Final Fantasy IX Level One Ozma Challenge (This whole thread may contain spoilers)

I've decided that I'm finally ready for another challenge after my FFX NSGIENC dissapointment. I've chosen the Final Fantasy IX Level One Ozma Challenge. In case you don't know what this challenge entails it is reaching Ozma and beating him without ever gaining a single level with any permanent character.

As with my other challenge threads I'll use this as a journal, anyone interested please post, I've been having a lot of fun with the challenge so far, if anyone else decides to start let me know.

As of now I just reached the first Qu's marsh and picked up Quina, the toughest boss battle so far was Black Waltz 1 + Sealion.

Are you gonna explain to us how to do this? I'd be very interesting in hearing about it.

Just like usual in a low level game, run from every fight and let non-permanent characters take the exp in forced battles. I will post the boss strategies I use to beat bosses although the ones I've fought so far have been pretty simple. Sealion was sort of tough but I ended up beating him with three attacks from back row + 1 tidal flame.

I've already done this challange. Gizamulake's Cave is nothing but a H-E-L-L!!! :)
Oh, and you HAVE to steal the Fork weapon from that pig-beast in the hunters festival.
You HAVE to do it.

It's stop that lets you get AP without gaining any EXP, right?

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Originally Posted by DJZen

It's stop that lets you get AP without gaining any EXP, right?

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Yes, it is.

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Originally Posted by Ultima Shadow

I've already done this challange. Gizamulake's Cave is nothing but a H-E-L-L!!! :)
Oh, and you HAVE to steal the Fork weapon from that pig-beast in the hunters festival.
You HAVE to do it.

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Well, looks like I'll be starting over. So much for doing this challenge without a guide /sigh

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Originally Posted by Necronopticous

Well, looks like I'll be starting over. So much for doing this challenge without a guide /sigh

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Well... it's because there's only 1 way to kill the "unavoidable" battles with the blackmages in the cave. There's only 1 way to kill them without gaining EXP at this point in the game. You have to pertify them with the forkweapon that you can steal from that pig-beast-thing. Equip Add Effect and try to get as high spirit as possible with Quina by equiping different stuffs on him/her. Whenever you've won a battle against Black Mages without gaining EXP... try to get out of the cave and save before the next Black Mage battle. THIS is what makes the cave a hell.

Hope you didn't spend TOO much time with this so far. And hopefully it will be easier to get to your current point in the game on your second try. Don't worry. If I remember correctly this is the only point in the game where you have to restart if you miss something.

I'm starting over... Now. Let's hope for better this time around.

you guys are nuts doing the entire game without leveling up once just to beat osma

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Originally Posted by sayen

you guys are nuts doing the entire game without leveling up once just to beat osma

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No, not nuts. FREAKS!!! :p

To tell you the truth... I think the no leveling FFVI was MUCH whorse! :cool: :love:

You sir are crazy. I can't even beat Ozma with level 70 characters, I'm not even going to think about doing it with level 1 characters.

Hey Ultima, stopping/stoning enemies sounds like it's going to be hell of tedious, give it to me straight, how bad is it?

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Originally Posted by Matty Pie!

You sir are crazy. I can't even beat Ozma with level 70 characters, I'm not even going to think about doing it with level 1 characters.

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Kefka with level 6-10 etc characters was much harder. :p And Omega and Ultima Weapon (FFVIII) with only "commands" junctioned. But level 1 Ozma is still pretty tough. :p
However... going trough most of the game at level 1 is much whorse than Ozma itself. :eek:

Edit:

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Originally Posted by Necronopticous

Hey Ultima, stopping/stoning enemies sounds like it's going to be hell of tedious, give it to me straight, how bad is it?

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It's a bad... but not a hell when you are fighting weak creatures. Make sure Vivi have alot of spirit (spirit improves possibility of inflicting status effects) and equip weapons that inflict stop. Make sure you battle weak monsters who DON'T kill you in 1 move and keep casting stop. It takes time... a very long time. Don't bother getting useless abilities.

Sounds like fun, I plan on playing a good deal when I return from work today.

Just got out of the Evil Forest, work tomorrow so time for bed...

Well, goodluck to you! :)

I'm almost to where I was again... About to do the Festival of the Hunt.

update: I played for hours today, got Needle Fork from Zaghnol, Got Quina, Learned Limit Glove, Got all Chocographs from Chocobo Forest, Made it through Gizamalukes place (pain in the ASS) and got all the chocobo treasures possible at this time, evolved into Reef chocobo, and am about to take on Burmecia.

That's enough for tonight.

wow! i wish i could do that!!
i never have time to play with uni and everything... :(
got a week off next week!! so i think i'll complete the game i'm on!!
i don't think i could ever do it at such low levels!

Congratulations Necro! Keep it up. The Giza-cave is one of the whorst places in the game. You should make it trough Bumerica without TOO much trouble. :cool:

I lied, I continued last night after I posted because I am having so much fun with it, I beat disc 1 and the beginning of disc 2. I'm right about to take on Clerya.

Wish me luck.

edit:: I would also like to add that reviving Quina with 1 hp is a 1 in 10 chance, however, I have the worst goddamn luck with it. The two times I've had to do it so far (Gizamaluke + Beatrix 1) it's taken over an hour of just sitting there soft resetting and using phoenix down. I seem to get every number except 1 like 5-10 times before I actually get 1. I don't know why I've had such horrible luck with it.

To make it even more frusterating, when I fought the two black mages in Burmecia the battle ended with Zidane and Freya dead, when I used a phoenix down on them after the battle, they BOTH got 1 hp. Pissed me off...

edit2:: So since I haven't really said anything about how this is going, I'll post this to anyone wanting to attempt the challenge.

Frusterating parts so far:

Black Waltz 1 + Sealion

Have Zidane in the back row; equip Mage Masher. Keep HP up with potions until you trance, free energy Black Waltz 1 (dead). Steal from Sealion unless your HP is under 40 in which case, use a potion. Repeat until you have all items from Sealion, then attack exactly 3 times and keep your HP up until you trance again. Tidal Flame the Sealion (dead)

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Black Waltz 3 @ Airship

Don't use fire with Vivi, Dagger heals all every turn, Zidane attacks, Stiener uses Fire Sword, Vivi stays open to use phoenix down if necessary.

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Zaghnol @ Festival of the Hunt

Make sure to equip Zidane with the Mythril Dagger so you can equip the Bandit ability. Have freya stay grounded to use potions while Zidane steals the fork. Purposely lose afterward.

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Getting Limit Glove

Zidane in the front row, Freya in the back row. Enter battle vs. Mandragoras (small forest area above Chocobo Forest) Zidane and Freya attack once, Vivi stays open to use potions if necessary, Quina eats, Zidane uses flee.

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Black Mages battle 1 and 2

This is tough... Make sure Quina is equipped with everything that benefits his/her spirit stat and the Add Status ability with Needle Fork equipped. Enter battle and attack black mage A with Quina, use every other member to potion/phoenix down whenever necessary, keep EVERYONE alive and healthy. If black mage A does not get stoned, attack black mage B with Quina next turn. If black mage B is not stoned you may consider just restarting here. If you decide to keep trying, use one member to use a potion on black mage A and then attack him again with Quina, and so on. Eventually you will stone one of the black mages and the battle will become much easier to take control of. After one is stoned just attack with quina and heal the HP back with potions, and repeat until it is stoned as well.

Make sure to save after EACH battle with these or you'll hate yourself.

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Gizamaluke

Before you face Gizamaluke, enter a random battle and have Freya kill off Quina with an attack, flee with Zidane. Talk to the moogles and save your game. Now use phoenix down on Quina, if Quina's HP is not equal to 1 soft reset and do it again until s/he is at 1 HP, then save your game.

Enter battle with Gizamaluke, Equip Zidane with Mythril Dagger and Bandit ability. Zidane steals from Gizamaluke once, Quina uses Limit Glove (dead)

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Chocographs

Remember to dig up all chocographs at Chocobo Forest and get the 5 that are available to you at this point in the game. There is some very important equipment in them, especially Vivi's Oak Staff which will allow Vivi to cast stop. Transfer all Spirit + Items to Vivi as Stop will be more effective than Quina's stone.

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Black Mages battle 3

Now that you have stop they'll go down a little easier, attack with Quina also in the rare chance that s/he'll stone and cast stop with Vivi every turn until they're both stopped or stoned. Still took me several tries.

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Other

• Remember to get all available items at every area at every given point
• Remember the Stellazios
• When Zidane is not in your party be very careful with random battles, try to equip someone with auto-potion and put them in the back row so they can run for as long as it may take safely. This is especially important in the battles immediately before boarding the Gargant in Treno.
• Sell Ethers and Phoenix Pinions for extra cash
• When you first visit Dali purchase 99 wrists or as many as you can afford so that when you get to Lindblum you can buy steepled hats and synth them into cotton robes and then sell the cotton robes for more money than the ingredients costed. If you do this 99 times as I did, which is optimal you will have a lot of gil to work with for a while afterward.
• You can do this again on Disc 2 before you go to Treno by taking the left path and going back to Dali to purchase 99 more wrists. If you plan on doing this, purchase 99 steepled hats in Lindblum on disc 1.
• Be patient
• R1+R2+L1+R2+Select+Start is soft reset, your new best friend.
• Consult the awesome guide by Hyprophant on Gamefaqs if you have trouble.
  

I suggest this if you're a fan of Final Fantasy IX, it's some of the best fun I've had with the game. Good luck.

edit3::

Getting Auto-Life

Encounter Carrion Worm in the screen above Monev in Cleyra's trunk. Equip Zidane with Mythril Dagger and place him in the front row, attack once with Zidane, eat with Quina, Flee with Zidane, use Vivi and Freya to keep up HP and phoenix down if necessary.

I'm not editing the previous post any more, I'm friggin double posting, if I make my previous thread any longer I'll cry. This is an UPDATE.

I played for the better part of the day today and made it all the way through the Black Mage village and am at the part right before you meet Eiko. I gotta tell you, I considered giving up on the challenge because I didn't pick up the reflect ring in Treno and I thought Alexandria was gonna be impossible. The part where you have to battle like 7 battles in a row of bandersnatches and black mages type C was so hard and frusterating I almost deemed it impossible.

And then I got lucky. I think that was definately the hardest part in the game thus far. Here is some more delicious information for you:

Antlion

Quina uses Auto-Life on his/herself and then allows him/herself to be killed by Freya, next turn Quina uses Limit Glove (dead) Zidane and Vivi should be utility characters for using potions and phoenix downs where necessary.

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Alexandrian Soldiers @ Cleyra

Freya should be in the front row with mythril spear equipped and man eater enabled, Zidane should be in the back row with the Ogre equipped and man eater enabled. Most of the time the attacks from both of these characters will send the soldiers running away keeping you from gaining any exp, sometimes it will not do enough damage, in which case the soldier should be healed to full health and attacked again properly. Can be stopped as a last resort as well.

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Black Mages @ Cleyra

Everything spirit+ equipped on Vivi and Quina. Just like before, Vivi stops, Quina attacks until they are stopped/stoned.

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As a note, these battles in Cleyra are one after the other in a lot of cases are require extreme patience and persistence. Everything has to go right for you to eventually pass this part.

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Beatrix @ Cleyra

Same strategy as before except this time you can use the auto-life / Freya kill trick like with Antlion. Limit Glove will take her down.

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Alexandrian Soldiers @ Alexandria

Steiner in front row with Mythril Sword and Man Eater equipped (no MP attack). Steiner's attack should do between 400-450 damage, in most cases making them run away. In the case you get 400-409 or so and they do not run away, have Blank heal them up to full HP and try again. One Hi-potion will do the trick if you have to resort to this.

Remember to unequip Blank of everything after you climb the ladder

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Zorn + Thorn

Zidane with Mythril Dagger and Bandit, Steiner with Ice Brand, Power Belt, MP Attack, and Man Eater. Zidane steals every turn, Steiner attacks the recipient of power ONLY when Zorn or Thorn decide to send power. Zorn and Thorn will not even make one move against you with this strategy.

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Beatrix @ Alexandria

Just attack with Steiner, Bio with Vivi, heal and phoenix down with the others. She'll go down after a few rounds.

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Bandersnatches

Make sure Freya is dead when Beatrix kills them, after killing one she will go from level 1 to 8 making her climhazzard strong enough to kill bandersnatches in one turn. Utilize it.

With Zidane and co. use tents on them to blind and silence them and have vivi focus a few times and then stop them. Zidane can also use the ogre + soul blade to blind bandersnatch.

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Black Mage type C

Pains in the ass, if you have Reflect Ring it will be easier, put it on Zidane and enable auto-reflect. If not, have everyone use tents on them and hope for status effects to stick. Have Vivi focus and stop once they're all blind and silenced. Chances are you will die here many times and have to redo the whole sequence.

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Ralvuimago

Hope you go first, in which case you ATTACK with whoever it is, Ralvuimago will go compact and allow Vivi to focus a couple times. As soon as Ralvuimago uncompacts physically attack again. Once Vivi has focused 2-3 times have him use Bio as soon as Ralvuimago uncompacts followed immediately by Zidane attacking. If you play this right and get lucky in the beginning, Ralvuimago will never get a turn against you.

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Lani

Set up Quina at 1 hp beforehand, equip Zidane with Mythril Dagger and Bandit, steal once before taking her out with Limit Glove.

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Um, I think that's about it for now. I'm going to bed.

I see it's going good, Necro! :cool: But there's some more frustrating parts left...
Just keep it up and never give up! ;)

I'm not going to waste my time posting strategies anymore since no one is the least bit interested. Anyway, I got pretty far. I'm at the second visit to the Iifa tree and I keep losing to those damn mist monsters. After I manage to get past this part I'll be on Disc 3.

I've been sort of busy the last couple of days, but I did eventually get past the last part of disc 2, those mist monsters are a pain, lets just hope you have tents with you to blind+silence them. I had to have Vivi focus about 4 times before my stops were successful, very tough part. Now I'm at the beginning of Disc 3 which I'm sort of putting off because I already went through and beat Hippaul's minigame and then accidently forgot the stellazio so I have to do it all over again. I will probably work on it today.

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Originally Posted by Necronopticous

Now I'm at the beginning of Disc 3 which I'm sort of putting off because I already went through and beat Hippaul's minigame and then accidently forgot the stellazio so I have to do it all over again.

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That's really bad luck... :(

Well, I took care of it, did everything up to Lindblum where you get the Blue Narciss, finished all of the Chocograph stuff I could possibly do at this point and have started building up Zidane's Thievery attack. Right now it is at 1380 so it looks like I'll be spending another 8 hours powering it, how tedious...

edit: I'm at 5000 something now, half way done...

edit2: I'm almost at 8000

Nice! :D And don't forget about Frogdrop and Dragoncrest... Dragoncrest was a small amount of pain in the ass for me since I sometimes had a hard time pertifying the Grand Dragons before I got demolished. :exdee:

Frogdrop is useless in the level one game, the calculation is number of frogs caught x level, since I'm level 1 I'd have to catch 9999 frogs which is basically impossible. I don't think Dragon's Crest powers up unless you actually kill the dragon (don't think petrification counts) I'm going to infect my party with Virus and take out some low level dragons that come in threes for easy kills and fast raising, that shouldn't take nearly as long as this Thievery is taking...

Hmmm... I can't remember how much dammage I did with frogdrop but I think it was atleast a noticable amount of dammage... if I recall correctly that is.... which I don't think i do since it was a long time ago I played FFIX.
And I pertified Grand Dragons and it seemed to work. I think... or maybe I used virus... oh, well... to tell the truth I don't remember at all because I haven't even touched FFIX for about 8-8 months. I had completely forgot that virus existed! :eek: I guess i have to replay FFIX again soon before I completely forget everything about it. :greenie:

I'm almost there... Thievery at 9500...

I don't know if this will help, but I believe Speed is somehow involved in the Thievery calculation. Equip the Bandana and Running Shoes if you have them and Thievery will go up I think. Hope that helps. However, equipping the Running Shoes instead of like the Rebirth Ring makes Zidane's Spirit go down, which is bad for stealing purposes. Also, if you have it yet, equip the Orichalcon, which also raises Speed.

Thanks for the suggestions, Thievery is just (number of successful steals X 12) and I've just hit 9999, so I'm all set with that move. Next I'm off to do the cotton robe trick a dozen times or so so I have enough money to support me for the rest of the game.

edit: made money, stocked myself on items, went to black mage village, witnessed Bobby Corwen hatch (adorable), went to Kuja's place, got chocographs on forgotten continent, went to oeilvert, beat Ark + stole holy lance, saved and turned it off right before Desert Palace.

I have to do the WHOLE thing without flee, that means every random battle is going to be focusing focusing focusing focusing stopping... What a tedius process, I am really not looking forward to doing this part, but I can't wait until it's over that's for sure. I'm so close to Ozma I can almost taste it. Tastes like miso soup.

I'll keep the one person actually reading this updated, as usual.

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Originally Posted by Ultima Shadow

Hmmm... I can't remember how much dammage I did with frogdrop but I think it was atleast a noticable amount of dammage

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How the **** could I forget!?
I used "Limmit Globe" and NOT Frogdrop on Ozma. Holy crap! Is my memory really getting THAT bad!? :shame:
I only remembered that I did 9999 with Quina and tought about frogdrop. :O_O:
Hey, Necro... any ideas on another FFIX challange? I have to refresh my FFIX knowledge. :p

Had I known about this, I would've been looking in here. I haven't been in the FFIX Forum in a while.

Damn you all. I can't even beat the game at level 50 >:/

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Originally Posted by Ultima Shadow

Hey, Necro... any ideas on another FFIX challange? I have to refresh my FFIX knowledge.

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I'm considering doing the FFIX Max Stats Challenge after this which is consists of a level one game to a certain point, although I don't know if I'll feel like it after this since that would be two FFIX challenges in a row.

Well, you could just combine the two. You are already going to be at level one after you beat Ozma anyway, you could just level up with the best stuff you've got after that, right?

And Ultima Shadow, have you gotten the Excalibur II yet, that's kind of challenging (that's all I got).

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Originally Posted by SeeDRankLou

And Ultima Shadow, have you gotten the Excalibur II yet, that's kind of challenging (that's all I got).

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Oh, yea... I've completely forgot about that! :D Yea... I think I'll try to get excaliburII... at the lowest possible level! (no leveling as long as it's not forced leveling) :eek: :D
And then I will finish it all by fighting the final boss with that pice of crap called "party" that I'll have. :cool:
Thanks SeeDRankLou! Now I can finally play FFIX again in a new way! :D

Well on that challenge, you kind of don't have time to level up. I think when I got the Excalibur II Zindane was at level 4 and everyone else was either level 3 or 2. And that wasn't forced, you just don't have time for any excess battles.

Yea... but I'm still wondering if I'll be able to do it on level 1. That would mean that you have to avoid exp even in the forced encounters and still have to hurry all the time. :cool:

I skipped playing yesterday since I found my microphone and went insane. Anyway, I started up again today and beat the Desert Palace surprisingly quickly (only got in three battles the whole time)

Did some more moneyraising with cotton robe trick, headed to Esto Gaza, went through the volcano, beat red dragon x 2 and Meltigemini first try (Got lucky with Meltigemini) and got Hilda Garde III

Finished off Chocograph sidequest, went to vile island and infected my party with virus (took forever) and am now powering up Dragons Crest... I think I've killed about 25 out of 100 dragons so far... Taking awhile, I'm not encountering them very often.

So that's where I am now, all that's left is to prepare and then beat Ozma, I should have this challenge done in the next couple days. Wow, I'm gonna do this in just 2 weeks.

edit:: actually less considering I had to restart.

oh yeah if anyone is interested, my game time right now is 52:47

I WIN

Killed Ozma in just 2 rounds on my sixth attempt. I also did it with virus so everyone is still at level 1. I rule.

completed

How did you beat ozma at level 1? That's impressive.

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Originally Posted by Del Murder

How did you beat ozma at level 1? That's impressive.

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Ozma is actually very easy compared to many parts you have to go trough to reach him at level1. :)

Battle went like this:

>>Ozma uses Flare on Quina (dead) (auto-raised)
>>Zidane uses Thievery (9999 damage)
>>Ozma counters with berserk on Zidane (Berserked)
>>Freya uses Dragon's Crest (9999 damage)
>>Ozma counters with berserk on Freya (Berserked)
>>Eiko uses Dark Matter (9999 damage)
>>Ozma uses Curse (everyone dead) (Zidane, Freya, and Eiko auto-raised)
>>Ozma uses Doomsday (everyone guards or absorbs, Ozma takes 9999 damage)
>>Freya uses Dragons Crest (9999 damage)
>>Zidane uses Thievery (9999 damage)

Owned.

Eeehr... wow O_O;
You... rule.
Why don't you try to beat Necron? Hyprophant's Level One Ozma Challenge FAQ says that it is possible. ^_^

Well done.

I don't care to go through the rest of the game because there is forced leveling later on in the game. Right now every single one of my members, in the party and out, are level 1. I want to keep it that way.

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Originally Posted by Necronopticous

I don't care to go through the rest of the game because there is forced leveling later on in the game. Right now every single one of my members, in the party and out, are level 1. I want to keep it that way.

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Oh yeah, I forgot o_ov
No way to gt a Virus anywhere at that part?

Nope.

Well, what you could do is just force 4 of your characters to level up at that point and use the other four characters for the rest of the game. I believe that's doable.

Yeah, or I could unload all the EXP on one guy and just never use him, however, to me that ruins the challenge. I like having a savegame with a full party of level 1, if one guy is level 30 it looks messed up, I don't know I'm kind of weird about these things.

Hmmm... I don't think the 1 character you use have to be at a level as high as 30 + you can have 2 savefiles, right? :p

You can have only one character at Level higher than one though.

Amdusias - Give exp to Amarant... >_<
Abadon - He uses Viral Fly. If you survive it, you're with a virus. Have a virused character "receive" the exp (It must be Zidane, see below).
Shell Dragon - Kill Dagger. Zidane will "receive" the exp, but he has a virus.

Never tested it though. Characters aren't healed between this fights, after all.

How is it that you can't have virus at this point? Is Zidane cured of all status ailments between the time you leave Bran Bal and the time you have control of him again after Garland? Because there are enemies outside of Bran Bal that give the virus ailment.

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Originally Posted by SeeDRankLou

How is it that you can't have virus at this point? Is Zidane cured of all status ailments between the time you leave Bran Bal and the time you have control of him again after Garland? Because there are enemies outside of Bran Bal that give the virus ailment.

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Yeah, and that is DUMB. NOWHERE in the game cures Virus (only Vaccine). But Bran Bal does. T_T

Also, why can't Zidane use Soul Blade with the Sargatanas and petrify the Amdusias. It's not immune to Petrify (or it shouldn't be at least).

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Originally Posted by SeeDRankLou

Also, why can't Zidane use Soul Blade with the Sargatanas and petrify the Amdusias. It's not immune to Petrify (or it shouldn't be at least).

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Another dumb thing. Normally Amdusias, Abadon and Shell Dragon can have Stop or Petrify, but at these battles they are immune to every status on the game T_T'

For some reason these monsters are immune to almost everything including Petrify, even though the original version of the monsters you fight should not be.

Hmmm... how much EXP do you get from these things?

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Originally Posted by Ultima Shadow

Hmmm... how much EXP do you get from these things?

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10k or so. T_T'

90,522 altogether. Two fights at 32,073 exp each and one at 26,376 exp, divided among the living party members.

Just beat Ozma, it's satisfying enough trust me.

*sigh* Yea, but still... I think the final battle is a much more intressting fight.

Well you can still face him with a level one party. Just make sure the guys you won't be using in the final battle get the experience.