SMT IV: Apocalypse - Sukuna-Hikona (Low Level, Apocalypse Difficulty, No Fusion)

Published 2021-02-08

Sukuna-Hikona? More like Sukunda-Hikona

Rules:
1. All forced battles are fought on Apocalypse difficulty.
2. Experience gain is minimized by only fighting forced battles and recruiting demons when necessary.
3. No fusing demons. Compendium usage is fair game.
4. No skill changes or using the Skill Plugin app.
5. No stat boosting items or apps, including Armor Boost Kits. (RIP my endgame +380 HP, +60 AG on Nanashi from Armor Boost Kits)

This battle, man. This one battle showcases so much about why I love Apocalypse. It's only the second major boss, and I was already forced to use every trick in the book in order to win. Actually, that's an understatement. I had to rewrite the entire goddamn book. Mastery of the basics, risk/reward assessment, attention to detail, strategizing creatively: this battle has it all.

There are a lot of reasons why this battle is ridiculously tough. First of all, there are no debuff skills available at level 15. Navarre has Rakukaja, but alone that's not enough to blunt Sukuna-Hikona's massive damage output with a traditional team setup. Healing is very scarce: Media isn't available, Apsaras is the only demon with Diarama, and Ox Bezoars (set 150 HP healing) aren't yet farmable. On top of all this, Sukuna-Hikona has two very powerful full-party attacks in Infernal Hail and Needlestorm. They each do about 115 damage to every target without buffs and no resistance to ice or force, and he uses one of them every turn. Furthermore, Infernal Hail has an added Sukunda effect, and Needlestorm has a chance of dazing targets. It all seems to add up to an impossibly difficult challenge, but it's winnable with the correct strategy.

There are a few keys to victory. The first is his weakness to sickness, which reduces his damage output by 25% and his evasion to 0%. This is a requirement both defensively and offensively, since there is no other way to counter Infernal Hail's Sukunda effect. The problem is, there are only two skills that inflict sickness: Cough and Tetanus Cut. Cough is only learned by Garrote and, ironically, cannot be whispered to Nanashi (I wonder if they'll change that in SMT V, huh?). Tetanus Cut can be whispered to Nanashi from Jack the Ripper, but the problem is I'm using sickness so I can actually hit him to begin with, and Tetanus Cut needs to actually connect to inflict sickness. This means the only viable strategy is to switch in Garrote every time Sukuna-Hikona uses Posumudi, then switch him out at the end of every turn. It seems inefficient, but Garrote is the greatest asset to the team in this fight and must be protected at all costs.

The problem that really stumped me for a while was Infernal Hail and Needlestorm. Mermaid is the only demon that resists both elements, so those moves deal a ton of damage to everyone else. After several failures, I realized that he actually alternated between the two every turn instead of using them randomly. That's when I came up with the idea to swap out my demons every turn so I'd always have the correct resistance to his attacks. Traditional SMT logic dictates that it's usually foolish to sacrifice buffs to swap demons, but the amount of damage reduced from resistances goes much further than buffs. Alternatively, demons with high HP can be used to tank the hits, after which they can be swapped out for a new demon without healing.

Aside from these two major strategy points, there are a few other tips that can make the battle easier. Using Rakukaja in the first round, coupled with constantly switching demons in and out, will lock Navarre into using Rakukaja the entire battle. Secondly, Oni-Kagura and Lunge are very useful in this fight. Normally, they're unreliable due to their high miss rate, but since attacks have 100% accuracy on sick enemies, they become valuable for their high critical rate. Finally, it's important to ignore Sukuna-Hikona in the dialogue option. The other two options increase his attack by 20%, which can be devastating and is not worth the Assist Gauge increase.

While it is possible to reach Sukuna-Hikona at level 14, I think that it's probably impossible to beat him without Apsaras. Healing only with Dia would be ridiculous, since Sukuna-Hikona's damage output is overwhelming. Napaea could serve as an inferior substitute for Mermaid, but her ice resistance is actually closer to neutrality because it's a product of the Ice Resist skill covering up an ice weakness. Her agility is also higher than Garrote's, which negatively affects the turn order. Finally, the Magic Mirror I used on King Frost could be useful if Infernal Hail was reflected, which would apply Sukunda to Sukuna-Hikona, but I'm not sure how much that would help either. In any case, I reached level 15 by recruiting demons as I would normally, so I'm giving myself a pass here in terms of rule compliance.

@Bucketgetter 3 years ago

No one predicted Sukuna-Hikona as a potential roadblock in my Adramelech video, but this battle was honestly more difficult than any of the main story battles in my SMT IV run. I’d say it’s on par with some of the IV low-level fiend battles that I did. Additionally, I think it’s probably impossible to win at level 14. I went back and tried a few times immediately after fighting Ose without recruiting other demons, and I couldn’t even make it to the halfway point. Infernal Hail and Needlestorm are absolutely brutal when the only available healing option is Dia, and the users of that are very limited as well.

Garrote’s agility is suspiciously high for a man bound to an execution chair

@GrandBenja 3 years ago

I would like to thank you for the detailed descriptions. These are even more interesting than the videos themselves.

@NIHIL_EGO 2 years ago

Imagine being a great Japanese folk hero, with the very important mission of guarding the seal keeping in check the Avatar of the God of Destruction and dying because you got hit by a raccoon dog's 12 feet scrotum.

@totaldestruction152 3 years ago

This fight was the moment I knew I'd enjoy Apocalypse. It's perfect in terms of difficulty. (In a normal playthrough anyway. It looks pretty rough here.)

@Benjamin-ml7sv 2 years ago

Meanwhile I can't even beat him with Fusion.

@YurificationTrademark 2 years ago

I came back from about fifty attempts of dying from this fight I had to redo the entire run. He's too hard and even with resist Ice from Napaea fused onto demons that are already resisting Force, I couldn't beat him. And I'm still amazed at how you were able to defeat him with these restrictions...

@toshiyoshikage689 2 years ago

I remember beating him on my first try and god damn was it a ugly fight but I’d be lying if I was said it wasn’t one of the most fun bosses I’ve ever fought