The Solo Challenge

[Shin Gouken]

I don't know why but Solo character challenges appeal more to me than other types of challenge, so ive decided to hit another game with it. This being my first attempt at it with FFXII, i'm looking to make it go as smoothly as possible so i'll abuse every trick i know. Power levelling, Main Gauche + shield combo, aquiring powerful weapons and relics early etc. If i can get through the whole game, i'd like to add more limitations like i did with my FFV solo challenge.

There isn't much to report as of yet (A couple of hours in) because you play with just vaan for the initial part of the game anyway. When Penelo joined, it wouldn't let me put her in reserve so i had to smack her up a bit till she passed out >:D Then pinched her stuff to sell for a few extra gil

Ive chained some wolves and hyenas to rack up almost 6000 Gil, and hit level 6. I havn't been very smart in my LP spending, so far only buying the licenses for cotton cap and poach, neither of which i really want. I was using Poach as a path to reach the battle lore licenses but it gets expensive quickly on that route. And i got the license for cotton cap after a hyena dropped one but turns out they're a bit naff.

Got my sunstone now anyway so will move on tomorrow.

I'm not too convinced i'll finish the game though. The Demon wall and Mandragoras scare me a little

[Karifean]

Are you gonna go Dustia leveling? Cause if you do, it'll probably be a lot easier.
My advise would be getting the Zodiac Spear before fighting the Mandragoras, I did it on my last two playthroughs and I never had any problems storyline-wise anymore. It should (hopefully) let you beat the Mandragoras easily.

[Shin Gouken]

Are you gonna go Dustia leveling? Cause if you do, it'll probably be a lot easier.
My advise would be getting the Zodiac Spear before fighting the Mandragoras, I did it on my last two playthroughs and I never had any problems storyline-wise anymore. It should (hopefully) let you beat the Mandragoras easily.

I wasn't planning on Dustia levelling, but i'm definitley considering it now.

I had planned to wipe out the mandragors by powering up a Dark Matter if i could get my hands on one. I would think i would otherwise be put to an end quickly by status ailments.

But demon wall... even if it was possible a single character could inflict enough damage to kill him before being crushed, i still have to worry about his instant death attack which their is no way to protect against. All i can really do here is level level level.

I should note that i'm not using quickenings in this challenge, (or espers which is probabley obvious.)

I figured out how i can get a nihopalaoa. Either kill 10 Marks and buy one for 30,000 Gil, which could be tricky as a few of these marks are pretty tough even with a full party. Or Aquire a few Blood Stained Necklaces, a couple of Deaths heads and a few Leo Gems. This means getting as far as the Golmore jungle for the Deaths Heads, and getting the rarest steal from some Dino type enemies.

Havn't geared her up today yet, will do so now and abuse the Dustia trick. I havn't done this before but ive read about it. It's as simple as getting to less than 10% of my HP and pheonix downing his ass as soon as he appears right? I imagine there's some LP benefit in there too?

[Karifean]

He gives ~1100 EXP and 3 LP upon death. You should always take things he drops, and don't forget to use the respawn bug so you can chain him. Each book he drops is worth about 2 Phoenix Downs. Btw, you can buy Phoenix Down afaik only in the Westernsand Shop, which can also be used to avoid breaking the chain - you can easily get a chain of 100+ on Dustia. Only thing that might be annoying is that you can't use Gambits yet.

When you say you're playing without Quickenings, do you still allow yourself to learn them to massively boost MP?

[Shin Gouken]

He gives ~1100 EXP and 3 LP upon death. You should always take things he drops, and don't forget to use the respawn bug so you can chain him. Each book he drops is worth about 2 Phoenix Downs. Btw, you can buy Phoenix Down afaik only in the Westernsand Shop, which can also be used to avoid breaking the chain - you can easily get a chain of 100+ on Dustia. Only thing that might be annoying is that you can't use Gambits yet.

When you say you're playing without Quickenings, do you still allow yourself to learn them to massively boost MP?

I still plan to aquire the licenses for quickenings, i don't want to make things too hard on myself. What sort of level should i aim for with Dustia chaining?

I chained about 18 getting to level 16 and making my 6000Gil back that i invested in pheonix downs. Got lucky and bagged a flame staff after my first kill too. I'm feeling really twitchy at running around on low HP when Dustia keeps aiming Dark spells at me though =/ he occasionally teleports midway through charging his spell and i panick and run lol. Am fighting the urge to save now while i restock on pheonix downs to continue the chain

EDIT: OK scratch all that, damn power cable came out and now i gotta do it again. Damn that's so pissin annoying. Should've saved. Well, here i go again...

[Karifean]

I'd aim for level 30-50 (For a solo challenge maybe 35-50, though, I'm not sure). I myself am currently trying the "Perfecter Game", so I'm going up for the 70-80's. You can get to Level 99 if you want, but keep in mind, it takes a HELL lot of time. Level 99 could take up to a month, depending on how much you play.

Once you get the hang of it, you actually don't need to save between Dustia runs. When I started, I saved often, but now I think I regret doing that.

[Shin Gouken]

I'd aim for level 30-50 (For a solo challenge maybe 35-50, though, I'm not sure). I myself am currently trying the "Perfecter Game", so I'm going up for the 70-80's. You can get to Level 99 if you want, but keep in mind, it takes a HELL lot of time. Level 99 could take up to a month, depending on how much you play.

Once you get the hang of it, you actually don't need to save between Dustia runs. When I started, I saved often, but now I think I regret doing that.

Wow, isn't that a bit OTT? I don't want to suck ALL the fun out of the challenge :D

A perfect game should be pretty easy for you. The Dustia chaining trick will nab you lots of High Arcana, you can get souls of Thamasa that way and of course your grand armour. Ive played a perfect game... almost. All i can say is, if you aren't great at pirate olympics, don't miss your one and only chance of getting Orthros's rare steal =/

Well chained 15 and accidently broke it so ive re-stocked on pheonix downs and saved. Back to it i guess. I'll go for as long as i can without getting too bored, but i'll leave a save file here incase i'm having my arse handed to me by one of the upcoming boss battles

[Shin Gouken]

After a lengthy break to play FFXIII and a break from gaming in general, ive decided to resume this challenge.

I figured this would be somewhat harder than my FFV solo challenge and i didn't want to go in blind so i googled FFXII solo challenge and found... this thread :( i can't be the only fool to try this! I'll apreciate any help i can get so any veterans out there please don't be shy about offering advice.

I'm ready to speak to Dalan and sneak into the palace. Wish me luck please :spin:

[Mogi]

Gah, I was going for a Balthier solo, but my grandpa took the PS2 only about twelve hours in or so, so I haven't been able to continue with it. Some of the different bosses and stuff are going to be a pain, so just level, level, level.

Good luck with this :</>D!

[Shin Gouken]

Thanks Mogi :spin:

Ive been lazy tonight, just chatted to people in Rabanastre and chained some rats in the garamsythe waterway because i was preoccupied chatting on msn and not paying that much attention. The only constructive thing i did tonight was bag a Mage Masher from a chest which increases my attack a little and gives me added effect of silence.

More soon.

[Shin Gouken]

Slowly making progress. I blitzed the palace and stormed into the sewers and fought the miniboss group of flans. I'm level 18 so they took 5-6 hits each. The mage masher saved me from being blinded by silencing them :spin: that's all for now

[qwertysaur]

Are you going to do the mad dash through the feywood to avoid the elder wrym?

[Shin Gouken]

Are you going to do the mad dash through the feywood to avoid the elder wrym?

Haha yes! I may come back when i have a Ribbon, but he inflicts so many multiple status' i don't much fancy my chances going head to head without a Ribbon :spin:

[Shin Gouken]

Firemane - Mage Masher shows its worth for a second time by silencing him, preventing his Fire spell. With him relying on physical attacks i at least have a chance to block with my shield. I had to use 5 high potions throughout the battle which i'm not too happy about, but normal potions and cure don't give back enough HP (Firemane hit's for about 60HP and the delay time/animation time means i take two hits) A steady 5 minute battle

[Shin Gouken]

Mimic Queen

I gave up after attempt number one, when i ran out of MP and Potions. I only had her down to half her HP so i needed a new plan. I'm only level 19, i should have aimed for a few more levels when Dustia levelling.

But i'm sitting on quite a few license points so here's how i spent them hoping to turn this fight around.

I opened up a gambit slot to reach a Magick Lore. All this does is have Cure heal an extra 10HP but every little helps. The Gambit slot also led to a Battle Lore which will give my attack a small boost. I then opened a Remedy Lore in order to reach Shield Block. I blocked a number of attacks in round one (Including the MQ's Ground Shaker) so this should help me block some more.This led to another Battle Lore slightly increasing my attack again. Which finally led to an extra 100HP. Hopefully this is enough to put the odds a little more in my favour but if not i'll go kill 50 enemies for the LP and open up a quickening for the boost in MP which certainly should make a difference.

It's worth mentioning that had i bought the Blizzard and Protect spells i wouldn't be struggling right now so ive made this battle harder on myself by rushing into it. There hasn't been an opportunity to go back to Nalbina for the spells since breaking into the palace so i really should of thought that through a little more. Anyway, onto round two...

[Shin Gouken]

Hahaha that was a damn cheeky fight. My extra prep didn't make any significant difference but i had lady luck on my side :spin:

Got lots of shield blocks in and managed a 3hit combo, followed by a 5hit combo, followed by a 4hit combo :hyper:

I'll also note here that i used a little trick where if you swap items after casting a spell or performing an action, it bypasses the animation time. This way i can cure really quickly and resume attacking without having to wait for the delay time/animation time. Something i plan to abuse alot more

[Mogi]

I'll also note here that i used a little trick where if you swap items after casting a spell or performing an action, it bypasses the animation time. This way i can cure really quickly and resume attacking without having to wait for the delay time/animation time. Something i plan to abuse alot more
What do you mean by "swap items"? I'd like to know more about this little exploit!

[Shin Gouken]

I'll also note here that i used a little trick where if you swap items after casting a spell or performing an action, it bypasses the animation time. This way i can cure really quickly and resume attacking without having to wait for the delay time/animation time. Something i plan to abuse alot more
What do you mean by "swap items"? I'd like to know more about this little exploit!

Cast a spell with a lengthy animation time. As soon as the damage numbers are on screen (or healing numbers etc) go to the menu and give that character a different weapon (or armour,helm etc) You can give them their previous weapon back immedietley. When you return to the battle your character who was previously stuck in animation/delay time is now immedietley free to perform another action.

Not so useful for standard physical attacks, but with spells and items it's really quite effective

[Shin Gouken]

Bits and pieces today.

First i swung by Nalbina to pick up the spells Protect, Poisona, Blindna, Thunder, Blizzard, Slow, Blind and Poisen.

Took Basch, Balthier and Fran back to Rabanstre so i could go and freely do as i please.

I chained 20 wolves in the Westersand to spawn the rare game Lindbur Wolf. I quickly killed his three wolf companions and cast Blind on him so most of his attacks would miss. Then lured him to the entrance of the zone so i could run out to heal and come back to resume the fight. Took about a hundred tries to steal his Gladius but it was worth the effort for the extra 26 attack power it provided. The Wind element of the weapon may or may not be useful (possibley in slaying warewolves a bit later but i don't know if i'll have a new weapon before then)

One hit killed Thextera with my new weapon, despite Thextera resisting wind.

Chained about 70 wolves and killed lots of other nasties for Gil, Exp and LP. I do not plan on abusing the Dustia trick from here, any levelling, LP or Gil farming will be done legit.

Opened White magic 2, Green magic 1, Red Spiral Quickening and the Gladius liscences.

Not sure if i'm ready to continue with the story yet... i was a bit hastey last time and made things needlessly difficult for myself. Will resume tomorrow

[Shin Gouken]

My main concern with moving forward now is that my healing ability isn't very efficient. In boss fights i can't keep up with healing because they hit for as much as i can heal. So with that in mind i decided to do laps around the westersand opening chests and bagged some 18 high potions which should help with the next couple of boss fights. I also gained four levels (Level 24 now) and racked up some 400LP.

In Bhujerba I bought a Bronze chestplate for +3 def and and +20HP (every little helps) and unlocked the corresponding license along with Green magick 2, Time magick 1 and Time magick 2. And bought the spells Dark, Silence, Shell, Disable and Immobolize. I didn't buy vox for obvious reasons.

Larsa was a bitch to kill. Annoying poncey little prick blocks most of my attacks and Hi-potions off the damage.

Onto the Lhusu mines...

[Shin Gouken]

Didn't mess about in the Lhusu mines. Got in and got out. Mainly due to having Slow cast on me by a skull knight as soon as i entered and no way to heal from Slow at present.

Outnumbered 6 to 1. 2 judges, an imperial magus and 3 imperial swordsmen. Failure was certain. Had to start back at the beginning of the Dreadnought Leviathan. Spent all my LP to buff myself out a bit. Opened shields 2 (to equip the Buckler) Pheonix lore as a pathway to reach potion lore, spellbound, remedy lore, battle lore and two shield blocks.

Round two. I had 50 imperial soldiers on my ass and ran into the boss fight room without casting shell and protect. Bad start. But i had a new plan :cool: One hit killed the magus straight away, but not before he could cast slow on me... it's not looking good... I cast Blind on each judge in turn and threw an Aero mote (no charge time so bypassing my slow status) to one hit kill the three soldiers. The two judges missed their attacks 70% of the time, their Tri-attack is nasty and inflicts 300HP damage but i blocked it most of the time. Safely finished them both off but i really abused the action time/delay time glitch to get me through and used more Hi-potions than i liked.

Not looking forward to the upcoming battle with Judge Ghis :(

[Shin Gouken]

Judge Ghis was surprisingly easy. Got hit by two consecutive Tri-attacks by the Imperial swordsmen as soon as the battle started, if i hadn't of blocked the third it would have been a quick end to me. I had chained a large amount of soldiers beforehand (as never ending waves appeared from the constant sounding alarm) and managed to get a rare aero mote from one of them which i used here to kill the three swordsmen in one swift hit. Judge ghis' attacks were mostly blocked by my shield (another win for blind) and his magics were pathetically weak. Brought him down pretty quick

[Shin Gouken]

The Ogir Yensa Sandsea.

Chained enough Alraune to aquire enough Licence points (155, though i was only 60 short of this mark) to open up a sexy +500HP. Why? Because i'm going to have to take drastic measures if i hope to destroy Demon Wall in the Tomb Of Wraithwall, and this is step one. The extra HP was specifically to help keep me alive when chaining the Warewolves in the Giza Plains. Their desperation attack inflicts between 500 and 600HP damage which can sting just a bit.

The drop i hoped to aquire was the Kotetsu, which increases my attack power to a nice round 50. It's two handed so the Gladius won't be being retired just yet because shields are far too useful. But it doesn't have the Wind element attached and will work nicely in situations such as the Demon Wall where a faster kill is needed.

My current position

Level: 29
HP: 1788
Attack power: Gladius - 45, Kotetsu - 50
Quickenings: Red Spiral
Overall LP spent: Roughly 1300-1400

I may continue to chain the warewolves despite having aquired my rare drop. I now need licence points to open the licence for Kotetsu. They also give great experience so if i'm LP farming i may aswell find a spot where the experience is this good. Tomorrow i may have a look at what hunts ive neglected until this point and possibley give Demon Wall my first shot

[Wolf Kanno]

Are you going to attempt to get the Demonsbane sword by beating the first Demon Wall? Or do you think the Blood Sword will give you longer term benefits?

[Shin Gouken]

Are you going to attempt to get the Demonsbane sword by beating the first Demon Wall? Or do you think the Blood Sword will give you longer term benefits?


I'm very very worried about the second demon wall, i think defeating the first one isn't feasible unless i double my current level. The time limit isn't so much the problem, it's the instant death attack where he teleports you to the X-zone... i don't think there is a way to survive it.

Any ideas to help with Demon Wall? He's been my primary concern since starting this challenge.

EDIT: He's weak to Holy and i have two Holy motes i received as rare drops when chaining soldiers onboard the Leviathan. Being items they have no charge time and i can skip the delay time after by switching my weapons. I'll have to see how much damage they hit for but hopefully it's enough to put a major dent in him so i can finish up with regular attacks

[Shin Gouken]

Ive got a lot to do :(

I interupted my levelling to take a shot at demon wall. Blitzed my way through the Ogir Yensa Sandsea and the Nam Yensa Sandsea (Killing the Uratan eater and claiming the Eksir berries along the way) Garuda was extremely easy after using the Eksir berries. Another win for Blind + Shield + Gauntlets... gotta love that. Spammed Thunder about 50 times, using Charge to restore MP until eventually he died.

The Demon Wall completley handed me my arse. As i expected he would. It was just a test really to see what preperations i'd have to make. I have 3 Holy motes which hit for 2000HP damage each... not as much as i'd hope considering he's weak to Holy. I protected from Blind with the apropriate accessory but i don't have a way to protect from sleep (which btw, i can't get until the parimina rift and not without a diamond armlet :mad:). Also Doom will kill me unless i open the corresponding Remedy Lore.

So here's a short list of what i need to do.

Aquire enough LP to open the right remedy lore. (170LP with either of my available routes)
Aquire enough LP to open the licence for Kotetsu (130LP)
Level Level Level



HAHAHA ok just scrap all that crap!!! Another test run later and wtf i just beat him!!! I got lucky when sleep missed (REALLY lucky because he has augments ingnore vitality and status+) He didn't use X-zone and despite my physical attacks only doing about 300HP per hit and only having 2 Holy motes (used the other on the first demon wall) he still went down before he crushed me.

Unfortunatley my celebration is a bit premature because i had Doom cast on me in the battle with the first demon wall (which i fled from at the last minute) and have just 2 seconds left until it kills me. No LP to open up the remedy lore and no save point close enough to rescue me.

[qwertysaur]

Unfortunately my celebration is a bit premature because i had Doom cast on me in the battle with the first demon wall (which i fled from at the last minute) and have just 2 seconds left until it kills me. No LP to open up the remedy lore and no save point close enough to rescue me.
Ouch :(

[Shin Gouken]

I have attempted the first demon wall about 10 times tonight. And guess what... i havn't defeated him yet :D but don't worry, i'm having fun!

I'm confident the second demon wall is an easy win so ive been playing with the first one trying to determine if it's at all possible in my current position. Before any of my attempts i chained somehwere over 200 Urutan Yensa's as well as a fat load of bagaloys and various other enemies, primarily for LP but i gained 5 levels too which is a nice bonus. I opened the remedy lore i needed (170LP down straight away) but still have a nice 150 LP to play with.

Ive tried opening the brawler licence and equipping the amber armlet but it appears as if these two things don't stack...

I tried beserking myself with the Gladius and again with Kotetsu. I think it's clear that the time invested for kotetsu was somewhat wasted as the lower charge time of the Gladius is far more beneficial than the extra 5 attack power.

I tried a similar beserk approach with the Swiftness Lores. Each Lore reduces charge time on all actions by 10%. Being 30% faster certainly makes a difference... just not enough.

With my extra levels i thought to use my 3 Holy motes hoping they would do more damage. With mystic armour to increase my magic and the Flame staff i aquired from my Dustia chaining, each mote hits for almost 3000HP. So he's almost down to half way but the problem here is, Holy has an incredabley long animation time which i can't skip because if i interupt it before the damage numbers appear then it cancels the spell.

My main tactic which seems to work best is to open with a holy mote which makes his turn wait until the spell has finished, then switch items to hit for physical damage while he attacks, then switch back to a magic set up for another holy mote to get it in before his next attack, forcing him to wait until it's finished. If i get lucky and sleep misses then i get him down to just under a quarter of his HP before he crushes me.

If anyone has any ideas at this point i'll take any suggestions. I don't have to defeat demon wall 1, i can simply move on. But i'd love to beat him now because even with a full party at this stage it's too hard for most to attempt. (I remember beserking Vossler and two of my team and i only just scraped a victory) Shame i put a rule on no quickenings :D I might go take on some marks and aim a few levels higher and open some of the more expensive lores, but i don't like the idea of being too over-levelled

[Shin Gouken]

Well i finally did it :spin:

I wanted to find more Holy motes and after a quick check, it turns out i didn't find them on the Dreadnought Leviathan like i thought i had. I assumed they were rare drops from all the soldiers i chained there and didn't notice picking them up. But actually i found them when i was looting for high potions in the Westersand which meant i could go back and try to aquire more. I also found out there is a hastaga mote in a chest there too. I went back and spawned chests until i found three more holy motes and a hastaga mote and racked up over a 150 LP along the way.

I tried with the holy motes first but 6 isn't enough to finish him and i barely have enough time to use all 6 because the animation for holy is too long. So when that failed i tried physical attacks with the hastaga mote and beserk.

In total, the amount of LP i spent to prepare for this boss was 480! This is what i spent it on...

Swiftness Lore 1 - 30LP - To reduce action time
Swiftness Lore 2 - 30LP - To reduce action time
Swiftness Lore 3 - 80LP - To reduce action time
Heavy armour 3 - 30LP - For Linen Cuirass
Swords 2 - 25LP - To reach Katana 1
Spears 2 - 25LP - To reach Katana 1
Bows 5 - 45LP - To reach Katana 1
Katana 1 - 35LP - For Kotetsu
Accessories 7 - 40LP - For Argyle Armlet
Potion Lore 3 - 70LP - To reach Remedy Lore 3
Remedy Lore 3 - 70LP - To heal from Doom

My set up -

Level - 35
Weapon 1 - Kotetsu
Weapon 2 - Bronze Shield
Helm - Lambent Hat
Armour - Linen Cuirass
Accessory - Argyle Armlet

So i cast Protect and use my hastaga mote before the battle. I can't use Beserk before the battle because it prevents me from moving vaan. This means i can't cast Shell because it reduces the chances of Beserk hitting successfully. (I had contemplated fixing this with a Shell Shield by simply equipping it after Beserk but i'd hoped i didn't have to go through more prep if i could help it) This leaves me vunerable to Sleep. Beserk took three tries to land but as i was using the item Bacchus's Wine there was no charge time and i skipped the delay time that follows so barely no time was lost. I was hit by Doom and Silence, but his Blind attacks missed due to my Argyle Armlet (I could have protected from Silence too but i didn't want to spend the extra LP) Sleep thankfully missed and Kotetsu showed its worth with several multiple hits.

I won with about... a second to spare. I almost cried when i realised the Doom counter was nearing zero and i'm unable to heal because i'm still Beserked... but thankfully Beserk wore off before Doom could claim me :D yay

Demon Wall two i simply charged into. I'd saved (of course) but didn't bother with Protect or Shell and just hammered away. I think i was lucky in that he basically spammed Blindga for the majority of the battle but even so i would have defeated him long before the end of the hall. He was dead about halfway.

Bagged Demonsbane first time.

Blitzed my way through the Tomb of Raithwall with no effort.

No save point before Belias... i cast Shell and Protect and charged in. Firaja was the only attack that stung a bit but still it didn't hit the 400HP mark so this battle was an easy win.

I'm saved outside. That's enough exitement for one night

[Wolf Kanno]

Lord... Excellent work and I am happy you got yourself a Demonsbane to make things much easier for you. Going to do a tag team effort with the weapon and the Blood Sword when you get it?

[Shin Gouken]

Lord... Excellent work and I am happy you got yourself a Demonsbane to make things much easier for you. Going to do a tag team effort with the weapon and the Blood Sword when you get it?

I'm hoping no... because this weekend i'm going to try and defeat another 8 marks which will give me access to the nihopalaoa. I can let that take care of all my status casting needs :cool: Unless i can't inflict Sap with it??? It's ready to buy in the bazaar (though it's a bit pricey) Tbh yeah i'll go buy it, it might come in handy with the marks i'll be soon facing.

Vossler was a bit of a pansy. I let a warp mote take care of the 3 imperial swordsmen, got protect up and just hammered away at him. Now i'm just shopping in Rabanastre where i'll save and leave it for tonight, ready to go mark hunting tomorrow.

[Shin Gouken]

As i said i would, ive been mark hunting.

Flowering Cactoid
Not much to say, one hit KO'd.

Wraith
7 hits to kill, a 5 hit combo meant the battle lasted no more than 10 seconds.

Nidhogg
Another win for Blind + Shield + Gauntlets.

Rocktoise
Yet another win for Blind + Shield + Gauntlets.

Enkelados
I tried the Blind approach but it soon cured its blindness and beserked itself. I wasn't taking much damage so rather than spam blind another 5 times to get it to stick i just hacked away.

Wyvern
I equipped the Killer Bow and very slowly chipped away. Aero was its only attack worth noting which hit for a few hundred but nothing a Cura can't handle.

Cluckatrice
The chicks inflicted 0HP damage and the Cluckatrice only hit for 20-30HP so i didn't make a special strategy. This was with Gold armour and protect equipped. Damn chicks liked to jump out of the way of physical attacks =/

Croakadile
Hacked away. Attacked, healed, attacked some more. Not especially difficult in my current position



I didn't deliberatley leave these marks to attempt at higher levels so they would be easier. My main reason not to fight them was because there was little to gain from the battles. But rinsing the first 10 marks out now allows me to buy a Nihopalaoa. The Niho let's me cast all status ailments on a foe simultaneously (kinda like Bad Breath) which is guaranteed to hit with 100% accuracy for it's ability to ignore vitality, so long as i dispel an enemies shell status first and as long as they aren't completley immune. It's something i'd really like to have handy when going against Tiamat and the Elder Wyrm.

So as previously mentioned, i bought gold armour and the nihopalaoa. I also invested in a gold shield, a golden amulet, the spell reverse and a Gilt measure (which i'll explain later why i bought if you can't figure it out :)) Unlocking the licence for Niho cost about 300 LP (which i had handy) but i'm attempting to get more now with my newly aquired gold amulet. I'm up a few levels (level 41) not by purposeley levelling but because enemies are giving good EXP and i usually fight whatever i encounter.

No problems in Giza during the rains and no problems on the ozmone plain. The Golmore jungle however is a nightmare. Status ailments being thrown around everywhere in here. Being put to sleep is especially quite annoying when there is no way to protect from it at present. Blind and Silence i can cope with but Slow is also quite annoying. Anyone know when haste becomes available? I'm dying for that spell! Got to do the little viera thing now. The Henne mines hopefully wont be as annoying as the Golmore Jungle...hopefully

[Slothy]

Don't really have any tips or anything to add, but it sounds like you're doing quite well so far. Great job on the demon walls. I'm enjoying reading this thread a lot so keep at it.

[Shin Gouken]

Don't really have any tips or anything to add, but it sounds like you're doing quite well so far. Great job on the demon walls. I'm enjoying reading this thread a lot so keep at it.


Thanks, beating the demon walls was great fun! :spin: Elder Wyrm should be interesting, i'll try not to disapoint :) I'm hoping to go all the way!



Next update, the Henne Mines was a mission to get through. Not especially difficult but i could easily have died if i hadn't of been so cautious. Being gang raped by redmaws and seekers isn't fun, i had to try and lure some away so as not to be surrounded by four at once. I kill the redmaws in two hits but the first hit puts them in critical and they like to a kamikazi type of attack which hits for 400+ damage. The Tryanox have their crushing fangs which hit for 500+. I havn't healed so much at all anywhere in this challenge so far, i'm using a curaga every few minutes.

Tiamat

I honestly didn't think i'd kill him first time, i think i remember him being more difficult :D Did the usual Protect + Shell prep then started the battle with Niho + Remedy (which you'll see me start most boss battles with from now on) which caught him with Slow and Confuse. I started my assault and simply cured regularly with curaga as his damage numbers added up. Whenever he readied Disablega i just wnt to the menu and popped on my Black Belt for its immunity to from Disable. It was a bit too easy... until he enters critical and things get a bit tense. Had to fight off against his breath attack (which previously had been missing) which was 600HP damage, followed by a 6 hit combo! I survived, cured and sent him on his merry way.


I really am quite pleased with how far ive come. I'm absolutley determined to fight the Elder Wyrm rather than skip through the Feywood to bypass it. I've got some little ideas which i think might help me to pull it off but i can't predict what will happen until ive had a test run. He's got an absolute massive 70,000HP which is a good 50,000 more than the Demon wall and 20,000 more than Tiamat. Mostly it's his status attacks i'm concerned with but like i say, ive got some ideas.

[Shin Gouken]

OK i havn't had an attempt yet but after a quick look at his stats it seems there are some strats i can work with.

The first is Sleep. This would probabley make this battle far too easy. Put him to sleep using Niho + alarm clocks and spam magics... i feel a bit cheap doing this.

The second is reverse. Curaga is a great spell to inflict damage with at this stage in the game, when you consider i don't even have Fira/Thundara/Blizzara yet. It would still be tricky because i don't think i can inflict it using the Nihopalaoa and it's likely to fail alot.

The third is an improved version of the basic strat i'll attempt first. If i should fail with my initial attempt, i can go straight to Mt.Bur Omisace and immediately return with haste and the ira spells, and maybe some better equipment.

I'll attempt him soon and see what happens. If i feel i can do him without any of the above tricks then i'll certainly try to do just that. There's always the option of opening a few lores and gaining a few levels too.

[qwertysaur]

Good luck! :kaocheer:

[Shin Gouken]

Good luck! :kaocheer:

OOOOOHHHH GUESS WHAT? I DID HIM LEGIT!! :hyper:


No cheap tricks, just me, my sword and a whole lot of balls :D



Here's the prep - Unlocked licences Measures1 (for Gilt Measure) and Accessories 6 (for Sash) And that's pretty much it.

I had one alarm clock in my inventory (I hadn't been keeping them because who am i going to wake from sleep :confused:) So i used this with Niho to put him to sleep. Don't worry, i didn't keep him asleep, i merely did this to kill his two Treant companions, when he woke up he stayed sleep free for the rest of the battle :) I had one hastaga mote i found in the Henne mines so used this (should have done it before the fight started really) then got to work...

At the beginning of the fight, he systematically casts his status ailments. What i do here is simply switch to the accessory which protects from the status he's casting. (Argyle Armlet when he readies Blind, Sash when he readies Slow etc.) Confuse is the one i can't protect from but this is why i have the Gilt Measure. When i'm hit by confuse i equip the Gilt Measure and my confuse status forces me to attack myself with it which knocks me out of confusion with the added bonus of re-casting Protect for me.

Spore was quite easy to recover from. It hits me with Silence, Blind, Oil, Poisen, Sap and Confuse. Here i quickly equipped the Gilt Measure and hit myself out of confusion then quickly use a remedy. Problem solved.

After the initial spamming of his status spells in the beginning of the fight, he pretty much forgets he has them and relies on his basic attack, Rake and Fireball. Fireball is 500HP damage and a Curaga fixes it straight away. His physicals often combo'd but thanks to my shield and gauntlets they often missed. Curaga made healing very easy so as long as i kept protect and shell active, and followed the above tactic with Spore, it was actually a pretty smooth fight with no real problems :D

Actually... i can't decide if i'm ecstatic for my victory or a little disappointed i beat him so quickly. There isn't a boss now until the stillshrine of miriam so maybe i'll attempt some of the trickier marks which are available in the meantime just so things don't get a little dull.

















:roll:

[Shin Gouken]

There was little reason to hang around in the Paramina Rift so i headed straight to Mt.Bur Omisace. Invested in a Storm Spear, Shielded Armour and a Nishijin Belt. Watched lots of fun cutscenes :)

I went to the Stilshrine just to hit the Red Gate Crystal.

I don't like being low on Gil and LP so i equipped my Golden Amulet and popped off to chain some monsters. I chose the Ozmone Plain for this because i didn't want to over level. Also the Zaghnals are easy to chain and give 2LP (4LP with *Golden Amulet equipped) Gained a couple of levels and lots of LP (don't remember exactly) and headed back to the Stilshrine of Miriam.


Dungeons and monsters are proving to be a bigger challenge than most bosses at the moment. Here, i'm forced to equip the Dawn Shard which reduces my MP to zero. Some monsters (Dragon Aevis) were able to quickly get the upper hand and it didn't look good for me for a minute there.

I didn't invest in Float when i had the opportunity. I thought i could simply run around traps. But there's a trap which triggers as soon as you enter the area if you don't have float active and it hits with Beserk and Confuse. At that exact moment i'm attacked by a rare game (Matriarch Bomb) i was able to kill it in my beserked state but had to sit and wait for beserk to wear off before i could move.

Also bumped into Negalumuur. Pretty tough cookie this one. I didn't want to be surrounded by his undead minions so i killed them as soon as he summoned them. Except he summons a new undead as soon as i kill the existing one (They take 3-4 hits) and only just sneak in a hit on Neg before continuing to fight his minions. So i quickly find i'm going to slowly lose as i need to stop and heal, recast my buffs etc. Long story short, i got haste in after killing one undead, then healed after killing the next, then focused my full wrath on Neg with no regard for my own safety. Got him, and cleaned up the remaining undead after. Phew, was worth the 14LP plus any i git for his friends.


Vinuskar

I kinda walked in on this guy by accident so had no set up. Fortunatley the battle starts with him stood at the opposite end of a very long room, so i could cast Shell and Haste before he could cross the room to reach me. Despite the magnetic field, i didn't adjust my set-up, i was only about 25% slower than i would be without any metallic items equipped so i see no reason to sacrafice attack power and defense. He tried to cast Slow on me but i switched my accessory to the Sash to save me. Took plenty of damage but High potions work great here because they have no charge time and work as more or less as soon as you use them (and i skip the lengthy delay time they suffer from) Interesting battle but not too difficult.


Mateus


This was a bit better. He has 5 Azers supporting him (Like ice elemantals) and as soon as the battle starts they all cast Blizzard on you! The damage REALLY adds up being outnumbered 6 to 1. Luckily, i had a plan! Remember the Storm Spear i bought in Mt.Bur Omisace... well this is why i bought it. It's only 5 less attack power than my trusty Demonsbane but it's imbued with the element of thunder so double damage on everything in here :D The Azers still take a few hits each but as each on dies my chances of survival increases a bit. Got caught off gaurd when something hit me with a sleep spell... oops. Got hit and woke up and then equipped the Nishijin Belt for the duration of the battle. Blizzaja hurts as well as another quite strong ice attack he frequently used, but with the Azers down it was nothing i couldn't Curaga off.



What to do next... i think i'm headed back to Mt.Bur Omisace for a Judge fight. After that i'll look at any sidequests and hunts ive overlooked. My Demonsbane has saved me on many occasions now but it's heading toward the end of its usage as enemies get stronger. Will have to look at what other weapons can be aquired.

I'm not sure if i'll be able to get the Zodiac Spear early. Running through the Necrohol requires a full reserve team because being KO'd is certain.


EDIT:

Just so you know where i stand...


Level: 47
HP: 2777
Unspent LP: 632
Gil: 57715
Holding: Demonsbane, Shielded Armour, Lambent Hat, Golden Amulet

*EDIT: Not sure why i wrote diamond armlet there. Oops i fixed it to golden amulet :)

[qwertysaur]

Are you going to try getting any of the optional espers?

[Shin Gouken]

Are you going to try getting any of the optional espers?

Yep, well... i'm at least going to try. I considered heading straight back into the stilshrine to fight Zeromus but it's not going to happen on my current level. Zalera uses instant death attacks which there is no 100% protection from so it's unlikely i'll be able to defeat him. Zodiark too begins the battle with and periodically casts instant death so again this one likely isn't possible :( Would it have killed SE to include an accessory with instant death protection!


Judge Bergan

I cast Haste and Protect while outside Mt.Bur Omisace ready for the battle. When the battle starts, there are three judges behind you and Bergan about a mile and a half away! I was able to kill two of the judges before he could reach me and the third quickly after. He was possibley susceptible to a status ailment or two but i didn't need any extra support because he wasn't that tough. He's quite slow to attack but counter-attacks 80% of the time, so if i need to heal i stop my assault and he more or less stops his. Basically the battle consisted of 3 attacks - heal - 3 attacks - heal etc etc

A few bits and pieces next...

I accepted half a dozen hunts and spoke to the petitioners so i'm ready to go hunting for them.

Completed the Dalmascan patient sidequest to aquire the Barheim passage key.

Trekked to the Mosphoran Highwaste to activate the gate crystal and stock up on supplies. I indulged in the Technick 1000 Needles, an Icebrand, an Adamant Hat, Adamant Armour, Diamond Helm, Diamond Armour and a Diamond Shield.

But shin you ask, why did you buy Adamant Armour AND Diamond Armour? Why an Adamant Hat AND Diamond Helm? Well, i don't want to spoil the fun by telling you what i'm going to do before i do it so if you havn't guessed then you'll have to wait and see :)

Here's the best thing ive done today. Remember how i said my trusty demonsbane was nearing the end of its usage and that i would have to try and find another rare powerful weapon to replace it? Well i did just that! Having access to the Barheim Passage gives me the ability to find a rare game called Ithuno. It's not an easy rare game to beat but after i blind and silence it (Niho ftw) i'm able to comfortably steal from it for a good 20minutes before it gives up its almighty Deathbringer!

I have to mention how over powered i think i'm getting (though to be fair the basic monsters easily give me trouble in some places and some nice bosses are waiting ahead for me) My Diamond Helm increased my attack stat by 7, the Diamond Armour increased it by 2 and the Deathbringer takes it up by a giant 31. So ive had an increase in attack power by 40... it was only on 50 so its not far off doubled what it was. Not too bad for a days work ^_^

Lots of progress over the weekend, i'll probabley slow down during the week and hit up these marks ive neglected. And if i'm feeling frisky i might take a look at what espers are available (One in the Garamsythe Waterway and another in Zertinan Caverns spring to mind)

[qwertysaur]

Zaleras instant death spell is prime level death so you can avoid that by being at the correct level. I think that's his only ability that causes instant death. Zodiark will take extreme amounts of luck to defeat though :(

[Shin Gouken]

Zaleras instant death spell is prime level death so you can avoid that by being at the correct level. I think that's his only ability that causes instant death. Zodiark will take extreme amounts of luck to defeat though :(

I believed you... but checked anyway :p i'm afraid he does have an instant death spell called "Kill". I know any status spell must fight through your Vitality and Shell gives you an instant 50% chance of status spells failing... but it doesn't apply here because he ignores Vitality :mad:

But don't worry, i'll still give it a shot! He's susceptable to Slow, Poisen and Blind (Although i'm not too sure how useful they'd be) Catch him with Niho + Remedy, Dispel his status and fire a fully powered Dark Matter which will pinch 60,000HP, leaving him with just 12,000HP. Hopefully if Shell can save me from his Kill attack then i might be able to sneak in a victory.


Gil Snapper

I don't have Dispel yet and I don't fancy fighting him with Haste, Protect and Shell so i wait them out before approaching him. He doesn't have the ability to cast them so i see no reason to approach him until they wear off. Niho + Echo herbs Silences him, however he uses Purify as i'm readying Eye drops for the Blind. I thought about not bothering to re-silence him but his magics sting so i figured if i have to repeatedly spam Echo herbs at him for the duration of the fight and sneak in attacks between then i'd do just that... except he didn't use Purify again and just stayed silenced ^_^ He's got a massive 82,000HP so it was a fairly longish fight. He rarely hit me through Blind so i just slowly chipped away at him. When he hit critical HP my physical attacks were only just hitting over 500HP damage so i moved on to using 1000 Needles for 1000HP damage :)


Ring Wyrm

This guy had an even more impressive 128,000HP so this battle lasted a fair old while. I'm afraid to say i took the easy route with him again though. Niho + Eye Drops for Blind and began hacking. Whenever he readied Blind or Immobilisaga i simply equipped the accessory to protect myself from it. For the entire fight i only took damage from one Breath attack, everything else failed or missed... was awesome :spin:


Earth Tyrant

Initiating this boss is tedious. Run here, talk to him, go find someone else, talk to them, go find someone else and talk to them, go find hidden item, come back talk to people then go back to the Westersand to start the boss. zzzzzzzz

I don't want to disappoint anyone but this was another win for Niho + Blind. Chipped away at his 71,000HP without taking a single hit... until he hit critical HP and gained the "Low HP: Ignore Evade" augment. But he was almost dead so i just kept hammering away.


More marks tomorrow ^_^

[Wolf Kanno]

You should start collecting the espers (even if you are not going to use them) cause I am curious to see how you would tackle Cuchulain seeing as how the fight has a permanent sap effect and he has Flan minions.

[Shin Gouken]

You should start collecting the espers (even if you are not going to use them) cause I am curious to see how you would tackle Cuchulain seeing as how the fight has a permanent sap effect and he has Flan minions.

Actually, now that i have access to Bubble and Dispel i'll happily give it a shot. I'll have a test run when i finish work tonight. Hopefully a few warp motes might clean up the Flans and Regan counters Sap. Just had a quick look at his battle profile and he doesn't have any weaknesses to exploit. My guide neglects to list enemies attacks and i can't honestly remember how he likes to behave in combat so i can't predict anything until ive done a test run

[qwertysaur]

Cuchulainn will try to poison and cause sap status on you on top of the field sap status, so you will have to pay very close attention to those, because it builds up very fast. He also likes to use invert which when combined with the field sap is potentially lethal.

[Shin Gouken]

Cuchulainn will try to poison and cause sap status on you on top of the field sap status, so you will have to pay very close attention to those, because it builds up very fast. He also likes to use invert which when combined with the field sap is potentially lethal.


Well that complicates things just a bit :D Shame i can't find myself a Ribbon. I can quickly equip the Tourmaline Ring when i see him ready Poisen or better yet go a find a Goggle Mask. Invert swaps your HP and MP values if i remember? I'll open the third quickening to increase my MP as much as i can. If i can find Pheasant Netsuke and some X-potions then i can heal from Invert extremely quickly. Not needing to use Curaga will keep my MP that bit higher so the double Sap hopefully wont finish me before i can use an X-potion. I'm pretty exited now :D

Do you know what kind of damage he can inflict? The guide puts him down as an end of game fight, all this prep would be kind of pointless if he can just 1 Hit Scathe me to death :D

[Wolf Kanno]

I don't remember him using Scathe but he does hit hard, he mostly tries to overwhelm you with Poison and Sap as well as having an endless horde of flans that beat the crap out of you like most of the mid-tier Espers do.

You'll need an effective crowd control ability so I hope you have a few of those Warp Motes.

[Shin Gouken]

I don't remember him using Scathe but he does hit hard, he mostly tries to overwhelm you with Poison and Sap as well as having an endless horde of flans that beat the crap out of you like most of the mid-tier Espers do.

You'll need an effective crowd control ability so I hope you have a few of those Warp Motes.

If i defeat 24 Marks i can buy Warp Motes from the Muthru Bazaar, as well as Bravery and Faith.

An idea for the flans is to keep them alive but Blind and Silence them. Then i can simply ignore them. It's their status ailments that's the most worrying.

[Shin Gouken]

Can't Silence the Flans (Foobars) but i can hit them with Disable and/or Sleep. That should keep the pesky little buggers off me.

I can cast Regan when Sapped, Protect from Poisen with Goggle Masks, and hopefully have Protect+Shell+Bubble to keep me alive. X-potions aren't readily available until Archades though so i'm relying on Curaga.

[qwertysaur]

Remember if Cuchulainn readies Invert to have Curaga ready, the HP sap field can kill you.

Exodus is the esper that uses (more like spams) Scathe as well as Flare during his fight. You will also have a No items field and he loves to cast reflect on himself. At least he fights you alone.

[Shin Gouken]

Remember if Cuchulainn readies Invert to have Curaga ready, the HP sap field can kill you.

Exodus is the esper that uses (more like spams) Scathe as well as Flare during his fight. You will also have a No items field and he loves to cast reflect on himself. At least he fights you alone.

Ah, well for Exodus at least there are Opal Rings to bypass Reflect. An Aegis shield would be bloody handy too!

Here's the thing with Cuch. The rate in which my HP drains WILL kill me if i am hit with Invert. Either because my MP is so low or because Curaga takes too long to charge.

That leaves me with two options as far as i can tell.

1) Level up. For the sake of not dispointing anyone, i will not be doing this.

2) Find X-potions.

Despite remembering them being available as a Muthru Bazaar item... i was wrong. They aren't and never will be available from the Muthru Bazaar.

They become available to buy from Archades but it's a long way and i'll gain too many levels on the trip and have other bosses to worry about along the way.

Thus, ive had to find another means... which i think i have but i'll let you know if/when i have some. I'll keep this updated...

[qwertysaur]

Also you can try timing Curaga so you cast it as soon as he casts invert.

[Shin Gouken]

Also you can try timing Curaga so you cast it as soon as he casts invert.

I might have to... i had planned to spawn a rare game that i can steal Behomoth Steaks from, which make X-potion packs in the Bazaar. But i just found out that it's a Phon Coast Hunt Club rare game and i can't activate it until Archades :mad:


The semi-good news is that i can still grab a few X-potions for the fight. 12 to be exact. Two are a reward i'm already about to receive from Montblanc so no effort involved with that one. The other 10 are from a Potion crate i can make in the Bazaar by selling 3 Screamroots. It's a one time only item though unlike the X-potion packs which you can make as many times as you want. I'm just spawning the rare game now i need for the screamroots...

[Shin Gouken]

The bad news is... wow did i just take one hell of a beating. Foobars quickly overwhelmed me, i went through almost all my X-potions just trying to incapacitate them. I was fighting a losing battle from the start but as soon as invert appeared it was all over.

I need a fresh approach i think. Let's give this another shot with something different...

[Shin Gouken]

New approach. I cast Reverse at the beginning of the battle to try and safely clear up the flans without worrying about their combined physical might overwhelming me, but Cuch used Invert less than 30 seconds in and killed me.

Not sure what else to try atm. I'll have to come up with something

[Shin Gouken]

It's not happening tonight.

I cast my buffs at the nearest crystal to ensure i enter battle with full MP. I cast Disable on him straight away, am careful to equip the apropriate accessory to protect from whichever status ailment he's aiming at me and the switch to Niho + Remedy systematically on the Foobars as they appear which hits them with Sleep, Slow, Doom, Oil, Disable, Immobolise and Blind. Things look good for a while as a gain the upper hand, but slowly i make my way through my supply of X-potions and i know i wont last the entire battle.

It's all irrelevent though because when i see him ready Invert i use an X-potion, but it doesn't matter how quick i am, Invert kills me near on instantly. Ive yet to get a perfect timing and i'm not sure it exists.

[Shin Gouken]

New plan when i get home tonight. If i chain Surianders in the Barheim Passage, i can aquire an Indigo Pendant. It allows status ailments to hit with 100% success by ignoring vitality. I can use this to maintain Reverse status thyroughout the battle. By doing that, although Sap, Poisen and Invert are still dangerous, the Foobars will become my healing machines. I can simply ignore them and focus on Cuchulainn.

Invert will still be a problem, but i'll gain levels as a result of chaining Surianders because they're a high level and the drop rate for the Indigo Pendant is only 1%

[Shin Gouken]

Cuchulainn has fallen :cool:



Ive been at it for 4-5 hours tonight including the prep work. And i have to be honest, i almost gave up after my 4th attempt. But for some reason i decided to give it one last go and managed to pull it off... i'm pretty ecstatic :hyper:


First, i didn't want to disappoint anyone by progressing the story to Archades and then opening up the Hunt Club Rare Game sidequest which is filled with beautiful rare steals, and having access to a never ending source of X-potions (Which would have made this 10 times easier) as well as levelling up a dozen levels. But i also knew that this was going to be impossible in my current condition. So here's what i did...

First, i did what i said i would do, and that is chain Surianders for an Indigo Pendant. After aquiring it, i attempted keeping Reverse active, while equipping lower defense armours so the Foobars would keep me healed in the fight. But timing Reverse to stay active was too hard because often i needed other accessories equipped to survive Disable and various other status ailments so this didn't work out as i had planned.

So i searched Chest treasures, rare drops/steals, Hunt rewards and Bazaar goods in a desperate attemt to find some improved weapons or equipment. And as luck would have it i found something with drops that i could aquire in my current place in the game.

I needed 7 Forbidden Flesh's, 9 Prime Pelts and 8 Fire Crystals. The Forbidden Flesh was right next to me in the Garamsyth Waterway, as a rare steal from a rare game called the Drowned. It's chances to appear were 8% for every 15 seconds i spent in that location so i waited for him to pop up, lured him to the edge of the zone, blinded him and began stealing until i had his Forbidden Flesh (thankfully he doesn't have a common or uncommon steal so it was simply a matter of waiting until i got the rare) Saved, reset and repeated. The Fire Crystals and Prime Pelts both come from the same enemy, the Cerberus in the Feywood and are both common drops/steals so this was a quick process.

The loot when sold makes "Nature's Armoury" which consists of a Rubber Suit and Crown of Laurels. The Rubber Suit increases my HP by 700, and the Crown increases it by 680. So at level 53, my HP hits 4933HP which with Bubble is 9866HP. Now that's more like what i need for this fight.


The battle itself was the hardest thing i have ever done. Harder than a solo chemist against Omega in FFV, or solo Bartz verses Neo Shinryu. There's so much happening in this battle, if you lose concentration for even a second it's all over.

I cast all my buffs before entering the arena, including Reverse, though my strategy doesn't revolve around it, it's just to make the initial few seconds go more smoothly. Usually, i try to aim Dispel at him straight away but more often than not he aims a status ailment at me and i have to switch to the apropriate accessory which means interupting my action and having to input the command again once equipped. How the Foobars enter varies. Sometimes they come in systematically one 15-20 seconds after the next. But other times they almost all drop in immediatley after one another. It was the former in this case. I eqipe Niho + Remedy to completley incapacitate one, but have to switch accesories to block certain status ailments on top of trying to keep healed. This is probabley the hardest part of the battle. It's very messy as Cuch throws out all manner of status ailments and Foobars attacking left right and center, i'm using X-potions every few seconds, switching accessories to defend against various status ailments while trying to find a window of opportunity to equip Niho+Remedy. Once all flans are incapacitated it gets a little easier and i work my way from one to the next killing them off. It's worth noting that they ignore evasion so shields don't help me fight off their physical attacks and they hit for 500HP each so between them and Cuch i can lose 2500HP in a matter of seconds.

With the Foobars down it's just me and Cuch. I had only reached this stage in the fight once before and it takes 10minutes of Foobar battling to get here. It's still extremely tricky because whichever attack Cuch decides to use, it requires a different accessory. His physical hits and Toxic cause poisen, his Malaise and Bio cause Sap and his Slowga, Immoboilisaga and Disablaga cause Slow, Immobolise and Disable respectfully (Duh) So i'm swapping accesories constantly! Obviously his Invert is the real killer. Not only did the last attempt where i got him this far end with a badly timed Curaga after Invert, but one attempt ended immediatley when he cast it at the start of the battle... through me off guard dint it :mad:

OK slowly i chip his HP down but he gets ALOT more agressive when his HP falls below 50%. If you're really lucky, he doesn't even use Invert in the first half of the battle. From here, he spams the living crap out of it. Even to the point of using it multiple times in succession. I had learned to time Curaga to heal as it hits but the timing has to be perfect. By this point in the fight, i have no X-potions and am heavily using Curaga to stay alive, so my MP is usually far off max, giving me about 300HP after Invert which is about a second before i die. Although i was getting good at it, i expected a game over screen every time i saw it. Just like in the last attempt where a second is all you need to mis-time Curaga by. Also, if he casts it after Haste has worn off and before you have a chance to recast it, it's a certain game over so the whole time i'm praying for him not to cast it at that moment.

I should also point out that his attacks Slowga and Disablaga are also as good as instant death because if either of them hit, you havn't got a chance of recovering from them. Sap and Poisen can be Remedied off but if he uses Invert after then it's all over. Thus why you have to pay close attention to the battle log at all times (Not to mention your ever depleting HP.)

Anyway, the last test of the trial is when he falls below 20% of his HP, his defense sky rockets and my physical attacks are lucky to break the 300 mark. From this point onwards i'm using 1000 Needles as my priority attack, which, if you skip the lengthy animation time is only slighty slower than a physical attack. 40 or so minutes of dancing with this jolly green giant and eventually he falls... thank smurf for that!

I should definitley thank Wolf Kanno and Qwertysaur, both for your help and for the inspiration to tackle him now. If i had been left to my own devices i would have returned to fight him after at least as far as Archades. He wouldn't have provided half the challenge at that point. I'd probabley of had the Zodiac Spear by that point as well as better armour, higher levels a Pheasants Netsuke and pleanty of X-potions. Back to Mark hunting next i should think.

Actually, i'll be taking a break after all that exitement :D i'm on Holiday from Friday next week so i shall resume in two weeks time :spin:

[Shin Gouken]

This isn't an update, just me pondering on a few things. I might get a few hours in for mark hunting this weekend, but no promises.

Firstly, ive been searching the net for every bit of solo Cuchulainn info i could find to see how other people tackled the challenge. I have yet to find anyone who has tackled him without the Zodiac Spear and a Ribbon. Levels average from 67-97 and people even have the cheek to bring Reddas along. I'm feeling quite good about myself for being the only person to have documented a battle on such a low level, so early in the game without any ultimate weapons or equipment.

Also, i take Omega MKXII, Yiazmat, Hell Wyrm and Zodiark to be impossible, which is universally agreed and as of yet noone has beaten them. But i have an idea for Omega, i like to know what people think. Omega cannot see you if you use Vanish, unless you go stand directly under him. Possibley i could use this to get close to him with a long range weapon (Or fully charged Dark Matter) get in my attack and then survive a hit while running away. If he manages two hits then perhaps Reverse can help with the hit and run strategy. The only problem is his additional Beserk side effect of his attack. Is their a way to protect from Beserk? I remember i fought him for about 15minutes and only saw it once, by having Shell active it might not ever connect. Hmm just a thought

[superbeckie.]

This is actually amazing. Keep it up. :)

[Wolf Kanno]

Now you should try Ultima... :shifty:

[Shin Gouken]

This is actually amazing. Keep it up. :)


Thanks :)



Now you should try Ultima... :shifty:


Ultima isn't available for a good long while yet, and you know what... i'm quite relieved by that :p But Cuchulainn was fun so i'll hit other available espers when i resume :cool:

[Wolf Kanno]

I know she isn't available for awhile but the idea of trying to solo her at an early level will probably be the only other major challenge on par with Cuchulain, especially considering it will mostly come down to timing the use of items and being horribly well stocked.

[Shin Gouken]

I know she isn't available for awhile but the idea of trying to solo her at an early level will probably be the only other major challenge on par with Cuchulain, especially considering it will mostly come down to timing the use of items and being horribly well stocked.

MP Sap followed by Item Lock is going to be a bitch.

Shadowseer will be equally as tough. Fearga followed by Invert is certain death... stupid Invert <_< His minions will be a major pain too

[Wolf Kanno]

Let's not even get into some of the Final Mark Hunts. The World's Strongest will be a bitch in a half. Not to mention Gilgamesh...

[Shin Gouken]

Let's not even get into some of the Final Mark Hunts. The World's Strongest will be a bitch in a half. Not to mention Gilgamesh...

You've got me planning battles with Ultima already :p

With Ultima i'm thinking a Turtleshell Choker to enable me to cast magics with Gil, so I can still use Curaga when my MP has all been sapped and items are sealed. And Gil Toss for for damage whenever the attack command is sealed.
I can chain Mum Bombs in the Great Crystal which at maximum chain level drop Diamond Armlets 12% of the time and which sell for 10,000Gil a piece so i won't need to worry about funding. Obviously i'll equip the Firefly so as not to over level :)

[Shin Gouken]

I didn't want to leave it another full week before an official update so i geared her up tonight intending to take on another Esper. The Esper in question was Exodus.

I had him with about 10% of his HP left when one of his physical attacks hit me with the Stop status and had to sit and watch him Flare and Scathe me to Death. With Haste, Shell, Protect and Bubble, I was easily chipping his HP down. Curaga followed any Flare or Scathe spells he cast and physical attacks i could shrug off. When he uses Flare or Scathe, the animation time is so long i get about 4 attacks in before it hits so it's actually in my favour when he uses them.

I'm determined not to progress the story and aim for early victories with him and whichever other Espers are available (Though i can't promise i can tackle them all now, i'll try as best as i can) So with that in mind i need to find the accessory which protects from Stop.

Easier said than done. It doesn't become available to buy until Archades. It doesn't appear in a treasure urn until the great crystal, and although it can be obtained as a drop, it's a 3% drop from a rare game and i'd rather not level up 12 levels trying to get it. So I rode a Chocobo to the Cerobi Steppe and trekked across to Balfonheim where it's also available but there are people blocking access to the city and the merchant only sells crap. SO i instead aim to get the Ribbon from the Cerobi Steppe which would also come in handy against the upcoming Mandragoras boss, but first i need a Diamond Armlet which currently is only available through a treasure urn in the Tchita Uplands. The urn only has a 10% spawn rate, has a 50% chance to be an item and a 50% to be the Diamond Armlet. Resetting was quick because it's in the area adjacent to a save crystal, but the spawn rate was being exceptionally cruel. Ive been at it for hours and only had the chest appear a few times. I'd actually said to myself "This is my last try, it's late, i have work in the morning and i have to go to bed", and that last try it actually appeared :mad: almost as if mocking me.

So the Ribbon may take over a hundred tries and it will have to wait until i come back from my hols now. Though in my last playthrough i got it on my 3rd attempt so who knows, i might get lucky. Sorry to not have anything more interesting to update with before my break but Exodus just wanted to be a pain. Hopefully i'll have better luck when i return

[Shin Gouken]

I managed to sneak in a couple more hours tonight but i'm leaving in the morning and wont be back for a week so this will definitley be the last update until next weekend.

Basically ive just been Ribbon farming and that's it. I picked up a Venetion Shield (a little extra evasion and +24 magic evasion) a pouch of Dark Shot, a Castellanos, a Fomalhaut a pair of Winged Boots, a Megalixer and finally after about 40 attempts, a Ribbon :spin: Plus about 60-70,000 Gil. I'm quite happy with that, a bit of a result really.

If you're very lucky i might finish off Exodus in the morning before i leave but i really can't promise. Actually I'd love to battle Addremalech too but we'll see :)

[Shin Gouken]

Exodus

The battle actually seemed a bit tougher this time and a bit longer, but maybe that's because i'm a little impatient thismorning :P As you know, you can't use items which wasn't a problem. My new Venetion Shield was beautiful, blocking a quarter of his Flare and Scathe spells! He basically follows a pattern of Physical Attack > Physical Attack > Physical Attack > Flare > Scathe > Refresh Reflect. And that's it. I did almost the same pattern except replace Flare and Scathe with Curaga and replace Reflect with Bubble+Shell+Protect+Haste. Scathe can hit for 3000HP without Shell and without Bubble after already taking a hit from Flare it's certain death so i would run to the other side of the arena when he begins casting an attack because i can get up a buff or heal for free while he slowly crawls to across the arena to catch me up. Had a few tense moments with trying to keep all my buffs on and heal but overall it went pretty smoothly.

Adrammelech

This really was just pathetically easy. My Rubber Suit protects me from his 3 main attacks (Thundaga, Thundaja and another electric based one i forget the name of.) Once i Niho + Remedy him, Slow and Blind just remove any tiny amount of difficulty he might of had. I cleaned up about 15 Shambling Corpses before even turning my attention on him. This could have been a little tougher without my Ribbon saving me from Cloying breath from the corpses but even so i don't think it would have stopped me from flattening him. He's a flyer so i spammed Blizzara which he's weak to. He also only has about 40,000HP which is less than a third of what Cuchulainn and Exodus were carrying.

That's it i'm off on my hols. See you all for an update in a week ^_^

[Shin Gouken]

I have lots to update. I took my PS2 with me and had a surprising amount of time to play it so managed to get quite a bit done. I attempted every available Mark Hunt before Archades and progressed the story up until Balfonheim.

I'll try and list the Mark Hunts in the order which i attempted them but it might differ slightly because there are 12 altogether and i honestly can't remember the exact order. I'll also quickly mention (because i don't remember if i did before) that i kill every guest in my party, specifically i'm refferring to Mark guests here that accompany you for just the time spent fighting the Mark. This is strictly solo character so it should be obvious but i feel like i should point that out.

Before I start i'll also mention that I gave Zeromus and Zalera a test run but they are 100% completely impossible in my current condition. I won't go into detail but rest assured i was destroyed in mere seconds.


Bloodwing
I ran into him by accident when on my way to Zalera. I ran to the next zone, saved, came back and started slowly picking off undead as i edged toward him. The undead are a pain because they have a fairly decent evasion, but when they hit critical HP they gain the evasion+ augment. Because of this i used Curaga as a final blow rather than dance with them. With Bloodwing I started with the usual Niho+Remedy which in this case inflicts Blind and Disease. Blind makes his physical attacks worthless because they never connect, and Disease both prevents him from healing with Leech and from activating augments in critical HP. His evasion was frustratingly high so i opted for the lengthy process of whittling his HP down with Fira. It's not a brilliant approach because the damage output isn't very high and coupled with regular Curaga's my MP drains pretty quickly. I reached a point where after almost every attack i would use Charge to top my MP back up again (rather than waste ethers which i still havn't bought the Lores for) So yip, took a while but wasn't really dangerous.

Maralith
Niho+Remedy= Blind, Disease and Slow. With these ailments he is completley harmless. I set a gambit to attack and made a sandwich.

Atamos
I used 1000 Needles to clear out the surrounding Vultures. I need some better spells already. Niho+Remedy just completely destroys him. He gets Sleep, Disease, Confuse, Immobolise, Sap, Blind and Disable... why would there be a Mark susceptable to Disable? He just sits there while i pound on him. Eventually Disable wears off and he clears up all his ailments with Purify... but it's too late, his fate has been decided. I just carry on pounding until he falls.

Feral Retriever
After Atamos i was inclined not to use a Remedy here. I cast all my buffs then run up and Dispel his. He hits like a ton of bricks (2500HP) I can only heal for 1800HP per Curaga so keeping on top of the damage was priority. He's got a high evasion rate so we danced for a while. I had the upper hand and had him down to critical HP... and he took me by surprise with an attack that hit for... 19,500HP!
Round two - Cast buffs, Dispelled his, Niho+Remedy for Confuse, Blind, Disease, Slow, Immobolise and Silence. I'm not sure on this one but i can only assume one of these ailments affected his evasion, because every attack connected whereas before i missed 50% of the time. Anyway, he fell so quickly i blinked and almost missed it.

Ixtab
When i saw him i kinda forgot that i hadn't cast any buffs and charged in. Thankfully he's a great big pansy and died as fast as Feral Retriever did. The only problem here was that he used Annul to sap all my MP, and the spawning condition for the next Mark requires more than 90% of your max MP ( a little further into the Henne Mines) So i had to trek back to the save crystal before heading back in to tackle the next mark.

Mindflayer
Got all my buffs on and used Niho+Remedy for Blind and Sap. This should have been a really easy battle. But i forgot to unequip Niho and got hit with Stop. I probabley should have just hit reset and started over because i honestly thought i'd have to sit and watch myself be killed. But for some reason i saw Thundara coming and it was blocked by my Rubber Suit. Just as Fira was coming i switched in an Adamant Hat to halve the damage, and as Blizzara followed i switched in an Ice Shield. I was feeling clever and a bit hopeful until i was hit with Invert!! But for some reason i still sat there waiting to watch myself be killed. Mindflayer however was playing Mindgames because now he starts casting a ton of buffs on himself follwed with a complete heal!! Now there really is no reason to sit there because he's full HP with a ton of buffs and i'm critical HP without a single buff... But unable to accept my fate i break free of Stop and Curaga myself up, Disable his buffs, secure my Ribbon tightly around my peenie, cast some buffs and hacked his ass into tiny pieces :cool:

King Bomb
Don't worry folks, I'm not heading for the Zodiac Spear just yet! I need to tackle this guy to reach the next Mark. Buffed up, equipped an Adamant Hat, one hit killed his buddies, Niho+Rem'd him for Silence and got to work... all 10seconds of it =/ i thought that'd be a bit tougher but ah well...

Braegh
Rubber Suit has shown it's worth a dozen times now. Which is fantastic considering i initially only hunted it down for the HP boost it provides. Without my Ribbon, this would have been one of those piss annoying Sap+Invert battles... what a cheap ass load of crap <_< but like i said, Ribbon ftw. Curaga after Invert and hacked away.

Vorpal Bunny
First I tried to clear out as many of the surrounding enemies as i could (This Mark very rarely attacks you, it prefers to lure you into the hoards of surrounding enemies and have them do it) Initially i Dispelled his buffs and Niho+Remedy for various status ailments. But as i cast a few buffs, he disappears, and when he reappears he's carrying his initial buffs and is minus the ailments so i didn't bother with Dispel or Niho after that. Annoying little turd, it took 10-15 minutes of chipping at his HP before i killed him. Although i didn't help myself because i did the first half of him before remembering that a long range weapon would do it faster which smurf yeah it did! Yoichi Bow being the weapon of choice. On a side note, i'm getting a bunny wabbit in two weeks ^_^

Orthros
I left him far too late. Niho+Remedy+Ribbon+attack gambit= went for a fag (That's cigarette to an american folk reading this :P)

Before heading for the next Mark, i took time out to go purchase Faith and Bravery from the Muthru Bazaar :) I also indulged in a Bubble Belt which i'm now really pissed about because it's a pretty steep 20,000Gil and i didn't realise i got one for free after the next Mark :mad: pfft

Antlion
I know i can spawn a Fomalhaut around this area somewhere but i really don'y think i need it for this challenge (It's more for the low level challenge) If i do need one, i can always come back for it. The Mantis's take a rather unexpected 5-6 hits each which was going to be a major problem seeing as he has 5-6 accompanying him in this battle. Thankfully Warp Motes clear them out in a matter of seconds! Antlion only manages to Canabalise one of them which is fine. I cast all my buffs (Which now includes Protect, Bubble, Haste, Faith and Bravery... not Shell on this occasion) Niho+Rem'd for Disease, Slow and Silence then started hacking. It was a comfortable battle with basically just attacking and quick breaks for healing.

Roblon
You can already guess this being one of the tougher Marks. It's definitley one of the more interesting. The Dead Bones in the area (That spawn everywhere!!!) can overwhelm you in seconds. It's really important that i only spawn no more than three at a time (ideally two) As with the undead in the Barheim Passage, i aim to clear them out first, and adopt Curaga as the final blow to bypass their increased evasion augment when the reach critical. Here though, they use Reflect as soon as you target them with magic, so although you can kill one this way, any nearby Dead Bones all knock up Reflect and i have no choice but to dance with them or fire out a few 1000 Needles which is a pain. I defeated 35+ before confronting Roblon, with just one more spawning mid-battle. I hit him with Niho+Remedy and he was too far out of reach with Disable that he just sat there while Doom took him.
I brought my Adamant Hat and Ice Shield to reduce damage from their respective elements. The most difficult part of the battle was being without MP. He uses Fear at the start of the battle which drops your MP to 0, then periodically uses it throughout the battle to keep it 0. Because I don't have access to X-potions yet, Curaga is my only reliable means of curing, so my basic strategy was to use Charge+Curaga. Charge almost always works if you are below a certain percentage of your max MP so it was reliable enough, i just had to make sure to leave enough time to cure. Sometimes he wouldn't use Fear long enough for me to build up enough MP to cure without Charge and sometimes i used a few High-Potions with the skip delay time trick which i found to be just as fast as Charge+Curaga. Tri-Attack was his most dangerous attack (3500HP) which thankfully he doesn't use too often. I managed to keep Haste and Bubble active, then after he hit critical made sure to keep both them and Protect active. In critical, he simply spams the crap out of physical attacks, but luckily for me he doesn't ignore evasion and doesn't inflict stupidly high damage, making this the easiest of his attack phases. A very long and tricky battle, but not actually too difficult.

I shoul mention here, that if i remember, i try to equip the Golden Amulet before the final blow on a Mark to doublr the LP i aquire for it, which has shot my LP through the roof. Ive now unlocked quite a lot of Lores which shamefully i'd neglected. Such as Lores to reduce MP cost and Lores to increase magick potency which increases the amount of HP i heal with Curaga.

Carrot
Here's the star of the show! This guy provided almost as much of a challenge as Cuchulainn! It's easily the second hardest battle ive experienced so far. I'll break it down for each attempt so you can see how much difficulty i was having.
Round 1 - I start by Dispelling his buffs, which he immediately counters by using Heroes March which grants 5-6 different buffs, so i follow up by Dispelling him again. Next I hit him with Niho+Remedy which inflicts Slow and Silence (The latter being irrelevent because he doesn't use any magicks which can be prevented with Silence) He counters this by using Purify to remove them. I begin my assault, being protected from Time Requiem and Putrid Breath with my Ribbon. It goes smoothly enough until he goes below 50% HP. At this point he gains the Normal Damage+ augment and uses Growing Threat to double his level. His basic attack now hits for over 3500HP. That's just a bit too much considering his damage output before was only 500HP! My buffs had worn off and one hit puts me in critical so i fled for my life. Hiding just around the corner, I cured, rebuffed then returned in less than a minute. In that time, he had used Heroes March to cast all his buffs, had additional buffs cast on him by surrounding Wyrdhares, who had also been using Cura on him to top his HP back up. Regan probabley helped there too. I decided to reset and try a new approach.
Round 2 - First, I Yoichi Bow'd the smurf out of all the nearby Wyrdhares then repeated the same Dispel+Niho+Remedy (Having to Dispel twice then having Carrot simply Purify his Slow status) As i got him down to 50% HP i scored a 5 hit combo so lady luck was on my side. As soon as he used Growing threat, I equipped my Indigo Pendant and cast Reverse which i now intend to keep active throughout the fight. But i was also using Niho+Remedy periodically to keep Slow inflicted which is where i went wrong. Trying to Juggle 3 accessories (Ribbon, Indigo Pendant and Niho) left me without a Ribbon when Putrid Breath hit... over 10 status ailments and an enemy with enough raw attack power to one-hit-kill me. It ended exactly the way you'd think it would.
Round 3 and 4 - Round 3 ended when i attempted to flee to recast buffs and heal... but he gave chase and i had no choice but to leave the zone. Upon re-entering, the Viera had magically popped back to life and he was supporting the usual buffs and magically risen HP so i reset. Round four was another case of being caught by Putrid Breath without my Ribbon. It starts to get repetetive... every time i'm killed i have to run to his location without killing any creatures in the Salikawood, then dance with the Viera and her stupidly high evasion and finally go chasing Wyrdhares who all flee as soon as you hit them. Time for the winning strategy i think.

Round 5 - I have a sparkling shining new plan! I start with the usual - kill the Viera and any nearby Wyrdhares. Dispel, Dispel then Niho+Remedy. But from here i scrap Niho+Remedy and don't bother with keeping Reverse active after he falls below 50% HP. I wait until he's just one hit away from falling below 50% HP then flee to recast buffs and ensure i'm fully healed. If i flee when he readies Putrid Breath, I can get far away enough during the animation that he wont pursue me, and so long as any Wyrdhares are dead, he wont heal. I just have to Dispel him when i return but he doesn't use Heroes March until i approach him so it's almost like i'm getting my Curing and buffing in without consequence. Anyway, here's the winning strategy. In this phase, he has two attacks. His Physical (3500HP damage) and Putrid Breath (10+ Status ailments). From my previous encounters, it became aparant that he uses his Putrid Breath 70% of the time and his Physicals just 30% of the time. Putrid breath has a really long animation time, if i want to cure or rebuff, i have to wait until the animation time finishes. (Though if this is the case i simply run because he forgets to chase me by the time the animation is done) So whenever he uses Putrid Breath, i get in a couple of free hits. THEN i throw a Holy Mote. He's weak to Holy so 4000HP damage! That's pretty good already but that's only the half of it. Holy has a really long animation too, so he can't use Putrid Breath until after it finishes. When it's finished i get in a couple more free attacks then ready another Holy Mote to delay his next attack. I had to dart off a couple of times where he used a physical instead of Putrid Breath but mostly he sat around waiting for Holy to finish and getting beaten up during the animation for Putrid Breath. Phew.


No more Marks left... Right, on with the story battles then.

Mandragoras
I forgot to cast buffs before the battle but as soon as the battle starts they all run off in different directions giving me enough time to cast Bravery, Bubble, Protect and Haste. The poor little buggers only hit for 100HP each and my trusty Ribbon protects me from any status ailments so it was simply a matter of systematically killing them. I have to admit, i love this battle! The intro and the after battle scene is hilarious ^_^

Ahriman
I <3 my Ribbon! I took the opportunity to heal and rebuff whenever he teleported away to Divide. His Doppelgangers die in one hit so they aren't especially dangerous. There's no distinction between them and the real Ahriman so i let an Enemey=Lowest Hp>Attack gambit deal with them. When i had him nearing death i turned my gambits on to focus on him, but after stopping to cure and recast bravery and haste, i found myself suurounded by no less than 5 of them =/ I just carried on because they don't hit very hard, and when he dies, his little wannabes die with him.

Archades next. I would normally spend quite alot of time here and enjoy talking to people and shopping and whatever, but it all feels really tedious and in the way at the moment. I only stop to buy a stack of X-potions and get only the 9 required Chops before moving on. I rushed through Draklor and saved right at the very end. Here, i run to the room around the corner and bag a Pheasants Netsuke. Saved, reset and equipped my Diamond Armlet to open the chest again which now contains a garanteed Hastaga Mote. I wanted to get as many as i could (They'll be really handy when magicks are locked or when MP is an issue) but i was too lazy to get more than 10 =/

Doctor Cid
OK my first question is... what the hell happened to Reddas? Did he seriously just sit on the bench and WATCH me fight Cid? I couldn't remember exactly how this battle went but after watching the scene i was convinced i was going to have to KO Reddas before attacking Cid. Oh well, anyway, Cid hits for about 500HP and his techno gadget whatsamathingies hit for 100HP each. It adds up... but it's nothing a regular Curaga can't fix. I focus on one at a time until they're all destroyed and i can focus on Cid. His super mega deathbeam thing only hits for... 500HP. Why? I don't know. It hits for the same damage as his physical attacks which makes it somewhat pointless using it really. It might have caused a status if i didn't have Ribbon equipped or i guess to a full party it's more dangerous because it hits everything on screen. I don't know, anyway, he was really easy.


In Balfonheim I accepted all the newly available Marks and bought Curaja (Yay) Blizzaga, Firaga and Thundaga.

I'm currently sitting on level 58. The extra levels were gained as a result of slaying the Dead Bones to reach Roblon, clearing out the Golmore Jungle for Vorpal Bunny, clearing undead for Bloodwing and general monster slaying inbetween. I would be a much higher level but i purposely ignore most enemies and run right by them. This has left me with a serios problem of having no Gil. Ive got maybe 200,000Gil, which is enough for basic provisions, but it's not enough for many of the Monographs (Ive picked up two already actually) and it's not enough for the Canopic jar. So i need to go Gil farming but i didn't want to level up, so i chained Slaven thingies on the Mosphoran Highwaste to aquire a Firefly. So my next job is to chain enemies for Gil, probabley the Mirroknights in the Feywood so i can bag some Reflect Mail. My Deathbringer is now nearing the end of its usage and with many future Marks set to ignore evasion, it's probabley time to drop my shield in favour of a stronger two-handed weapon... the obvious choice being Zodiac Spear. Deathbringer will still be used when i'm using a shield, and the Sagitarious Bow is a must Aquire at some point too. So i'm gunna Gil Farm and then attempt existing Marks... if i'm having trouble then i'm taking a trip to the Necrohol Of Nabudis for that mighty spear.

[superbeckie.]

Orthros
I left him far too late. Niho+Remedy+Ribbon+attack gambit= went for a fag (That's cigarette to an american folk reading this :P)


Why did I laugh at that? :')
I actually love this though. Keep it up. :)

[Shin Gouken]

Orthros
I left him far too late. Niho+Remedy+Ribbon+attack gambit= went for a fag (That's cigarette to an american folk reading this :P)


Why did I laugh at that? :')
I actually love this though. Keep it up. :)

I'm loving it too! It really is great fun and i encourage anyone who wants to give it a go, it's well worth it :spin:


Next update!

Yesterday I went Gil farming which involved a bit of chaining here and there with my Firefly equipped so as not to level up. I spent some time in the Sochen Cave Palace to aquire a few Gemini Gems... they're for much later but if you can guess why i got them then yay you ^_^ I had lots of Gil to buy all the Monographs because they weren't as expensive as i thought they'd be. I won't be getting the Canopic Jar anytime soon though because that is just stupidly expensive. I'm not even sure i need it if i'm not planning on aquiring Tournesol.

I also did some Loot farming. I killed the Ash Wyrm which appears where i fought Exodus to get his rare Moon Ring drop. I only needed two because i have one from a hunt reward i did much earlier. If he didn't drop it i simply reset. Then headed to the other side of the Mosphoron Highwaste to chain Humbaba's to get three Beastlord hides which was fairly quick. Finally I went to the Zertinan Caverns to steal from the Slime enemies there. This took a while because i needed their rarest steal which is just 6% with Thiefs Cuffs but i picked up the four Sagittarius Gems i needed pretty quickly considering. Constant switching from Thiefs Cuffs to Firefly made the whole process take longer though. With my Moon Rings, Beastlord Hides and Sagittarius Gems i could unlock the Sagittarius Bow in the Bazaar :) It cost enough Gil to put me back in the red but i guess that's just the price you pay for awesomeness! I won't actually be using it for a while (I don't think) There are a couple of specific battles i had in mind when i decided to get it.

I also spawned a rare game called Dheed on the Mosphoran highwaste and stole his awesome Mirage Vest. It boasts an extra 100HP, +3 defence, +10 Vitality and +10 Speed.

I had planned to just do more farming tonight, more for LP though because my new Sagittarius Bow nicked a large chunk of my stock, but i still need a lot more Gil to make me comfortable. But instead i ended up taking on two tricky as hell marks which added a bit of exitement to my evening.

Goliath
I had no idea what I was getting myself into when i went after this fella. Actually, i almost gave up before i'd even started because a Baknamy used Death on me on my way to him and i had to reset. When i did eventually make it to him, i used Faith + Blizzaga to 2-hit-kill the Baknamy's in the area first, then tip toed up to him to sneak in Dispel to remove his buffs. He uses Magick Barrier to make himself immune to magicks at the start of the battle, hence the tippy toes. He basically just spams the crap out of Gravity which knocks off about 2500HP, easy to keep on top of with Curaja. Occasionally he used Aeroga and Smite of rage, the former hitting for closer to 3000HP, the latter hitting for just 900HP. With only those attacks i decided to switch my Ribbon for my Bubble belt to give me one less buff to cast. (I'm keeping up Shell, Bravery and Haste). At about 50% HP he throws Watera and physical attacks into the mix so i add Protect to my list of Buffs. It was going rather smoothly, but then i ran into some problems. First, two Baknamy's came to join in the fun. I got a bit panicky incase they tried to cast Death on me. I lured them away from Goliath, cast Faith and hit them with a couple of Blizzaga spells. Next, after resuming my struggle with Goliath, his basic physical attack struck me with Disable :mad: i thought i'd finally found a battle where i didn't have to worry about bloody status ailments! I moved out of reach and waited until it wore off. Thankfully he doesn't cast buffs or heal when he can't reach you like most Marks. As i chipped his HP down he completley forgot he could use magicks and instead spammed physical attacks, which not only ignore evade and combo, but don't have a charge time meaning he can use them alot faster. If things got bad, i could always move out of reach to cure and rebuff, but actually it was quite easy keeping on top of the damage so i chipped him down to death.

Deathscythe
I left the Necrohol Of Nabudis to go and save after Goliath. I hadn't prepared well enough for him and he had a few tricks that threw me off guard, so i made sure to check Deathscythe out before running off to fight him. He looked stupidly hard and i didn't fancy my chances but i just thought fuck it i'll give it a bash. Managed to get to the area where he spawns safely enough... it's scary being here in the Necrohol with only Vaan :( To get him to spawn i have to reduce my HP to less than 10% which is a tense situation too. You have to be careful not to combo yourself when you're HP starts to get lower, and be careful of the augment that increases your strength when you hit critical HP. I know there's a Technick which is wonderful at bringing your HP down to less than 10% but ive shamefully neglected all but 4-5 of the Technicks (Steal, Libra, First Aid and Charge) anyway, i used the Icebrand to take off about 250HP per hit until i was low enough.
First job when he appears, HEEEEEAL lol i hate being sat on critical HP! I heal fine, and already have my buffs pre-cast. So i'm quick to start my assault, with Niho+Remedy being my first action. Confuse, Slow, Immobolise, Blind and Silence is a fookin result!! He can't cast any spells now, and although he ignores evasion, Blind still makes 50% of his attacks miss. And without magicks he uses physical attacks 90% of the time. Doom misses because of my Ribbon and Annul is still piss annoying but he only used it one time. I hack him down to half his HP with little trouble. But then comes the complications. First he puts up a barrier to make himself immune to physical attacks. This is a problem because although ive worked back alot of MP from Annul, i'm using it fast to rebuff and cure, so attacking him with magics isn't an option (I'm definitley ready to go High-Ether farming!) Next problem is his augments Normal Damage+ and Low HP Attack+. He's hitting alot harder and i have to cure more often so i'm relying on Charge+Curaja again. Need a plan!! He's weak to Holy so i use my two Holy motes for 4500HP each. But then i need another new plan =/ I go with Bio ^_^ He takes half damage from all Elements (Except x2 from Holy and absorbs Dark) But Poison isn't classified as an element in FFXII so it gets normal damage. Best bit, it only costs 16MP, but because i gain back 9MP when dealing magical damage (as one of the augments aquired from a Lore on the Licence board) It's actually only costing me 7MP per cast, and inflicts a decent 2000HP. His physicals are stronger but because of the 50% reduced accuracy from Blind, he's barely hitting me. Eventually the Paling falls and i go back to physical attacks. As he's a few hits away from biting the dust he scores a 5 hit combo... which doesn't sound that deadly but actually 5-6hits of that combo missed which means it would have been closer to an 11 hit combo without Blind o_O anyway, bastid falls and i rejoice.

Obviously i run and pick up my Zodiac spear seeing as i'm sat right next to it :)

Also, i think ive solved the riddle of Feral Retrievers evasion issue. Deathscythe carries the evasion+ augment but he didn't evade a single attack for the entire battle. This i believe is because of Immobolise, a status which I hit Feral Retriever with when his evasion went from about 50% to 0 from the first battle to the second. Handy to know that Immobolise can reduce evasion to 0, if that is indeed the case

[Shin Gouken]

Two easy Marks and a somewhat more challenging Mark tonight

Darksteel
Cast all my buffs, Dispelled his Protect status (and had to do it again a second later because he immediately recast it) Then Niho + Remedy for Poison, Disease, Slow and Blind. Poisen hit for lot's of damage and racked up really quickly. Most of his attacks missed due to Blind and my Shield but even when they hit it was only for 250-600HP depending on the attack. He fell in just a few minutes. I didn't leave this Mark too late, he's only just opened up. A little too easy for this far into the game

Overlord
Cast all my buffs, Dispelled his Bravery (and as with Darksteel, had to immediately Dispel him again because he recast it) Niho + Remedy for Confuse, Disease, Slow, Blind and Silence. More or less the same battle as Darksteel except his attacks hit for about 900HP average. His Tri Attack hits for over 3500HP but that missed most of the time too. He fell in minutes the same as Darksteel.

Lindwyrm

First i need to mention that i purposely gained a level before fighting him so his Level 2 Sleep and Level 4 Gravity attacks would miss. This is a perfect level because it will save me from all of Gilgamesh's level magick too... but let's not get ahead of ourselves :D Anyway, managed to spawn him eventually after first hitting the wrong zone, then realising i needed to leave the Tchita Uplands to change the weather.

He's really big and scary :(

I cast every available buff i had and went on to Dispel his (I shouldn't need to mention that at the beginning of every battle because it's pretty much how I begin every battle... unless i forget to cast buffs which has happened a few times :spin:) Niho + Remedy hits him with Blind, Silence, Slow and Sleep, which sounds like a proper result except it's really not. Slow wears off pretty quick, Silence doesn't prevent his Fireball and Stone Breath and Sleep is far too cheap for me to take advantage of, so Blind is the only status that really helps... and smurf me it really does help! about 60-70% of his attacks miss, and his Breath attacks miss about 90% of the time. With the Deathbringer and Bravery i'm hitting for about 2400HP per hit which very slowly brings him down to 50% HP (He has 230,000HP btw) Here he uses Greater Barrier and as I Dispel him he uses Restore to get a large chunk of that HP back :mad: cheeky bugger. I decided if he was allowed a cheap shot then so was I, so i Niho+Remedied him again and rebuffed while he was sleeping. He then went into a really strange phase where he spammed Stone Breath repeatedly for several minutes, but it only hit once or twice so it was an easy chance to rack up some damage. He then went back to spamming physical attacks with the occasional Fireball/Stonebreath. At about 25% HP he uses Restore again... no comment. Now he enters a phase of spamming Level 4 Gravity despite it not affecting me, which allowed me to rack up more damage quickly and slowly bring his HP back down again. When he enters critical he starts combo'inglike crazy which at 800HP a hit (With Protect) could be really dangerous... if alot of his attacks weren't missing. You'd think the battle was nearly over but now i'm only hitting for 800HP myself so it still took a while to chip that last bit down. It wasn't overly difficult, the only tense moments were when it was time to recast Bubble. If i had been clever i could have refreshed it before it ran out but i honestly didn't think to do that.

Ive taken the opportunity to unlock the Zodiac Spear Licence now I have the LP to do so. I'm not sure on the difficulty of two of my available Mark missions, Ba'Gamnan and Vyraal so i'll hit them next. However Gilgamesh is another story. I don't have a solid plan... until i have a test to determine his damage output i won't know if he's possible at my current position.

[Shin Gouken]

Not alot of time tonight so i only hit the one Mark.

Vyraal

The usual - Buffs followed by Niho + Remedy, which hits with Confuse, Sleep, Slow, Silence and Blind. No need to Dispel because i ran around opening chests while i was looking for him and spent so long any buffs he carrying had worn off. Confusion and Sleep break as soon as i hit him and as with Lindwyrm, Silence doesn't prevent Fireball. Still, i am very grateful for Blind because he hits for 1500HP per hit (With Protect) and is pretty quick with his attacks, especially on critical when he gains attack=No CT. He ignores evasion so i brought out my Sagittarius Bow for the first time since aquiring it. It's just a tad stronger than Deathbringer. After a while he makes a sprint for it and it's impossible to catch him. By the time ive gaught up with him, he's cast Renew. I have to make the damage i cause now count because otherwise he'll just heal it off with his next sprint... so out comes Zodiac Spear which i don't know why i'm not using it already tbh, ive come far enough without its help i think i feel pretty good about bringing it out now. Zodiac Spear FTW. Not only does it hit for an extra 1000HP but its CT and animation time are a fraction faster too, which noticabley has you hitting faster. He falls pretty quickly because he only has 100,000HP

I get frisky and rob an Entite of its Feystone on the way out of the Cerobi Steppe

Ive reached the Clan Rank Knigh Of The Round which finally gives me access to the Cat Ear Hood! With it, my Sagittarius Bow is as powerful as my Zodiac Spear, basically giving me a long range Zodiac Spear i can wield against Fafnir and Behomoth King :)

The numbers

Zodiac Spear damage - 4320HP
With Bravery - 5630HP

Sagittarius Bow - 2760HP
With Cat Ear Hood - 4050HP
With Cat Ear Hood and Bravery - 5450HP

Bear in mind the very best arrows i have are Onion Arrows so when i upgrade them i'll match the Zodiac Spear. Can't really argue with that ^_^

EDIT: Will begin farming for better arrows tomorrow. Assasins arrows are the best non elemental so i'll try for those although that really could take a while. Lightening Arrows are an easy fetch and inflict double damage on Fafnir which will help me bring down his titanic 1.3million HP. Not that he's available yet but i like to be prepared ^_^

EDIT 2: Assasins Arrows are a reward for killing Fafnir so maybe i won't farm them. I want them for Behemoth king so i'm not in a hurry for them.

[Shin Gouken]

Ba'Gamnan

First job was to kill Monid, which took 4 hits and which i managed to do before Ba'Gamnans other two friends turned up. Next, I quickly Dispelled Ba'Gamnans Haste (but didn't bother to Dispel one of the others who was under Haste too) Then did the usual Niho+Remedy on each of them in turn. Ba'Gamnan himself is only hit with Sap and Slow but each of the others took a large amount of status's which i didn't bother to make a note of, the main one of course being Blind. I equipped my Deathbringer for the intention of carrying a Shield to increase my evasion against their physicals, the Shield in question was the Crystal Shield i bagged from an earlier hunt. They inflict average 600-900HP per hit depending on the attack but as they're all under Slow i can keep on top of healing with no problems... except when they use either Sandstorm or Shining Ray because their lengthy animation time delays my spell casting. When the first one falls it gets easier because i'm taking less damage and i easily finish off two more. Ba'Gamnan is a rotten cheat though, evading my attacks sometimes up to 6 times in a row. I switch back in Zodiac Spear and just insist on my physicals. His luck runs out when i start hitting a little more efficiently and eventually he falls.

Gilgamesh Part 1
First I Dispel Enkidu (Which i didn't need to do...) Then Niho+Remedy him for multiple status ailments, the important ones here being Sleep and Oil. I equip a Flame Staff and cast Firaga with Faith active for 9999HP (Not sure if i needed the Flame Staff to hit the damage cap) For Gilgy i whittle him down with Bravery, Haste and Zodiac Spear (Keeping Protect and Bubble active to keep me healthy) I steal his Genji stuff without too much trouble, wait out his Palings when he uses them, heal off damage and insist on physicals despite his tendancey to block them. His combo's late battle are just ridiculous.


I won't be fighting Gilgamesh Part 2 before progressing the story. I wouldn't want to go in there at level 59 with a Mirage Vest. I'd want to substitute the HP gain i get from it with HP from levelling and come back with the physical defence boost provided by Maximillion, which is available after the Great Crystal. I read his Monarch Sword can hit for upwards of 6000HP, his raw damage coupled with insane combo's is pretty much going to require an approach much later in the game. So far that will be Gilgamesh, Zalera, and Zeromus ive neglected until later in the game. Although ive also bypassed Chaos who i think is also available (Can't remember the conditions for the Nabudis Medallion hunt but i'm sure it's ready by now)

I'll see if i can get the Ancient City Of Giruvegan and the Great Crystal done this weekend which includes four bosses and then will hopefully open up further hunts

EDIT:

Actually, I don't see why I can't at least give Gilgamesh part 2 a shot. Gilgy isn't as dangerous at the start of the battle so i can take out Enkidu, i can keep Bubble active by recasting it before it runs out, and try and keep reverse active. My level is a prime number so his level magicks miss... it might be possible. My one question is, how important is the Genji Helm and Genji Armour? They are both outranked by the Magepower Shishak and Maximillion which are available after the Great Crystal so i don't think i need to complicate the battle with trying to steal them. Do they offer any benefits beside the stat increases?

[Shin Gouken]

Gilgamesh

This battle is right up there with Cuchulainn and Carrot for most difficult battles so far.

I had two failed attempts before the winning one, and the winning one was so unbelievably close on more than one occasion that it should have been a game over. The first battle ended when i was hit by Stop, which is caused by his basic attacks and which caught me off gaurd because i didn't remember he could do that. The second battle ended when i had him below 20% of his HP and a 10 combo just destroyed me. I was going to give it one more shot before deciding i would come back with the defense of the Maximillion helping me out and somehow i managed a victory. Here's the battle details:

First, I Niho+Remedy Enkidu for the same Sleep and Oil combo as before. Firaga deals 9950HP without Flame Rod... I equip it just because. He also takes about 8000HP damage from poison which helps bring down his much higher HP. It takes about 10 Firaga's to kill him which requires I reapply Sleep because he wakes up before i can cast that many, while also having to cure once or twice from the damage i'm taking from Gilgy.

Gilgy initially hits for 1700HP with Protect active and at this stage only achieves two hit combo's at best. I'm keeping Protect, Haste, Bravery, Faith and Bubble active, and make sure to cast Bubble before it wears off to keep it constantly active. I'm also keeping my Ribbon equipped to prevent Stop. Occasionally he uses all his level spells one after the other, when he does this i switch in Cat Ear Hood just to Speed up my attacks and get in as many as I can but i'm not sure exactly how much difference it makes. After he loses enough HP he starts using Bitter End which hits for 3000HP (With Protect active) and the first time he uses it, he uses it twice in succession without even a second to heal. When his HP drops below 40% I have absolutley no choice but to set up a Gambit to keep Reverse active. His combo's are insane and as his HP drops his attacks deal more and more damage. At this point i have to keep my Indigo Pendant equipped but as I learned in my previous attempt when i was caught without my Ribbon, he doesn't inflict Stop with his physical attacks anymore and instead inflicts Sap... which is the only small break i get.

This is just... insane. If Protect, Bubble or Haste runs out, reapplying them usually brings me within an inch of death. When Reverse runs out I can only pray he doesn't ready Monarch Sword which at first hits for 4100HP, but soon climbs up to 5300HP even with Protect. The trick here, which was the difference between this battle and my previous failed attempt, is in the timing of Reverse. When it's cast, you have time to hit with three attacks before reapplying it, or cast two buffs. Once you've either attacked or buffed try and put as much distance between Gilgy and yourself as you can. This should allow you to charge Reverse and cast it while only taking a single hit from Gilgy. In my last attempt, Reverse ran out three hits into a 10 hit combo and I couldn't recast it before being killed. But that being said, i ran into the same problem here, but managed to recast Reverse with about 300HP left and the next attack in his combo about a fraction of a second away from connecting... and this happens twice. So i barely even made it through. I also had to use an Elixer when i suddenly noticed constant Reverse had robbed all my MP... my fault for forgetting MP actually runs out :P

Alot of this is luck. Not just the bit where i barely escape the clutches of death, but also how often Gilgy combo's, how many hits he gets, how often he blocks my hits and not having Monarch Sword hit when Reverse runs out. The timing trick certainly helped out alot but without a little luck i wouldn't have made it. It's a shame i can't record it though because it would have you sat on the edge of your seat! This battle and the one with Cuchulainn are so incredibly tense, you can't break concentration for second. As you can probably guess, i'm one happy dude right now :spin:

[Wolf Kanno]

Glad to hear you took down one of the most memorable battles in XII. God I love Gilgamesh and he's a handful when you have a full party...

[Shin Gouken]

Glad to hear you took down one of the most memorable battles in XII. God I love Gilgamesh and he's a handful when you have a full party...

His combo's and high damage are just insane! He's the best battle in the whole game in my opinion ^_^

Zalera

For some reason I thought he was Holy-weak and so I farmed some Holy Motes hoping to follow the same strategy as I did with Carrot... but he's immune to all elements. But i'd made the trip down there and decided to persist. I can comfortabley ignore any damage I receive because the Dead Bones only inflict about 200HP per hit and spend more time casting status ailments which miss because I have Ribbon equipped. As you can guess, Kill ends almost every attempt.

I really have no idea how this battle works, but if i try to hit him at the start of the battle with anything less than 100 attack power, i get 0HP damage. I discovered this when hoping to score a few high combo's with Masamune+Genji Glove while he casts Reflectga on himself and his minions. Zodiac Spear however hits for about 2700HP... :confused: after he drops to 65-75% HP my attacks start inflicting 6000HP+, but when he hits critical my damage drops down to about 2000HP. After I Dispel him i can rack up lots of damage while he casts Reflectga and aims a few status ailments at me, then his HP just drops like crazy when I start inflicting huge amounts of damage. So because of this, I can get him down to critical without too much effort.

I'm still level 59 which protects me from his level magics... but I didn't realize he had Prime Level Death which kills me if I'm a prime level... =/ bit cheeky. I tried a few runs where i attempted alternative strategies, for example he has an augment which reverses restorative items so I don't need Niho to make Potions deal damage to him... but Elixers don't harm him so that's kinda useless.

In the end, what it boiled down to was a case of trying to survive Kill and Death. Death is a spell so I equipped my Venetion Shield in an attempt to block it. That didn't work. So the only thing I have to play with is luck. About 8 attempts later I get a run where he only uses Kill twice and I survive both and claim victory. Yay

[Shin Gouken]

Zeromus

I thought I may as well give this a bash after my victory with Zalera. This was supposed to be a test run to see where i'd stand, i'd already decided i'd need a Euclids Sextant to keep Bubble active, I just wanted to see if there was anything else. Turns out I beat him without Bubble.

I aim at Dark Lords and ignore Zeromus entirely. With Zodiac Spear, they die in one hit. I clear them all out and whenever a new one might pop up, I make it priority to take them out. I kill about 35 throughout the course of the battle which has me on a chain level 3 and i picked up +500HP healing from their loot every so often. By the time Zeromus is down to 25% of his HP i don't have to worry about them because they stop spawning.

There's nothing I can do about his buffs which he recasts periodically. As for my own Buffs, I use Hastaga Motes for Haste, Equip a Gilt Measure and target myself with it for Haste, and do the same with the Arc Scale for Shell. I'd have done this with the Multiscale for Bravery and Euclids Sextant for Bubble if I'd had them but I don't so I make do without. I Burn about 22-25 or so X-potions to heal, without Pheasents Netsuke because I'm afraid to take off my Ribbon incase I'm hit with Blind from Dark Lords or Slowga or Stop from Zeromus which he likes to cast. Piercing Graviga missed 50% of the time but even when it hit, I was almost always over 90% HP so was always safe. He hits for about 1000HP, 700HP with Protect (Dark Lords hit for just 100HP) and I heal after every other attack. He doesn't have that much HP and goes down pretty quickly.

Not sure if I have the energy to do the Nabudis Medallion hunt... I think Chaos is the only remaining optional boss for where I am in the game???

[Shin Gouken]

Rafflesia
Niho+Remedy and attack. Don't need to heal, he dies in under a minute.

Daedalus
Niho+Remedy only hits him with Confuse and Silence which isn't very helpful but it prevents him from using Haste again which he puts up before it hits. I Dispel his Haste and begin hacking. He uses some of my least liked attacks such as Tri-attack (3000HP) Smite Of Rage, Tremor and Ice Break but overall the damage isn't too bad and i'm hitting him for 5700HP a hit so he falls pretty quickly.

Hydro
I neglected Shell with my buffs because I didn't realize he liked magick so much but it was of little consequence because his damage output isn't very high except maybe with Piercing Graviga. His Speed is pretty decent but nothing I can't handle. Again, he falls pretty quickly.

Ran into a spot of bother in the Great Crystal. I equipped my Diamond Armlet to get the Black Mask from a chest and forgot to re-equip Ribbon. Just as I killed an Ose it hit me with Hell Blaster and i got twatted with a dozen status ailments... I'd have died from Petrify and possibley Sap+Poison if I hadn't thought fast and made some adjustments to my equipment. I equipped Mirage Vest for +10 Vitality, Cat Ear Hood for +20 Vitality and a Diamond Helm for +3 Vitality. As you probabley know, the higher your Vitality is the quicker negative status ailments wear off. As i was about two seconds from being petrified I gained control (from either Stop or Disable) and Remedied myself as quickly as possible. If i hadn't boosted my Vitality up then I'd have to go fight Hydro again.

Shemhazai
Considering Ive gone to the extra effort of equipping the Firefly everywhere I go to prevent additional levelling, the storyline battles are ridiculously easy. Flare hits for 2500HP and Shock hits for 1700HP, physicals I easily shrug off and Silence misses with my Ribbon equipped. I stopped to heal just once and unleashed a fury off attacks which had the battle over in less than two minutes.

I really should do the Nabudis Medallion Hunt sidequest next but there are more Marks available and I'd rather get stuck in with them. When I pick this up tomorrow, I'll dart to the Necrohol Of Nabudis to pick up a Magepower Shishak and Maximillion. As for whether I'll do the Medallion Hunt or start on the new Mark Hunts... I don't know

[Wolf Kanno]

Oh I want to listen to your fight with the Fury so definetly do the Chaos sub-quest. You should also try Ultima now since she's easily the hardest of the Espers (ignoring that Zodiark is only difficult cause he's a cheating bastard). 59 is a pretty high level, seeing as 45 is the recommended level for beating the game. Not to mention you seem to have access to a lot of high grade equipment and that tends to matter much more in this game than levels do. :D

[Shin Gouken]

Oh I want to listen to your fight with the Fury so definetly do the Chaos sub-quest. You should also try Ultima now since she's easily the hardest of the Espers (ignoring that Zodiark is only difficult cause he's a cheating bastard). 59 is a pretty high level, seeing as 45 is the recommended level for beating the game. Not to mention you seem to have access to a lot of high grade equipment and that tends to matter much more in this game than levels do. :D

Ultima... ok :( lol err, I'll happily give her a bash :D I'm really glad i took on Cuchulainn and Gilgamesh fairly early so I should at least give it a go. I'll do the Nabudis Medallion Hunt first though.

I could easily be level 75+ now if I hadn't been using my Firefly... for a solo challenge I don't think that's too high. Behemoth King is now available and he has 1.6million HP and hits for about 5K... the difficulty is about to take a nasty turn. Have I been too generous with my equipment? I delayed picking up the Zodiac Spear for a very long time, ive only really started using it recently. I'm still wearing the same Crown Of Laurels and Rubber Suit I picked up way back when I fought Cuchulainn ( actually I switch in Mirage Vest now and again but so many enemies use Thunder attacks and without Rubber Suit I'm weak to thunder and take double damage because of Crown Of Laurels.)

Yeah Maximillion and Magepower Shishak are going to be great but I'm not picking them up early, Ive waited for them to become available to buy. Actually, thinking about it now, I'd need a White Mask for Ultima... need to see where I can get one.

[Wolf Kanno]

I believe you get them in Balfoheim same as the Black Masks. Though I can't remember if they open after Giruvegan or the Pharos.

I only mention your levels cause I was probably half that when I fought many of the espers and story bosses but of course I had a full party.

[Shin Gouken]

I believe you get them in Balfoheim same as the Black Masks. Though I can't remember if they open after Giruvegan or the Pharos.

I only mention your levels cause I was probably half that when I fought many of the espers and story bosses but of course I had a full party.

It's not until after the Pharos =/

Sorry for the lack of updates, I hope to get lots done this weekend.

I havn't neglected to play it, ive racked up 10-12 hours or so, i just havn't achieved anything.

I tried to chain Juggernaut because he has a chance to drop White Masks. But he only appears when the minute counter is between 0-10. I built up a full chain level before starting, manage to kill two in that 10 minute window (I have to leave the Feywood to respawn him) and then would leave the game for an hour before coming back to kill two more. In the end i simply gave up and bought a Sage's Ring instead. I'd prefer not to add another accesory to constantly switch between but i didn't have the patience to carry on chaining Juggernauts.

I actually entered the Great Crystal and started heading toward Ultima too, but after getting over halfway in, I reset. This was because I forgot to go and buy my Maxamillion and the damage i take from regular enemies in there is ridiculous, so I wanted to head back and grab my better armour. I'm somewhat reluctant to go back in with enemies being as tough as they are, and I may find myself hunting Marks this weekend instead but we'll see

[Shin Gouken]

Finally a decent update. Ive conquered almost everything before the Pharos, with the exception of Behemoth King and Ultima.

Fury
Nothing remarkable. I Dispel his Hero's March, Niho+Remedy for Slow, Silence and Sap and attack 2-3 times between healing. I bring out my Ribbon when he readies Time Requiem and switch back to Cameo Belt which allows me to bypass his evasion (I really hate the Evade+ augment). He Beserks himself at low HP which I initially Dispelled, but he recasts it instantly so I didn't bother to Dispel again and aimed for the KO. He hits alot faster but he's still not inflicting massive damage so it wasn't a problem.

Humbaba
Again, not a remarkable battle. I Dispel and Niho+Remedy for Slow, Silence and Sap again. Black Mask absorbs Darkga, Float makes me immune to his Earth based damage and his physicals only hit for about 500-600HP. He has a bit more HP than Fury so takes a little longer but wasn't difficult.

Chaos
This was harder than I thought it would be. I was on edge because I didn't leave to save after Fury and Humbaba and I thought I'd have to fight them again. Worse is navigating the Necrohol. Being surrounded by Baknamies can easily overwhelm you and having Reflect cast incase they cast Death at you means relying on items for healing. I'm not inclined to kill too many enemies either because Oversouls pinch all your MP as soon as they appear.

First, I aim Telekineses at the Chaos Jets which is 2-3 hits each (They're actually harmless and inflict hardly any damage at all) Now is a good time to mention Ive been to pick up Telekineses as well as a Maximillion and a Demon Shield from the Baknamy Merchant. Chaos can hit pretty hard, forcing me to heal after every other attack. The problem in this battle is constant switching between Maxamillion and Windbreaker armour. The damage from his attacks varies massively depending on what armour I have equipped, aswell as what buffs i have. To give you an idea of what I mean, Aeroja hits for about 2500 with Shell and Windbreaker equipped, without them, it hits for over 6000! And his physicals range from 2500 to 3500 depending on whether Protect and Maximillion are equipped. So I have to switch to Windbreaker when he readies Aeroga, Aeroja and Whirlwind and back to Maximillion for his physicals. But it's very easy to leave the wrong one equipped. I'd basically got it under control until he randomely tossed Fearga at me =/ that complicates things because I really really need Bubble, Protect, Shell and Haste active aswell as Curaja for healing. I had to use a few Hi-Ethers but managed to stay on track. As you can imagine, it was a long battle because I'm healing after every 1 or 2 attacks and squeezing in buffs where I can or restoring MP, so I wasn't attacking very frequently.

Catoblepas
Dispel and Niho+Remedy for Sleep, Slow and Blind. Regardless of what attack he used (Tailswipe, Smite Of Rage, Ram or Wail) with Blind and Demon Shield he didn't land a single hit. All I did was Dispel Protect when he recast it (Every 3 turns) and Haste which he cast at about a quarter of his health left.

Diabolos
Dispel and Niho+Remedy for Slow. Cameo Belt FTFW <3 Enemies with high evasion can just go die <_< I sneaked in the final blow before he could put up his Paling ^_^

Wild Malboro
This guy is just cheap and annoying. I Dispel his Buffs as usual but don't Niho+Remedy because there's no way I'm taking off my Ribbon with a pack of Malboro's aiming Breath attacks at me. I one hit KO the mini Malboro's one by one and get to work on the big guy. His Breath attacks prevent me from using Magicks or Items until the animation time is finished so I get in 2-3 free hits whenever he uses them. But otherwise I heal after every few attacks because he hits pretty hard (Not as hard as Carrot thankfully, about 1200 if I remember) Now for the annoying parts. When I finally get him down to critical HP, he uses Soul Etude, fully restoring his HP which is basically like sayin "Now you've got to do it all over again". OK you cheap git let's go. I aim a Remedy at him and score Blind which makes bringing his HP down a bit easier... for all of 15 seconds when he uses Purify to remove it and then scores a five his combo on me :mad: So I bring him back down to critical again and now he puts up a Paling guarding against physical attacks, and scores himself a 6 hit combo. Seriously, naff off you cheap bastard! I slowly manage to finish him off by aiming Bio at him but it doesn't hit for a lot of damage and takes forever. Finally he dies, good riddence

Deathgaze
If you thought Wild Malboro was annoying, meet the most annoying little prick in the game. I fought him 5 times altogether. The first four attempts all came to an end when Crushing Fangs instant killed me. The final attempt lasted an hour while I basically tried everything I could think of to kill him and honestly thought it wasn't going to happen until amazingly I pulled it off.

The first four attempts are easy to sum up. I charged in, lasted all of a few minutes before Crushing Fangs killed me. And every time this happens I have to fly around trying to get him to appear again.

The fifth attempt is where I managed to corner him and basically tried everything possible while he was unable to hurt me. I achieved this by staying long range so he couldn't reach me with physical attacks, and casting Silence on him preventing the use of his magicks, which just leaves his Fireball attack which, with Shell and an Adamant Hat only hits for 200HP.

Initially, I bring him down to critical without too much effort. But this is when he casts Renew, fully restoring his health. He does this depite being Silenced which already is cheating. But now he uses Renew every few minutes, giving me only enough time to take about a quarter of his HP. So first I tried casting Reflect on him because he doesn't have the Ignore Reflect augment. But just like how he is able to cast it when Silenced, he can also ignore Reflect despite not having the augment. He's susceptable to Reverse which is easily figured out because when not Silenced he likes to cast it on himself, so I reverse him and what do you know... His Renew ignores Reverse status too. There's no way to prevent him casting it or prevent it from hitting him because it ignores all factors which would otherwise change it.

He keeps a physical Paling atcive constantly. In the previous fights and the entire hour of this fight he would recast it as soon as it wore off. So I have to rely on Magicks. It's worth noting that Shock, Ardour, Flare and Scathe aren't available so "aga" spells is all I have. Thankfully he doesn't take half damage from elements like most late-game Marks so I gear up my Flame Rod, Faith and Firaga which hits for about 6500-7000HP. I managed to get it up to 7000-8500HP by equipping White Robes, but even if I prepare Haste and Faith before Renew, then get as many Firaga spells in as I can before Renew appears again, I still barely take him down past a third of his health.

I tried Niho+Remedy but items it seems are classified as physical attacks and fail. I tried Reverse and curative items, I tried everything I had access to but it simply wasn't happening.

Eventually I decided to Esuna his Silence to see if I could gain additional damage by Reflecting his spells at him. But in the 10minutes that followed he didn't use Renew at all. He used Restore but that only gives him about a third of his HP back. So I rebuff when he uses Reverse, Equip Adamant Hat against Firaga, unequip Adamant Hat against Blizzaga, equip Rubber suit against Thundaga, Ribbon against Curse and Bio, Heal from Shock and just Firaga him into oblivion.

Fafnir
This battle went exactly as planned. His physicals hit for 4000HP per hit so I obviously wasn't going to go toe-to-toe with him. I hid myself against the rock, preventing him from reaching me, equipped Mirror Mail so his magics would bounce back at him, and equipped Haste, Bravery, Sagittarious Bow, Lightening Arrows and Cat Ear Hood which hits him for over 9000HP a hit, sometimes hitting the damage cap. His Reflected Shock spell hits him for about 6000HP so his massive HP very quickly drops down. I switch to Ribbon when he readies Sleepga or Silencega and unequip Mirror Mail to recast buffs, but it was entirely unnecessary. It sped things up a little but I could have just put down the controller and gone for a walk.

Piscodaemon
I hit him lots and he died... oh you want more details. I buffed pre-battle because he uses Fearga at the start of the battle. Niho+Remedy for Slow and hacked. Healed a couple of times and sneaked in the last hit before he used Soul Etude (Fuckin Soul Etude, cheapest attack ever)

I'm not heading to Ultima or Behomoth King until after the Pharos. Behomoth King because I need strong non-elemental spells for when his physical Paling is up, and Ultima because I need a White Mask

[Shin Gouken]

I tried farming Hi-ethers but after a few hours and only finding two (Via the cerobi steppe) I got bored and decided to go tackle...


Behomoth King

I was shocked to find that this battle wasn't all that difficult. It took well over two hours though (Less really because I took a few breaks)

The trick is to stay long range so he can't reach you with his physicals, which are dangerous due to his massive strength, chance to combo and his Disease touch.

Basically I just have to change my armour every turn to reduce what attack he uses. Adamant Hat reduces Firaga to just 700 damage and Ardour to 1500 (2500HP without) Rubber suit negates Thundaga, Ice Shield reduces Blizzaga to just 700 damage, Sages Ring absorbs Holy, Black Mask absorbs Darkga and Ribbon prevents Slow. .

Where possible I equip Cat Ear Hood and Sagittarius with Bravery which has me hitting for 3000-5000HP (No idea why the damage varies so much) When he's immune to physicals i use Faith + Bio (to save MP) for 2000HP. Occasionally I bring out Flame Staff and Firaga for 3000HP but my MP drains faster so I switch between this and Bio.

I rebuff and Cure when he uses Aga Spells and Slowga. I can't cast Magicks during the animation of Darkga, Ardour and Holy so I use this time to get in about three free hits. I also use Regan for the additional healing during lengthy animations.

At -50% HP he gains Magick = 0 CT which has him attacking alot faster, often beating me to attacks. Because I have to change armour, it cancels any action I'm using and I have to charge it again so the battle moves a little slower. I have a few mishaps where I forgot to refresh Bubble or accidently leave my Adamant Hat equipped when Blizzaga hits but it's not overly important because two of his attacks cure me, two I'm immune to, and the rest deal half damage.

Like I said, a really long battle but surprisingly not very difficult.

[Wolf Kanno]

When you're done with this challenge, I want you to do a summoner challenge. ;)

[Shin Gouken]

When you're done with this challenge, I want you to do a summoner challenge. ;)

What's a summoner challenge? I'm so crap with Espers, Ive never summoned them =/

Pharos is done :spin:

Hydro
Nothing to Dispel. Niho+Remedy for Oil, Confuse and Slow. I put down the controller and watched him die. No Gambits, I just attacked. He only hits for 300-500 depending on his attack (Physicals, Bio, Fireball and Curse) He scored a 6 hit combo which brought me down to low health but it wasn't quite enough to beat me

Pandemonium
Dispel and Niho+Remedy for Silence, Oil and Confuse. He hits for 700-800HP which is easy damage to keep on top of. I try to run circles around him when his barrier goes up, which saves me from alot of hits while he tries to catch me.

Slyt
.... Dispel and Niho+Remedy for Oil, Slow and Confuse. He surprised me with his speed. He only hits for 400 damage but he attacks fast enough that I have to heal frequently. At low health I'm only hitting for 1000 damage so I Firaga him which with Oil is 9999HP =p

Fenrir
Dispel and Niho+Remedy for Sleep and Oil. I'm not so cheap as to leave him sleeping. I don't abuse Oil either and just stick with a Physical assault. Everything in here is susceptable to Oil, even Pheonix in the subterra. He hits for 700HP but combo's a fair bit (I saw as high as 7 hits) which requires caution but isn't anything I can't handle.

The Pharos is fairly simple I'll mention. Chimera's love to evade so Cameo Belt comes out. I avoid any of the larger enemies (dragons) and Haste+Bravery Bunes and Reavers. The Bombs at the top are nice enough to heal me with all their attacks. I'm surprised by how quickly I stormed through the place tbh

Hashmal
He's got a fair bit more HP than all the previous bosses in here so he takes a little longer. But he's still only hitting for 700-800HP. Float keeps me safe from Quakeja and Roxxer .

Gabranth
This little pussy only hits for 600HP. I Dispel his Haste and kill him in about a minute. Didn't need to Heal and just unleashed my full wrath.

Cid
A little bit more interesting than any of the other bosses in here. He hits for 700HP and is fairly quick. His Gatling Gun looks nasty, but just like in the last battle with him, it does less damage than his regular attack (just 600HP) At half HP he summons Famfrit.
Famfrit
Cid will take shots at me with his Gun for 700HP while Famfrit only hits for about 300HP so the damage is far from overwhelming. I ignore Shell and Protect being cast on Famfrit by Cid but I Dispel Haste off whenever he casts it. They combine Special attacks (Forget the name of Cids but Famfrits is Waterja) which hit for 700HP + 1300HP each. Easy to simply cure off. It's a longer battle so I'm recasting buffs occasionally and Curing frequently but it's really straightforward. I finish off Famfrit, recast a couple of buffs and heal before finishing Cid.

""I Judge Magister, condemn you to oblivion"" <3<3<3

So here's what I got left.

Easy battles:

Vayne I expect
Ixion
Pylraster
Pheonix

Hard battles:

Ultima
Shadowseer

Pharos Subterra and Great Crystal will probably be pretty hard too. Ive already had a taste of the Great Crystal and I didn't like it :( and the Subterra scares me even with a full party

[Shin Gouken]

Pylraster
Went exactly according to plan. Equip Esanguined Shield and he can't touch you. Shield Lores offer 5% additional evasion so with Esanguined Shield my evasion sits on 105%. I Deathbringer him with Genji Glove for lots of 3-4 hit combo's. Regan and Haste negate the Sap and Slow side effects of my shield so i just have to heal off poison every so often.

Ixion
This was actually crazy hard. I thought it would be easy. I was under the false impression his physical attack hit for lightening damage so I wore a Rubber Suit, but I was wrong and his physicals hit for 2500HP nearly killing me before the battle had even properly started. With Maxamillion his damage still hits for 1700-2000HP but he likes to combo, at low health he nailed me with a 6hit combo which very nearly killed me. I took a risk at one point and Niho+Remedied him for Slow, Oil, Sap and Silence. Slow makes a huge difference in helping me keep up with the damage but at the same time, Silence prevents his magicks which, although he doesn't use them much, they're easier to handle. Sleepga and Silencega misses with Ribbon, Firaga can be halved with Adamant Hat and Thundaga I'm immune to with Rubber Suit so his magicks can buy me some precious time. He heals off his ailments anyway so It was a wasted effort. Fearga is next which massively complicates things because I'm using Curaja every few seconds to keep up with his damage. I opt to switch out my Pheasants Netsuke and abuse the skip delay time glitch to knock out fast X-potion healing. With Bravery and Zodiac Spear I'm at least reaching 9000+ damage on him, sometimes even hitting the damage cap so I bring him down fairly quickly. The most tense part of the battle was trying to recast buffs when he's in critical and throwing combo's at me. Thankfully Bubble can simply be refreshed so Protect is the important one I aim to get up fast. X-potions don't have a Charge Time so Haste isn't too important but I manage to get it up with Bravery which meant I could finish him faster. I was fairly surprised it ended up being quite tough but actually that just made it more tense and thus more enjoyable.

EDIT: I forgot to mention his Dispelga. Tense moment trying to restore buffs. He also makes himself immune to magick and status ailments at half health but It didn't affect my strategy

On a side note, my first journey into the Subterra was just crazy. I decided to clear up the enemies wandering around in the center area and all i can say is WTF. Enemies hit for over 1000HP and they swarm the :bou::bou::bou::bou: out of you. I managed to just keep healed and pick them off but they just keep coming. I lost count of how many I killed and I swear they are just never ending. I reset after I levelled up 2 levels because I honestly thought I was wasting my time. When I come back down here I'll have to flee into the nearest room. The enemies in their will at least drop Black Orbs which I need to farm for so if I level up at least I'm actually achieving something and not just levelling up for the sake of it. I'm level 66 now btw, a result of all the Marks Ive fought and from trekking a hundred floors to the top of the Pharos

[Wolf Kanno]

Yes, I want you to play a game where all you are allowed to use to beat most of the Marks and story bosses is exclusively the summons. It will be another solo challenge except you must always have a summon and end all fights with the summons special attack only. You need to build your character to survive and keep the esper alive at all cost and build unique gambits for each esper. ;)

[Shin Gouken]

The most epic battle in the game (Ultima)

The unsuccessful attempts. Holyja comes way too fast to attempt to try and switch in my Sages Ring and a quick Redemption followed ending my first attempt. Another ended when I tried to cure Reverse with a Remedy which failed and Renew + Curaja finished me. I had two other failed attempts which were as a result of buffs wearing off at crucial times (Shell on Holyja), and not being able to use X-potions because of the item lock.

First action in the battle is to Dispel her buffs, which I then follow with Niho+Eye Drops for Blind.

After that, it's all a jumbled mess of actions where I attempt to keep on buffs, cure and attack. The methods of which change depending on what field is active. I'll go into a bit more detail on what my basic strategies were during each field phase but mention a couple of things first.

In order to prevent Reverse which is an added affect of Holyja, I have to wear my Ribbon. This means I can't equip my Sages Ring and am forced to take the damage from Holy. It's possible that if I'd remembered to pick up a White Mask, I could have worn that and Ribbon together to absorb Holyja and be protected from Reverse but unfortunately I'd already saved outside Ultima before I'd realised I'd forgotton to get it.

It's impossible to switch in my Ribbon when Holyja appears in the battle log because it's too fast. I tried a few dozen times over the last couple of hours and only once was I able to bring up the menu before it was cast. Because of this I need to keep Ribbon equipped as much as possible, but it's also necessary to equip Nihopalaoa and Pheasnts Netsuke for large portions of the battle which means at some point, Holyja is going to hit you with Reverse.

When this happened to me (When Ultima is at a quarter health and I'm panicking) I had to try and find a way to cure before her next attack hit me. I don't remember what field was up at the time but I remember Haste had worn off and I decided that the 0 charge time of items was where the answer to my problem was. What I decided to do was Equip my Niho and throw an X-potion at myself. I wasn't sure it would work but thankfully, yes it did.

X-potion = Heal
X-potion with Reverse = Damage
X-potion with Reverse and Nihopalaoa = Heal

Last thing to quickly mention. This is the first battle in the challenge that I fought with the lowest speed setting. This is because I'm heavily relying on items. They have a 0 charge time so are unaffected by the slower speed setting, but Ultima's attacks take longer to charge. This was the absolute key to beating her and honestly this would have made some of my earlier battles in the challenge so much easier. 0 charge time and skipping the delay time that follows means I can heal incredabely fast, without this, I'd never be able to cure off Holyja before Redemption. I also use Niho+Eye Dops to inflict Blind on Ultima because she frequently uses physical attacks. She cures it using Blindna on her following turn but because Items have 0 charge time I can inflict Blind and attack before she's charged Blindna and immedietley Blind her again forcing her to cure it again. With perfect timing, it's possible to keep her stuck in this pattern for a short time, until buffs start to wear off and command locks start to interfere.

HP drain - here I just take extra caution with Healing, which I do with Pheasants Netsuke and X-potions. I'm not Blinding her here, instead resuming the physical assault I started the battle with. For the second cycle, I'm refreshing buffs after the Magnetic field stage.

MP drain - I use my MP to recast Bubble and any Buffs which have worn off before it's all gone. If I don't have Shell active before my MP is all gone then I bring out my Shell Shield and suffice with a Deathbringer for damage.

Attack Lock - I Elixer back my MP and use Scourge now and again for damage but I'm more concerned with rebuffing, curing and Blinding Ulty at this stage. From here it's more about staying alive until the MP drain which is the best place to resume my assault.

Magick lock - I'm using items to heal, and I can keep Shell active with my Shell Shield and Haste with Hastaga Motes, but Bubble is extremely important and I can't keep my Bubble Belt equipped because I need Pheasants Netsuke, Nihopalaoa and Ribbon. I have to ensure I recast Bubble during the attack lock phase.

Technick lock - This is basically a chance to recover from magick lock. Remove Shell Shield and try and recast Shell without Holyja interrupting. Refresh Bubble, recast Protect and keep cured with X-potions.

Item Lock - My least favorite! Curing with Curaja is dangerous because it taked three times longer to cast than X-potions, and that's WITH haste. If I need to refresh Haste then I can't use a Hastaga Mote and instead have to cast it the long way. Again, this stage is a case of trying to stay alive and preparing buffs for the next stage.

Magnetic Field - Zodiac Spear and Maxamillion must have huge metal values because using anything other than an item takes about 10 seconds. It's just not possible to use any command because you'll need to X-potion off damage long before you can charge it. So If any buffs wear off you're most likley going to die. Thankfully X-potions have 0 charge time so as long as you're buffed you can easily heal.

I sit through two cycles and make many mistakes along the way (I didn't pre-plan any of this, so often I found myself without a buff at a dangerous time, or having left Pheasants Netsuke equipped when Holyja hit) I chip the last of her HP down after the second HP drain phase after I'd rebuffed and just survived a Holyja. I knew i had a minute or so before another Holyja was due so I equipped the Genji glove and scored a few 2 hit combo's to sneak in a victory before the next attack lock phase.

This was easily the most tricky and complex boss, the most tense and most difficult. I'm level 66 btw. I deliberately came here first because I expected to level up 10 levels while trying to aquire black orbs in the Subterra. If I'd of came here back when I was on level 60 like I was initially going to then I doubt I'd of come out alive. I'm also really glad I stocked up on X-potions because I used a royal :bou::bou::bou::bou: load in this battle.

That just leaves Shadowseer and the Bahamut :)

[Shin Gouken]

Pharos Subterra - I thought I should mention how I aproached the Subterra because it is after all the most dangerous place in the game. The first level is filled with Bunes and the occasional Necrofiend and a few Reavers. Because of the massive damage they can inflict, I pretty much don't stand a chance when there is more than one and they often come with Bravery attached. So I Niho+Remedied Bunes and Reavers to put them to Sleep with various other status ailments then Scourged them to death. Initially I farmed Black orbs here but decided to go down to the next level where I actually found it easier to farm. Dead Bones are easily killed in two hits (With my lovely Cameo Belt helping against their evasion) and they don't hit nearly as hard. Necrofiends are also more common and they too only take two hits. More enemies and easier to beat meant I racked up orbs twice as fast. I fled from enemies on the outer ring and once I had enough orbs I went and activated the four pedastalls on the lowest level, then came back out to save before heading back down to face Shadowseer.

Shadowseer

Not half as bad as I was expecting tbh. His worst trick was of course Invert which when one of his servants is out is almost always an instant death because his servants are always aiming an attack at me when it hits. To maximise my chances of survival, I used the trick I learned when fighting Ultima and set the battle speed to lowest. Enemies take longer to charge their attacks but 0 charge time of Items lets me heal it almost instantly.

Pandemonium only uses physical attacks which with Protect and 0CT X-potions I can easily handle. Niho+Remedy Slows him and I dispel his Protect. When he puts up his Paling to make himself immune to all damage, I take the opportunity to refresh my buffs. Also, by running circles around him I can keep Shadowseer from hitting me with his physical attacks, though as soon as I make an action he catches me up anyway but I save myself from a few hits while I'm waiting out Pandy's Paling.

Slyt was the easiest which I wasn't expecting because the battle with him in the Pharos was tougher than I thought it would be due to his speed and combos. The reason why he was so easy though was because once Niho+Remedy put him to Sleep I left him that way. There have been many Marks and Bosses vunerable to Sleep throughout the game but this is the first time Ive felt comfortable leaving one of them sleeping. Shadowseer doesn't attack while Slyt is asleep (Surely this is a flaw, I thought it was glitched but he does the same thing with Fenrir) Remedy also hits him with Oil so I use Firaga for 9999HP which kills him pretty fast.

Fenrir suffers from the same Sleep weakness as Slyt and as I mentioned, Shadowseer doesn't attack while he's sleeping. He gets hit with Oil to but is immune to Firaga so I use Scourge instead.

It's funny how Pandemonium, Slyt, Fenrir, Pheonix and Shadowseer are all weak to Oil... but even though Fenrir still carries an immunity to Firaga, Pheonix does not. I use Sagittarius and Flame Arrows for 9999HP damage on him. He gets Blind too which saved me from a very close Invert + attack from Pheonix. Stoopid synchronized attacks. He falls pretty quickly thankfully.

I used a couple of elixers to restore MP after Fearga and switched to Pheasants Netsuke when healing and Ribbon to protect from Immobolize and Slow.

When his servants are all dead, the battle gets really.... easy o_O. He spams Flare, Shock, Holy and Scathe and throws in a few physical hits which all hit for really decent damage. The reason it was easy is because these spells have long animation times which gives me 2-3 free hits every he casts them. I simply X-potion between spells because I can't use Items while the animation is playing. Holy even heals me so when he cast that twice in a row I basically just got in about 6-7 free hits. He used Fearga alot too which I completely ignored and just carried on my assault. When I had no MP and couldn't recast Shell, rather than wait for his Scathe to hit then Elixer and recast Shell, I instead equipped my Shell Shield and threw a few Holy Motes at him which delayed his turn because he couldn't cast an animation heavy spell while my animation was playing. He's Holy weak too so that was pretty much game over from him.





Wow, just the Bahamut to go eh :spin:

[Wolf Kanno]

You realize you are just going to murder the final boss right? ;)

Maybe to make it harder, you should try to chain a 100 enemies in the final dungeon.

[Shin Gouken]

You realize you are just going to murder the final boss right? ;)

Maybe to make it harder, you should try to chain a 100 enemies in the final dungeon.

Vayne was quite hard actually :p

Gabranth

Easy of course. He uses Renew halfway through the battle and scored a 10 hit combo when he was one hit away from dying, lucky I had charged up a curaja which healed me mid combo.


Vayne

One hit killed Larse (used Cameo Belt because I remember his tendencey to parry.) Even Vaynes flashiest attacks only average 800HP. He likes to gain a free Haste buff whenever there's a mini cutscene so I Dispel that. I'm hitting for over 9000 damage so this one is easily won.


Vayne Novus

I'm hit with Immoboloize quickly in the battle but it's of little consequence. As soon as the battle starts I two hit kill Gabranth, refresh Bubble and have to recast a few other buffs. Then I equip my Sagittarius Bow to systematically kill each of his Sephira. After Immobolize wears off I re-equip my Zodiac Spear. Again I'm hitting for pretty decent damage so he dies with little incident.


The Undying

This is where it gets hard. He takes a few shots at me and fires off a few spells at the start of the battle. Nothing I can't handle. But when he casts faith I remember his Magick Barrier is coming and try to Dispel it before it activates. I fail and now have to endure his Faith'd spells. Piercing Firaga can be halved with Adamant Hat, Piercing Blizzaga can be halved with an Ice Shield and Piercing Thundaga can be blocked with Rubber Suit. They still hit for upwards of 1700HP even with the corresponding equipment. The problem in this phase is his Piercing Dispelga. If I cast any buff on myself it's instantly Dispelled (Despite the guide not saying anything about Magick = 0 CT under his augments, I can assure you his magicks DO have 0 CT. I suspect it may be caused by the ability "Chain Magick" which he cast before Faith in preperation for his magick phase.) To counter this, I equip the Bubble Belt Renewing Morion and Shell Shield and simply have to make do without Haste and Bravery. I run through my X-potions like crazy because I can't equip Pheasants Netsuke and pretty much only find room to attack during Thundaga spells which I can Block and Dispelga which I can Ignore.

When the Barrier comes down he readies bravery which I know means a physical Paling is going up. Thankfully I can Dispel Bravery because he's no longer immune to magick. His damage is still too high though, well over 2000HP per hit so I put up Protect hoping he's past his Dispel phase... it lasts about 10-15 seconds before he Dispels it off. He's damn fast too, I can barely keep up with healing, despite having slowest battle speed and using 0CT X-potions, I'm just using X-potions constantly to stay alive. However when I randomely block one of his attacks I have a sudden wave of hope and quickly equip my Demon Shield and Main Gauche which has me blocking about 50% of his attacks (Though it should be more like 85% but ah well, who's complaining) I can't damage hi with physical attacks with his Paling up so having a Main Gauche and Shield equipped isn't hindering my attack. I use Scourge to hurt him. I avoid long animation spells like Holy because I'll take 3-4 hits before the animation is finished.

Next he puts up a physical Paling and Maigick Barrier simultaneously and I have no choice but to wait him out. I'm using Curaja to heal now because I'm out of X-potions and I'm saving my Elixers for when I need faster healing when his Shields come down.

At this point my strategy is a direct blend of my two previous strategies. Whenever he readies a spell, I equip my Shell Shield and/or Ice Shield, Rubber Suit and Adamant Hat and whenever he's not I equip Main Gauche + Demon Shield. When the Shields come down I use Scourge to hurt him for about 3000HP. However I bring out my Zodiac Spear on 3 occasions; whenever he readies Thundaga, Dispelga or his new attack Piercing Holy which I absorb with White Mask giving me time for a free hit with Zodiac Spear (Just the one hit, he has 0CT and I have no Haste)

He uses some other nasty attacks like Megaflare, Gigasword and some others, they average a couple of thousand HP when they hit except one which hit for somewhere over 4000HP. Quick X-potions / Elixers quickly follow. Following the above strategy for about half an hour eventually saw him fall =)



Yay, well that's me done. Ive no intention of tackling Zodiark, Omega, Hell Wyrm or Yiazmat. 3 of which are impossible and the other is just almost impossible. But I'm very happy with having come as far as I have. I encourage anyone who wants to give it a try :)

Highlights are the most difficult battles. Cuchulainn, Gilgamesh and Ultima. Though 1st Demon Wall, Carrot and Shadowseer closely follow.

I'm ready to take a break from FFXII now... for maybe a few months :P I'll be tempted to do a different challenge or if not a challenge then at least a different way of playing it just to keep it interesting (Maybe that Summoner challenge WK mentioned...) But I did mention in the FFX forum I'd like to solo FFX at some point.

Well that's it, no more updates :(

[Wolf Kanno]

Good job and congratulations on your hard earned victory. Maybe you should try a quick low level battle against Vayne since I'm pretty sure the rest of your party is pretty low level. :cool:

[Jessweeee♪]

We're doing a solo file now and we're stuck at the Mandragoras in the Sochen Cave Palace. Sneaky little bastards.

[Shin Gouken]

Is it status ailments or damage that's causing the problem?

I had a Ribbon so I didn't have to worry about status ailments. If you don't have a Ribbon, my advice is to get one =) Rafflesia, Carrot and Wild Malboro will destroy you without one. Ose and their Hell Blasters will probabley cause you massive problems in the Great Crystal. Most late Marks have some kind of status touch too (Behemoth King has Disease touch, Gilgamesh has both Stop touch and Sap touch etc)