeing as it acts pretty much as a free life shroom in every fight for the bug with negative def / low max hp.
in my B.O.S.S EX no items playthrough, i had vi as the primary attacker (all atk increasing medals bar poison attackers and berserker equipped), leif using bubble shield / status relay to add charge from favourite one to vi, and kabbu redirecting single-target attacks with taunt and healing hp/tp and boosting def by doing nothing. even with taunting, many enemies (especially the devourer) have a.o.e attacks that ohko vi even with super guarding, seeing as each bug's max hp was only 08, 16, 08 (for vi, kabbu and leif respectively). i did also have miracle matter on both vi and kabbu, but using pep talk every time vi was k.o'd proved to be wasteful of turns per round, and of kabbu's defensive capabilities (kabbu had life cast on to reduce tp usage from taunting).
i also didn't know that block heal had that much versatility, as i more-or-less thought of it as a slightly different, more expensive super block+ !
Happy you liked! And always good to share more information on some finer details for this game.
Him: don’t use it if you dont have dignity
Me: Well good thing i dont lol
"Bosses never lead with their most powerful attack"
*megalovania intensifies*
I said this for First Plating, didn't I...
Bro first plating got me through the cave of trials on my tuffbugs run
I can't remember the last time I even attempted the Cave of Trials tbh, but that's probably the only time it's worth considering. And that's not going to hold much weight imo
@@PhantomAarantula yeah if I'm being honest it was mainly life cast, the cores, the buzzes, status booster, the needle upgrades, strong start, antlion jaws, resist all, adbp enhancer and front and back support. But other than that, yeah, it was ALL first plating.
Berserker plus life stealer vi got me far enough to reach level 50 in cave of trials(died from numb though) and now I have life cast.
Wait why wasn’t reversed toxin and hp plus on the list? Both could technically be used defence ways.
Especially hp plus it decreases an important defensive state for one bug. I think it’s diffident enough from an ho level up to be ranked here.
Reverse Toxin actually reduces your defense so I found it difficult to classify as defensive. You could argue for HP Plus, but since that medal just hits your base HP, I'd rather save it for miscellaneous. But we can agree it's easily one of the best medals in the game.
i think 1st Plating is A Life Saver and Probably the medal i have on at least someone
it synergizes With Favorite one
and basically gives one of your bugs A free turn
with something risky like Hard charge
i use Kabbu more than tge otheres simce hes my favorite so theres that
First Plating is definitely a fine medal. Just there's a lot of good medals so odds are I may not have been very even with ranking them.
@@PhantomAarantula to be fair I've only played this game twice
hmm'g