Bravely series

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

No more Chapter 8 sidequests!  Yay!  

Ringabel Character Level 99, Job Level 14 Dark Knight
Dark Arts & Spiritism commands
Hasten World, Stop Immunity, Gloom, & Absorb Physical Damage passives

Weapon:  Blood Blade
Shield:  Dark Shield
Head:  Crystal Helm
Armor:  Brave Suit
Accessory:  Hermes Shoes

vs.

Khamer:  114,750 HP, no weakness, Human
Braev Lee:  134,998 HP, Dark weakness, Human
Victor:  121,500 HP, Dark weakness, Light resist, Human
Artemia:  128,250 HP, Fire weakness, Human


As soon as you saw Khamer on the list, you knew why I equipped Stop Immunity!  My first attempt with a Dark Knight/Salve-Maker build ended with multiple 9999 damage Meteors. 

When you're dealing with 9999 damage attacks, it's time to fight dirty and use Stillness with Hasten World.  Khamer hit with multiple Meteors, Braev Lee preferred Radiant Blast, and Artemia fired Multibursts.  Victor healed the party for 2600 HP each with Curagas, and used Moderation to attempt to restore their BP.  Unfortunately for him, Stillness put Ringabel at such low BP that Moderation actually helped me!  

The Blood Blade and Dark Nebula combo did all the damage this fight.  It took two Dark Nebulas per round of attacking to penetrate Braev Lee's Rampart skill that blocked one physical attack for each ally.

Ringabel died once when I misclicked and used Fairy Ward instead of Stillness.  Add that one to the blooper reel!  

Apart from that mishap, the fight was easy when I was using the game's most overpowered ability.  That's the problem with Bravely Default:  the difficulty is either "impossible" or "impossible to lose" for certain fights depending on your build.

All that's left are the final boss fights with Airy and Ouroboros!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Here's the final update for the Ringabel Bravely Default solo run none of you have been asking for!

Ringabel Character Level 99, Job Level 14 Spiritmaster
Spiritism & Medication commands
Hasten World, Stop Immunity, & Speed 20% Up passives

Weapon:  Air Knife (irrelevant)
Shield:  Bloody Shield
Head:  Lamia's Tiara
Armor:  Brave Suit
Accessory:  Safety Ring

vs.

Airy 1:  202,500 HP, Fire weakness, Bug
Airy 2:  134,998 HP, Fire weakness, Bug

Ringabel & company didn't understand any of the foreshadowing, so they activated all the crystals and fulfilled Airy's evil plan to summon her god Ouroboros.  I tried this fight with a Dark Knight, but a misclick ended up killing Ringabel on the second form.     After that, it was time for the Spiritmaster.  Airy doesn't play fair, and neither do I. 

The reason Airy is so dangerous is that she will often use Acedia to give the whole party an elemental weakness and dispel buffs, then hit with an all-target Fire attack called "Flare" for 9999 damage.  For a solo character, this means using Stillness, High Jump, or possibly Giant's Drafts to survive.  (Acedia doesn't dispel Giant's Draft max HP boosts for some reason, even though it's listed as a buff in battle.)

Dragon's Breaths slowly killed both forms.  Stillness is a sure way to win, but it makes the fights long and boring.  It took about 83 Dragon's Fangs, if you want to know how long.        


The Dark Aurora dungeon was the first location with new assets since Chapter 4.  It also had the Ribbon that granted immunity to most status ailments!  


Ringabel Character Level 99, Job Level 14 Spiritmaster
Spiritism & Medication commands
Hasten World, Speed 10% Up, Stop Immunity, & BP Recovery passives

Weapon:  Air Knife (irrelevant)
Shield:  Aegis Shield
Head:  Ribbon
Armor:  Brave Suit
Accessory:  Hermes Shoes

vs.

Airy 3:  134,998 HP (3 lives), Fire weakness, Bug

Airy 3 destroys most variants with Acedia + Zeta Flare.  Weaker parties may be able to limp through Airy's first two forms, but you need endurance to get past 404,994 HP.  This is why I say it's impossible for 4 "pure" Monks to finish the game without "cheats" like Summon Friend or Bravely Second.

Ringabel avenged the Monks with the same Compounding + Stillness strategy he used for the first two Airy forms.  Bomb Arm and Arctic Wind mixes ended Airy 3's first two lives, and I saved most of the Dragon Fangs for the end of the fight.  Ouroboros was fed up with Airy after she failed to get through Stillness, and killed her for good after the end of the fight.


Ringabel became Alternis Dim again for the final boss!


Ringabel Character Level 99, Job Level 14 Dark Knight
Dark Arts & Medication commands
Revenge, Angelic Ward, Support Amp, & Default Guard passives


Weapon:  Blood Blade
Shield:  Dark Shield
Head:  Ribbon
Armor:  Brave Suit
Accessory:  Hermes Shoes

vs.

Ouroboros  (No use listing his stats.  He has too many cutscene-activated forms)


The first Ouroboros form looked like Tiz, and used various techniques my party members knew.  Since Tiz, Agnès, and Edea had been dead Black Mages for the whole game, he cast useless Dark spells on Ringabel for most of that fight.  The other party members were useful for a change!   Minus Strike was more concerning, but it was nothing the Giant's Draft couldn't handle.

When Ouroboros assumed his true form, he destroyed a few parallel Luxendarcs with his Armageddon spell.  The usual mid-battle "power of friendship" cutscene made the fight winnable.  (Ugh!  Why is it always the "power of friendship" in Japanese RPGs, instead of "the power of an overleveled solo character"?!   )

Dark Nebula and Minus Strike were Ringabel's preferred attacks.  The main concern not so much Ouroboros's Armageddon and Disaster attacks, but his Demonic Touch ability that drained my BP.  Revenge sometimes activated when Ouroboros did that, helping me to break even in the BP race.  I reset the Blood Blade's Drain magic more than necessary because I was paranoid about having to start that long fight over again!  Ouroboros's final trick was a move that disabled all commands except for Default, similar to Diamante in Bravely Second.  The so-called "God of Destruction" was weaker than his fairy underling, and so the fight was surprisingly easy.

And that's the end of Bravely Default!     Give a round of applause to GameFAQs's Sailor Nemesis for writing the strategy guide, and Brent Scheppmann of YouTube for giving me a few solo loadouts to steal and modify, especially the Dark Knight.  


Try adding the Friend Code 4441-9940-1105 if you want to Friend Summon Ringabel.  He will use my signature attack Dragon Breath.  It should do more damage than usual because I used Bravely Second against a Kobold in the Norende Ravine.    


Am I going to do another Bravely variant any time soon?  No!  I'd rather play Pokemon for a while to relax.  

I may post a Pokemon variant topic soon.  I'm well into a solo run in White. . .

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Whoa!  Over 1000 views for my pointless Bravely Default and Bravely Second variants?  I may give a few "quick" tips for Final Fantasy 5 players who want to try these games out, based on my variant experiences.

-Passive abilities have their own "slots" in Bravely games, unlike FF5 where equipping a passive means you can't use an extra job command.  Some jobs like the Time Mage have lackluster spells, but you'll want to level them up anyway to get passives like Hasten World to use on other jobs.  For an extreme example, I sometimes used Red Mage as Ringabel's main job purely because it got Revenge (25% chance to gain 1 BP when attacked) for free.


-While you should still carefully consider what equipment your characters have, it's not as big a deal in Bravely games as it was in Final Fantasy 5. 

Jobs only modify the stat bonuses you get from equipment, not whether or not you can hold a sword.  Many items have weaker effects here.  The Aegis Shield, for example, doesn't have a chance of blocking any magical spell in Bravely Default.  Most status immunities can be acquired through passives.  (You'll still want the Ribbon, but you have to be capable of fighting Airy to get that anyway.)  Some late game bosses can override elemental immunities on equipment with abilities like Acedia and Fire Bane, so don't count on the Iceflame Shield too much.

-You can't buy Elixirs in Bravely Default, or get them from random drops.  Conserve them for the hardest fights.  In Bravely Second, you can buy Elixirs in Chompshire for 50,000 pg late in the game, like the hidden town in FF5.

-When in doubt, have Compounding as one of your active commands in Bravely Default.  Giant's Drafts (Beast Liver + Dragon Fang) double your max HP and heal for 9999.  If your current HP is at least 9999, the Dragon Breath mix (Dragon Fang + Dragon Fang) is guaranteed to hit the damage cap.  Dragon Fangs cost 5000 pg each, making Compounding an expensive command to use.  Fortunately, it's easy to get money late in the game by making one of your characters a Merchant, equipping the Golden Egg accessory, and using the Obliterate passive to auto-win random encounters.

-Salve-Makers do not exist in Bravely Second, but Patissiers do.  Their debuff mixes


-The ATB bar does not exist in Bravely games.  Instead, you can take up to 4 actions per character per round.  Each action requires at least 1 BP, and everyone gets 1 BP back at the end of the turn.  Default is the "Defend" command in this series, and gives an extra BP.  If characters have less than -1 BP at the end of the round, they are unable to do anything on the next turn. 

The reason Hasten World and Slow World are so useful is because of BP manipulation.  Hasten World gives everyone extra actions, and Slow World can make enemies lose turns with proper planning.

-The 9999 damage cap is painful in Bravely Default.  Shinryu has 55,500 HP in FF5, but bosses in Bravely Default have at least that much health starting in Chapter 3.  This is partially mitigated by the fact that the party can take up to 16 actions in 1 round instead of 4, but remember that bosses can take extra actions too.  Mitigating and avoiding damage is vital in Bravely Default.  In Bravely Second, you can get away with hyper offense parties thanks to the Spellcraft passive ability from the Wizard job.
 

-My favorite "main" jobs for a solo playthrough are:

Dark Knight
Knight
Ninja
Red Mage
Spiritmaster
Swordmaster



Dark Knight has the Adversity passive that gives buffs upon taking damage.  Minus Strike and Dark Nebula work well with the Blood Blade to drain health from enemies. 

Knight was there mostly because of its high HP and VIT stats, but the active ability Ironclad can maintain your Physical Defense on a turn when you need to attack or heal. 

Ninjas are fast and can use Utsusemi to block one physical attack.  When combined with passives that let them counterattack after dodging, Utsusemi lets them autobattle certain bosses like the elemental dragons or Alternis Dim.

Red Mage has Revenge as its innate skill, and gaining more BP is always useful.  A solo character draws all the attacks, making Revenge more useful than in a 4 character party.  Reflect and Dispel have situational uses in certain boss fights, like Chapter 3 Qada and Chapter 4 Victor & Victoria. 

The Spiritmaster's Spiritism is the only job command that can block Doom without a Ribbon thanks to its Fairy Ward active ability.  Stillness prevents damage to any combatant for two rounds, so any Spiritmaster who can outspeed the opponent and has a sustainable source of BP is invincible.

Swordmasters can halve physical or magical damage and counterattack with Nothing Ventured or Before Swine respectively.  You can heal or attack on the same turn that you use Bushido counterattack skills if you have enough BP.

-Both games have a semi-random turn order.  Each point of Speed gives a small chance to go another character on the battlefield, and there's a certain necessary threshold to be guaranteed to go first.  This is as frustrating as you'd expect.  If the enemy's turns line up the wrong way in Chapter 8 in Bravely Default, only Stillness can save you.

-Bravely Default expects your character level to be in the 90s by Chapter 8.  Low character level challenges on YouTube rely on overpowered tactics like Hasten World + High Jump, and aren't very interesting after the first time seeing them.  Bravely Second is a more forgiving game that expects you to fight the final boss at around level 72. 

Character levels only affect HP, MP, and unarmed damage in Bravely Default.  Job levels affect most stats in that game.  In Bravely Second, job levels affect stats much less than character level.


-Random encounters are almost irrelevant in Bravely games except for grinding.  You can modify the encounter rate in the menu in the prologue of both games.  The nature of the BP system means that you'll either win a random battle on turn 1 or not at all in most cases.  Only boss fights and mandatory battles matter in Bravely games.