Cuchulainn has fallen



Ive been at it for 4-5 hours tonight including the prep work. And i have to be honest, i almost gave up after my 4th attempt. But for some reason i decided to give it one last go and managed to pull it off... i'm pretty ecstatic


First, i didn't want to disappoint anyone by progressing the story to Archades and then opening up the Hunt Club Rare Game sidequest which is filled with beautiful rare steals, and having access to a never ending source of X-potions (Which would have made this 10 times easier) as well as levelling up a dozen levels. But i also knew that this was going to be impossible in my current condition. So here's what i did...

First, i did what i said i would do, and that is chain Surianders for an Indigo Pendant. After aquiring it, i attempted keeping Reverse active, while equipping lower defense armours so the Foobars would keep me healed in the fight. But timing Reverse to stay active was too hard because often i needed other accessories equipped to survive Disable and various other status ailments so this didn't work out as i had planned.

So i searched Chest treasures, rare drops/steals, Hunt rewards and Bazaar goods in a desperate attemt to find some improved weapons or equipment. And as luck would have it i found something with drops that i could aquire in my current place in the game.

I needed 7 Forbidden Flesh's, 9 Prime Pelts and 8 Fire Crystals. The Forbidden Flesh was right next to me in the Garamsyth Waterway, as a rare steal from a rare game called the Drowned. It's chances to appear were 8% for every 15 seconds i spent in that location so i waited for him to pop up, lured him to the edge of the zone, blinded him and began stealing until i had his Forbidden Flesh (thankfully he doesn't have a common or uncommon steal so it was simply a matter of waiting until i got the rare) Saved, reset and repeated. The Fire Crystals and Prime Pelts both come from the same enemy, the Cerberus in the Feywood and are both common drops/steals so this was a quick process.

The loot when sold makes "Nature's Armoury" which consists of a Rubber Suit and Crown of Laurels. The Rubber Suit increases my HP by 700, and the Crown increases it by 680. So at level 53, my HP hits 4933HP which with Bubble is 9866HP. Now that's more like what i need for this fight.


The battle itself was the hardest thing i have ever done. Harder than a solo chemist against Omega in FFV, or solo Bartz verses Neo Shinryu. There's so much happening in this battle, if you lose concentration for even a second it's all over.

I cast all my buffs before entering the arena, including Reverse, though my strategy doesn't revolve around it, it's just to make the initial few seconds go more smoothly. Usually, i try to aim Dispel at him straight away but more often than not he aims a status ailment at me and i have to switch to the apropriate accessory which means interupting my action and having to input the command again once equipped. How the Foobars enter varies. Sometimes they come in systematically one 15-20 seconds after the next. But other times they almost all drop in immediatley after one another. It was the former in this case. I eqipe Niho + Remedy to completley incapacitate one, but have to switch accesories to block certain status ailments on top of trying to keep healed. This is probabley the hardest part of the battle. It's very messy as Cuch throws out all manner of status ailments and Foobars attacking left right and center, i'm using X-potions every few seconds, switching accessories to defend against various status ailments while trying to find a window of opportunity to equip Niho+Remedy. Once all flans are incapacitated it gets a little easier and i work my way from one to the next killing them off. It's worth noting that they ignore evasion so shields don't help me fight off their physical attacks and they hit for 500HP each so between them and Cuch i can lose 2500HP in a matter of seconds.

With the Foobars down it's just me and Cuch. I had only reached this stage in the fight once before and it takes 10minutes of Foobar battling to get here. It's still extremely tricky because whichever attack Cuch decides to use, it requires a different accessory. His physical hits and Toxic cause poisen, his Malaise and Bio cause Sap and his Slowga, Immoboilisaga and Disablaga cause Slow, Immobolise and Disable respectfully (Duh) So i'm swapping accesories constantly! Obviously his Invert is the real killer. Not only did the last attempt where i got him this far end with a badly timed Curaga after Invert, but one attempt ended immediatley when he cast it at the start of the battle... through me off guard dint it

OK slowly i chip his HP down but he gets ALOT more agressive when his HP falls below 50%. If you're really lucky, he doesn't even use Invert in the first half of the battle. From here, he spams the living crap out of it. Even to the point of using it multiple times in succession. I had learned to time Curaga to heal as it hits but the timing has to be perfect. By this point in the fight, i have no X-potions and am heavily using Curaga to stay alive, so my MP is usually far off max, giving me about 300HP after Invert which is about a second before i die. Although i was getting good at it, i expected a game over screen every time i saw it. Just like in the last attempt where a second is all you need to mis-time Curaga by. Also, if he casts it after Haste has worn off and before you have a chance to recast it, it's a certain game over so the whole time i'm praying for him not to cast it at that moment.

I should also point out that his attacks Slowga and Disablaga are also as good as instant death because if either of them hit, you havn't got a chance of recovering from them. Sap and Poisen can be Remedied off but if he uses Invert after then it's all over. Thus why you have to pay close attention to the battle log at all times (Not to mention your ever depleting HP.)

Anyway, the last test of the trial is when he falls below 20% of his HP, his defense sky rockets and my physical attacks are lucky to break the 300 mark. From this point onwards i'm using 1000 Needles as my priority attack, which, if you skip the lengthy animation time is only slighty slower than a physical attack. 40 or so minutes of dancing with this jolly green giant and eventually he falls... thank smurf for that!

I should definitley thank Wolf Kanno and Qwertysaur, both for your help and for the inspiration to tackle him now. If i had been left to my own devices i would have returned to fight him after at least as far as Archades. He wouldn't have provided half the challenge at that point. I'd probabley of had the Zodiac Spear by that point as well as better armour, higher levels a Pheasants Netsuke and pleanty of X-potions. Back to Mark hunting next i should think.

Actually, i'll be taking a break after all that exitement i'm on Holiday from Friday next week so i shall resume in two weeks time