The Solo Challenge

[Shin Gouken]

Hahaha that was a damn cheeky fight. My extra prep didn't make any significant difference but i had lady luck on my side

Got lots of shield blocks in and managed a 3hit combo, followed by a 5hit combo, followed by a 4hit combo

I'll also note here that i used a little trick where if you swap items after casting a spell or performing an action, it bypasses the animation time. This way i can cure really quickly and resume attacking without having to wait for the delay time/animation time. Something i plan to abuse alot more

[Mogi]

I'll also note here that i used a little trick where if you swap items after casting a spell or performing an action, it bypasses the animation time. This way i can cure really quickly and resume attacking without having to wait for the delay time/animation time. Something i plan to abuse alot more

What do you mean by "swap items"? I'd like to know more about this little exploit!

[Shin Gouken]

I'll also note here that i used a little trick where if you swap items after casting a spell or performing an action, it bypasses the animation time. This way i can cure really quickly and resume attacking without having to wait for the delay time/animation time. Something i plan to abuse alot more

What do you mean by "swap items"? I'd like to know more about this little exploit!

Cast a spell with a lengthy animation time. As soon as the damage numbers are on screen (or healing numbers etc) go to the menu and give that character a different weapon (or armour,helm etc) You can give them their previous weapon back immedietley. When you return to the battle your character who was previously stuck in animation/delay time is now immedietley free to perform another action.

Not so useful for standard physical attacks, but with spells and items it's really quite effective

[Shin Gouken]

Bits and pieces today.

First i swung by Nalbina to pick up the spells Protect, Poisona, Blindna, Thunder, Blizzard, Slow, Blind and Poisen.

Took Basch, Balthier and Fran back to Rabanstre so i could go and freely do as i please.

I chained 20 wolves in the Westersand to spawn the rare game Lindbur Wolf. I quickly killed his three wolf companions and cast Blind on him so most of his attacks would miss. Then lured him to the entrance of the zone so i could run out to heal and come back to resume the fight. Took about a hundred tries to steal his Gladius but it was worth the effort for the extra 26 attack power it provided. The Wind element of the weapon may or may not be useful (possibley in slaying warewolves a bit later but i don't know if i'll have a new weapon before then)

One hit killed Thextera with my new weapon, despite Thextera resisting wind.

Chained about 70 wolves and killed lots of other nasties for Gil, Exp and LP. I do not plan on abusing the Dustia trick from here, any levelling, LP or Gil farming will be done legit.

Opened White magic 2, Green magic 1, Red Spiral Quickening and the Gladius liscences.

Not sure if i'm ready to continue with the story yet... i was a bit hastey last time and made things needlessly difficult for myself. Will resume tomorrow

[Shin Gouken]

My main concern with moving forward now is that my healing ability isn't very efficient. In boss fights i can't keep up with healing because they hit for as much as i can heal. So with that in mind i decided to do laps around the westersand opening chests and bagged some 18 high potions which should help with the next couple of boss fights. I also gained four levels (Level 24 now) and racked up some 400LP.

In Bhujerba I bought a Bronze chestplate for +3 def and and +20HP (every little helps) and unlocked the corresponding license along with Green magick 2, Time magick 1 and Time magick 2. And bought the spells Dark, Silence, Shell, Disable and Immobolize. I didn't buy vox for obvious reasons.

Larsa was a bitch to kill. Annoying poncey little prick blocks most of my attacks and Hi-potions off the damage.

Onto the Lhusu mines...

[Shin Gouken]

Didn't mess about in the Lhusu mines. Got in and got out. Mainly due to having Slow cast on me by a skull knight as soon as i entered and no way to heal from Slow at present.

Outnumbered 6 to 1. 2 judges, an imperial magus and 3 imperial swordsmen. Failure was certain. Had to start back at the beginning of the Dreadnought Leviathan. Spent all my LP to buff myself out a bit. Opened shields 2 (to equip the Buckler) Pheonix lore as a pathway to reach potion lore, spellbound, remedy lore, battle lore and two shield blocks.

Round two. I had 50 imperial soldiers on my ass and ran into the boss fight room without casting shell and protect. Bad start. But i had a new plan One hit killed the magus straight away, but not before he could cast slow on me... it's not looking good... I cast Blind on each judge in turn and threw an Aero mote (no charge time so bypassing my slow status) to one hit kill the three soldiers. The two judges missed their attacks 70% of the time, their Tri-attack is nasty and inflicts 300HP damage but i blocked it most of the time. Safely finished them both off but i really abused the action time/delay time glitch to get me through and used more Hi-potions than i liked.

Not looking forward to the upcoming battle with Judge Ghis

[Shin Gouken]

Judge Ghis was surprisingly easy. Got hit by two consecutive Tri-attacks by the Imperial swordsmen as soon as the battle started, if i hadn't of blocked the third it would have been a quick end to me. I had chained a large amount of soldiers beforehand (as never ending waves appeared from the constant sounding alarm) and managed to get a rare aero mote from one of them which i used here to kill the three swordsmen in one swift hit. Judge ghis' attacks were mostly blocked by my shield (another win for blind) and his magics were pathetically weak. Brought him down pretty quick

[Shin Gouken]

The Ogir Yensa Sandsea.

Chained enough Alraune to aquire enough Licence points (155, though i was only 60 short of this mark) to open up a sexy +500HP. Why? Because i'm going to have to take drastic measures if i hope to destroy Demon Wall in the Tomb Of Wraithwall, and this is step one. The extra HP was specifically to help keep me alive when chaining the Warewolves in the Giza Plains. Their desperation attack inflicts between 500 and 600HP damage which can sting just a bit.

The drop i hoped to aquire was the Kotetsu, which increases my attack power to a nice round 50. It's two handed so the Gladius won't be being retired just yet because shields are far too useful. But it doesn't have the Wind element attached and will work nicely in situations such as the Demon Wall where a faster kill is needed.

My current position

Level: 29
HP: 1788
Attack power: Gladius - 45, Kotetsu - 50
Quickenings: Red Spiral
Overall LP spent: Roughly 1300-1400

I may continue to chain the warewolves despite having aquired my rare drop. I now need licence points to open the licence for Kotetsu. They also give great experience so if i'm LP farming i may aswell find a spot where the experience is this good. Tomorrow i may have a look at what hunts ive neglected until this point and possibley give Demon Wall my first shot

[Wolf Kanno]

Are you going to attempt to get the Demonsbane sword by beating the first Demon Wall? Or do you think the Blood Sword will give you longer term benefits?

[Shin Gouken]

Are you going to attempt to get the Demonsbane sword by beating the first Demon Wall? Or do you think the Blood Sword will give you longer term benefits?

I'm very very worried about the second demon wall, i think defeating the first one isn't feasible unless i double my current level. The time limit isn't so much the problem, it's the instant death attack where he teleports you to the X-zone... i don't think there is a way to survive it.

Any ideas to help with Demon Wall? He's been my primary concern since starting this challenge.

EDIT: He's weak to Holy and i have two Holy motes i received as rare drops when chaining soldiers onboard the Leviathan. Being items they have no charge time and i can skip the delay time after by switching my weapons. I'll have to see how much damage they hit for but hopefully it's enough to put a major dent in him so i can finish up with regular attacks

[Shin Gouken]

Ive got a lot to do

I interupted my levelling to take a shot at demon wall. Blitzed my way through the Ogir Yensa Sandsea and the Nam Yensa Sandsea (Killing the Uratan eater and claiming the Eksir berries along the way) Garuda was extremely easy after using the Eksir berries. Another win for Blind + Shield + Gauntlets... gotta love that. Spammed Thunder about 50 times, using Charge to restore MP until eventually he died.

The Demon Wall completley handed me my arse. As i expected he would. It was just a test really to see what preperations i'd have to make. I have 3 Holy motes which hit for 2000HP damage each... not as much as i'd hope considering he's weak to Holy. I protected from Blind with the apropriate accessory but i don't have a way to protect from sleep (which btw, i can't get until the parimina rift and not without a diamond armlet ). Also Doom will kill me unless i open the corresponding Remedy Lore.

So here's a short list of what i need to do.

Aquire enough LP to open the right remedy lore. (170LP with either of my available routes)
Aquire enough LP to open the licence for Kotetsu (130LP)
Level Level Level



HAHAHA ok just scrap all that crap!!! Another test run later and wtf i just beat him!!! I got lucky when sleep missed (REALLY lucky because he has augments ingnore vitality and status+) He didn't use X-zone and despite my physical attacks only doing about 300HP per hit and only having 2 Holy motes (used the other on the first demon wall) he still went down before he crushed me.

Unfortunatley my celebration is a bit premature because i had Doom cast on me in the battle with the first demon wall (which i fled from at the last minute) and have just 2 seconds left until it kills me. No LP to open up the remedy lore and no save point close enough to rescue me.

[qwertysaur]

Unfortunately my celebration is a bit premature because i had Doom cast on me in the battle with the first demon wall (which i fled from at the last minute) and have just 2 seconds left until it kills me. No LP to open up the remedy lore and no save point close enough to rescue me.

Ouch

[Shin Gouken]

I have attempted the first demon wall about 10 times tonight. And guess what... i havn't defeated him yet but don't worry, i'm having fun!

I'm confident the second demon wall is an easy win so ive been playing with the first one trying to determine if it's at all possible in my current position. Before any of my attempts i chained somehwere over 200 Urutan Yensa's as well as a fat load of bagaloys and various other enemies, primarily for LP but i gained 5 levels too which is a nice bonus. I opened the remedy lore i needed (170LP down straight away) but still have a nice 150 LP to play with.

Ive tried opening the brawler licence and equipping the amber armlet but it appears as if these two things don't stack...

I tried beserking myself with the Gladius and again with Kotetsu. I think it's clear that the time invested for kotetsu was somewhat wasted as the lower charge time of the Gladius is far more beneficial than the extra 5 attack power.

I tried a similar beserk approach with the Swiftness Lores. Each Lore reduces charge time on all actions by 10%. Being 30% faster certainly makes a difference... just not enough.

With my extra levels i thought to use my 3 Holy motes hoping they would do more damage. With mystic armour to increase my magic and the Flame staff i aquired from my Dustia chaining, each mote hits for almost 3000HP. So he's almost down to half way but the problem here is, Holy has an incredabley long animation time which i can't skip because if i interupt it before the damage numbers appear then it cancels the spell.

My main tactic which seems to work best is to open with a holy mote which makes his turn wait until the spell has finished, then switch items to hit for physical damage while he attacks, then switch back to a magic set up for another holy mote to get it in before his next attack, forcing him to wait until it's finished. If i get lucky and sleep misses then i get him down to just under a quarter of his HP before he crushes me.

If anyone has any ideas at this point i'll take any suggestions. I don't have to defeat demon wall 1, i can simply move on. But i'd love to beat him now because even with a full party at this stage it's too hard for most to attempt. (I remember beserking Vossler and two of my team and i only just scraped a victory) Shame i put a rule on no quickenings I might go take on some marks and aim a few levels higher and open some of the more expensive lores, but i don't like the idea of being too over-levelled

[Shin Gouken]

Well i finally did it

I wanted to find more Holy motes and after a quick check, it turns out i didn't find them on the Dreadnought Leviathan like i thought i had. I assumed they were rare drops from all the soldiers i chained there and didn't notice picking them up. But actually i found them when i was looting for high potions in the Westersand which meant i could go back and try to aquire more. I also found out there is a hastaga mote in a chest there too. I went back and spawned chests until i found three more holy motes and a hastaga mote and racked up over a 150 LP along the way.

I tried with the holy motes first but 6 isn't enough to finish him and i barely have enough time to use all 6 because the animation for holy is too long. So when that failed i tried physical attacks with the hastaga mote and beserk.

In total, the amount of LP i spent to prepare for this boss was 480! This is what i spent it on...

Swiftness Lore 1 - 30LP - To reduce action time
Swiftness Lore 2 - 30LP - To reduce action time
Swiftness Lore 3 - 80LP - To reduce action time
Heavy armour 3 - 30LP - For Linen Cuirass
Swords 2 - 25LP - To reach Katana 1
Spears 2 - 25LP - To reach Katana 1
Bows 5 - 45LP - To reach Katana 1
Katana 1 - 35LP - For Kotetsu
Accessories 7 - 40LP - For Argyle Armlet
Potion Lore 3 - 70LP - To reach Remedy Lore 3
Remedy Lore 3 - 70LP - To heal from Doom

My set up -

Level - 35
Weapon 1 - Kotetsu
Weapon 2 - Bronze Shield
Helm - Lambent Hat
Armour - Linen Cuirass
Accessory - Argyle Armlet

So i cast Protect and use my hastaga mote before the battle. I can't use Beserk before the battle because it prevents me from moving vaan. This means i can't cast Shell because it reduces the chances of Beserk hitting successfully. (I had contemplated fixing this with a Shell Shield by simply equipping it after Beserk but i'd hoped i didn't have to go through more prep if i could help it) This leaves me vunerable to Sleep. Beserk took three tries to land but as i was using the item Bacchus's Wine there was no charge time and i skipped the delay time that follows so barely no time was lost. I was hit by Doom and Silence, but his Blind attacks missed due to my Argyle Armlet (I could have protected from Silence too but i didn't want to spend the extra LP) Sleep thankfully missed and Kotetsu showed its worth with several multiple hits.

I won with about... a second to spare. I almost cried when i realised the Doom counter was nearing zero and i'm unable to heal because i'm still Beserked... but thankfully Beserk wore off before Doom could claim me yay

Demon Wall two i simply charged into. I'd saved (of course) but didn't bother with Protect or Shell and just hammered away. I think i was lucky in that he basically spammed Blindga for the majority of the battle but even so i would have defeated him long before the end of the hall. He was dead about halfway.

Bagged Demonsbane first time.

Blitzed my way through the Tomb of Raithwall with no effort.

No save point before Belias... i cast Shell and Protect and charged in. Firaja was the only attack that stung a bit but still it didn't hit the 400HP mark so this battle was an easy win.

I'm saved outside. That's enough exitement for one night

[Wolf Kanno]

Lord... Excellent work and I am happy you got yourself a Demonsbane to make things much easier for you. Going to do a tag team effort with the weapon and the Blood Sword when you get it?