Gestalt, Decay

Gestalt, Decay is the second stage in Sub-chapter 27, Body & Soul.

Battleground

The level starts by spawning a very buffed Scissoroo and a few Kroxos with Shibaliens. After attacking the base, a huge group of the three is spawned. After a while, more of the same enemies are spawned, only this time with a few Black enemies mixed in. Eventually, the Aliens gradually get replaced by a massive horde of black enemies.

Strategy

This is probably the hardest stage in the subchapter and should not be handled lightly. The Scissoroos are very powerful. They can one shot a hypermaxed Manic Eraser and most backline support cats like Paris or C. UFO, so be wary of that. Try to Lure the Scissoroos towards your base and do not rely too much on slow attacking units like Bahamut Cat. Instead, try to keep a steady attack force with cats with decent attack rates such as Ururun, C. UFO, Paris, Jizo, etc. Keep in mind that the Shadow Boxer K’s have more DPS than Black Cyclone.

Use meatshields, Paris, C. UFO (or similar units) and some heavy attackers that aren't as slow as C. Bahamut, if possible. When you get enough cash and you have summoned your main attackers, turn on the Cat CPU.

(Note that if you have Takeda Shingen, the Twinstars, Oda Nobunaga, or Kasa Jizo, this stage becomes much easier.)

Remember that the Scissoroos are not the main threat of the stage, but the Black Enemies later on are, so, if you are having trouble with the very first part of the stage, then go back and collect treasures. Black enemies also have their own treasures so if you are having trouble with them go back and collect those treasures, especially those in Into The Future because at this point of the game you should have completed it, with all treasures.

This is quite the luck-based stage that requires high-level cats, so the strategies below might not work even if you follow every single step. If they're not working, then it probably just means that you're underleveled for this level, or that you're unlucky.

Strategy 1

Line Up: Cat, Gold Cat/Li'l Cat, Catburger (if you don't have gold cat, use another cheap meatshield with the same speed), Paris cat, Polevaulter cat (important, but the level is doable without it) and 5 more units of your choice; do not use Ramen Cat, Solar Cat or Titan Cat variant, Psychocat nor anybody else with short range or alien target, focus on units with area attacks and quick attack speed, with decent range and/or stamina. if you bring ubers, remember that in their pause between attacks the enemies will advance, and if these ubers cannot keep them at distance simply get rid of them.

Warning: Everything has to be high level, especially polevaulters as they risk to be one-shotted otherwise.

Bombercat and Ururun are recommended, in the uber section, the ultra souls Urashima Taro (not for resistance, that won't matter much) and Princess Kaguya help a lot with high attack speed (if you plan to use Kaguya and Bombercat, also add Valkyrie Cat for the combo), for the Vajiras the best ones are Takeda Shingen (misses a lot, but allows the regain of terrain often), Date Masamune and Uesugi. From other sets there are also few ubers that can really help. If you have Kasa Jizo or the Twinstars you are probably not going to have problems, but an inefficient strategy may still cause a loss.

You will be using only 3 meatshields to prevent the cat limit to become a problem and toleave more space for attackers, but if you use Gold cat you shall keep in mind that summoning him and Mohawk Cat toghether means forcing them to stay stacked and act like they were just one meatshield, which would not be good.

Battle:

• The first part is easy, all you need to do is spam Cat and Gold Cat by alternating them, this way you'll keep the aliens at bay while you start stacking up some polevaulters and parises, add some Catburgers every once in a while, if the enemies are pushing too much, make sure that the Polevaulters are sufficiently protected.
• When the blacks start coming spam everyone you have whenever you can (or turn on a CPU if you have one).
•  If you arrive at the blacks part with many Polevaulters alive, they will likely keep the HP of the incoming enemies close to knockback point, allowing the other attackers to do their jobs and continuously knock back the enemies so that they will not push too much on your defenses, otherwise you may lose terrain and some attackers.
• If you lose, try to understand why, if the blacks were not being Knocked back enough, it may be due to the lack of area DPS, solve the problem by adding attackers and NOT meatshields. If you can hold the position but the enemies slowly push back and break through, add a long ranged uber or improve the stamina of your attackers by replacing them with better ones.
• What should be happening is for the blacks to be knocked back after taking out few meatshields or even before getting to close, they have a strong pushing force that makes extra meatshielding quite ineffective, so you must rely on damage delivered continuously to keep your lines safe, otherwise you have no chance.
• You also have to lure the first wave of Scissoroos or else you won’t have a strong defense against the black enemies. Keep in mind that the shadow boxers in this stage have more DPS than Black cyclone.

Here's an example of a setup that worked fine for me in 2 stars, i willingly did not use better units like twinstars etc, since you may not have them either (C. UFO is not included because mine was at level 4), but without 2 ubers for general damage it would've been much harder (high level C. Ufo and Urrurun should work just as well or even better):

Polev.(42) Paris(45) Kaguya(36) Valk(29) Bomber(30)

Mohawk Gold Burger Megidora(36) Manic Legs(40)

Strategy 2 (Cyborg spam, works in 4-star)

Pretty much what the title of this strategy says.

Lineup: 3 meatshields, Cyborg (40 works best, but 30 works too, just requires a little more support), Bombercat, C. Bahamut, Ururun, Cameraman, and any other fast attacking area attackers (C. UFO works for non-4-Star)
Note: Cyborg and Ururun are the only required attackers here. As long as you can deal with the initial Scissoroo rush, you may not need most of these cats.

Stall as much as possible before hitting the base, upgrading your wallet to around 6 or 7. Stop upgrading the wallet once all the enemies die and don’t spawn anything after they do.

When the base is hit, let your attackers die and lure them to your base. Summon a few meatshields, then summon Ururun. After that, spam every area attacker you’ve got along with meatshields. The Scissoroos should not be able to reach the Cyborgs. If they do, something’s being done wrong. Eventually, once you reach around 5-10 Cyborgs, you should start pushing. Summon Bahamut when you can. Cyborg and meatshields should be top priority when money is low. Eventually, your stack will be so big that it pushes with minimal effort and kills the otters with ease. Don’t worry about the cat limit. As long as you don’t hit it while the otters are on the field, no enemies will be able to reach your Cyborg stack before being knocked back.

Walkthrough Video	Player	Notes

Reference

• https://battlecats-db.com/stage/s00026-02.html