More Final Fantasy

[Iainuki]

I'm actually trying to determine if it's feasible before attempting it . Of course, first I have to get past Karlabos, one of real solo-killing bosses. Later on, you have resources. Early on, there's just not enough options to play with.

[Amelia]

Which does more damage though, bolt level 1 or a blue mage's goblin punch at level 5? According to Sullla's blue mage, that took only 3 hits, so much more room for error there.

[Sofis]

Good point.

[T-hawk]

Karlabos: how about grinding until you're a Monk with !Blue and over 650 HP to use Vampire for a one hit kill? That might be reasonable, certainly much less than 33 levels. Vampire can be learned in the pirate cave.

Really difficult yeah, but Solo Ironcore might be just on the edge of possibility. Once you get to the first Ribbon in Karnak you can be protected against most of the worst status effects. Death Claw and Maelstrom type effects can be protected from with Mix. Condemn effects have no direct answer but the Reset spell will get you out of it.

Honestly, if I were to try Solo Ironcore, I'd simply allow grinding. You're going to need Elixirs anyway. Maybe set a reasonable limit of something like 2 hours of game time grinding per world, or 100 monsters killed (you can track that in-game on the GBA with the Bestiary from the title screen.)

Besides full-blown Ironcore, another approach might be the unrestricted solo trying to take as few deaths as possible, but not restarting the entire variant on any death. I might count a score by the number of different battles you die in. A good score might be 2, like die a few times to Karlabos and to Neo Exdeath but nothing else.

[majora4]

Unless my math is wrong, Goblin Punch will deal more damage than Bolt. Goblin Punch cast by a Blue Mage with a Broadsword will always deal exactly 240 damage. Bolt cast by a Black Mage will deal 150..160 damage.

I believe that up until Moore where you get third level elemental spells, Goblin Punch will always out damage a spell. In fact, if you are a level 19 Freelancer equipped with an Ashura (the katana from Tycoon Castle) with Monk mastered, you will do 3000+ damage to Liquiflame with Goblin Punch. I think that wins at life.

[Iainuki]

I did make a mistake in my arithmetic, so the monk can get a fairly reliable one-hit kill at level 24. This is still the lowest-level of any ability I'm aware of among the default classes. (More specifically, a thief equipped with Brawl, so that you have high enough Agility to act before Karlabos.)

Blue Mage: there are two ways to get high damage with the spells available (to my knowledge). Goblin Punch at level 5, if you combine it with Brawl to give the blue mage higher strength, will deal 480 damage, which is a two-hit kill. (I doubt it's possible to get enough APB without passing level 5.) Vampire does the caster's (MaxHP-CurrentHP)/2, which is a one-hit kill at around level 25 or 26 if you have HP%20 or HP%30, or an awkward two-hit kill (awkward because while it's easy to come in with very low HP to the fight, Vampire will heal you to full and then you'll be risking death to Tentacle-Tailscrew-Attack) at level 17.

The variant I had in mind involved minimal grinding, but level 24 at the start of the game doesn't feel very minimal. I think I'm inclined to the Samurai method for now, unless there's some brilliant idea for killing Karlabos that I'm totally missing.

[T-hawk]

Vampire behaves differently in the GBA version, dealing MaxHP-CurrentHP without dividing by 2. So it can kill Karlabos in one hit with over 650 HP which a monk can reach at level 17, or sooner with HP +10% or +20%.

Goblin Punch at level 5, if you combine it with Brawl to give the blue mage higher strength, will deal 480 damage, which is a two-hit kill. (I doubt it's possible to get enough APB without passing level 5.)

You can if go outside the solo restriction in order to split the experience four ways. ABP doesn't split, everybody gets the full value.

Anyway, on another topic, I'm going to break down and ask for any ideas on getting my Red Mage past Neo Exdeath. I know I could eventually do it Geomancer style, just retry and hack with the Chicken Knife until everything misses (and he can get Shell out of the Wonder Rod to give White Hole a chance to miss.) But I'm trying really hard to pull it off wearing the Bone Mail, which gives immunity to White Hole and much of Grand Cross. Of course the problem is that he can't heal fast enough. Breaking Venom Rods on himself is good for about 1200 healing, and self attacking with the Assassin Dagger can give a full heal via the death spell but that's low odds. But the big problem is actually Almagest of all things, since it's Holy element and the Bone Mail is weak to that. Venom Rods can barely heal once from Almagest's 3400 damage until it comes around again, leaving no time to attack.

[Sofis]

Do you still have the Ancient Sword? The Almagest part is vulnerable to Aging. That's what I did, though it took a number of tries due to Neo-Exdeath's high magic evade. I wasn't using the Bone Mail, though.

[majora4]

Blue Mage: there are two ways to get high damage with the spells available (to my knowledge). Goblin Punch at level 5, if you combine it with Brawl to give the blue mage higher strength, will deal 480 damage, which is a two-hit kill.

If you could get 45 ABP before hitting level 5, then this would definitely be the way to go about killing Karlabos. However, I don't think it's possible to get enough ABP without over-levelling. Assuming you run from every battle and beat Wing Raptor at level 2, you still have 18 EXP gained from the forced Goblin battles. That leaves only 222 EXP with which to gain ABP. Even if you fight only 1 Goblin encounters for 10 EXP and 1 ABP, you'll still only gain 22 ABP and be 2 experience shy of level 6.

Vampire does the caster's (MaxHP-CurrentHP)/2, which is a one-hit kill at around level 25 or 26 if you have HP%20 or HP%30, or an awkward two-hit kill (awkward because while it's easy to come in with very low HP to the fight, Vampire will heal you to full and then you'll be risking death to Tentacle-Tailscrew-Attack) at level 17.

At level 31, with the Stamina of a Monk, you'll have just over 1300 HP with an HP+30%, which is enough for a one hit kill. However, for some reason in the GBA version, Vampire deals (MaxHP-CurrentHP) damage instead, so you only need 650 HP, which you can get at level 18 with a +30%

The variant I had in mind involved minimal grinding, but level 24 at the start of the game doesn't feel very minimal. I think I'm inclined to the Samurai method for now, unless there's some brilliant idea for killing Karlabos that I'm totally missing.

I would suppose that allowing for use of more characters early game to get 45 ABP before level 5 would be the closest one could get to fulfilling this challenge as it was written.

[T-hawk]

Another idea: You could overlevel another character (say Galuf) for a Karlabos one-hit kill, then switch back to Bartz of normal level. As a bonus, then Galuf has some levels for his world two solo fights, and he/Krile can do one side of Fork Tower separately from the main character.

Do you still have the Ancient Sword? The Almagest part is vulnerable to Aging. That's what I did, though it took a number of tries due to Neo-Exdeath's high magic evade. I wasn't using the Bone Mail, though.

Heh, I worked out that same idea from the algorithms guide right before seeing your post. I tried it and it does work, but doesn't defang Almagest completely, it still deals 1440 damage even when Aged. But it might be enough to score the win. I will continue trying tomorrow.