Hi, I didn't mean to ignore this, I just wanted to get more info, play around with it, do some comparisons, etc.
The sequence I listed was off... it was from memory only. The sequence should be to stock up on about 16 Lava and Frozen potions each, Tribute All Stats to Lady Cobra, Lose until you get to Level 5, Take the Potions until ATK/DEF can no longer be increased, Recover All Stats from Lady Cobra, repeat process.
So I played through from the beginning and it's possible to start this cheap level up process before unlocking Lady Cobra EX. This will prevent Lady Cobra from keeping all the levels tributed. I used it starting from level 13 and I noticed that the damage I was doing wasn't increasing and my ATK was maxed out at 999 around level 85 at about 12.5 hrs total gameplay time. DEF had not yet maxed out. DEF maxed at 999 at level 93. At level 99 Ethan maxes out on levels with
MHP 7319
MP 841
ATK 999
DEF 999
MAT 114
MDF 111
AGI 307
LUK 234
I downloaded a hotkey script maker, set up a script to keep inputting the space bar. Knowing I would always defeat Lily level 1, I stood in front of Lily, activated the script and went to sleep/work/etc. to see what a "clean" level 99 Ethan would look like. ATK ended up at 514 and DEF at 471. All other stats maxed out the same. Cheap leveling up would no longer allow my max ATK and DEF to increase. This took over 120 hours of game time, though I wasn't even there for most of it.
With 999 ATK, you can get Karen and Rose down to 0 MHP. If this happens, Karen says "Nope." Rose says "..." and they'll pop back up to full MHP without further explanation.
Potential downsides to doing this is if a similar boost method for some other stat necessary to proceed is introduced in upcoming versions.
Also, a little more information regarding Yvonne's attack pattern. For each color shown on her boots, the first two times a color shows, she will kick and the third time the color shows she will grapple. The exceptions are when she drinks a potion or uses her boot sniffing attack. They count in the sequence and will replace the kick or grapple move. There is also no grapple move associated with her orange colored Fire Technique.
Green Attacks: Disfiguring Roundhouse, Head Scissors, Waist Squeeze (no boots)
Red Attacks: Blade Roundhouse, Lifting Handjob, Boot Trap (no boots)
Yellow Attacks: Taser Roundhouse, Rapid Kick, Trample (no boots)
This sequence persists with her boots removed. Even if her boots are removed, keeping track of which attacks she's done can give the player a good idea about if using insulation or grab block would be a wasted turn.
