Gestalt, Decay

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

Battleground

The level starts by spawning a highly magnified Scissoroo and a few Kroxos with Shibaliens. After attacking the base, a huge group of Scissoroos are spawned along with more alien peons. As the alien enemies are killed off, Shadow Boxer Ks, Doge Darks, and Gory Blacks are gradually able to spawn. Eventually, the Alien enemies 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. Keep in mind that the Shadow Boxer K is very dangerous with her tremendous DPS and pushing power while in a stack.

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 units like Twinstars 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, 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.

Strategy 1

Lineup: 3 cheap meatshields, Paris cat, Polevaulter cat, Pizza Cat, Bombercat, Cameraman cat and 2 more units of your choice; do not use Ramen Cat, Solar Cat, any 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; if these ubers cannot keep a safe distance simply get rid of them.

You will be using only 3 meatshields to prevent the cat limit to become a problem and to leave 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 is the same thing as having one less meatshield, and that may be enough to make you lose.

Battle:

• The first part is easy, all you need to do is spam meatshields to keep the aliens at bay while you start stacking up some Polevaulters and Parises; if the enemies are pushing too much, make sure to protect your attackers, by adding an heavy hitter too.
• When the blacks start coming spam everything you have whenever you can.
•  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 the enemies back, preventing them to push too much on your defenses, otherwise you may lose terrain and some attackers.
• If you lose now, try to understand why, if the blacks were taking a while to receive any knockback, 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 only barely, add a long ranged uber or improve the stamina in some way.
• 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.

Strategy 2 (up to 4 stars)

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
	ShadowKoh

Reference

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