FFV "challenge" thread

[Levian]

Keep it up. I enjoy reading these threads.

[-N-]

I don't know if it's too late to suggest this, but I wouldn't keep three characters at level 1. Level them all in different ways, and then use the character that fits the current dungeon the best.

[Shin Gouken]

That is a really good idea. But i can only level one character at a time and tbh it gets very repetitive. I think my primary character will prevail through most battles with some quick prep before hand. Once i hit world two it's going to be (possibley) impossible to level up a character and i'm not spending any more time in world one

I'm working almost everyday at the moment so i'm not picking this up again for about a week. But when i do, i should start getting through it quickly. Carbunkle is my main worry for world two. Im not overly worried about the other bosses (though that'll probabley change when they pwn me )

[Zeromus_X]

I have a few questions:

What character are you using? (Just Bartz? Someone else?)

Are there any other rules for the challenge?

Will you write a guide or "journal" or something for your challenge?

[Shin Gouken]

I'm using Bartz simply because you start the game with him. The only rule is i'm never alowed to use more than one character in any battle, random or boss. I'm not allwoed to attack anything until i have killed my other three party members. So when i levelled Galuf, i killed Bartz.

I am writing a rough guide on paper as i progress, which will end up on my FFV website at some point. When i type it out i will do it in greater detail so anyone who reads it can just follow what i have done and do the same

[Shin Gouken]

I wasn't going to pick up again until the weekend but i decided to continue for a while tonight.

World two:

Abducter went down incredable fast and easy.

Gilgamesh battle one was extremely quick. My monk did huge damage and countered a lot while also getting in a critical hit.

The bridge was very simple. I just used my Monks kick command to clear all the battles. Actually, there were very few battles, less than i remembered so that was good.

Gilgamesh battle two was a joke. I did the same as i did for the first gilgy battle, but this time i wasn't using level 20 Galuf, but level 36 Bartz. So the battle ended as quickly as my first gilgy battle.

I made a huge f*** up here. I meant to buy an Angel ring from world one before i left. When i looked in my inventory, i realised i had a spare Coral ring. Muppet that i am, i bought another coral ring Turns out i didn't need an angel ring after all. I remember some flying pigs here using zombie spells which is why i wanted the angel ring. But they use a spell called "animate" which turns an already dead character into a zombie. So an angel ring would not have been any use. The only way i could kill them all before they zombiefied my dead characters was to break elemental rods.

Though i then ran into a Kuzar. The damned thing uses ????. And has 4000HP. The max damage i could inflict was about two thousand and i had 2000 HP. So after i hit him, he would use ???? and kill me. I found out i could cast "Stop" on them which gave me two turns to kill them so i had to throw two elemental rods. phew

The cave where Tirasauras resides was simple enough. Ramuh Owned every monster in there

For tirasauras i was planning a cheap pheonix down kill on him. But i stupidly sold all my pheonix downs at the last town (it's not like i could use them) And although i picked one up in a chest, i didn't want to risk it failing while he used that bone crush move he has to knock me to single digits. So i threw two fire rods at him

The second battle with the abducter was as pathetically easy as the first.

Ive saved outside the dragon mountain. The enemies in there have alot of HP and having a bard sing requiem is the best option here. I'll see if i can make it through alive on the weekend

[Shin Gouken]

Cor dragon mountain wasn't pretty

The enemies hit hard and fast and attacked in groups with 1 zombie dragon (over 4000 HP plus poisen breath) drippy (stealing all my MP) and a bird of some sort (HUGE evasion rate) Nasty combo. I prevailed with a monk and his counter and critacals plus HP+20%.

I managed to make it to Golem alive which was a simple case of using a Bard and singing requiem twice.

Dragon grass wasn't a problem either. Summoned Golem then repeatedly summoned Titan. took him out first try.

The i bumped into another set of enemies which gave me some bloody trouble. Kept turning my dead characters into zombies again. which meant using holy waters on them before hitting them to kill them again. by which time the enemy had turned them into a zombie again. They gain EXP at the end of a battle even if they are a zombie and the battle wasn't going to be won so i reset :S

OH but then came an incredabley tense battle Gilgamesh battle three. I totally won this by shear luck I went in with a Theif because i hadn't learned Steal yet. And gave him the barefist command so i could attack with a Monks attack power. I spent three turns stealing from Gilgy before i stole successfully then began attacking. I was wearing Bonemail so Gilgy was only hitting for 55HP at this point and i had 1300HP. But when Enkidoh appeared and began attacking for 50HP a turn on top of Gilgys 55HP I was unsure if i would last the battle (because i couldn't use curative items thanks to Bonemail giving me "undead" status.) And then i was hit by Windslash which hit for 350HP almost garanteeing a defeat. I managed to finish Gilgy before Enkidoh could use Whitewind a second time. My health was VERY low at this point (130HP i think, but remember he has 4000HP and i couldn't heal) But to my amazement and relief, he uses Red feast, which instead of inflicting 800HP damage on me and healing him 800HP, instead healed me for 800HP and dealt 800HP damage to him instead thanks to my Bonemail so i had no trouble finishing him.

Am at the bottem of barrier tower where i have saved. Atamos tomorrow wish me luck

[Shin Gouken]

Whoa!!! Atamos just kicked the s*** out of me

I don't know how i'm going to beat him. When the battle starts, he immedietley starts sucking my dead characters into his mouth instead of casting comet which is what i hoped for. But it takes him about three turns to get rid of them!! He used a Slow spell while doing that. Then he starts using comet of which i survived three of. But i couldn't heal because i was wearing Bonemail.

I have a couple of things i can try. I'll update again in a few minutes.

EDIT:

He's kicked my ass three times since now. I get just two attacks before he starts to pelt me with Comet and im barely surviving one comet spell now let alone two.

I have an insane idea to beat him though. Its very likley to not work, but if it does it'll be the cheapest and cheekiest thing to ever have been done on FF ever! I have to learn a couple of quick abilities first though which is very hard as im fighting an Ultra gigas every random battle and he always uses Hurricane to knock me to single digits while one of his buddies finishes me off. So i'm winning only 50% of the random battles i fight and saving after every battle. I'll continue tomorrow

[Shin Gouken]

Whoah man i beat him

It would of been cooler if i'd have beat him with the strat i planned than what i did though! I planned to poisen him and then hide, then just wait till he died from poisen. But after four atempts i couldn't poisen him, although i have had him poisened in the past.

In the end though i made a samurai on a spur of the moment. Then i $tossed him to death Cheap? perhaps! but i beat him with one player and it was still hard. I got two $toss's on him before he pelted me with comet. I got another $toss before being pelted with two more comets. I was left with under 100HP and managed to finish him with my fourth $toss. A very quick battle. I also wore a wall ring i found from one of the enemies in the area. This saved me from a Demi and a Slow spell too.


EDIT: i havnt mentioned for a while what level im on. Im at level 41 just after beating atamos. I would really like to beat the entire game at no higher than level 50. But im not running from any battles so i will certainly be somewhat higher. I'm not going out of my way to level if i can help it, but i need ability points. What with only one character being able to receive them, im not learning many abilities
Ive saved, had enough exitement for one night. Theres no challenge in Shoat and the elderly tree gaurdian. But the forest and X-deaths castle are going to be seriously intense! More tomoorow

[I Don't Need A Name]

wow well done! i got pwned by Atomos with all my party members, but i also beat it with $toss! good luck with X-Deaths castle!

[Shin Gouken]

Not updated this in a while. Iv'e been playing FFX for the first time so have been distracted with that in what spare time iv'e had. All ive managed to do today is clear the small dungeon where sage Gill lives. I went to the cave leading to Shoat and got killed by the Iron dresses in there before i could land a single attack. Then i went to moore forest and had a few encounters but got killed fairly quickly. To get through moore forest i'm going to need summoning level 3 and Blue which i have just learned, so hopefully i can make it through there in one piece.

For now though, just so you know how my characters are doing, heres the lowdown:

Reina:
Level 1 (starting level)
Abilities: None

Faris:
Level 3 (starting level)
Abilities: None

Galuf:
Level 20
Abilities: Summon lv2, Store

Bartz:
Level 42
Abilities: Gaurd, Chkra, Store, Flee, Sslap, Critt, Aim, Check, Tame,
Cntrl, Hide, White3, Black3, Time2, Summon3, Blue, HP+10%, HP+20%, Barefist, Cover, Counter, Learning, Secret and Dash.

Not too many decent abilities in there. Ive relied on a monks counter attacks and kick command which is why ive learned mostly monk skills. Theres also alot of useless first abilities which i learned from using a certain job class quickly for a suited task. I really want to master a hunter (a very long process) for his X-fight and a time mage up to time6, but other than that, im not aiming to learn anything specific. Maybe a white mage for Blink and Reflect, they will probabley be very useful too. Well thats all for now

[Shin Gouken]

Moore forest was a bitch. I used all my ethers in there and im down to just three elixers. That's because i relied on magic for all the battles. Wearing the earth robe meant Titan could kill alot of enemies in here in one shot. There are also enemies in here that resemble the blck flames from world one. They absorb fire, wind, ice and bolt and had to high an evade rate to attack physically, so i opted for Aquarake which is costly. Anyhow, i got through their in one piece.

The elderly tree gaurdian cheated I had the perfect strat for this guy but aparantley he doesn't follow the rules!
What i planned to do was simple. Cast Golem to absorb all their physical attacks. Cast Float before the battle so i was immune toEarth shaker. Wear my Coral ring so i would be protected from fire3 and absorb Aquarake. And cast Reflect to protect me from Aero3. All i had to do then was summon titan till he died. But the cheeky f***er obviously didnt like my little strat. So for this battle, Aquarake will do double damage to someone holding a flame shield (weakness, makes sense) but can't be absorbed by a Coral ring

So i switched my Coral ring for a wall ring which reflected fire3 and aero3, golem still protects from physicals and Float protected from earth shaker. But they are still very fast. Between the four of them, they would attack 6 times, so golem would last only a few turns, and Aquarake occasionally would appear twice before i could attack. They were still beating me because after they started using aquarake, i couldn't kill them before their numerous aquarake spells killed me.

Soooo i attempted to doomclaw the aquarake user. which took 8-9 tries to pull off. But when it did eventually work, a burn ray finished him off. Now so long as Golem was active, i was completley safe. So a Titan'd the other two till they died, then Blowfished the last one still he went kaplooey. Then beat up X-death with a level 20 bare class galuf with only 500 HP ^_^

And now i have to survive shoats cave and defeat shoat. Then I attempt X-deaths castle That place is going to own me!!!! I havn't decided how to approach it yet. It's full of dragons, so i know my newly aquired flame shield will help (protects from heat based attacks, ie blizzard and atom ray thats gunna be a lifesaver) but i imagine the dragons hit damned hard, and like to gang up on you. Plus there are bolt attacking yellow dragons :S oooerrrr well.... i'll give it my best

[-N-]

Did you revive Galuf and kill Bartz during that last one mid-battle? If so, good idea.
Keep it up!

[Shin Gouken]

nah, glauf was dead during the elderly tree battle, but started the X-death battle with full HP

[Shin Gouken]

I forgot to mention, while in moore forest, i was forced to run from a battle as i didn't want to trek it through to the far end all over again. Flee count: 1

I went to challenge shoat, but it was impossible to get through his cave. The druids in their cast thread on me as soon as the battle starts, and i have to endure 5 hits before i can attack. Getting hit by another thread attack isn't so bad, but it's garanteed one of them will cast encircle on me. I fled from battles while traveling through this cave. Flee count: 4 (total)

Shoat was easier than anything i have faced so far. I used a bare class with a ribbon to protect from his akumas eye. Summoned Golem to protect from his physicals, and attacked with Barefist. The battle only lasted three turns.

Then i did something damn right amazing. I challenged Gilgame... and won

I owe my victory to one very special relic. The elf cloak. The battle lasted a long while, which i wouldn't of hoped to survive, but the elf cloak would sometimes evade me up to five attacks in a row. And having summoned Golem too, i took very few hits. I was a black mage (coz i couldn't be bothered to learn black4) and held an ice rod while casting ice3 to inflict 4000HP a shot. I got through 5-6 potions, and an elixer from my panick Golem summoning and many ice3 spells

Only X-Deaths castle to go for world two



EDIT: X-deaths castle is near on impossible! There are enemies in their which can cast the following instant death attacks: X-zone, Blaster, Doom and break. A ribbon and Bonemail may protect me from three of the four, but i'd have to be a bare class to equip both, which means missing out on all those ability points. I also can't get by using just physical attacks, i need magic. I'm almost out of elemental rods and i have one elixer. Which means i'll never make it to the other side.

I have two options. The first is to simple run from all battles in there. This garantees i'll get through alive, but it means i won't be receiving a fully powered braveblade later in the game. Which means i will need to be around level 70 if i hope to beat Omega.

The other alternetive is to use a bare class with ribbon and bonemail eqquipped, but also i need to be able to stock up on elixers too. Is there any place where i can get elixers at this stage in the game? Usually i never use them and have at least 30 elixers at this stage. So ive never even thought if they were obtainable in world two.

Unless someone can help me with my elixer hunt, im going to have to flee from battles in here.

I'm leaving for liverpool for four days tomorrow so i'll pick this up again next week.