All the map enemies in the first area of Tartaros are mecs, although they're occasionally joined by other kinds of monsters in battle. If they weren't all really weak it'd be a good chance to learn some new skills.
Eventually I fight enough of them (narrow hallways, see) that the enemies level up to the next rank, giving me a little more leeway.
The next section of Tartaros is caves, and it's a pretty boring "turn on all the switches to open the way forward" area.
There are BigDiggers guarding each switch, which are tough fights largely due to their obscenely high HP. Thankfully, we have two repair mecs in the party now, so when it hits with Tremor or HEAT Missile or something, I can fix the party right up.
After the first BigDigger (of four), I remember they use Tremor regularly and equip everyone with JetBoots to null it, making the fights easier... boring, really.
Okay,
now T260 is ready for endgame. PluralSlash just hits an enemy with a sword a whole lot. Any grinding I do in this scenario will be to get the other mecs in the party to learn CombatMastery and PluralSlash in preparation for the last boss. (You can probably guess who the last boss is by now.)
This BigDigger can cast Maelstrom, a powerful partywide water attack. I did not see that coming.
Downloading its data teaches T260G DragonProgram, which will let T260 use Maelstrom too -- assuming I find and equip an OctopusBoard circuit.
Oh. The biggest BigDigger drops one of those, too. I guess it's fitting that it could use Maelstrom itself, then.
There's some flexibility to mecs' skill development -- not
all of it is directly from the enemy mec they download from. If they fail to download anything from the enemy, they will try to develop a new skill themselves, and different body models have different self-development skills. Here T260G learns a skill the enemy couldn't teach normally. LogicBomb only works against mecs, but does high damage and inflicts a bunch of status ailments.
The end of Tartaros is a high-tech sort of area.
Gen: Don't make it more complicated than it already is!
Leonard: It didn't accept my password...
Maybe this will do it.
There it is.
Leonard: What are these numbers?
Something I'm going to screencap and not type out, I can tell you that much.
Leonard: It didn't work. I can't believe it. Your information can be accessed only by the commanders. You must be some sort of secret. I wish I could make sense of these numbers...
T260G: Is there any relation to model [RB3]?
Leonard: Is that a robot? Let's see... Right now, nothing.
T260G: Any relation to [HQ]?
Leonard: You mean the command base?
T260G: It is either a place or an organization.
Leonard: Let me see... Oh, I get it! These numbers must be the ship's travel data! I don't know if it leads to HQ, but if we set a course by these numbers, we'll find something. This is really exciting.
Gen: We gotta travel by ship again...?
T260G: Afraid of flying, Sir Gen?
No, it's that if you drink aboard a ship, you get sick. Covered that one before!
End of chapter!