How to deal with futile resistance

[xcapibara]

on a maxed diamond big band with 50% defense?

 

[TonyPartridge30]

Most simplistic is to use a really high ATK fighter. Fighters with higher damage per hit values are obviously better than fighters who throw out a bunch of hits in a combo. If fighting a Resonant Evil or the natural diamond Big Band, then you may consider using someone that can apply Curse first to prevent those Armor stacks. Bleed could be helpful but maybe not so reliably since most Bleed applications will probably get you hurt against Futile Resistance. Xenomorph could be very useful, depending on the other catalyst effects and reserve defense fighters.

 

[xcapibara]

I did; i used my strongest atk char (a primed parasoul) and got killed by reflection. Bleed filia died by reflection before aplying much bleed. Xeno died to reflection (couple of grabs while trying to doom) and chip damage.

That catalyst is ridiculously broken!

 

[TonyPartridge30]

I did; i used my strongest atk char (a primed parasoul) and got killed by reflection. Bleed filia died by reflection before aplying much bleed. Xeno died to reflection (couple of grabs while trying to doom) and chip damage.

That catalyst is ridiculously broken!

It sounds like the defender was smart and put a lot of points into their big band’s HP stat. Ultimately it means you need a fighter with more attack to deal with something like that. Or, you need fighters who can survive while applying alternate methods of killing. futile resistance reflects a max of 6% max health as damage. That means it would take more than a couple grabs with xenomorph before the catalyst alone killed you. You must have gotten hit with something else, or just got really unlucky with the elemental shifting (which can happen, Xeno is a coin toss in effectiveness). If chip damage was killing her then give her more HP and defense or block proficiency to compensate.

 

[Disasterrr19]

I only faced this catalyst a couple of times and it's a hard one to deal with! Both times I managed to win with Bloodbath, but you should play in a specific way.

Only use 3 BBs - Sekhmet's Turn, Sekhmet's Bite and Nekhbet Breaker. Khepri Sun and BB3 will kill you on spot. You can put a couple of one-hit specials, but I did not use them. Generate meter by using D2 attacks - they are usually damaging enough to deal more than 1% of Big's health. You are still going to suffer chip damage and possibly some backfire from Sekhmet's Turn (your least damaging BB), but with constant regen on your side you'll be able to recover while your opponent bleeds to death. Occasional armors from RE or HM could be dealt with by using Chaos Banish or Nekhbet.

Obviously, this won't work if you're dealing with Immunity node, but I have yet to face this challenge in the future...

 

[Shambles88]

Obviously, this won't work if you're dealing with Immunity node, but I have yet to face this challenge in the future...

I would say that xeno is the best option in there, you will lose the bonus for the BB finish, but you will clear the node.

Another way to go is to have a good diamond that do extra damage based on something else, like Toad Warrior and her DaF, or some Pultergust with drag and drop and daisy pusher, or a Brain Freeze. Also you can use Bio or AssG to diminish the HP without hiting the Big Band

 

[qlimax]

in my experience, squigly doesnt really work against a well invested futilenode. Her individual attacks dont do enough dmg and you end up killing yourself quite quickly. best characters are cerebella and parasoul imo. however i usually use my flytrap (im aware not everyone has one but buzzkill is a good budget version of her too) and just throw into pinion dash. combine that with a harley in the back which boosts special move dmg + cooldown and you can kill a fully setup RE in like 3 throws (maybe i should mention that my flytrap has almost 30k dmg, so it might be more if you dont have your move upgraded but its a pretty decent method). Just remember to never EVER just juggle with painwheel against futile ^^

Harley is definitely the most accessible character that has a good chance of getting through the node without killing herself. just merry-gorilla into battlebutt constantly and you should get em eventually. it also helps that bigband bas a THICC hitbox so merry gorilla is easy to land.

I dont have a xeno so i dont know by first hand experience how easy it is do it but from what ive seen it works pretty well if you invested in her defense so she doesnt get chipped to death.

 

[Yomady]

Life saver at one hp can always bring vital

Kamikaze with Painwheel + Valentine? Laugh in a sense with that as it's very risky.

 

[Kurokazeee]

I have found futile to be more of a damage per hit check as some others have already said.

lets go to the extreme:
Heavy Metal lvl 60 89k hp base
lets put him on the boss node and have +200% hp from moves which is already nigh impossible. this gives an effective ~540 k hp. so you need to do >6k damage per hit after defense and armor etc.

lets make it even harder and assume autoimmune and frost armor, so you cant use sketchy curse and armor procs very very often.

so this leaves you with hard hitting attackers only. but even in such an extreme case it is still quite easily possible.

1) Harlequin or Toad with special cooldown, piercing reaching 50% allows for infinite merry gorilla and battle butt. if those moves are lvl 12, you will definitely do more than 6k damage per move.
2) Summer salt or primed. Because they can crit for 50k or higher with their crit damage marquee. Couple that with ssalt free precision you will be fine.
3) Twisted mettle (my favorite counter). Use grudge and let the big bands hit you. their combos are long and you will easily get 3 armor or more which means zero damage received. plus if they are that tanky, their att and piercing stat is probably low. 4 crits received is enough for 4x 15s bleed which is enough to bring them below 50% hp and nullify the futile cata.

Harle, Toad, Twisted Mettle and Primed are quite accessible characters, so no complaints justified there on futile being impossible to beat. Tough definitely, but not impossible.

 

[Blimeylimey]

I have found futile to be more of a damage per hit check as some others have already said.

lets go to the extreme:
Heavy Metal lvl 60 89k hp base
lets put him on the boss node and have +200% hp from moves which is already nigh impossible. this gives an effective ~540 k hp. so you need to do >6k damage per hit after defense and armor etc.

lets make it even harder and assume autoimmune and frost armor, so you cant use sketchy curse and armor procs very very often.

so this leaves you with hard hitting attackers only. but even in such an extreme case it is still quite easily possible.

1) Harlequin or Toad with special cooldown, piercing reaching 50% allows for infinite merry gorilla and battle butt. if those moves are lvl 12, you will definitely do more than 6k damage per move.
2) Summer salt or primed. Because they can crit for 50k or higher with their crit damage marquee. Couple that with ssalt free precision you will be fine.
3) Twisted mettle (my favorite counter). Use grudge and let the big bands hit you. their combos are long and you will easily get 3 armor or more which means zero damage received. plus if they are that tanky, their att and piercing stat is probably low. 4 crits received is enough for 4x 15s bleed which is enough to bring them below 50% hp and nullify the futile cata.

Harle, Toad, Twisted Mettle and Primed are quite accessible characters, so no complaints justified there on futile being impossible to beat. Tough definitely, but not impossible.

Just a word of caution: high piercing against Frost Armor often results in major loss of life.

 

[.Ron]

I mostly use my Double (either Jawbreaker or Doublicious) against futile nodes and just spam grab followed by luger replica and get them below 50% before starting to hit them with long combos, works really well specially if you pair her with Peashooter, this one is optional but you could also add Harlequinn for the additional special move damage boost.

 

[Arkantos]

There is another option that works very well since FR was nerfed: Thrill Shrieker. It's a special Squigly variant, so not everyone will have access to her. Basically, if you can charge her up and then force a tag out, it cuts the opponent's current HP in half.

I've stacked mine up with four tag-out moves, so I can use her SA to knock down Big Band's health to a safe place before tagging in a better fighter.