The Mad Rat’s Lab

“Hello everyone! We are back from the publicity and ready to talk about the first Boss! Let me introduce Mandingo who’s going to be commenting with me this second part of the program!”

“Hey there. It’s nice to be here with you today. So tell us, Mad Rat, what do you have prepared for today?”

Of course, Mandingo is me, but with a deeper voice.

“Like I already said before, I’m now going to introduce the first boss in The Mad Rat’s Lab! Hahaha!”

“Ooooh, it sure sounds exciting.”

“Then, without further ado, here’s The Mad Rat’s Lab first boss! Come forth, my newest creation!”

A figure can be seen slowly coming closer to my current position from the shadows. It’s not that big, only a little taller than a child at around 1,3 meters. But if you look at its aspect regardless of its size, it looks imposing and majestic.

“Say hi to the Boss who’s going to terrorize the invaders from now on. I called it: the Minitaur Queen! Hahaha!”

“Wow! If you ignore its small size, it sure looks dangerous.”

“It does, right? Well, what can I say… I’m really proud of how it turned out, hahaha!”

The Minitaur Queen looks similar to a human, except it has a bull’s head and hooves, most of its body is covered by fur, the whole body so muscular that it puts bodybuilders to shame, and two pairs of purple translucent wings protrude from its back. And let’s not forget about the crown it wears on top of its head.

“So what units did you use for its creation? I can guess it, but I want you to explain it in detail to us if possible.”

“I think you can already see by its looks and name, but the two units used for this monster are the Minotaur and the Fairy Queen. Both of them are decently strong units you could expect as bosses in other dungeons, but I went a step further and made Hybrid out of them! Hahaha!”

“What you’re saying is that it’s a crazy strong monster, right? Because if both are strong enough by themselves, a Hybrid that uses them both must be stupidly strong, am I right?”

“Yes, yes. You are right, Mandingo. Its stats are crazily strong… Only that the two units are very specialized in different fields, so the Hybrid isn’t as strong as you might think.”

“I don’t understand, Mad Rat. What do you mean by different fields?”

“What I mean is that the Minotaur is specialized for brutal melee combat, but in contrast, the Fairy Queen is specialized for magic combat and staying away from danger. So the Minitaur Queen is very good at both, but also isn’t as good as any other unit (within the same cp range) in either melee or magic combat.”

“Hmmm… then I don’t understand why did you create such a flawed Boss, Mad Rat! Why did you create a monster that isn’t good at anything?”

“Very good question, Mandingo. The answer is simple, in fact. If you don’t excel at anything, it also means you don’t have a weakness that others can exploit. You can think of the Minitaur Queen as a monster with no flaws you can take advantage of during combat. Or even worse, a monster that will counter you in your own weak point, regardless of what your weak point is! Hahaha!”

“When you put it like this it sure sounds nasty…”

“I can assure you, it IS quite nasty.”

Most people like to complain about units that are ‘Jack of All Trades’, usually by adding ‘and Master of None’ at the end. But in real life, not having a weak point means you can turn your tables around any enemy as long as you exploit their weakness. That is unless it’s another Jack of All Trades with higher stats than you.

For example, the Minitaur Queen can fly around and keep shooting magic against melee opponents, or choose to engage and quickly kill archers and mages in melee. It’s true it’ll never be able to win in melee against strong fighters, or win a ranged fight against archers and mages…but what does it matter when it can win any fight by just swapping the attack method?

“So, can you tell me and the viewers what skills the Minitaur Queen has? I’m sure we all are thinking the same.”

“Hahaha! I’m sorry, but I’m not going to spoil the fun for all of you. If you want to discover what is the Minitaur Queen capable of, you must dive into my dungeon! Hahaha! But I can tell you a few things if you want.”

“Oh, what a shame… And yes, please tell me all the info you can, Mad Rat! I’m sure the viewers are going to appreciate it!”

“Fufufu… Ok! Here comes the first info. You should already know, but the Minitaur Queen has the innate skills of both the Minotaur and the Fairy Queen. Which skills are they, you ask? They are Fierce Charge and Trickster, respectively.”

“Oooh, I think I remember what both do. Does this mean the Minitaur Queen is a hit-and-run monster? Because the Fierce Charge is incredibly good at initiating fights, and the Trickster is good for disengaging.”

I only put a smile on my face at Mandingo’s (my own) words. I keep silent on purpose because I’m not going to reveal it to the public. By the way, here are the innate skill descriptions for both the Minotaur and the Fairy Queen.

“Hey, does your smile mean I’m right? Why don’t you say anything?”

“Hahaha! Sorry, sorry. No, I will not confirm or deny your statement because I don’t want to give too much information away.”

“Ow, you’re evil to keep us trying to guess… If you’re not going to talk about the skills, at least tell us something else!”

“Sure. I was going to show you anyway. Just follow me.”

“What are you going to show us now, Mad Rat? The intrigue is killing me…”

We are currently inside the second laboratory zone, the dungeon core room. Well, the previous dungeon core room, because I’ve changed it a little now that I have a boss monster. There are now a few stairs that you must climb to reach the new area I specifically created for the boss. The new boss room is directly on top of the second laboratory.

When I edit the video, I’m just going to make a cut and directly show the part when we arrive here.

“We have arrived.”

“Oooooooh! What is this place? It looks amazing with the gigantic capsules and laboratory equipment. And that water canals that cover the whole room give it a romantic feeling!”

“What can I say, I enjoy building and expanding the laboratory zone because I have so many options… Hahaha!”

This room has a similar vibe to the two laboratories, but it has a few very distinctive points. First of all, instead of being a mess of laboratory equipment everywhere, this one has everything organized. And most importantly, the layout is labyrinthic, making it very easy to get lost inside it.

The whole room is full of water canals. It’s easy to fall into them because they are three meters wide, and they not only prevent invaders from crossing from one side to the other but the water current is strong enough to drag away those who fall inside.

The canals are safe in that they don’t have Water Ants inside; but they all connect to the underground river, so it’s a good way to split the party and make people despair. And I made sure it’s a one-way trip only: it’s impossible to enter this area through the water canals.

The room is a lot bigger than the two laboratories, at around 100 x 40 meters. If you think about it, it’s certainly big.

“So tell me, is this room what you wanted to show us?”

“Yes, it’s this room. But I didn’t show it to you only because it’s new. This is where the players will fight against the Minitaur Queen. In fact, this room’s exit is always open: if you manage to survive, or avoid, the Boss, you can reach the next area without trouble. Don’t you think I’m very generous?”

“I’d have to try it first before commenting on the difficulty. But it at least allows for the invading players to have a chance at beating the dungeon if they aren’t strong enough to beat the Minitaur Queen in combat.”

“Yeah, that was the intention.”

Except that I added other ‘special’ mechanisms to make the invader’s journey through the room a lot harder than what I’m explaining to the ‘viewers’. Like adding hidden Lightning Rods throughout the room, or that the crossing points for the water canals change over time.

Or that the Minitaur Queen has the Detect Presence skill so that it’s incredibly difficult to avoid. It’s a skill Champions can’t have for obvious reasons (humans don’t have the capability to track presences and would make the player sick). And the Fast Recovery and Survival Instinct skills to help with the hit-and-run tactics.

“You said that the invaders only need to reach the end of this room. Does this mean that the Minitaur Queen will pester them with hit-and-run ambushes during the whole trip and only those able to survive will reach the end?”

“As I said before, I’m not going to explain the strategy for this encounter. If you are curious, just come invade and see for yourself. Hahaha!”

But I am going to tell you a few other things regarding this boss encounter and the strategy... In private.

The first thing is that the Minitaur Queen, as I said before, has very balanced stats. It only lacks in the DEX department because none of the two units is good at manipulating stuff. These are its stats.

Yeah, it’s strong. VERY strong. You just have to know that the cost to create this unit is 740 cp. And on top of this, you have to add the 100% stat buff for being a Boss…

Ah, if you are curious about it having so many skills, let me remind you that Bosses work similarly to Champions and start with three skill points too.

If you compare it to any other dungeon mob, the Minitaur Queen is stupidly strong. That’s why I messed up with the AI and made it so that it doesn’t engage in prolonged fights: it shows itself with a dramatic entrance, and then disappears for some time. The players are going to have to hurry through this area and hope they reach the exit before the Minitaur Queen kills them all.

I also changed the AI so that it uses parts of the minotaur or the fairy queen AIs depending on the situation: the minotaur AI when starting combat and if most attacks it receives are ranged, and the fairy AI when disengaging and if most enemies are melee.

I also didn’t want to level it up too much, only to level three. This way it isn’t as strong as it could be so that invaders don’t die too fast. But more importantly, this way I have time to see how it works against invaders before I level it up and give it more skills. You know, for all that ‘recreate the boss from zero’ if I mess it up. I definitely don’t want to go search for another Fairy Queen any time soon: they are nasty, like to hide, and can fly; a very bad combination when you want to capture one.

And the best of all and my favorite: the Minitaur Queen can push enemies into the water canals thanks to the minotaur’s innate skill. Meaning invaders are going to be dragged by the water until they reach the underground cave. It’s almost a death sentence, hahaha!

I truly expect this area, the first boss area, to be a nightmare for the players. Not in the ‘it’s impossible to beat’ way, but in the ‘there’s danger and we don’t know when it will strike’ way. Something like in terror films: you know there’s the big monster somewhere close, but don’t know exactly where it is, or when it’s going to strike, and you can’t really do anything else than run away and hope it targets someone else first. Hahaha!

I also gave it two different elemental attacks. The only purpose behind it is that I don’t want the enemies to bring one element resistance skill and ignore the Minitaur Queen’s attacks. They can still do it, but with two damage types, it turns into a huge waste of skill points.

In short, this whole boss area is a mix of running and strategy planning inside a labyrinth: depending on what choices you make and your luck, it can be relatively easy or absolute hell. Plus there’s an extremely dangerous enemy called Minitaur Queen that harasses you all the time, strong enough that most players with similar levels to mine will never think about killing it.

“I thought about it and I’m going to give you a tip on how to fight the Minitaur Queen, after all.”

“Ooooh! Nice! And what’s this tip? I hope that with this tip we are going to have an easier time fighting against the Boss…”

“I’m not so sure about helping fight the boss, but it will help you survive.”

“Now I’m even more curious. Can you say it already? I don’t like when you put so much suspense into things like this!”

“Ahhh, what an impatient guy… The tip is this one: don’t waste time and run, you fools! Hahaha!”

“How the hell is this going to help us? I’m sure we all wanted a tip to fight against it!”

“Well, there’s no hope for you in a fight, so the best you can do is run away!”

“... I hate you, you know!?”

“I don’t care if you hate me. Fufufu! Hahaha!” After laughing for a while, I continue with the program. “So there’s only one thing remaining and that’s the big surprise reserved for the end of the program.”

“Oh, yes! The big surprise you have been talking about.”

“In fact, the surprise is that there are TWO surprises instead of one.”

“I was kind of expecting something like this… So, what are they? More Creepy you reserved for the end? Maybe something else about the Boss fight?”

“Hahaha! Are you curious about them? Well, the surprise is this: telling you there are two extra mobs in the dungeon now!”

With a dramatic gesture, I point towards a dark area and the light turns on, showing two different monsters.

The first one has an imposing and terrific form that invites dread to whoever sees it. Completely pitch black as if absorbing the light, with a dangerous-looking yellow eye in its stomach area. Its wolf inheritance can’t be denied, and although it can stand on two legs, its proportions are too deformed to be considered humanoid. At two meters tall, with two gigantic arms, and a terrifying head devoid of eyes or eyeholes, it certainly looks like one of those monsters one would find in nightmares.

The second one is about half a meter tall and looks like a mushroom. It looks very similar to the mushrooms that populate the dungeon, except it has eight spider legs and a bunch of black eyes.

“Oooh! They look nice! And tell us, what are they? What skills do they have?”

“I’m sorry but I’m not going to explain anything about them at all! If you want to know, just come and invade The Mad Rat’s Lab. Hahaha! That’s why it’s a surprise: because you won’t know anything about them until you fight them; and not because they were hidden from you until the end of the show. What did you expect? Hahaha!”

“Oh, come on! Stop spouting bullshit and tell us already, Mad Rat!”

“Thank you for viewing the program today. And thank you, Mandingo, for coming and commenting about the new monsters and dungeon area! Let’s see you next time on ‘The Mad Rat’s Show’! Hahaha!”

“Hey, are you really going to end the show like this? You suck at this…”

I interrupt Mandingo (myself) before he (I) can finish the sentence.

“See you next time! Bye bye! Fufufu! Hahaha!”

“Let me finish talking at least! Hey, don’t ignore…”

At this point, I’m going to add a fade-to-black effect when I edit the video.

 

The second part of ‘The Big Reveal’ was the one most watched by DMA players. Especially for those who wanted to dive into ‘The Mad Rat’s Lab’, and those who already tried but failed. It started a lot of discussions about what was the best strategy to fight against the Minitaur Queen; and also about the mysterious ‘surprises’, the looks of which was the only thing revealed.