Season 2 of Top Coin
This season of Top Coin is a real toughy. All 4 items are pretty strong products in their own right. That 2 of them have to drop out for being unfortunate enough to be placed in the same group… this is the true Group of Death of the unearthly items.
Prototype Coat
This item has some pretty amazing utility for a 1 coin item. Probably a symptom of it being the first one coin item honestly. It has always been invaluable in-run for easy access to a very strong evasion tech, Cinematic Dodge, that chains well with either melee or ranged decks. The defense it gave was beyond anything you can get anywhere in-run. But, Metroplexity has changed a lot since this item first came out.
Metroplexity has shifted a lot more to out of run activities and away from in-run play. The defenses you can get out of run, though may not be strictly better than the coat, usually come with other appealing side benefits as well and without you having to jump through a hoop to get that defense. Also evasion power has just never been that popular out of run.
Of course there remains one other benefit of the coat that hasn't been mentioned yet. The chance of encounters. Again I would say the shift to out of run activities hurt the coat here. The chance of encounter just never last long enough. Not for the sustained focused activity that normally happens out of run. Out of run you can easily play 80 adventures in a day. You can get, what, 15 energy worth of Mysterious Investigator? And the other coat, the mysterious circuit coat, completely overshadows this coats code finesse niche.
The prototype coat has a long legacy to it. The prototype coat was like the pilot episode to this prototype zack coinshop idea. But maybe that legacy isn't enough to sustain it anymore.
Emerald Gift scrapbook
This item is simply amazing. It gives access to defenses and powers in categories where it can be really hard to find defenses and powers for. Stealth power. Ranged defense. Fire power and defense. It's also got other freebies besides. With this item you'll always have access to an immediate +4 evasion power buff for the odd occasion where you need it. Once in a blue moon. I swear it happens! Also the +2 xp per combat can't hurt. Swirling Maelstrom for… the +2 etheric chance… okay you got me.
If it were only the buffs this item gives it would be a decent unearthly I can see someone looking at that and being like "eh. +2 defense or power I can take it or leave it." It's the technique, though, that really makes this item shine. There are items this unearthly provides as well but I can see someone handwaving those as they could the buffs. But, the technique you can't ignore. The technique of Channel Inspiration.
Channel Inspiration. Amazing technique. Pretty much hands you base 10 power for a move where most other techniques, especially unearthly techniques, make you have to jump through hoops first. I mean you have to be etheric? Whatever. Anyone out of run can easily sustain etheric. And the buffs to power the technique are easy to amass too. This technique man. It's the only Chain 5 technique that does melee damage. Chain 5 etheric techniques are difficult to come by so this makes that task easier. Stealth as well. It's either fuming acid or this.
All of that is great on its own for Channel Inspiration. What breaks this technique into S tier is that its technique type is "None". That is HUGE. That allows it to bypass so many defensive moves that can get in the way of your stealth or etheric damage or what else have you. Type "None" means Jacob's Ladder will fail against it which is a popular move to use against someone stronger than you. It means Erenoth can't negate your etheric damage with Gem Break. This is so huge. Your melee won't get out-clashed by clashing blow. It's fantastic. A fantastic unearthly skill for when you need it.
Holosight Rifle
This unearthly. This unearthly man. Kinak must've looked at the deplorable state of etheric reigning supreme in PvP and designed this specifically to put it into the dirt. My gang tried really hard to find a way to overpower etheric in PvP. We did good work to. What with the Improbable Gun with silver bullet strats and Lethal Resolve. It was this unearthly, however, that finally killed etheric. It's fucking dead. Etheric is no more in PvP. You use etheric in PvP someone sooner or later is gonna whip this item out and put you down hard.
It's so huge that your etheric defense can be applied directly to ranged power. Ranged power is very hard to get through buffs. Etheric defense? Very easy! Combine this with other unearthly items and you can get 50 Ranged Power very simply without even having to touch the actual Ranged Power buffs side of things. So huge.
Enough kreygasming over the awesome power potential of this item. What does it give? Almost feels like Kinak knew how powerful this item really is so he made sure to give it a half life. A lot of it's power comes from solid gunman hologram which can only be acquired through other holograms. Limited time items. Though you can breed them it's about as intensive as breeding golden chocobos from scratch. So…. yeah it feels like this item came with its own built in clock.
I mean let's look at the tangibles. It provides… okay techniques. The Chain 6 ranged technique Holographic Shot is solid. It's difficult to get all around good chain 6 ranged techniques without unearthlies. But otherwise the stuff it gives other than the amazing punching power is forgettable. I mean they don't even put Project Shooter onto the main page of this unearthly item that's how forgettable it is.
So perhaps the death of this item is inevitable. But mayhap that death not be today.
Midgard HGS Prototype
This item seems almost too new to go away so soon? lol. Anyway. Coming right off the Holosight Rifle the obvious synergies between the two is what immediately pop up. The etheric defense from the Flickering Game buff only adds to its firepower. Hologame Tome will also add to that fire power plus whatever else you can fit into the computer with hologame tome. Computers are just so good now. Fit in white noise producer, fractal loop, and unsettling loop and that's already another +6 etheric defense for your gun power. Perhaps it's appropriate that these two unearthlies will have their fates decided together.
Of course this unearthly needs to be judged by its own merits. And it's got at least one major merit. This is the first unearthly in the whole list that gives actual adventures! Oh sure a couple of the others got an enemy if you go out of your way to meet them. But these are adventures! Things that crop up while you're doing your thing. All while under the effects of etheric and Flickering Game. Because of the necessity of having Flickering Game active get the adventures it's easy to mass up on that effect. Which is a big plus for out of run players. The adventures themselves are neat enemies. Don't want to meet that troll with your pants down.
The techniques those enemies then give are pretty neat. A couple were only discovered recently which is pretty cool. Especially since those discoveries I believe were made after Kinak pretty much said this item was well spaded. Could there be more? Anyway, the technique Disappearing Switchblade might even be halfway optimal. And the rest are mostly just fun little techniques to have with maybe an interaction or two left to still be investigated. Petrifying Roar -> Rocksplitter Shot in pvp perhaps?
The final judgement! Obviously this doesn't happen until the next unearthly item but how about a wrap up at the end of all this? Now, the weakest item of the bunch does indeed seem to be the Prototype Coat. It has such a rich history rooted to the very foundation of the Zack House of Coins. Built to serve the players of that time perfectly. It would be sad to finally see it go. But if it does, we'll send it off with a hero's farewell.
Now the Midgard HGS Prototype and the Holosight Rifle so do deserve to go through this roun of Top Coin together. It's hard to see how that can be possible with the Emerald Gift scrapbook as one of the contenders. The scrapbook, for whatever reason, is determined to get in the middle of these two and ruin the perfect union. This round of Top Coin may be to see which one of the hologram unearthlies makes it through with the wretched scrapbook.