IaLR: Tier Lists -The Power in Numbers

This blog is presented by IaLR: Tier Lists.

(Music Plays)

Athena presses the button for the Basement, and the elevator door closes. The entire thing rumbles as it slowly descends. The two kind of just stand around as they wait to hit the bottom floor.

Aurora: So we're going back after this, right?
Athena: Once we kick this Shine Fabric's shiny butt, yes.

Aurora kinda just glances around in boredom as the two go quiet again.

As soon as they reach the bottom, the elevator door opens, revealing a huge room where there's an insane amount of ovens, that seem to be operating pretty much automatically. New cookies come out of each oven by dozens, quickly filling the entire room with cookie workers. The cookie workers then go through some special pipes that transport them upwards, presumably to work at the factory.

However, when Athena and Aurora arrive, all the cookies in the room seem rather surprised, as they stop what they're doing and stare at the two of them.

Aurora recognises that this must be where the cookies are being made for the workforce, and possibly to fight the gang as well, as does Athena. Initially caught off guard at the sight, She quickly improvises.

Athena: Uh, hey fellas. You seem busy mass-producing yourselves. Say, do any of you happen to know where your boss is..? We uh... we'd like to have a word with him.

The cookies all blink in unison, standing completely still as Athena talks. As soon as she finishes talking, they continue to stand still for about five seconds... and then suddenly, they all pounce onto Athena simultaneously.

Cookies: (in unison) INTRUDER! INTRUDER! INTRUDER!
Athena: Oh sh- Ah!

Athena tries to shake them off, throwing a few away with her telekinesis, but the goddess is unfortunately overwhelmed. Aurora panics and staggers back and seeing the cookies distracted in their swarming of Athena, she tries to hide behind one of the roaring ovens.

Introduction[]

Wow, has it really been that long since I last made one of these? Last year? Oh boy...

So, we've seen a lot of overpowered builds in many of our previous tier lists. We've seen everything from raging powerful hybrids, terrifying and dominating shadow ninja overlords, mad scientists that dominate the meta with their advanced technology, and much much more. However, there's something very strange about the meta, and it's that the builds that are the most powerful, the top-tiers of the meta, aren't the ones that are always taking the wins.

You can see by our previous lists that characters like PHX-001, Cosmos, Captain Dark Shell, Galaximus and more are some of the most OP characters in the meta. They could easily dominate the meta by raw power and stats. However, for some reason, they don't seem to fare as well as their stats and abilities would suggest at first glance. Why is that the most powerful builds aren't the ones ruling the meta?

Now you may say: "Well duh! The Locked Room Gang always defeats the villains!" And fair enough, it's known that heroes beat villains on a daily basis. But if you look at the stats of most members of the gang, on paper they don't look like they should be able to stand a chance against the more powerful builds. There's not a single S tier among the entire Locked Room Gang, and there's really only a handful of A tiers among them. The gang has more mid-tiers and low-tiers than anything else, but somehow, they keep dominating the meta. How is this possible? What's the secret to their infamous streak of victories?

The answer is quite simple: Team Strats.

Yes, that's right, I've discussed it a few times in previous tier lists, but this time we're really looking at the power in numbers, and how effective team strats are in the current meta. Now, what exactly are team strats? To put it simply, a team strategy is when two or more builds work together in battle to improve their performance. The concept is very simple, but don't underestimate it, because team strats are one of the most OP strategies to exist in the entire meta. They're the reason the Locked Room Gang is such an oppressive force in the meta, and the reason why villains that have many minions working with them are sometimes the most intimidating.

First, let's give a quick overview on how Team Strats can be employed in practice.

Overview[]

So we all understand that team strats are two or more characters working together to achieve a common goal. This can be to defeat a common enemy, or to protect each other from external threats, or to overcome any sort of challenges that neither of the characters can overcome on their own. But there's much more to team strats than just a gang of characters working together. There's many ways team strats can be employed ingame, and how the characters synergize and use their team strats can determine how effective their team-up will be.

Mob Strategy[]

The mob strategy is the most primitive form of team strats, seen most commonly used by low-level minions and mooks. The mob strategy is simple: Every member of the "mob" simply rushes into battle and attacks the target. There's no complex strategy behind this playstyle, which is the main reason why it's so popular among low-level minions, as it doesn't require a high level of intelligence to pull off. If I had to explain the strategy in three words, it would be "overwhelm with numbers".

The main advantage of the mob strategy is that you just have to run in and attack, which is perfect for teams consisting of low intelligence builds, as most minion armies are. Another advantage is that the individual stats of the members of the "mob" don't really matter, since even bottom-tier builds can pose a threat to much stronger builds when they attack them all at once. Sure, Red Fork can be an intimidating powerhouse with high stats, and the average robot pony Bright Spark uses in his armies is a bottom-tier unit that is easily disposed of, but if you mass hundreds of robot ponies together and have them attack Red Fork as a mob, he won't be able to overcome such a massive army.

So what are the disadvantages of the Mob Strategy? Well, first of all, it's very predictable as a strategy. Mobs run head first into battle and attack, trying to overwhelm with numbers. While this can work well if the enemy is caught off guard, it's not effective if the opponent knows how to react to it. Characters with high mobility will be able to outspeed the mob and run away to avoid getting attacked, and if they have a ranged attack they'll be able to take out the mob one by one with hit and run strats.

Mobs are also very vulnerable to characters who have good crowd control. Characters that use explosives such as Red Ruby or Gary Guppy, or anything that does splash damage, such as Scorch's fire blasts or most weather-based attacks like those that Discord, Tornado, Rainbow Dash or Windy Cloud use, will be very effective against large crowds of enemies. And since most characters that use mob strategies tend to be very weak individually, splash damage can easily break down a mob.

Another disadvantage is that mob strategies require a huge number of units in order to be able to offset unfavorable matchups. For example, Red Fork has a crushing matchup against cookies, who are mostly low-tier characters, and can even be eaten by Red Fork. The amount of cookies you'd need in order to beat Red Fork with a mob strategy would be insanely high, and even then most of the cookies would be defeated in the process. There's a point where mob strats just aren't sustainable in the long run, and smarter strategies must be used instead.

Overall, mob strategies are probably the easiest team strategy to use, but it's also one of the least effective, which is why the mob strategy is usually only used by low-tier characters overall.

Army Strategy[]

The Army Strategy is one step above the Mob Strategy in terms of concept. It still has the main idea of using a large number of units to overcome larger challenges, but it's different in that it uses a much more organized approach to how it battles. Instead of each unit just throwing itself against the opponent with no structure or plan, an army acts as a cohesive unit, and generally follows the order of one character who is in charge of leading the battle, this will usually be a tactician. What makes an army strategy better than a mob strategy is that the units synchronize better, and fight in a more orderly manner, following the plans and instructions given to them by their leader. This strategy is most frequently used by units that have some kind of military background, and have tactical knowledge to approach warfare. Characters like Captain Red Shell, Romeo Ruby and Captain Dark Shell have been seen to use army strategies, leading their armies into battle with clear instructions of how to act.

The main advantage the army strategy has above mob strategy is that the units act in a more orderly manner, and thus, the entire group acts as if they had a higher intelligence stat than under the mob strategy. This also minimizes the risk of friendly fire, one of the greater risks of the mob strategy. While friendly fire is hard to avoid with large groups, the army strategy, as it works with a bit more order than the mob strategy, makes friendly fire much less significant than the mob strategy does. Friendly fire is basically when allied characters accidentally attack each other. It's much more of a risk with characters that have ranged attacks, as their projectiles fly oevr a distance before landing, and thus can be accidentally intercepted by an allied unit.

The Army strategy still has the same weakness of the mob strategy in that it's very weak to crowd control, since it's still a large group of units moving together. It also requires at least one high intelligence character to be present to act as a leadership figure for the rest of the group, which gives the enemy a clear target to aim for, since if they take out the leader, the rest of the group will no longer be able to coordinate properly. Overall, this strategy is better than the mob strategy in effectiveness, but there are still better approaches to large-scaled strategic battles.

Surrounding Strategy[]

The surrounding strategy is a very simple yet effective strategy that can be used to great effect, and it's specially helpful against larger and tankier opponents. The strategy is simple: Instead of attacking as one big unit, the units in a surrounding strategy will try to surround the enemy, attacking them from all angles, thus making it very hard for the target to defend itself. This strategy is most effectively used by ranged fighters, who can keep their distance from the target to avoid retaliation while they attack.

The reason why this strategy is so effective is because most builds aren't very good at defending from multiple angles at once. even if a character has a strong defense stat, like Captain Red Shell or Test Subject Blue, having so many different targets attacking them from all angles is hard to defend from. And if they're ranged fighters that are attacking from a distance, it becomes even harder to retaliate, because while you rush to try and take out one of the ranged units, many others will still be striking at you from a distance, slowly draining your HP. This strategy is best used against melee characters, specially if they don't have good mobility, and can be an advanced version of the hit and run strategy, where you harass your opponent constantly with ranged attacks until they go down. And since the units are usually much more spread out during this strategy, crowd control tactics and splash damage aren't nearly as effective as with the previous strategies.

This strategy requires a good amount of coordination, so at least a moderate intelligence stat is required for this strategy to work. It's mostly effective with ranged units, and while melee units can try to pull it off, it's nowhere near as effective as it is with ranged units. The main weakness of this strategy are characters that have a high enough mobility stat to avoid the attacks, and can even use their mobility to bait the units to attack each other, as seen when the gang baits the team of superpowered teens to attack each other, bringing them down easily. Another drawback are the characters who do have options for defending from all angles at once, such as those who can create forcefields, effectively countering attacks from all angles at once. Still, it's a very effective tool that can be very annoying to deal with.

Combo Strategy[]

The Combo strategy is a very powerful tactic that can be used to great effect to one-shot powerful builds that would otherwise be able to easily withstand normal attacks. A combo attack is when two or more characters combine their attacks to create a much more powerful attack, which in many cases doesn't add, but rather multiply their overall effectiveness. This can be seen in action for example when elemental ninjas create elemental combo attacks, that are a combination of different elements. Even when the individual units are too weak to inflict any real damage on the target, combining their attacks can increase their damage output to such an extend that they end up one-shotting their target.

The main advantage of the combo strategy is that it's very hard to tank. It cranks up the power stat of the participants much higher than it usually is, and thus allows for some very powerful combinations that can easily cause a game over to any enemies that are unlucky enough to be hit by them. The Locked Room Gang is notorious for using this kind of strategy on several occasions. Some famous examples include their battle against the Z-Lizard, their battle against Spark-Boss, and more.

The greatest drawback of a combo strategy is that it has a lot of startup lag. usually combo attacks will require several units to come to a complete stop, and focus on charging up the attack together. This leaves a window of opportunity for counterplay, so it's usually recommended to have other units fighting off the enemies or defending the units that will be performing the combo attack to prevent them from being attacked before the combo attack is ready to be launched.

Complementation Strategy[]

One of the most high-level tactical strategies used in the meta, the complementation strategy is simple in concept, yet very powerful, as it can virtually remove the weaknesses of the characters that form part of the team strat. In a complementation strategy, two or more characters work together in a way that they cover each other's weaknesses. This is big, because it can turn two or more very low-tier builds into a huge threat. It requires the characters to have good knowledge of their ally's matchups and abilities, and know how different abilities and stats interact with one another in order to make an effective pairing. When it works though, it can dominate a battle.

For this to work, the characters that use this team strat must be complementary. This means that they should be able to cover each other's weaknesses. Here are a few classic pairings that display how this mechanic works:

Glass Cannon + Tank[]

Take a character that has a very high power stat but bad hp and defense, such as Gary Guppy, and pair them with a character who has great defenses, but lags behind in the damage output, such as Coconut Crab. The result is that these two effectively combine to make a powerful combination. The tank will defend the glass cannon from damage, therefore allowing the glass cannon to easily take out enemies with no fear of being counterattacked.

Ranged Fighter + Melee Fighter[]

Many times there are characters who are very skilled at ranged combat, but run into great troubles when confronted up close in melee combat. Similarly, there are characters who are very brutal with melee combat, but have no counterplay options against ranged units who can attack from a distance. Put the two together and you get a well-rounded team that can easily take care of both threats. Put together a powerful ranged fighter like Lucas with a strong melee combatant like Captain Red Shell, and you've got a very strong combination.

Land Fighter + Air Fighter[]

Fighting against a ground-based enemy is very different from fighting a flying enemy, and many times enemies that have a good matchup against land enemies tend to struggle against flying enemies, and viceversa. Therefore, combining a powerful land build like Dark Shadow, and an agile flyer like Black Gem, will be very helpful to leave the opponent open to attack. If they focus on dealing with the land fighter, they'll fall prey to the flying unit, and if they focus on anti-air coverage, they'll usually get bodied by the land unit.

Elemental Complementation[]

Usually, if a unit is resistant to one elementa, they'll have a weakness against another. So if two or more units each have a different elemental specialty, they'll have great coverage, so that no matter what element the opponent is weak to, they'll have a good answer for it. A good example of this phenomenon could be for example, Scorch and Electra. Fire is weak against water, but electricity covers that matchup. Meanwhile, plant-based enemies are resistant to electricity, but Scorch's fire attacks can cover that matchup just fine. There's many different combinations that can be very effective, but the main point is to have different elements on your team so that you have an answer for just about anything.

Speedster + Tank[]

Usually, characters that specialize in mobility tend to do so be being lighter. Being lightweight means you can move faster, but it also means you have to sacrifice hp and defense. Meanwhile, tanks tend to excel and defense and hp, but tend to lack a lot on mobility. For the most part, characters who specialize in defeating one of the two tends to struggle against the other. For example, ranged fighters tend to excel against slow tanks because they can keep their distance while attacking safely from a distance, but tend to struggle against speedsters since those can avoid their attacks, and just run up to them to end the encounter. Meanwhile, stealth units can sneak up on a speedy unit and one-shot them before they can run away. However, tanks can endure their attacks, thus making the stealth approach ineffective. With both a tank and a speedster, for example Wall-Knight and Solar Flare, you can easily cover both matchups effectively.

There are many other combinations like this that exist, but I hope you can see just how powerful this complementation strategy is. It's the bread and butter of the Locked Room gang's fighting strategies. This explains why they can overcome all kinds of opponents. Where one member of the gang is weak, another is strong, and thus unified, they are a formidable force.

Fusion Strategy[]

The last team strat we'll explain is one of the most rare, but most powerful team strats there is. A fusion strategy is where multiple weaker units fuse to become one much stronger unit. The concept of fusion is very well demonstrated with the gems from Steven Universe, where two builds can combine their bodies to form a much stronger gem that is more powerful than the sum of its parts.

In the current meta, this strategy is very rarely used, but the most well-known example is the one the seven gemstones use to turn into one of the most powerful builds in the game, the Legendary Rainbow Gem. In this form, the seven fuse into a single unit, which is much stronger than the seven gemstones would be on their own. It's definitely one of the most powerful team strategies in the entire meta, and while it's used very infrequently, when it does get used, it can inspire fear in the hearts of enemies.

The hybrids are another good example of fusion strategy. But instead of two or more units fusing into a larger unit, a hybrid is basically a build that's composed of several different builds in one. The fact that hybrids are regarded as one of the strongest classes in the game is a clear sign of how strong the fusion strategy is.

Conclusion[]

I know this episode has been different from what we're used to doing in this series, but I really hope it has given you a lot of valuable insight on the power of team strats in the current meta. The Locked Room Gang owes its success in the current meta to its usage of powerful team strategies. They're definitely the best example of why team strategies are one of the most overpowered mechanics in the meta.

Hm... this tier list episode ended faster than I expected. How about we do something new? We've reviewed so many different builds over the course of this series, why don't we try a death match puzzle? This should be interesting.

Ok, so please look at the following image:

Ok, so this is the puzzle I want you guys to try and solve. It goes like this: There are eight groups composed of character clones. As you can see in the image, the groups are:

-50 Lemon Glass clones

-7 Captain Red Shell clones

-3 Red Fork clones

-1 Silver Blast clone

-25 Gerald clones

-5000 Re-Peat Moss clones

-8 Starcade clones

-5 Kyoji clones

You must pick two groups to defend you, and every group you don't choose will try to kill you. Think very carefully about this one. Which two groups would you choose to defend you in order to survive? Be sure to share your answers in the comment section below, and don't forget to defend your answer, explain why you think the two groups you chose are the correct answer to this puzzle. I'm looking forward to seeing your answers!

And that's all for today! I hope you enjoyed this episode of IaLR: Tier Lists. Remember to stay alert for new entries in the series. If there's any set of characters or any aspect of the game you'd like us to analyze, feel free to request it in the comment section below. Have a great day!

"Quoted from Shadows of War"

Blast: Jason, you're back!
Ace: I sent my students somewhere safe. They'll be fine.
Red Fork: Whoa, that was something.
Ace: Well, if we're going to confront a evil shadow warrior that took over the multiverse, we might as well do it together, right?
Blast: *hugs Ace*
Ace: *hugs Blast*
Boom: Save the hugs for later, look ahead!

The pile of ruins starts shaking. Suddenly, Captain Dark Shell manages to break free from the pile of ruins, and looks at the gang with a death stare.

Bonk Choy: Uh oh.
Akasha: Back for more, after having foolishly fallen for the oldest trick in the book?
Green Shadow: It doesn't matter, the final battle begins now!
???: You bet it's gonna begin!

The gang looks behind them, and sees Team Hybrids, the Retro Rebels, The Mane Six, Red Spoon, Dark Shadow, Black Gem, the cookies, the food delegates, Paula Python, their allies from the Blocked Room Gang and everyone else.

Red Fork: Guys, you made it!
Iron Heart: Thought we'd miss this?
Ink Splash: Let's show this shadow warrior what the Locked Room Gang is capable of!
Viking: He's going down!
Captain Dark Shell: All of you? What kind of hypnosis do you use, Locked Room Gang!?

Captain Dark Shell uses his ability to send the shadow aura and darken everything, causing everyone to fall to the ground by the insufferable pain. Well, everyone except Ace, who is still standing strong.

Captain Dark Shell: What?
Ace: I've spent ten years with the Shadow Sensei torturing me. I've felt worse.

Ace levitates Captain Dark Shell, and tosses him back into the ruins. This interrupts the effect of the shadow aura again, and everyone stops feeling in pain. Captain Dark Shell breaks out of the ruins again, and looks ready to really start fighting. His sword glows with a shadow aura.

Red Fork: Alright, it's our chance! With all our strength together, we can take him down!
Tsunami: Let's do it then!
???: You bet we're going to do it!

Blizzard, Earthquake, Tornado, Wildfire and Thunderstorm appear as well, firing a five god-element combo at Captain Dark Shell, dealing huge damage to him and sending him flying into the ruins again.

Tsunami: Ancient God-Element Ninjas?
Earthquake: We're not going to let that dark crustacean continue his madness any longer!
Tornado: That hit felt great though!
Wildfire: And he felt the burn!
Thunderstorm: Stop talking, and let's charge up another combo before he returns.
Blizzard: Good thinking, Thunderstorm!
Thunderstorm: What would you expect? I'm the smartest.
Earthquake: Whatever.
Tsunami: Good to see that you're helping us out again. I almost thought you left helping us for good.
Blizzard: Yes, but this isn't going to make us allies, understood?
Tsunami: For now, I suppose. Let's do it!
Tornado: Yeah, girl!

The six Ancient Ninjas of the God-Elements charge up another powerful god-element combo, while waiting for Captain Dark Shell to return from the ruins. However, this time Captain Dark Shell teleports right behind them, and slashes them violently before they realize what is happening, thus interrupting the combo.

Captain Dark Shell: The horn of destruction has been played. It is time for all of you to be sent to your graves.
Red Fork: I don't know about any "horn of destruction", but check these horns out!

Red Fork, Blue Ocean, Twilight, Rarity, Iron Heart and Red Spoon put their horns together, and create a tremendous sextuple magic combo. Captain Dark Shell counters it with a powerful shadow beam. The six unicorns struggle to outmatch Captain Dark Shell's beam. Howeve,r before they can overpower the beam, Captain Dark Shell stops it, teleports to behind the six ponies, and slashes them. Twilight quickly makes a forcefield to defend the six unicorns, while Red Spoon shoots a shower of fire blasts at Captain Dark Shell with his frying pan.

Twilight: Stop it Captain Dark Shell. You're not even fighting fair.
Captain Dark Shell: I'm not fighting fair? Well, it's one against fifty! What do you expect?

Captain Dark Shell levitates Twilight with a shadow art, and tosses her into the ruins. Red Fork quickly dashes to the ruins, and catches Twilight before she crashes.

Gary Guppy: Time to get crazy!
Scorch: Fire!
Windy Sails: Cannonball!

Windy Sails shoots cannonballs at Captain Dark Shell with her houseboat, while Gary Guppy tosses bombs and Scorch shoots fire blasts. Captain Dark Shell uses his sword to block the cannon balls, while he teleports to avoid the bombs and fire blasts.

Captain Dark Shell: Don't prolong it. Your fate is still the same!
Coffee Cookie: I don't think so. Hey, Gary Guppy, have some coffee! *gives Gary Guppy a cup of coffee*
Starry: Wait, what did she say?
Blowy: That's too dangerous!
Gary Guppy. Sure. *drinks some coffee, and suddenly, he goes crazy, jumping around while tossing bombs at Captain Dark Shell and laughing maniacally.*
Starry: And... he lost it.
Coconut Crab: To be fair, he never had it.
Captain Red Shell: As long as he can canalize his energy to attack Captain Dark Shell, this is a good thing.

Captain Dark Shell tries to slash Gary Guppy, but he's moving too fast and erratically. Meanwhile, Red Fork, Boom and Boulder charge towards Captain Dark Shell, and use their brute strength to deal powerful damage at him.

Red Fork: Ha!
Boulder: Not bad.
Boom: Want some more?
Captain Dark Shell: Ugh... I will not lose to the likes of you!

Captain Dark Shell summons yet another storm of shadow blasts over the gang, damaging many members of the gang in just a few seconds.

Jelo: *attempts to stand up* Alright, time for a slashdown! *runs at Dark Shell and slashes him*
Star: Light Swoosh Attack!

Star's wand shoots a beam of light that swooshes around Captain Dark Shell, attacking him.

Starcade: He's distracted! Retro Rebels, surround him!
Test Subject Blue: Got it.
Viking: Let's do it!

While Captain Dark Shell is distracted by Jelo and Star, Starcade and her entire team of Retro Rebels surround Captain Dark Shell and perform a wide variety of attacks on him from all sides, dealing powerful damage to him.

Pink Angel: We're doing great!
Hot Air: Nothing can stop us now!
Viking: You'll never put out the flames of war in us, Captain Dark Shell!
Smokey Bacon: Perhaps we'll put out his! Ready, Licorice?

Licorice and Smokey Bacon combine their ice breaths and shoot a powerful ice breath, which freezes Captain Dark Shell in place. Captain Dark Shell frees himself from the ice with a powerful shadow explosion.

Captain Dark Shell: That's it, you asked for it.

Captain Dark Shell uses his power again to make everyone except Ace fall to an insufferable pain. Ace quickly charges towards Captain Dark Shell to attack, but Captain Dark Shell teleports, ending his expansive attack over the gang. However, just as the gang is recovering, Captain Dark Shell appears above them, and summons another shower of shadow blasts over them, dealing tremendous damage, and even leaving several of them unconscious.

Marco: Star? Star?! Star, are you okay?
Star: Yeah...just wounded...
Jelo: Dark.... Shell...I think.... it's time to stop! *slashes Captain Dark Shell again, but weakly due to damage* Augh...*falls down* I...won't...give...up....

Akasha teleports to behind Captain Dark Shell and firing a powerful shadow blast. Captain Dark Shell blocks it with his sword, but while he's doing that, Blizzard, Tsunami, Tornado, Wildfire and Thunderstorm emerge from their hiding spots and perform their individual god-element attacks on him, dealing rapid damage. As Captain Dark Shell gets blasted to the ground by one of Thunderstorm's lightning bolts, Earthquake is on the ground waiting. As Captain Dark Shell gets close enough to Earthquake, the latter grabs him and swings him around, before tossing him into the air and punching him into the ruins of a destroyed building.

Earthquake: Oh man, that felt good! Did you guys see that?
Thunderstorm: Yes, but this is no time to celebrate, Earthquake.
Tsunami: We have to keep fighting!
Blizzard: Ancient Ninjas, let's charge up another combo before he returns.

The six Ancient God-Element Ninjas charge up another god-element combo while waiting for Captain Dark Shell to show up again.

Jelo: *stands up, in pain* Ugh....what did I miss?
Captain Dark Shell: *appears above the gang* This!

Captain Dark Shell levitates all the God-Element Ninjas, and swings them around in the air, smashing them against trees, rocks and ruins, before finally tossing them at the ruins of a collapsed building, leaving them very weak.

Captain Dark Shell: That'll teach those annoying ninjas a thing or two.
Ink Splash: Time for the hybrids round. Let's do this!

Ink Splash grows to giant size, and attacks Captain Dark Shell. He moves around swiftly, dodging Ink Splash's attacks. However, this leaves him distracted, opening an opportunity for the other hybrids to strike.

Dark Trident: That's my cue to strike!

Dark Trident charges towards Captain Dark Shell, before leaping above and landing on him, smashing him with his massive weight. While Captain Dark Shell is buried under Dark Trident, Pincers grabs Crusade and throws her towards him. As Crusade flies past Captain Dark Shell, she deals a laser katana slash on him.

Pincers: Nice hit!
Crusade: Thanks, Pincers.
Captain Dark Shell: Ugh... this isn't over yet!

Captain Dark Shell breaks free with a powerful shadow explosion, sending Dark Trident into a pile of ruins. He then shoots dozens of shadow blasts at Ink Splash, dealing heavy damage on her. However, while this happens, Tommy sneaks up from behind Captain Dark Shell.

Tommy: *grabs a microphone* I say it's time for a sing-along!
Blast: Take cover!

Tommy begins singing at full volume. Captain Dark Shell takes serious damage as he is pushed back by the waves of sound, and several buildings begin to collapse. Once Tommy has finished singing, Captain Dark Shell has been left buried in a bunch of ruins again. He breaks free once again, but now looks significantly more exhausted and weakened.

Red Fork: Look! We're exhausting him!
Ace: All our attacks have weakened him.
Green Shadow: It's time for the final blow!
Red Ruby: Yeah, I've been waiting for this moment! *takes out dynamite sticks*
Sean Sapphire: I'm pretty sure that's not what she meant about "blow".
Red Ruby: You're probably right.
Amelia Amethyst: So what's next?
Ace: We've done very well, but we need even more power if we're going to defeat Captain Dark Shell.
Blast: So, an elemental ninja combo?
Ace: That won't be enough.
Red Fork: How about a magic combo?
Ace: That won't do either. What we need is a new type of combo. One made by the combined powers of all of us.
Red Fork: Alright then. Let's get ready to do this! Let's show this shadow warrior the real power of teamwork!
Jelo: I've got my sword ready!
Star: Got my wand!
Marco: Get ready for the power of teamwork!
Jaiden: Charging up! *charges an ice beam*
Green Shadow: We're ready!
Sakura: I'm ready to show that crab not to mess with my brother!
Starcade: So am I!
Diana Diamond: Me too!
Tsunami: If we're all ready, let's strike!
Ink Splash: Got it!
Blackberry Cookie: Ready.
Gary Guppy: Let's do this!
Florette: We're ready.
Windy Sails: Let's get this show on the road!
Blade: Time to finish the job.
Green Shadow: Great! Everyone, ready to finish off Captain Dark Shell?
Everyone else: Ready!
Green Shadow: Captain Dark Shell, for everything you have done to the multiverse, we as a team hereby declare this war...over!

The gang and their allies perform one last combo against Captain Dark Shell, this time together. Captain Dark Shell prepares himself to counter the combo.

Jelo: And now!
Red Fork: We are the Locked Room Gang!

Everyone works together to perform an ultimate combo towards Captain Dark Shell. Captain Dark Shell tries to counter it with shadow beam of his own, but it's no use. He is overpowered by the ultimate combo attack, and is finally defeated. The gang sees as Captain Dark Shell falls to the ground, defeated, and drops the amulets.