Good Times With Sparking! METEOR

Discussion of all things related to Dragon Ball video games (console and portable games, arcade versions, etc.) from the entire franchise's history.

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Li'l Lemmy
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Good Times With Sparking! METEOR

Post by Li'l Lemmy » Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:05 am

Hey, all.

So I've been junkin' out on Sparking! METEOR lately, and while I was fucking around with my Potara setups I realized that I've never seen a thread made out to such a topic. While I realize that this game is fast becoming outdated (particularly with Burst Limit immediately following and another DragonBall fighter on the way), I imagine that at least some of us still play the game on a semi-regular basis and might appreciate the chance to talk about it.

I typically squeeze out enough free time to play METEOR at least once a day, and this is due mainly to the fact that I'm not the only one: I'm rather frequent to a household of DragonBall fanatics, and METEOR turns out a good way to indulge our obsession. The game can tire quickly when it's a solo affair, but get the roommates together and it's the most addicting competition we've ever had.

So the question for this topic is, what characters/setups do you use?

Because the household is so competitive about METEOR, we've all ended up pretty persnickety about the science of this game . . . perhaps me most of all. The characters I use most are divided into teams by "grade", meaning that I (and everyone else) will usually fight according to group-- I'll go to full power with my "Z" team, or best characters, for example, when the other player wants to turn the match into a wager, or conversely dumb it down by tweaking the roster appropriately when I want a challenge.

I've taken a lot of money from these bastards, but if I don't watch myself they'll surpass me before I know it. :D

So whatever! While I'll fight with just about anyone, my tournament play typically revolves around three characters:

KID BOO

Kid Boo is just plain devastating, not to mention an awesome way to pass out the rape and remind everyone else of just how much they suck if I feel I want to be the asshole. Boo does what few of my characters can and (on a good night) takes out between 4 and 5 fighters all by himself-- it's all melee, melee, melee, and boy do they all hate him for it.

Spiritual Control to reduce Kid Boo's B1 consumption by 1. This makes Instant Transmission and Sleep not so painfully expensive to execute.
Perfect Guard, because he's just awesome like that (and to defend against the occasional spamming).
Light Body to nullify small Ki blasts for uninterrupted Ki charging.
Aura Charge Red to signify him as a "Z"-level character.

TEEN GOHAN (whose name is WRONG WRONG WRONG, but I digress . . .)

I love Cell Games Gohan. While his physical moves really don't change much from form to form-- lots of Kamehamehas and Masenkos, mostly-- his B1s are consistently varied to ensure a lot of options. Other than that, well . . . he's just badass, especially when compared to most of the other Gohans. A SSJ2 Super Kamehameha that costs only two Ki bars (before items!) is pretty freakin' sweet, if you ask me.

Miracle Sparking to keep from being hit while in MAX POWER mode. It just feels very true to his SSJ2 form for people to swing and miss constantly.
Warrior's Will to reduce damage while guarding by half.
Master Blast to take advantage of SSJ2 Gohan's 8-hit Ki blast for damaging rapid-fire.
Light Body to ensure uninterrupted Ki charging when small Ki blasts are flying all over the place.
Aura Charge Red to signify him as a "Z"-level character.

GOTEN

Finally, there's Goten. To be fair, I'm much more of a rapist with Kid Boo, but Goten gets top rank because he's my favorite DragonBall character of all time. He's also very good, mainly because he has a wide variety of "situation" B1s and B2s . . . not to mention an unblockable UB while in Super Saiyan!

Ki Power Up 3 & Defense Down 1 to ensure rapid Ki charging, which comes in handy for spamming the Full Power Energy Blast Volley.
Lover of Justice to reduce Goten's B1 consumption by one. Afterimage, Sleep, Wild Sense and False Courage are extremely useful when they cost only one Blast Stock apiece!!
Mirage to make Afterimage that much better.
Master Roshi's Training to give his naturally small health (3 bars?!) a boost.

Freeza recovers 5,000 HP with each transformation, so I like him a lot. His Psychokinesis and Full Power B1s are icing on the cake, especially with Evil Ambitions on my side.

Burter is fun strictly for the purpose of spamming his incredibly fast melee and having counterattacks blink straight through me with Afterimage.

Goku (GT) was a "wish list" character of mine for a long time, so I was thrilled by his inclusion in METEOR. How can you go wrong with three different kinds of Dragon Fist?

. . .

So what about you? :D


~Da Lemmy

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Post by Thanos6 » Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:37 am

I'll come back later and provide itemlists, but these are my Big Five:

Videl
Mirai Trunks (long-hair)
Kamesen'nin
Yamcha
Piccolo (early)
Trunks & Goten forever

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Post by Li'l Lemmy » Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:56 am

I like Trunks well enough, particularly for his Super Trunks form. (I have a fascination with USSJ.) What sucks is that METEOR gives both the Burning Attack and Finish Buster to this form, which look exactly the same. Oh, well-- I'll just whore Inexperienced Power Up with his Super Explosive Wave and be happy.

Oddly enough, whenever I catch Super Trunks on the Character Select screen, I'm prompted to think of our good buddy Duo.

One of my usual challengers uses Roshi ad nausem. Damn him and that Afterimage Strike bullshit!


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Post by TrunksTrevelyan0064 » Sun Jul 12, 2009 4:33 am

I still play the game on a regular basis considering I only have a Wii and am thus unable to play the likes of Budokai 3, Super DBZ and Burst Limit.

I don't really play with buffed up customized characters, but I do give the "non-flyers" the ability to fly. I also give Mr.Satan the ability to flinch his opponents.

Mostly I pick a 'normal' character for myself, fighting a 'custom' character with significantly more HP. Random character VS Random character on Random stage is a lot of fun, too.
Usually goes by "Kevtrev" elsewhere online.
Draws comics that may or may not have been inspired by Akira Toriyama's amazing manga-making skills.

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Post by Li'l Lemmy » Sun Jul 12, 2009 12:55 pm

TrunksTrevelyan0064 wrote:I also give Mr.Satan the ability to flinch his opponents.
Hell to the yeah on that one. Draconic Aura for the win.


~Da Lemmy

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Post by Innagadadavida » Sun Jul 12, 2009 2:20 pm

I use Krillin and I apply Roshi's Training and a bunch of Ki Boosters. When I'm playing, I can get his entire Ki bar filled to max in less than three seconds. This comes at a price though, his blast stock fills at a much slower pace. I counter that by rushing, keeping on the offense, and using lots of Kamehameha waves.

Then there's Yajirobe's Senzu trick. You give Yajirobe as many blast stock related poteras as possible. As well as Roshi's Training and Flight. With the one potera that's -1 Blast Stock consumption, you wait about 2 or 3 minutes and he's ready to eat another Senzu bean. You can play through entire matches like this. :lol:

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Post by jda95 » Sun Jul 12, 2009 5:10 pm

I've never really messed around with potaras much. The most I have really done is giving DB characters Flight, giving Master Roshi's/King Kai's Training or adding aura effects.

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Post by Rocketman » Sun Jul 12, 2009 9:18 pm

Sadly, I don't have anyone to play against, so there's probably a ton of holes in how I set up, but I'm trying this at the moment.

VEGETTO

Lover of Justice - Makes Finish Sign only need one blast stock.
Super Up 2 and Power Down 1
Satisfying Blow - Says it makes "Blast 2/Ultimate Blast ignore defenses"
Ki Power Up 3 and Defense Down 1 - to cancel out the Ki Power penalties of the previous three
Defense p 1 - to cancel out the previous one

With this, Finish Sign, and Boost, the Final Kamehameha does about 25,000 damage. :D

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Post by Li'l Lemmy » Sun Jul 12, 2009 9:52 pm

Unless you're playing against custom characters, I doubt that you'll need Satisfying Blow. "Ignores defenses" means that it negates any Skill +# Potaras that your opponent may have equipped-- for example, if you're fighting Super Buu (Gohan Absorbed) and he has Defense +3, then your Final Kamehameha will ignore that and cause normal damage.

Very useful against human opponents who beef up their characters with defense modifiers.

Also keep in mind that Fusions done in-game combine the potaras from the two original characters. They're essentially 14-space characters, so abuse that for all it's worth!!

On a side note, it sucks that you have no one to play the game with. I want fresh meat. :(


~Da Lemmy
Last edited by Li'l Lemmy on Sun Jul 12, 2009 10:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by Rocketman » Sun Jul 12, 2009 10:01 pm

Li'l Lemmy wrote:Unless you're playing against custom characters, I doubt that you'll need Satisfying Blow. "Ignores defenses" means that it negates any Skill +# Potaras that your opponent may have equipped-- for example, if you're fighting Super Buu (Gohan Absorbed) and he has Defense +3, then your Final Kamehameha will ignore that and cause normal damage.

Very useful against human opponents who beef up their characters with defense modifiers.
Ah. I thought that might be it, but good to know for sure.
Also keep in mind that Fusions done in-game combine the potaras from the two original characters. They're 14-space characters!!
Oooh.... :3

Also, Broly gets Aura Change Pink, so he can be the prettiest princess.

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Post by Li'l Lemmy » Sun Jul 12, 2009 10:09 pm

I just laughed my ass off. A prettier Broli there never was.

Fusions in this game are very interesting. First and most notably is that there's no time limit, while the rest is as I mentioned before about potara combinations. The other thing to keep in mind is that an in-game fusion is always stronger than a fusion you select before battle, partly because of the "combine potaras" effect and the rest due to the fact that METEOR! gives in-game fusions automatic stat boosts as well. They're quasi-password characters, just considerably toned down.

Gotenks, for example, is fun because I can take the Lover of Justice reducer for Goten's Afterimage and fuse it with Trunks' equipped Miracle Sparking, which does automatic (and unlimited) Afterimages while in MAX POWER mode. Gotenks gets both, so his Afterimage costs one Blast Stock and he has Miracle Sparking while in MAX POWER. Which means that there's lots and lots of DODGE!!

In-game fusion Vegetto rapes hard.

EDIT: A lot of the potara are somewhat ambiguous in their exact use (a la Satisfying Blow), so if there's enough interest I'll compose a list of exactly what does what.


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Post by Rocketman » Mon Jul 13, 2009 11:24 am

Li'l Lemmy wrote:A lot of the potara are somewhat ambiguous in their exact use (a la Satisfying Blow), so if there's enough interest I'll compose a list of exactly what does what.
Yes, please!

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Post by Li'l Lemmy » Tue Jul 14, 2009 1:16 am

Rocketman wrote:
Li'l Lemmy wrote:A lot of the potara are somewhat ambiguous in their exact use (a la Satisfying Blow), so if there's enough interest I'll compose a list of exactly what does what.
Yes, please!
So because Rocketman was nice enough to . . .

. . .

Well, not ask, I suppose, but . . . be enthusiastic, I guess? :D


POTARA EFFECTS GUIDE

Color-coded for convenience.
Green entries signify potara that everyone can use, while orange and blue potara signify use by good and evil characters, respectively. Lemmy's AIM conversation font color (I know, I know-- WTF?!) designates a B1 ability, but that's only important if we decide to come up with a B1 ability guide.

Enjoy!



Attack Up #
Cost: Proportional to the effect
Effect: Boost to Attack

These potara increase the damage of both your melee and Rush Blasts. More damage is always a good thing, and while the higher levels take more space, there are no counteractive penalties for using these.

Defense Up #
Cost: Proportional to the effect
Effect: Boost to Defense

Obviously enough, you take less damage. But compared to Attack, high defense doesn't really help all that much in the long run-- especially once you get the hang of Rapid Movement. Added defense may make a needed difference for exceptionally weak characters (like Guldo), but the rest of us might be better off shopping for additional Health instead. When needed, though, these potaras are a good addition thanks to their lack of actual penalties.


Ki Up #
Cost: Proportional to the effect
Effect: Boost to Ki charging speed

These are, needless to say, exceptionally useful. On characters with particularly slow charging, Ki charge modifiers are a must if you want to stay in the game. Make room for them, and you're definitely getting a big advantage without any penalties.


Super Up #
Cost: Proportional to the effect
Effect: Boost to B2

Not quite as useful as the Ki charge modifiers, but helpful for players who count on their B2 attacks. Characters that already have a good charging speed can really benefit from this, and you aren't given any penalties for using them.


Attack +2 & Defense -1
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Medium boost to attack in exchange for a small drop in defense power

Worth considering for what it costs. If you're good at beating the life out of your opponent with constant melee, you'll get a nice payoff, and the defense penalty is negligible if you know how to time counters (especially with Rapid Movement).


Defense +2 & Attack -1
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Medium boost to defense in exchange for a small drop in attack power

You'll take less damage, but attacks in this game are already relatively weak compared to the previous game so you're not getting much of a benefit.


Ki Power +2 & Super -1
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Medium boost to Ki charging speed in exchange for a small drop in B2 power

You're penalized with a small drop in B2 power, but as a result you're able to throw out more B2s in faster succession. It's an effective trade-off if you use a chargeable B2 (like Kamehameha) because these attacks have naturally high power and won't lose much. A weak B2 with fixed damage may suffer a bit, though.


Super +2 & Ki Power -1
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Medium boost to B2 in exchange for a small drop in Ki charging speed

Useful if your character already has a good charging speed and at least one chargeable B2, like Piccolo (End).


Attack +3 & Super -1
Cost: 2 spaces
Effect: Large boost to attack in exchange for a small drop in B2 power

For those who like melee combat, this is a nice addition-- you'll lose a bit of B2 power, but also max out your melee damage while saving one space for another item. That extra space could be used to either compensate for the drop in B2 power or to make your melee even more dangerous.


Defense +3 & Attack -2
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Large boost to defense in exchange for a medium drop in attack power

The penalty almost cancels out the advantage, but only if you're big on melee and combos. Use this if you plan on fighting with B2 attacks a lot instead, because the low cost will guarantee a good selection of potara for B2 enhancement.


Ki Power +3 & Defense -1
Cost: 2 spaces
Effect: Large boost to Ki charging speed in exchange for a small drop in defense power

You'll get a lot of extra charging speed with a small defense drop as your only penalty. If that doesn't bother you, get this over Ki Power +3 and grab a free space.


Super +3 & Ki Power -2
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Large boost to B2 in exchange for a medium drop in Ki charging speed

The damage increase is helpful, but the resulting drop in Ki charging speed is nothing to ignore. If you're good at managing your Ki, give this one a try-- it's still a large increase in B2 damage for only 1 space-- but if you aren't or like to spam, then consider another alternative.


Attack +3 & Defense -2
Cost: 1 space
Effect:

You'll take almost as much damage as you dish out, which kinda sucks. Natural "brick wall" characers are probably the only ones who benefit from this item, because they aren't stunned by melee hits and tend to have natually high health-- they'll still take damage, but they can take it offensively. For everyone else, use this boost only if you're extremely confident in you ability to counter and dodge.


Defense +3 & Ki Power -1
Cost: 2 spaces
Effect: Large boost to melee in exchange for a small drop in Ki charging speed

I suppose if you want to focus more on melee, you could try this so you have extra potara space for a good melee item but besides that, you're not getting much of an advantage. Though you could take this over just Defense +3 if Ki management is your forte.


Ki Power +3 & Super -2
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Large boost to Ki charging speed in exchange for a medium drop in B2 power

You're getting penalized for the only reason you would ever increase your Ki charging speed. What the fuck is this shit?! Unless you A) have a character with terrible Ki charging speed but a naturally powerful B2 or B) just like to Dragon Dash all over the place, I don't see much of a benefit to this item.


Super +3 & Attack -1
Cost: 2 spaces
Effect: Large boost to B2 in exchange for a small drop in Attack power

Exceptional if you don't care much for melee combat. Users of evil characters might prefer this over Super +3-- you gain powerful B2 attacks with a potentially negligible penalty, and a free space to boot.


Flight
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Gives Flight ability to characters without it

Quite obvious.


Unleash Latent Power 1/Unleash Latent Power 2/Unleash Latent Power 3
Cost: 2 spaces/3 spaces/4 spaces
Effect: Boost to base level Ki

Your base level Ki is increased by one, two or three bars. You receive a small penalty to your Ki charging speed, but keep in mind that your base Ki will recharge on its own-- the higher your base level Ki, the less Ki you have to manually recharge. Potentially useful, especially if your character has a high enough base level Ki that you don't need to use the most expensive version to get a maximum base.


Ki Control
Cost: 2 spaces
Effect: Boost to available Dragon Dash Ki in exchange for a small drop in defense power

If you like to fly around a lot, this could be useful-- you're getting double the Ki available for Dragon Dashing all over the place. Just make sure the defense penalty doesn't bite you in the ass.


Dragon Dash Mastery
Cost: 4 spaces
Effect: Unlimited Dragon Dash in exchange for a small defense drop and -1 effectiveness in clashes

On one hand, you can Dragon Dash to your heart's content. On the other hand, you become less effective in clashes. Considering there's a small defense penalty, you could find yourself in some difficult situations. Unless your fighting style focuses on defense, ignore this item-- it's not really suited for offense.


High Spot/Essence of Sight
Cost: 1 space/2 spaces
Effect: Lessens the amount of Ki used for Rapid Movement in exchange for a small drop in Rush Attack power (or in the case of Essence of Sight, without penalty)

High Spot decreases the amount of Ki used to combo teleport by half, but combo hits lose power to compensate the increased ease of getting behind your opponent. If manual teleports in mid-combo are part of your tactics, this item may be worth considering-- just make sure you have the damage penalty in check.

Essence of Sight is an improved version of High Spot-- for an extra space, combo teleports have no Ki cost whatsoever. Your combos still lose a bit of power, so beware.



Warrior Lineage
Cost: 2 spaces
Effect: Lessens the amount of Ki used for Z Burst Dash/Auto-Counter Ki without penalty

This reduces Ki consumption for both the Z Burst Dash and Auto-Counter maneuvers by half. The bonus for the Z Burst is worth considering if you rely heavily on it, but the other bonus isn't really that useful because your opponent isn't usually stupid enough to hit you after you're in the Auto-Counter stance for a prolonged period.


Halo/Demon Seal
Cost: 4 spaces
Effect: Lessens the amount of Ki used for B2 attacks in exchange for 10,000 Health

If you like to spam B2 attacks, this makes it much easier to do so. However, you lose 10,000 health in exchange-- that's an entire life bar! It's not a bad item for characters with naturally high health, but otherwise even the average character will find the loss of life a bit of a strain (to say nothing of characters with naturally low health like Goten). You also suffer a small drop in Attack power. If you don't mind losing more Potara spaces, you can compensate for the health loss with Master Roshi's training, but you'll need to be creative with your one remaining space. Use it to heal the damage to your Attack power if it bothers you.


Satisfying Blow
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Nullifies the opponent's defense modifiers in exchange for a small drop in Ki charging speed

This item makes your B2 specials deal their normal damage even if the opponent has items that increase his defense. (Your opponent's Defense +3 would be nullified if you equip this item, for example). On the other hand, your Ki charging speed takes a dive. It might be good for optimal B2 damage, but besides that? . . . just use Super +# or something else that helps your B2 attacks.


Active Heart/Indomitable Fighting spirit
Cost: 1 space/2 spaces
Effect: Increases Ki recovery during melee combos without penalty

Active Heart makes your Ki recover faster when you do melee combos, while Indomitable Fighting Spirit gives good characters an edge with better recovery for the extra cost. However, keep in mind that you'll only notice a difference if you melee your opponent mercilessly-- short combos won't make much of a difference in your Ki recovery in the long run.


Mind Breaker/Gigantic Power
Cost: 1 space/2 spaces
Effect: Increases damage to opponent's Ki during Guard Break without penalty

Mind Breaker increases the drain on your opponent's Ki when you Guard Break, and for evil characters Gigantic Power will take off even more for less cost. These items make it easier to make your opponent vulnerable by Guard Breaking them into forced Ki recovery mode where they can't do anything at all.


Rising Fighting Spirit
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Full Ki Gauge at the start of battle without penalty

This gives you your full Ki capacity at the start of each battle, so with this equipped you can use any B2 right off the bat. Great to get an early advantage, and worth considering for the low cost.


Secret Measures
Cost: 3 spaces
Effect: Full Blast Stocks at the start of battle in exchange for slow Blast Gauge recovery

Your Blast Stocks are maxed out from the start, meaning that you don't have to wait to use B1 abilities or transform, but the gauge's slow recovery will offset the advantage.


Proof of Friendship
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Full Switch Guage at the start of battle without penalty

With this, you can tag out at any time right from the start. The only potential use is to pair this potara with your partner's Savior so that someone with MAX POWER can be brought into the fight in a big hurry-- otherwise, there ain't much else to this item unless the character you equip it to tends to take a severe beating early on.


Dende's Healing Ability, Eternal Life
Cost: 2 spaces/4 spaces
Effect: Recovers Health

Dende's Healing Ability slowly recovers a character's health, but even despite the extra cost Eternal Life doesn't do much better-- you'll be forced into constant retreat if you want to make a significant recovery. Good characters should couple these items with defense enhancing potara so they at least GET the chance to recover something, but evil characters can get a definite advantage by pairing either one with Water Blessing to speed up the recovery rate.


Tension Up, High Tension
Cost: 2 spaces/3 spaces
Effect: Increase in passive Ki recovery without penalty

Tension Up will gradually recover your Ki, while High Tension is a somewhat faster version for the extra cost. These are different versions of the Unleash Latent Power potara-- they don't raise your base level Ki and have a slower automatic recovery, but unlike Unleash Latent Power there's no penalty to the speed of your manual recharge. Since both types are automatic, which one you'll use depends on what you want-- if you prefer faster active Ki recharge, then use Tension Up or High Tension, but if you prefer your passive charge to be a quick one then go for Unleash Latent Power.


Water Blessing
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Substantial health recovery while in water

An evil character's health and Ki will slowly recover on their own while underwater. The item itself is without penalty, but when deciding to equip Water Blessing make certain to remember that being underwater comes with its own penalties, like slower Ki charging and movement. Not all maps have water to begin with, besides. If water stages are frequent battle zones and you can evade your opponent effectively when submerged, then the minimal cost makes this potara worth equipping. As a bonus, you can push the recovery advantage further by pairing this item with either Dende's Recovery or Eternal Life to speed up the recovery rate.


Spiritual Control
Cost: 3 spaces
Effect: Reduces Blast Stock consumption by 1 without penalty (but cannot go below 1)

This is worth considering for characters who have useful B1 abilities (like Instant Transmission or Sleep-- or better still, Give me power!) so that you can use them even more. It's a bit pricey at 3 spaces, but it's also without penalty.


Lover of Justice/Evil Ambitions
Cost: 2 spaces
Effect: Reduces Blast Stock consumption by one in exchange for a small drop in Ki charging speed

This is a cheaper version of Spiritual Control-- it works the same, but you sacrifice a small amount of charging speed to offset the discount. The other penalty is that Devilman's UB will do different damage depending on your character's allegiance, but . . . whatever. It's definitely not a bad item to try for the cost, and the free space always helps.


Dragon Heart/Dragon Beat
Cost: 2 spaces/3 spaces
Effect: Free Blast Stock if you dodge a B2 or UB with Rapid Movement in exchange for slow Blast Gauge recovery

Dodging a B2 or UB with Rapid Movement gives you a Blast Stock for free! Your gauge will fill up a bit slower as a result, but it's a negligible penalty if you can exploit the potara properly-- dodge like a muthafucka and you'll regain Blast Stocks too quickly to care about the slow recharge rate. If the penalty worries you, you can upgrade to Dragon Beat for an extra space to nullify it, but it's strongly recommended that you practice your dodge with Dragon Heart instead.


Dragon Spirit/Confidence
Cost: 2 spaces/1 space
Effect: Increase in Blast Stock recovery without penalty (or in the case of Confidence, in exchange for slow Switch Gauge recovery)

Dragon Spirit increases the recharge rate of your Blast Stock guage without penalty, while the Confidence potara gives evil characters a discount at the cost of increasing the time it takes to tag out. If you're not good at deflecting Rush Blasts, these items can help compensate.


Battle Control
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Increase in Switch Gauge recovery without penalty

This is useful in team battles-- you can tag faster so that you can better manage your side of the battle. A potentially useful item if you also equip Savior to your partner.


Kibito's Secret Art
Cost: 2 spaces
Effect: Health, Ki and Blast Guage recovery while on stand-by without penalty

In a Team Battle, whomever you equip this potara to will recover Health, Ki and Blast Gauge while on stand-by. But only that character will benefit, despite that the in-game wording of "teammates" suggests otherwise.


Persistent Threat/Miracle Master
Cost: 1 space/2 spaces
Effect: Do an Afterimage while knocked down at the cost of slow Blast Gauge recovery (or in the case of Miracle Master, without penalty)

These are life-saving potara that function in the event that you're knocked flat on your ass with a B2 hurling towards you-- an automatic Afterimage is activated to dodge the attack and put you back on your feet, even if you're unconscious. Persistent Threat takes less space but at the cost of a slower Blast Gauge recharge, but Miracle Master nullifies that penalty for an extra space (not to mention that it's unlimited in who can use it).


Exquisite Skill
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Increase the duration your binding techniques have/decrease the duration other character's binding techniques have on you

This extends the duration of "freeze" abilities like Piccolo's Kaikosen while at the same time decreasing the duration of these effects when they're inflicted upon your character. The offensive aspect is especially useful for characters who have a chargeable B2-- the stun will render your enemy helpless for long enough to charge your Kamehameha or Special Beam Cannon to full power and tear him apart. A potara that's worth definite consideration for the appropriate characters.


Quick Return
Cost: 1 space
Effect:




Unleash KI/Power of Rage/Dragon Power
Cost: 1 space/2 spaces/3 spaces
Effect: Increase efficiency in struggles and clashes without penalty

These penalty-free potara will ease the burden of B2 struggles or melee clashes to varying degrees. Dragon Power especially will make you a beast in such situations-- it's a bit pricey at 3 spaces, but with that kind of clash power you can practically defend by attacking. Couple one of these with B2 damage boosting items, and your opponents will fear even risking beam struggles or melee clashes of any kind.


Latent Energy!
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Small boost to Defense for every 10,000 Health lost without penalty

Boosts your defense by +1 for each Health Bar you lose. It's not useful for everyone because the damage isn't reduced by anything worthwhile per individual bar, but it may be useful on characters with a lot of health to spare-- a +5 or +6 Defense when you're on your last bar just might save your life.


Fighting Spirit!
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Small boost to Ki charging speed for every 10,000 Health lost without penalty

Boosts your manual Ki recharge by +1 for each Health bar you lose. This can help you turn the tide with a spam advantage if you're getting shot to shit.


Indignation!
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Small boost to B2 for every 10,000 Health lost without penalty

Boosts your B2 power by +1 for each Health bar you lose. If you want a painful counter-attack, this potara is a good choice-- you can easily add a few thousand more damage to your B2s after receiving an ass-kicking.


Serious!
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Small boost to Attack for every 10,000 Health lost without penalty

Boosts your Attack power by +1 for each Health bar you lose. It's good if you're a melee nut but even after losing a lot of life, your melee won't deal that much damage.


Hatred of Saiyans
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Increase in Ki recovery without penalty

It doesn't cost much to equip this potara, but the resulting Ki regeneration is so minimal that you may as well not even bother. Its only redeeming feature is that you can stack it on top of High Tension or something similar to give your passive Ki recovery an additional boost.


Blast Attack 1/Blast Attack 2/Blast Attack 3
Cost: 1 space/ 2 spaces/3 spaces
Effect: Increase in Rush Blast capabilities without penalty

The first version of this potara increases the speed of your character's Rush Blasts, while the second one increases their damage . . . but the third variant increases both speed and damage beyond what the other two are capable of and makes the Rush Blasts cheaper to use. These potara are best used on characters like Vegeta who fire a lot of blasts before needing recovery; conversely, they're absolutely wasted on characters like (base) Goten who can fire only three Rush Blasts a a time.


Guard Master
Cost: 2 spaces
Effect: Immunity to Guard Crushes without penalty

You are immune to guard crushes. You'll still take some damage, mind you, but you don't even NEED to bother with aiming your guard anymore. However, it won't prevent guard breaks from B2 rushes slamming into you so be careful. Assist this item with Quick Return if you want to protect yourself against an unforeseen forced recovery.


Mirage
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Dodge the first blast of a multiple blast with Rush Movement and automatically dodge the rest without penalty

If you're facing a character who uses energy volley B2 attacks and you're good at timing your Rush Movement teleports, this will make it a little easier. If you avoid the first blast, you avoid the whole volley. Interestingly, characters with Afterimage or Wild Sense can use this potara in conjunction with those abilities so that they can dodge entire volleys without any effort whatsoever.


Warrior's Will/Evil Pride
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Reduces Guard damage by half without penalty

With one of these equipped, the strength of your guard will be improved by half. Use one if your opponent likes to use UB attacks a lot, as it will further reduce the damage that gets through.


Perfect Guard
Cost: 2 spaces
Effect: Nullifies Guard damage without penalty

You take no damage whatsoever when guarding. This potara doesn't prevent guard breaks, however, so couple it with Guard Master to become even more of a defensive tank.


Sparking Plus
Cost: 3 spaces
Effect: Increases the duration of MAX POWER mode without penalty

MAX POWER mode lasts longer with this. This is a good choice for players who would rather use the MAX POWER-exclusive abilities-- like longer combos, an extra Dragon Homing pursuit and more Vanishing Attacks-- to toy with their opponents rather than firing off an Ultimate Blast right away. But for the cost, you'd better like those exclusives quite a bit.


Style of the Strong/Emperor's Aura
Cost: 4 spaces
Effect: Varied

Style of the Strong is a fusion between Sparking Plus and Super +2, except that the latter function applies to your UB rather than your B2s.

Emperor's Aura enhances your ability to stun brick wall characters when you're in MAX POWER. This way, even brick wall characters that are made even more resistant while in MAX POWER can be stunned if you use this item. The best way to benefit from this potara would be to either use it on characters who can already stun brick walls or to combine it with Draconic Aura.



Miracle Sparking
Cost: 3 spaces
Effect: Automatic and unlimited Afterimages while in MAX POWER mode

With this, your character will automatically execute unlimited Afterimages while in MAX POWER. The downsides are that A) your B2 and UB attacks will weaken somewhat and B) MAX POWER won't last as long. If you choose to equip Miracle Sparking, you'll be damn near untouchable when it's activated, so be as aggressive as you can to make up for the loss in power.


Savior
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Tagged character begins the fight in MAX POWER mode without penalty

Give this to the character you're switching with so that they begin their fight in MAX POWER. A good potara for the cost, it can be exploited several times per battle.


Light Body
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Relative immunity to Rush Blasts without penalty

Your character becomes a brick wall to Rush Blasts with this equipped. For a single space, this is pretty useful because opponents can't interrupt your melee charge or Ki charging, making a powerful offense that much easier-- it's a good potara for the cost.


Power Body
Cost: 4 spaces
Effect: Relative immunity to melee combos without penalty

Your character becomes a brick wall to everything except Rush Blasts. This potara reqires a fair bit of consideration before equipping and a lot of strategy after the fact-- once opponents catch on to your defenses, they'll try to stay away from you and spam ranged attacks instead; you won't be fighting, you'll be chasing. A small penalty is applied to your defense in addition, meaning that a clever adversary can nickel-and-dim you to death. This potara can be useful if you're good at constantly pressing your melee without giving your opponent the chance to breathe, but otherwise it simply isn't worth the cost.


Ultimate Body
Cost: 5 spaces
Effect: Relative immunity to Rush Blasts and melee combos without penalty

Your character becomes a brick wall, period. Rush Blasts and melee attacks won't stun you as easily, and the damage penalty is offset by the ability to strike back in the middle of being hit. This is the most epensive of the "Body" potara, but also the best.


Draconic Aura
Cost: 3 spaces
Effect: Increase in stun power without penalty

This potara gives you the ability to stun brick wall fighters-- it will be as if you were fighting a normal character. A possible preference over the previous three potara because, while they make you a brick wall, they don't let you stun brick walls. This item does so it forces both of you on equal footing, and at a decent price.


Master Strike
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Medium boost to melee damage in exchange for a small drop in B2 and UB power

This potara will boost the damage of your melee attacks. However, your penance for that increase is that your B2 and UB attacks lose power. It weakens your throws as well, so only use this if you're great at dishing out combos.


Master Blast
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Medium boost to Rush Blasts in exchange for a small drop in melee attack power

Master Blast is like Blast Attack 3 except it only costs 1 space and your melee attacks become weaker. If you prefer using Ki attacks over melee combat, give this a try. The penalty isn't THAT bad but it might be annoying if you're forced into melee combat so use caution.


Master Throw
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Medium boost to Throw Attacks in exchange for a small drop in Rush Blast power

Throws will do double their normal damage with this equipped, but at a price-- your Rush Blasts do less damage, expend more energy to use and become reduced by three shots. It's still a nice item to use on physically strong characters like Broli who already do good damage with their throw, and it's a tempting choice for characters like the Androids and Cell, who can absorb life and energy via throws. And even with three less shots, your Rush Blasts can still stun the opponent and create enough of an opening for throws and other melee.


Charged Attack
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Medium boost to Smash Attacks in exchange for a small drop in melee power

Combos do a little less damage, but you'll make up for that by repeatedly smacking your opponents every which way. Take it if you like smash attacks.


Quick Fast Attack
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Medium boost to melee attacks in exchange for a small drop in Smash Attack power

The opposite of the previous item-- Your combos will do more damage at the cost of smacking them as hard. Take it if you like combos.


Dragon Break/Dragon Crush
Cost: 2 spaces/4 spaces
Effect: Increases number of available pursuits without penalty

These will let you chase your opponents either one or two more times after you nail them with a Smash Attack. However, keep in mind that Dragon Homing uses Ki, so don't dry yourself up too quickly.


Vanishing Break/Vanishing Rush
Cost: 2 spaces/4 spaces
Effect: Increases number of available Vanishing Attacks without penalty

These give you either one or two more vanishing attacks. This one may be preferred over the previous items for the simple fact that Vanishing Attacks don't use Ki. Take one of these if you like Vanishing Attacks.


Combo Master
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Medium boost to melee combos without penalty

This makes your combos stronger, and without penalty. However, you must really be a combo master to get full benefits from this because the increase only really happens after a lot of hits. I do mean a lot of hits.


Quick Charge
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Charge time for power attacks is reduced without penalty

This is a must-have for characters with chargeable B2 attacks. Your charging time is cut in half, so setting up your attack becomes that much easier. However, it also becomes easier to overcharge, so make sure to listen for the "full power" chime-- overcharging means that you won't do optimal damage.


Super Senses
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Lock-on returns more quickly without penalty

Your lock-on will return faster if you somehow lose it. However, the fact that your opponent will usually be chasing you down after you lose your lock kinda negates the usefulness of this potara-- you regain it automatically when he comes close enough, even when from behind.


Broly's Ring
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Restricts transformations without penalty

This prevents your character from transforming. I'm not too sure why anyone would want this potara-- a far better use for it would have been to alter the effect so that Broly's Ring restricts the opponent from transforming. Now THAT would have been awesome.


Namek Power/Earth Power/Universal Power
Cost: 1 space/3 spaces/2 spaces
Effect: All abilities are increased while on a specific map

Your abilities will all increase if you're on the correct map. Namek Power and Earth Power and obvious enough, while Universal Power is most likely meant for the rest of the maps available for selection.


Aura Charge (Color)
Cost: 1 space
Effect: Changes the color of the character's aura to Blue, Purple, Yellow, Red, Green, White, Pink, Violet, SSJ, SSJ3 or SSJ4 and gives them an additional bar of Ki at the start of battle without penalty

This changes the color of your passive aura. If you charge, it'll be the character's natural color, but when standing still or Dragon Dashing it's the color of choice. As a bonus, you start the battle with an extra bar of Ki . . . but besides that, it's purely for fun.


Master Roshi's/King Kai's Training
Cost: 2 spaces/4 spaces
Effect: Receive an extra 10,000 Health without penalty (or in the case of King Kai's Training, an extra 20,000)

One gives you an extra bar of life and the other gives you two. These potara are a reasonable alternative to defense increases-- characters with high natural health could benefit more from defense, but for everyone else it's (generally) hard to go wrong with more health.


#18's Kiss
Cost: 7 spaces
Effect: Increases number of available pursuit attacks and Vanishing Attacks by 2 without penalty

This insanely pricey potara lets you chase and Vanish Attack two more times EACH after you hit them with a Smash Attack. Take this only if you really like to do those attacks, because that's all you'll have space for.


#17's Scarf (unique to PS2 Disc Fusion)
Cost: 7 spaces
Effect: Relative immunity to Rush Blasts and melee attacks and increase in stun power in exchange for a small drop in Defense power

Basically a fusion of Ultimate Body and Draconic Aura-- it would otherwise be impossible to have both items. Use this only if you're heavy on close combat and keep the defense loss in mind as you pummel the shit out of just about anybody in the field.


Medicinal Machine (unique to PS2 Disc Fusion)
Cost: 7 spaces
Effect: Health recovery and Ki recovery while fighting and while on stand-by without penalty

This potara is Eternal Life, High Tension and a restricted Kibito's Secret Art all rolled into one package. While fighting, your character will recover life and Ki. When you tag him/her/it out, those recovery effects will remain.


Launch's Support
Cost: 2 spaces
Effect: Receive more Z Points in Story Mode and a small boost to Ki charging speed without penalty

This item's only unique effect is that just unlocking it lets you earn more Z points in Dragon History than usual-- you don't even need to equip it (because of course, you can't). In-game, this will increase your KI charging speed . . . and that's pretty much it.


And that's that! If anyone has any questions regarding how specific potara work, feel free to ask and I'm sure that me or someone else will be happy to explain it further.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Sparking! METEOR discussion!!


~Da Lemmy
Last edited by Li'l Lemmy on Wed Jul 15, 2009 2:07 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Conan the SSJ
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Post by Conan the SSJ » Tue Jul 14, 2009 1:48 am

My goodness, that is comprehensive. :shock:

Many props for going to the trouble, Lemmy~
14 years later

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jda95
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Post by jda95 » Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:33 am

Whoa. Thanks a lot for that incredibly in-depth guide.

I have a question (but I don't require you to have anything like that for it :P). What exactly do the Character Type potaras do? Reading their descriptions, it says they emphasize certain abilities (close combat, speed, etc.) but I'm not sure what that means.

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Post by Li'l Lemmy » Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:47 am

The purple potaras emphasize how you want your custom characters to fight when controlled by the CPU, which can be useful for players who want to test their mettle against a variety of fighting types. (A Goku who fights Freeza-style, for example.)

The potaras don't give you any discernible advantage when you control the character yourself.

And Conan, thanks for the notice. It took me awhile-- much like your guides do-- so it's good to know that it's appreciated!


~Da Lemmy

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Post by jda95 » Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:55 am

Ahh, thanks for the answer. I had no idea what they did!

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Thanos6
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Post by Thanos6 » Tue Jul 14, 2009 3:13 am

Yeah, that's a great guide.

OK--here are my custom top five, finally. Like Rocketman, I rarely have any human opponents, so these are mostly customized to defeat the CPU on the hardest difficulties.

Videl

Videl is my main. Played properly, her speed can make her nigh-untouchable, which is why I've focused on upping her offense.

*Attack Up 1
*Super Up 2
*Combo Master
*Draconic Aura (lets me stand a chance against giants)

Mirai Trunks (long hair)

Mirai is my "laser cannon." His purpose is to go for as quick a win as possible via blast moves. In SS1, his B2s and UB are some of the most devastating in the game, which is reflected in this setup. With this, his Heat Dome Attack is an instant kill on any low-health character (Kid Chi-Chi, early Dragonball, etc) and carves giant chunks out of everyone else.

*Super Up 3
*Style Of The Strong

Kamesen'nin

Kamesen'nin is my "turnabout" character. He's built so that if he's getting knocked around some, he can spring back up and really let them have it with a nastily powerful surprise.

*Attack Up 1
*Super Up 3
*Flight
*Persistent Threat
*Combo Master

Yamcha

Yamcha is my "kamikaze" character. I've amped up his health so he can wade through a lot of attacks until he gets his turn to unleash the pain.

*King Kai's Training
*Super Up 2
*Warrior's Will

Piccolo (early)

Piccolo is my "defense master." Either attacks do little good, or they don't hit at all.

*Perfect Guard
*Mirage
*Miracle Master
*Attack Up 1
*Super Up 1

So? Whaddya think, sirs?
Trunks & Goten forever

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Post by Rocketman » Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:10 pm

Damn, man! Thanks!
Li'l Lemmy wrote:but that's only important if we decide to come up with a B1 ability guide.
Ooh, I wanna help!

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Post by Pain » Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:06 pm

I actually tried an experiment with fusion character, because of you, Lemmy. I gave Son Goku and Vegeta items that I thought would complement each other, if they were to fuse together. And I'll just say this: "In-Game Fusion" Vegetto does rape hard.

Thanks for the inspiration, Lemmy! :wink:
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