Pacesetter/Strategy

## Gag Builds

Across the whole team, it's recommended to have a good supply of single target damage that can be used on the Pacesetter (i.e. Throw, Trap, and/or Drop), as he has a lot of health to burn through. As well as either Squirt or Zap to be able to contribute to Squirt or Zap Rush Jobs. It is recommended to have at least two of every Gag Track, or in some cases, to have more than just two of those Gag Tracks. Typically for this battle, any Squirtless Zapless build is not good.

Following these recommendations makes securing any combination of Rush Jobs much easier, especially considering there is a chance for multiple Rush Jobs of the same track to be given in a turn. This also makes it so Toons won't as easily run out of strong Gags of a given track to use for a Rush Job. Rush Jobs can be 'ignored' by killing the Cogs through other means, but your builds shouldn't rely on the possibility of being able to do that.

A 5/5 build is not recommended for this fight as it is most susceptible to running out of powerful Gags to use later in the battle. Multiple 5/5 builds in a team risk intensifying this potential issue, and can also cause an issue of not having enough Toons with Gag Tracks needed to satisfy turns with multiple Rush Jobs of the same Gag. If you and your team use your Gags wisely, you will have enough Gags to use and power within those Gags with a 6/3 or 6/4 build. For slightly higher flexibility, but slightly less potential to end the fight as fast as possible, a 7/2 build could also be used. While an 8/0 build isn't terrible for this fight, as usual for an 8/0 build, the lack of Prestiges can cause inconveniences sometimes.

## General

Some important things to consider throughout the fight:

* **Prioritize using higher level Gags on the Pacesetter only**, *especially* Pianos and TNTs. Use lower level Gags for satisfying Rush Jobs on other Cogs. If you use your higher level Gags too carelessly, your team will find it difficult, or worse, impossible, to finish the battle without having to burn extra Unites or Counterfeits to stay in the fight.
	+ **Bring more Level 4s than Level 5s**, as you're able to hold more Level 4s than Level 5s and you have more wiggle room from Moving Goalposts if you've expunged all of your high level Gags.
* It is good to get damage dealt to the Pacesetter at one's leisure, but **it is also important to minimize taking damage from the Pacesetter's additional Cogs by making diligent use of Lure**. His HP is very, very high, and Rush Jobs can often make it difficult to slam him with tons of damage per turn. Sometimes to the point where you may not get to attack him at all. The Pacesetter as a lone attacker does manageable damage with his basic attacks. However, your whole team can swiftly collapse if 4 high level Cogs who could all deploy devastating AOE attacks are left unattended.
	+ Since dealing damage quickly to the Pacesetter isn't a high priority, it's a good idea to **save higher level Prestige Throw Gags until the self-heal can be fully utilized**, especially with Encore active.
	+ That being said, it is unlikely to always keep your whole team healthy, so keep in mind not to over-prioritize Luring or using Toon-Up.

### **Mile-a-Minute**

* **Saying what Gag Track you are going to use in chat before your turn begins** can be very helpful, as you will have less and less time to decide what Gags to pick as the fight progresses. If you and another Toon have called the same Rush Job, quickly decide which Toon will actually fulfill that Rush Job. Usually, it's good to just let the first person who called the Rush Job to take care of it. Additionally, naming the Cog alongside the Gag Track when there are multiple Rush Jobs for the same track can lower potential confusion and chaos. An example of a good Rush Job call with multiple Rush Jobs for the same Gag in the field would be "Throw Baron" or "Zap Honcho".
* **Stay calm!** This fight uses a lot of visual and audio tricks to make it seem much harder than it really is. If you aren't experienced with this fight yet or haven't beat the Pacesetter before, you might get overwhelmed by how fast everything is going. However, despite the fast animations and music, this fight isn't actually that fast. At its fastest, you get 6 seconds to select a gag. Try fighting a regular Cog on a street and see how slow 6 seconds really is. Just keep this in mind if the fight seems like it's too fast for you.

### **Rewards**

* **Be very careful with your Unite usage.** Prevent unnecessary Unites from being used by having one person announce before the Cogs start attacking that they will hover over a Unite, and be sure to announce if you are on a Reward Cooldown as well.
* **Be careful with your Counterfeit usage**. It can be helpful in the long term to Forge multiple Gags, but be aware of the Reward Cooldown placed on you when you Forge a Level 6 Gag or higher.

### **Rush Jobs**

* **Always prioritize completing Rush Jobs** before doing anything else. If the Rush Jobs are completed, the remaining Toons can then focus on attacking the Pacesetter for chip damage or using Toon-Up. If for any reason, that all Rush Jobs are simply not possible to complete, attempt to Lure as many Cogs as possible and be sure that everyone will have enough Laff to survive all incoming damage that turn, including the Hurry Sickness damage. If they happen to be safe enough already, deal as much damage to the Pacesetter as you can before your team gets inflicted with Hurry Sickness.
* **Trap does *not* need to be activated with Lure for it to count** towards completing a Trap Rush Job. Placing it on the Cog still counts as credit.
* **Zap is the most dangerous Rush Job**, as it will only count as credit if Squirt is used before the Zap hits. If there are more than one Zap/Squirt Rush Jobs, while rare, it can put you in a state where the Rush Jobs are impossible to fully comply when trying to complete them normally.
* **Multiple failed Rush Jobs at once will count as if only one had failed.** Assuming you did also not use a banned Gag, the +10 more damage from Hurry Sickness will never stack with itself in the same round.
* **You can destroy Cogs with a Rush Job on them with another Gag** and as long as the Rush Jobs on the remaining Cogs have been fulfilled. Otherwise, no one will be penalized with Hurry Sickness. This is referred to as "ignoring" a Rush Job. This can be a good option to take if there are too many useless Rush Jobs on Cogs with dangerously low HP. If your team is opting to do this, don't forget about the 40% reduced damage Rush Job Cogs take from Gags other than the ones their Rush Jobs require.
* **Avoid using high level Gags when you have the Hurry Sickness debuff.** Hurry Sickness reduces Gag effectiveness by a percentage, which affects higher level Gags more than lower level ones. Absolutely avoid using your strongest attacks during Hurry Sickness, but also make sure that you aren't healing too much. If only Pacesetter is attacking, you'll be guaranteed to survive a turn if everyone has at least 45 Laff. So, if you can guarantee that no other attacks will hit your team, it can be a good idea to use lower level Toon-Up Gags. Even though you'll be on low HP, it'll be much more effective in the long run to wait until the turn *after* Hurry Sickness where High Dive will heal 45 HP each rather than 27.

### **Content Sync**

* **Pay attention to the rearranged Gag order caused by Content Sync** once the Pacesetter starts using it. Be sure to especially keep in mind which Gags come before Lure and which Gags come after Lure, as the order may change the course of action your team takes to fulfill Rush Jobs.
	+ **Gags that come before Lure will be referred to as "safe" by players**, and **Gags that come after Lure will be referred to as "unsafe"**. If a teammate says something like "Trap if" or "Lure if", they mean that they will use that track if a Gag to be used in a Rush Job is "unsafe" or "safe" respectively.
	+ **An easy way to check the Gag order is to glance on the left side of the Gag menu**, where the Gag Tracks are listed by name. By checking where the text is, rather than where the Gag icons are, it can be much easier to see the colors of each row of the Gag menu.
* **Drop still needs accuracy boosts** for combos to be consistent. Even a Drop Rush Job only grants perfect accuracy to the weakest Drop Gag used against that Cog. It's important to look at what Gags come before Drop if you plan to do a huge combo on Pacesetter. Squirt, Throw, and even Trap can grant a stun. Even a Trap not being used with Lure grants a stun.

### **Moving Goalposts:**

* Banned
* Not Banned
1/2
* **Avoid using your left and right arrow keys to swap between Gags** if you've changed your mind after selecting. This makes it more likely for you to accidentally swap to a banned Gag. However, if at first you accidentally select a banned Gag, using your arrow keys is a quick way to swap off of that Gag. Only one Gag per track can be banned, so you are guaranteed to choose an unbanned Gag no matter the direction.
* **Pay attention when you Forge a Gag.** If a Forged Gag becomes banned, the green color from Forging will replace the banned red. The only way to tell if this Gag has been banned is after selecting it. You could notice that it is the only track without a banned Gag, but you are likely to miss this due to the speed of the fight.
	+ **Banned Gags will flash red when selected**, making it obvious you've selected one, except for Trap. Trap's track color is red, matching the color of a banned Gag. Look carefully when selecting this track.

## Phase 1

### **Before Content Sync:**

The Pacesetter's Content Sync cheat will *not* activate as soon as the fight starts. The strategy in this phase before and after Content Sync is active are distinct from each other.

* In general, **if you're going to Forge Gags, Forge them early on in the fight**. This ensures you have some extra stocks of powerful Gags to be used for later on without having to attempt to Forge at higher speeds or put yourself on cooldown when a Unite could very well be necessary.
	+ For a good start, **initiate the battle by having every Toon forge a TNT, or if Trapless, a Piano or High Dive**.
		- If your team is *not* looking to start Early Overclocked mode, after all Gags have been Forged, have the team use a Squirt Gag and 3 Pianos as your first attack.
		- If your team *is* looking to start Early Overclocked mode, pass, and Forge Level 6s turn 1 instead if your team wants extra Counterfeit Gags. On turn 2, you may now Forge a Level 8 Gag, and then pass once more to initiate the Overclocked fight. Have your team use a Squirt Gag and 3 Pianos as the first attack starting on turn 3. The first 5 turns are the best time to get damage in on the Pacesetter, as the Content Sync cheat will not have started, making good damage combos harder to pull off. As it may not be easy to combo Drop Gags later in the fight, it's even best to use the Pianos right off the bat.
	+ Another, more commonly used option to start out, is to **Forge a Gag, then actually have everyone Pass for one turn**. This allows you to get one free turn of cooldown used up, all while the Pacesetter doesn't do anything because of the Early Overclocked passing mechanics. You can then attack him like normal on turn 2. Doing so will allow you to get off cooldown faster, allowing you to more quickly Forge more Gags or use IOUs.
		- When choosing to do this strategy, take note that you will have one less turn to push the Pacesetter into Content Sync range as fast as possible, meaning this strategy can be positive or negative depending on whether or not your aim is to use more rewards or have some extra leeway in pushing the Pacesetter into Content Sync range.
* **IOUs that can provide a large boost without needing to be comboed with to get full value** such as Flippy, Daffy Don, Will, or Clara can be useful while you still have ample time to navigate the IOU menu.
* **Damage rushing the Pacesetter at the beginning of the fight can be advantageous**, even moreso than preventing damage from additional Cogs. Content Sync's Gag randomization effect is hugely useful for consistently dealing with the high level Cogs the Pacesetter will summon, only at the cost of Lure not being able to consistently boost Throw or Squirt damage.
	+ **One strategy to damage rush is to destroy all of the Pacesetter's additional Cogs on the turn where he summons Cogs**, like with Sound, Zap, or Fires. Doing this will ensure that the turn afterwards, the Pacesetter will place a Rush Job on himself. If you're lucky, the Rush Job will call for a powerful single-target Gag.
* The best way to **deal with other Cogs with Rush Jobs at this point is just to Lure them until a Rush Job suggests that you deal with it**, then attack them with a low level Gag of the respective applied Rush Job. Killing them hastily is likely not necessary as it could potentially bring an even stronger Cog into the field.
* **Fires and Sues are most useful during this phase for Cogs that are way too strong** for any of your Toons to handle - not in destruction, but in the overall damage that they'll bring. While the Rush Job bans both rewards from being used on the Cog, it takes at least one round before the chance of a Rush Job is applied on the Cog you want to Sue/Fire.
	+ Multiple Rush Jobs will negate the importance of these rewards, so plan accordingly.

### **After Content Sync:**

The rest of the fight after Content Sync begins randomizing your Gag order is mostly the same. It does, however, require an understanding on certain Gag combinations that help you in a way that would never happen outside of regular battles.

The main strategy from this point and on is **using Sound and Lure to Lure reset all of Pacesetter's additional Cogs**. Whenever Lure comes after Sound, Sound can be used to unlure every Cog, which then allows them to be Lured in the same turn. Doing this allows you to reset and resynchronize Lure durations on Cogs who would otherwise unlure that turn. Single-target Gags, such as Throw, can be used for the same idea. Even Zap can be useful for Lure Resetting, but is generally too hard to coordinate outside of a Zap Rush Job.

* **Content Sync can scramble your Gags in a way that can both highly benefit and actively detriment you**. Keep an eye on the order the Gags are in and plan accordingly.
	+ As mentioned already, **Sound before Lure helps dealing damage to Cogs without them attacking you**.
	+ **Throw before Trap can help boost its damage thanks to the Marked status effect**. As this costs two Gags on a singular Cog, this may not be worth it unless it's a big enough Trap Gag (like TNT) being used on the Pacesetter only.
	+ **Your only major negative is Drop after Lure**, which forces you to either use a single-target Lure or use a Gag that unlures the Cog before Drop hits it, namely Trap. It's usually best to use a single-target Lure Gag to save group Lures. Only use a group Lure if there are Cogs that are too dangerous to be left unlured.
* **An easy way to check for where Tracks are after their order has been randomized is to look at the left side of the Gag Panel.** Doing this will make it so that the only thing you need to look for is the Track's respective color. Make sure you are still aware of you and your teammates' builds.
* **Rush Job granting Perfect accuracy can make certain turns easier to predict.** For example, if a Cog has a Lure Rush Job on them, any group Lure is guaranteed to hit, even when you can't stun for the Lure. Alternatively, the Gag randomization can allow for many damage dealing Gags to stun for Lure.
	+ **Zap Rush Jobs will ensure that any Squirt Gags directly targeting that Cog will hit**. Note that the Squirt can still miss if it doesn't directly target a Zap or Squirt Rush Jobbed Cog.

## Phase 2

When below 5000 HP, Pacesetter will begin this phase. Rush Jobs appearing on 3 Cogs will be more likely, and the battle speed will increase to 6x (the 999x shown during the transition is a bluff), fast enough that this strategy section will not be easy to look over between rounds. Keep these things in mind before going into Phase 2:

* **The Pacesetter's nametag will disappear in the transition to phase 2**, which can be a hinderance if you are trying to track his health in-between rounds. **This is not permanently removed**, and can be fixed by adjusting your F4 key until all the nametags appear again.
* **If you think somebody is going to need a Toon-Up Unite, use it as early as you need to.** You will have virtually no time to react to attacks in this phase.
	+ **Unites should be saved only as RNG checks**, to ensure that you have a safety net in case a Rush Job fails, or if satisfying a Rush Job is forcing you to take lots of damage. Don't waste Unites if you just need healing; save it for when you need it to survive.
* **It is entirely possible to have an impossible Rush Job set once up to 3 Rush Jobs are used**, which will most often happen in this phase. This normally happens with multiple Zap Rush Jobs (especially if they are spaced apart), but can happen to other types of Rush Jobs depending on your group's builds. If your team notices that a Hurry Sickness is guaranteed to happen that turn, it's much better to block the damage you can block by Luring all of the additional Cogs than to feebly attempt a few Rush Jobs and eat that extra damage from those Cogs unluring.
	+ It should be noted that this is a very coordinated technique, and you need to get comfortable with the fight to start trying it. If you aren't well-versed in this fight, you might just start backing out of Rush Jobs that your team could have actually succeeded, so keep this in mind.
* **Overclocked! is turned off in the same round the Pacesetter is defeated.** If the battle's speed suddenly slows down, that means you have won the fight. Yippee!
	+ Keep in mind that **any remaining Cogs will still need to be destroyed before the fight is truly over**. You may need to pitch in an additional Toon-Up Unite to survive attacks from these Cogs depending on your status.

## Miscellaneous Strategies

These types of strategies are random strategies that Toons could use in the Pacesetter fight. Unless coordinating with friends, it is generally not recommended to follow them since the fight is very unpredictable.

### **Early Overclocked!:**

Triggering Overclocked! for the entire fight bring an entirely new difficulty for the Pacesetter as a whole. For starters, Rush Job can be applied to 2 Cogs now, which means more Gags being wasted if they are not targeting the Pacesetter (and therefore less damage on him overall). Failure to meet Rush Jobs demands are also more punishing. And don't forget the 6x constant battle speed. There is no difference in strategy compared to a regular Pacesetter fight (high level Gags on Pace, low levels otherwise), except for being a lot more reliant on luck from Rush Jobs. Do not attempt this fight expecting to consistently win, nor if there are inexperienced teammates with you. This type of fight is just for fun only.

### **Conditioning:**

Conditioning refers to conditioning the additional Cogs in the fight to be at a low HP range, such that you can easily blast through these Cogs with Sound Gags. In particular, it's very effective to keep Cogs at 84 HP or less, as 84 is the amount of damage two Foghorns do after a damage reduction from a non-Sound Rush Job. That way, even if you have a set of unfavorable Rush Jobs which includes having to Zap the Pacesetter, you can destroy all of the other Cogs while still having two Toons available to Soak, then Zap the Pacesetter.

The main way you condition Cogs is simply by using weaker Gags against them when a Rush Job would force you to hit them. Instead of using every Rush Job as an opportunity to destroy the targeted Cog, you simply hit the Cog with as little damage as you can of that Gag type, and then Lure it. In some cases, it might even be advantageous to do this even when it would require you to not let the Cog be Lured that turn. Usually, it isn't worth it for something like a Sound Rush Job, where you might have to unlure every Cog in the fight just to not kill any one Cog.

If the Cog is above 84 HP, just use a mid level Gag, Level 4-5 or less, to hit that Cog and put it into this double Foghorn range. You don't need to do exact math, especially not when the fight goes as fast as it does. If you notice that your Gag is doing a little too much damage, you can try to swap to a lower level Gag. Not properly conditioning Cogs will only start to punish you as the fight gets into the last 2,000 HP, the phase where the Pacesetter can do up to 3 Rush Jobs per turn. Even then, you'll more often than not, be able to get away with a set of Cogs who aren't perfectly conditioned at 84 HP. Because of this, Conditioning might not be necessary if you get lucky with late-game Rush Jobs, but you already don't want to waste powerful Gags on regular Cogs anyway, so it's always worth trying.