Progressing into the mid game portion of Soul Hackers 2, your party of summoners is likely to encounter some new difficulties. Debuffs, excessive ailments and enemies with no weaknesses will all present themselves with startling regularity, making it critical that you have the tools available to deal with such things. We noted in our Early Demons article that anybody can grab some powerful elemental demons, so at this point in the game we’re starting to look for some really remarkable specimens, and the following five are those that we believe truly fit the bill.
Setanta
Having a demon that can shred through regular encounters is always a good idea in SMT games, and for the mid game of Soul Hackers 2, Setanta is ideal. His combination of strong group physical skills and complete immunity to incoming slash or pierce attacks make him a great candidate for pushing through dungeon battles. His high Strength will ensure that big chunks of damage are being pushed out, and he can even buff the offence of the entire team with Tarukaja, which ensures that he is useful against enemies with physical resistances. Attach him to either Ringo or Milady and spam Atom Slicer or Rampage until your opponents fold.
Mid Game Benefits
- Innately knows the powerful group physical skills Atom Slicer and Rampage, which are great for taking down large groups of opponents.
- Also knows Tarukaja, the full party attack buff.
- Resistant to both forms of incoming physical damage, which becomes a lot more prevalent in the mid game.
- Fuse some Fire skills onto him, pictured above, and he’ll be an ideal demon for the standard Milady build.
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Principality
Whilst we did end our early game article by recommending a healer – Leanan Sidhe to be exact – the mid game will eventually herald the requirement for more health restoration. There’s only so much work a basic Media can do after all, especially when copious amounts of enemies are now throwing out painful group physical skills. That being the case, you’re going to want to upgrade to the next level of party healing as soon as possible, and the best option for this is the Principality demon.
Said improved healing is mainly provided by Principality learning Mediarama at level 35, which is the medium group healing spell. This will easily manage to heal your entire team through almost all encounters in the mid game, and if you can slot some elemental skills in there, it’ll make an ideal demon for either Saizo or Arrow. It helps that Principality also knows Blast Arrow, which is a powerful group pierce attack, which is again suited to the duo. As you can see, we opted for some force skills with ours, and it occupied a slot with Saizo for a great deal of time in the 30-40 level range.
Mid Game Benefits
- Principality learns Mediarama at level 35, which is the medium group heal, and along with the Kinnamon demon, it’s the earliest opportunity to gain access to this.
- For mana conserving situations, Principality also knows the light group healing version, Media.
- You’ll also gain access to the medium single target fire skill Agilao, the Me Lourdes skill, which cleanses the Poison, Paralysis, Dread and Bomb ailments, and even the Blast Arrow pierce attack.
- Given a Force or Ice attack, this is a fantastic demon for either Saizo or Arrow. As you can see, we opted for the former.
Vasuki
Having read about Soul Hackers 2 a great deal, the community sentiment is that Arrow is really weak compared to the other party members. We will admit that, in the early-to-mid game portions of the game at least, this does feel quite true. Healing isn’t up to scratch, unless you’ve picked up our prior choice, and his damage just feels underwhelming. So, how could we go about remedying this fact?
Enter Visuki, the mid game Ice and Pierce specialist. It’s unapologetically simple here – you get good ice skills in Bufula and Mabufula, and the powerful pierce skills of Stun Needle, Blast Arrow and Needle Rush. If you can manage to squeeze a healing spell in there, like we have in our picture, then you have a great all round demon to keep Arrow relevant in the mid game.
Mid Game Benefits
- Access to the medium Ice spells Bufula and Mabufula.
- Great repertoire of pierce skills. Needle Rush is a strong single target attack, Stun Arrow is slightly weaker but features a high chance of paralysis, and Blast Arrow deals big damage to all enemies.
- Fuse yourself a healing spell into place, or indeed any type of support or damage skills, and you have the ideal mid game Arrow demon.
Sudama
You know, sometimes it’s just nice to feel overpowered in a game. Lording it over any and every enemy you meet, destroying them with your powerful attacks, taking little damage and disappearing off into the sunset can be a great feeling. Of course, SMT games rarely allow you to partake of this feeling, however we do feel that fusing a Sudama towards the end of the mid game is about as close as you can get in Soul Hackers 2.
All of this comes down to the very early access to Fog Breath, which is a skill that debuffs both the attack and agility of every enemy for three rounds. Now, this isn’t quite the full deck provided by Debilitate, however causing every enemy to deal less damage and miss more frequently is absolutely incredible at this point. Technically Sudama has a pierce and force skill as standard too, but who cares about all of that – use Fog Breath, as much as you can, and enjoy feeling uneatable for a while.
Mid Game Benefits
- Innately knows Fog Breath, which is an incredible skill that debuffs both the attack and agility of every enemy. This is as close as you’ll get to an ‘easy mode’ cheat in the mid game of SH2, and you should use and abuse it as much as possible.
- Technically speaking, Sudama having access to Zandyne and Blast Arrow makes it ideally suited to a standard Saizo build, however you absolutely must get Fog Breath in your arsenal, so throw it on another character if needed.
- If you can get your hands on a demon with Bloodlust (Unicorn is an easy example of this), then you can buff your party with the opposite to these debuffs, which completely shifts the tide in difficult battles.
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Surt
Recent converts to the Shin Megami Tensei ways will likely recognise this chunky lad, because he blocks your route into the late game of SMT5, requiring you to defeat him before progression is allowed. Veterans of the series however, are already all too aware of his power, especially when he’s in your hands rather than the opponents, which is thankfully the case here.
Unlike in other games however, here Surt sacrifices his physical skills in favour of pure fire damage prowess, which he excels in by having access to both of the heavy fire skills, Agidyne and Maragidyne. Alone these are very powerful, but the real draw here is the Roar skill, which debuffs both the attack and defence of all enemies at the same time. This is a wonderful skill for its availability time, and until it’s usurped by the true end game debuffs, this should be an essential skill to keep in your repertoire.
Mid Game Benefits
- Surt learns Roar at level 46, which is a skill that applies both attack and defence debuffs to every enemy, which is a must in any difficult battle.
- Both the single and group target heavy Fire skills are available, Agidyne and Maragidyne.
- Well suited for a standard fire built Milady, though you will want to fuse in some physical skills if possible.
- Alternatively, and perhaps more appropriately given the higher magic power of Surt, you can slot an Elec skill in somewhere and create a powerful Fire/Elec/Debuff demon for Ringo.
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