More Final Fantasy

[English Language]

Considering running a challenge in one of the FF1 remakes(probably GBA since it's what I'm familiar with" and tried running a few solos in it.

Crikey. The GBA FF is easier than the NES version in many respects, but the parts that are harder.... my Fighter solo just hit the brick wall that is the Lich, whose health has been tripled and my Fighter is barely breaking double digit damage on him. As far as I cna tell, heavy abuse of the ship minigame for items is basically mandatory. White Mage got through fine, but even that required some obscene level grinding and luck.

I'll update when I have more news about potential stuff. Maybe I'll redo my solo White Mage and recount that adventure, and include the optional bosses and the differences between the two versions.

[ChaosEnigma]

It's possible to beat FF1 GBA solo at level 25 if you avoid any experience that isn't required(there's up to 3,701 extra experience you can take according to one of the guides on GameFAQs). I think it's 22 for the PSP version since they changed the experience tables around again in that, but I'd have to check(and I don't know how much extra experience you'd be allowed). A low level solo on GBA is still pretty respectable in difficulty considering I attempted it before(cleared the game but was at level 26 due to not keeping track of my extra experience or fought something that I thought I couldn't afford the experience from). I used White Mage because healing and protection spells instead of the FAQ's Black Mage with restrictions. The save anywhere feature makes it not as big a deal when you die to a boss and makes avoiding all experience easy.

You pretty much need to keep it to low level to make the GBA version a challenge. Not sure how high you'd want to go for the optional dungeons because I've never done any of those other than the earth one. I've attempted solo on the PS1 version a bit but never got far because selective leveling for stats is a pain.

[English Language]

Well, for my GBA Solo White Mage, even with level grinding it was still incredibly difficult. Even at level 99, the optional bosses were still fully capable of demolishing my face off.

[System Error]

Yeah. I did solo Fighter on PSP. Lich is a pain in the ass. I actually was doing it for a community playthrough on another site, but all I wrote for that was "boom". Really, I have considered porting it, but I just didn't write enough about it. I don't think I abused the ship game, though. Drinks are very nice to take advantage of against some of the later bosses.



Like, it gets this crazy. The only other really tricky boss besides Lich was Phantom Train. Try to get a Rune Axe for Curaga use if you can, it'll come in handy for item conservation.

On FF1's note, made some progress on The Capitalists, but not enough to update. Blame general laziness, Monster Hunter 4, and to a lesser extent, Persona Q.

[ChaosEnigma]

Planning to start up another challenge run of FFV this weekend(or maybe a little earlier), especially to get back to it since the fiesta is in around 2 months from now(I can't wait, and I'll surely do a few party runs during it).


This one will not be to add another class to my list of solos since I decided to revisit the solo I did first similar to how Sullla did with Monk because I also think I can do it a bit better than I did the first time. I'm planning to add another restriction to it besides just Solo Single Class because I'm pretty sure the class is broken enough to be able to handle it, so that might spoil which class it is a bit since there's not really that many broken classes on their own at least when speaking of the full game. Hopefully the intended restriction does not cause me more trouble than I think it will, but I think even with it, I should be able to finish the run below Newton's level 50.

And obviously I'm not talking Chemist because considering I'm planning to name Bartz

Barbts

, it should be obvious(assuming you're familiar with Tales) that the restriction I'm planning to place on this character would completely kill a Chemist run(plus I haven't even done Chemist yet, so I can't possibly revisit it).

[ChaosEnigma]

Okay, so got a start on the new run.

And the solo class I'm revisiting is Blue Mage. Bartz's name is Barbts due to character space limits, but it's referencing Barbatos from Tales who would pretty much kill your party if you used items against him. The additional restriction to this Blue Mage solo is No Items(except for when required during the story and to deal with zombie if it shows up). I'm also going to try to keep his level low if I can because Barbatos also does not approve of grinding, but obviously if I need to grind for some reason, I will. The Item Command is allowed, but only for the purpose of switching equipment in battle.


Obviously since Wing Raptor would be an issue without items, I had 2 options for it. Start No Items after that or use a code to unlock Blue Mage from the start. I used the second option and picked up Goblin Punch from a lone Goblin to avoid hitting level 3(though Vampire would let me win as well with some leveling). This was not done on the Tule Goblin in a box because Barbatos would be using that to kill the other character before Antlion due to that whole no random battles thing before it, but done on a lone goblin encounter between Tycoon Meteorite and the pirate cave after I got the ship.


So at level 2, Barbatos would be dealing 240 damage on Wing Raptor with Goblin Punch, enough to easily win.




Or not because Wing Raptor is apparently not level 2 like I thought it was, at least until he switched forms to one that is level 2




After that, I got the job for real and changed all the other characters to Blue Mages since Goblin Punch is great for killing them off since their level will obviously be equal to their own level. Got Vampire then leveled up to 5 making sure to use some low experience battles for the one to get to level 5. Picked up Aero since at level 5, it's survivable, then went to Karlabos.


I didn't take any pics of Karlabos, but it was a matter of Barbatos not getting killed by the paralyze combos, which happened twice. On the winning try, Karlabos paralyzed Barbatos, but never used Tail Screw, and Barbatos actually blocked a Tentacle with the shield.


Aero did okay against the enemies in the ship graveyard, but mostly it was just rush to the save point then train. Went with level 8 for Siren because that's the level of Magissa and Forza, so hopefully Goblin Punch will make that easy. Siren though was horrible, but I kind of expected a horrible early game with this restriction. Goblin Punch wasn't too great, but was useful due to it not being affected by row, but mostly it was some Aeros on the Undead form when it was safe and Vampire to heal. But what about healing during the undead form if Barbatos needed it?




Well, FFV Blue Mages can suck their own blood for healing, which really isn't that broken early game. Obviously, the damage is still based on max HP and current HP, but if you don't do enough damage to yourself that it would kill, you just end up with however much you had when you cast the spell wasting MP. However,



If the damage from Vampire would kill you, you end up being healed up to how much the Vampire did, so here, Barbatos was healed up to 69 HP. This would be even better on GBA where the game does not have the divide by 2 part in the formula. Obviously, this would only ever come up against undead enemies or enemies that have high M. Evade as otherwise, you may as well just Vampire the enemy, but it is a neat trick. Only used it once during the fight though as I used Aero quite a bit on the undead phase first time then defended through most of the others then just healed up on the normal form. Maybe it'll be used more when I have much higher max HP.


After quite a bit of resetting for good RNG(no Sleep/Slow) and to not mess things up, Siren finally went down at level 8, which means that Goblin Punch is an option for the next boss. Also, since Barbatos does not want to buy healing items, he can use his Gil to fund equipment purchases, so hopefully, Goblin Punch damage will do well in that fight.

[System Error]

I've pruned a bit of this because there are too many images for one post.

_________

Time to get back into FF1 Capitalists. We'll start off with a bit of a problem. We need 50000G to purchase the BOTTLE to proceed with the game. We need to grind up the money for that, plus there’s a lot of other things we may want to purchase too!

Thankfully, that which was part of the reason for this next part taking so long (the others being games like Monster Hunter 4 and general laziness) wasn’t so bad. I started off by running through the Waterfall. This was fairly easy and nonthreatening compared to the Spellslingers, who had to use QAKE of all spells to reliably deal with MudGOLs. Rich and Buck could just hack them down with their swords. It was usually better to focus on one, as my luck when splitting the duties was less than reliable. Then again, when I did focus, I got critical hits. This game.


The spike was no problem, and of course with no WARP/EXIT, I had to walk back out after retrieving the CUBE. The Fighters hit level 16 at this point. Since they now would have 3-Hits with the Silver Axes, they switched back to the stronger weapon.


There. So let’s get a list of other expendatures we may want to consider making.

CUR3, HEL2: 16000
LIT3: 20000
FOG2, INV2: 40000
ICE3: 45000
ARUB: 45000
Steel Armor x2: 90000
ProRing x4: 80000
Gold Bracelet x2: 100000

In a word, yikes. I pick up LIT3 after a trip through the upper wing of the Sea Shrine for the SLAB, and after a partial trip into the lower wing, get HEL2 and CUR3. We may have to end up skipping some of this, depending on how things go. Particularly the overexpensive armors and bracelets, though the ProRings are high priority purchases. And again, I will want ARUB for defensive purposes, so that’s mandatory. At least I don’t need to look at those 65000G Catclaws - none of my classes can equip it due to no class change.


Anyway, the Sea Shrine. Not too difficult, though I have a few hair-raising moments. The dungeon romp raised around 20000G from going from the start to the SLAB and back out - remember, no class change, no WARP or EXIT. That was enough to fund LIT3, which I used to get deeper in. I turned back eventually with 30000G in-hand and made a few more purchases.


At least, I thought it wasn’t going to be too difficult. But the worst things kept on happening, particularly with the GHOSTs getting lucky enough to kill characters. From the retreats I had to make, I eventually earned enough gold to get Rich, Mint, and Zeni their ProRings. Sheesh.


The cusp of it all was this ugly situation. Buck had to make actual use of the DRINK command in order to stay alive in this encounter on the way out. He failed to get out anyway, sadly.


By contrast, Kraken was simple. It took two rounds of combat to get up a SLOW, and at that point the fight was a joke. Kraken used an INK on the first round, and his physicals were almost as futile after this. My own were a bit iffy, though (6 hits/53DMG). So instead of using FAST, the better option for Zeni was to LIT3 away; he had three charges of the spell. Didn’t take too long.


Notice anything wrong here? I forgot to save after beating KARY! No problem though, a quick trip back into the Volcano later, the only incidents being having to run from BULLs due to forgetting to heal, and that she actually rolled the paralysis escape to get off a final FIR2 before dying. It didn’t matter though, since Mint had gotten up AFIR, and Zeni had hit her with SLOW to prevent any physical shenanigans for just such an occasion.


With this, everyone was Level 21 going on Level 22. Nothing special to report, other than Mint still having gained every Strength point so far. Yeah, I know, I complain about needing to do that for the Red Mage, then this happens half due to luck, half due to following along after said luck. It wasn’t especially useful though - you really need Hit% to deal damage, of which she is three levels away from getting two hits, so even that 24 attack turns out not to be overly powerful.


No nonsense with forgetting to save a third time after taking another big break. Up the tower! ANKLYOs on the way to the tower were annoying for how they paid out absolutely no money, but nothing was of note. Blue D was neutered by ALIT. I didn't see any SORCERORs along the way. Sky Castle is actually pretty short if you head directly to your goal. AIRs were annoying - the weapon sagging started to show for the first time here, with them needing multiple attacks to take down. WarMECH didn't even need to show up for me to have a bit of trouble...


But he showed up anyway. May as well try to fight it.


Things did not get off to a good start. I actually did have enough foresight for just this occasion, saving up four charges of FAST. I did aim it for Buck, but it didn't make much of a difference here. This is not good. Aside from crits, he couldn't break the robot's defenses. I didn't have any insta-kill moves this time, because money was tight. I did try to have Mint use MUTE, because between that and RUSE, she just might be able to get the job done...


But in the end, I had to run, but not before Mint kicked it, leaving me in the same spot as last variant. One Black Mage left standing, because I just had to try to fight the robot. And this time, I had no BANE or BRAK to smash through TIAMAT. Now for any hope of survival, I had to go back. Luckily, a look at my position in the encounter table said it would be possible: there would be little threat of SORCERORs, but I'd still be in for a tense run out.

It wasn't pretty. NAOCHOs opened the proceedings before I could get out of the room. Zeni managed to escape, as did he get away from four R.HYDRAs. A GUARD/SENTRY pair was up next, which inflicted a few potions worth of damage, and then...six MANCATs and three MEDUSAs!!!


Chance to strike first! We're out! We made it out. On the second room, there was a lone GrNAGA. It cast RUSE as Zeni fled. Then came the scariest moment of the run: a BADMAN group of five almost killed off my Black Mage, but he made it out of there with minimal HP. The rest of the castle produced no encounters, and then-


Oh, shit. Forgot about this clown. Ghk. It's fine! It's fine! We can do this! Zeni ran from a WYVERN/WYRM group, healed up, and prepared for battle! The first exchange went well, with it doing an attack that inflicted minimal damage and Zeni's FIR3 inflicting 150! Next turn, another exchange that included a THUNDER, bringing Zeni to 17HP. Okay, maybe we can't do this.


UNLESS THAT HAPPENS. Still, not quite a win yet. Zeni was out of the powerful FIR3, and had to fall back on FIR2. He had to go first, and it had to do over 58 damage. Here we go!


He goes first for 61 damage! Got'em! WE LIVE!!!!!


Of course, that's just permission to move forward, and this CATMAN group was aiming to make sure I didn't make it. They all moved before Zeni! The good news is, they didn't get the job done. The bad news is, I had only one potion left after that.


Next up to bat were two GUARDs. Their attacks amounted to scrapes, but one of them paralyzed Zeni! But he recovered immediately like a champ, and got out of there on the next turn!


He popped his last potion. Three CATMANs teamed with two Saber Ts next. But Zeni escaped!


AND WE SURVIVE.

But seriously now. Why is it that I've run into that robot three times in three variants, and he's been easiest in the goddamn hardtype hack?

All right. Now what? I have 60194G. That's enough for exactly one big purchase: ARUB, ICE3, a Steel Armor, or a Gold Bracelet. After a bit of thought, I went with a Bracelet. Some of the things I'm up against really physically hurt, and having Mint be a bit more durable could help stave off disaster. ARUB wouldn't be needed for a bit yet. ICE3 would be great for the grind that's coming up, but not for getting through Sky Castle. And if course, god forbid, if we end up in that situation again, we have a better chance of survival.


The bad news about my first trip back in was that it was ended in the tower by my nemesis, petrification! The good news was, I got some encounters against VAMPIREs and watched the money pour in. I think I know where I'll be cash grinding, at least before Zeni exceeds 300HP!


I managed to avoid seeing the robot a second time unintentionally. I did run into the SORCERER/MudGOL combo, though. The SORCERORs got the two fighters before being killed by LIT3 followed by LIT2. Mint had to pick up the slack on the MudGOL. She got her second hit from the payout from this fight. A few AIRs later, and I was at TIAMAT. And okay, I was wrong. ARUB would have a use in this fight to protect against POISON, but a bit late for that.


And right away, I run headlong into a problem. 45 damage can't break 80 defense without critical hits. That's why I do need a grinding session later, in honor of CHAOS. Good thing I have three uses of FAST. Mint got up the barriers as best she could, before joining in the melee. Zeni unfortunately died to the POISON.


The melee...did not go very well. He beat down Buck next turn, and it was up to Mint. She swung for the fences with 44 damage.


It was not enough. And according to the data that I looked at out of curiousity, he had 1HP left. Seriously.

The third go up the tower had nothing dramatic. Zeni just instantly died at the end due to THUNDER and turn order. That was the end of that. I tried to go for a MUTE, but it didn't take. Hm. I guess a bit more firepower could help. So let's go do that.

_________


With this in mind, I did some leveling in the second floor of Mirage Tower as planned, It was one of the best ways to get cash that I could find, with relatively simple battles and good payouts. VAMPIREs gave 2000 apiece, CHIMERAs gave 2500 each, and there were big MUMMY/WzMUMMY (and COCTRICEs...) groups too. My level goal was 25 so the Fighters would get 4 hits with Silver Swords. In the process, the Capitalists made enough for a second Gold Bracelet, a Steel Armor, ARUB, and ICE3.


Everything was going well, until a group of MANCATs on the penultimate floor. I naturally had Mint use AFIR, but she went close to last in the turn order. Then they came in with SLOW. Ugh. I did win that battle, though. Then it was onward to-


WHAT THE F-NO!!


All right robot, YOU ASKED FOR IT!! I pumped up the Fighters and prepared to rumble! He retalitated on the first proper turn with a good 226 to Buck.


I can sometimes do a bit more than a single point of damage to it, but it's pretty much criticals or bust. Things were stable, at least. Mint used a RUSE in a spare turn, and Zeni turned to his spells after the Fighters had been FASTed (on that same turn, Buck did 7 and Rich 138). The good news was, it was spreading the damage around. The bad news was, a single NUCLEAR would be diasterous.


Because she was important, Mint CUR3ed herself, also on that same turn as that ICE3 above, before popped a HEL2. Good thing I did too, because the NUCLEAR came. Rich took 104, Buck took 140, Zeni took 244 and died horribly, Mint took 170. The robot's at 392 HP at this point. Still got a chance.


Buck was smacked down to critical HP next turn as Mint CUR3ed Rich. It wouldn't be enough to prevent death by physical, but it'd allow him to tak another NUCLEAR.


The robot did finish him off next turn. This is what it all comes down to!


Mint moves in with her hammer for a healthy 47...


...only to get flattened.
.

YES!!! BUCK FINISHES IT OFF!! VICTORY!! EAT IT, ROBOT.


All right! Here we go again! The White Mage is dead. Made it out once from a run-in with this SOB with a single party member once before! I didn't swap in the Steel Armor onto Buck in honor of SORCERORs.


First up are AIRs and-oh god. I looked up where I am on the encounter table. This is bad.


THERE IT IS!! 190 AND 192. NO. NO!!! FUCK OFF!!! All right. Deep breath. We still got this. We can still run awa-


...









Unbelievable. You can't make this shit up. Fuck this game and fuck WarMECH. I swear that robot (and Sky Castle in general) has it out for me. The difficulty spiked as expected, but this? This is just insane. I just...I have no words for this. This encounter luck is just. Damn it all.

[T-hawk]

Ha, crazy stuff. I'm not sure if you could still run away from that last one - the bug is that running depends on the status of the character two down from the one that's trying to run. Always works if that character is healthy but not if he's dead.

[System Error]

Ha, crazy stuff. I'm not sure if you could still run away from that last one - the bug is that running depends on the status of the character two down from the one that's trying to run. Always works if that character is healthy but not if he's dead.

Well actually, I would've been fine. The check for the first character running is to compare luck against a random number between 0 and [the status byte of the third character + 15]. In this case, it'd be 16, since the status byte for dead status is 1. Buck (and Zeni) both had more than 16 luck, so any runs they did solo were guaranteed.

__________


Okay, so I got more stuff after this. Next run met with petrification. I charged forth anyway! No WarMECHs this time, though I did see a few EYEs along the way. But I failed to defeat the big dragon at the end. I got up all the barriers, but didn't have the resources to tough through. Buck died, and that was more or less the end of any hope for that.

Next run was also a nope, beforehand featuring some annoying RockGOLs. Luckily, FOG2 was one of my new purchases, and that helped. TIAMAT moved before Mint with THUNDER, then used POISON to finish her off. Zeni did FAST the two Fighters, but they couldn't get the job done from there.


I picked up some SOFTs after this just in case. Next run: WarMECH again! Good lord. Four times unintentionally! 3/64 in this version or not, that damn thing is showing up far more often than it has any right to! This time, I just ran from him. He got off two NUCLEARs, one on the strike first and again before I could run, but I did run away and with Mint alive! I had to use every potion because of it, but by the end of that walkway, I was at the boss again, and...


...screw it. I don't have to put up with this! I figured. But the game said nay and had him kill off Zeni before he could move. Again, I failed to achieve victory. So uh, what's our attempt count at so far?

#1) Death by trying to fight WarMECH, had to retreat out and did.
#2) Petrification in the tower.
#3) TIAMAT survives at 1HP.
#4) TIAMAT kills Zeni before he can FAST.
#5) Fought WarMECH, lived, got jumped by a second one on the way out.
#6) Petrification on Castle 4F, one fighter was not enough to beat TIAMAT.
#7) TIAMAT turn order.
#8) Ran from WarMECH, Mint died early against TIAMAT.


TAKE NINE!! The tower was typical, no threat. On floor 4, I saw this group, and then this ugly situation came about. One of them actually ran, leaving me to deal with only four. Luckily, even with all the stunlocking, I made it out with only Rich getting snuffed.


FIVE TIMES. OH MY GOD. THIS IS HARASSMENT! These things really have it out for me. At least for once, I didn't get ambushed, as you can see by having close to max HP on everyone. I was on encounter 20 here. There would be another one coming up on encounter 24, but I crossed the bridge before it showed up. I was so rattled by it though, I ran from said encounters.


When Tiamat attacked on the first round instead of using THUNDER, I knew I had a good shot. ARUB didn't stop him from pulling off 250 damage on Buck with POISON (looks like it doesn't protect against that after all, only death, earth, and status), though I still could heal it off. But things were under control with HEL2 and HEL3. Just when I thought I was going to win...









...I did.

__________

By the way, 51 deaths and counting to ToFR, without any grinding. Which it seems I will indeed have to do, just to boost the Fighters' damage output/hits and potential for crits.

Frost Ds: 8 (BLIZZARD)
MAGEs: 1 (Ambush and spells on the second turn)
Gas Ds: 17!! (POISON)
FrWOLFs: 1 (excessive FROST)
PHANTOM: 6 (ZAP! and GLARE)
Various high damage too early: 2
LICH: 4 (NUKEs that wrecked Mint)
KRAKEN: 2 (attacks that wrecked Mint)
TIAMAT: 7 (BANE and THUNDER before ALIT)
CHAOS: 3. The best I got was 1294 before CUR4, but only arrived to him in any sort of shape one time.

[System Error]

So two questions before we jump into the grinding. First, how high should we go? Well, I can't answer that, but I'll check next when the Fighters get to 5-hits. That's at level 36/37. 6-hits will take until 46/48. Second, where to grind? Some of the premier spots aren't all that due to the nature of this party: the EYE's GLANCE is obstructive, they don't have spellcasting items to make the Waterfall easy, dragons can hit with elemental skills. I looked around for some places.

The Hall of Giants is mindless and not dangerous, and close to the entrance. The GrSHARK spike that Sullla's Iron Fists used is good, too and pays out more - but loses the advantage of being able to easily keep up buff White Mage. Which is useless, but I want to keep it up because it's hilarious and I want to see a White Mage at full potential. I tried the dino desert outside Mirage Tower, but the things hit too hard there.


I settled on the GrSHARKs. It didn't require much attention, and paid out a healthy sum of experience every time. All I needed to do is move up and down and hold down the A button while on turbo. Mint is dead for strength-gaining reasons. It took a few trips in and out because it wasn't completely mindless - I needed to heal them every now and then, and make one trip in and out. But the Fighters soon hit level 36 for 5-hits with Silver Swords, and swapped over to them until the next level.


Oops. After I hit five hits with the swords, Zeni accidentally died. See what I mean? I left and got them up to 37 on the outside.

Leveling the solo Mint was a bit tricky. I tried a few different spots, including ASTOS' MUMMYs, which was a bit too slow. The Hall of Giants was out, as they ran from the buff White Mage. I settled on the desert, which worked okay against TYROs until they started to run.


Before I moved on though, I had her fight a T REX. This was dangerous before I got up the RUSEs, and even dangerous after due to the dinosaur's extremely high crit rate. She did get the job done in the end, however. I then moved her onto the first room of the Sea Shrine, where it was easy to run into GrSHARKs. In both cases, the strategy was the same: three RUSEs and go.


How good are all these levels of strength gains? Surprisingly good, but at the same time, surprisingly not very. I don't know if there's something about Silver Hammer that makes it have less accuracy or not (doesn't seem to be any indication of such things in the mechanics guide), but it sure seemed to be missing often. I tried a Wooden Staff too. Though only a small sample, against a TYRO, the staff hit twice eight times and hit once four times. Also against a TYRO, the hammer hit twice three times and once six times. It wasn't hard, but it was a bit annoying.


So here we are, after everyone is up to speed. We're still low on the damage stat, though going to 50 would only boost that to 59. It's pretty sad: if Masmune could be used, they'd have 90, more hits, and much higher crit rate on top of that. Or if they could equip the Catclaw, and get much higher crit chance. Will the extra hit make a difference?



And here's everyone's individual stats. Again, notice how Mint's Strength is as high as it can be for this level. It just worked out that way for the first several levels, so I kept it going. What I didn't notice until looking at it: Rich has eight more points of intelligence than Buck. Then again, considering the stat is broken in this version and he has no use for it anyway, it makes you question who the real intelligent one of the pair is.


Well, Gas Ds greeted me the first run in. But, I had a lot more magic resources at this level, particularly two more FASTs and three more HEL3s. So I could afford a bit of spread damage.

But more importantly, the extra levels of spells made a world of difference against KARY and KRAKEN, who I could sleepwalk through rather easily now. I saw my Fighters exceed 300 damage on both of them, especially useful on the latter because the sooner he died, the better. I could also use FAST on the former instead of mucking around with status. Even LICH wasn't too bad: he picked up a habit of not using NUKE, and could often be two-rounded.


The problem remained BANE. The first time I got a run going, it came to an abrupt end at TIAMAT.


Or maybe not. In what can only be described as a sick joke, Mint landed the desperation MUTE. She was therefore very slowly able to beat the dragon to death after three RUSEs and keeping her health high in case of critical hits.

In the end though, it really didn't matter. I had no resources left, and Mint dying early into the CHAOS fight put a swift end to any hopes. I did get a sneak peak at my offensive potential, though. And it seemed like it just might work, if only I could get there healthy.


So here's about how a typical run of the temple went. The first few rooms have a number of threats. I run from anything I can. Of the ones that I cannot, WORMs are no threat. Neither are ZombieDs. FrGIANTs and FrWOLFs are usually not a threat; I now have enough spell charges so I can FIR3 the latter with relative impunity, but I still don't really want to see a lot of FROST. Gas Ds are a huge threat. I still deal with them by using ICE3 and attacking with everyone. If they use too much POISON, it's not worth continuing.


Of those that I can run from, I do need to be wary of Frost Ds, CHIMERAs/JIMERAs, and MAGEs. The first two can use BLIZZARD and CREMATE respectively, and the latter can use LIT3 if they get an ambush. The reason why I keep Mint in the fourth slot is so that she can cast AICE/AFIR while running, since her odds of succeeding on a run attempt are low.


PHANTOM is usually no threat. He can cause problems with STOP, ZAP! and GLANCE, but usually dies quickly enough for these not to become a factor.


The Earth floor only has EARTHs as an unrunnable encounter. They're easy to deal with: FIR2 or FIR3 and attacks. Everything else I run from, none of which is threatening. MudGOLs/RockGOLs can't do much, GrMEDUSAs are fine to deal with now that I can afford SOFTs, SAURIAs are 1/64. I heal at the start of this floor if I haven't already - I'm fine with using one HEL3. Quite naturally, I heal before LICH as well.


The strategy on him is fight, fight, QAKE, HRM2. I never did get a run to the end where he used NUKE, but from what I've seen, I would have less resources to work with if so. If the QAKE doesn't instantly kill him, which it has a decent shot of doing, he's often dead on the next turn anyway. It would've almost been worth it to have Zeni use LIT3 or something instead, but it was never necessary.

Nothing to do in the Fire floor but run. 3/64 FIREs I do need to fight, and did in fact have to tangle with a few times. The strategy on them is ICE3 and attacks. It's not worth using AFIR on a run attempt since the AGAMAs don't hurt much, except for 1/64 Red Ds in which case I really want it much like against the Frost Ds. Since I have two extra FASTs, I can use them on KARY here. It's almost as effective as the SLOW - she can't hurt us if she's dead. I do go for the STUN when she's under 300 if I can. Mint uses AFIR then joins in the fight, for nothing better to do.


Unlike their counterparts, WATERs are much more common. ICE3 on them and attacks, and hope they don't hurt too bad. I can run from everything else. Heal before KRAKEN. Mint uses ALIT, followed by INV2 and HEL2/HEL3 as needed. Zeni uses two FASTs before attacking. All I can do besides that is hope his big attacks don't hit Mint.

The Air floor has a few unrunnables, including WORMs which are mariginally more threatening in larger groups, and 1/64 IronGOLs. 3/64 SORCERERs usually don't get a chance to show up due to the floor's short nature. But TIAMAT is gut chuck time. The BANE cannot be too destructive, and it especially can't kill Mint. It also can't kill Zeni or the Fighters too soon. Then there's THUNDER to worry about, not to mention his other skills. It's a real mess. Mint only uses and starts with ALIT, she spends the rest of her turns on HEL2/HEL3, and fishing with MUTE when they're not needed.


A few more attempts later, the BANE only got Zeni, like in that demonstration above. I was in excellent shape before CHAOS. Plenty of the important White spell levels. If I can't win from here, it's either because of horrible luck or luck that isn't quite good enough. Let's go!

Round 1 sees the preliminaries: CRACK is the whole reason why I brought Mint along for this ride. If it wasn't for her and her ARUB, this would be another BANE to worry about. With it, the only thing to worry about is whether or not she goes before CHAOS.


CHAOS did go first, using ICE3 for 98/140/262/146. Buck followed it up with a 157 damage attack. ARUB triggered, Rich did a mere 3 damage, and Buck was FASTed. Yep. Again, the Fighters could sometimes do more than a single point on an attack, but it was pretty much up to critical hits to get the job done here. 1840HP left. After a bit of thought, I had Mint go with HEL2 for the second round. She went first, followed by Zeni, then Rich doing 150 damage on 7-hits. CHAOS used a physical of his own on Buck for 276, who retaliated with an 8-hit 196 damage attack. 1494. Looking good so far!


Next round: Zeni ICE3 for 41 (nothing better to do; if he had one more FAST, he'd have used it on Mint), Mint HEL3, CHAOS CRACK, Rich for 8, Buck for 11. Um. Could've gone better. CHAOS then used LIT3 for 170/84/120/226. Ewww. I had Mint ready with...AFIR, but she moved after the boss anyway. Buck delivered a 218 damage attack, Mint used AFIR, Zeni's ICE3 did 40, Rich then did 267! 909 left, we IN THERE!!


Round five: Rich 152, CHAOS 233 physical on Zeni, killing him, Buck 7, Mint HEL2 a bit too late. 750 remaining. Luckily, if anyone is expendable, it's him after he gets up the FASTs. Round six: Rich 8, Buck 103, Chaos 209 on Rich, Mint HEL2. 639 left. Round seven: Rich 65, Mint ALIT, CHAOS SLO2 on Buck which missed, Buck 69. 505 left, but that CUR4 is next.


Mint led round eight with AICE. Rich was next, doing 81. Buck did 7...and there's the CUR4.


This is troubling. Mint has one HEL2 and two HEL3s left. She did get up all the elemental walls, though. And INV2 exists. After thinking about it, I had her use the spell. If we can't heal off the damage, prevent it in the first place. Round nine: Buck cuts into the 2000 HP by doing 12. Mint uses INV2, CHAOS FIR3 for 43/27/26, and Rich 11. Awful restart. 1977 left.

Mint prepared HEL3 next on round ten in preparation for the big NUKE. Rich did 152. Much better! Chaos struck him for 50 damage. Buck only did 8. Round eleven: INV2, Chaos ICE2 for 25/31/23, Rich 199, Buck 171. 1447 remaining. Round twelve: INFERNO for 62/57/80, Buck for 10, Rich for 7, and a third layer of INV2.


Thirteen! Rich 8, CHAOS FAST, Mint HEL3, Buck 146. Incoming NUKE! 1276 left on him. How bad will it be?


195/163/238. Not very! Mint got up a fourth INV2, Buck did 9, Rich did 17.


On round fifteen, Rich did 153, CHAOS ICE3 for 56/110/62. Pretty bad numbers, Buck did 158, Mint used her last HEL2 to bring everyone's total to 283/355/237. Sixteen, Buck did 162, Rich did 148, Mint used her last INV2, and CHAOS missed Buck. They're paying off!

With no spells but pointless weak CUREs left, all Mint could do was take her hammer in her buff hands and join in on the beatdown. She did a mere 1 damage because she did not critical hit and only hit once, CHAOS did none because he missed Rich, Rich did 99, Buck did 9. CHAOS was left with 520 HP. Can we kill him before he kills us?


He threw out SWIRL next. Problematic. 108/104/182. Mint did 2 damage, Buck did 103, Rich did 146. CHAOS only has 269 left! But we're running dangerously low on health too!


Buck strikes out with 11 damage. CHAOS LIT3 for 45/46/38. Mint did 1 again, and Rich did 249! 8HP remaining! It's over!


HEY, MINT!!


FINISH IT OFF!!!


CAPITALISM WINS. After nineteen rounds of battle, these consumerists emerge victorious!

Verdict on this variant? It was fun! Who'd have thought, the designers really expect you to use the strong equipment you find in chests. It really did play out the opposite of Living Off the Land. That one was a desperate struggle for equipment up through the first couple dungeons after which the Mystic Key broke open the game, upgrading as usual through the midgame, before settling into normalcy by the end of the game. This run featured a routine trip through the early game, not really affected by the lack of equipment in the midgame, before the lack of elemental/status resistance and strong weaponry really started to hurt.

And of course, the worst encounter luck ever was a thing. Three runs into the Ice Cave with random Frost Ds, numerous bad fights in the Sea Shrine, five runs into Sky Castle with WarMECH, and basically the entire endgame sequence. I don't think I've ever had worse encounter luck than I've had on this playthrough, in any game. It was actually hilarious at times, and looking back on it. Can't be too mad about it at the end of the day.

Verdict on Rich and Buck? They did what Fighters do best for most of the game. They really weren't that hampered by the lack of chest-found weapons, up until TIAMAT. And CHAOS, well. It was always going be down to criticals, and the best thing I could do was boost their number of hits. No complaints about their performance.

Verdict on Zeni? Overall, the Black Mage was the better option in the end, I’d still say say. A Red Mage would’ve come in handy during the midgame to be sure, but by the end, he’d just be reduced to FAST on the Fighters. Meanwhile, just LIT3 and ICE3 make a world of difference in the endgame when it came to clearing out trash like those Gas Ds, or even just contributing with the spell in general.

Verdict on Macho Mint? Worth it! ARUB and her healing were essential to the team, but that was just hilarious icing on the cake. How many White Mages can say they killed CHAOS, with a hammer, without being alone or in a party of White Mages? She actually got a few fiend kills here and there too. A role model for White Mages everywhere!

Shoutouts to money. Thanks for reading!