Ascent of the Governess

Who's that girl?

Previous Episode: The Red Castle

Next Episode: The Silent Paradox

Game version played: 2.5

Here’s something new. The art for the next level, Ascent of the Governess, cycles through different images. In this case they are all backgrounds from The Snowmen episodes. It looks as if we are continuing our retrospective of DWL so far.

As well as Yellow Fragments we have another Rare drop to hope for. We see a Green-bordered blonde woman, again in military gear but this one is saluting. Is it another member of the Punishment Patrol? Let’s crack on and find out.

My team is 11th Doctor at Rank 2, Porridge, Vastra and Jenny Flint at Lvl.7 and Rory at Lvl.6.

We start off at the bottom of the stairs in the Latimer Residence, facing the Big Blue Snowman and one of his Yellow Snowmen mates. Feeble opposition, they melted under my first attack.

Then there’s another new thing. We appear to take a couple of steps into the hallway, and then find ourselves outside in the snow. That was different. A simple effect but it does pull you into the game.

We aren’t alone in the snow for long, being joined by three Big Blue Snowmen. They did manage to convert some of my Blue gems to Black, but being typically slow they all died before they could lay an icy finger on me. We stepped forward again to return to the room with the marvellous carpet.

Chionoandrophobics beware
(Look it up)

The Boss wave starts, with me hoping I could land that saluting soldier. To do so I first had to best the Yellow Ice Governess. I hit her hard but she survived and Syphoned all my Pink gems, marking them with a negative. That wasn’t very nice. Now any Pink combos would be 10% less effective. This is the first Weaken ability we’ve had to face. It’s most dangerous when used, as it is here, against your Pinks. In later levels it can prevent you from healing at all. Nasty.

Luckily my team was still hale and hearty so I didn’t need the Pinks. It wasn’t a good time to mess about though, so I smashed the Governess before she could inflict any actual damage. She fell, but the saluting blonde did not. Blast! 0 out of 4 Rare drops.

Not a great return from this level. No Rare, no Time Fragments, and only enough experience to promote Rory to Lvl.7. As usual I boosted his HEAL ability.

This level is not very challenging but it does add some nice graphical flourishes to the game. Importantly a successful Rare drop also provides you with your first specialist Companion.

The saluting blonde is indeed a member of the Punishment Platoon, the Punishment Medic. She is a Green Balanced Companion, and what makes her interesting is her special ability, Antivenom.

Up until now your Companions and Doctors have been able to heal, convert gem colours or inflict damage, either directly or via a bomb. This character does something different. Punishment Medic can cure any poison attack affecting you and your team. Yes I know venom and poison are different things but if it bothers you then I suggest you direct your energy at some of the world’s many bigger problems.

Poison delivers consistent, unavoidable damage to your team, requiring no attack other than the first. It’s a killer. Antivenom wipes this attack off the board and is often a life saver, making the difference between victory and defeat.

I appreciate the sentiment,
but the Doctor hates salutes

Naturally this special ability is only of use when battling poison equipped enemies. Otherwise it can seem like a wasted team slot. The only level so far where we faced Poison was Sontaran Disturbance – England. Even then you may well have killed the Sontaran Commander before he could deploy it. However even when there’s no poison in play Punishment Medic still contributes to the team through her abilities. She is still an asset and would be gaining experience.

You could keep her in the TARDIS, only adding her to the team when you fail a poison mission. However without regular opportunities to gain experience she will be a lower level than the rest of the team, offsetting the benefits of her Antivenom.  You can replay a few earlier levels to bring her up through the ranks but that’s hardly proactive is it?

Either approach works, but as I’m trying to get though Season 7 with as few defeats as possible I’d add her to the team. You rarely know in advance when you’ll be facing poison so best to be prepared and build her up. When winning levels starts to get harder then you may want to replace her with someone whose ability is more widely beneficial.

If I had all of the Rare drops available by now then I’d replace Yellow Adipose with Punishment Soldier. As well as providing protection against poison this would boost Green damage, which is a bit weak with Rory being a dedicated healer.

However Punishment Soldier didn’t drop for me, so I’d better avoid Spectrox Toxaemia for the time being.