Final Fantasy V Low Level 0 ABP 0% Challenge (This whole thread may contain spoilers)

[Necronopticous]

Well, it has been awhile.

I will be following along with mog07’s brief guide
http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbadvance/file/930369/51909 [Section 5]

The rules I will be following are:
Lowest Possible Levels* (2/2/2/3)
0 ABP Gained
0% Treasure Collected
All Blue Magic Learned


* The average level of (2/2/2/3) calculates to 2.25. It is actually possible to get level average of 2 with levels (2/1/1/4) instead. Either of these choices could be considered valid fulfillments of the Lowest Possible Levels rule, however, I tend to prefer to keep my max level as low as possible, even at the expense of a small average level increase.

[Slothy]

I'm a little confused, but how exactly does one go about never getting any ABP? I didn't know this was possible and the guide isn't very clear (unless I'm just missing the explanation somewhere).

[Necronopticous]

Party members using the Bare/Freelancer job do not gain ABP. Provided you kill off all non-Freelancers in your party before delivering the final blow none will be collected.

[Necronopticous]

I am working a lot these days, so I am not going to be able to breeze through this game like I used to be able to. My current plan is to get a lot of play in on the weekends. I started off last night on my Final Fantasy V Advance cartridge.

Introduction:

Nothing can be done about the first few goblin encounters in the intro. Took the EXP. Bartz reached level 2.

Preparation:

Bought two additional Broad Swords from Tule for Galuf and Faris, saving the dagger for Lenna, who has the least strength.

Wing Raptor:

Kept everyone in the front row and attacked every turn until he went down.

Preparation:

With everyone as thieves, stole 70 potions south of Tule. Sold 50 of them for 1000 gil; enough to afford all of the spells in Tule, excluding Libra, and a Leather Cap and Leather Shield. Set up my party configuration:


Bartz 2 Freelancer FrontRow Broad LeatherA
Lenna 1 Knight BackRow Broad LeatherS LeatherA
Galuf 1 Knight BackRow Broad LeatherS LeatherC LeatherA
Faris 3 Black Mage BackRow Dagger LeatherA

Used the free HP/MP regeneration pot in the Wind Shrine to fill up Faris’ MP, then whittled Bartz’s and Faris’ HP down below 1/8 to get them into critical status—this will make Lenna and Galuf cover them in the upcoming boss battle. Healed up Lenna and Galuf with potions and saved.

Karlabos:

Used Thunder with Faris exactly 5 times while defending with everyone else, then killed off everyone except Bartz, ending the battle with one last swipe.

[Slothy]

Figured it'd be something like that. I guess a guide and/or knowing bosses HP would become very important in a challenge like this. I look forward to following your progress on this one. Sounds tough, but I'm sure you'll get through it.

[Zeromus_X]

Someone on YouTube did a challenge just like this, only for the SNES version. They finished with 2/1/1/4. If you get stuck it might help give you some tips:

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. (http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=36609A625E5424DF&page=1)

Good luck, it looks like a fun challenge.

[Necronopticous]

Preparation:

Saved after the scene. Grabbed the World Map. Set up my party configuration:


Bartz 2 Knight B Broad LeatherS LeatherC LeatherA
Lenna 1 Free F Broad LeatherA
Galuf 1 Free F Broad LeatherA
Faris 3 Black F Dagger LeatherA

Siren:

Took me a few tries. Siren has 900 HP, so I used a calculator to keep track of how close I was getting to killing her. Attacked with everyone until she converted to undead mode, then started having Faris hit her with fire, and having everyone else throw potions at her. I got her with under 50 HP remaining when she went back into normal mode. Spent my only Phoenix Down on Lenna just to be safe, and offed Faris (Bartz was already dead). Defended until she went back into undead mode, and nailed her with one last potion for the win.

Preparation:

Changed everyone back to thieves in Carwen, threw them all in the back row, and hit North Mountain. Went a few screens in, to the first screen with the poison plants, and went on a stealing spree for Gold Needles (Cockatrice Common), Silver Specs (Headstone Common), and Hi-Potions (Headstone Rare). Whenever someone died, I'd take a quick trip back to Carwen and stay at the inn. Kept this up until I had about 50 Silver Specs, which I then sold all but four of. With the gil, I bought a Long Sword, a Staff, a Bronze Shield, a Bronze Helm, a Bronze Armor, a Copper Cuirass, and a Cotton Robe. I also picked up the Silence and Sleep spell, 3 Phoenix Downs, and a small assortment of restorative items. Finally, I sold all of my Potions and made my way back to the save point in the ship graveyard. Two screens up from the save point room I encountered many Undead Husks, which have Potions for their common steal, and Ethers for their rare steal. The goal here was seven Ethers, which took awhile. The odds of getting the rare steal are approximately 1/25, so it takes roughly 175 steals on average. When I hit 99 potions I took a trip to Carwen to sell them all off again. Before heading back to North Mountain, I set up my party configuration:


Bartz 2 Black B Dagger LeatherA Specks
Lenna 1 Blue B Broad BronzeS CopperC Specks
Galuf 1 Free F Long BronzeS BronzeH BronzeA Specks
Faris 3 White B Staff LeatherC CottonR Specks

Magissa & Forza:

I silenced Magissa right off the bat with Faris, and then started hammering her with attacks and keeping my party members up with Phoenix Downs when I could. Eventually, she called out Forza, who I immediately put to sleep with Bartz. Finished off Magissa with attacks, and then started having Bartz hit Forza with Fire. Forza has 850 HP, so I got my calculator back out to keep track of where his HP was at. Each Fire did about 40-44 damage, so it ended up taking all of my ethers to get him down to where he was just about dead. Once he was there, I killed everyone off except Galuf, and had him take the last swipe.

[Necronopticous]

Preparation:

Flew to Tycoon Castle and talked for the Chancellor for my Healing Staff, then changed everyone back to Thieves and headed to Walse. There are Ice Soldiers in the secret waterway behind the castle that have Mythril Swords as a common steal. I hung around here until I had about 60 of them, then I went ahead with the story until I had access to Walse Tower, where I stole two Mythril Knives from the Wyverns before setting up my party config:


Bartz 2 Free F Mythril Sword
Lenna 1 Free B Whip
Galuf 1 Free F Mythril Sword
Faris 3 Knight F Mythril Sword IronS MythrilH IronA Silver

After the job change, I took Bartz, Lenna, and Galuf down to Near Fatal status in battle, healed up Faris with a potion, and saved my game.

Garula:

Just attacked until he went down—nothing to it. Lenna’s whip should keep him in Hold status for most, if not all, of the battle, and Faris will take the few hits that get through.

Preparation:

Went to Karnak and allowed myself to get thrown in jail by trying to make a purchase in the weapon shop. Once I was free, I went back to the weapon shop and went on a shopping spree with my Mythril Sword gil: 1 Mythril Hammer, 3 of each elemental rod, 4 full Mythril sets of armor, 2 full sets of the mage gear, and every spell available in the magic shop. Finally, after stocking back up on restorative items with my last few gil, I changed Bartz, Lenna, and Galuf back to Theives, and made Faris a Black Mage, rested up, and saved.

One of the encounters on the first screen with enemies below deck on the Fire-Powered ship is a single Defeater enemy. When he his killed, two Motor Trap enemies will take his place, each with an Ether as a common steal. I took the Defeaters out with a single Blizzara from Faris and then let my other characters loot the Motor Traps until I had both of their Ethers, then ran for it. If one of the Motor Traps was giving me trouble on the steal, I’d go ahead and take out the one I’d already stolen from with a Thundara to cut down on their ability to kill of my Thieves before they’d gotten the Ethers. This wasn’t an incredibly fast process, as it required a rest at the Inn usually after each battle, but I was able to grab about 16 Ethers before too long. That was enough for me. Set up my party configuration:


Bartz 2 Free B Frost Rod MythrilS MythrilH MythrilA Mythril
Lenna 1 Free B Frost Rod MythrilS MythrilH MythrilA Mythril
Galuf 1 Free B Frost Rod MythrilS MythrilH MythrilA Mythril
Faris 3 Time F HealingS - PlumedH SilkR Silver

Liquid Flame:

Used Gravity with Faris once or twice until Liquid Flame decided to take her out, then used a Frost Rod for the win while Liquid Flame was in his human form, netting me a Flame Scroll with Shiva’s name on it.

Preparation:

Backtracked to the save point after Liquid Flame. Used a Tent, changed everyone back to Thieves, and saved.

Escape From Karnak Castle:

The guide tells me to steal two Gaia Gears on the way out. This is incredibly difficult, and since this guide offers absolutely no explanation on most of its instructions I have absolutely no clue how important it is. I tried many times before finally pulling it off. I really hope that it doesn’t turn out to have been a wasted effort. My strategy was to go immediately to the chest in the northeast jail cell and continuously open it for the monster-in-a-box battle. Most of the time this chest gave me the battle I wanted, with the Sorcerer who has Gaia Gear as his rare steal, but occasionally I’d get Gigas, who I’d just immediately run from. For whatever reason, these battles are sometimes significantly harder to escape from than normal battles, and in the worst cases I’d sometimes get completely wiped out before I could escape. Eventually I got two Gaia Gears with three and a half minutes or so to spare—just enough time. I quickly set up my party config:


Bartz 2 Free F MythrilS MythrilS MythrilH MythrilA MythrilG
Lenna 1 Free F MythrilH MythrilS MythrilH MythrilA MythrilG
Galuf 1 Free F MythrilS MythrilS MythrilH MythrilA MythrilG
Faris 3 Free B Whip MythrilS MythrilH MythrilA MythrilG

Sergeant & Karnak x 3:

Hammered on the Sergeant as quickly as I could with normal attacks until he went down. Again, the whip kept him in Hold status so he wasn’t able to sic the Karnaks on me. As soon as he went down, I defended with everyone until the Karnaks ran away, leaving me with just enough EXP to bring Lenna and Galuf to level 2, and just enough time to make it out.

[Slothy]

Escape From Karnak Castle:

The guide tells me to steal two Gaia Gears on the way out. This is incredibly difficult, and since this guide offers absolutely no explanation on most of its instructions I have absolutely no clue how important it is. I tried many times before finally pulling it off. I really hope that it doesn’t turn out to have been a wasted effort.

I've never known to much about the items and such in this game (probably because I've never actually finished the game and it wasn't released when I was ten like it should have been), but does the Gaia Gear defend against earth attacks in this game like it would in some others? It could be for use in the fight against Titan if that's the case.

[Necronopticous]

That is probably the intended use, but I know it is possible to buy Gaia Gears in a shop later on. I'm just hoping these really come in handy before that.

[Ultima Shadow]

Oooooh, cool! Haven't even heared about this challenge before! =O

Good luck Necro, might try it out as well if I can find the time.:cool:

[Necronopticous]

Misery loves company. Get in there.

[Slothy]

Yeah I knew you could buy the Gaia Gear later, just not sure if it's before or after you fight Titan. Hopefully they do come in handy before you can buy them because I would think stealing items and selling them for gil so you could buy some would be either less time consuming or less of a hassle, or both.

[Marshall Banana]

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m285/fofonda/emoticons/usagi_gogogo.gif

[Necronopticous]

Preparation:

Changed Lenna and Galuf to Beastmasters and caught an Aegir and Grass Tortoise before heading back over to Karnak. Set up my party configuration:


Bartz 2 Blue Mage F MythrilS MythrilS
Lenna 2 Beastmaster F Whip
Galuf 2 Beastmaster F MythrilK
Faris 3 Knight F MythrilS MythrilS

I took Bartz, Lenna, and Galuf down to Near Fatal status, and saved just outside of the castle.

Learning Blue Magic: Moon Flute

Jackanapes is down in the basement of Karnak Castle. The key to this guy is the abuse of the Rainbow Wind enemy skill that is used when Aegir is released. It works like a reverse regen—the enemy's HP will start counting down continually over time for three full rounds (I believe it stops once the Beastmaster that released it gets hit third turn afterward). This skill can be exploited by changing your battle and message speed to 6 in the Config menu. By doing this, the battle will move much slower, but the rate of HP loss caused by Rainbow Wind is unaffected.

In order to learn Moon Flute, I released Aegir and waited a few seconds before giving each following Defend command. Finally, I released Grass Tortoise for a heavy attack. Jackanapes will retaliate with Moon Flute, which puts everyone into Berserk status. The key is to time the release of Grass Tortoise so that Jackanapes will die after using Moon Flute, before he has time to kill off the remaining members of the party. It took me a few tries to get the timing down.

There is no worry of gaining EXP or ABP from Jackanapes. Killing him only nets a single gil.

Preparation:

Set up my party configuration:


Bartz 2 Free B MythrilS MythrilS MythrilH MythrilA Mythril
Lenna 2 Black F MythrilK
Galuf 2 Free B MythrilH MythrilS MythrilH MythrilA Mythril
Faris 3 Ninja F MythrilK Dagger PlumedH CopperC Silver

Saved once again outside of Karnak Castle.

Shiva:

I was tempted to use a Flame Rod here, which I'm sure is a viable strategy, however I decided to go with the strategy listed in mog07's guide. Had Faris throw the Flame Scroll right off the bat. Lenna followed up with Fira. Killed off Lenna and Faris and ended the battle with a couple of swipes from Bartz and Galuf.

Preparation:

Made my way to the Library of the Ancients and set up my party configuration:


Bartz 2 Free B Frost Rod MythrilS MythrilH MythrilA Mythril
Lenna 2 Free B Frost Rod MythrilS MythrilH MythrilA Mythril
Galuf 2 Free B Frost Rod MythrilS MythrilH MythrilA Mythril
Faris 3 Black B Rod - PlumedH SilkR Silver

Saved outside.

Ifrit:

Used Blizzara a couple of times with Faris until she was dead, then finished him off by breaking a Frost Rod or two with the others.

Preparation:

Made my way back outside and set up my party configuration:


Bartz 2 Free B Flame Rod MythrilS MythrilH MythrilA Mythril
Lenna 2 Blue B MythrilS MythrilS PlumedH SilverP Silver
Galuf 2 Free B Whip MythrilS MythrilH MythrilA Mythril
Faris 3 Time B MythrilK - PlumedH SilkR Silver

Saved outside, then made my way to the save point before Byblos and saved again after using a tent to heal up.

Byblos:

This fight required dozens of resets. The key is to put Byblos in Hold status with Galuf's whip so that you can focus on taking his HP down and killing off Bartz, Lenna, and Faris before finishing him off with a Flame Rod. The problem is that he needs to hit Lenna with Magic Hammer at some point during the fight.

The guide recommends simply retrying if he doesn't hit Lenna with Magic Hammer as his very first attack, which is one way to approach it, but I just went ahead and focused on taking his HP down on each try, healing up with Potions and Phoenix Downs where necessary until he decided to use Magic Hammer on Lenna. Either way it is bound to take many tries.

For damage, I had Faris focus on getting two Gravity spells off before killing off Bartz, Lenna, and Faris, making sure to get Byblos in Hold status just beforehand, so that he could not interrupt Galuf breaking a Flame Rod and ending the battle.

Preparation:

Switched everyone back to Theives and took the Fire-Powered Ship down to the two small islands south of Crescent Island. On the island without a forest, there is nothing but Prototype enemies, which is great because they have Ethers as their common steal. On the forested island there are Harvesters and Bio Soldiers, with Silver Bows and Battle Axes as their common steals, respectively. For hours I stuck around these two islands, raising my stock of Ethers and Silver Bows to 99 and returning to Karnak to sell them all off. I repeated this process with a goal of about 900,000 gil and a full stock of 99 Ethers.

I finally hit my goal, and headed to Crescent to progress the story and grab my Black Chocobo. From here, I flew to Istory, Jachol, and Lix, ensuring I had four of just about every piece of equipment. 600,000 of the gil I raised went straight toward the rings sold in Istory. While I was in these towns, I made sure to get whatever songs or spells were available to me at this point as well.

Now that I'd learned the Alluring Air song, I flew back to the forests east of Karnak and set up my party configuration:


Bartz 2 Blue B MythrilS MythrilS PlumedH CopperC Silver
Lenna 1 Free B MythrilS MythrilS MythrilH MythrilA Mythril
Galuf 1 Free B MythrilH MythrilS MythrilH MythrilA Mythril
Faris 3 Bard B SHarp - PlumedH GaiaG Angel

Learning Blue Magic: ???

Encountered Wild Nack x5 in the forest. I had Faris sing Alluring Air nearly every turn in order to keep the Wild Nacks in Confuse status in order to get them to Flee. Sometimes they will simply attack each other instead, in which case I had my other three members keeping them all healed up with potions to ensure none of them got killed. When I was down to just one Wild Nack remaining, I allowed him to go without Confuse status until he hit Bartz with ???—now, it is not completely obvious when the Wild Nacks use ???, as there is no message signifying its use. It looks slightly different from the regular attack, though, so it can still be spotted. Once Bartz had been hit with ???, I killed him off and used Alluring Air to put the last Wild Nack back in Confuse status, killing off Faris immediately after. If he decided to attack himself instead of Flee, Faris would have to be brought back with a Phoenix down to repeat the process until he decided to Flee.

Preparation:

Once all of this was taken care of, I flew back to the Karnak area and changed everyone to Beastmasters, catching an Aegir with each member. With my Aegirs, I flew back to Walse, ready to exchange them for Jackanapes. Set up my party configuration:


? ? BM B Whip - GreenB NinjaS Silver
? ? Thief B MythrilK - GreenB NinjaS Silver
? ? Knight B MythrilS MythrilS MythrilH MythrilA Mythril
? ? Thief B MythrilK - GreenB NinjaS Silver

Doesn't matter who is who, since this process must be repeated 4 times with each member getting a chance to be Beastmaster to exchange their Aegir for Jackanapes. However, everyone except the Knight should be in Near Fatal status.

Catching Jackanapes:

Once again, this required taking advantage of Rainbow Wind, but this time a great deal more precision is required. This took many tries for me to get the timing down. Of course, Battle Speed and Messages should be set at 6, with ATB set to Wait.

Unless you get lucky with a Preemptive Attack, Jackanapes will attack before the Beastmaster can release Aegir. This attack has to be blocked, or else the timing will be off. When the Beastmaster finally got his turn, I waited for the ATB bars of the rest of my party to fill, and then immediately released Aegir. Then, until the Beastmaster's third turn afterward, I used Defend with the Beastmaster, Steal with both Theives, and Guard with the Knight, waiting for about 6 seconds before making each selection. It took me many tries to get the feel for how long I needed to wait, but eventually I got it down, and was able to catch the next three rather quickly, saving after each successful catch, obviously.

Now it was time to put the captured Jackanapes to use.

Learning Blue Magic: Goblin Punch

Changed Bartz to Blue Mage, Lenna to Blue Mage, Galuf to Freelancer, Faris to Beastmaster, and optimized everyone.

Flew to the very first area on the World Map for the encounter with a single Goblin. Let him do his thing until he hit one of my Blue Mages with Goblin Punch, then killed my blue mages off and released Jackanapes with Faris and killed her off before the Doom counter hit 0.

Learning Blue Magic: Vampire

Changed Bartz to Freelancer, Lenna to Bard, then back to Blue Mage, Galuf to Beastmaster, and left Faris as Beastmaster.

Walked up to the first cave and saved outside, then went inside until I encountered Steel Bat x 3. Due to Lenna's change to Bard before Blue Mage, she is missing 9 HP. Because of this, casting ??? on herself took her down an additional 9, to 18, just enough to use cast ??? on two of the Steel Bats, allowing them to be caught by Faris. Provided Faris is at full HP, they could then be released immediately with no consequence. When only one Steel Bat remained, I allowed him to act freely until he hit Lenna with Vampire, and then killed off everyone except Bartz and Galuf. Finally, Galuf released Jackanapes, and was killed off before the Doom counter reached 0.

Learning Blue Magic: Pond's Chorus

Left Bartz as Freelancer, changed Lenna to Beastmaster, left Galuf as Beastmaster, and changed Faris to Blue Mage.

Flew to Walse, seeking the Elf Toad x 3 encounter at the beginning of the secret waterway. Followed the same strategy as I did with the Steel Bats here, except having Faris use Goblin Punch twice with the Mythril Sword equipped to do the necessary damage for catching the first two Elf Toads.

Learning Blue Magic: Dark Spark

Changed Bartz to Beastmaster, left Lenna as Beastmaster, changed Galuf to Freelancer, and left Faris as Blue Mage.

Flew back to the forested island just south of Crescent, where I stole my Silver Bows earlier. Encountered Black Flame x 2, Harvester x 2. Right away I put my focus on giving Frog status to both of the Harvesters, using Pond's Chorus with Faris. Once this was done I followed the same strategy as before to get rid of one of the Black Flames except using Goblin Punch twice with the Mythril Sword equipped and using it an additional two times with the Mythril Knife equipped to do the damage necessary to allow him to be caught. Once Dark Spark had been used on Faris, I followed the same steps to get rid of the second Black Flame as well. With just the Harvesters left, in Frog status, I simply pulled my calculator back out, and starting from their max HP of 580, I attacked one with everyone until he was below 73 HP and then caught him. Finally, I killed off everyone except Galuf and Bartz and had Bartz release Jackanapes and kill himself off before the Doom counter hit 0.

[Marshall Banana]

This challenge is so complex.

[Ultima Shadow]

Great going, Necro!

Misery loves company. Get in there.I catched a terrible cold and basically stayed in bed from my last post up until now. I intend to get started tomorrow, assuming I'll feel better by then.

[Necronopticous]

Awesome, dude. I hope that my journal here will help you get started. The guide sucks.

[Ultima Shadow]

Ahhh, here comes my first super-awesome-progress-report-thingy:


Nothing interesting during the first 20 or so minutes of the game. Bartz beats goblins, bartz levels up to level 2. Bartz and gang runs from lots of battles.


Preparations: I just gave Bart's broadsword to Faris. I didn't even bother going to Tule before fighting Mr. Bird.

The first boss: Mr. Bird (also known as Wing Raptor), goes down quickly by just having everyone attack... except when he goes into Mist Dragon-ripoff mode which happened once, in which case I just wait until goes back to normal again.


Preparations 2: Spending lots of time stealing lots of potions. Yay! I stocked up to 58 before I got bored and decided that I probably had enough. Then I got all the items and money from all the barrels and crates and whatever in Tule, then selled enough potions to buy all the spells + 2x leather sheilds and leather cap as well as those additional 2 broadswords.

Finally, since Necro mentioned that the EXP given by that guy later on who makes Lenna and Galuf level up was just enough for them to level up, I figured that bringing one lone goblin to the grave, providing everyone except Blue Mage Bartz with 3 exp, wouldn't really make a difference. So... I put Bartz as a Blue Mage (everyone was Bare) and had him get hit by Goblin Punch, then killed him off and killed the goblin. Since Blue Mages learn the spells even if they are dead at the end of battle, I now have Goblin Punch.

Faris and Bartz: Black Mages. Galuf and Lenna: Bare. I choose two Black Mages over one since when Faris is the only Black Mage, you'll have to waste a pheonix down in case you're unlucky and she gets killed early. With Black Mages, I thought it would be more likely to be able to cast those 5 Thunder spells without having to waste a pheonix down.


Second Boss: Karlabos. It went something along these lines:

Bartz gets tentacle raped, Faris casts Thunder and Galuf + Lenna defends. Galuf is hit, Faris uses Thunder Bartz returns to normal and uses Thunder. I don't remember exactly what happened next, but someone was hit by a physical attack and survived. Both Bartz and Faris manages to cast one more Thunder each right before Bartz is killed. Perfect timing. Faris goes emo and kills herself, Lenna and Galuf finishes Karlabos off with their flashy broadswords. But before they did that, I remember Lenna blocking an attack with her sexy Sheild-evasion skills! That was a total "Hell Yeah" moment! =D



Preperations for Siren: Bartz as Blue Mage, Faris as Black Mage and once again Galuf and Lenna as Bare. I checked out Zeromus_X's link, and found out how much Goblin Punch apparently kicks ass against Siren. I still wanted to do it my own way though, so I also put Faris as Black Mage.

Boss 3, Siren: Took me 3 tries, because I accidently killed her off while Faris was still around. I should calculate more carefully. >_> On my third try, Siren starts off by trying to silence one of my Bares, then casts Cure on herself. Bartz Goblin Punches, Galuf attacks once, everyone else defends... even though I found out in the earlier attempts that Siren's attacks kills you even when you're defending. Siren casts Safe, Bartz uses Goblin Punch for half the damage. Siren turns undead, Faris casts Fire and Bartz Goblin Punches again (Safe is removed when she turns undead, apparently) Siren kills Bartz, Faris uses Fire, Galuf is killed Faris revives him. Siren turns back to normal and kills Faris. Galuf and Lenna attacks and finishes Siren off.

...and that's how far I am at the moment.

[Necronopticous]

It looks like you're off to a really good start. I hope that the EXP from that Goblin doesn't cause you any trouble later.

[Ultima Shadow]

It looks like you're off to a really good start. I hope that the EXP from that Goblin doesn't cause you any trouble later.
Well, since my Faris, Lenna and Galuf are a total of 3 exp ahead of yours, it means that unless your Faris, Galuf or Lenna have 3 or less exp to their next level, it won't screw me up. So if you could just check that out, it would be awesome so I can feel a bit safer. xD

...because I'd like to avoid going trough this Ether-hunting nightmare again. Worst part of the challenge so far, hands down. Maybe I'm just unlucky, but after like... 50 battles, I finally got my FIRST 2 ETHERS! =O Now there's only 5 left! >_>

Well, at least I got lots of potions to sell.


Edit: Oh damn, I just noticed one thing that I messed up. I apparently forgot about the "No Treasure Rule" back in Tule (since I guess Crates and Barrels count?). NOoooOOOooooOOooooOOoooOOooo!

So basically, I'm right now doing a "Low Level, 0 ABP, 1% Treasure challenge" or "Low Level, 0 ABP and 0% save Tule challenge". Ack, how could I possibly have forgotten about one of the rules at the very begining? >_<

[Necronopticous]

The goal here was seven Ethers, which took awhile. The odds of getting the rare steal are approximately 1/25, so it takes roughly 175 steals on average. When I hit 99 potions I took a trip to Carwen to sell them all off again.
2 out of 50 is perfectly average, so you haven't really been lucky or unlucky, it's just a tedious process. You'll get there. ;]

That sucks about Tule, but if you're just in the challenge for the challenge of it then it won't really make much of a difference, or give you much of an edge or anything.

[Ultima Shadow]

2 out of 50 is perfectly average, so you haven't really been lucky or unlucky, it's just a tedious process. You'll get there. ;]

That sucks about Tule, but if you're just in the challenge for the challenge of it then it won't really make much of a difference, or give you much of an edge or anything.
I got all 7 now... and daaaaeeemn! I stoped counting, so I have no idea how many battles it took total, but it sure took a while. Now I finally have them though... and it will hurt my soul to be forced to use them up. xD

Yeah, all there was in Tule anyway was basically a few potions and some money. Later on, it makes a difference if you pick up some awesome sheild or whatever. But what you can get in Tule is mostly insifnificant.


Now, back up the mountains!

[Ultima Shadow]

Setup:

Bartz, level 2: White Mage
Lenna, level 1: Blue Mage
Galuf, level 1: Bare
Faris, Level 3: Black Mage

The ethers... I didn't really need those 7 ethers, apparently. >_> The guide tells you to use Bartz as Black and Faris as White and that Magissa MUST hit Faris first turn (since she's the only one who can survive the spell, as White Mage) but... if someone dies, there's always a thing called PHEONIX DOWN, duh! I mean... I'd prefere just stealing items you know you'll get easily and selling them until you can afford a Pheonix Down instead of desperately stealing over and over and hoping to get a rare 1/25 chance item. >_>

...what I'm saying is this: Faris has more MP than Bartz (ALMOST twice as much), and the black mage is the one who's gonna spend the MP. All the White Mage really needs to do is cast Silence twice. So if Faris is the Black Mage, you need less ethers.


Boss 4, Magissa & Forza:

Magissa starts out by casting Ice on Lenna. Faris uses pheonix down on Lenna, Bartz silences Magissa and Galuf starts hammering away. This was also when I suddenly realised that Lenna, blue mage, had Goblin Punch. I tried it out, and it did almost exactly the same damage as the black spells were supposed to do... and it's for free! On top of that, it doesn't wake Forza up when he's sleeping. Man, as long as those additional 3 exp doesn't matter, Goblin Punch is a must-have. As long as you have Goblin Punch, you don't need to go trough hell to collect 7 ethers!

...back to the battle, when Forza showed up I put him to sleep and I re-silenced Magissa. Magissa tries to cast regen, and fails. Then drain, and fails. Then, she finally casts Aero... and straight at Lenna too. Totally awesome! Lenna dies, Bartz revives her with a second Pheonix Down and I hammer Magissa to death. I pause the game and brings a notebook and a pen and starts calculating damage as Faris starts casting random elemental spells while Lenna Goblin Punches. Once Faris was out of mana, I used 1 Ether only to speed up the process. Once she ran out of mana again, Forza was almost dead and I brought down the last required bit with Goblin Punches alone. I killed everyone off except Galuf, and then finished Forza off with Galuf. Now I have 6 unused ethers that took me one helluva lots of time to get. =O

[Necronopticous]

By the way, I checked my Status screen for you:

LevelCurrent EXPFor next levelBartz2285Lenna21023Galuf21023Faris36014

[Ultima Shadow]

By the way, I checked my Status screen for you:

LevelCurrent EXPFor next levelBartz2285Lenna21023Galuf21023Faris36014

Thanks, man!:cool:

Awesome, those 3 exp won't matter after all! YESSSS!!! Goblin Punch FTW!!! =D

[Necronopticous]

Yeah, definitely a good call on the Goblin Punch. Sounds like it makes a few of those obnoxious first boses a lot easier.

[Ultima Shadow]

Yeah, definitely a good call on the Goblin Punch. Sounds like it makes a few of those obnoxious first boses a lot easier.
It totally does. The best part is that you won't need to get those 7 ethers though since Goblin Punch is free. Now, I DID get them anyways, since I didn't think about the matter until I was already there. But... if someone else ever wants to do this challenge, they can be warned. xD

[Necronopticous]

Bad news. I just arrived at the assault on the Ronka Ruins Flying Fortress and discovered that Soul Cannon dishes out 40 EXP when you beat him, for whatever reason. Divided by Lenna and Galuf this leaves them with just 3 EXP to level 3. ;[

LevelCurrent EXPFor next levelBartz2285Lenna2303Galuf2303Faris36014

[Ultima Shadow]

Bad news. I just arrived at the assault on the Ronka Ruins Flying Fortress and discovered that Soul Cannon dishes out 40 EXP when you beat him, for whatever reason. Divided by Lenna and Galuf this leaves them with just 3 EXP to level 3. ;[

LevelCurrent EXPFor next levelBartz2285Lenna2303Galuf2303Faris36014

Noooooooooooo! I guess getting Goblin Punch early just was too good to be true. =(

Still... do you know how it works when exp can't be evenly divided? I'm talking about 40 exp split for 3 characters. Basically, if I somehow finish that battle with Faris as bare as well, the exp for each character should be 13, with 1 exp to spare. If that 1 exp is given to a random character, I can still do it. If the exp is rounded up for each character (everyone gets 14 instead) then I might be screwed.



Edit: Nevermind, I should be fine if I focus the exp on Faris instead and have Lenna and Galuf stay at level 1. I did a test battle against 3 of thr frogs in the waterway behind the castle. With everyone alive, the battle granted me 48 exp. Faris levels up, and when I check the status screen the remaining exp to level 5 is 39. Both the Sergeant and the Soul Cannon gives 40 exp total. So if I only have Faris take all exp from the Sergeant, the exp to level 5 should be 39 + 8 = 47, which means she can take the exp from the Soul cannon as well without reaching level 5, leaving me with a 2, 1, 1, 4 party. So, I'll just have to go for the 2,1,1,4 instead of 2,2,2,3 to solve the problem.

...I have to admit, I did get scared there for a second. But if I got my calculations right, I can still make it. xD

It's kinda funny when you think about it. Those additional 3 exp forces me to go by a slightly lower average level.



Edit 2: Beat the Sergeant.


First of all, I went on a stealing rampage for Mythril Swords. When I was satisfied, I went up that tower and hammered Garula to dust. I used exactly the same strat as Necro, and the battle went just the same. All I did was pressing down the attack button until Garula got low on HP, which is when I killed Faris and then just proceeded with holding down the attack button. Garula got to attack twice, doing like 10-12 damage to a defending Knight-Faris.


Next, I went to Karnak, got into prison, got out, sold all Mythril Swords except 40 and bought Mythril equipment, a few spells and 3 of each elemental rod.

Liquid Flame:

Just went for a quick kill with everyone as Bare by throwing 2 Ice Rods at him/her/it. Killed him in tornado-mode and got a Fire-bow. I know the Fire Scroll is nice for Shiva, but I figured I'll probably be able to beat her by just throwing Fire Rods at her as well.


Next up, was the battle I'm very glad that I didn't get to before Necro posted is his last post, informing me about those additional exp from the Soul Cannon later on that could have been devasting:

Before the battle:

Bartz, level 2: Black Mage
Lenna, level 1: Black Mage
Galuf, level 1: Black Mage
Faris, Level 3: Bare

I ran into 1 encounter (1xKarnak) while escaping the castle, put it to sleep before it could escape and then escaped myself. I refilled my MP with 1 ether, just in case, and proceeded with no encounters until I ran into the Sergant battle. Here, I had everyone except Faris use Sleep until all the Karnaks were asleep. Then I poisoned the Sergant with Bartz, who had some MP left after his sleep spell, to speed up to process. The Sergant goes down pretty fast. Faris gets 40 exp. Faris levels up. 47 exp remains to level 5, so the Soul Cannon can still be defeated while maintaining my current levels.


Current levels:

Bartz, level 2
Lenna, level 1
Galuf, level 1
Faris, Level 4



...oh yeah, one more thing: I actually forgot to steal the Gaia Gear. But I seriously belive I can do without it. If the guide won't even tell you when they will be needed, I doubt they are 100% necessary until you can buy them. Well, I hope at least. =P

[Necronopticous]

I think the Gaia Gears helped against Ramuh by nullifying his Electrocute skill, but that battle is very easy, anyway. You should be fine without them.

[Necronopticous]

Preparation:

Flew to Library of the Ancients to grab Cid & Mid, then headed over to the Desert of the Shifting Sands with them. Went through the scene until they asked me if I was ready to fight the Sandworm so that I didn't have to sit through it each time I failed. Refused, then went just outside and set up my party config:


Bartz 2 Ninja F Kunai Kunai GreenB NinjaS -
Lenna 2 Free F Whip MythrilS GreenB NinjaS Flame Ring
Galuf 2 Ninja F Kunai Kunai GreenB NinjaS -
Faris 3 Free F Ashura - GreenB NinjaS Flame Ring

Saved, of course.

Sandworm:

Had Bartz and Galuf throw a Water Scroll right off the bat. Water Scrolls do about 1000 damage, give or take 30 or 40. Since the Sandworm has 3000 HP, I wanted to aim for about 1960 damage with the first two scrolls, leaving Sandworm at right around 1040 HP left. If they didn't do enough damage, I'd lay a Whip slash on him, or if they did a little too much I'd throw him a potion. Anything to put him around that target of 1040 HP on the Ninjas' next turn. Unfortunately, Sandworm uses Quicksand really often, which kills everyone. I Kept my fingers crossed. Eventually he just resorted to attacks, allowing me to get off my third, and final, Water Scroll. Immediately killed off Bartz and Galuf and ended the fight with attacks from Lenna and Faris.

Preparation:

Quickly saved outside after beating Sandworm, then trekked through the Shifting Sands to the Town of Ruin. Before entering I went ahead and switched everyone back to Freelancers, optimized them, and threw them in the back row.

Went through the story sequences until the lift off of the airship.

Cray Claw:

Broke a couple of Thunder Rods over his head.

Preparation:

Flew straight to Istory and landed at the forest's edge. Set up my party config:


Bartz 2 Free F Ashura - GreenB GaiaG Angel
Lenna 2 Blue F MythrilS - GreenB NinjaS Angel
Galuf 2 Free F Ashura - GreenB GaiaG Angel
Faris 3 Time F Frost Rod - GreenB SilkR Angel

Ramuh:

Had Faris use Mute right off the bat. With Bartz, Lenna, and Galuf, I tried to do as much damage as possible with regular attacks before Flash went off. Once Ramuh used Flash, I killed off Lenna and Faris and broke Flame Rods until he gave up.

Preparation:

Flew over the town of Ruin to trigger the story sequence, then flew back to the undersea airship hangar near Crescent to progress the story.

Flew back to the Tycoon Meteor and landed just outside. Set up my party config:


Bartz 2 Free B Frost Bow - MythrilH NinjaS Flame
Lenna 2 Free B Frost Bow - MythrilH NinjaS Flame
Galuf 2 Knight B MythrilK MythrilS
Faris 3 Free B Frost Bow - MythrilH NinjaS Flame

Brought Bartz down to Near Fatal status before saving.

Adamantoise:

Provided Admantoise doesn't kill Galuf before he can start using Guard every turn, it's impossible to lose this fight. Adamantoise starts with 2000 HP. I got him down to where one more Frost Bow arrow would do him in, then let Galuf go without Guard and get killed and had Bartz end it with one last attack.

You could always go into this fight with all Freelancers and simply break a couple Frost Rods for a quick victory, but the former method saves you some rods.

Preparation:

Flew back to the undersea airship hangar again and had Cid & Mid do their upgrade. Set up my party configuration outside:


Bartz 2 Free F CoralS - GreenB NinjaS Flame
Lenna 2 Free F CoralS - GreenB NinjaS Flame
Galuf 2 Free F CoralS - GreenB NinjaS Flame
Faris 3 Blue F CoralS - GreenB NinjaS Flame

Saved and ascended.

Assault on the Ronka Ruins Flying Fortress:

There are four battles which need to be fought before Soul Cannon will appear. Each of these four battles may be Flame Thrower x 2 or Rocket Launcher x 2. Both of these encounters teach a different Blue Magic: Flame Thrower and Missle, respectively. It is random which battle will be which, but I ensured that I fought each encounter at least once in order to learn both of these Blue Magics. Once I had learned both of these, I went ahead and changed Faris into a Freelancer as well for the remainder of the four battles so that I didn't have to worry about killing off Faris before winning.

Flame Thrower x 2:

These guys can't do anything other than the Flame Thrower skill, which will be absorbed thanks to the Flame Ring. I just made sure they used Flame Thrower on Faris before killing her off. Used regular attacks every turn.

Rocket Launcher x 2:

These guys require a lot of micromanagement, but they are still easy. Both of their attacks do a percentage of your current HP, so it is impossible for them to kill any party members directly, however, one of their attacks will cause Confuse status so that needs to be handled. Like with the Flame Thrower x 2 encounter, I did all of my damage here with regular attacks, and ensured that Faris had been hit with Missile at least once before killing her off. If a party member got confused with a Coral Sword in hand, I had the next member who got a turn swap out their Coral Sword for a Silver Harp, and attack the confused member to bring them back to their senses. If one of the members currently equpped with a Silver Harp got confused, I just let them be. These were tedious fights, but fairly straightforward.

Preparation:

After all four battles had been won, with both Blue Magics learned, I set up my party configuration:


Bartz 2 Ninja F Kunai Kunai GreenB NinjaS Angel
Lenna 2 Free F CoralS - GreenB NinjaS Angel
Galuf 2 Free F CoralS - GreenB NinjaS Angel
Faris 3 Ninja F Kunai Kunai GreenB NinjaS Angel

If the last of the four battles happened to be Rocket Launcher x 2, all party members should be at extremely low HP. In this case, only heal up Lenna and Galuf to full HP, and leave Bartz and Faris where they're at. If the battle was Flame Thrower x 2, all party members are probably completely healed--this is fine, too, but you'll have to work a little harder in fight against Soul Cannon.

Soul Cannon:

The key to winning this battle is throwing exactly ten Lightning Scrolls before Soul Cannon can get off his charge shot, along with as many regular attacks from Lenna and Galuf as you can pull off. As an additional hurdle, though, Bartz and Faris must be low on HP when Soul Cannon's charge shot goes off. This means that if you weren't lucky enough to start the battle with them low, you'll have to spare a couple of Lenna and Galuf's turns to hit them once. In this case, you may consider downgrading your sword--attacking with Coral Sword may kill them, and then you'll have to use another turn bringing them back with a phoenix down. I actually had to do that and I was still able to win, though, so there is a bit of flexibility here.

Try to have Lenna and Galuf ready with full ATB bars when Soul Cannon finally fires off his charge shot. This will kill Bartz and Faris and start quickly draining what little HP Lenna and Galuf still have, so you must act fast. Break Thunder Rods with both of them if necessary.

I messed up on this guy a couple of times due to carelessness and had to start over from the beginning, which was awful since the four preceeding battles are so tedious. The strategy is pretty straightforward, though, so just be careful.

For Ultima Shadow: I believe you'll need 5-6 extra Thunder Rods when you get here since you'll have Faris as a Freelancer. You should be able to substitute half of the Lightning Scrolls for broken Thunder Rods with Faris. The rest of the strategy should be the same.

Preparation:

Went back down to the surface and saved. Took a trip back to Karnak to buy some extra Whips from the wandering NPC in the weapon/armor shop. Bought four of his other wares, too, for the Hell of it.

Time to learn some more Blue Magic. Need more Jackanapes! Followed the previous strategy to catch 2 Aegirs with Bartz and Galuf, then exchanged them for Jackanapes. Finally, I flew to the Ship Graveyard to have Faris catch a Mindflusher from below deck on one of the ships. Landed my airship just outside of the Library of the Ancients and set up my party config:


Bartz 2 Free B Whip MythrilS MythrilH NinjaS Flame
Lenna 2 Blue B CoralS MythrilS GreenB NinjaS Flame
Galuf 2 BM B Whip - GreenB NinjaS Flame
Faris 3 BM B Whip - GreenB NinjaS Flame

Healed up everyone except for Lenna, who was at 44/46 HP. This is important, you want Lenna to be close to full HP so that she can take a hit, but not full HP so you can tell if Transfusion hits her in the following battle.

Set ATB to Active and saved the game.

Learning Blue Magic: Transfusion

Pure Hell. This is toughest part of the challenge so far, but it was very satisfying to finally pull off. Get your calculator ready and type in 600 to start.

Encountered Mythril Dragon x 3 in the forests surrounding the Library of the Ancients.

Began the battle with Faris releasing Mindflusher. If it failed to confuse one of the Mythril Dragons, I'd reset.

Lenna was always the next turn for me, so I'd immediately have her get a Phoenix Down ready to be used on the confused Mythril Dragon and wait for him to use Transfusion. If, during this wait, a party member was killed off by the other dragons or the confused dragon attacked himself, I'd reset.

As soon as I saw Transfusion being used, I'd confirm the Phoenix Down use on the confused Mythril Dragon. If I didn't see Lenna's HP fill to max, I'd reset.

If I had not reset the game at this point, I felt that I had a good chance of finally getting this battle out of the way. The Mythril Dragon which was just brought back to life with the Phoenix Down requires four slashes from the Whip before he can be caught, so I got those off as soon as possible, using Lenna to feed the other members Phoenix Downs and Potions as necessary throughout the remainder of the battle. After the revived Mythril Dragon had been whipped four times, I chose another Mythril Dragon and focused any other Whip slashes I had before Faris' next turn on him, subtracting off the damage of each of them from the 600 previously entered in my calculator. On Faris' turn, I caught the revived Mythril Dragon.

With two Mythril Dragons left, I concentrated Whip slashes on the one I'd chosen earlier, carefully calculating away the damage of each strike while Lenna kept everyone alive and healthy with Phoenix Downs and Potions. After roughly 13 slashes, the Mythril Dragon I'd been focusing on was at around 310-320 HP. At this point, I'd allow Faris to release her previously caught Mythril Dragon and quickly focus any other Whip slashes until her next turn on the Mythril Dragon I'd neglected until now until Faris' following turn, on which I'd catch the one I'd been focusing on.

Now that there was only one left, I allowed Galuf to release Jackanapes and ensured that Bartz was at full HP. When the Doom counter was at around 20, I slashed the last Mythril Dragon with a whip, hoping for Hold status, and quickly had everyone other than Bartz kill themselves off, and had Bartz defend until 0 on the counter, ready to use a potion if a hit did come his way.

When the battle was over, I rejoiced.

[Marshall Banana]

Learning Blue Magic: Transfusion

Pure Hell. This is toughest part of the challenge so far, but it was very satisfying to finally pull off. Get your calculator ready and type in 600 to start.

Encountered Mythril Dragon x 3 in the forests surrounding the Library of the Ancients.

Began the battle with Faris releasing Mindflusher. If it failed to confuse one of the Mythril Dragons, I'd reset.

Lenna was always the next turn for me, so I'd immediately have her get a Phoenix Down ready to be used on the confused Mythril Dragon and wait for him to use Transfusion. If, during this wait, a party member was killed off by the other dragons or the confused dragon attacked himself, I'd reset.

As soon as I saw Transfusion being used, I'd confirm the Phoenix Down use on the confused Mythril Dragon. If I didn't see Lenna's HP fill to max, I'd reset.

If I had not reset the game at this point, I felt that I had a good chance of finally getting this battle out of the way. The Mythril Dragon which was just brought back to life with the Phoenix Down requires four slashes from the Whip before he can be caught, so I got those off as soon as possible, using Lenna to feed the other members Phoenix Downs and Potions as necessary throughout the remainder of the battle. After the revived Mythril Dragon had been whipped four times, I chose another Mythril Dragon and focused any other Whip slashes I had before Faris' next turn on him, subtracting off the damage of each of them from the 600 previously entered in my calculator. On Faris' turn, I caught the revived Mythril Dragon.

With two Mythril Dragons left, I concentrated Whip slashes on the one I'd chosen earlier, carefully calculating away the damage of each strike while Lenna kept everyone alive and healthy with Phoenix Downs and Potions. After roughly 13 slashes, the Mythril Dragon I'd been focusing on was at around 310-320 HP. At this point, I'd allow Faris to release her previously caught Mythril Dragon and quickly focus any other Whip slashes until her next turn on the Mythril Dragon I'd neglected until now until Faris' following turn, on which I'd catch the one I'd been focusing on.

Now that there was only one left, I allowed Galuf to release Jackanapes and ensured that Bartz was at full HP. When the Doom counter was at around 20, I slashed the last Mythril Dragon with a whip, hoping for Hold status, and quickly had everyone other than Bartz kill themselves off, and had Bartz defend until 0 on the counter, ready to use a potion if a hit did come his way.

When the battle was over, I rejoiced.
:mymelrelaxed:

[Ultima Shadow]

Learning Blue Magic: Transfusion

Pure Hell. This is toughest part of the challenge so far, but it was very satisfying to finally pull off. Get your calculator ready and type in 600 to start.

Encountered Mythril Dragon x 3 in the forests surrounding the Library of the Ancients.

Began the battle with Faris releasing Mindflusher. If it failed to confuse one of the Mythril Dragons, I'd reset.

Lenna was always the next turn for me, so I'd immediately have her get a Phoenix Down ready to be used on the confused Mythril Dragon and wait for him to use Transfusion. If, during this wait, a party member was killed off by the other dragons or the confused dragon attacked himself, I'd reset.

As soon as I saw Transfusion being used, I'd confirm the Phoenix Down use on the confused Mythril Dragon. If I didn't see Lenna's HP fill to max, I'd reset.

If I had not reset the game at this point, I felt that I had a good chance of finally getting this battle out of the way. The Mythril Dragon which was just brought back to life with the Phoenix Down requires four slashes from the Whip before he can be caught, so I got those off as soon as possible, using Lenna to feed the other members Phoenix Downs and Potions as necessary throughout the remainder of the battle. After the revived Mythril Dragon had been whipped four times, I chose another Mythril Dragon and focused any other Whip slashes I had before Faris' next turn on him, subtracting off the damage of each of them from the 600 previously entered in my calculator. On Faris' turn, I caught the revived Mythril Dragon.

With two Mythril Dragons left, I concentrated Whip slashes on the one I'd chosen earlier, carefully calculating away the damage of each strike while Lenna kept everyone alive and healthy with Phoenix Downs and Potions. After roughly 13 slashes, the Mythril Dragon I'd been focusing on was at around 310-320 HP. At this point, I'd allow Faris to release her previously caught Mythril Dragon and quickly focus any other Whip slashes until her next turn on the Mythril Dragon I'd neglected until now until Faris' following turn, on which I'd catch the one I'd been focusing on.

Now that there was only one left, I allowed Galuf to release Jackanapes and ensured that Bartz was at full HP. When the Doom counter was at around 20, I slashed the last Mythril Dragon with a whip, hoping for Hold status, and quickly had everyone other than Bartz kill themselves off, and had Bartz defend until 0 on the counter, ready to use a potion if a hit did come his way.

When the battle was over, I rejoiced.
...if that's even half as bad as it sounds, then "pure hell" is an understatement. And I got a feeling it's, in fact, way worse than it sounds. =O

...which leads me to a question: when will, if ever, Transfusion actually be needed?




As for my own progress, I burnt Shiva to dust by throwing 2 Fire Rods at her.

I finally got Moon Flute after a few failed attempts. I kept killing the guy too early with my Blastoise (otherwise known as Grass Tortoise).

Ifrit got his ass kicked by Ice 2 + Ice Rod.



Next up: Byblos and getting Magic Hammer.:cool:

[Necronopticous]

...which leads me to a question: when will, if ever, Transfusion actually be needed?
I don't believe that Transfusion will ever be used, but half of the challenge is collecting all of the Blue Magic without accumulating any extra EXP or ABP!

[Ultima Shadow]

I don't believe that Transfusion will ever be used, but half of the challenge is collecting all of the Blue Magic without accumulating any extra EXP or ABP!

Aha, so you're going for a complete Blue Magic collection on top of everything else! :cool:

Is there any non-boss Blue Magic that you can miss completely? While I'd like to go for a full Blue Magic collection as well, I do have lots of work and such things coming up that I have to do, so I'd prefere to focus mainly on just getting trough the game as a start (since that's my main goal), and start collecting the remaining Blue Magic spells afterwards.

[Necronopticous]

It's hard to say whether or not you can miss any Blue Magic. I don't think that there are many (or any) that you can miss completely in a normal game, however, in this challenge the encounters from which you can learn them are all very specific since you have to be able to win the battle without picking up any EXP or ABP. I just don't know the game well enough to be able to say whether key encounters will be gone from the game later on.

[Ultima Shadow]

Ah well, I'll just collect as many as possible when I'm done beating the game then. :cool:

Finally beat Byblos... and got Magic Hammer as well.

Used the exactly same strat as Necro here, so yeah. It took me lots of tries though, since Byblos kept using that move that takes everyone out instantly. =(

[Necronopticous]

Now you get to steal for eternity so that you have enough gil for everything. ;]

[Ultima Shadow]

Got up to 99 Silver Bows twice so far. Ugh. I'm not sure how much money actually is needed, but... I think I'll do this one more time, then I'll go for the ethers. :greenie:

Edit: Oh yeah, you really need those rings that cost 50,000 each. Ouf. >_>

[Ultima Shadow]

Not really a massive, interesting update, but:

AGFSFHJKAFSNASFJAKFFKQWFUIH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

^ My way of expressing impatience. It's really a shame the "Thievery" skill from FFIX doesn't exist in this game... combined with break damage limit. If it did, it would be dealing millions of damage by now.


I'm getting close though. I'm almost up in 800,000 gil now, and a stock of 99 ethers.


Just a little more! Aaaaaaaaahhhh!!!

[Necronopticous]

I've been really busy with some things this last week, so I haven't really has many chances to play. How is your game going?

[Ultima Shadow]

I've been really busy with some things this last week, so I haven't really has many chances to play. How is your game going?
Same problem. Been busy with other things. :p

Well, I finally got enough money and bought those rings + some other stuff. But I haven't had time to continue after that yet.:greenie:

[Ultima Shadow]

Ah, finally got some time to play again!


Adamantoise:

Galuf as Knight, everyone else as Bare at low hp. Galuf blocks and dies, everyone else throws rods. Adamantoise dies.


After this, I remembered I still adn't gotten Ramuh... so I got him. Wasn't hard at all either, and I got Flash.


After stocking up on a bunch of Thunder Rods and lots os scrolls, I finally went up against the Soul Cannon.


Faris: Bare
Bartz: Ninja
Galuf: Bare
Lenna: Blue Mage


Flame Thrower x 2: Two words: Fire Ring. I equiped it on everyone except Lenna, who I had as a Blue Mage, before starting the cannon battles. This made it impossible to lose against the Flame Throwers. After using 2 Thunder Scrolls, I had everyone beat Bartz to death before finishing the battle with normal attacks.

Rocket Launcher x 2: Lenna still as Blue Mage. A little trickier than the Flame Thrower battle, but still not too bad. Once Lenna had been hit with Missile and Bartz had thrown 2 Thunder Scrolls, I killed them both off and finished with a Thunder Rod.

After learning both Blue Magic spells, I turned Lenna back to Bare to make the remaining battle easier.




Soul Cannon:

I used this setup here:

Faris: Bare
Bartz: Time Mage
Lenna: Ninja
Galuf: Ninja



I started off by throwing 1 scroll with each Ninja, killing both the support-things. I cast slow on the cannon with Bartz and breaked a rod with Faris for around 1500 damage. In other words, 2 scrolls + 1 Rod = around 3500-3600 damage done. This made counting the damage pretty easy, and thanks to Slow/Haste I could get the Soul Cannon down to low enough HP so that a single Thunder Rod would be enough to finish it, before it was able to fire. Then I waited for it to fire. Since Faris has much higher HP than everyone else as she's level 4, I could wait until everyone else's HP had been sapped without putting Faris in the risk-zone. One Thunder Rod later and the battle was finished. Faris gains 40 exp, but doesn't level up. Wheee!



Next up: Strato-something big, but only wannabe-bad yellow dragon monster thingy!

[Necronopticous]

Nice progress. I really hope that I can squeeze in some play this weekend. It's been really busy for me.

[-N-]

Oh noes don't let this challenge die! I love reading about them. I also think it would be a great idea to aggregate this content and put it up on the front site.

[The Man]

You people are insane. This game is hard enough without forcing yourself never to gain any ABP.

Good luck, though.

[Necronopticous]

I should really pick this back up.

[rubah]

You really should

[-N-]

yes

[Raistlin]

Jesus christ you people are insane. Though this has been very entertaining to read.

[qwertysaur]

I think I'm going to have to attempt this. It looks like a lot of fun :)

[Ultima Shadow]

First of all, I'd like to make this announcment: I won't go after all Blue Magic Spells, I'll just go for beating the game. While this is kinda sad, the reason is because I simply won't have time otherwise.


Now, for my short progress:


I actually beat StratoAvis (I think that's what it was called. For those who don't know which one I'm talking about, it's that yellow dragon who revives once before you defeat it for real) 3 weeks ago, but forgot/didn't have time to report, so I'll do so now. I also just beat Titan today.

StratoAvis was not even a challenge. I used 2 Ninjas and 2 Bares (don't remember exactly who I used as Ninjas and Bares, other than Faris being bare). All except one of the Ninjas had Fire Ring equiped, which protects against Strato's only really dangerous attack.

I basically spammed Water Scrolls (around 400 damage) with the Ninjas while keeping my party alive with potions/pheonix downs with the Bares until Strato was low enough on HP. Then, I killed off the Ninja with Fire Ring and waited for Strato to use the Blaze (or whatever the fire-attack was called) to finish off the Ninja while healing Faris + whoever the other Bare was. I think it was Galuf actually. Oh well, doesn't matter. I finished him off with physicals.

The reason I didn't finish both Ninjas manually was because it would have been too risky. With only two characters left, Strato's physicals can get quite dangerous, but as long as you got 3 characters alive it's pretty safe. By having Strato use the fire move to finish the Ninja, I'd get more turns with my Bares, buying me more time/turns to do that last bit of damage with physicals.



As for Titan, this is probably what the Gaia Gears were supposed to be used for. Luckily for me, you can get Float on your characters by confusing the flying cats in those mountains with poisonous plants... so I just did that until I had Float on Bartz and Lenna (at this point, Galuf has temporarily left the party btw).

Against Titan, I used two Bares + a Ninja and just spammed scrolls/rodes. The Ninja was the one without Float, by the way. Titan managed to attack twice before he went down. One attack got blocked, the other killed Lenna. Once defeated, he uses Earthquake as a final move, killing Faris (the Ninja) and leaving Bare Bartz alive thanks to Float.

[qwertysaur]

qwerty's Final Fantasy V 0APB low level no treasure all blue magic challenge playthro - omgmygame Forums (http://forums.omgmygame.com/showthread.php?p=9471#post9471) :bigsmile:

[Ultima Shadow]

qwerty's Final Fantasy V 0APB low level no treasure all blue magic challenge playthro - omgmygame Forums (http://forums.omgmygame.com/showthread.php?p=9471#post9471) :bigsmile:

Awesome. You should post your progress here as well though. =P