Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums - Blogs - Mondatime by Marshall Banana

Capturing a little of FFX-2 (J)

Marshall Banana — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 09:06:52 GMT

=D! I'm having quite a bit of fun with this!

FFXII 122333 Challenge: RNG Manipulation

Marshall Banana — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 05:42:43 GMT

I didn't know much about this (RNG manipulation in FFXII) until recently, which is a shame, because it's a great exploit! It can be used to farm rare items in chests.

In a previous game, I spent hours to collect just a Ribbon (or maybe multiple Ribbons) from a chest. Poo. >=< This would have been nice to know back then.

Anyway, Necronopticous and I have been abusing this exploit a little in our challenge. We acquired two Zodiac Escutcheon shields from a chest in the Barheim Passage, and -- from the Cerobbi Steppe -- pouches of Stone Shot and Dark Shot. Stone Shot has replaced Onion Shot as our main ammunition, and Dark Shot helped us speed through the battle with Ultima. =D

Basically, you just remove your weapon, set a Gambit of Self -> Attack, and search for a pattern in your hit combos before collecting the chest of your aim.

a) 3 hit combo after 23 hits - Continue - 4 hit combo after 29 more hits - Continue - 5 hit combo after 28 more hits - Open chest and get Zodiac Escutcheon

b) 4 hit combo after 56 hits - Continue - 5 hit combo after 28 more hits - Open chest and get Zodiac Escutcheon.

c) 5 hit combo after 82-86 hits - Open chest and get Zodiac Escutcheon.

d) 2 hit combo after 26 hits - Cast Curaga - 4 hit combo after 27 more hits - Continue - 5 hit combo after 28 more hits - Open chest and get Zodiac Escutcheon.

e) 3 hit combo after 33-36 hits - Cast Curaga TWICE - 5 hit combo after 48 more hits - Open chest and get Zodiac Escutcheon.

f) 2 hit combo after 21 hits - Cast Curaga - 3 hit combo after 41 more hits - Cast Curaga - 4 hit combo after 7 hits - Continue - 2 hit combo after 2 more hits - Open chest and get Zodiac Escutcheon.

g) 2 hit combo after 18 hits - Cast Curaga - 4 hit combo after 56 hits - Continue - 5 hit combo after 28 hits - Open chest and get Zodiac Escutcheon.

h) 2 hit combo after 18 hits - Cast Curaga - 3 hit combo after 21-23 hits - Continue - 4 hit combo after 29 more hits - Continue - 5 hit combo after 28 more hits - Open chest and get Zodiac Escutcheon.

i) 2 hit combo after 18-20 hits - Cast Curaga - 3 hit combo after 21-23 hits - Continue - 2 hit combo after 37 more hits - Cast Curaga - 2 hit combo after 9 more hits - Open chest and get Zodiac Escutcheon.

j) 4 hit combo after 4 hits - Continue - 2 hit combo after 10 more hits - Cast Curaga - 3 hit combo after 41 more hits - Cast Curaga - 4 hit combo after 7 more hits - Continue - 2 hit combo after 2 more hits - Open chest and get Zodiac Escutcheon.

k) 3 hit combo after 56-63 hits (approx) - Cast Curaga - 4 hit combo after 7 more hits - Continue - 2 hit combo after 2 more hits - Open chest and get Zodiac Escutcheon.

Source: Getting the Zodiac Escutcheon from Barheim Passage- Guaranteed - Final Fantasy XII - Neoseeker Forums

Note that Grand Master's guide, linked above, works on other chests, too, not just the one specified in his guide. We've used it to acquire items that have only a 10% chance of being collected in three different chests.

Also, relating to the specific chest in his guide: we found that it almost always appears if you attack yourself 15 times before entering the same screen as the chest. It's much harder to find a pattern, though.

The Impossible Challenge

Marshall Banana — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 09:08:15 GMT

FF12 NLBLLG(122333) Yiazmat - YouTube

:mymelquiver:

FFXII 122333 Challenge: Intro

Marshall Banana — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 06:29:00 GMT

Necronopticous and I have been doing this challenge playthrough for the last few weeks, and we're nearing the end of it. I wanted to post about it as we progressed, but I didn't! I did take a few notes, though. Maybe they'll be helpful to someone in the future.

First things first: we've been following a guide on GameFAQs. Here's the link: GameFAQs: Final Fantasy XII (PS2) Low Level Challenge FAQ by JustStep25.

Secondly, the basics: 122333 are the initial levels of all the permanent, playable characters (Vaan, Balthier, Fran, Basch, Ashe, and Penelo, respectively). It is actually possible to prevent level increase throughout the whole game, which I think is pretty neat! The characters stick to light armor and guns, for the most part. This is because light armor increases hit points in addition to defense; and guns ignore enemy defense as well as character level (meaning that a character at level one can do as much damage with a gun as, say, a character at level 60). As a bonus, guns don't miss their targets.

However, a lot of gil is needed in order to make this challenge work, so a lot of time is spent on gil farming. I'm happy to say that the methods aren't as tedious as you might expect. Dustia-chaining is the best method early in the game (you make money off of Dustia's loot). Later, after accessing the Salikawood, stealing items from King Bomb and selling them is the best method. After the events in Mt. Bur-Omisace and the Stilshrine of Miriam, chaining Dark Lords (in the room where you fight and defeat Zeromus) for their common drop is the fastest and most rewarding.

As for avoiding exp: the guide I linked above instructs you to collect Firefly accessories (they prevent experience gain) from a chest in the Stilshrine of Miriam. However, they can be obtained much earlier in the game -- immediately after the events in the Tomb of Raithwall and Shiva, because, then, you have access to the Mosphoran Highwaste. Before then, you just avoid killing enemies that give experience points. Bosses, espers, and marks do not, so they're fair game.

Some miscellaneous tips:

The immobilize glitch is the most useful exploit in this challenge. It allows you to traverse areas you normally wouldn't explore without high levels and a lot of buffs. If you don't know about it already, here's a video to demonstrate: FFXII LLC - Immobilize Glitch - YouTube. What you do is have one character cast Immobilize on himself/herself (remember that you can't have any other characters in your party when one casts Immobilize, or they'll be inflicted with it, too). Then, add one more character to your party and make him/her your party leader. As you run through areas with this character, you change your party leader to the immobilized character whenever enemies are in view, then back to the character you're exploring with. This causes enemies to disappear. Very useful for dungeons with tough foes.
Unequipping and re-equipping a character's weapon will reset his/her action bar. This can be useful during tough fights, when you need an optimal amount of turns (normally, actions are followed by a delay).
You must run at least 3 screens away from a treasure in order for it to spawn again. I think it's quicker to save at a crystal, if one is nearby, then reset/start from there each time a collection attempt fails.
I didn't know this until recently, but there are 4 chain levels, and you can reach chain level 4 very quickly when chaining enemies simply by not collecting their loot before reaching the final chain level.