The Solo Challenge

[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

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 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.