Indomitable Survivor – Tachion Nodachi Rubi | Kingdom Death: Monster White Box Review

Infinite reflections of kaleidoscopic colors blinded her eyes. She shut them to the painful light, feeling the strange current carrying her through the monster's mystifying bowels. Visions of her own death visited her panicked mind, replicating, rewinding, rewriting her gruesome ending until the epiphany froze her body. Its sudden stillness loosed her, slipping faster and faster for interminable ages until the pain of impact upon the stone-faced ground woke her. The monster wheeled around, straining its neck to peck open her heaving chest. The fatal wound was, but then was not. She struck back, spilling the monster's shimmering guts at her feet. From the mess she plucked a seed that blinked in and out of existence even as she held it fast in her fist.

Contents:

• 1x Tachyon Nodachi - Rubi hard plastic miniature

• 1x Hard plastic Kingdom Death 30mm base and insert

• 1x Neutron Seed Phoenix indomitable resource card

• 1x Tachyon Nodachi pattern card

• 1x Tachyon Nodachi gear card

• 1x Install guide card

• 1x Large matte art print

The Miniature

Rubi is clad in a lighter version of the standard Phoenix Armor set. This alternative version looks a lot like the designs we see for People of the Sun. Given that campaign leans more into the use of Katanas along with less heavy clothing due to the extreme heat given off by their slumbering benefactor it is possible that she is from a Sun settlement.

Rubi's weapon here is a field sword (direct translation of nodachi) and is a weapon that reached the height of usage and popularity in 14th century Japan. This weapon is too large to be carried on the waist, a detail that has been maintained in Rubi's miniature and when in the scabbard they would typically be strapped onto the samurai's back. These weapons were notoriously difficult to both craft and use because of their length. This difficulty in smithing makes the Nodachi a fantastic candidate for an Indomitable Weapon.

Rubi is an astonishingly wonderful sculpt. The attention to detail here, both the traditional elements based on historical designs and the adaptation to reflect on this sword's phoenix origin are gorgeous. I especially like the alterations to the spalduers that Rubi has on her shoulders when compared to the standard phoenix ones.

The Game Content

The Tachon Nodachi follows the same templating as all Indomitable Gear; defeat a L3 version of the monster, in this case The Phoenix, and then you get to draw a random Indomitable Resource. If you draw the Neutron Seed; which I'd like to note has the stone keyword making it an unusual resource, then you gain the Tachyon Nodachi pattern, allowing for crafting a copy of the Tachyon Nodachi following the limitation that there can only be one of this gear card present in the settlement at any time.

Tachyon Nodachi

1x Neutron Seed, 1x Phoenix Crest, 2x Iron, 3x Perfect Bone, 7x Hide

This is an eye wateringly expensive weapon to craft when compared to many other Indomitable Patterns, but it is thematically appropriate when you consider the sheer size of the weapon and that it is constructed with its scabbard as part of the cost. The Seed and Crest are both gained directly when defeating an L3 Phoenix, so the main bottleneck here is the triple Perfect Bone cost. As such if you plan to try and get this weapon, you should be saving Perfect Bones in advance. In truth the Perfect Bone cost is the largest drag factor on this weapon due to it having the Irreplacable negability. If the survivor holding this weapon dies or ceases to exist then the weapon archives itself. So this is not a weapon we want to use unless we're very much in the monster pubstomping portion of our settlement's lifespan.

The attack profile of the weapon is one of the better ones as a (3/5+/11/Reach 2) weapon. This is one of the first Phoenix weapons we've seen outside of the Finger of God that seeks to synergise with the armor set's monster movement bonus. I've been a huge advocate of reach weapons in combination with Phoenix and Dragon Armor for many years now, and this is one of the strongest leaning into that we've seen to date. To briefly explain, when you are using a “monster movement” ability such as the Phoenix Armor's Charge you are normally locked into a specific movement pattern that limits the spaces you'll be able to attack.

Charge

A gear special rule. Survivors spend movement and activation to move the maximum available spaces in a straight line in one direction. At the end of movement, if in range, perform an attack using a melee weapon, adding the number of spaces moved in this way to your strength for the attack. Charge does not impact any further attacks this turn.

In the case of Charge, as we can see, the survivor has to move in a straight line, and they must move the maximum number of spaces. This means if you are not directly in line with the monster, or have the right movement to halt either adjacent to it on either side, you cannot use this ability. Reach 2 however changes this because you are able to attack from further away, meaning that against a 2x2 (4 square) monster the number of spaces you could attack it from increases from 6 to 14 (A 3x3 monster goes from 9 to 20). That's a significantly larger area, and another tip is you can avoid overshooting the sides of the monster by placing another survivor in the path of the Charging survivor. It's also very thematic to have Reach 2 on what is an absolutely massive weapon.

My favourite part of this weapon however is the pop culture reference that it makes to the beloved JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Skip the rest of this review if you want to watch that series and haven't managed it yet. Honestly, if you're interested in this series and you've not seen it, go watch it because honestly it's absolute gold, especially the ending of Stardust Crusaders which is such an incredible pay off for not just the Crusaders arc, but also the two seasons that came before it. It's on Netflix or Crunchy Roll, just be aware the first season is important for building the story arcs that continue throughout the following five parts. Sorry Jonathan Joestar, you deserved better, but Araki needed time to grow as a writer and your part suffers because of it.

Oh before we get onto it, yes I am going to recommend this one. Indomitable Resources and Gear are amazing and the Phoenix needs more of them. This is a good one.

SPOILERS: Stardust Crusaders (Part 3) and Light Spoilers for Part 4 in the rest of this review.

In specific the Phoenix's Time Stop ability, this trap card on the Phoenix is in reference to the series' primary antagonist Diego Brando or DIO (GOD) as he comes to call himself after his resurrection from the ocean. DIO was decapitated by Jonathan Joestar at the climax of the first season Phantom Blood. However, Diego had been infected by vampirism (caused by a stone mask, it's a whole thing and the second season gets into it more) and his head was smuggled onto the ship that Jonathan and his wife Erina were travelling from England to America on. A confrontation broke out resulting in Jonathan dying (killing the lead character was a HUGE risk for a manga to take) and the ship sinking, with Diego's head clutched firmly in the deathgrip of Jonathan.

Many years later, DIO would be reborn from his oceanic coffin and began his plans to take over the world and reforge it in his image. He stole Jonathan's body for this, fusing his head onto Jonathan's neck. This act had reverberations down the Joestar family line and Jonathan's Grandson Joseph Joestar (Lead character from the second season who had faced down and defeated the creators of the Stone Mask) and Jonathan's Great Grandson Jotaro Kujo (Voiced wonderfully by the talented Matthew Mercer in the English dub) would begin a journey to slay DIO and save Jotaro's mother (Joseph's daughter) from an inherited illness that was killing her.

The big switch in this series when compared to the previous two was the introduction of Stands, ghost-like manifestations of a character's personality and will. Jotaro's stand is named Star Platinum (All the early Stands were named after tarot cards) and it is a powerful short range punching ghost with reflexes and speed that approach near light speed. DIO's stand is shrouded in mystery for most of the story, however near the end we learn that it is called The World and it is another powerful, fast, short-range stand with an additional ability called “Time Stop”. This ability allows DIO to halt the passage of time for short periods (well short periods that are seconds stretched out to minutes because of anime things) and this makes him incredibly dangerous, especially when the Crusaders have no idea what The World can do.

Eventually, in his dying moments, the absolute all-star JoBro that is Kakyoin figures out what The World's big trick is and manages to get a message to Joseph who passed it onto Jotaro, the last Crusader Standing (Technically Polnareff is still alive, but I don't have time here to gush about how Polnareff is the real lead character of Stardust Crusaders). This results in honestly one of the best showdowns between two characters I've ever had the joy of watching (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure absolutely kicks the doors down with how good the end of each story arc is) while also paying off hints that have been turning up that Star Platinum is capable of more than Jotaro is aware of. During one of DIO's time stops, Jotaro manages to trick DIO into coming close enough to punch and reveals that Star Platinum, being the Stand belonging to a descendant of Jonathan (DIO's body) is also capable of stopping time.

Why have I written about all of this (outside of how much I love JoJo's)? Well the Tachion Nodachi has the Time Stop ability taken from the Phoenix and how this is done references the DIO vs. Jotaro battle. The Phoenix can Time Stop multiple times and it is pretty much a natural part of its time control abilities, while it can't stop time repeatedly, it can draw and play its trap card Time Stop multiple times during a showdown and is able to achieve a lot during it in the way that DIO can. The Nodachi ability “Time stops” in contrast is able to generate a second act right after the wielder's current act during which the monster is unable to react and all other survivors are held in place by being doomed. This is Jotaro/Star Platinum's version of the same ability, a lot harder to use for the wielder and even the 'using it after your act' directly references how Jotaro uses the ability to defeat DIO by chaining Time Stops.

Also while we're talking about the reference, Rubi's name is possibly a tribute to the MacGuffin of JoJo's second series, which is the Red Stone of Aja, a ruby that the antagonists Esidisi, Wammu and Kars are seeking.

If you read all of this, thank you as I rarely get the chance to discuss how much I enjoy this Manga/Anime series (Usually I only watch the animated movies such as Studio Ghibli or the wonderful movie Your Name). I wanted to fully unpack this because it's not only a great moment in the show (and I know I mentioned it before but Matt Mercer's performance as Jotaro during that entire battle goes so damn hard) but also it's a set up and pay off within Kingdom Death that's taken around a decade to complete and I really love that.

To return to the weapon's version of the ability, this is a really strong ability that can cause massive devastation to a monster, the user gets to chain two entire acts one after another and the second one cancels all reactions. With a weapon that has this much strength, many monsters are going to get badly torn up and it can be used either as a blistering opener or to close out showdowns. But a key thing to pay attention to is that monsters still get to trigger traps, as such you should be careful with when you are going to trigger this, using HL scouting/manipulation is helpful, but another simple step is to ensure that the HL deck is as full as possible when you go for this extra attack.

Final Thoughts

The Indomitable Resources have done a lot to make hunting the Phoenixes more engaging and this Nodachi continues that tradition by giving us a powerful weapon that works with the armor set while also referencing one of the most important franchises for Kingdom Death (Berserk is obviously more important, but never underestimate how many things are a JoJo reference). As such I highly recommend this one, now if you excuse me, I'm going to start watching JoJo's Bizarre Adventure again. I can't wait to watch the moment where Jotaro comes face to face with Kira for the first time during Heart Attack Part 1 & Part 2 from Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable.