Summary
: We’re now in the actual dungeon part of Alcatraz. This room has three aisles of cells: first is this middle one.
: There’s also one on the left and right that have two floors, but we’ll ignore those for now. Let’s try that door we can see in the first screenshot.
: Huh, the door’s alarmed.
: Before we move on, there’s a Lottery Ticket over on the left side, in this corner. It took me a while to find this because the guide was not very good at explaining. What we want to do now is head to the right.
: “Information?”
: I’d like to take a second and point out that walk-through metal detectors did exist in the 1920s.. but not like the one we just went through.
: Unlike modern metal detectors, the ones that would have existed in 1929 required an operator with headphones on listening to a tone. The tone would change when metal passed through the detector.
: I looked this up, and this doesn’t actually work - there’s no easy way to fool a metal detector.
: “An insulating sheet…? Where am I supposed to get something like that!?”
: “So what are your terms? You want help breaking free?”
: “A spoon? Just a spoon?”
: Frank should have been in this cutscene and had a line about having a ninja art he could use to destroy the entire island using only a spoon.
: The door to the cafeteria is directly across from the metal detector.
: There’s a hidden chest in this room. Can you find it?
: It’s behind the oven. By the way, I’m pretty sure that these attack effects get auto-applied if you use a Hard Hit, so that’s something to keep in mind.
: There’s a Spikes here in the middle thing, which is actually not a terrible idea to put on Shania. I found out the hard way that the Womp enemies can and will nuke your SP even if they don’t have a Double.
: With that, we can go through the metal detector.
: Before we do, though, we can grab a Bhodi Bracelet from the left side of the room, on the second floor. This is an accessory that prevents Paralysis, which Byakhees can inflict on attack.
: We need to go through that door in front of Johnny to progress, but there’s a few items we can collect first. Let’s head off to the right.
: Man, they even locked up Gerard’s bike. Sent to Alcatraz for bike crimes.
: The only new thing Gerard sells is an accessory we can’t afford, but I do grab some healing items to refill our supply.
: This brings our discount rank up to D, which allows us to buy at a 20% discount and sell at a 10% markup.
: In the corner is a chest with a spell that is very, very good against Womps. If you manage to get two that spawn close enough to each other, you can potentially instakill them with this.
: If we go to the left, there’s a Hit Area Expand in a hidden chest. I throw this on Frank because of course I do. Let’s go through that door we saw earlier.
: Time for another (small) cutscene.
: Is this a “it’s actually locked” scenario, or just Johnny being unaware of how doors work again?
: “Wow, you’ve got a good eye.”
: “The breakers probably tripped with all the commotion. I wonder if there’s a control room somewhere?”
: Just outside, we get a pre-emptive attack and I use Hail Dust to nearly oneshot two Womps in one turn.
: The control room is just to the right.
: “Which one? Whoa, all the breakers were blown! There’s so many switches, I don’t know which one to reset.”
: “You can try whatever, but maybe it’d be faster if we found someone who knows about this stuff?”
: Just as Mao implies, if you know what the solution to the puzzle is, you can just do it and skip right to the boss. I could do that, but I want to make another trip to the shop and we might as well take the extra random encounters.
: “How’d you know?”
: “…being a 15-year veteran, right? So, what’s the deal? Do you know how to reset the switches?”
: The prison is going all Arrival in Hell and this guy’s trying to negotiate.
: To be clear, he means the right cell block in the area past the metal detector.
: “What? Just that?”
: “The total amps designated by the switches should be the same as the numbers written on the right?”
: As previously mentioned, Murdock is in the area beyond the metal detector - he’s in the cell right above where Gerard and Buigen are.
: Murdock was arrested for attempting to ship Joker and Makoto. Remember kids, shipping is illegal unless it’s gay.
: “Oh, it’s you. I have a message from Mr. Smith: ‘We carry out the plan in 5 days.’”
: “Also, I was told to ask you about the breakers.”
: “Hmm.. I better remember that.”
: While you can write this down, there is an option to repeat this at the breaker board itself.
: Peck’s cell is on the left side before the metal detector. On the way, I find a lottery ticket that none of the guides I’ve looked at mention.
: “We would love to get outta here quick, but the breakers are thrown and we can’t open the front gate. Are you the person called Peck? If we deliver you a message, we heard you’d tell us about the breakers.”
: " ‘We carry out the plan in 5 days’, but I don’t really know what it means."
: “Ah-ha. From the left? OK, got it.”
: Baracus is in the room right before Capone’s cell.
: On the way back there, I find out that you can, in fact, fight Prison Guards as a random encounter in the areas before Capone’s cell.
: “Oh, he’s scary looking… I have a message from Mr. Smith, but are you Mr. Baracus?”
: “The plan will be carried out in 5 days.”
: “What?! W-wait! I’m supposed to ask you about the breakers.”
: “I think we now have all the information we need to get past the breakers, right? All right, let’s give it a shot!”
: Now, there’s one rather important thing I should point out here: if you mess up the puzzle, you get a guaranteed random encounter against Prison Guards. This isn’t a bad idea to do a few times.
: The reason is that we want full Stock going into the boss, and Prison Guards will never show up with Womps, meaning they cannot Stock-nuke you.
: First row is simple: you can either turn on all the switches from the leftmost one except the last one (1-2-3-4-5), or go from the right and do 6-5-4. It’s very possible you’ll get this one even if you don’t know how the puzzle works.
: The second row has the numbers reversed, so we want to hit the leftmost switch (6) and the rightmost one (1) to get 7 amps.
: You know, now that I think about it, wasn’t getting a metal item past a metal detector in a prison a thing in Resident Evil: Code Veronica? I think Code Veronica had a breaker puzzle too…
: If we run into Steve Burnside, I’m stopping the LP right there.
: The third row is 10 amps, and the switches are back in ascending order from the left, so we can hit the rightmost (6) and the third from the right (4) to get 10.
: Before we go to the boss, I spend 3,000 cash to upgrade the MP efficiency and damage of the Water-element slots on both Johnny and Mao’s star charts. I also equip both of the Hail Dust stellars.
: This is some Parasite Eve shit right here. You know, I wonder what would happen if we put Frank’s cells on some bullets and shot her with them.
: On an unrelated note, I watched a friend of mine stream Street Fighter 6, and all I could think about was “Would Frank and Blanka be friends” and really, the answer is yes.
: Welp, Edna just got stomped to death by a giant blue dude who looks like a rejected World of Warcraft raid boss.
: This boss’s name is Ronwei, and he is Fire element. This is why we’re packing those upgraded Hail Dust stellars. Mao is Water element, which means she will both do more damage and take more damage.
: I’m not sure if that applies to spells as well, but I figured it couldn’t hurt, even though we all know Frank is probably a better mage.
: We want to immediately unleash a D-Combo. Ronwei has 700 HP, but you do not want to let him live very long due to his insane rate of Stock gain and how hard he hits.
: Mao follows up with a second Hail Dust and sends Ronwei flying. The optimal thing to do would’ve been to pass to Shania and have her use Bar Rod, but..
: Nah, we’ll just use Frank instead. We have now done just over half of Ronwei’s HP in damage in a single combo.
: Because Shania still has two Stock, I opt to use Combo Magic instead of having her attack. By sheer luck, we get the Water-element combo spell.
: You know what, yeah, I’ll take 560 damage in a single combo.
: Ronwei responds with Flame Mine, which is a single-target fire spell that hits pretty hard. If he chooses to hit Mao with it, Mao is probably going to die, especially if it’s a Double.
: He then follows up with Red Nova, which can’t nuke our Stock because we’ve already used it all.
: Unfortunately, Ronwei then uses Seal, which is.. not great. If Johnny gets hit by this, he can’t Snap.. and of course that’s what happens.
: Shania uses a Soul Benediction to remove it, and I get the Snap.
: Shortly afterward, Frank gets the final hit.
: There’s no really good bonuses for Ronwei, but the Gurkha Khukri is a nice (and free) upgrade for Johnny.
: Shania reaches level 12, with everyone else at 11 except Natan. We’ll be tossing Mao out of the party soon.
: With that, we’re kicked back to the world map for another (thankfully short) cutscene.
: “Perhaps. Well, we will try and track down that Gilbert guy. From what the kid says, it sounds like there might be some connection.”
: Next time, we’re going to Roswell for what I’m sure won’t be aliens, since the infamous UFO incident happened in 1947. We’ll get a new party member that anyone who played Covenant will be expecting.. and there will be a Frank cutscene.
