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Friday, February 19, 2021

Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 28: Training for an ARMS Race

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Featuring just one of the Four Masters.

The G7—the governments of United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Italy, France, and Japan—have today reiterated their support for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to happen this 2021. This is contrary to reports from anonymous sources from last month. I can confirm that Koopa Kingdom's opinion wasn't consulted, but should the Olympics go on, we'll be there under Team Koopa. And I'm in Team Koopa. ...Which means I gotta be FIGHTIN' FIT FOR FENCIN'. And to be in better shape, I'm playing Ring Fit Adventure every week. In 2020 I completed the normal Adventure Mode, and in 2021 I'm playing Extra Fitness.

At the end of last week's Week 27, I adjusted the Ring-Con vibration setting from Strong to Weak, for the first time. There is a very noticeable difference, and Weak really is... weak. At first, I forgot I made the settings change, and I actually thought my Ring-Con was broken. There should be a setting in-between Strong and Weak (the only other setting is to have no rumble at all), but Weak is much more quiet for things like Back Press, where the Ring-Con will be constantly vibrating (and behind your body).


On Week 28, we're playing World 28: Extra Fitness Lv. 192, which is very lengthy and substantial because it's based on World 5: Dragaux vs. the Four Masters, and that was another world that took me one and a half weeks to complete. I'm trying to do it all in one week.

Armando opens up the world declaring we need to reach his gym first, and there are a lot of levels (16) to get there.


Ring Fit Adventure World 28 Armando dialogue will be opponent world map
We're going to have to do far more than deal with just Armando in this world.


The world first opens up with General Store 24, which offers the Flame Contender II, Volt Contender II, and Atomic Contender II outfits for a LOT of money (and six Citrine stones). These raise red-skill, yellow-skill, and blue-skill attack power by 5%, respectively. I'm actually trying on the Atomic Contender II outfit for the first level, Exertion River, since it recommends to use Leg Fit Skills. It's in my best interest to clear these as fast as I can so I can clear the world in a week, but still doing all the enemy fights so I'm, you know, getting the game's fitness benefits This does let me situationally turn two-round KOs into one-round KOs compared to wearing the Galactic Jogger (which has worse stats, but is my go-to outfit due to its 5% increased experience bonus), which speeds fights up considerably.

The Exertion River—besides several minutes worth of rowing activity—also has an unavoidable squat Treasure Chest containing the recipe for Deep Red Smoothie. For two Strawberries, two Raspberries, and two Fennel, you can concoct a smoothie with 7 hearts of restoration, and ↑↑ to red Fit Skill attack power, AND it turns all your Fit Skills to red. My problem is that I only have one Fennel, and I dunno where to find more. ...It turns out that I picked one up at Exertion River, and Exertion River in World 28 has different ingredient drops than Exertion River in World 5. That's already very interesting.


Taking a detour to the southwest on my goal to ultimately pick up a Treasure Chest in the overworld is the Legs Set Fitness Gym. For an A-rank, I can get a Citrine stone. It opens up with...
  1. Squat (x26)—You know, I was actually feeling really energetic going into this, since I even ducked under a bunch of low-ceiling entrances while rowing in Exertion River. But doing 26 Squats in a row? Total killer. You'll want to make sure your Leg Strap (and the Joy-Con inside of it) are properly set to your thigh. The lower it's resting, the lower your body will have to go for the squat, sometimes so low you may have to sit down on the ground. Adjust it!
  2. Knee Lift (x58)—Easy 100 points per lift. This is to help repair your average score after Squat puts you off at a bad start.
  3. Mountain Climber (x58)—You know, if I lowered my difficulty level, I wouldn't have to do so many of these. If you happen to be wearing a loose-fitting t-shirt, you should take it off.
  4. Thigh Press (x26)—This is the final activity of the set, and it's basically the equivalent of a breather victory level. You should get 100s on all of these.

Ring Fit Adventure how to do a proper squat registered by game
Somehow I've written over two dozen articles with pictures on Ring Fit Adventure,
but I'm pretty sure I don't have a picture like this.
If your Squat-attempting butt isn't GLOWING like the bottom picture, you won't get a GREAT 100 points on your repetition.


That was easily the most difficult thing I've had to do so far in Extra Fitness, and my average score was... 93! Which is high enough to pass the Fitness Gym, get the Citrine, and move on after taking many deep breaths and drinking water. I'm moving onto the Twilight Highway. Normally, I'd just stop playing the game, but I want to clear an average of four courses a day so I can be on track to finishing this world by Friday. Twilight Highway had nothing notable there, but the overworld Treasure Chest had... three Ashitaba Smoothies. I'm never gonna drink those. The next level is Loot Pass, which has no loot, but it is the famous level where the Slinkbugs first appeared in the game, and you have to do a long Tree Pose until they go away. That made a big impression on lots of players.

Even though I'm exhausted, I don't want to end Sunday without making the Deep Red Smoothie, and the next level, Armie Temple (which recommends you're gonna use your arms a lot, so I'm putting on the Flame Contender II), has Fennel as a native ingredient. I entered the level with a Sesame Smoothie, which doubles the harvest for ingredients. (Incidentally, White Sesame Seeds, one of two ingredients needed for the Sesame Smoothie, are also found in Armie Temple.) Even with the Flame Contender II's bonus and higher attack power, I'm still not at the break point required to 1RKO Red Steppers with Overhead Arm Spin Lv.3. Anyway, normally I'd get two Fennel from Armie Temple, but now I got four Fennel, leaving me more than enough for the Deep Red Smoothie, as well as if there'll be a future smoothie recipe requiring Fennel. Now I'm finally done for Sunday. Totally exhausted.


Skip to Monday night, and I feel like my energy is restored! (Although I feel quite... cold. Maybe I'll warm up after some exercise?) The first thing tonight is the Game Gym at the bottom right of the map, which is for Aerochute (Novice). Unfortunately, there is NO bonus offered for completing it, which is incredibly lame and I don't remember them ever being so cheap before.

But that was just a small warm-up (with no reward), for the next level is at the Arms-Race Gym, versus Armando and his obsession with ARMS.


Ring Fit Adventure ARMS Armando Nintendo Switch
I am never gonna like ARMS. Stop trying.
(You could argue that I have an obsession with disliking ARMS.)


I'm tasked with winning the battle using only the specified red Fit Skills (which makes the Flame Contender II the best outfit to wear), which are...
  1. Overhead Press Lv.3—1-range, 3-turn recharge, 655 base power
  2. Front Press Lv.3—3-range, 3-turn recharge, 390 base power
  3. Back Press Lv.3—1-range, 3-turn recharge, 675 base power
  4. Tricep Kickback Lv.3—3-range, 4-turn recharge, 430 base power
  5. Overhead Arm Twist Lv.3—1-range, 4-turn recharge, 705 base power
  6. Bow Pull Lv.3—5-range, 4-turn recharge, 370 base power
  7. Shoulder Press Lv.3—4-turn recharge, 14-heart recovery
Armando is the only opponent here, so the Fit Skills with over one range are silly. The speed-run strategy would be to drink the smoothies that speed up Fit Skill recharging and spam Overhead Arm Twists, which are not only your most powerful attack, but they are also the fastest to perform and physically pleasurable. ...And yet I'm the type of RPG player to hoard his battle items and not use them. Maybe I should've, because by the time I did Overhead Arm Twist, Back Press, and then Overhead Press, my arms were exhausted and I only managed to take down half of Armando's HP (though he had depleted far less than 1/18th of my own health bar). And then he wanted to counter with his own super attack that I needed to do an extended Front Press defence for. I needed to pause the game and let my arms rest a bit, because I knew that pulling off that Front Press would be critical for the battle to end faster, since it reflects Armando's move back at him for great damage. ...And it was, since it was the equivalent of another Overhead Arm Twist in power. But that still left a sizable chunk of HP left (let's say a third), and I had to use weak moves like Tricep Kickback and Front Press until Overhead Arm Twist recharged. I finished off Armando, leveled up to 227 (and unlocked Boat Pose Lv.3 from the skill points tree), and proceeded on to the next half of the world map.

Ring Fit Adventure World 28 Extra Fitness Lv. 192 overworld map second half part 2
The rest of this log will be referring to the elements you see on screen here.


That brought me to Stopfoot Wastes. To Ring Fit Adventure's credit, there were no stage elements (just running and rowing—rowing is with your abs) or red-coloured enemies that would prompt me to have to use my arms, allowing them to take a breather. Same with the next level, Birdseye Mountain Trail. (Fennel is there too...in fact, not only naturally, but in a Squat Treasure Chest at the end with five Fennel inside.) That concludes my Monday, since that was well over an hour in real-time, plus my right Joy-Con (the one attached to the Ring-Con) got a depleted battery, so... See you next time! ...Which is the very next paragraph. Oh, and I've done 5000 Overhead Hip Shakes, netting me the VP of Hip Shakes title.

Now it's Tuesday! My stomach feels pained when I stretch... probably because I've only eaten lightly since Sunday. My stomach isn't growling or anything, so who knows. I feel like I'll lose weight faster by under-eating and exercising. Lemme know if I'm wrong.

After aching my way through Dynamic Stretching, let's do the Game Gym featuring Bank Balance (Novice) and get the overworld Treasure Chest at the top left of screen two of this world. This Game Gym at least offers a 400-coin bonus for clearing it. I got a perfect 6400-point score despite my aches, so I think I'm alright. The Treasure Chest contained a measly five Black Tea Leaves. That brings my total to... 29 Black Tea Leaves. I clearly don't drink that stuff. Anyway, to progress, there is a mandatory Gold Hoplin fight in the overworld, which has a grand total of... one Gold Hoplin to fight. With the Volt Contender II and the Overhead Lunge Twist, I did 4506 damage, and then I got lucky with an Overhead Hip Shake Rush add-on attack for another 2000+ damage to beat it, but I think it had under 6000 total HP. I'm pretty sure that with an extra turn smoothie and two big-ranged Abs Fit Skills like Russian Twist and Overhead Hip Shake, you can still clear five Gold Hoplins before any of them can flee the battle.

As for the level the Gold Hoplin was guarding? It's Exertion Corridor, and PROFESSOR DRAGAUX appeared to do a surprise muscle inspection, demanding I clear it within 140 steps, and saying I'll need to do a lot of hovering to clear that. I very sloppily completed it in 108 steps. While the beginning has a lot of upward-inclined treadmills that go downward (trying to run against the treadmill goes against your step count), there is a large section around midway where you're just jumping over a very large downward incline, so you shouldn't be scared if you feel like you're going to fail the mission. The part with the running is all at the beginning.


Ring Fit Adventure Exertion Corridor Extra Fitness reach goal in 140 steps hovering
Everything on the ground that's currently on-screen can be hovered over.
Hovering doesn't count as taking a step.


Dragaux is pleased, saying Armando has trained my arms well. (Since your arms are required to hover?)

Ring Fit Adventure Dragaux compliments Armando stellar job training
Dragaux is dishing out compliments to Armando.
(As opposed to using him as...a dish...)


After passing that exam, I head over to the Game Gym featuring Bootstrap Tower (Novice), and they're offering a Defense Drink as a reward for getting an A rank. I got the rank and drank the drink, getting +1 Defense. The next level is Leap-of-Faith Falls, and I'm noticing before I enter that it has a new ingredient: Vine Spinach. Time to drink another Sesame Smoothie! ...And I tried Boat Posing in the first enemy fight, and kind of collapsed because I couldn't get back up, since it requires using your stomach muscles exactly where I have aches. It turns out Boat Pose only measures your arm movements via the Ring-Con (your Leg Strap Joy-Con doesn't do anything) so I...cheated so I could get out of doing that Fit Skill. Uh... the rest of the level involved Squat Trampolines, so blargh, but they were honestly fine. My legs are good. My stomach ain't. I need to eat. Bye!

I took a day off on Wednesday, due to the Direct and all the hype being time-consuming, as well as my weak abs muscles. ...And they're still weak (but not as weak) on Thursday. I don't think it has to do with my eating by this point, so maybe I ruined myself in my sleep... or even by playing Ring Fit Adventure?

Ring Fit Adventure should I exercise if I feel sore tip question answer
I still feel pretty sore, even on Friday, in my left hip area. Probably sleep-related.
(Do I need to consult my doctor...? ...How did the game know this is relevant to show me?)


I lowered the difficulty from 29 to 28 and headed to the Temple of Balance for a miniboss fight against the Green Sufferfish—in the original story, Guru Andma is here and explains that it's her Ball, but in Extra Fitness, there's no such introduction or any appearance by a non-Armando Four Masters in this world. I actually drank an Avocado Smoothie (first battle smoothie consumption of Extra Fitness), which will do me a favour and change all of my Fit Skills to become green-coloured, so they'll all get bonus damage against the Green Sufferfish.

And... for the first time playing Ring Fit Adventure, I failed a MEGA AB GUARD during a boss's super attack, since I decided to try readjusting my posture during the defence, which counted as a bunch of frames where I wasn't defending. TURNS OUT IT'S A ONE-HIT KNOCK-OUT.




It also turns out that the Avocado Smoothie Fit Skill colour-change buff vanished after being OHKO'd. I beat the Green Sufferfish after reviving, and headed to the Thigh Rider (Novice) Game Gym and picked up the Citrine for A-ranking it. In fact, I S-ranked it for the first time, getting 14,400 points. (That's not a perfect score, however.) I spent several minutes afterwards replaying the minigame (Thigh Rider is fun when there's no fog—you actually get to sit down and play the game just with your thighs) until I got a perfect score—14,800 points. ...And then I ended for the day, since the very last level left is Dragaux Stadium.

Ring Fit Adventure Thigh Rider Novice minigame perfect score 14800 points
14,800 is a perfect score. I hope you're not one of those people who are upset it's not 15,000.


What am I doing on Friday? ...Playing Ring Fit Adventure. At Dragaux Stadium, Dragaux brags there are 35 jump ramps in the stadium, and he called it “Knee-Quit” Valley because lots of people quit training there. It turns out what I've been calling “squat launchers” are what “jump ramps” are... we'll see if I stick to official terminology in future KoopaTV publications. (Emphasis on “we”—you, reader, should keep coming back every week. ...Or, come back every weekday if you'd like to be interested in other KoopaTV content, too!)

Ring Fit Adventure jump ramps Dragaux Stadium World 28 knee quit valley
Let's say I was one of those quitting trainers somewhere around here in Dragaux Stadium.
...Where exactly would I go after I decided to stop? Plunge into the river?
(That crate in the corner has a bunch of coins in it, by the way. Look out for goodies.)


Dragaux talks about how he first met the Four Masters in this world, and they all got corrupted by his dark influence and became too lazy to put in the hard work for their exercise—they just wanted the benefits. Everyone got corrupted except myself and Ring. Once we stopped reminiscing, it's on to the fight. Attending this week's boss fight, from left to right: Matta Ray+A, Blue Matta Ray+A, Dragaux, Blue Matta Ray+B, and Matta Ray+B. Your first three turns will be using five-range multihit moves to clear all of the Matta Ray+s, unless you enjoy Dragaux being healed. Then it's a normal 1 vs. 1 fight. When Dragaux got to below half health, he got pissed off, jumped back, and threw a bunch of boulders (one at a time) that we had to break with air blasts from Ring. It takes multiple blasts to shatter each boulder, but some had hearts contained... and you kind of have to try to do nothing to let one smash you.

Ring Fit Adventure slam healthy habits Dragaux Extra Fitness dialogue World 28
...Yeah, Dragaux has the look of a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
(He's still morally superior to Ring.)


After the fight, Dragaux dropped an Onyx stone, as well as a speech about how he wants to spread healthy habits to the world (starting with me), and I leveled up to Level 230. Nothing special with that level. Just wanted to let you know.

Ring Fit Adventure World 28 Exercise Log
I definitely put the most work into this week of any Extra Fitness level so far.



The ARMS Race not only refers to Armando's arm-training that occurred throughout World 28, but also to the unprecedented power-creep experience of being OHKO'd by an enemy. Much bigger stakes than previously. ...Although it's probable that boss super attacks always OHKO you, it's just Ludwig never screwed up to experience it. Until now. Let Ludwig know if you have sleeping or posture tips (or healthy habits) so he can have his body parts not hurt.


Ludwig rematches with Green Sufferfish in Week 29, along with other minibosses.
Ludwig returns to this world in Week 51, except as a third playthrough. It's built around more training.

2 comments :

  1. Not gonna ret until he's slammed healthy habits into the world? That could be a big red flag. Meta Knight attempted a takeover of dreamland because he was disgusted over how lazy dreamland had become... Unrelated but i hate doing squats, what's the worst ringfit exercise you've done so far?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wide Squats, since you have to do a 50-second (depending on difficulty level) Wide Squat against Leg-based super attacks (from Allegra and Guru Andma).

      Delete

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