Made a lot of progress over the last week, so quite a few updates needed - big post incoming!
Got four new records: MD5 (50 military enemies w/ Rachel) - 1,086,280 (132k ET/UTs, 24.6k essence, 207 secs and ~60 percent health); DotF3 (Tank) - 965,437 (232k ET/UTs [1 ET and 46 UTs], 3.5k essence, 551 secs and ~80 percent health); CG2 (Alma) - 607,492 (56k ET/UTs, 5.5k essence, 265 secs and ~50 percent health); Eternal Legend - 13,082,725 (Phase 1: 414k; Phase 2: 1271k; Phase 3: 2930k; Phase 4: 4864k; Phase 5: 5233k).
Not a lot to say about MD5 - generally speaking, prioritise UTs over essence, but collect any 'extra' UT'd essence where possible (particularly from Mechanised Vigoorian Infantry/RL guys). Use Rachel's roll-over move to charge UTs from single yellow essence drops - you can time roll-overs when other enemies are just about to reload to avoid being knocked out of your charging before reaching full UT status).
DotF3 obviously makes use of the getting-the-tank-stuck trick to charge UF UTs from behind the slanted wall. I've only ever managed to get 220k worth of UT points from the tank (44 UTs) - in Dark Hazuki's 936k run on NGB on YT, 47 UTs and 2 ETs are achieved with the UF despite his health being lower than mine towards the end of the mission, so maybe there is an ever-so-slight difference in base damage output from the UF between NGB and NGS
For the minions, I use wind path to stun one of the commando fiends in each wave, deal with the other, then UT the remaining one and collect the essence - you don't want to stray too far out from the wall adjacent to the tank otherwise it may start moving again.
CG2 - Dabilahro UTs. Nuff said
You can make contact with the UT when she dives towards you and also when she starts launching the pillars at you (don't release too early or she'll cancel her attack before it has started, similarly don't release too late or from too far away). Collect blue cat fiend and armoured/slider fiend essence, especially if you can't guarantee that using it will secure a UT that makes contact.
EL - After watching Kell's unreal 13.7M run on NGB (seriously check that out on YT if you haven't already), I felt compelled to go back to EL, despite the Marbus Marathon giving me PTSD
I only had 12.395 before, so getting 13M has boosted my total karma score a fair bit
The run itself was pretty sloppy in places tbh (definitely didn't get 50 UTs on hydracubus, more like 40
and only got 28 UTs on Ishtaros in Phase 5), but got a fairly decent Phase 4 to make up for it. A few things make EL in Sigma feel a bit trickier in places, like not being able to use the birds for blue essence for UTs and to regain lost health in Phase 1, not to mention the aim of that archer with Masakado
, and the consequences of the altered backwards/sideways roll animations in the Hydracubus fight. Was pretty happy with 414k in Phase 1 - if it were NGB, you'd be looking at 420k+ really for a serious karma run, but just making the time limit in the Masakado fight in Sigma is difficult. Didn't get the kill bonus for the last two enemies in the Dynamo fight at the end of Phase 2, and while I had a decent result farming the bugs in Phase 3, other parts of that Phase, including Yotunfrau and the zombies, were far, far from perfect. Phase 4 went pretty well, particularly the Marbus marathon (think I managed 46 UTs and 4 ETs in that fight) and managed to keep my talisman too, which I never expected
Phase 5 could definitely be better, so may well return to that in future.
Also improved a couple of records and other scores: PotMN1 - 763,295 (89k ET/UTs, 18.7k essence, 177 secs, ~60 percent health and 24 enemies) (missed one UT in the first set of four enemies, but otherwise virtually a perfect run for 24 enemies); NP3 - 1,825,715 (210k ET/UTs, ~69k essence, 380 secs and ~35 percent health) (finally broke 1.8M on this mission, really tough to even get to the end when playing for karma what with the monk fiends and commando fiends shredding your heath and snuffing your UT setups
I did have a run on target for 1.85-86M, with 194k at 78c, but got killed
); AL1 - 1,037,725 (245k UTs [49], ~5.8k essence, 820 secs and ~50 percent health; last 'chuk UT didn't count as it was the very last of Smaugan's HP, otherwise would've been 1051k
); GotU1 - 795,380 (85k ET/UTs, 143 secs and ~70 percent health; really want to get the perfect 800-805k on this mission but setting up the lunar-WS ETs can waste a lot of time if the clone doesn't cooperate); GotU2 - 567,330 (51k ET/UTs + DDB UT'd essence w/ AoC, 160 secs and ~40% health; 570-580k would be nice here). I also FINALLY managed to do UC4 (Nicchae/Ishtaros w/ Rachel) using just the 4 small elixirs, giving 550,047 (1 UT, ~160 secs and ~5 percent health left after using the small elixirs) - had about three runs before this where I got down to just Ishtaros left and she kept double bluffing me with her knee/stomp move and catching me in my roll recovery. Really, really pleased with this, as you definitely need a lot of luck to get Nicchae to keep looping her dive, but also know how to properly time the wall attacks and use Rachel's evasive moves (her sideways twirl and backstep dodge have a lot of i-frames and great recovery, but her forward roll is dreadful). lslsama most likely only used two or three small elixirs for that 587k record run, which is just insane on this mission.
Totals: 59,425,069
and 60,219,131
- just got the new record for CG5 (50 ninjas/samurai/mages w/ Rachel) with 1,092,517 (119k ET/UTs, 31,502 essence, 172 secs and ~50 percent health). You set a high bar on that one JTB, got 1071k, 1074k and 1075k before I got that score, painful haha. I can relax now - totals: 58,401,329 and, finally, 60,013,468 
