Quote:LIFE was a life-saver
what a twist!Sorry for your bad luck though.
.
|
More Final Fantasy
|
T-hawk Wrote:The ProRing provides immunity to death spells RUB, SQUINT, XXXX (which the Ribbon does not.) I'm not convinced this is the case. I believe the ProRing just gives resistance to the Death element, which the Ribbon also does. T-hawk Wrote:I've never heard that the White Shirt gives death protection, what's your source for that? This FAQ agrees with this: the White Robe resists Fire and Death, while the Black Robe resists Ice and Time. T-hawk Wrote:The only defense is higher levels that each give you a percentage point or two of the hidden "magic defense" stat but even that is still a tiny modifier. It adds up to a significant amount, actually. For every ten levels gained, a Warrior/Knight decreases the odds of spells succeeding by 15%, and for White/Red Mages/Wizards it's 10%. And unlike FF5 there is no enemy level component to the success rate: odds of success are purely a function of the spell's base accuracy and whether you're resistant or weak to its element. Sofis Wrote:I'm not convinced this is the case. I believe the ProRing just gives resistance to the Death element, which the Ribbon also does. I have next to no experience with the original NES Final Fantasy. I only first played FF1 on the Playstation. But, I have noticed in the GBA version that the ProRing does not always protect against instant death attacks. I've found that the combination of a Protect Ring, Ribbon, and NulDeath ensures 100% survival rate against instant death.
My understanding of it is that there is no such thing as an immunity to a status effect (including death) in the original game. There is only elemental resistance (or perhaps it would be more accurate to describe it as resistance to an attack type: some of the "elements" are pretty strange). Most spells and enemy skills have an element: having resistance to that element doesn't just decrease damage from spells that deal direct damage, it also (dramatically) decreases the chance of status afflicting spells of succeeding. It is never a complete protection: there's always at least a one in 201 chance of success.
My information is mostly gathered from AstralEsper's game mechanics guide (which I linked above). Some of the relevant parts: AstralEsper Wrote:SA = Spell Accuracy. Determined by Spell.
The game that took 10 months to complete is finally finished. Go read about the Solo Geomancer and be glad that you didn't have to play it.
Oh my... that was an incredible feat. However, after seeing many of the solo variants written up, I realize that nearly all of them are simply a matter of trying a battle hundreds of times until the RNG goes your way. Now, that said, I don't discount your efforts. I'd definitely go mad trying some of the things you did.
On another note, will you be pursuing the few remaining solo variants or playing another Final Fantasy, or perhaps even a different game altogether? majora4 Wrote:Oh my... that was an incredible feat. However, after seeing many of the solo variants written up, I realize that nearly all of them are simply a matter of trying a battle hundreds of times until the RNG goes your way. Yeah, I know. It's a shame that we didn't do some kind of variant where you had to make it through the whole game without losing the party. I believe the current plan is for me to work on the solo Berserker and Mimic next, and for T-Hawk to do the solo Red Mage. After that, we still have the last three GBA FF5 classes to run (Cannoneer, Oracle, and Necromancer), which we may do in some kind of succession game/forum game fashion, which I think would be a lot of fun. Beyond that? I have no idea. FF3/6? FF Tactics? Lots of possibilities await.
While I doubt I could do the quality of write-ups that you do for each variant, I would love to try a Solo character playthrough of FF6. I've been looking for some codes to make it possible to use any character during all parts of the game, but it causes problems due to how FF6 handles characters and cutscenes.
For example, I can use a code to put Sabin into the fourth slot of my party, which works well for battles, but come time for a cutscene, it thinks Sabin is actually part of the party, so it puts him on the map, interfering with the movement of other party members or NPCs, and then the game freezes. And oddly enough, these symptoms persist even if I use another code to remove Sabin from my party altogether. Ah well, I'm sure someone smarter and/or better at code making than I can figure a way around it. T-hawk Wrote:LIFE in Ice Cave can be handy, but it can also give a false sense of security since if the WM dies, you're no better off. The white mage in the last party position is least likely to get instagibbed by a SORCERER, and any randomness damping in the Ice Cave is a benefit because it's a big test to see if you roll snake eyes. It's at best a weak defense, but better than nothing. T-hawk Wrote:I'm not convinced on the usefulness of AFIR; if you get a turn to cast it, that character could have simply used that turn to either run or cast ICE2, but sounds like you found AFIR useful. AFIR was useful when I wanted to fight with non-resistant characters, e.g. the Red D guarding the chest or the MANCATS in Ordeal with my red mage still not resistant to fire. It didn't do much to help me escape from R.GOYLEs. T-hawk Wrote:Yeah, Silver Swords are worth buying once you're done with Marsh Cave. They're cheap compared to the money you get from looting the KEY treasures. Steel Armor is still a sucker's purchase though. I was aware of the bug that makes weapon element/monster-type properties not function, but didn't see the need to clear space for weapons, so I could have sold it, just didn't. I hadn't crunched the numbers on Silver Swords, which it turns out are just better than all weapons available before the midgame troika. T-hawk Wrote:The ProRing provides immunity to death spells RUB, SQUINT, XXXX (which the Ribbon does not.) And the ProRing has better base stats, the same 8 absorb and -1 evade rather than -3. My source is Astral Esper's Game Mechanics FAQ, which also claims that the white wizard can't wear the Black Shirt. If he can, that's clearly better, yes. Also, my understanding from that FAQ is that resistance is binary, so anyone equipped with either a ProRing or Ribbon is resistant to death spells. T-hawk Wrote:Never go for that Ice Cave gold room! I don't even go back there late game, there's plenty of easier ways to get money. It's not even that much, only about 40,000, way less than one top level spell. I can kind of see the logic though, if you needed to buy spells but didn't want to grind levels along with the cash. I had a strict no-grinding policy for this game, so that's why. After recovering from my frustration with my last attempt, this Sunday I found myself with some time to play an interruptible game like FF1, but not an uninterruptible one like LoL, so I decided to give this another pass. I got the usual starting gear of Rapiers, an Iron Hammer, Chain Armors, and a Cloth, with CURE for my white mage. I went and killed Garland, gaining level 2 off monsters on the way and monsters in the Temple of Chaos, warped back, and bought FIRE and CURE for my red mage and RUSE and HARM for my white mage. I picked up level 3 on the way to Pravoka but didn't have cash to afford much more than consumables for the trip to the Dwarf Cave and LIT on the way past Coneria. A pack of four gray wolves and three wolves took me down enough to make me run back to Coneria before retrieving the gold; I got it on the next pass, but multiple ogre and creep band attacks almost killed me and burned more consumables, as well as giving me levels 4 and 5. (I swear I wasn't grinding! I just kept getting random encounters, and missing a lot while fighting them.) In Pravoka, I bought INVS, SLOW, ICE, an Iron Armor, and two Scimitars, plus a lot of consumables, including 10 PURE. My first attempt at the Marsh Cave, a pack of paralyzing undead gets first strike and takes out my white mage before I get to move, so I have to turn back. I use the money I received to buy Iron Shields and some more consumables. In the Marsh Cave itself, a pack of two crawls and bones gets first strike against me, paralyzing two of my party members (noticing a theme in these games yet?), and, out of HARM, I try to run for it, which of course fails for a long time until I finally make it away with only a fighter and my red mage alive. On the next trip, LIT2 took care of four WIZARDS with some help from the fighters, but they consumed most of the rest of my healing magic. I ended up escaping the Marsh Cave with my white mage at 1 HP, but I used a tent to bring him up to 31 HP and made it back to town without him dying. I hit level 6 going down, and level 7 coming back, so I bought a silver sword for my red mage so he got two hits, then head to Pravoka for MUTE before going to face ASTOS. MUTE proved useful against ASTOS: he attacked the first turn instead of RUBBING, MUTE silenced him, and he spent the rest of the battle failing to cast spells as my party slowly beat him to death. He has pretty high defense, and I was getting low damage rolls and one critical the whole fight. I grabbed the Elf Castle, Coneria Castle, Temple of Chaos, and Dwarf Cave treasures in that order, picking up level 8 from overland encounters. I didn't bother to optimize before, but then I did some quick math to determine which of the upcoming swords were best, assuming level 10, a range of enemy absorbs from 0 to 12, and discover that (as I suspected) Silver Swords dominate all the other options, even the Giant Sword with its 21 base damage and 23 crit rating, because of their higher base damage. As I'd be using them for quite awhile, from now until I get enough Ice and Flame Swords from the midgame troika to equip all three characters, I bought two more after selling the other weapons. I looted the Marsh Cave and ASTOS' castle, getting level 9 from trapped chests and random encounters, then plowed the money into FIR2, CUR2 for my red mage, HRM2, AFIR, the spell PURE, and 99 HEAL; I then paid a visit to Crescent Lake to buy silver gear for my fighters and a Buckler for my red mage. I considered keeping the Power Staff to see if its high critical rate (because of the critical bug) was useful on my white mage, but decided I'd rather have more Absorb than 5% more criticals. Walking to Crescent Lake, Pravoka to fill out my level 2 magic, and then back to Melmond gave me level 10, so on the way past Elfland I bought FAST for my red mage's new fourth-level slot. The trip to the Earth Cave involved an exciting fight against a pack of eight gheists and ghouls who (can you guess what's coming next?) got monsters strike first! They paralyzed my entire party for about ten rounds (no actions went off, as anyone who came unparalyzed was paralyzed again before they acted) until my red mage managed to cast FIR2 and kill seven of them. My lead fighter had 77/277 HP, from full. The Earth Cave, in contrast, gave me no trouble, and I discovered that SLOW is a good use of second-level red mage slots against large groups of gargoyles. I hit level 11 right inside and level 12 right before the VAMPIRE, who died in one hit from a fighter and one blast of HRM2. Another group of seven gheists and ghouls got monsters strike first, but failed to paralyze my red or white mage and died to FIR2. After going to Sarda for the ROD, I bought LIFE, CUR3, HEL2 (because of its bug), and AICE for my white mage, and ICE2 for my red mage. I could afford more, but I couldn't decide which additional spells I wanted, and I wasn't going to burn red mage charges on anything but FAST or ICE2 for now, and my white mage didn't have anything better to do with his fourth-level slots than PURE for the moment. The last trip through the Earth Cave was forgettable: I blocked LICH's ICE2 with AICE and killed him with FASTED fighters and HRM2. I'd made level 13 right before, so I was as ready it was possible to be without grinding for the midgame troika. After buying FIR3 for my red mage, who couldn't cast it yet, and consumables, I still had 39k, which I saved for future uses (probably ProRings I thought, if I lived that long); I'd made level 13 right before LICH. After my terrifying close calls in the last trip through the Volcano, I had a new plan: I'd dive to the third floor, past the dangerous R.GOYLE region, to retrieve the better treasure on the fourth floor. I cleared it without any real difficulty, and realized I was a short step away from the Flame Armor and KARY. I still had full charges of my higher-level spells and more than half my HEAL, so I decided to go for broke. There was a good chance KARY would kill my mages, but FASTED fighters ripped her to pieces last time, and while I was weaker, I wasn't that much weaker. The Ice Sword went to one of my fighters, as it wouldn't yet take my red mage to 3 blows. The Red D guarding the Flame Armor went down without trouble: I cast AFIR but it didn't need it, fighter attacks and ICE2 being enough to kill it straight up in the first round. A pair of FIRES on the way to KARY gave all but my white mage level 15. I healed up and KARY gibbed my white mage on the first round while I cast FAST and attacked with the fighters. The second round, KARY almost killed my red mage, too, but failed and on the third round she died before getting to move. I warped out and reassessed. There was no treasure in the Volcano that had any real benefit to me, since it was either sell-bait, gold, or minor items. There was only really one thing to do next: the Ice Cave. There weren't any preparations that helped, so I just healed up and headed out. First notable fight was one MAGE in the tiny room with two up stairs where it got first strike, but it attacked, missed, and got slaughtered by a fighter before it got to move again. I retrieved the Flame Sword without incident and made level 16 on the next floor, giving my red mage the Ice Sword so he could get three hits and passing the Flame Sword to the second fighter. I picked up the Ice Armor, eating one Blizzard from two Ice Ds without AICE up, but FIRE3 and fighter attacks killed them in the second round, and I didn't take that much damage. On the way to the up stairs, I fought a Fr.GIANT and a Fr.WOLF and another pair of Ice Ds, but they didn't do much damage despite using their abilities and my enhanced offense tore through both groups in two rounds each. I ran from five COCTRICE and four MUMMIES on the first floor, looted the Ice Shield without encountering monsters, and dropped onto the EYE, which went down in one hit to my lead fighter before it acted. That was anticlimactic! I dropped back down, ran into a group of nine undead (three paralyzers and six scrubs), overkilled them with FIR2 and HRM2, repeated that with just HRM2 for a similar group, and then right before the stairs up I encountered a group of three SORCERERS. If they'd had first strike, I probably would have died, but they didn't. I ran: I failed to escape on the first turn, they stunned my fighters with TRANCE and killed the lead fighter, but my mages made it away on the next turn. I LIFED my lead fighter and booked it out of the dungeon. I'd escaped the Ice Cave again! I was only level 16 because I'd skipped large parts of the Ice Cave and Volcano and I'd only made one trip through both. I had about 140k, though, from more efficient cash use and not needing higher-level spells. 80k went for ProRings, and another 40k for INV2 and FOG2 for my white mage. Next, of course, I raided the Waterfall, running from a pack of six PERILISKS and several pairs or trios of MUDGOLs, while killing everything else for level 17. (MUMMIES die quite well to FIR2, FIR3, and HRM2.) Despite being back up to 73k, I had nothing to spend money on without changing classes. Ordeal itself was so forgettable it's barely worth recapping: with complete fire resistance after AFIR, even a group of R.GOYLES was laughable, and they were most challenging monsters I encountered. It still gave me enough experience for level 18. I gathered up the dragons' gold, changed classes, and bought EXIT for both my wizards and LIFE and CUR3 for my red wizard. I had 27k left after the BOTTLE. The upper floors of the Sea Shrine were a joke. I came out with over 100k, bought spells for my knights, and went for the Mirage Tower via Lefein before finishing the Sea Shrine this time, buying LIF2 for my white wizard because I didn't want to have to return to Lefein. The Mirage Tower was also dull, though I EXITED early once to sell gear because of forgetfulness. Those gave me levels 19 and 20, respectively, and I filled out my wizards' level seven spells, though my red wizard couldn't cast them yet: ICE3 and ARUB for the red wizard and CUR4, HRM4, and HEL3 for the white wizard. The next two levels of the Sea Shrine were just as easy, and KRAKEN died to a combination of FAST, LIT3, and FOG2 which had nerfed his hits to 1 damage by the third round. That gave me level 21. In the Floating Castle, I went with the same gear setup as before---I confirmed that the white wizard can't wear the Black Shirt, so there's no more way to optimize it further. My white wizard took some hits before getting her absorb gear back this time, which was annoying but not threatening. Once I had the gear, it was time for the upper floors, where I expected to meet the same fate as last time. On the toroidal floor, I encountered a group of six SORCERERS and a MudGOL, which I ran from on the first round, though I lost my lead fighter. I encountered another group of five SORCERERS which I ran from without taking any losses. The bridge to TIAMAT involved random encounters every couple of steps over the first half, but nothing dangerous; I then ran into a MudGol and two SORCERERS, which scored a kill on my red wizard before I could run. I LIFED him and finally made it to TIAMAT. I tried to cheese her with BANE from the sword, but it didn't work until I'd almost killed her with FASTED attacks like usual. She didn't do anything threatening, just used elemental abilities at me, and I had no trouble healing the damage back. I'd leveled to 22 and 23 in the lower levels of the Castle. I picked up Xcalber, sold all my obsolete or useless (the Katana) weapons, bought FADE and WALL for my white wizard and PURE and FOG2 for my red wizard, and still had money left over. My total spell lists looked like: Knights L1 RUSE CURE FOG L2 INVS MUTE ALIT L3 CUR2 AFIR Red Wizard L1 CURE FIRE LIT L2 ICE SLOW ALIT L3 LIT2 FIR2 CUR2 L4 FAST ICE2 PURE L5 FIR3 LIFE CUR3 L6 EXIT LIT3 FOG2 L7 ICE3 ARUB White Wizard L1 CURE RUSE HARM L2 INVS MUTE ALIT L3 CUR2 HRM2 AFIR L4 PURE AICE FEAR L5 LIFE CUR3 HEL2 L6 FOG2 INV2 EXIT L7 CUR4 HRM4 HEL3 L8 LIF2 FADE WALL Some of these choices are obvious because of the large number of bugged spells in FF1. For instance, XFER is bugged for the player and doesn't do anything, so even though it would be clearly better than WALL, which is superfluous except against enemies with XFER, I took WALL. Some notes on spells that were or weren't useful: FIRE and LIT: The main things I used FIRE on were CREEPS and the rare undead I could kill with FIRE but not my normal attack; LIT was early water monsters, exclusively. Those are niche roles. Without HARM, I could see FIRE being more important, but on consideration I think I'd rather have RUSE, which is useful in the midgame against hard-hitting monsters, than one of either FIRE or LIT, I'm not sure which. HARM: A level 1 spell that hits all enemies, even only undead, is handy. It made some groups in the Marsh Cave much easier and was useful up through the Earth Cave. SLOW: This was a surprisingly useful spell because it has a decent efficacy rate and there's not much competition for level 2 charges, I used this on midgame monsters with multiple attacks like CRAWLS, SCORPIONS, BULLS, TROLLS, GHOULS, GEISTS, TIGERS, GARGOYLES, GATORS, OCHOS, and HYDRA. MUTE: Also a better spell than it looks, it just destroys some enemies and shuts down special abilities as well as spells (think PERILISKS). ALIT: One character with this is more than enough. Not many enemies use lightning before resistance items become available, and e.g. MAGES present other formidable dangers that make casting this spell an unwise use of a combat turn. I'd take INVS on my red mage if I were doing this again. HRM2: While I used it less than HARM, still a strong spell and vital for dealing with large groups of paralyzing undead if the red mage gets stunned. AFIR: The best of the elemental-resistance spells because of how common hit-all fire attacks are, this spell makes the Volcano less dangerous, especially retrieving the Flame Armor, and remains useful through Ordeals. AICE: Less useful than AFIR, but it makes the Flame Armor more accessible and depending on random encounters, can be a lifesaver in the Ice Cave. Also, fourth-level charges are not in demand. FEAR: I never used this spell because I didn't backtrack much; if I had, it might have been more useful. HEL2 vs. CUR3: HEL2 is bugged so it heals like HEL3 in combat, but CUR3 is still probably more important because concentrated healing prevents deaths better in most circumstances. FOG2 vs. INV2: They're both good spells in different circumstances. I took FOG2 on my red wizard because I find that usually I care more about shutting down multiattackers like KRAKEN and KARY, and I could pass him the White Shirt if I really needed INV2. ARUB: You can buy this spell, or you can buy ProRings. I bought it for insurance against XFER, never expecting to use it. My weapons looked like this, starting after the Castle of Ordeals: Will (Knight Defense->Xcalber, Light Axe Die (Knight): Ice->Sun->Xcalber->Masmune To (Red Wizard): Ice->Sun->Defense, Light Axe, Wizard Staff Sqid (White Wizard): Thor, Mage Staff, Bane Sword, Heal Staff I really wished for eighth-level spell slots for my white wizard, or even seventh-level spell slots for my red wizard, but no grinding means no grinding, so into the Temple of Fiends I went. Some of the enemies on the first floor hit pretty hard, but I was in no real danger, and the next few floors were easy; I got some use of the Bane Sword to cast BANE, and considered equipping it on my red wizard but didn't. PHANTOM died in two hits from my knights before it acted. LICH went down in the first round before he could cast NUKE to a combination of knight attacks and HRM2 (via the Light Axe and self-cast) from the wizards (since he's not fire vulnerable in this incarnation). KARY was not much harder and took three rounds to die; I used FOG2 to nerf her attacks, but likely didn't need to, as she opted to use FIR3 rather than physical attacks. KRAKEN is not lightning-vulnerable, so I use FOG2 once and beat him to death: his attacks still hurt quite a bit, but INK remained a relaxing healing break in between assaults. On the air floor, I picked up the Masmune and debated whether or not to take on CHAOS. I'd gained three levels, to 26, which meant I now had another FAST slot and a new seventh-level slot on my red wizard, two eighth-level and an extra seventh-level sots on my white wizard, and an extra CURE and CUR2 each on my knights. I decided that with the Masmune, I could cut through the earlier FIENDS faster, and that the extra spells slots could help a lot against CHAOS: another use of FAST meant I could use it on the MASMUNE wielder to down KARY, KRAKEN, and TIAMAT more quickly, taking less damage, and FADE would help me kill CHAOS before he could use CUR4. I'd also taken a lot of damage from an EVILMAN NUKING me, and without WARP I would have had to walk all the way around the air floor again to get to TIAMAT. Thus, I EXITED the dungeon and got ready to descend again. PHANTOM died in two hits, before it acted, again. LICH acted first and got NUKE off, but died in two knight attacks and one use of a Light Axe. KARY died the first round after attacking my lead knight to little effect, though I used a FAST on my Masmune wielder. The water floor was filled with groups of five and six WATERS, which I killed by using the White Shirt's INV2 to cut the damage I took and then chopping them to pieces with the knights and red wizard while my white mage used the Heal Staff. I gained level 27 here, though it didn't provide anything notable. KRAKEN died in two rounds, using LIT2 both times, after another FAST. TIAMAT continued the pattern, taking two rounds after a FAST, using BANE in the first round to no effect and dying before she acted in the second. I cleared the floor, healed up, and went for CHAOS. My knights attacked, my red wizard cast FAST on the Masmune holder, and my white wizard used FADE as CHAOS hadn't done any damage yet. CHAOS CRACKED, but it didn't kill anyone. I followed up with more attacks, another FAST on the Xcalber wielder, and another FADE. FADE did a disappointing 112 damage, but the knights were hitting hundreds of damage each turn. CHAOS responded with INFERNO, which didn't deal much damage. Out of FADE and with both knights FASTED, my red wizard and white wizard didn't have anything better to do than use a Heal Helmet and cast HEL2. My knights attacked and... That was it. Will, Die, To, and Sqid did not actually meet the fate their names suggested they would, and the final boss should really be a group of nine SORCERERS with monsters strike first. majora4 Wrote:While I doubt I could do the quality of write-ups that you do for each variant, I would love to try a Solo character playthrough of FF6. I've been looking for some codes to make it possible to use any character during all parts of the game, but it causes problems due to how FF6 handles characters and cutscenes.Might be interesting. FF6 offers a ton of ways to custimize the characters with magic, stat gains, and equipment- there's an even an item to let any character equip any equipment! You could create your own jobs class, that way. The only problem is that it's been played so often, that almost any varient game has probably been done by someone before. I'm guessing that, if you play it an on emulator, there should be a way to hack the save to put it whatever character you want. |
