[TAS] Pokemon Conquest in

[@DyllonStejGaming]

Actually managed to complete a TAS of this unlike my last attempt six months ago, despite once again encountering a (smaller) amount of conflicts with routing in TAS vs RTA. Self-admittedly rushed near the end, contemplating if I should submit to TASVideos. Pokemon Conquest is a tactical RPG crossover with the Nobunaga's Ambition series, released for the Nintendo DS in 2012. The primary fights are played out in a grid-based system, similar to a certain other game series, with the standard Pokemon rules of type effectiveness, damage rolls, and crits (among other things) thrown in to shake things up. Outside of battle, you're tasked with overseeing your ever-growing army of kingdoms, defending from invaders, finding other warlords to recruit, and so on. Naturally, a TAS of this game throws the expected balance out the window with practically guaranteed crits, AI manipulation, and making counterintuitive plays to save some more turns. TAS Notes - General Routing The overarching route to the speedrun involves building up an army with the best Pokemon while minimizing unnecessary recruits. The Player's Eevee and Oichi's Jigglypuff are mandatory members, and the remaining four slots change throughout the run. In terms of permanent recruits, Rikyuu's Darumaka is recruited just after the Ignis fight, as it and its evolution are very powerful. Yoshihiro's Gurdurr is a strong midgame unit that hard counters Cragspur and assists in many others. Masatoyo's Drilbur (And Excadril later on) sees small but crucial usage in areas like Dragnor. Lastly, Kenshin's Gallade is chosen over Shingen's Rhyperior for being a much more consistent damage dealer and utility in his Warrior Skill. Temporary recruits include Motoharu's Pansage (Hard counters Fontaine, good early-game unit in other kingdoms) and Takamoto's Sewaddle (Used to press a switch and do some shopping without needing to advance a month) - The Beginning The Date and Time was adjusted so that Rikyuu could be encountered without needing to advance any extra months (As another Warrior with a Charmander also has a chance to spawn in). Evidently, this date also caused a travelling merchant to stop by far into the run, so a better date would need to be found that doesn't have that. - Aurora The tutorial fight. You can skip the Pokemon intro animations by mashing. It varies whether it's faster to move a unit by pressing on the D-Pad or by touching the intended square with the touchscreen, depending on lag. - Wild Fight 1 The locations these Pokemon spawn in alongside their energy levels can be modified by waiting before the battle starts. I wait a turn to lure them in, and then finish both of them with Eevee with the help of a crit and Eevee's Celebrate ability (Allows an extra movement if an enemy is defeated) - Wild Fight 2 Goes to the waterfall location instead of the grasslands like RTA because the enemy spawn locations allow a double kill without needing Top Speed to reach them (Which wastes time) - Ignis Warlord and Warrior energy changes once every three months. Change ranges from -1 to +1, and total energy ranges from -2 to +2. I prioritize getting energy increases on my own army before trying to additionally manipulate energy decreases on the enemy. In the fight itself, I bait Hideyoshi's Chimchar into moving near me, and finish him off in one turn. I then get Jigglypuff to take out a Tepig, and have Eevee finish off the Bidoof. - Rikyuu Recruit Energy and spawn location behaves identically to Wild Pokemon. Darumaka needs to be at -1 in order for a crit Tackle to kill, and time is spent waiting before the fight so Top Speed again doesn't need to be used. - Greenleaf Enemy movement is manipulated so that I don't get attacked once in the whole fight. Saves a bunch of time over RTA due to dialogue and other things being skipped. It was a coincidence that Pansage was at +2 (Couldn't visibly manipulate it), but it works out since it's recruited. - Fontaine Pansage solos. - Violight Takamoto is used to buy five Power Wristbands (Increases attack by 50%), betrayed, and then left in Fontaine as the rest of the gang goes to Violight (Saves 3.5 seconds from not needing to advance a month). Eevee, Pansage, and Darumaka get them equipped. RTA recruits Starly here, but it was found to be about a minute slower in TAS. Standard business of enemy manips, crits, and positioning. - Chrysalia The lack of a Starly here means the fight is completed about 20 seconds slower than the old TAS WIP, but a great deal of time is still saved because pre-fight setup is severely reduced. Only bringing in the necessary units also gives those units more EXP (As a given amount is distributed to fewer units, meaning each unit gets more). In the fight itself, I have Darumaka take out the Pokemon on the left, move Eevee over to the right, and have Pansage and Eevee take out the other side. The Pokemari balls are hit only when necessary, as they take time. - Pugilis Another Banner stage, where the win condition is holding all four banners for five turns. It's much faster to just eliminate the opposing army in less than five turns and automatically win. Eevee, Darumaka, and Pansage do the share of fighting, while Jigglypuff moves over to the Fight Bell to give the team an attack boost. Eevee is made sure to knock out Gurdurr, as Warlords can only be recruited if they're knocked out by other Warlords (Standard Warriors don't count). AI is manipulated so they're spaced out in a way that they can't gang up on me. - Pugilis 2 We now have Gurdurr, and promptly equip a Power Wristband on him (And unequp the one on Pansage, as it's no longer used for attacking). Despite encountering a hiccup in routing due to the enemy moving first here, I was still able to get through this stage quickly. I make sure to not hit Tepig and Charmander into Blaze, as that wastes time with the ability activation text.

[@Dingus_Mcbingused]

this game really needs a sequel it was really fun

[@DyllonStejGaming]

[TAS NOTES PART 2] - Terrera Another Banner stage that's completed as quickly as possible. Manipulated AI movement so Masatoyo's Drilbur moves to the right spot, where it proceeds to be one-shot by Gurdurr as it moves up to grab the banner. Shingen is required to be recruited to advance the story, so he's swapped with Kenshin as soon as possible. The remaining Power Wristbands are equipped, and the army promptly moves on to conquer more kingdoms. - Cragspur Everyone splits up to take out a set of enemies. The Boldore has Sturdy, which means Gurdurr can't one-shot it; Eevee needs to assist with a Tackle in order for Sturdy to break. If Darumaka killed both the Machop and the Larvitar, it would get enough EXP to evolve to Darmanitan, but it results in a slower fight and isn't even needed because the next kingdom is a Banner Grab mission where Darumaka doesn't even move. After the fight, Keiji stops by and gives us three elemental stones, which brings up the question of which Eeveelution is best for the run. Not straying from RTA like before, Jolteon is still the best one to use, with its high movement, ranged and multihit attack of Thunderbolt, and tremendous speed that increases crit chance a small amount. So, Eevee gets a Thunderstone equipped. - Viperia The aforementioned Banner Grab stage. Eevee uses its 4-movement to get to the left side of the screen, while Gallade and Gurdurr aim for the right and center banners. Copius amounts of AI manip were needed so the opposing army didn't completely block their path to the center banner. It was faster for Gurdurr to slap Zubat away than for Gallade to kill it. Eevee and Darumaka evolve at the same time here (With Darumaka evolving two kingdoms before RTA), which ends up breaking the next two kingdoms apart. Darmanitan gets a massive power boost and a seven-tile area of effect attack in Fire Blast which crushes almost everything. - Yaksha Jolteon takes the left, while Darmanitan takes the right. It turns out that critical hits bypass the defense boost given from a Defense Wristband (Which Kotaroo's Zoroark is holding), which makes it appear that Thunderbolt is dealing 3x damage with a crit instead of 2x. With Darmanitan, I manipulate two crits in a single Fire Blast, which kills the Krokorok and Pawniard while weakening Scrafty enough for a High Jump Kick miss to finish it off. - Avia Jolteon and Darmanitan once again teaming up to lay waste to Masamune's army (One Winged Angel menacingly plays in the distance). Drilbur evolves into Excadril at this point, where Dig is replaced with Drill Run (Higher power, high critical hit ratio which helps manipulate crits earlier due to them happening more often). - Spectra Easily the most frustrating kingdom to work with thanks to the Misdreavus statues. I found that the amount that moves in the first turn is seeded on the frame before you start the fight, so I wait a fair bit on Noo's last dialogue box for a one-statue move to happen. Where they actually move to (And whether one more actually moves) is manipulated in the battle itself, so I make sure none impede my progress. - Valora Severe space restrictions mean the same number of turns is taken here in comparison to RTA, but time is still saved due to spending much less on my own turns (Only using a combination of Jolteon, Darmanitan, and Excadril to take out the opposing army) - Nixtorm I use Jigglypuff to destroy a tree that's blocking Gurdurr's path, and Darmanitan to destroy an icicle that blocks Jolteon's path to the enemy. I'm able to get Jolteon all the way to the other side and blitzkreig the enemy on the first turn, but am unable to destroy Lapras with a crit due to its ability nullifying crits anyway. I settle for getting Paralysis so Lapras can't use its turn anyway. I manipulate the AI so they all line up for two Thunderbolts to finish them off. - Dragnor More AI manipulation to keep them spread apart. Gallade, Jolteon, Excadril, and Darmanitan are all used at varying points to destroy Nobunaga's army within a few turns. - Infinite Tower I need to wait a slight amount so Jolteon spawns in the correct spot, so I can use Courage and reach Arceus on Turn 1 to Link with it. Linking with Wild Pokemon is nothing more than a button pressing minigame, which is trivial in a TAS sense. Nobunaga then shows up for Round 2, which I take out again using a combination of Darmanitan to Fire Blast the left side, Arceus to pass Judgement on these sinners and finish them off (Accidentally getting two crits at once, nullifying the point of bringing Gurdurr over), and Gallade to take out the stragglers on the right. Possible timesave includes RNG in general (Waiting for it less, understanding it better), and different movement choices that could possibly lead to more turns saved.

[@Kaleforce]

Nice run! At 49:54, would it have saved a slight bit of time if Darmanitan went onto the tile without an item on it before using Fire Blast, or was it necessary for rng purposes?

[@parkerspeedy2]

theres no words to put into place how excited it makes me to see a Conquest TAS

[@zorquil]

Ah yes. The TAS where poor Oichi never truly battles. Just hangs in the back until taking a flag or clearing a path. RIP Oichi.

[@DyllonStejGaming]

At least she gets the chance to take out Koroku's Tepig, while the RTA route just makes sure she doesn't even get the privilege of a single KO.

[@Chowman741]

​@@DyllonStejGaming oh oh na

[@maxfecteau]

I had no idea this game existed until I saw this. How come a game this badass isn’t talked about?

[@Latias38]

Def a heavily underrated spin off that came out during the gen 5 era, but if I were to guess its prob a one off spin off title that is pretty easy. More likely though is that it prob gets overshadowed by PMD EoS in terms of discussion.

[@boonkunak]

heck yeah, been waiting for this TAS. Gonna set aside some time for this one, should be good.

[@katacutie]

I adore this game, always great to see that it still has a community!

[@mdudegamer]

Ah, good memories. I still think about the steel-type music every now and then, it was super catchy.

[@Designated_loser]

I FUCKING LOVE THIS GAME

[@Russom5428Russo]

You’re amazing! More importantly, can you please do a 100% Subspace Emissary TAS with No Damage next?

[@KimeramonRocks]

no bunga's sister is pretty cute not gonna lie

[@valmanway1844]

The thumbnail is funny

[@mochalettuce8490]

I cant count the hours I spent playing this game as a kid (never did 100% it because ffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck that) so seeing TAS demolish it in just over an hour is terrifying. Is there anywhere I can find an RTA run or the RTA route itself?

[@DyllonStejGaming]

There is a speedrun.com page about the game, a few guides, and a handful of runners on the leaderboard www.speedrun.com/pkmnconquest

[@mochalettuce8490]

@@DyllonStejGaming How odd, I thought of checking there after making this comment but I couldnt actually find the game there. Very cool, thank u

[@Zwyrx_Hgqfyggz]

Jigglypuff wins by doing absolutely nothing

[@ruthkatz1998]

Played this just today

[@tonyhoang987]

How is RNG seeded in this game? I noticed in your comment that the Midreavus statues are based on the last frame before the fight and i was wondering about the crits, accuracy, and ai

[@DyllonStejGaming]

Crits and accuracy are seeded per frame, on a global timer independent of move order (So sometimes it's faster to move to another unit that has a crit frame closer in time) The AI movement is also seeded per frame, but only affects movement of the Pokemon after the one that's about to move, only the first time they move in general (So, the first one is manipped from the Enemy Turn textbox, the second one from the first one's movement, etc). On their second turn onward, it's technically seeded on the frame you close the Enemy Turn textbox since you're usually unable to delay it after that, unless another textbox pops up.

[@tonyhoang987]

@DyllonStejGaming is the frame that seeds crits and accuracy the last one before you confirm the attack?

[@Quintruple]

Pokmeon???

[@DyllonStejGaming]

Minor spelling mistake, I lose (fixed)

[@MashupProductions22]

I never heard of this game Was this on DS?

[@UCDitto]

Yes

[@machineheadslump]

I released around the time of soulsilver iirc

[@GenericGMR]

Yep! It’s absolutely worth trying if you have the time and are interested in this style of gameplay.

[@Trimint123]

If you ever played something like the Final Fantasy Tactics or any Fire Emblem games, then this may be up on your ally.

[@Hadaron]

@@machineheadslump Actually, it released much later. I remember having a 3DS when I got Conquest, and it had Gen V Pokémon in the dex so it couldn’t be around Gen IV anyway.

[@Elizabeth-by7gz]

:)

[@Dual_Flame]

first