SMT V - Metatron (Low Level, No Fusion/Demon Customization, Hard)

Challenge rules: 1. Hard difficulty on a New Game. 2. No fusing demons or using essences to alter the skillsets of demons. 3. EXP gain shall be minimized as much as possible and may only be earned from battles required to complete the main story or side quests and from quest completion. 4. No Balms, Incenses, Sutras, Gospels, Grimoires, use of petrified demon statues, or Omagatoki: Luck. 5. No use of the Skill Manifestation miracle. 6. Demons with unique recruitment may not be recruited until the Nahobino reaches their level. 7. Resistance-altering passives may not be used on the Nahobino. 8. Null/Repel/Drain Phys essences may not be used on the Nahobino, and Phys Block may not be used (Phys Dampeners are acceptable). 9. Taunt/Fierce Roar may not be used on the Nahobino alongside any Null/Drain/Repel resistances relevant to the current battle, and Tetrakarn/Makarakarn may not be cast on a target with Taunt/Fierce Roar. 10. Use of Accursed Poison will be avoided whenever possible. Metatron is the final story boss before the route split. He’s a very difficult adversary for several reasons; like Trumpeter, he has no weaknesses to exploit, but also has significantly more HP as well. He also uses very strong almighty attacks that few demons can survive, in addition to great buff/debuff control. Finally, it’s of great importance to defeat Metatron at as low a level as possible since the initial Empyrean battles provide so much EXP, which puts a lot of pressure on me to take on Metatron before it’s really reasonable. Because of this, the only real way to get by is to cheese him in a somewhat similar manner to Trumpeter. Metatron has three phases, which are linked to specific HP thresholds and are separated by two Magatsuhi gathers. He’s a complete joke in his first phase, since his only skills are Mahamaon, Dekaja, and Dekunda. The second phase is where it really starts to get nasty; Metatron begins using his signature skill Fire of Sinai, an incredibly dangerous attack that can hit targets up to three times, while even two hits are enough to kill most demons with maxed buffs and debuffs. He can also use Tarukaja here, and may also start using Debilitate. His third phase is similar to the second, except he begins using Megidolaon, which is arguably even worse than Fire of Sinai. Megidolaon hits all targets for slightly less damage than two hits from Fire of Sinai, which is still more than enough to one-shot a lot of demons. The only way to win this battle is to ensure that Metatron has almost no opportunities to use either of these two skills. Since Metatron is effectively limited to attacking with only Mahamaon in his first phase, there’s no risk at all for a team that has full light immunity, so the Nahobino can easily chip away at his HP with Thalassic Calamity and Impaler’s Animus. It’s best to reduce Metatron’s HP to just before the point at which it reaches the midpoint of the second question mark from the right on his health bar (yes, I do need to be that specific), which triggers the Magatsuhi gather that leads into the second phase. At that point, it’s safe to set up completely to deal as much damage to Metatron as possible in a single turn, with maxed buffs, defense debuffs, Impaler’s Animus and Charge, and a full Magatsuhi gauge. After any turn during which Metatron has the decency to not use Dekaja or Dekunda before Mahamaon, Omagatoki: Critical can be used to tear into his HP on the next turn, but only enough to push him slightly below half HP. A single demon can be withdrawn so the Nahobino can get a second Thalassic Calamity boosted by Impaler’s Animus in during that turn, using the concept behind the Bucketgetter Special but not going all in. That causes Metatron to waste his next two turns gathering Magatsuhi for Mahamabarion, which provides valuable turns of safety to get set up to attack again. However, on his next turn after Mahamabarion, he will lead off with Fire of Sinai, which can annihilate almost anything without Endure. If Metatron’s HP is reduced slightly lower after that, then he’ll gather Magatsuhi and use Mahamabarion again, which should provide enough time to reapply buffs and debuffs so the Nahobino is perfectly set up for a Bucketgetter Special to finish Metatron off. As long as Fire of Sinai doesn’t kill Tao, the only target without Endure, then this approach should work pretty well with my team setup. As was the case for Trumpeter, Critical Zealot isn’t an absolute necessity for the Nahobino but it can help a lot by ensuring that Metatron only uses Fire of Sinai once. Tao and Titania are invaluable in this battle, as two of the only demons that can buff or debuff and have Light immunity. Tao won’t be seeing much action beyond this point, as she is not available in the Neutral route and I therefore won't use her for any Law/Chaos battles that overlap with the Neutral route, not to mention that her level disadvantage is getting really steep anyway.