FF5 Solo Cannoneer Part I

This was the first variant playthrough I decided to do, having joined the Realms Beyond forum simply for the sake of reporting on it. I was curious as to how the Solo Cannoneer would play out. T-Hawk wrote in the preamble to Merlin the Red Mage's playthrough that they were unsure what to do about the Cannoneer's ammo requirement. See, you only get the ammunition required for it when you properly unlock the job, which ordinarily happens after turning in all four tablets at the end of the third world. Since no one else had done it, I figured I'd see for myself exactly how the class would do, stripped of one of its commands for most of the game.

Though there's no use worrying about it too much anyway - given that their !Combine skill comes later on. It's the last ability that they unlock. They have two other abilities, the omnipresent !Open Fire, and the aptly-named EXP Up.

I saw a mini report written in the thread somewhere, but it was quite small and didn't really go into much detail. With a fellow by the name of English Language having done and documented solo Oracle, I decided to experience the other class the two GBA ones that had not been gone over by anyone on the challenge sites for myself.

The Cannoneer look like pirate captains. It was tempting to just use Faris for this task, but I figured this being my first solo, I'd rather not futz around with trying to do Antlion with underleveled characters. I figured to name my soloist after Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Because why not? Nothing else, besides Kirk and Captain Murasa from Touhou, really came to immediate mind. My skill with names is hit-and-miss (see: my completely forgetting about Hook)


Stat-wise, Cannoneer is a somewhat average class. Strength is about the same as Red Mage (+9 vs. +8), a +6 in Agility and Vitality, and a +4 in Magic. It gets knives and swords for weapons, and is also capable of equipping shields, Like the Chemist, it can equip both light and casting armor. The job command of this class is Open Fire. Let's see what it can do for us.


Well then. That's something. So this command is akin to !Dance or !Oath, in where there are four possible outcomes. Each of these does heavy physical damage. Here's the lowdown from the GBA Algorithms guide.

- Odds / Status \ "Att-Def"
- 104/256 / Blind \ 115
- 62 /256 | Poison \ 115
- 60 /256 | Confusion \ 175
- 30 /256 | Insta-Death \ 215 (kills undead)

This means...something? I'm not exactly sure what damage formula it uses. 2E is possible. Whatever the case may be with these, the gist of it is, these are very potent attacks, each of which sets a status on the enemy if possible.


I took Picard up to about level 10 before taking on Karlabos, by fighting the monsters in the Torna Canal who were of no threat to him (another reason why I didn't just use Faris). The fight with the lobster was trivial, as he was wasted by a pair of Open Fires. If I had gotten a death shot, that would've done it in one.

During the ship graveyard, I learned the consequences of going into a dungeon solo with too few potions. I didn't bother to shop before leaving Tule, not being used to doing solo runs of this game and with healing off the zero damage taken while grinding up being completely unnecessary. Therefore, Picard ended up having to make a few tactical retreats. Well, it's a learning process I guess.


Siren and Magisa were both shot up, the former dying in two blasts and the latter in one. In-between, I rectified the problem I had before by buying a full stock of 99 Potions. This made the North Mountain more a hiking trip than anything else.


Picard managed to retrieve the Elf Mantle from the Walse Castle basement!! Open Fire at its finest could do enough to take out a Jackanapes in a single hit. He only had to face two. He blew away the first, and with the cape protecting him from attacks, managed to ran from the second. It took a few tries before the deathshot showed up, but the first time it did so, I succeeded in retreating from the second encounter without being killed.


It finally hit me in the tower to send Picard to the back, as Open Fire is not subject to row. He'd been fighting in the front, and his melee attack was essentially pointless when that attack completely outclassed it. I also picked up a habit of blowing away the most dangerous enemies first in battles, however much "most dangerous" qualified as.


Garula was hit with a confuse shot, and proceeded to take no further action. A quirk/oversight in action. Confusion works by having the monster select attacks from its !Control list to use, with enemies and allies reversed in targeting. No attacks in the control menu = the enemy does nothing while confused. The next blast finished off the freaky elephant/mammoth.


The Combine command uses mixing ingredients and drinks as some of its ammo. That means that these Chemist materials have a use later on. Much much later on. I got the Mythril Sword I'm probably not going to use because Open Fire is ridiculous as Picard's cheap item in Karnak. I suited him up in the best of the armor he could equip after the festivities in the castle, and sent him into the Steamship.


Open Fire is unblockable, so Flash from the Crew Dust was a non-issue. Much like the rest of the dungeon.


Liquid Flame I thought was going to be the first troublesome boss. However, I found all of its forms were vulnerable to Confuse, and luck happened to be on my side - it just kept showing up and reconfusing the boss. Had to drink a Hi-Potion in order to avoid a potentially fatal Fira, but that was about all.

Picard had more than enough firepower to loot all the chests in Karnak, including the chests I had no use for. I switched him to the front row as well, using the Mythril Sword I guess I am using after all to save animation time against lone Cur Nakks and Gigases if they weren't killed in one hit. Not that it was needed, as I escaped with 4 minutes left on the clock anyway.


I fought Iron Claw for the novelty of it. Three shots blew him away.


Level 20 before the Ancient Library is a bad idea. I could've easily grinded up to avoid the threat of Level 5 Death from the Page 64s...but I charged in anyway and just ran from everything, believing that Picard could easily defeat the two bosses waiting within. The encounters here are awful in their EXP and Gil payout anyway, and take ages to complete.


Ifrit ate two Open Fires, the second of which was instant death. He vanished from the battlefield, and gave his speech when he wasn't there.


Byblos proved a bit trickier, but was by no means a roadblock boss like it is for many solos. I had Picard equip the Knife so that Confusion would not be an issue. Losing the Guardian Dagger's weapon block might be a bad thing...but Byblos is vulnerable to blind. And with Open Fire around, using a weaker weapon means nothing.

After a few tries, I got winning results. The Open Fires were Death, Blind, and Poison - the latter of which he is vulnerable to as well and turned out to be very important. This combination of attacks did 2000 damage, and with that last shot he finally decided to Protected up. The counter-Drains just barely edged out the damage from the weaker Open Fire attacks at this point, but with poison status on him, I could just sit back and watch his life bleed away.


Sandworm took way more blasts than average for bosses, but is otherwise not worth writing about. Picard got his class's second ability after the battle. EXP Up does exactly what it says on the tin, and is certain to reduce the amount of grinding I need to do! Assuming I need to do any grinding.


I got cocky on Crayclaw and just tried to shoot him to death, hoping for an eventual killshot. That never came, but thanks to evasion and his repeated use of Tailscrew, he didn't manage the kill.

Adamantoise was gibbed by a deathshot, which was good, because the weaker attacks were only doing in the neighborhood of 230~ damage. Luckily, even if that never came, it was hit with a darkness attack (another boss who's vulnerable to blinding) and rendered nearly helpless as it proceeded to miss almost all of its attacks.


Then came the Ronka Ruins defense systems. Unfortunately for the Rocket Launchers, Open Fire is not used when confused. Defeating them was as trivial as equipping the Knife and blasting them to bits. Unfortunately for the Flameguns, I rerolled every encounter into Rocket Launchers. Who needs a Flame Ring?


Picard then had to deal with Sol Cannon. Even after all this, I'm still not sure what the exact formula for Open Fire is, but I'll tell you what it doesn't involve: base stats. Sol Cannon learned this lesson the hard way, as Picard was hit with the aging missiles, and proceeded not to care, blasting him with his cannon, alternating it with Elixirs every other turn, until he ran out of Elixirs and died. Whoops?


The speed disadvantage could've been overcome with more of them, but I simply chose to deal with the problem with Magic Evade, much like the solo Red Mages did. Remember, the Cannoneer can equip casting armor. A single Confuse or Death blast would destroy a Launcher. Without the speed drop from their rockets to worry about, this was less draining on Elixir resources.

The game was seemingly doing everything it could to make my life miserable, however. Open Fire just kept giving me darkness and poison shots, which was mildly irritating. A Coral Sword slash did more damage than either, but not enough to justify using it when the confusion and death shots did so much more. Picard used 6 Elixirs in the fight, but got it done. So with neither ring in hand, the starship captain made his way into the floating fortress.

The encounters in the ruins went okay. Not easy, but by no means difficult either. Picard retreated from fights I didn't feel were worth fighting, which primarily consisted of larger groups of enemies.


Archeoaevis. With a Golden Shield, Main Gauche, and Elf Mantle, Picard was well-protected from the physicals. His cannon tore through the fossilized dragon's five forms with ease. The final form of the boss landed a Maelstrom, but it was too little too late. Picard won this encounter on the first try.

I thought about sticking around for more encounters after this to take advantage of their massive EXP output, but I had run out of potions by this point. Could've backtracked out of the ruins, got back on the airship, and returned I suppose, but didn't feel like it. And with a job this strong, who really needs EXP?


The Purobolos were dealt with in the standard (painful) way for characters who can't target more than one opponent at once: blast down their HP with a single Open Fire and hope for the best. The deathshot would unfortunately trigger the same self-revival quirk as Lucius. The poison shot was interesting - they're vulnerable to the status, and if they died from it, they did not do their death counter.

Eventually, everything lined up, and I was down to three as above. Picard weakened the two that were not poisoned. There were three left as shown above. One of them blew up shortly after I took that picture, the one eventually died from poison, and then the last one went boom after a few more rounds of combat. That was finally it. Never want to do that again, dear lord.


Titan was easy as always, after he didn't use Earth Shaker on round 2. Which he did three times in a row. No need to mess around with Elixirs. In my rush, I neglected to heal for Manticore, but landed a death shot. Better to be lucky than good, as they say.


So far, it appears as though the Cannoneer is an extremely powerful class even without access to its Combine ability. Partially because of the sheer power of Open Fire and partially because of my playstyle, I blasted through the first world in under four hours. Will the easy times last through World 2? Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Next | Index

FF5 Solo Cannoneer Part II

Most solo characters do want to have a Flame Ring before going to World 2, unless they're overpowered or arrogant or something. After analyzing it, I didn't bother grinding up cash for one. Just didn't think it would be necessary, and I had a few things in-mind for those instances where it might be wanted. An Angel Ring might have its merits, but I felt I could go without it as well. Plus I just wasn't in the mood for cash-grinding. I just wanted to get this adventure on!!


I don't think I've ever seen any solo talk about the Abductor boss at the beginning of World 2. The outcome is the same win or lose. Though maybe this isn't the solo report to talk about it with, as it died in a few Open Fires like everything else. It even got confused.


Samurai Galuf decided to take a vacation, and so glitched Cannoneer Galuf stepped up to the plate!! Main Gauche + Shield + Mantle + blind shot meant he couldn't touch the invisible man. Open Fire put up its predictable heavy damage, and he ran in three rounds of combat.


Didn't have to face much on the Big Bridge, and what did show up to fight was of little consequence. Against Gilgamesh, Picard took out the Ancient Sword and hit him with the aging debuff, as well as blinding him with an Open Fire. He needed to drink a few Hi Potions and an Elixir after the buffs went up and Gilgamesh began his jump barrage, due to having no practical way to prevent them from going off. The GBA version gives Gilgamesh an immunity to silencing, which is a change from the SNES versions.

I picked up the Break spell in order to prevent zombie troubles in certain spots from here on out. It was awfully difficult having them survive long enough to inflict the status, though!! Thankfully, it shouldn't be needed that often. I also got new equipment for Picard to use, including the Sleep Blade.


Since things were getting a little dull, I decided to amuse myself and try taking on some formidable foes. First, Picard could kill the Shield Dragons in Kuza Castle! They were vulnerable to poison (as well as blind for defensive purposes). I could inflict the status with a blast, watch it die, and collect a cool 10000EXP after battle. Had to use some Hi Potions to make sure I didn't get killed from high-rolled Zombie Breath, but this was a simple affair.


Outside, the Kuza Beasts lurked. These enemies have a simple AI script: ????. They have 5000HP and 1000MP, so ordinarily, these are highly dangerous encounters that will pile up the damage on you as you pile up the damage on it. But, Picard's confusion blasts worked on them, and caused them to use ???? against themselves - which as you very much might expect, was hilarious. A deathshot also worked, taking the beasts out in a single shot. Though of course, anything else spelled disaster for Picard. He could take one ???? after one weak Open Fire, but that's it.


I hit the reset button and went back in time to take on some more challenging random encounters in the first world. The Mini Dragons outside Istory were easy to take out, even without the benefit of a Flame Ring. One or two cannon blasts could wipe one off the map, and that was that.


And wandering the southern islands is this mechanical monstrosity, Prototype. While not as intimidating as the real deal, with 5000HP, 100 in each defense stat, and the following AI script, it is a force to be reckoned with at this stage of the game.

{Missile,Mustard Bomb,Blaster}
{Fight,Specialty,Emission}

Mustard Bomb would do around 300 damage, and Emission just under 200. More than survivable, even with just under 1000 HP. Fight and its Critical Attack speciality were of little concern, especially given the robot's vulnerability to blind. Blaster was the real problem. Paralysis wasn't that big a deal, but death was...well, death.


Nothing fancy about this encounter. Simply blast away, drinking Hi Potions and Elixirs as needed, and hope for a lot of confusion (500~) and death (700~) shot compared to the weakish other blasts seen above, and no instant death. Picard had to sit through a paralysis at one point in my winning encounter, which is always scary. But eventually and after about ten tries at the fight, the robot was scrapped.

Getting back to the quest, the random encounters were uneventful. An Open Fire or two took down all comers. Tyrannosaurus got a lethal Open Fire to the face - he's vulnerable to the status, and it is perfectly functional on undead creatures.

The moogle we save warns us to stay out of the desert. Obviously with what we just did, we must go through the desert and take on what lies within!!


The Cacti dropped in one deathshot or two of anything else, unable to do much. The Sandcrawlers were more interesting. Picard hit them with poison shot, hit them with the Sleep Blade (dodging the physicals all the while), and let their life leak out of them. A deathshot also worked, as they have no resistance to the ailment.

The Abductor outside Bal Castle landed Hurricane on its first turn, then died to a fatal Open Fire. I decided to try something a bit different in Drakenvale...


Picard could've well taken out the Dragon Pod with the usual Open Fire, using the typical strategies for any class able to equip the Bone Mail, attacking Flower #4 repeatedly. Picard also could have instantly destroyed the Dragon Pod with the deathshot, then mopping up whatever happened to be left. Those two strategies aren't even mutually exclusive. But nay, I say we must humiliate it for all of its transgressions against solo classes!!


From behind Frog status, inflicted by the Koronga enemies outside, Picard was able to send the paralysis flower to dreamland with the Sleep Blade without killing it off. He repeated this process on the other flowers, aged the Pod for no particular reason other than being able to, used a Maiden's Kiss to restore himself to human form, and slowly and painfully slashed it to death with the Dancing Dagger and Sleep Sword. He then turned his cannon on the sleeping flowers to finish them off.


On a side-note, Open Fire worked as a frog, but did very little damage. Hm. Must be because it's a physical attack. Well, that meant that Picard couldn't fight on the way up. But it was worth it.

Picard collected a few Dragon Fangs on the way down the mountain now that he was able to do damage to enemies. He made a note to return here in World 3 in the likely scenario he would need more, because they're also part of a Combine attack. A very useful one, at that.


Gilgamesh on the ship was shot up from behind aging and the Bone Mail, which eventually left him unable to do any damage at all. He was hit with a deathshot after Enkidu was summoned, who went down in three blasts.


I got a Coral Ring drop from some Yellow Dragons in the Blood Sword chest. Mostly for the hell of it. Due to the English GBA's version's fixed encounter RNG, I would always find these things two encounters after reloading my game. Said two encounters also had Reflect Knights in them, helping grind for the Reflect Ring, which didn't show up. Picard beat these dragons with a combination of evade and blinding. Their Lightning did fixed damage, which could be outpaced with Hi Potions, and though the deathshots from Open Fire were stubborn to show, they would instantly dispatch them. I went and saved after this and went up the tower.


Then these guys went a little crazy due to Picard being level 36, I forgot to heal, and Picard was killed by the next encounter. Whoops. Again, sometimes I'm a bit too hasty and stuff like this end up happening. The good news is, even though I had to walk all the way back, the next Reflect Knight from the subsequent reset gave up the ring.


Actually...yes, it is that easy! As I was able to check earlier on the Sandcrawlers, Open Fire does NOT dispel effects like a normal physical attack. So a good hit from the Sleep Blade, and it was game set.

By the way, I had Galuf petrify himself there to show off an interesting quirk. Petrified party members do get dragged by Atomos, but don't count as dead in regards to his rampage check. So if all three were petrified, Atomos would attack with Comet.


Atomos was an easy opponent, so let's try something significantly harder...


First, the setup. I used Tempting Tango (from the Dancing Dagger) and an Ether (if the confusion succeeded). I had no other use for them, other than selling and attempting to gain Float status off these Poison Eagles in Drakenvale. Them using Beak on Dragon Zombies made me laugh. Them using Float on me while I'm wearing a Reflect Ring did not. Oops. Luckily, I got perfect results the next time the battle played out.


So Gil Turtle. This is an adversary that I've only seen Daniel take on solo, and he had the luxury of whichever combination of jobs he pleased. Arguable as one of the game's superbosses, this dapper fellow lies in a cave near the Big Bridge protecting a tunnel of Gil. He has a massive 32768HP, 40 Defense, and 40% Evasion, He's invulnerable to basically every status except Slow, gets inherent Protect and Shell, is Undead and Heavy, is immune to all elements but Holy (absorbs) and Ice (weak), and every time you damage him he counters twice with his Turtle special, which inflicts blind and poison. He also casts a massively damaging Earthquake upon death, essentially necessitating the use of Float. Which thankfully, those Poison Eagles can provide. Any class but Monk and Oracle can get it off them thanks to the Dancing Dagger, or Charm in the White Mage's case.

It's much like Prototype in how it's far more powerful than anything else up to this point, unless you've specifically prepared for him. I'm not sure which solos could actually take it on in World 2 and win. Rathma the Necromancer fought him in the bonus dungeon, but would have no access to Deep Freeze at that point. Mystic Knight and Black Mage should be able to do it, as should White Mage. Chemist would have to use Shadowflares, Dark Breath, or Hi Potions to damage it, but should be fine. Monk would need to maximize its HP to deal with its final attack. And I felt as though Cannoneer could as well!


With my motivation and drive behind him, Picard tried his best. He maximized his speed with the Green Beret and Ninja Suit. Blind/poison shots would do 250-300, confusion shots around 500, and death shots around 750. Gil Turtle's own attacks, be they Turtle or normal, did around 600. Thanks to all that evade, the attacks were infrequent, but...


...it was just too much. Between a lack of resources and power, there just was not enough to carry the day. Oh well.


Moore, as seems to be typical for solos, was a relaxing place. The only problem were these Mini Magicians, who could make Picard's life miserable by inflicting mini on him. Which like the frog status from before, hampered the damage from Open Fire. He made sure to make these little guys priority targets throughout the forest.


Picard has no Flame Ring as mentioned, with this fight being the primary one you want one on due to being able to allow the Fire Crystal's Firaga to heal you. But that's because I figured this fight would be more than doable without. And indeed, behind his evasion from equipment, backed by mini status from those mages to increase it further and reduce the damage from Open Fire to prevent it from doing actual damage and pushing them into their rampage spells, Picard shot the crystals until the instant kills went off. It took a while to get the air one, but Picard was never in any danger. Except for the part where I actually had Bone Mail on, but that would've been an easy fix.


A plethora of cutscenes and events later, it was time for Exdeath's Castle. Open Fire required 2-3 blasts to kill most things here, but remained the option for attack. Picard made his way through the castle. Confusion shot raised some havoc with enemies like these Magic Dragons, causing them to cast Level 2 Old on themselves.


Oh, but not so fast. Not ready to go and put the stamp on this world just yet! The Ice Shield from Exdeath's Castle gives an extra 40% evade, more than the 30% from the Golden Shield Picard was using in the first go at this fight. With the extra levels and that slight bit of added evasion, I figured I'd try to take on Gil Turtle again. This time, with 99 Antidotes, 99 Hi-Potions, and 15 Elixirs (gotten from Cure Beasts) in-stock. I thought Icebrand would've been an option to heal, but only Knights and Gladiators can equip it. Bleh.


Open Fire, if it wasn't clear by now, does seem to increase in damage based on level, so the blasts were doing more damage than before. This was a confusion blast doing 700 damage. If I calculated it out correctly, Picard had 70% evasion. The boss only attacks physically, aside from its death counter.

Still, Gil Turtle wasn't going down without a fight. There were several points where he would land several hits in a row, which would outpace the Hi Potion healing. Picard had to use 8 Elixirs and a gallon of Hi Potions over the course of the battle. The battle was a tense affair, and about 3-4 times Picard was threatened with death if another hit landed...only to make the next dodge. But in the end, over half an hour later...


The turtle flopped over and died before I had a chance to get a screenshot of its dying move.

I also streamed the fight on my twitch page for the hell of it; the video can be seen here. You uh...might want to mute the sound, though. Don't know what was up with it.

On the subject, fun exploit - you can abuse the quicksave feature to get through the tunnel without ever fighting the turtle. This may only work on the US version.


Back in Exdeath's Castle, Picard found he had to wear the Bone Mail and Aegis Shield to protect against these guys' spells. The Dragons were at least simple, with Open Fire able to tear into them and kill them with ease. I switched over to the Reflect Ring at that point, to prevent Atomic Ray from the Red Dragons from killing Picard.


Gilgamesh was dealt with in the usual fashion for a Cannoneer. Needed an Elixir and some Hi Potions to counter accumulated damage and a Hurricane. Incidentally, a Rocket Punch hit, yet did not inflict Confusion. Wasn't the Bone Mail - I had to leave it off due to healing. I attributed it to the float status from the Gil Turtle debacle, and so for most of the rest of this variant, kept it on due to superstition. And similar tactics do work in FF4.

That brought Picard to Exdeath, with just over 9 hours on the game clock.


Open Fire did around this much at its strongest, and around half at its weakest. I was worried that this was going to be a frustrating experience, as it is for many-a solo. But with his damage output, which did thankfully scale up (was wondering if it would), Picard only needed to dodge two Condemns to make it to the second part of Exdeath's AI script. The float status came into play again, rendering an Earthquake useless. Exdeath actually has 100 Gs in his AI script to foil this, but it can be reflected. After that, it was only a matter of time...


...and that's World 2.

Next | Index

FF5 Solo Cannoneer Part III

Entering World 3 and the Pyramid (Antlion isn't worth talking about). It's not exactly true that Picard had no way of damaging both Gargoyles at the same time. Poison status allowed for this. Made for a creative way to deal with them, but of course, exploiting Sleep was the better choice. He'd deal with the later ones in that fashion. Dark Matter, like the other three mixing ingredients, is of use to the Cannoneer. So Picard had a lengthy trek through this place on his hands to gather up all the goods. Usually I just run right through this place...not the wisest of choices this time.


He soon found himself in this precarious spot. Not facing the snakes and Mecha Heads meant they couldn't initiate the encounter, so he eventually escaped...only to be trapped again. Deciding to fight, he set to work and rolled some confuses on the robots, making for amusing results when they used ???? on themselves.


Zombie status is stupid. So is the game refusing to let you run. I had to retreat out at this point due to only having one Holy Water in stock, Esuna and Tents don't heal the status either, nor does the Oracle's healing, and you can't even petrify the offending zombie! I took the opportunity to get the Chicken Knife, and proceeded to let it sit in Picard's inventory without fully powering it up.


Melusine was worthless. Reflect Ring, and I even forgot to use the Sleep Blade until she was basically dead (and had to wait for her to shift out of her physical form so Open Fire could damage), but it didn't matter. With her out of the way, Picard proceeded to pick up the usual goods for a solo character, including the Hermes Sandles and the Magic Lamp.


The Solitary Island Shrine was an uneventful place, where Picard mostly ran from the encounters - especially the obnoxious birds with their 33090HP. I'm not exactly sure what was up with the fight against Stalker, also known as Wendigo, also known as allegedly unbearably hard solo by that one guide writer but actually stupid easy. Sleep Blade could be used to make it fall asleep, and could also target the false images.

He managed to sleep the back two, but the front two remained awake. And unlike with Merlin, it continued to move around - occasionally into one of the sleeping targets, but would eventually move out of them. He won in the end anyway, but had to poke the last image awake so it could die. Weird fight in how it played out, but not a hard one.


I think it's time we taste it too. The only thing interesting about Minotaur (a simple fight for every solo) was my curiosity as to how much his dying Holy would do, if I gave him an Ether so he would actually be able to use it. The results were...disappointing, to say the least.

Useless piece of trivia unrelated to the challenge: the Fork Tower actually does explode if you take too long to start the Omniscient fight. A nice touch, but kind of silly in light of the strategies melee classes employ against him. Regardless, our second Cannoneer (with her poor level of 4, but behind the Bone Mail/Reflect Ring) decided to be a little more proactive.


So here's a neat trick/bug I've never seen any solo exploit: using an Ether on an enemy. What's the point of this? Well, enemy MP is supposed to be capped at 9999. Use an Ether or Elixir when they have more than that, and 9999 is what it'll be dropped to. Saves a lot of time waiting for some bosses to run themselves out of MP! She needed to wait for Omniscient to lock his spells out with a Stop or Silence so he would not cast Reset, but got it done.

Despite this, Krile got impatient and decided to be more proactive. She could attempt to inflict Aging status on Omniscient after he bounced a Stop or Silence onto himself. The odds were low because of the level difference (maybe I should have reset and let Picard do it, instead of going with the same philosophy as the White Mage solo?), but she eventually got the job done - reducing the healing from Omniscient's Regen and making him liable to kill himself.


Then she decided to be even more proactive. Omniscient had bounced a Haste off himself onto Krile, and a Slow spell off her onto himself. Combined with Aging debuff (which had lowered his level and thus raised the odds of statuses landing), Krile could get 6 turns to Omniscient, and get in two blasts of Open Fire after bouncing a Silence off her wall with the Mage Masher. What is this, a Time Mage game?

The Great Sea Trench was not a fun place. The blob enemies in particular could take as many as five blasts to die from Open Fire, and without a way to multi-target yet, Picard decided running was the best option. The three little pigs were, by contrast, ridiculously easy. The Bone Mail, the Flame Ring, and the Ice Shield caused all of their spells to be absorbed, and swipes from the Sleep Blade rendered them helpless. I used Open Fire, turned on the autofire, and relaxed until they squealed.


I'd neglected to get any of the legendary weapons so far - given the only one Picard could use was the Assassin's Dagger - and getting them all is a requirement to unlock the GBA jobs (and thusly, the Cannoneer's ammunition). In another neat detail/piece of consistency, any of the tablet bosses you've already defeated, including this red guy we never actually fight, won't be in this cutscene. (If you've beaten them all before using your first tablet, the cutscene simply won't happen.)


Istory, Istory, Istory. Aquagels startled me a bit with that damage output on that back attack, but it was still as much of a breeze as I expected from reading solo job reports. Even the Tonberries couldn't do much with the blind and confusion shots around to mess with them.


It probably wasn't the wisest of ideas to try taking on Leviathan without a Coral Ring, just to see if I could do it. Also unwise was leaving on the Bone Mail and having Picard use an Elixir on himself. Despite all this stupidity on my part, Leviathan only used four Tsunamis throughout the battle, two of which were blocked by the Aegis Shield. His physicals were rendered moot with Main Gauche and blind (so many bosses and notable encounters are vulnerable to that...). So Picard won anyway. Comedy of errors, this is.

And now the moment we've all been waiting for...


Cannoneer unlocked for real.


To use Combine, you pick an ammunition and a component. It then deals damage to all targets on the field. Picard stocked up on these and other supplies from Moore. He also went back to Drakenvale to stock up on Dragon Fangs, as well as a Dark Matter on the side thanks to the Thief Knife. Taking a page from White's playbook, decided to test his new abilities and these fangs on a worthy target.


Wait, what? Well, this is underwhelming. That's only around 1000 more than Open Fire is doing with a confuse shot. Much like that itself, Combine scales with level and deals damage independent of stats. It counts as magical damage, but deals it as a physical attack (in other words, it's reduced by Shell, but triggers counterattacks tied to physical attacks). Here's the damage formula from the GBA Algorithms guide.

Attack = Base Attack + (0..(Base Attack/8))
M = (Level*Level)/256 + 4
Damage = Attack*M, max = 9999

The shot I'm using, and the reason for gathering those Dragon Fangs, is known as Dragon Cannon (Blitzshot + Dragon Fang). It has a base attack of 215, and M gets doubled if the target is a dragon. The problem is, Bahamut isn't classified as a dragon by the game! Weird.


So Picard turned to another attack: Slow Shot (Buckshot + Turtle Shell). Using the weakest ammunition, this has a base power of only 65. But true to its name, it has a (flat) 75% chance to inflict Slow on anything vulnerable. Picard proceeded to use Open Fire to bore a hole through the legendary not-dragon with the infamous 4-to-1 speed advantage.

Why not use the stronger Blitzshot? Quite simply, to save on money/resources. While cheap, using the ammunition in every battle does add up. Since these status-inflicters do their status at the same rate regardless of which ammo you use, it's more cash-efficient to use the basic Buckshot if you simply want to inflict the status. And especially since they otherwise don't have much use, being far weaker than Blitzshot and even Blastshot.


And because beating up on one optional summoned monster wasn't enough, I decide to throw down with another. Fuma Shruiken goes into a Combine much like Dragon Fangs (this one being called Killer Cannon), but with M doubling if the target is human instead - of which Odin qualifies. Still, with only one in stock, Picard decided against using it, and after a reset brought out his melee fighting skills for the first time since Karnak Castle. His cannon attacks take animation time, so the Chicken Knife (which had only 106 power...again, he didn't bother to actively power it up) was the best option in this fight.


Into the Rift. Picard continued to use EXP Up through most of this, instead of Combine. The fans in the Ronka Ruins section were notable, due to being able to steal Turtle Shells from them. There was also a hilarious moment where - because of confusion - the Level Checkers hit themselves with Level 2 Old, followed by Level 5 Death when their level lined up just right. This infamous combo is sometimes called Death By Math in some circles, and is used to instantly kill many-a boss in speedrun settings.


Calofisteri was as always, trivial with the Bone Mail. Picard didn't even bother with Combine. For Apanda, he once again broke out Slow Shot, then proceeded to destroy the boss with Flame Cannon. This, along with its cousins the Water and Spark Cannon, are used with Ninja scrolls. Among the most efficient price-wise, they happen to have the second-highest base attack of Combine at 220, yielding only to the Hero Cocktail's holy-elemental Divine Cannon at 225.


Picard employed a bold new strategy against the dangerous Apocalypse/Azulmagia...





See ya, nerd. Didn't feel like taking him on and playing with his irritating AI routine, so he can stay in jail. That and I was also feeling (probably excessively) bold, and wanted to see if I could make it through without the save point he gives up.


You may have noticed that Picard was floating. I picked up the status by having him Tempting Tango a Gaia Cat on the North Mountain. This along with the Reflect Ring made Catastrophe a fight that was impossible to lose. Yet it still managed to troll, by giving him a rare Cottage steal instead of an Elixir. What a jerk. For most of the encounters in the dimensional castle, it was Picard causing the enemies grief with confusion from !Open Fire (especially amusing with the Death Claws), or just killing them with damage or instant death.


Halicarnassus was hit with a Slow Shot, then blown away by repeated Water Cannons. Like Open Fire, Combine works from behind toad status. Unlike Open Fire, it does full damage from behind Mini and Toad status due to being considered a magical attack. Not to mention, it looks hilarious!! She never got to use Holy.


Really game? Really? The rare drop?


For Twin Tania, Picard went in with Main Gauche, Ice Shield, Bone Mail and Coral Ring to essentially block all of the danger. His own blasts of water did over 7000 damage to the beast. Since Combine triggers physical counters, he used Tidal Wave on Picard every time he was hit except once, all of which healed Picard. He got to the Giga Flare charging portion of his AI routine, but never got it off.


Picard nicked the Genji Shield from Gilgamesh, then broke out Chaos Cannon (Dark Matter + Blitzshot) against Necrophobe's barriers, killing them instantly with its Death effect. This Combine is infamous for its not triggering counterattacks in scripts, although there are several others that work as well. With Golem from the Magic Lamp, a Slow Shot, and blasting with an elemental cannon, Necro signed his will to his next of kin. He grabbed the Genji Armor too, for that matter.


Out of the void to recharge the lamp. And to do some leveling for very special purposes. Picard found it was actually faster to equip Combine and kill everything in one round, rather than collecting the bonus from EXP Up.


Since he was training in the area, he decided to go up and down Phoenix Tower to break up the monotony. The only enemies of note were these Kuza Beasts. Recall their script: ????. While they have other options in their appearance here, Picard didn't feel like dealing with this potentially lethal blow. So he turned to the Power series (Power Drink). It inflicted Berserk, and he was in no danger.

One problem: the cutscene at the top heals your party. Oops. I was working under the impression that Float blocks certain statuses, including confusion. I'm not sure if it actually does or not, but it really didn't hurt to pick it up either way, Picard made sure to get the status back at North Mountain for possible use against Neo Exdeath's Grand Cross - until it gets dispelled, that is. On the other hand, the whole point of this grinding I was doing is to kill it before it even fires, as I calculated it should be able to. Can we do it?


First, Exdeath the tree. Everyone's favorite Aegis Shield made White Hole a non-factor. He was vulnerable to slow, so out came Slow Shot. Now, he is actually classified as a human! So with Killer Cannon, Picard chopped it down to size. On a side-note, remember what I was saying about Chaos Cannon? If you use it, or any of the other attacks that don't trigger counterattacks to deal the final blow to the tree, the fight against Neo Exdeath never triggers. Much like the Kiss of Blessing bug, which was partially patched out of this version.


But Picard will be fighting Neo Exdeath all right. Magic Lamp wiped out the back part. Like Shadow the Ninja, the onslaught of high-damage Dragon Cannons meant that the Grand Crosser's AI routine was constantly reset. Not a single one went off in the battle.


The other two parts put up only marginally more resistance, and found resistance was futile. The Almagest part was neutered by Aging from another Combine - the Silver Cannon, which involves a Speed Shake. The physical part is vulnerable to slow, as well as blinding. In order to keep their damage in sync, Picard pulled out the rarest Combine - Dark Cannon. This involves Ash, of which I believe there are exactly 7 in the main game (1 in Moore, 4 as rare drops from the crystals, a rare drop from Apanda, and a steal from Apanda).


Then one of them died before the other. Despite this scare, Picard finished the other off with another cannon shot before the Meteors could come, and that was that. Victory on the first attempt at the final boss.


Picard finished the game at Level 63, above the baseline for solo classes, but in my opinion well worth it to stop the hassle of Grand Cross. He needed only one Elixir in the battle, to heal after the Grand Crosser had died. The Cannoneer is an extremely powerful class, with Open Fire pumping out high damage from start-to-finish, the variety and multi-targetting of Combine, and the various status it is able to inflict with both attacks (including the nasty Slow, and Blind which a surprising amount of enemies are vulnerable to).

All in all, doing a solo playthrough for myself was quite the enjoyable experience, I must say. I'd go as far to place Cannoneer slightly below level of Samurai or Chemist in terms of ease, if only due to the randomness of !Open Fire and lacking !Combine for almost all the game. With all the nasty status stuff it brings, along with the protection from shields and sword use, plus the ability to hang out in the back row without concern, there's very little the enemies can do if you play your cards right. Not having ammunition for Combine early on wasn't TOO big a deal - it would've made the Purubolos and random encounters easier as well as bringing Slow to the table, but Picard got through without perfectly fine. It was almost too enjoyable, and it's a little disappointing for it to be over so soon.

So...shall we try to seek out more difficult foes for Picard?

Next | Index

FF5 Solo Cannoneer Part IV

To begin the postgame, let's take on Arguable Superboss #2, just for the sake of showing off one of Cannoneer's more exploitable quirks.


Gogo the Mime. The way you ordinarily fight him is by not fighting him and waiting for him to call you a good mimic. During the Four Job Fiesta last year, I actually successfully took him head-on (and with an otherwise crappy party no less). But the situation here unlike the one there - zombie meatshields are out, we can't get Shell, and we can't pause time in the menu with only one person.

The big problem with fighting him is his Meteors. He casts three in a row to start his rampage script when he gets below 33000 HP, and every time you attack him below that baseline (including when you knock him under), he also casts a Meteor spell. Aegis Shield can't block this, and even with Shell and max magic defense any one character would be hard-pressed to survive that. Solo Mystic Knight would have no trouble committing mimicide due to his silencing abilities. 99% magic evade or no, that always hits. If there were a Silence Shot, Picard would also have little troubles. Simply fire it after slowing him, hope it procs, then tear into him with Killer Cannon (Fuma Shruiken + Blitzshot). Gogo is classified as a Human, and so that will do massive damage. But all that offense doesn't mean a thing if we can't defend.


So I've mentioned it a few times before, but there are several Combines of the Cannoneer that don't trigger reactions in AI scripts - this appears to be the majority of the status-inflicters. This is sort of probably by design: the status they inflict do trigger counters. But if the target is immune to the status, no counterattack. Ergo, if the attack triggered counters as well, you'd get two counters from one attack - similar to something that's coming up in a bit.


Still, it's semiexploitative at best. Moving onward, I intend to stay away from this if it's remotely practical. The best compromise I felt I could do here was to blast him down to around 16000 HP, hit with a Killer Cannon, survive one Meteor, then deliver a final one to put the stamp down. This took over a dozen tries at Picard's current level, also needing to slow the famed mimic to give himself buffer room, but he eventually made it so.


With that banter done, let's do the Sealed Temple. To boldly go where no man has gone before...except one, but work with me here!! Picard's usual means of offense here was the Water Cannon, due to a surprising amount of enemies being vulnerable to it (these bombs aren't one of them, but were still flatlined by the attack). There were some enemies, however, that demanded alternative approaches.


The first example I ran into were Behemoths, which cast Meteor upon dying. Picard countered this with a Power Shot (used with a Power Drink, appropriately) to Berserk them. He caught one by using three Water Cannons that did just under 5000 (it has 15000HP).


The Gil Turtle here actually differs from the one in World 2 slightly - its Turtle special inflicts HP Leak instead of poison was inflicting HP Leak instead of poison, because Turtle is a bizarre special that can have either effect throughout the battle is basically the same as the original, I just thought it was different at the time because of the status bug. Picard went with an upgraded version of his old setup, slowed him, and brought out a new Combine...


The Vulner series is used with an Iron Draft, and has the same properties as Guard-Off or a Turtle Soup mix. Picard could then step into the front row and fight with the Chicken Knife!! There were only two problems with this - first, Gil Turtle's blows did more damage, but he could counter this by falling into the back row and healing.


Second, there was actually a better option - the Needle Cannon (Gold Needle + Blitzshot) does a fixed 3000 damage, which would've been his best damage option. Picard had forgotten to stock up, though. But even without that, what was a doable but scary fight in World 2 was a trivial one here.


Picard continued to blast his way through the dungeon. Unfortunately, larger groups made exploiting EXP Up impractical, save for certain rooms, such as his first trip into the Sealed Temple's Arena. By the way, those guys with their butts sticking out are from the magic side of the Fork Tower. They counter physicals (which include Combine) with Meteor. Flaremancers from the tower also show up. Similar story there. Luckily, Picard could easily one-shot them at this point, but other physical classes may have trouble here.

The Dark Elementals on the Hall of Doubt also proved annoying. Even at level 70, Picard's Combine still couldn't reliably one-shot them. He traversed that floor with the Reflect Ring equipped to render their -ga spells harmless.


Before long, it was time for Grand Aevis. One thing that Rathma didn't mention was this guy's absurd speed - he has an astonishing 70!! Picard could thankfully make it less of an issue with Slow Cannon. His strategy here was to eliminate one of the Dark Elementals, leave the other at low health (rendering its White Winds useless), and Open Fire on the Grand Aevis itself.

The first time he tried this fight, Picard was eventually killed by Blaster. It was also the cause of his second death, immediately at the start of the battle. Without the healing issues of the undead Necromancer, Maelstorm and Breath Wind weren't a problem. Aegis Shield to cover Evil Eye, and though he left himself open to Zombification (if it got to be too big an issue, I would've done the fight with the Angel Ring), it didn't once affect him.


It only hit me a short time after that battle that drastically rearranging the inventory for Combine would be useful. When you put the cursor on memory, it opens back up on the item you used, not the ammunition. You always go ammo -> item, so putting the two I used most side-by-side was a big timesaver.


Picard stepped into the front row during the Ronka Ruins section of the temple, remembering Rathma's experience with being killed by back attacks from the Exorays. He could quickly win all the random encounters using one of his Combines anyway before they had a chance to attack. The aforementioned flowers could be killed with Flame Burst, the stronger Flame Cannon simply being overkill. And if a back attack did trigger, they wouldn't be able to kill him. The scary double Iron Giant encounter could be dispatched with Chaos Cannon, or two Water Cannons for 9999 into their elemental weakness.


The Duelists, the Assassins, and Soul Eaters could all be stunned by Berserk, cutting off their dangerous or irritating scripts.


To mention something about the dungeon that T-Hawk didn't with Rathma - here, you need to press a switch to stop a waterfall, but it turns back on very quickly. Picard had to make a temporary swap to a Thief to run by here. The timing is very strict - one step off-course and he wouldn't make it. A total pain, really.


Bleh...well, after his comrades were re-petrified, Picard made his way back out of the temple, using a convenient shortcut in the ruins section.


So here's Archeodemon. No problem, we'll just blast it with Water Cannon during the charge-up phases and-


Oh.


Okay then.

So two aspects of this fight that the magely Rathma didn't encounter or make clear: first, Archeodemon absorbs all elemental damage. Second, Archeodemon will counter any non-magical attack with Death...ON HIS UNDEAD SELF.

I fought this with my fiesta party last year, and - sticking to my rule of not exploiting the counterattack glitch - I'd employ a similar strategy that they used. That is, cutting its MP from an absurd 62000 to a manageable 9999 with an Ether and repeatedly attacking until it had no more MP.


The Assassin's Dagger was the weapon of choice here. If its death spell went off, Archeodemon would cast Death on itself twice. It was pretty funny, watching it die and revive three times in a row. At 29MP a casting, plus 39MP per Flare and 15MP per Drain Touch, it actually ran through its MP fairly quickly.

That's not to say the fight was a cakewalk. While Picard was protected from Flare and Mega Flare from behind a Reflect Ring, Archeodemon would occasionally trigger its own ???? counter with the moves, hitting him with the 2300~ damage anyway. Giga Flare would do about the same, and Drain Touch around 800. Because of this kept him around 3200HP with a combination of Hi Potions and Elixirs.

Eventually...


No more MP. Picard's cannon made short work of the creature, doing 6000+ a shot. Only a potential reflected Mega Flare that triggered ???? could have killed him at this point (his Death counter supersedes his ????/Curse/Nothing counter). I probably should have waited around to make sure it had no MP for that either.


But that didn't happen, so Picard won out. Took nearly an hour of game time. Since he was right in the area, Picard left the temple to refresh his supplies and float. Then back in it was. All the way back to the bottom.


Good lord, the enemies in the Lethe Court were painful. Ironclads, unlike their brethren, only had slow as a status to exploit. Picard's supply of Turtle Shells was limited. Hades were more obnoxious. Picard had to use the Flame Shield and Bone Mail here - the former was to protect against Meltdown, and the latter from the Death spells. I had forgotten to take many pictures in this section.

Idly, he had the option of equipping the Chaos Orb (won from Archeodemon) to increase the damage from his fire and electric shots, boosting them from just under 7000 to a healthy 9999 on a neutral hit. This accessory unfortunately inflicts HP Leak if the user is not a Necromancer or has the Undead ability set - in which case it inflicts Regen instead. I was hoping the Bone Mail would count, but no such luck. Oh well, losing haste was bad anyway.


Picard had nearly run out of Hi Potions by the time he reached Guardian. Yikes. The only other way to heal was with the Protect Ring if the Behemoth group decided to show up. They were more than content to sit around and wait for his HP to go back up; the King only occasionally throwing out a weak physical attack.

Well. There was also Elixir use and attacking himself with the Assassin's Dagger, but I didn't want to dip into the former, and I didn't consider the latter at the time, only remembering it was an option when T-Hawk mentioned it after I originally posted this part of the report in the thread. Derp. >_<


At least the boss itself was an easy endeavor. Like before, Picard was able to ignore the aging missiles. Unlike before, he did indeed have the power to just win outright (had that failed, Bone Mail would've stopped the status, though it didn't seem to take anyway). He got hit with Encircle the first time, but short-circuited the cannon under a torrent of water the second go. It revived the Wave Cannon once, but very quickly blew up shortly after.


No effect? Um. Not sure what caused that to pop up, but okay.


Picard barely managed to hobble out after that. I opted to use the GBA quicksave trick to push him through the final stretch. While we're restocking, what say we fight some superbosses?

Next | Index

FF5 Solo Cannoneer Part V

Picard would use the following setup for Omega. Aegis Shield would block 1/3 of all attacks being thrown at him. Hermes Sandles for haste, and Chicken Knife for a +5 to agility. The Royal Crown and Robe of Lords gave magic defense to help stop Encircle. As usual, it's the big danger for a solo character.


Omega has a vulnerability to Slow. So Picard hit with Slow Cannon for the big speed advantage. Again sticking with the policy of not abusing the no-counter bug, Picard did not use one of those combinations. He instead used Spark Cannon.


The machine's inherent Shell reduced this damage, but it couldn't stand up to this. Picard went a little crazy on the Aegis Shield blocks and dodges. That lingering float status also served to prevent a potential Earthquake (another reason I've been keeping it up). And with the huge speed advantage, he made short work of the boss.


Boom. Victory on the second try; the first was a back attack I decided to reset.


He can still rot. Picard could easily do this fight at this point, but he can still rot.


Funny enough, I always forget that Ramuh can show up here. He's almost useless for his worth at this point, unless you forgot him and want to use him on Omega (a friend of mine did so during the 2013 Four Job Fiesta), but it's pretty amusing to see it show all the same. A single Water Cannon ended it.


Yeah. This wasn't a contest. It was a curbstomping.


Much like Omega's stop/song weakness, Shinryu has an infamous vulnerability to Berserk. Main Gauche and Genji Shield made things a breeze...though the attacks that did get through hurt like hell. But that's no fun.


Aegis Shield to block his opening Tidal Wave, Slow Cannon, and devastate him with Dragon Cannon. Shinryu knew what was best for him and cast Mighty Guard to reduce the damage, but it was too little too late. He didn't even reach the second no interrupt part of his script. An easy victory.

If you're wondering, the strategy for the original superbosses would be no different at normal levels for the endgame. A bit of finesse with equipment against Shinryu would be required to protect against his various attacks, if the Berserk route isn't taken. And if it is, the fight would be a complete joke. Omega, there would be more counterattacks to worry about due to less damage, and you'd probably want to keep an eye on your lower HP as well as equip Lamia's Tiara for certainty in avoiding the confusion effect. But it's still quite doable. With the exploit, much of the nasty stuff is out of the picture.


But of course, those are just the originals we beat. The GBA version adds in upgraded versions of both. So back out of the cleft. I found out that Grass Turtles can be fought here in the third world, just south of where Tycoon used to be. Picard stocked up on around 30 Turtle Shells for the random encounters.


So Omega Mk-II. This time, the Lamia's Tiara was worn, after Rocket Punch's confusion kept popping up. Can Picard succeed where Rathma could not? He opened with a Flame Cannon to fish for his elemental weakness, to try to get an extra 8000~ in. If it didn't work, he went to Spark Cannon, before resetting. He would follow up the successful attack with Slow Cannon.


Since I'm not abusing the no-counterattack bug, I need to find a different attack. One that is non-elemental, but will trigger counters. So here's Normal Cannon, which is powered by Shruikens. It has a base attack of 210 and has no special properties. More often than not, it's not worth it. Too expensive to use, and not enough power to justify the cost. But for our circumstances and against a boss that absorbs the elements, it's the best we got. At Picard's absurd level of 89, this did in the neighborhood of 3800~ damage after inherent Shell reduced it.


This battle was more or less the same as the fight against the original. It's just that with the lower damage, Picard had to deal with twice as many counterattacks. He had a few tricks up his sleeve - after Omega Mk-II used Search, he swapped to the Flame Shield and waited. Omega would either used Rainbow Wind (no harm done), Atomic Ray, or Flamethrower (would heal him). This saved him an Elixir or two. The Aegis Shield again kept Picard safe from some of the attacks whenever it was in-place.

The robot went through three loops of its AI routine. I was especially afraid of Blaster...more than once, a death shot instantly ended the attempt. Once even at the very beginning of the fight.


Yet fortune smiled on Picard after about nine tries at the battle. He lost three times to a Blaster, three times to not landing the first shot, and at least once to a Rocket Punch/Wave Cannon combo. There's vengeance for Rathma!!


The prize for this fight is the Force Shield. It nullifies all elemental attacks that happen to be directed at the wielder. It has a defense rating of 15, as much as the unobtainable Cursed Shield. While its evasion is better than that's 1%, 10% is not really that good. Furthermore, its description is no lie - it has a weight of 15! Yikes. To add insult to injury, it also imposes an agility penalty of 5. Despite these flaws, the advantages it brings gives it a place in Picard's near-future.


Into Shinryu's lair, which is full of dragon enemies and lava. More good reason to keep up the float! Behind the Force Shield, he could steal Elixirs from these Crystal Dragons at his leisure - no need to worry about Breath Wing. And of course, Dragon Fang shots overkilled everything.


Here we go. Neo Shinryu attempts to start the battle with Mighty Guard. This is a fruitless effort due to his gimmick - his vulnerable form starts the battle in False Image status, and so it never actually affects it. So Picard could still do 9999 damage with every Dragon Cannon.

Picard tried to inflict Slow status on the dragon, and appeared to succeed. However, it didn't actually seem to be affecting the rate of attack. Hm. Let's check out his AI script.

Maelstrom
{Ice Storm,Ice Storm,Blaze}
Zombie Breath
{Earthquake,Earthquake,Lightning}
No Interrupt{Attack
Attack}
{Poison Breath,Poison Breath,Breath Wing}
Curse
{Tidal Wave,Tidal Wave,Almagest}

A lot of elemental attacks, so the shiny new Force Shield seemed like a no-brainer. But also around was a 1/3 chance to counter any successful strike with White Hole. Aegis Shield had its merits too. Then there's the nasty physicals.


These were highly damaging to Picard, and could very quickly kill him.

So the strategy for this battle was actually pretty complicated. Picard would walk in with the Force Shield equipped. Around the time or just before Zombie Breath popped up, he'd swap over to the Aegis Shield to guarantee cutting out White Hole - and for extra evasion. He could then swap back before Poison Breath or Tidal Wave/Almagest came along.


And once Neo Shinryu crossed over the 15000 HP threshold, Picard would swap to the Genji Shield, sporting 50% evade. A convoluted mess of shield swapping, but a strategy that works. Well, should work.

The whole danger in this fight came from the physicals. He just kept on getting unlucky with accumulated damage. The few times Picard did get by, he got wasted by the dragon's parting Giga Flare/Meteor combo. Isn't there anything we can do to make our chances better?

Well, let's look at the Algorithms guide. Neo Shinryu is vulnerable to slow as I figured he would be, he can't be Berserked, and...wow, seriously? Just what I need!


Dark Cannon, go!! And it worked!! ...but it didn't. Like the slow status from before, this only seemed to be affecting the vulnerable part of Neo Shinryu - not the invincible attacking part. So the physicals were going to be an issue, one way or another, ugh.


White Hole didn't show up that often, and sometimes - even without the Aegis Shield helping as seen here - Picard would simply dodge it. That high level helped a lot.


Picard got to the physical rampage part of the script several times. Here, he had noticed that he had been aged by an earlier Curse - it's kind of difficult to notice if that status has been inflicted with a big hat covering my character's head. This didn't affect his damage output, but now making enough dodges before he could attack again was nearly impossible. In another attempt...


Oh, great. Now he'll take more damage from physical attacks, and-...hmm, wait a minute. This could be a blessing in disguise. Mini doubles the target's evade. And with the Genji Shield's evasion of 50%...!


Yes!!


NOOOOOOOO!!!


Well, okay. We have our strategy. Picard managed to pick up Mini status from a Hades' Curse, and set back out. He kept a Reflect Ring on while going for it, because sometimes the Hades' would hit itself with Roulette, then counterattack by using Flare on Picard for over 7000 damage.


To go over the plan one more time, Picard went in minified with the Main Gauche, Force Shield, and magic evasiveness. He would swap to the Aegis Shield sometime after Zombie Breath in Neo Shinryu's script for added evasion and protection from a potential White Hole, and swap back to Force Shield after the physicals. He would try to hit with Slow Cannon (this would affect the vulnerable part's rate of switching), then tear into the dragon with Dragon Cannon for 9999, because its opening Mighty Guard never hits its first form. When the dragon went under 15000 HP and started its physical rampage, he would switch to the Genji Shield for maximum physical evasion. Picard had to use four Elixirs, and a Maiden's Kiss when Curse rolled frog status. Then it was just a matter of hoping Meteor rolled low enough damage on its four hits.


It took four fights to get the desired result, but it happened.



__________


Picard went back out of the temple to restock, because his supplies had really somehow run low during that excursion. Elixirs in particular had been drained, and that forced Picard to farm.


He settled in the Ronka Ruins section of the rift, where groups of Level Checkers were common. He used Blastshots with Mallets (Mini Burst) as the most cost-efficient Combines that could still one hit kill. During this, Picard was inducted into the 1/4096 item drop club by getting a Phoenix Down, Elixir, and Rune Chime drop all at once.


He settled on 18 Elixirs, and bought 7 more for a total of 25. Let's hope it's enough.


First attempt. Picard annihilated the first form of Enuo. At his level of 94, he could nail the ancient necromancer with Slow Cannon then fire away for over 9000 damage. Grand Cross came once, and did nothing. His equipment setup was Chicken Knife (+5 Agility), Force Shield, Royal Crown, Robe of Lords, and Hermes Sandles.


Ow. Dimension Zero hurts. It pierces defense and always hits. It also inflicts HP leak. That no interrupt section at the beginning really is brutal. Two of them in a row, which he's more than capable of doing, or Meteor followed by Dimension Zero, would be invariably fatal for Picard. So would Dimension Zero (including the one at the end of the script) into a successful Maelstrom.


Damn!! Using Force Shield means no protection from White Hole, or more importantly, Delta Attack. Well, I suppose shield swapping strategies are in order for that. The right timing to switch was roughly before the left arm charged for Grand Cross in phase 1, and right after the no interrupt section in phase 2. What to do...well, there is a way out of every box, a solution to every puzzle. It's just a matter of finding it.

For the heavy damage, Freelancer Rathma was able to use the Defender for Armor, as well as Shell to help with Meteor. Picard could only equip for Magic Defense and hope for luck with the latter. And there was only one option for the former...


And that was Golem from the Magic Lamp! It would block the nasty attacks. Defend didn't come to mind at the time, but it would be of questionable usefulness after Golem ran out. Picard still would've had to heal after the fixed Dimension Zero, and wouldn't have had the time to drink an Elixir and use Defend to protect against another potential double Dimension Zero.

The final decision I made was to use the counterattack exploit here. It felt okay - it really only served to eliminate an obnoxious omnipresent diceroll from the battle. Overcoming it was an inevitability at the end of the day.


By the way, I tried to see if you could skip the second phase. Unfortunately, you couldn't. They actually planned for that. Enuo disintegrates, but after a while, the message pops up, and he reintegrates. Oh well. It does give a breathing period to heal up and use the Magic Lamp, though, so I took advantage of it.


Picard got really close the first time I tried this. He got within three attacks of winning, getting around to three loops of Enuo's AI routine, dodging three Grand Crosses, before HP Leak and Maelstrom did him in.

What else to do? Well, the basics first. At level 98, the multiplier would be 20 - just one over the present 19. I calculated, the average hits (15) to take down Enuo would not increase. Unless we're using Divine Cannon. It'd be 14 at the current level and 13 at 98. Not worth the counters. Level 99 would give 21, but would open him up to Level 3 Flare.


Nothing else really helps. The Bone Mail helps stop some of the counterattacks and Berserk, but does nothing for Danse Macabre, and turns the Flare/Holy/Delta Attack part of the script into a diceroll. Chaos Orb lets Picard do 6600~ after a Shell, but loses haste and makes any Maelstrom or Hurricane fatal. Sorcerer's Mantle increases Magic Evade and makes it easier to go without Force Shield for longer, but also loses haste. Vishnu Vest loses too much Magic Evade. Looks like I had the right setup to begin with.

So let's recount our attempts after settling on the strategy. Full disclosure and whatnot - I reloaded a savestate from just before the fight, rather than walking back from the save point each time. Because there were a _lot_ of tries involved.

1. Condemn from Grand Cross. Went for broke at that point and died to Reaper's Sword.
2. Mistimed the shield switch, and Delta Attack appeared
3. First phase got hasted, Confuse from Grand Cross while waiting for White Hole/Evil Eye, things got out of hand
4. Berserk during phase 1
5. Meteor rolled too high damage, second cycle of phase 2.
6. Double Dimension Zero
7. Meteor into Dimension Zero.
8. Like 3. Decided not to switch the shield after Slow couldn't be reapplied, and petrify of all things came from Grand Cross.
9. Aging status out of Grand Cross in the first phase. Picard fought on and successfully handled the status, then Meteor into Dimension Zero.
10. White Hole in phase 1, couldn't switch shield.
11. Berserk during phase 1.
12. Berserk during phase 1.
13. Berserk during phase 1.
14. Triggered the second phase while poisoned. Meteor.
15. Zombie out of Grand Cross
16. Got really far - he had to have been dead within the next hit or two - then double Dimension Zero.
17. Berserk during phase 1.
18. Graviga and Meteor combo
19. Was presented with a decision due to poison: Magic Lamp to stop Dimension Zero, or heal to stop Meteor. I went with the latter, and got double Dimension Zero
20. Graviga and Meteor combo
21. Meteor into Dimension Zero.
22. Zombie out of Grand Cross
23. Double Dimension Zero. Began keeping track of second form HP at this point. It had 27149 left.
24. Berserk during phase 1.
25. Berserk during phase 1.
26. The first phase was routine. During the second phase, White Hole was the second attack of the no-interrupt phase all three times, and all three times it missed. Delta Attack showed up twice, and Holy was blocked once. The Grand Cross in phase one did nothing, and one that showed up in phase two did Mini. Picard just kept on blasting, and just before Enuo got to his third fixed Dimension Zero...


Finally, FINALLY it was over.


Picard was victorious!!

I tried to get an emulator movie of the Enuo battle, but unfortunately, it desynced when I tried to play it back. Similarly, I was streaming a few attempts at the fight, but wasn't streaming on the winning attempt.


So before the Cloister of the Dead, Solo exception #3 is here. If you don't have a Necromancer, this enemy just sits here growling at you. With it...


Picard used the Chaos Orb and Flame Cannon for fun here, hitting for 9999.


It's worth noting that the Ultima Weapon sword is a light sword, meaning it's not limited to the Knight and Gladiator. It actually does almost as much damage as the fully powered Chicken Knife. Picard equipped it at times for the novelty, but mostly stuck with the Main Gauche.

Not much to say about the boss rush. I realized at about Twin Tania that I had to be conservative with the Blitzshots. Even after that, Picard ended with only 8 of them in stock. A few highlights...


This time, it was Combine that did the most damage.


Sweet, sweet vengeance.


To stop its ???? counters, Picard used Power Cannon on Tyrannosaur


This time, the flowers didn't even get to show up.


Against the two who counter things that are not magic, Archeodemon got Power Cannoned to death, with it not triggering counters. He did the same to Omniscient before realizing he's vulnerable to Berserk - the attacks would do around 1000 damage. Picard pulled out Silver Cannon for aging to be on the safe side.


As mentioned before, Atomos will drag petrified party members if at least one is dead, but will Comet you if everyone is petrified. But it was petty damage at this point.

Catastrophe finally put an end to the float nonsense, and-


Oh.


Oh god.


OH GOD.


Yes!!


For the final fight, Picard used two shots to down the barriers, Dark Cannon followed by Slow Cannon on Necro, then blew him away.


And that's the postgame!!

So Picard had an easier time than Rathma through the postgame, and - certainly no doubt due to not having the Undead handicap - was able to get through it without having to go Bare/Freelancer. The ability to equip shields really isn't to be understated in this game, either. Picard found himself using three different shields at some points. And Combine is a very powerful ability, and was really able to show off its potential in the postgame. Again, that's not to understate the power of Open Fire - the only thing stopping it from being competitive at the end of the game was the power of Combine, as well as Chicken Knife/Ultima Weapon.

And that finally, really wraps up Picard's adventure. There are indeed classes out there that can handle the entire postgame on their own. The question thus arises of who else can accomplish this task? Picard was able to sleek by Enuo with his non-counterattack inducing Combines, but others would have to deal with them. Perhaps a question for another day.

Index