Our first vertical weapon!
We take Poppea into Cappella Magna today, looking to complete our initial run of this map. Completing this, we manage to unlock Arcana XVII - Lost & Found Painting, Song of Mana, and Hyper Boss Rash.
The Build
Character: Poppea
Default Weapon: Song of Mana
Bonus Stat: +1% Duration every level (no cap); 20% move speed (base)
Weapon Picks
Default: Song of Mana
2: Eight the Sparrow
3: Axe
4: Cross
5: Lightning Ring
6: Phiera Der Tuphello
7: [After evolving Phieraggi] Pentagram
Secondary Picks
1: Duplicator
2: Empty Tome
3: Attractorb
4: Candelabrador
5: Bracer
6: Spellbinder
7: [Map Pickup] Crown
8: [Map Pickup] Tiragisu
Evolved Weapons
We first upgrade our Axe to Death Scythe, and then a minute or so later, we upgrade the guns into Phieraggi... which refunds us one top-level spot. We use that to pick up Pentagram. We evolve that into Gorgeous Moon, and our last evolve is Thunder Loop.
The Strategy
We enter the map with Arcana on, and select XI - Waltz of Pearls. It's going to give us a bit of bounce for magic wand, fire wand, cross, and the minecart that we don't have from Bianca Ramba. Our second Arcana is I - Gemini, and our third pickup is IV - Awake.
The heavy lifter here is definitely Gemini, for the weapon counterparts it gives us... which effectively lets us get two more guns because we have Sparrow and Tuphello.
Thanks to the verticality we gain from SoM, most of this map is pretty easy. We end up finishing at level 144, and we unlock Hyper mode for this map, Arcana XVII - Lost & Found Painting, Song of Mana as a pickup, and Hyper Boss Rash by getting Hyper Mode for all 5 standard stages.
With Song of Mana on this map, it's mostly about scaling damage fast enough to not get swarmed. Cappella Magna throws quite a few enemies at you (we killed 36,963 this round), and a lot of them are pretty tough - particularly near the end of the map when they bust out the Golems. Bloody tanks. Empty Tome is very useful here, as getting a shorter cooldown is going to make SoM (and anything else you have) deal a lot more damage just by virtue of firing faster.
Additionally, it's useful to pay attention to the stained-glass windows on this level... some have purple crosses on them, and they'll explode if you hit them a few times, which deals a pretty large bit of damage to an area around it, and there are places where you can do a wide loop and they'll reset over and over. It's a pretty handy way to get a little bit of level-based DPS in there when you're getting swarmed!
Until next time friends, Happy Gaming!
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