The Solo Challenge

[Wolf Kanno]

Now you should try Ultima...

[Shin Gouken]

This is actually amazing. Keep it up.

Thanks

Now you should try Ultima...

Ultima isn't available for a good long while yet, and you know what... i'm quite relieved by that But Cuchulainn was fun so i'll hit other available espers when i resume

[Wolf Kanno]

I know she isn't available for awhile but the idea of trying to solo her at an early level will probably be the only other major challenge on par with Cuchulain, especially considering it will mostly come down to timing the use of items and being horribly well stocked.

[Shin Gouken]

I know she isn't available for awhile but the idea of trying to solo her at an early level will probably be the only other major challenge on par with Cuchulain, especially considering it will mostly come down to timing the use of items and being horribly well stocked.

MP Sap followed by Item Lock is going to be a bitch.

Shadowseer will be equally as tough. Fearga followed by Invert is certain death... stupid Invert <_< His minions will be a major pain too

[Wolf Kanno]

Let's not even get into some of the Final Mark Hunts. The World's Strongest will be a bitch in a half. Not to mention Gilgamesh...

[Shin Gouken]

Let's not even get into some of the Final Mark Hunts. The World's Strongest will be a bitch in a half. Not to mention Gilgamesh...

You've got me planning battles with Ultima already

With Ultima i'm thinking a Turtleshell Choker to enable me to cast magics with Gil, so I can still use Curaga when my MP has all been sapped and items are sealed. And Gil Toss for for damage whenever the attack command is sealed.
I can chain Mum Bombs in the Great Crystal which at maximum chain level drop Diamond Armlets 12% of the time and which sell for 10,000Gil a piece so i won't need to worry about funding. Obviously i'll equip the Firefly so as not to over level

[Shin Gouken]

I didn't want to leave it another full week before an official update so i geared her up tonight intending to take on another Esper. The Esper in question was Exodus.

I had him with about 10% of his HP left when one of his physical attacks hit me with the Stop status and had to sit and watch him Flare and Scathe me to Death. With Haste, Shell, Protect and Bubble, I was easily chipping his HP down. Curaga followed any Flare or Scathe spells he cast and physical attacks i could shrug off. When he uses Flare or Scathe, the animation time is so long i get about 4 attacks in before it hits so it's actually in my favour when he uses them.

I'm determined not to progress the story and aim for early victories with him and whichever other Espers are available (Though i can't promise i can tackle them all now, i'll try as best as i can) So with that in mind i need to find the accessory which protects from Stop.

Easier said than done. It doesn't become available to buy until Archades. It doesn't appear in a treasure urn until the great crystal, and although it can be obtained as a drop, it's a 3% drop from a rare game and i'd rather not level up 12 levels trying to get it. So I rode a Chocobo to the Cerobi Steppe and trekked across to Balfonheim where it's also available but there are people blocking access to the city and the merchant only sells crap. SO i instead aim to get the Ribbon from the Cerobi Steppe which would also come in handy against the upcoming Mandragoras boss, but first i need a Diamond Armlet which currently is only available through a treasure urn in the Tchita Uplands. The urn only has a 10% spawn rate, has a 50% chance to be an item and a 50% to be the Diamond Armlet. Resetting was quick because it's in the area adjacent to a save crystal, but the spawn rate was being exceptionally cruel. Ive been at it for hours and only had the chest appear a few times. I'd actually said to myself "This is my last try, it's late, i have work in the morning and i have to go to bed", and that last try it actually appeared almost as if mocking me.

So the Ribbon may take over a hundred tries and it will have to wait until i come back from my hols now. Though in my last playthrough i got it on my 3rd attempt so who knows, i might get lucky. Sorry to not have anything more interesting to update with before my break but Exodus just wanted to be a pain. Hopefully i'll have better luck when i return

[Shin Gouken]

I managed to sneak in a couple more hours tonight but i'm leaving in the morning and wont be back for a week so this will definitley be the last update until next weekend.

Basically ive just been Ribbon farming and that's it. I picked up a Venetion Shield (a little extra evasion and +24 magic evasion) a pouch of Dark Shot, a Castellanos, a Fomalhaut a pair of Winged Boots, a Megalixer and finally after about 40 attempts, a Ribbon Plus about 60-70,000 Gil. I'm quite happy with that, a bit of a result really.

If you're very lucky i might finish off Exodus in the morning before i leave but i really can't promise. Actually I'd love to battle Addremalech too but we'll see

[Shin Gouken]

Exodus

The battle actually seemed a bit tougher this time and a bit longer, but maybe that's because i'm a little impatient thismorning :P As you know, you can't use items which wasn't a problem. My new Venetion Shield was beautiful, blocking a quarter of his Flare and Scathe spells! He basically follows a pattern of Physical Attack > Physical Attack > Physical Attack > Flare > Scathe > Refresh Reflect. And that's it. I did almost the same pattern except replace Flare and Scathe with Curaga and replace Reflect with Bubble+Shell+Protect+Haste. Scathe can hit for 3000HP without Shell and without Bubble after already taking a hit from Flare it's certain death so i would run to the other side of the arena when he begins casting an attack because i can get up a buff or heal for free while he slowly crawls to across the arena to catch me up. Had a few tense moments with trying to keep all my buffs on and heal but overall it went pretty smoothly.

Adrammelech

This really was just pathetically easy. My Rubber Suit protects me from his 3 main attacks (Thundaga, Thundaja and another electric based one i forget the name of.) Once i Niho + Remedy him, Slow and Blind just remove any tiny amount of difficulty he might of had. I cleaned up about 15 Shambling Corpses before even turning my attention on him. This could have been a little tougher without my Ribbon saving me from Cloying breath from the corpses but even so i don't think it would have stopped me from flattening him. He's a flyer so i spammed Blizzara which he's weak to. He also only has about 40,000HP which is less than a third of what Cuchulainn and Exodus were carrying.

That's it i'm off on my hols. See you all for an update in a week ^_^

[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.

[superbeckie.]

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)

Why did I laugh at that? :')
I actually love this though. Keep it up.

[Shin Gouken]

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)

Why did I laugh at that? :')
I actually love this though. Keep it up.

I'm loving it too! It really is great fun and i encourage anyone who wants to give it a go, it's well worth it


Next update!

Yesterday I went Gil farming which involved a bit of chaining here and there with my Firefly equipped so as not to level up. I spent some time in the Sochen Cave Palace to aquire a few Gemini Gems... they're for much later but if you can guess why i got them then yay you ^_^ I had lots of Gil to buy all the Monographs because they weren't as expensive as i thought they'd be. I won't be getting the Canopic Jar anytime soon though because that is just stupidly expensive. I'm not even sure i need it if i'm not planning on aquiring Tournesol.

I also did some Loot farming. I killed the Ash Wyrm which appears where i fought Exodus to get his rare Moon Ring drop. I only needed two because i have one from a hunt reward i did much earlier. If he didn't drop it i simply reset. Then headed to the other side of the Mosphoron Highwaste to chain Humbaba's to get three Beastlord hides which was fairly quick. Finally I went to the Zertinan Caverns to steal from the Slime enemies there. This took a while because i needed their rarest steal which is just 6% with Thiefs Cuffs but i picked up the four Sagittarius Gems i needed pretty quickly considering. Constant switching from Thiefs Cuffs to Firefly made the whole process take longer though. With my Moon Rings, Beastlord Hides and Sagittarius Gems i could unlock the Sagittarius Bow in the Bazaar It cost enough Gil to put me back in the red but i guess that's just the price you pay for awesomeness! I won't actually be using it for a while (I don't think) There are a couple of specific battles i had in mind when i decided to get it.

I also spawned a rare game called Dheed on the Mosphoran highwaste and stole his awesome Mirage Vest. It boasts an extra 100HP, +3 defence, +10 Vitality and +10 Speed.

I had planned to just do more farming tonight, more for LP though because my new Sagittarius Bow nicked a large chunk of my stock, but i still need a lot more Gil to make me comfortable. But instead i ended up taking on two tricky as hell marks which added a bit of exitement to my evening.

Goliath
I had no idea what I was getting myself into when i went after this fella. Actually, i almost gave up before i'd even started because a Baknamy used Death on me on my way to him and i had to reset. When i did eventually make it to him, i used Faith + Blizzaga to 2-hit-kill the Baknamy's in the area first, then tip toed up to him to sneak in Dispel to remove his buffs. He uses Magick Barrier to make himself immune to magicks at the start of the battle, hence the tippy toes. He basically just spams the crap out of Gravity which knocks off about 2500HP, easy to keep on top of with Curaja. Occasionally he used Aeroga and Smite of rage, the former hitting for closer to 3000HP, the latter hitting for just 900HP. With only those attacks i decided to switch my Ribbon for my Bubble belt to give me one less buff to cast. (I'm keeping up Shell, Bravery and Haste). At about 50% HP he throws Watera and physical attacks into the mix so i add Protect to my list of Buffs. It was going rather smoothly, but then i ran into some problems. First, two Baknamy's came to join in the fun. I got a bit panicky incase they tried to cast Death on me. I lured them away from Goliath, cast Faith and hit them with a couple of Blizzaga spells. Next, after resuming my struggle with Goliath, his basic physical attack struck me with Disable i thought i'd finally found a battle where i didn't have to worry about bloody status ailments! I moved out of reach and waited until it wore off. Thankfully he doesn't cast buffs or heal when he can't reach you like most Marks. As i chipped his HP down he completley forgot he could use magicks and instead spammed physical attacks, which not only ignore evade and combo, but don't have a charge time meaning he can use them alot faster. If things got bad, i could always move out of reach to cure and rebuff, but actually it was quite easy keeping on top of the damage so i chipped him down to death.

Deathscythe
I left the Necrohol Of Nabudis to go and save after Goliath. I hadn't prepared well enough for him and he had a few tricks that threw me off guard, so i made sure to check Deathscythe out before running off to fight him. He looked stupidly hard and i didn't fancy my chances but i just thought smurf it i'll give it a bash. Managed to get to the area where he spawns safely enough... it's scary being here in the Necrohol with only Vaan To get him to spawn i have to reduce my HP to less than 10% which is a tense situation too. You have to be careful not to combo yourself when you're HP starts to get lower, and be careful of the augment that increases your strength when you hit critical HP. I know there's a Technick which is wonderful at bringing your HP down to less than 10% but ive shamefully neglected all but 4-5 of the Technicks (Steal, Libra, First Aid and Charge) anyway, i used the Icebrand to take off about 250HP per hit until i was low enough.
First job when he appears, HEEEEEAL lol i hate being sat on critical HP! I heal fine, and already have my buffs pre-cast. So i'm quick to start my assault, with Niho+Remedy being my first action. Confuse, Slow, Immobolise, Blind and Silence is a fookin result!! He can't cast any spells now, and although he ignores evasion, Blind still makes 50% of his attacks miss. And without magicks he uses physical attacks 90% of the time. Doom misses because of my Ribbon and Annul is still piss annoying but he only used it one time. I hack him down to half his HP with little trouble. But then comes the complications. First he puts up a barrier to make himself immune to physical attacks. This is a problem because although ive worked back alot of MP from Annul, i'm using it fast to rebuff and cure, so attacking him with magics isn't an option (I'm definitley ready to go High-Ether farming!) Next problem is his augments Normal Damage+ and Low HP Attack+. He's hitting alot harder and i have to cure more often so i'm relying on Charge+Curaja again. Need a plan!! He's weak to Holy so i use my two Holy motes for 4500HP each. But then i need another new plan =/ I go with Bio ^_^ He takes half damage from all Elements (Except x2 from Holy and absorbs Dark) But Poison isn't classified as an element in FFXII so it gets normal damage. Best bit, it only costs 16MP, but because i gain back 9MP when dealing magical damage (as one of the augments aquired from a Lore on the Licence board) It's actually only costing me 7MP per cast, and inflicts a decent 2000HP. His physicals are stronger but because of the 50% reduced accuracy from Blind, he's barely hitting me. Eventually the Paling falls and i go back to physical attacks. As he's a few hits away from biting the dust he scores a 5 hit combo... which doesn't sound that deadly but actually 5-6hits of that combo missed which means it would have been closer to an 11 hit combo without Blind o_O anyway, bastid falls and i rejoice.

Obviously i run and pick up my Zodiac spear seeing as i'm sat right next to it

Also, i think ive solved the riddle of Feral Retrievers evasion issue. Deathscythe carries the evasion+ augment but he didn't evade a single attack for the entire battle. This i believe is because of Immobolise, a status which I hit Feral Retriever with when his evasion went from about 50% to 0 from the first battle to the second. Handy to know that Immobolise can reduce evasion to 0, if that is indeed the case

[Shin Gouken]

Two easy Marks and a somewhat more challenging Mark tonight

Darksteel
Cast all my buffs, Dispelled his Protect status (and had to do it again a second later because he immediately recast it) Then Niho + Remedy for Poison, Disease, Slow and Blind. Poisen hit for lot's of damage and racked up really quickly. Most of his attacks missed due to Blind and my Shield but even when they hit it was only for 250-600HP depending on the attack. He fell in just a few minutes. I didn't leave this Mark too late, he's only just opened up. A little too easy for this far into the game

Overlord
Cast all my buffs, Dispelled his Bravery (and as with Darksteel, had to immediately Dispel him again because he recast it) Niho + Remedy for Confuse, Disease, Slow, Blind and Silence. More or less the same battle as Darksteel except his attacks hit for about 900HP average. His Tri Attack hits for over 3500HP but that missed most of the time too. He fell in minutes the same as Darksteel.

Lindwyrm

First i need to mention that i purposely gained a level before fighting him so his Level 2 Sleep and Level 4 Gravity attacks would miss. This is a perfect level because it will save me from all of Gilgamesh's level magick too... but let's not get ahead of ourselves Anyway, managed to spawn him eventually after first hitting the wrong zone, then realising i needed to leave the Tchita Uplands to change the weather.

He's really big and scary

I cast every available buff i had and went on to Dispel his (I shouldn't need to mention that at the beginning of every battle because it's pretty much how I begin every battle... unless i forget to cast buffs which has happened a few times ) Niho + Remedy hits him with Blind, Silence, Slow and Sleep, which sounds like a proper result except it's really not. Slow wears off pretty quick, Silence doesn't prevent his Fireball and Stone Breath and Sleep is far too cheap for me to take advantage of, so Blind is the only status that really helps... and smurf me it really does help! about 60-70% of his attacks miss, and his Breath attacks miss about 90% of the time. With the Deathbringer and Bravery i'm hitting for about 2400HP per hit which very slowly brings him down to 50% HP (He has 230,000HP btw) Here he uses Greater Barrier and as I Dispel him he uses Restore to get a large chunk of that HP back cheeky bugger. I decided if he was allowed a cheap shot then so was I, so i Niho+Remedied him again and rebuffed while he was sleeping. He then went into a really strange phase where he spammed Stone Breath repeatedly for several minutes, but it only hit once or twice so it was an easy chance to rack up some damage. He then went back to spamming physical attacks with the occasional Fireball/Stonebreath. At about 25% HP he uses Restore again... no comment. Now he enters a phase of spamming Level 4 Gravity despite it not affecting me, which allowed me to rack up more damage quickly and slowly bring his HP back down again. When he enters critical he starts combo'inglike crazy which at 800HP a hit (With Protect) could be really dangerous... if alot of his attacks weren't missing. You'd think the battle was nearly over but now i'm only hitting for 800HP myself so it still took a while to chip that last bit down. It wasn't overly difficult, the only tense moments were when it was time to recast Bubble. If i had been clever i could have refreshed it before it ran out but i honestly didn't think to do that.

Ive taken the opportunity to unlock the Zodiac Spear Licence now I have the LP to do so. I'm not sure on the difficulty of two of my available Mark missions, Ba'Gamnan and Vyraal so i'll hit them next. However Gilgamesh is another story. I don't have a solid plan... until i have a test to determine his damage output i won't know if he's possible at my current position.

[Shin Gouken]

Not alot of time tonight so i only hit the one Mark.

Vyraal

The usual - Buffs followed by Niho + Remedy, which hits with Confuse, Sleep, Slow, Silence and Blind. No need to Dispel because i ran around opening chests while i was looking for him and spent so long any buffs he carrying had worn off. Confusion and Sleep break as soon as i hit him and as with Lindwyrm, Silence doesn't prevent Fireball. Still, i am very grateful for Blind because he hits for 1500HP per hit (With Protect) and is pretty quick with his attacks, especially on critical when he gains attack=No CT. He ignores evasion so i brought out my Sagittarius Bow for the first time since aquiring it. It's just a tad stronger than Deathbringer. After a while he makes a sprint for it and it's impossible to catch him. By the time ive gaught up with him, he's cast Renew. I have to make the damage i cause now count because otherwise he'll just heal it off with his next sprint... so out comes Zodiac Spear which i don't know why i'm not using it already tbh, ive come far enough without its help i think i feel pretty good about bringing it out now. Zodiac Spear FTW. Not only does it hit for an extra 1000HP but its CT and animation time are a fraction faster too, which noticabley has you hitting faster. He falls pretty quickly because he only has 100,000HP

I get frisky and rob an Entite of its Feystone on the way out of the Cerobi Steppe

Ive reached the Clan Rank Knigh Of The Round which finally gives me access to the Cat Ear Hood! With it, my Sagittarius Bow is as powerful as my Zodiac Spear, basically giving me a long range Zodiac Spear i can wield against Fafnir and Behomoth King

The numbers

Zodiac Spear damage - 4320HP
With Bravery - 5630HP

Sagittarius Bow - 2760HP
With Cat Ear Hood - 4050HP
With Cat Ear Hood and Bravery - 5450HP

Bear in mind the very best arrows i have are Onion Arrows so when i upgrade them i'll match the Zodiac Spear. Can't really argue with that ^_^

EDIT: Will begin farming for better arrows tomorrow. Assasins arrows are the best non elemental so i'll try for those although that really could take a while. Lightening Arrows are an easy fetch and inflict double damage on Fafnir which will help me bring down his titanic 1.3million HP. Not that he's available yet but i like to be prepared ^_^

EDIT 2: Assasins Arrows are a reward for killing Fafnir so maybe i won't farm them. I want them for Behemoth king so i'm not in a hurry for them.

[Shin Gouken]

Ba'Gamnan

First job was to kill Monid, which took 4 hits and which i managed to do before Ba'Gamnans other two friends turned up. Next, I quickly Dispelled Ba'Gamnans Haste (but didn't bother to Dispel one of the others who was under Haste too) Then did the usual Niho+Remedy on each of them in turn. Ba'Gamnan himself is only hit with Sap and Slow but each of the others took a large amount of status's which i didn't bother to make a note of, the main one of course being Blind. I equipped my Deathbringer for the intention of carrying a Shield to increase my evasion against their physicals, the Shield in question was the Crystal Shield i bagged from an earlier hunt. They inflict average 600-900HP per hit depending on the attack but as they're all under Slow i can keep on top of healing with no problems... except when they use either Sandstorm or Shining Ray because their lengthy animation time delays my spell casting. When the first one falls it gets easier because i'm taking less damage and i easily finish off two more. Ba'Gamnan is a rotten cheat though, evading my attacks sometimes up to 6 times in a row. I switch back in Zodiac Spear and just insist on my physicals. His luck runs out when i start hitting a little more efficiently and eventually he falls.

Gilgamesh Part 1
First I Dispel Enkidu (Which i didn't need to do...) Then Niho+Remedy him for multiple status ailments, the important ones here being Sleep and Oil. I equip a Flame Staff and cast Firaga with Faith active for 9999HP (Not sure if i needed the Flame Staff to hit the damage cap) For Gilgy i whittle him down with Bravery, Haste and Zodiac Spear (Keeping Protect and Bubble active to keep me healthy) I steal his Genji stuff without too much trouble, wait out his Palings when he uses them, heal off damage and insist on physicals despite his tendancey to block them. His combo's late battle are just ridiculous.


I won't be fighting Gilgamesh Part 2 before progressing the story. I wouldn't want to go in there at level 59 with a Mirage Vest. I'd want to substitute the HP gain i get from it with HP from levelling and come back with the physical defence boost provided by Maximillion, which is available after the Great Crystal. I read his Monarch Sword can hit for upwards of 6000HP, his raw damage coupled with insane combo's is pretty much going to require an approach much later in the game. So far that will be Gilgamesh, Zalera, and Zeromus ive neglected until later in the game. Although ive also bypassed Chaos who i think is also available (Can't remember the conditions for the Nabudis Medallion hunt but i'm sure it's ready by now)

I'll see if i can get the Ancient City Of Giruvegan and the Great Crystal done this weekend which includes four bosses and then will hopefully open up further hunts

EDIT:

Actually, I don't see why I can't at least give Gilgamesh part 2 a shot. Gilgy isn't as dangerous at the start of the battle so i can take out Enkidu, i can keep Bubble active by recasting it before it runs out, and try and keep reverse active. My level is a prime number so his level magicks miss... it might be possible. My one question is, how important is the Genji Helm and Genji Armour? They are both outranked by the Magepower Shishak and Maximillion which are available after the Great Crystal so i don't think i need to complicate the battle with trying to steal them. Do they offer any benefits beside the stat increases?