#fluid sac ego

[lu-is-not-ok]

Do you do psychoanalyzing on other characters besides Yi Sang and Hong Lu? If so I’d like to hear you talk about Don and Faust, and why you think they share 2 egos (Telepole and Fluid Sac)

I mean! I can certainly try! Hong Lu and Yi Sang are just. I guess my field of expertise??? Since I care the most about those two??? But I can certainly try to analyze some other characters, though it might not be able to be as specific and detailed as I am when analyzing my favorites. Hope you understand!

Now then. Let's do this. Under cut we go as usual.

Fluid Sac

Let's start with the one we know less about, aka Headless Ichthys. In fact, we know... very, very little about Headless Ichthys.

Due to Meursault being the one to write the logs about this abnormality, we only get information on its physical characteristics, such as it having lost its head, and that there's something inside its sack that is said to bear resemblence to either a flower or a human nervous system.

That's it. That's all the definitive info we have on this abnormality. We can assume that it has Some religious significance due to its name, Ichthys, being the name of a religious fish symbol, but that doesn't help too much.

There is something interesting I want to note here, and that's the thing inside its sack. The fact that it's unclear whether it resembles a flower or a human nervous system is interesting... Because that mimics what Lunacy looks like. While Lunacy is described as rose-shaped by its Inventory description, the full Lunacy icon can also be interpreted as a brain on a brainstem.

I suppose, if you wanted to dig deep enough, the implications of it containing a symbol akin to Lunacy and having lost its head could could be interpreted as the abnormality being a symbol of a descent into madness. Which, honestly, that's the best I got from what little we have.

Because of just how little lore we have on the Headless Ichthys, unfortunately I can't go too in depth on Don and Faust with it in mind... But I'll still try.

Fluid Sac is a Gloom E.G.O, and though Gloom is one of those Sins I'm not entirely sure of, it does seem to represent taking actions due to one's built up negative emotions.

The main base E.G.O examples we have are Snagharpoon, which has Ishmael follow her compulsion to keep searching for "That bastard", and Land of Illusion, which implies that Hong Lu retreats from reality into his own dream world under heavy emotional stress.

As such, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Fluid Sac signifies something that caused horrible emotional stress to both Don and Faust, which would then kickstart their descent into madness. In more specific terms, this would be heroic delusions for Don and single-minded mad scientist-esque pursuit of knowledge for Faust.

As a brief sidenote, this would align quite well with the visual design differences between the two. Though the E.G.O outfits they wear are extremely similar, all the way down to both of them having green tints in their hair and fin decorations in the exact same spots, there are two notable differences.

One - the shape of the weapon. Don's weapon is shaped like a miniature Headless Ichthys clutching onto a perfectly round sack-orb. It looks almost more like a toy rather than a weapon. Faust's weapon is not only shaped almost perfectly like Headless Ichthys's sack, it also seems to have the same properties, as it bursts during Faust's Awakening attack animation.

Two - the article of clothing that mimics the Ichthys's hand-flippers. For Don, it's a cape-like piece of clothing that looks more like something you'd see on a kid's hero costume. For Faust, it's seemingly anatomically-correct recreations of the flippers that are attached to her jacket.

Both of those I think reinforce the idea of Don and Faust indulging in their methods of madness. Child-like obsession with heroism for Don (using toys and costumes), and endless scientific pursuits for Faust (only someone studying the abnormality closely could replicate its anatomy in this much detail).

It's a bit hard to tell anything from their dialogue lines as they are somewhat generic (my unrelated theory on that is that Fluid Sac is one of the first E.G.Os designed, based on its dialogue lines not having much to do with its abnormality, and due to its attack animations being uncharacteristically sparse in actual frame-to-frame animation), but they do seem to work as good reflections of Don and Faust in general.

Their Awakening lines seem to reflect their general attitudes, with Don's being jovial yet quick to resort to violence, and Faust's being self-assured and seemingly trying to predict all outcomes.

Their Corroded lines on the other hand could be a reflection of their attitudes after their descent into madness began. Don's single-minded "...Crush them." could be a reflection of how she views morality as black and white, and thus believes all that she considers 'villains' should be crushed by her. Likewise, Faust's line here implies that she's willing to do anything, even leave herself completely empty by 'disgorging everything', if it means she reaches what she's looking for.

Looking at the Sin Resources, both Faust and Don require Gloom and Lust to use Fluid Sac, and while Don also uses Pride, Faust uses Envy instead.

I already mentioned what I think Gloom means for Fluid Sac, and I think it being a requirement further reinforces it here. Both Don and Faust need to be acting under severe emotional stress to start their descent into madness.

Lust as a sin seems to represent acting according to one's desires, or more specifically, indulging in them. It also tends to have slight spiritual connotations in Limbus, making it the Sin of acting for the sake of some form of personal fulfillment as well.

Using it for Fluid Sac would make sense with the descent into madness interpretation. For both Don and Faust, their forms of madness are them overindulging in something they find personally fulfilling - heroism for Don, science for Faust.

Don's unique Sin requirement here is Pride. I already went into detail on what Pride as a Sin means in Limbus in the Dimension Shredder post, but to recap, Pride represents actions taken for their personal benefits, while ignoring their negative consequences on either other people or oneself.

This very much represents Don's madness quite well. Her heroic acts are rooted in what she personally perceives as doing good, and she completely ignores the collateral damage that she may cause in the process. Her willful ignorance of the harm she inflicts on others is one of the main things that led her to her personal form of madness.

Faust's unique Sin requirement here is Envy. Now, I won't go into detail on Envy just yet, as it's better saved for Telepole, but in very basic summary, it represents actions done in reaction to other people and their actions.

While there is still much we don't know about Faust, the inclusion of Envy as a requirement for her Fluid Sac implies that the root of her madness actually comes from someone else. There's not enough info for us to speculate on more details... but something tells me this might have to do with a certain Faustian Bargain, if you catch my drift.

So, that's Fluid Sac! For something with so little to dissect, it ended up leading to quite a good bit of analysis anyway! Call me Game Theory cause I'm about to put MatPat out of a job.

Telepole

Alright, let's once again start with the abnormality itself - Alleyway Watchdog.

The funny thing is that the Watchdog has the opposite problem to the Ichthys, as while the fish had very little lore, the Watchdog has a decent amount, but it's written by Yi Sang and as such it's hard to tell how much of its logs are facts, and how much is Yi Sang being Yi Sang and projecting onto the dog.

If there is one thing that is a definitive fact, it's that lack of being able to control oneself and being unable to tell who is controlling who is a recurring theme for this abnormality. The fact that it's unclear if the dog is in control of its own actions calls back to it, and the further muddling of what actually is in control of it only further adds to that theme.

It's unclear if the charred person on its back is controlling the dog, or if it's simply along for the ride unable to do anything to stop it, or if it is also under the control of something else. It's unclear if electricity is what is directly controlling the dog, or if it's something Yi Sang is projecting onto it due to his own experiences.

With that in mind, let's look at the three Sinners who have this E.G.O - Don, Faust, and Heathcliff. Now, I won't be looking at Heathcliff's case too closely, since this is meant to focus on Don and Faust, but I will be bringing him up when talking about Telepole on a general level, so that we have the biggest sample size possible.

In this case, having the Telepole E.G.O would imply these three have some issues when it comes to control, whether it's they themselves lacked control in their life, or whether it's their own degree of perceived control isn't as it seems. Since neither of those three have had their Cantos released yet, it's impossible for me to tell what exactly is going on here, but this is something to keep in mind.

Now, let's talk about Envy, as that's the Sin damage that all of the Telepoles deal. Envy appears to represent actions one takes as a reaction to what others do. This can take any form, whether it's revenge or following orders or being provoked or anything really. What's important here is that the action taken is a Direct Response to someone else.

The only base E.G.O that deals Envy damage is Heathcliff's Bodysack, which represents his impulsive and likely violent reaction to whatever Cathy did to him.

This all fits very nicely with the nature of Alleyway Watchdog, and Telepole E.G.O as a whole. The Watchdog's actions are all reactions to something else controlling it. Likewise, those using the Telepole E.G.O have their actions be influenced or even controlled by someone else.

Their Awakening lines (since there's nothing to analyze when it comes to their Corroded howls I don't think) all reflect a certain part of their personality, potentially implying that something about that is due to the influence of someone else.

Heathcliff's line expresses his impulsively violent tendencies, Don's ties back to her blind heroism, and Faust's has a clinical, detached feel to it.

As for Sin Resources, both Faust and Heathcliff use Envy, Wrath, and Lust, while Don exchanges Lust for Gloom.

Envy as a Sin Resource here once again ties back to the themes of control, implying that for all three, the actions they take are not entirely Just their own. Whether it's provokation or suggestion or something else, for all three of them, their actions are being encouraged, if not directly controlled, by someone else entirely.

Wrath is... hard to analyze. Partially because on first glance it seems to act as a shorthand for fire damage, and partially because no base E.G.O deals Wrath damage. My best guess based on other E.G.Os is that Wrath represents actions done out of self-righteousness. It's the "I deserve to do this, I DARE to do this." of Sins, in my opinion.

It's not necessarily tied to literal anger, as its name might imply, but rather a deeper reason that usually leads to anger - that being the idea that something should or shouldn't happen simply because you wish it so. After all, the most common reason for anger is for something to not go your way. Think children throwing tantrums over their toy being taken away, or a gamer smashing their keyboard over getting outplayed.

With all that being said, Wrath being used for Telepole could have several meanings. It could represent defiance, the idea that the Sinners act out because they believe they deserve better than the person trying to control them. It could also represent temptation, falling under someone else's control or provokation due to believing that they deserve something they don't have or to do something they can't without falling for it.

Now onto the more unique Sin resource requirements. Faust and Heathcliff both require Lust, a Sin representing indulging one's desires and seeking personal fulfillment. This would fit both Heathcliff and Faust, as their Telepoles seem to allude to the things they are already impulsive about - mindless violence for Heathcliff, and pursuit of knowledge for Faust. The actions they are being controlled or provoked to do are things they already wish to indulge in. Perhaps in their case, they are specifically being tempted into doing something, rather than being directly forced.

This however, is different for Don. Don's Telepole requires Gloom, which is a Sin representing actions done out of succumbing to negative emotions. This paints the actions she's controlled or provoked into comitting in a different light. Unlike Heathcliff or Faust, she isn't being tempted by personal fulfillment. No, in her case it's an expression of emotional stress. Perhaps in her case the control is much more forceful, causing her to act out, or perhaps her actions are a reaction to something bad happening to someone she knows. Either way, it's quite intriguing to note.

Unlike my Fluid Sac analysis, which I could get a little bit more detailed on thanks to touching on a facet of Don and Faust's personalities that are clearly evident, Telepole seems to more so reference their pasts, something that as of right now we simply have no access to.

I expect reaching Heathcliff's Canto will help a ton in this specific case, as it will help analyze the rest of the Telepoles thanks to being able to compare what it seems to reference in his revealed past to potentially similar events in both Don and Faust's pasts.

[howdyimhowdy]

Headless fish is cool and i happened to have drawn my friend with the ego, but then i realised i could re-tool the drawing to make it faust fan art

[donquixoteirl]

Happy fish! (finally finished this after a week or two of procrastinating)

[plsleafmelon]

OK WHO THE HOLY FUCK IS JUN AND WHY IS HE DECIMATING MY TEAM SO FUCKING HARD IN MDH

all my sinners do is breathe in his direction and he goes so trigger happy like jfc the moment i see someone boutta clash w him i go full defense mode like u just see that whole bar full of evades yeah thats me fighting him

[mochitheglitch]

My fish. Do you like him?

[staryarn]

HUH

[runn1ngn0se]

Last night of the season, and I've been grinding mirror dungeons for hours to get the last few ego shards for this ID before her and all my faust shard vanish

[erlkink-heatcliff]

FLUID SAC - HE - BUZZ

Extra details below :)

AWAKENED: 18 (+10 Heads hit) - BLUNT - ATK WEIGHT 3

[On Hit] Inflict +5 Sinking Count on each target.

[On Heads Hit] Heal 10 SP on self

[After Attack] Heal 20% Max HP to the ally with the lowest current HP. If this unit is the one with the lowest HP, apply +3 Sinking to self and instead heal 10% Max HP on self and to the ally with the second lowest current HP.

CORRODED: 30 (-10 Heads Hit) - BLUNT - ATK WEIGHT 3

[On Hit] Inflict Sinking based on half of the total amount of Sinking spread across current targets.

[On Hit] Cause Sinking Deluge.

PASSIVE - Saddened Seas

Every time an enemy is killed (or a part is broken), gain 2 Attack Power up on the next turn and lose 10 SP.

the basic idea for this ego is outright just "we have sinking deluge at home". this took like 2 hours just to try and get the basic ideas for writing it out i love engaging with game mechanics by making things that don't exist

[sinnerofwalpurgisnacht]

what is the favorite EGO attack you have used? (other than your own?)

A favourite... That's not something Faust would usually consider. It's an odd metric to have for E.G.O. given how deeply they are related to... Well, nevermind, that information appears to be confidential. I will formulate an adequate response. I'll exclude the Lobotomy Corporation E.G.O. used in other Mirror Worlds. Due to the filter, I can't remember anything substantial about them, only fleeting sensations are left behind.

E.G.O. is inherently uncomfortable to experience. While synchronised you experience very intense emotions, they're inherent to any E.G.O. and are an important factor of their distribution. This is what Faust has concluded.

For a... personal opinion... That would be 9:2, Skin Prophet's E.G.O. as it feels the least psychologically disruptive out of them all so far. A close second would be Fluid Sac, Headless Icthys's E.G.O. This is both because of its effectiveness and that it isn't that different from everyday function when used. Though notably unlike 9:2, the added temperature sensitivity is incredibly uncomfortable, moreso than usual. The agreed favourites of the sinners are Everlasting and Telepole, however.

It's always the fish... the gills are cute I guess but you can't pet that, they're cold and spiny. Dog ears, Fau! Doggy ears! - Rodya ❤️

While this is a personal blog, I ask that maintain at least a little bit of professionalism here, Rodion.

Nah. F.F. is right, cold and spined, H.C.C., best one no contest. - M.R.

(F.F. = Fish Face / H.C.C. = Head Cut Clean.)

[cyborg-squid]

Sinners EGO themes and throughlines

(not comprehensive, because some Sinners don't have very similar EGOs, or don't have very much at all, or I just haven't spotted the themes. Am also including EGO "gear", aka stuff that's part of identities, not just ones in the EGO slot)

Ishmael: Guiding/pathfinding/lighting the way ("Come on… This way!"(Capote) and "Though I can’t guide you..."(Ardor Blossom)), loss of control/intoxication (Roseate Desire, Sloshing Identity)

Hong Lu: Being lost or adrift, as well as other "worlds". ("World of wonders..." (Land of Illusion), "To bound over to the next world" (Dimension Shredder), the Soda kidnapping boat)

Meursault: Chains, imprisonment, judgement. (Chains of Others, Forsaken Murderer, the chains that appear during Capote and the fact that Brazen Bull is a torture instrument, the Heavenly Scribe (Pursuance) dungeon event)

Heathcliff: Animals (AEDD, Telepole, Sunshower Identity), electricity/lightning (Bodysack background, AEDD, Telepole)

Outis: Distrust, pushing others away? (Ebony Stem's "Stem of Distrust" passive, "I don't need any pointless attention!" (Sunshower))

Gregor: Forests/nature (Legerdemain, Lantern), bugs (AEDD, Legerdemain)

Don Quixote: Animals (Fluid Sac, Telepole, Basilisoup, the horse skeleton shadow in Sangre de Sancho)

Rodya: has only two non-base EGO so not much to analyze but there is the fact that they are fire (Fourth Match Flame) and ice (Rime Shank, What is Cast) respectively

[zakanakai]

Guess whos Back at it again with the funny spreadsheets

This time, I have a far different one for my fellow Limbus Lovers;

Shared IDs and EGOs.

I like tracking things, so I wanted to see exactly if there was any correlation or patterns. HOWEVER this one is a lot more complicated and I probably missed something.

So https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iIc9xubL2-Tln1J-9WA214Ud4N6owgdtSdKQh8rVizM/edit?usp=sharing Enjoy my fellow weirdos

Couple of Notes:

in the IDs tab: Green means confirmed and In The Game, and Yellow are Have Appeared in an ID's CGs.

I only counted IDs that have 3+ members

In the EGO tab: I only counted EGO that have at least a duplicate.

My thoughts below the readmore

Most of my thoughts are going to be on the EGOs, but I do have some comments on IDs, mostly Kurokumo vs Blade Lineage:

Which is the only ID sets that are directly opposing of eachother, and why people (and I) think that there won't be anymore added Except Heathcliff and Ishmael Kurokumos. I wonder, when those two are released, if we're going to get another VS set of IDs.

Now onto the EGO!

Most people don't actually have a double up with other Sinners, with Two Exceptions;

Faust and Don share 2 (Fluid Sac and Telepole)

and then Heathcliff and Outis sharing Three. (Ya Sunyata, Holiday, and up and coming Bound), which is interesting, because Heathcliff has 20 Envy in sin total, and Outis has a whopping 0... So what has these two synced up to the same Abnos? Someone who can look into the symbology better than me, absolutely use this post to springboard off of. I want to know the deets.

Short readmore this time, unlike the Sin Total

[azoosepted]

Something with Fluid Sac Don and Blind Obsession Ishmael? (Wabber egos goooo)

ver y messy sketch but, she in awe of my anchor

[lu-is-not-ok]

Faust’s EGOs are really interesting especially in regards of their counts (they dont go above 6, except for Fluid Sac, which is 9) but Hex Nail is actually really sad.

6 envy, just 6 envy, of a teddy bear gouged with nails, and one that inflicts curses.

As per Mephistopheles in the book, I think Faust is actively being inasmuch of her own sacrificial pain as Dante is when it comes to being for and helping the other 12 Sinners.

Salvation in Goethe’s Faust is a big thing but it also seems like a very big deal for LCB’s Faust herself, because she has her own promise w the company itself but I think she may have made Dante’s clockhead and the same mechanisms and role that lead to someone like Yi Sang having colour in his life again.

This is to do with Goethe’s own colour theory, and of their relationship to emotions, to which one look at his colour wheel may answer questions as to why Gloom is a Sin.

I have yet to do my own analysis on Hex Nail specifically, but this is interesting insight, since my understanding of Goethe's Faust is very surface level.

[dlamp-dictator]

Welp, this is about as far as I go for Railway 4, at least with the Sinking Team I built for it. I'm never really one to clear these endgame content segments since I don't play this as intensely as others, nor do I really care for the bragging rights of beating a hard mode of a video game in my older age of 30. That's not a backhanded comment, I just legitimately have other things to do than grind levels and other games I wanna' play when I'm off work or have a shorter shift than usual.

Not really going to go into as much depth as I did during Railway 2 with the Bleed Team, but I do have some thoughts.

This is a little more chill than my usual rambles and dives, so I'm not going to go in as much preamble, but I had expected this ride to be smoother than my Bleed Team since it didn't rely on chip damage and an ironically useless Rabbit Heathcliff. This was originally meant to be something of a fun little callback. I decided to make that Sinking Team I said I'd make back during Railway 2. This is the Sinking Season after all. And given that I thought a Sinking Team might actually be good for this Railway.

I… was conceptually right. Sanity and Gloom damage is nice, but… there were some flaws in my thinking.

The Peccatulum

Man, those Envy Peccatulum are just the worse. I thought I could manage it after the first part of Section 2, but being so harshly knowledge-checked in Section 3 just killed my confidence. I swear, if I have to deal with even a tenth of this in Canto 7, I might actually cry. The idea of fighting your own IDs doesn’t sound too bad, especially if you understand their weaknesses. They aren't impossible, but it's annoying as hell to deal with the bullshit of big numbers you've been using on emotionless, unfeeling pixels and PNGs. And the fact that they get so much speed was just... UGH. I know for a fact only two of these IDs should be pushing 7 speed, and that’s usually with haste buffs.

Like I said, it was doable for the most part. I was able to power through Section 2 since I had two characters with Binds and Yi Sang had Sunshower, but this was a challenge. Kurokumo honestly felt like a nice break, but Jun and his counter spamming never felt more unfair towards the end. I actually got through this clean on my first try, but then the servers had to update and it nixed my clear. Redoing things was a nightmare since I had to deal with a lot of the harsher points of the Peccatulum EGO-spamming me on turn 2, and I had to pull the gamer move of resetting for better speed rolls a myriad of times.

Seriously, that was some nonsense.

The Ego Resources

This wasn't too bad. A Sinking Team is naturally Gloom-heavy, but they’ve got a good spread of EGO resources all around. I was pretty starved for Gluttony since I wasn’t using Butler Ish, but few EGO (that matter for a Sinking Team) require Gluttony. I had both Binds, Sunshower, and Fluid Sac at the ready, so all was fine in the end, but it was a struggle when I needed some Lust since I depended on Outis’s Skill 3 for that.

Sanity Damage and Enemy EGO

The sanity damage was... okay. The Gloom damage was nice in Section 1, and the sanity damage was great against Nelly and Jun, but… not much else. Without Sunshower Yi Sang to truly cash in on those massive sinking stacks this was just… passable damage. It also had the double-edged sword of bringing a Peccatulum down to -45 Sanity just to have them nearly nuke my Sinners with their massive Threadspin IV Corrosion EGOs. There was no clashing with that, and it felt like Peccatulum!Meursault just spammed Pursuance.

Solemn Lament Yi Sang is... Interesting

This Railway really had me thinking about how to use Solemn Lament Yi Sang in the future. A lot of people said this ID was a brainless powercreep of Sunshower Yi Sang and he really isn’t. He’s stronger than Sunshower Yi Sang in terms of general content since he can do consistent gloom damage and his skill 3 nuke is just a bit better, but in terms of harder content where you have to plan and think he needs twice the micro as Sunshower to get things done. To keep things brief, Solemn Lament Yi Sang is good to have on a sinking team, but he's better for focused-encounter big bosses where you can comfortably stack on the Butterflies on a single, sturdy part or in non-focused encounters where you can just spam away without too much worry about his reload mechanic. But in Railway you need to think. You need to kill the Peccatulum in the proper order to keep his ammo up and not waste a turn reloading. His semi-consistent sanity loss means you have to babysit him a little before making big moves and nukes. And while you can get consistent Gloom Resonance on a Sinking team, he really needs to play around it for maximum efficiency. He works, but you have to work with him.

Anyways, that's it for me. I'll try to stop being stubborn for Section 3 and just build a team that can truly work around this current section of the Railway. Here's hoping I finish this before the season ends. Until then, I'll see you all later.

[plsleafmelon]

HARDEST FUCKING FIGHTS OF MY LIFE WHAG THE HELL

[a-shrieking-cloud-of-bats]

some notes and suggestions on MD2 hard mode for people struggling with it;

- you are expected to lose clashes, the game up to this point has largely framed losing a clash as a freak accident. It Will Happen in MD2H and learning how to take these losses gracefully is important, in abnormality fights inparticular try to line up clashes you can’t beat with units that have a resistance to the enemy’s damage type, bonus points if their stagger resist is high, Meur is great for this as a lot of his IDs have a very generous starting stagger resist, usually around 60% as opposed to 75%, many shi IDs have good stagger resists as well. You can obviously do that in a non abnormality fight too, but you obviously have less options. Do your best, and remember defense dice exist, they have very generous rolls and can save you from a bad time sometimes, and block dice straight up reduce damage via a shield so they’re usually good.

- Do Not Use An EGO Just Because You’re Losing A Clash; this partially ties in to my above point, but if you’re using an EGO to avoid losing a clash that’s going to do like 2 damage because it’s 1 coin and the target has ineffective resist to the damage type and applies no status effects you’re wasting EGO resources that are going to be Very Valuable on the higher floors; most final MD2H bosses require some degree of EGO spam at this point, uptie 4 may change this. Again, Losing Clashes Is Okay; enemy attacks can be surprisingly ineffective in the right circumstances.

- EGO gift meta right now leans towards ego resource generation gifts and healing gifts; if you’re struggling healing gifts will give you much more wiggle room, homeward and phlebotomy pack are both extremely good, but any heals you can get are great. Other EGO gifts aren’t bad nessacerily but they’re obviously more comp dependent and often more reliant on winning clashes

- Stacking similar damage types and resists is a heavy risk, especially in your initial party. If you’re anything like me you have all 4 liu units built up, but if you take all 4 into your initial party and guido shows up on the first boss, he is going to turn you inside out. Him and his gang do mostly pierce damage, liu IDs are all fatal resist against pierce damage, and all his buddies roll extremely well and will roll extremely Better when they start dying; gregor and meur liu are basically useless in this scenario and they can’t even risk taking a losing clash because they’ll take boatloads of damage from basically anything they do. Crusaders might be weak to blunt, but that doesn’t mean they’re weak to liu.

- some ID/EGO suggestions: Base heathcliff is honestly surprisingly good, his sk2 and sk3 clash well in lower floors and he has a self power buff that can make them competitive even on higher floors. Lobotomy Corp Remnant faust was and still is among the best clashers in the game, she can neutral clash even some surprisingly big rolls in higher floors with opportunistic, and her sk2 shreds on lower floors. This is counterbalanced by her having maybe one of the worst sk1′s in the game, keep an eye out for skill swap machines with her face on em.

Shi don isn’t incredible for general use but overbreathe is an EGO tier coin that can help take some pressure off your EGO resource reserves.

R Heathcliff is as always decent, though he can struggle to clash sometimes (though not more then base heathcliff! would argue he’s always worth taking over base heath, though I’m still working with base heath, his self power buffs might end up making him clash better on higher floors)

Defensive IDs in general are helpful as they can usually take clashes more gracefully, meur is a surprisingly good sinner in general just because all his IDs are skewed towards being able to take shots; presumably K corp hong lu is a beast as usual but I don’t have him so I can’t confirm on how well he clashes.

If you have Fluid Sac Faust, it’s an excellent support EGO that is also an AoE; it’s the best of both worlds.

Pursuance is a targeted heal and can really save a sinner’s butt if they’re in trouble

AoE EGOs can be helpful in general for boss fights that summon adds; they’re also just good damage in general on non boss fights. Legerdemain continues to be extremely good.

MD2 Hard mode is mostly hard because the game up to this point hasn’t really been encouraging good play habits, I suspect as time goes on this content will get “solved”, but for now this stuff should help you out if you’re struggling to clear. As you get some of these habits into your system I suspect the content will get much easier to handle; again this is mostly just learning there’s more to the system then auto win and use ego when clash bad (I certainly know that’s how I was playing before MD2H).