Approaching the late game portion of Soul Hackers 2 isn’t quite the daunting prospect of a full SMT title, but it’s still filled with new and emerging threats that you must prepare for. Ailment-inducing attacks will be witnessed more frequently, enemies will take full advantage of party shields and buffs, and incoming damage ramps up pretty significantly. Gone now are the days of simply healing or blasting your way through encounters – you’ll need to pick your way through, and you’ll need a troop of versatile demons to assist you on your way.
Doppelganger
Alright, so the story throws this thing at you, and players will very obviously be able to see the benefit in fusing such a thing as soon as possible. We’ll certainly advocate getting a powerful magic using demon into the team, especially one with powerful all-targeting skills such as Mazoinga and Megidola, however these aren’t exactly exclusive to this particular demon, so why bother bringing this over another?
In short, Sabbath Drain is one of the best passives to have in your stock of demons. Taking advantage of pulling demon skills from your stock during a Sabbath, this passive really shouldn’t leave your team for the remainder of the game. It’ll often proc, dealing some additional damage to your opponents whilst simultaneously draining their MP. This is a fantastic boon to your team, especially during some of the longer and more arduous dungeon trips late on. Yes, you can simply teleport back to base to heal should the worst happen, but simply having this in stock will ensure that you last longer between trips!
Late Game Benefits
- Innately knows the medium Elec group skill Mazionga, and the medium Almighty spell Megidola, both of which deal considerable damage.
- Makarakarn and Concentrate are known, however these will likely see very little usage outside of some niche battles, though admittedly the former becomes more useful in the end/post game.
- The main event here is the Sabbath Drain skill, which has a chance to proc, dealing additional damage and stealing MP from your opponents.
- Needless to say, having access to Elec and Almighty makes this an ideal demon for Ringo. Hell, it is literally designed to mimic her, so it makes sense!
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Cu Chulainn
Generally speaking, late game demons require a little bit of work to optimise them for one particular party member. There might be a skill here or there that you’re not too fond of, or you might consider that they have something important missing, which invariably requires you to tinker to perfect. Finding a perfect specimen out of the box then, is something that should be cherished at this point in time, and a great example of this is Cu Chulainn, a demon that is perfectly suited to Saizo.
Force damage is covered with the heavy single target Zandyne, pierce damage thanks to Myriad Strikes, party support is provided by the attack & defence buffing War Cry skill, and it even comes with Sabbath Striker, which is one of the best and most frequently active passive Sabbath boosters! If you can append one more skill, like perhaps another weakness striking element of sorts, you have the perfect late game Saizo demon. It even completely nulls any incoming physical damage, which is actually very powerful, since late game opponents just love spamming group wide, high crit chance physical skills.
Late Game Benefits
- Myriad Strikes is a useful pierce attack that can deal great damage, though it will strike random targets.
- Zandyne provides some heavy force damage.
- Cu Chulainn learns War Cry at level 53, which is an amazing party buff that increases both attack and defence for three turns.
- It’ll also learn Sabbath Striker at level 55, which along with Drain is one of the best passive Sabbath skills in the game.
- One of the very best Saizo demons that’ll really help push him and your team through the late game. As you can see, we managed to squeeze a few additional elements onto ours, and it’s an absolute beast!
- Oh and, were this not enough for you, Cu Chulainn also nulls both types of incoming physical attacks!
Titania
Did we mention it was rare to stumble upon the perfect demon for a character? This may have been hyperbole, because this particular demon is absolutely perfect for the default party healer, Arrow. Yes we’re talking about Titania, another perennial favourite from the SMT series, and she provides everything your healer might need in the late game; full single target and party heals in Diarahan and Mediarahan, Bufudyne and Lullaby to target Ice and Dark respectively, and most importantly, complete defensive coverage from any possible incoming attack! The latter is achieved thanks to her repelling Force, Ice, Fire and Elec, completely nulling dark, and eventually patching up her innate weakness to physical by learning the Dodge Physical EX passive!
Late Game Benefits
- Titania has access to both single and group full heals, Diarahan and Mediarahan.
- Offence is covered by Bufudyne and Lullaby, which can target Ice and Dark weaknesses respectively.
- Titania repels Force, Elec, Fire and Ice, and at level 55 she will learn Dodge Physical EX, which patches up her only weakness.
- All of the above makes Titania the perfect late game healer, and an ideal accompaniment to the de facto Soul Hackers 2 healer, Arrow.
Yamata-no-Orochi
As fun as it might be targeting weaknesses, fusing for particular bosses, taking character tendencies and Mystiques into account and such, but don’t you just want to blast your enemies into dust with relative ease, sometimes? Enter Yamata-no-Orochi, otherwise known as the earliest demon that can access the passive, ‘Phys/Gun Pierce’, which is a passive skill that allows your gun or physical attacks to ignore any form of resistance outside of repel. Combine this with the already known Megaton Press, which is an all-targeting physical skill, and you have a demon that decimates HP bars no matter the battle!
Late Game Benefits
- The Phys/Gun Pierce passive is learned at level 56, which makes these damage types ignore any form of resistance apart from Repel.
- Combined with the above, the innately known Megaton Press will deal big damage to entire groups of enemies (though be careful with Rangda in the final zone).
- Also learns Static Rook Anaguma at level 57, which buffs the defence and agility of the entire party.
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Rangda
We should preface our final choice by noting that yes, having three elemental weaknesses such as Rangda does is a bit of a pain, however by the time you’re pushing through the late game, abusing Commander skills and thundering towards the NG+ content, you’ll care little for such things. Besides, what you’re really here for is the early access to the Debilitate skill, which applies all the debuffs to every enemy; attack, defence and agility.
Having such a skill available makes a big difference in the late game, and whilst you could argue that other skills provide two thirds of the same debuffs, nothing hits quite the same as stripping every stat away all at once. Happily, Rangda also provides great pierce type damage via Heaven’s Bow and Myriad Strikes, and even the Sabbath Bounty skill, which will be very useful when farming expensive items and upgrades, especially in the NG+ Soul Matrix.
Late Game Demons
- Rangda innately knows Debilitate, which applies attack, defence and agility debuffs to every enemy.
- Pierce type attacks Heaven’s Bow and Myriad Strikes will provide good damage too, though you may want to take a cue from our version and tailor it to one particular element too.
- Sabbath Bounty is great for late and post game farming, because it’ll steal money during a Sabbath.
- An ideal demon for assisting with the late game and transitioning into NG+.
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