Preparation:
Flew to Library of the Ancients to grab Cid & Mid, then headed over to the Desert of the Shifting Sands with them. Went through the scene until they asked me if I was ready to fight the Sandworm so that I didn't have to sit through it each time I failed. Refused, then went just outside and set up my party config:
Code:
Bartz 2 Ninja F Kunai Kunai GreenB NinjaS -
Lenna 2 Free F Whip MythrilS GreenB NinjaS Flame Ring
Galuf 2 Ninja F Kunai Kunai GreenB NinjaS -
Faris 3 Free F Ashura - GreenB NinjaS Flame Ring
Saved, of course.
Sandworm:
Had Bartz and Galuf throw a Water Scroll right off the bat. Water Scrolls do about 1000 damage, give or take 30 or 40. Since the Sandworm has 3000 HP, I wanted to aim for about 1960 damage with the first two scrolls, leaving Sandworm at right around 1040 HP left. If they didn't do enough damage, I'd lay a Whip slash on him, or if they did a little too much I'd throw him a potion. Anything to put him around that target of 1040 HP on the Ninjas' next turn. Unfortunately, Sandworm uses Quicksand really often, which kills everyone. I Kept my fingers crossed. Eventually he just resorted to attacks, allowing me to get off my third, and final, Water Scroll. Immediately killed off Bartz and Galuf and ended the fight with attacks from Lenna and Faris.
Preparation:
Quickly saved outside after beating Sandworm, then trekked through the Shifting Sands to the Town of Ruin. Before entering I went ahead and switched everyone back to Freelancers, optimized them, and threw them in the back row.
Went through the story sequences until the lift off of the airship.
Cray Claw:
Broke a couple of Thunder Rods over his head.
Preparation:
Flew straight to Istory and landed at the forest's edge. Set up my party config:
Code:
Bartz 2 Free F Ashura - GreenB GaiaG Angel
Lenna 2 Blue F MythrilS - GreenB NinjaS Angel
Galuf 2 Free F Ashura - GreenB GaiaG Angel
Faris 3 Time F Frost Rod - GreenB SilkR Angel
Ramuh:
Had Faris use Mute right off the bat. With Bartz, Lenna, and Galuf, I tried to do as much damage as possible with regular attacks before Flash went off. Once Ramuh used Flash, I killed off Lenna and Faris and broke Flame Rods until he gave up.
Preparation:
Flew over the town of Ruin to trigger the story sequence, then flew back to the undersea airship hangar near Crescent to progress the story.
Flew back to the Tycoon Meteor and landed just outside. Set up my party config:
Code:
Bartz 2 Free B Frost Bow - MythrilH NinjaS Flame
Lenna 2 Free B Frost Bow - MythrilH NinjaS Flame
Galuf 2 Knight B MythrilK MythrilS
Faris 3 Free B Frost Bow - MythrilH NinjaS Flame
Brought Bartz down to Near Fatal status before saving.
Adamantoise:
Provided Admantoise doesn't kill Galuf before he can start using Guard every turn, it's impossible to lose this fight. Adamantoise starts with 2000 HP. I got him down to where one more Frost Bow arrow would do him in, then let Galuf go without Guard and get killed and had Bartz end it with one last attack.
You could always go into this fight with all Freelancers and simply break a couple Frost Rods for a quick victory, but the former method saves you some rods.
Preparation:
Flew back to the undersea airship hangar again and had Cid & Mid do their upgrade. Set up my party configuration outside:
Code:
Bartz 2 Free F CoralS - GreenB NinjaS Flame
Lenna 2 Free F CoralS - GreenB NinjaS Flame
Galuf 2 Free F CoralS - GreenB NinjaS Flame
Faris 3 Blue F CoralS - GreenB NinjaS Flame
Saved and ascended.
Assault on the Ronka Ruins Flying Fortress:
There are four battles which need to be fought before Soul Cannon will appear. Each of these four battles may be Flame Thrower x 2 or Rocket Launcher x 2. Both of these encounters teach a different Blue Magic: Flame Thrower and Missle, respectively. It is random which battle will be which, but I ensured that I fought each encounter at least once in order to learn both of these Blue Magics. Once I had learned both of these, I went ahead and changed Faris into a Freelancer as well for the remainder of the four battles so that I didn't have to worry about killing off Faris before winning.
Flame Thrower x 2:
These guys can't do anything other than the Flame Thrower skill, which will be absorbed thanks to the Flame Ring. I just made sure they used Flame Thrower on Faris before killing her off. Used regular attacks every turn.
Rocket Launcher x 2:
These guys require a lot of micromanagement, but they are still easy. Both of their attacks do a percentage of your current HP, so it is impossible for them to kill any party members directly, however, one of their attacks will cause Confuse status so that needs to be handled. Like with the Flame Thrower x 2 encounter, I did all of my damage here with regular attacks, and ensured that Faris had been hit with Missile at least once before killing her off. If a party member got confused with a Coral Sword in hand, I had the next member who got a turn swap out their Coral Sword for a Silver Harp, and attack the confused member to bring them back to their senses. If one of the members currently equpped with a Silver Harp got confused, I just let them be. These were tedious fights, but fairly straightforward.
Preparation:
After all four battles had been won, with both Blue Magics learned, I set up my party configuration:
Code:
Bartz 2 Ninja F Kunai Kunai GreenB NinjaS Angel
Lenna 2 Free F CoralS - GreenB NinjaS Angel
Galuf 2 Free F CoralS - GreenB NinjaS Angel
Faris 3 Ninja F Kunai Kunai GreenB NinjaS Angel
If the last of the four battles happened to be Rocket Launcher x 2, all party members should be at extremely low HP. In this case, only heal up Lenna and Galuf to full HP, and leave Bartz and Faris where they're at. If the battle was Flame Thrower x 2, all party members are probably completely healed--this is fine, too, but you'll have to work a little harder in fight against Soul Cannon.
Soul Cannon:
The key to winning this battle is throwing exactly ten Lightning Scrolls before Soul Cannon can get off his charge shot, along with as many regular attacks from Lenna and Galuf as you can pull off. As an additional hurdle, though, Bartz and Faris must be low on HP when Soul Cannon's charge shot goes off. This means that if you weren't lucky enough to start the battle with them low, you'll have to spare a couple of Lenna and Galuf's turns to hit them once. In this case, you may consider downgrading your sword--attacking with Coral Sword may kill them, and then you'll have to use another turn bringing them back with a phoenix down. I actually had to do that and I was still able to win, though, so there is a bit of flexibility here.
Try to have Lenna and Galuf ready with full ATB bars when Soul Cannon finally fires off his charge shot. This will kill Bartz and Faris and start quickly draining what little HP Lenna and Galuf still have, so you must act fast. Break Thunder Rods with both of them if necessary.
I messed up on this guy a couple of times due to carelessness and had to start over from the beginning, which was awful since the four preceeding battles are so tedious. The strategy is pretty straightforward, though, so just be careful.
For Ultima Shadow: I believe you'll need 5-6 extra Thunder Rods when you get here since you'll have Faris as a Freelancer. You should be able to substitute half of the Lightning Scrolls for broken Thunder Rods with Faris. The rest of the strategy should be the same.
Preparation:
Went back down to the surface and saved. Took a trip back to Karnak to buy some extra Whips from the wandering NPC in the weapon/armor shop. Bought four of his other wares, too, for the Hell of it.
Time to learn some more Blue Magic. Need more Jackanapes! Followed the previous strategy to catch 2 Aegirs with Bartz and Galuf, then exchanged them for Jackanapes. Finally, I flew to the Ship Graveyard to have Faris catch a Mindflusher from below deck on one of the ships. Landed my airship just outside of the Library of the Ancients and set up my party config:
Code:
Bartz 2 Free B Whip MythrilS MythrilH NinjaS Flame
Lenna 2 Blue B CoralS MythrilS GreenB NinjaS Flame
Galuf 2 BM B Whip - GreenB NinjaS Flame
Faris 3 BM B Whip - GreenB NinjaS Flame
Healed up everyone except for Lenna, who was at 44/46 HP. This is important, you want Lenna to be close to full HP so that she can take a hit, but not full HP so you can tell if Transfusion hits her in the following battle.
Set ATB to Active and saved the game.
Learning Blue Magic: Transfusion
Pure Hell. This is toughest part of the challenge so far, but it was very satisfying to finally pull off. Get your calculator ready and type in 600 to start.
Encountered Mythril Dragon x 3 in the forests surrounding the Library of the Ancients.
Began the battle with Faris releasing Mindflusher. If it failed to confuse one of the Mythril Dragons, I'd reset.
Lenna was always the next turn for me, so I'd immediately have her get a Phoenix Down ready to be used on the confused Mythril Dragon and wait for him to use Transfusion. If, during this wait, a party member was killed off by the other dragons or the confused dragon attacked himself, I'd reset.
As soon as I saw Transfusion being used, I'd confirm the Phoenix Down use on the confused Mythril Dragon. If I didn't see Lenna's HP fill to max, I'd reset.
If I had not reset the game at this point, I felt that I had a good chance of finally getting this battle out of the way. The Mythril Dragon which was just brought back to life with the Phoenix Down requires four slashes from the Whip before he can be caught, so I got those off as soon as possible, using Lenna to feed the other members Phoenix Downs and Potions as necessary throughout the remainder of the battle. After the revived Mythril Dragon had been whipped four times, I chose another Mythril Dragon and focused any other Whip slashes I had before Faris' next turn on him, subtracting off the damage of each of them from the 600 previously entered in my calculator. On Faris' turn, I caught the revived Mythril Dragon.
With two Mythril Dragons left, I concentrated Whip slashes on the one I'd chosen earlier, carefully calculating away the damage of each strike while Lenna kept everyone alive and healthy with Phoenix Downs and Potions. After roughly 13 slashes, the Mythril Dragon I'd been focusing on was at around 310-320 HP. At this point, I'd allow Faris to release her previously caught Mythril Dragon and quickly focus any other Whip slashes until her next turn on the Mythril Dragon I'd neglected until now until Faris' following turn, on which I'd catch the one I'd been focusing on.
Now that there was only one left, I allowed Galuf to release Jackanapes and ensured that Bartz was at full HP. When the Doom counter was at around 20, I slashed the last Mythril Dragon with a whip, hoping for Hold status, and quickly had everyone other than Bartz kill themselves off, and had Bartz defend until 0 on the counter, ready to use a potion if a hit did come his way.
When the battle was over, I rejoiced.
Originally Posted by Necronopticous
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