This challenge is so complex.
This challenge is so complex.
Great going, Necro!
I catched a terrible cold and basically stayed in bed from my last post up until now. I intend to get started tomorrow, assuming I'll feel better by then.Originally Posted by Necronopticous
Awesome, dude. I hope that my journal here will help you get started. The guide sucks.
Ahhh, here comes my first super-awesome-progress-report-thingy:
Nothing interesting during the first 20 or so minutes of the game. Bartz beats goblins, bartz levels up to level 2. Bartz and gang runs from lots of battles.
Preparations: I just gave Bart's broadsword to Faris. I didn't even bother going to Tule before fighting Mr. Bird.
The first boss: Mr. Bird (also known as Wing Raptor), goes down quickly by just having everyone attack... except when he goes into Mist Dragon-ripoff mode which happened once, in which case I just wait until goes back to normal again.
Preparations 2: Spending lots of time stealing lots of potions. Yay! I stocked up to 58 before I got bored and decided that I probably had enough. Then I got all the items and money from all the barrels and crates and whatever in Tule, then selled enough potions to buy all the spells + 2x leather sheilds and leather cap as well as those additional 2 broadswords.
Finally, since Necro mentioned that the EXP given by that guy later on who makes Lenna and Galuf level up was just enough for them to level up, I figured that bringing one lone goblin to the grave, providing everyone except Blue Mage Bartz with 3 exp, wouldn't really make a difference. So... I put Bartz as a Blue Mage (everyone was Bare) and had him get hit by Goblin Punch, then killed him off and killed the goblin. Since Blue Mages learn the spells even if they are dead at the end of battle, I now have Goblin Punch.
Faris and Bartz: Black Mages. Galuf and Lenna: Bare. I choose two Black Mages over one since when Faris is the only Black Mage, you'll have to waste a pheonix down in case you're unlucky and she gets killed early. With Black Mages, I thought it would be more likely to be able to cast those 5 Thunder spells without having to waste a pheonix down.
Second Boss: Karlabos. It went something along these lines:
Bartz gets tentacle raped, Faris casts Thunder and Galuf + Lenna defends. Galuf is hit, Faris uses Thunder Bartz returns to normal and uses Thunder. I don't remember exactly what happened next, but someone was hit by a physical attack and survived. Both Bartz and Faris manages to cast one more Thunder each right before Bartz is killed. Perfect timing. Faris goes emo and kills herself, Lenna and Galuf finishes Karlabos off with their flashy broadswords. But before they did that, I remember Lenna blocking an attack with her sexy Sheild-evasion skills! That was a total "Hell Yeah" moment! =D
Preperations for Siren: Bartz as Blue Mage, Faris as Black Mage and once again Galuf and Lenna as Bare. I checked out Zeromus_X's link, and found out how much Goblin Punch apparently kicks ass against Siren. I still wanted to do it my own way though, so I also put Faris as Black Mage.
Boss 3, Siren: Took me 3 tries, because I accidently killed her off while Faris was still around. I should calculate more carefully. >_> On my third try, Siren starts off by trying to silence one of my Bares, then casts Cure on herself. Bartz Goblin Punches, Galuf attacks once, everyone else defends... even though I found out in the earlier attempts that Siren's attacks kills you even when you're defending. Siren casts Safe, Bartz uses Goblin Punch for half the damage. Siren turns undead, Faris casts Fire and Bartz Goblin Punches again (Safe is removed when she turns undead, apparently) Siren kills Bartz, Faris uses Fire, Galuf is killed Faris revives him. Siren turns back to normal and kills Faris. Galuf and Lenna attacks and finishes Siren off.
...and that's how far I am at the moment.
It looks like you're off to a really good start. I hope that the EXP from that Goblin doesn't cause you any trouble later.
Well, since my Faris, Lenna and Galuf are a total of 3 exp ahead of yours, it means that unless your Faris, Galuf or Lenna have 3 or less exp to their next level, it won't screw me up. So if you could just check that out, it would be awesome so I can feel a bit safer. xD
...because I'd like to avoid going trough this Ether-hunting nightmare again. Worst part of the challenge so far, hands down. Maybe I'm just unlucky, but after like... 50 battles, I finally got my FIRST 2 ETHERS! =O Now there's only 5 left! >_>
Well, at least I got lots of potions to sell.
Edit: Oh damn, I just noticed one thing that I messed up. I apparently forgot about the "No Treasure Rule" back in Tule (since I guess Crates and Barrels count?). NOoooOOOooooOOooooOOoooOOooo!
So basically, I'm right now doing a "Low Level, 0 ABP, 1% Treasure challenge" or "Low Level, 0 ABP and 0% save Tule challenge". Ack, how could I possibly have forgotten about one of the rules at the very begining? >_<
Last edited by Ultima Shadow; 09-04-2009 at 04:47 PM.
2 out of 50 is perfectly average, so you haven't really been lucky or unlucky, it's just a tedious process. You'll get there. ;]
That sucks about Tule, but if you're just in the challenge for the challenge of it then it won't really make much of a difference, or give you much of an edge or anything.
I got all 7 now... and daaaaeeemn! I stoped counting, so I have no idea how many battles it took total, but it sure took a while. Now I finally have them though... and it will hurt my soul to be forced to use them up. xD
Yeah, all there was in Tule anyway was basically a few potions and some money. Later on, it makes a difference if you pick up some awesome sheild or whatever. But what you can get in Tule is mostly insifnificant.
Now, back up the mountains!
Setup:
Bartz, level 2: White Mage
Lenna, level 1: Blue Mage
Galuf, level 1: Bare
Faris, Level 3: Black Mage
The ethers... I didn't really need those 7 ethers, apparently. >_> The guide tells you to use Bartz as Black and Faris as White and that Magissa MUST hit Faris first turn (since she's the only one who can survive the spell, as White Mage) but... if someone dies, there's always a thing called PHEONIX DOWN, duh! I mean... I'd prefere just stealing items you know you'll get easily and selling them until you can afford a Pheonix Down instead of desperately stealing over and over and hoping to get a rare 1/25 chance item. >_>
...what I'm saying is this: Faris has more MP than Bartz (ALMOST twice as much), and the black mage is the one who's gonna spend the MP. All the White Mage really needs to do is cast Silence twice. So if Faris is the Black Mage, you need less ethers.
Boss 4, Magissa & Forza:
Magissa starts out by casting Ice on Lenna. Faris uses pheonix down on Lenna, Bartz silences Magissa and Galuf starts hammering away. This was also when I suddenly realised that Lenna, blue mage, had Goblin Punch. I tried it out, and it did almost exactly the same damage as the black spells were supposed to do... and it's for free! On top of that, it doesn't wake Forza up when he's sleeping. Man, as long as those additional 3 exp doesn't matter, Goblin Punch is a must-have. As long as you have Goblin Punch, you don't need to go trough hell to collect 7 ethers!
...back to the battle, when Forza showed up I put him to sleep and I re-silenced Magissa. Magissa tries to cast regen, and fails. Then drain, and fails. Then, she finally casts Aero... and straight at Lenna too. Totally awesome! Lenna dies, Bartz revives her with a second Pheonix Down and I hammer Magissa to death. I pause the game and brings a notebook and a pen and starts calculating damage as Faris starts casting random elemental spells while Lenna Goblin Punches. Once Faris was out of mana, I used 1 Ether only to speed up the process. Once she ran out of mana again, Forza was almost dead and I brought down the last required bit with Goblin Punches alone. I killed everyone off except Galuf, and then finished Forza off with Galuf. Now I have 6 unused ethers that took me one helluva lots of time to get. =O
Last edited by Ultima Shadow; 09-05-2009 at 05:11 PM.
By the way, I checked my Status screen for you:
Level Current EXP For next level Bartz 2 28 5 Lenna 2 10 23 Galuf 2 10 23 Faris 3 60 14
Thanks, man!
Awesome, those 3 exp won't matter after all! YESSSS!!! Goblin Punch FTW!!! =D
Yeah, definitely a good call on the Goblin Punch. Sounds like it makes a few of those obnoxious first boses a lot easier.
It totally does. The best part is that you won't need to get those 7 ethers though since Goblin Punch is free. Now, I DID get them anyways, since I didn't think about the matter until I was already there. But... if someone else ever wants to do this challenge, they can be warned. xD
Bad news. I just arrived at the assault on the Ronka Ruins Flying Fortress and discovered that Soul Cannon dishes out 40 EXP when you beat him, for whatever reason. Divided by Lenna and Galuf this leaves them with just 3 EXP to level 3. ;[
Level Current EXP For next level Bartz 2 28 5 Lenna 2 30 3 Galuf 2 30 3 Faris 3 60 14
Last edited by Necronopticous; 09-06-2009 at 02:05 AM.
Noooooooooooo! I guess getting Goblin Punch early just was too good to be true. =(
Still... do you know how it works when exp can't be evenly divided? I'm talking about 40 exp split for 3 characters. Basically, if I somehow finish that battle with Faris as bare as well, the exp for each character should be 13, with 1 exp to spare. If that 1 exp is given to a random character, I can still do it. If the exp is rounded up for each character (everyone gets 14 instead) then I might be screwed.
Edit: Nevermind, I should be fine if I focus the exp on Faris instead and have Lenna and Galuf stay at level 1. I did a test battle against 3 of thr frogs in the waterway behind the castle. With everyone alive, the battle granted me 48 exp. Faris levels up, and when I check the status screen the remaining exp to level 5 is 39. Both the Sergeant and the Soul Cannon gives 40 exp total. So if I only have Faris take all exp from the Sergeant, the exp to level 5 should be 39 + 8 = 47, which means she can take the exp from the Soul cannon as well without reaching level 5, leaving me with a 2, 1, 1, 4 party. So, I'll just have to go for the 2,1,1,4 instead of 2,2,2,3 to solve the problem.
...I have to admit, I did get scared there for a second. But if I got my calculations right, I can still make it. xD
It's kinda funny when you think about it. Those additional 3 exp forces me to go by a slightly lower average level.
Edit 2: Beat the Sergeant.
First of all, I went on a stealing rampage for Mythril Swords. When I was satisfied, I went up that tower and hammered Garula to dust. I used exactly the same strat as Necro, and the battle went just the same. All I did was pressing down the attack button until Garula got low on HP, which is when I killed Faris and then just proceeded with holding down the attack button. Garula got to attack twice, doing like 10-12 damage to a defending Knight-Faris.
Next, I went to Karnak, got into prison, got out, sold all Mythril Swords except 40 and bought Mythril equipment, a few spells and 3 of each elemental rod.
Liquid Flame:
Just went for a quick kill with everyone as Bare by throwing 2 Ice Rods at him/her/it. Killed him in tornado-mode and got a Fire-bow. I know the Fire Scroll is nice for Shiva, but I figured I'll probably be able to beat her by just throwing Fire Rods at her as well.
Next up, was the battle I'm very glad that I didn't get to before Necro posted is his last post, informing me about those additional exp from the Soul Cannon later on that could have been devasting:
Before the battle:
Bartz, level 2: Black Mage
Lenna, level 1: Black Mage
Galuf, level 1: Black Mage
Faris, Level 3: Bare
I ran into 1 encounter (1xKarnak) while escaping the castle, put it to sleep before it could escape and then escaped myself. I refilled my MP with 1 ether, just in case, and proceeded with no encounters until I ran into the Sergant battle. Here, I had everyone except Faris use Sleep until all the Karnaks were asleep. Then I poisoned the Sergant with Bartz, who had some MP left after his sleep spell, to speed up to process. The Sergant goes down pretty fast. Faris gets 40 exp. Faris levels up. 47 exp remains to level 5, so the Soul Cannon can still be defeated while maintaining my current levels.
Current levels:
Bartz, level 2
Lenna, level 1
Galuf, level 1
Faris, Level 4
...oh yeah, one more thing: I actually forgot to steal the Gaia Gear. But I seriously belive I can do without it. If the guide won't even tell you when they will be needed, I doubt they are 100% necessary until you can buy them. Well, I hope at least. =P
Last edited by Ultima Shadow; 09-06-2009 at 08:06 PM.
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