FFL3 Low Level Game Part I

Having done variants of the first two FFL games on the Gameboy, I decided: let's complete this trifecta. SaGa3 is to Final Fantasy as FF2 is to SaGa. That is to say, they're more like the series being compared to rather than their own. In fact, the team from FFMQ worked on FFL3, explaining many of the graphical and mechanical similarities. There's also a DS remake of this as with SaGa2 which does give it SaGa mechanics (and a kickass rock soundtrack), that I own a cart of. Completely out of my native language, but I like it and finished it anyway. So now, I play through the original.

The flavor of variant today? Well, I was stuck on this one for a while...no transformation is actually easy, solo runs aren't that bad despite a GameFAQs board dweller by name of DragonAtma's enthusiasm over them to the point of thinking someone asking for Gameshark codes wanted to do a solo run. And thinking solo anything-but-human/mutant/robot were probably impossible only for someone to prove him wrong on the Cyborg and Beast's accounts (Monster proved impossible, or at least highly improbable).


So anyway, I was stuck on a challenge and names for a while. Then when listening to a track from the remake, Youtube delivered the answer to me: we're doing a low-level game. Something I couldn't do in the remake, since it uses SaGa mechanics. But I do like the Japanese names, so we'll use those as our naming scheme.


Since this is a low-level game, we can just run from everything. Well, if the enemy would let us, anyway. The formula is partially based on level. Luckily, we have an overpowered babysitter by the name of Myron (Melrose in the Japanese version), who's immune to basically everything that gets thrown at him at this point, AND if all our party members are dead, he can clean up and rake in some important cash for preparation purposes.


Because this is not the remake, the first dungeon does not have any boss waiting for us. In that, the boss is a giant boulder enemy.


But shortly thereafter on the overworld after some plot, there is. The WaterHag can actually hurt Myron signficantly. It has 480 HP, and is open to Ice attacks, getting hit by molotov cocktails from Dune, and Myron's axe.


This one took a while...and it was also important for everyone but Myron to be dead at the end. Can't be gaining experience when it's not necessary, after all.


Before I make for the past, I decide to take Myron on a rampage for money.


Ummm...a LOT of time later, some of actually is attributable to the random encounters never popping, and a lot of which is tied to everyone having to die before he could win, and we're ready.


With this, we buy this set of equipment for everyone. Napalm are the aforementioned molotov cocktails. They're a consumable weapon, doing decent damage to anything that gets in the way.


However, I make a miscalculation in this regard...the next boss is Lara, a possessed mutant/esper who is immune to these molotov cocktails. I have to go back and get some real weapons. Damage with these is determined by a simple formula, according to a game mechanics guide on The FAQs.

Damage = skill x (WP + Att. + Agi.) - Def.

Skill is 1 in most instances, but humans get 2 on everything. With this in mind, the best weapons turn out to be the Razor Whip for Dune and Shiryuu, and Psi Knives for Polnaref and Milfi (which they get 2 on). Still, the question of how to stop her killing me arises.


And to answer that. While Lara isn't hampered by the elements, the same can't be said about status. She's vulnerable to blind AND poison, so a good opening round later, and she was missing all her spells and taking poison damage each turn. Didn't take too long after that for her to fall.


We got our first bit of forced experience out of this, but we also have a new 5th party member to absorb experience.


Just in time too, as here comes some freaky worm from the abyss to play with us.

This turned out to be a tricky boss to figure out. Dogra's two witches are basically fodder. But he attacks with a variety of nasty moves, including the paralyzing Bite, D-Beam which does decent damage, WindUp which does even more, and Stench which is relatively painless but lowers defense.

I first went in by buffing up Lara with Shell (probably better to call it Protect) and trying to have her solo the boss with Lit1. This didn't work out too well...while it did around 190 every time, WindUp did too much damage, and I had to rely on dodges. I needed to retreat and buy some Cure2s.


This still wasn't enough - the others did have to pitch in, or she'd run out of MP. So I bought Aero for Polna and Milfi, which did around 90 damage. This still wasn't quite the right strat - I did need Shell, otherwise when it came down to Lara, she'd just die. So Polna donned a Shell spell and used it to buff up Lara.


That did it.


Now we get a whole lot of stuff available to us in an underwater city. New armor! A new bomb we can throw that is non-elemental! Elixirs which can also revive! I spent forever getting money the first time, and wasn't in the mood to do it again...


We simply spend almost all our money, have more money than we have stolen from us..


And presto! No need to waste my life cash grinding with fifth party members any longer. Well, maybe not for a while and hopefully not, anyway. It's an exploit, sure, but I just want to get on with this. All we're really doing is greasing the wheels of time.


In the present version of this city, we find even better stuff, as well as TNT. The formula for these fixed damage weapons are Damage = skill x WP - Def.

Skill is 4 in the case of most guns and cripplers. In the Psi gun's case, mutants get a bonus of 2x Magic. And humans can use the Poison Gun with skill 8. Skill is 4 in the case of every other fixed weapon, including these bombs. We stock up and head up the South Tower, which has a layout very similar to the North Tower.

Most of my dungeon travel consists of saving past everything, since I can't run from most random encounters. Death just gives you the chance to retry, but it means nothing if I can't ever run.


Ashura makes his third appearance in a row. And he is kind of a jerk. He too, brings two cronies, and can basically kill us in one hit. Luckily, he has some non-fatal actions, including defending - which many enemies have - and missing.

Our strategy? Bomb the Lizardmen and hope three members survive. Then keep healing with Elixirs while blowing stuff up. Amazingly, I got this to work on the seventh try, with everyone surviving, and got an important bonus as well.


This is meat from the Warriors that were with him, that Milfi eats to become a fairy. Compare her stats. Not all an improvement, but the important part that isn't shown is oQuake.


This is very important on the next boss we need to face down (after restocking, of course), Chaos. He seems to always open with Quake, which is a total party wipe at these low levels...short of resisting the attack or it missing.

The strategy is simple, but luck-based. He needs to miss someone on the first Quake. Then Milfi and whoever's left can go for Elixir revivals until both go through without dying. Then we toss out TNT and hope he cooperates. Took a good dozen attempts at the battle.for this and everyone to survive, not counting battles where Quake killed everyone but Milfi at the start. Of course, this is assuming you completely forget about the Guard command...which I did. I actually did so for a while. That would've ensured only two party members got hit.


Polnareff actually ran out of TNT, but luckily, I had some Grenades in stock so he could keep at it. Before long...


It was done. One of the hardest bosses in the game, felled by low levelers.


But now, here's what makes non-humans/mutants so weird in SaGa3 Gameboy. See, what you become is based on a table of elements and your level. But after leveling up, you may randomly transform into a new monster. So now Milfi is something completely different from what she was. You can't just stay one thing...which is idly what the aforementioned someone ran into as a problem when trying a solo monster.

Random third-hand quote on the subject, while we're here:
"Not sure how true this is, but I once heard that Kawazu said in some interview that he makes SaGa games so labyrinthine in their mechanics on purpose. His reasoning is that every time he plays his -own- game, he wanted to be surprised. On the surface, this comment seems harmless, but when you really think about how games are made... it must take a hell of a lot of complex coding to create something functional where the creator itself has no idea of the expected result."

There's a definitive method to the madness, though. On analyzing it, I figure this might not be as damaging as I feared it might be (and again, didn't think of Guard as an option for pulling through), and decide to press on. In before I overlooked stuff and get ruined horribly for it...and in before I overcome it anyway, since no amount of pain has stopped me yet.


One last weird-mechanic thing worth noting to close off this first part...you can only gain one level at a time. We SHOULD be level 9 or level 10, but because of this restriction, we're only level 4. And yes, this does mean this technically isn't the lowest level game possible. I'm probably a masochist, but I'm not that much of a masochist to go for that. Making sure everyone survives every fight with forced EXP works in a way.

Next | Index

FFL3 Low Level Game Part II

In the future, there's a bunch of shipwrecks. Some of these are actually there in other time periods, but they're all accessible here. For whatever reason, taking the chests inside in the future removes them from the past and present too.

Also, that underwater town? Has new stuff as well, but it's full of WaterHags because of some mystery disease. The good news is, you can transform into some with a spell to shop and interact normally. The bad news is, there's no sidequest to fix it in this version. :<


The futuristic town of Viper has...stuff that looks good from the previous two games, but are suckers' traps in that regard. Dragon Helms are strictly weaker than the Speed Helms. Dragon Shields are only a slight upgrade. Dragon Armor has none of the nice resistances from the previous two games. Geta are the only decent thing here, slightly weaker than Dragon Boots, providing +5 Agility instead of +5 Magic.


And we get a new fifth party member, and take off into the clouds with him.


Stars/Flashbangs/Flares are a ripoff, powerwise. TearGas is just as strong, though both target all enemies and are the strongest bombs yet at 60WP. The status they inflict differs, though. Stars inflict blind, and TearGas paralysis.


Though we have a new fifth party member, Dion doesn't participate in the next boss fight. Maitreya was pitifully easy. Teargas wiped out her Lamia companions while dealing 440~ damage to her. She could also be blinded. Very easy fight that went by so quickly that I don't remember much about it, other than her Cyclone being dangerous.

We picked up an Exit spell on the way here, so we can just teleport out instead of walking back through enemy hell, saving a lot, and hoping for no encounters.

So taking off into the Pureland!! I skipped out on buying ATMs here (70WP), since I had plenty of Teargas and it wasn't that much weaker. The Catnip is a necessary, but easy-to-get item that lets me bypass some cats/fights in Fenrir's place.


Fenrir himself was a simple fight with the right equipment. I had Mage robes to protect against confusion, and Diamond Shields to stop Lit2 (which was actually survivable by everyone but Polnaref anyway). He could even be poisoned; though the damage was peanuts..it added up over time so it certainly did not hurt me. Flood was a wipe, though.


Milfi becomes a Kelpie after this. Yeah. Stat comparison from before when I was checking to see if I would get screwed over at any point, which I won't. Nice upgrade, huh? (Milfi's agility is an equipment discrepancy, but was still a tad higher) I actually got the chance to eat meat after Maitreya, which could've avoided this, but elected not to. At least her strength is a touch higher...which might come in handy if I decide to do things one way.


New fifth character! Faye's stats really underscore how weak we are. Shoutouts to weapons though. And shoutouts to money.


The next town has a massive marketplace. Vulkan is the latest in fixed-damage weaponry (80WP), but I only bought some for Polnareff in the name of saving money, since I knew of a place coming up where even this big fat stack of underflown cash is going to seem a little short, and there's no way to replenish it via underflow as far as I know after a certain point. I did upgrade some more equipment, however.


In case you didn't believe me before...the Exit spell lets you kill off enemies with no gain of experience (or money), but even so, my characters still leveled after a fight.


Climbing a mountain to Guha. Who could nearly wipe me with FireX, killing everyone but Faye, and since he seemed to open with it, I equipped Dune and Shiryu with the Cool Cape and Ice Shield to protect and be able to rebuild. From there, the fight was routine. It, as shown had a mass poison attack I could've protected against.


But not having it came in handy the end, where it absolutely refused to kill off the rest of the party, going after Faye or even just plain missing, and so poison had to do some of the job. I was thankfully careful and kept track of its HP to avoid accidentally killing it. We get our first Mystic/Holy Sword for our efforts. These do insane damage to bosses.

How insane?


Well, insane enough that it does as almost as much damage as TearGas unbuffed (that's buffed with one Fast), though less than anything stronger.


Oh. And uh, yeah. Next boss not even one dungeon after. This is where I suddenly remembered, "Hey, Guard is a thing!" He opens with Shake that kills everyone but Faye...except if my party is guarding each other, and yes, from a multi-target EARTHQUAKE, the guarded get spared. This lets me slip some Elixirs down the guarders throats and continue on. Not much to say about this guy otherwise.


Block puzzles!! The only instance of pushblocks in the game is in the dungeon behind this guy. Thankfully there's no randoms to drive me completely insane in these rooms.


After this part, the next boss shows up. Jorgandr is...certainly unique. He's extremely resistant to basically all damage, sporting insane defense and oDamage, to the point of where those fancy Vulkans were only doing about this much damage to him. The exceptions...


That Mystic Sword Durend that we picked up pierces through and does around 400 damage for us. But also surprisingly, TearGas did the job. I imagine Star would have as well - they must be magic attacks or something. Jorgandr does resist elements as well, but these are non-elementals. So, HAHAHA GET FORKED SNAKE, right? Uhh, not exactly...remember, Pureland is a point-of-no-return, and you can't get more TearGas once coming here.

If I'd saved up 9 each and went with the other projectiles, this would've been a snap. Just gas him and slash him. Then Faye can thankfully finish him when he's at low health - she does around 100 damage a physical hit. But since I didn't stock up since this is kind of my first time through this version of the game and even so I probably wouldn't have known this, it's a bit more of a trickier endeavor. He only has 4000HP, at least.


I never got the point of this part of the game. You lose your ship, but hey, here's a new one. You also get the Shield in the nearby town which made it, which prevents random encounters while on the ship. Good for us!


More remake commentary: this is supposed to be the FFL2 main characters' family - they say they're looking for the Lost Ark or three imperial treasures, depending on version. Later on, you see them again, where this guy does state that some call him Captain. And in fact, in the remake, it actually is them instead of these substitution sprites.


So we can also fly, which lets us use Faye to retrieve XCali-


I laughed at this.


So we get Dion back before heading to the Underworld. One passage later - where Jorgandr can appear as a random encounter, idly, and wiped me once, we reach a town...


Where there are nuclear bombs for sale.

☢CAUTION!!☢CAUTION!!☢

☢CAUTION!!☢CAUTION!!☢ Awww yeah. 250WP. Of course, they burn a hole in my pocket, and now without a way to underflow my money...you know what that means!! But later, because there's a far more efficient chance coming up, not to mention easier.

Next | Index

FFL3 Low Level Game Part III

A few side-diversions later, and I get the last two Mystic Swords. All classes use these with a Skill of 2, except monsters which can't use them. For whatever reason, the most convoluted to get - the Emperor Sword, is the weakest at 75. Durend is next at 90. Masamune is 120, and as the cursed Muramasa it's 100. Xcalibr is a sick 170.


The next boss is protected against Mystic swords, unfortunately, until Dion suicide bombs him leaving us to deal with another abomination that would feel right at home in the Cthulu mythos


Agron has two big tricks. Petrifying me, which I had to go back and get some equipment to defend against, and wiping me with White, which...I couldn't do anything about...except having Dune and Milfi cover Polnareff and Shiryu, who were doing the most damage with nukes and Xcalibr respectively. Once Polna ran out, I switched over to having him cover Dune.


Took me way too long to beat this guy with everyone surviving. Milfi becomes a fairy with the last bit of experience we'll see. After this fight, Borgin, our final fifth party member joins us. It's his job to make us money by killing stuff, while everyone else gets stoned (which some evil clown enemies are capable of doing to us) and sits around not collecting any experience at all

The legitimate cash grinding goes much faster than before, to speak nothing of not having to kill everyone off!! First, I get everyone petrified. Since while there is autorevival from death, there is no auto-depetrification. Then, I can have Borgin fight alongside the Talon, which attacks at the start of every non-ambush battle (which I don't get with all the low level characters as statues). That plus a single White wipes everyone out.


I even take him in and actually fight the battles in some mini-dungeons, picking up this gem along the way!! It protects against all status, but doesn't protect against all the elements regrettably. Borgin is tough, but he's not perfect...


This group in particular can inflict a bunch of status on Borgin, and it's one of the more common groups.


Which is why I get him some equipment. Mirror Shield gives resistance to silence, and Earring gives resistance to paralysis, the two biggest offenders. I could've equipped that Ribbon instead, but preferred to save it for my party members. Diamond Gloves give ice and thunder resistance, Hecate Helm and Hermes Sandles give boosts to Agility and Magic respectively.


And eventually, 999999!! After that, it's time to do it all over again for more money. Once I do that, I make one final check.


It's worth noting that the ultimate equipment isn't all that. In regards to the armor, speed boots are actually weaker or just as good as the purchasable Hermes Sandles, except for one point of magic defense. Mirror Gloves give oMute like all of its class, but are statistically weaker than the Samurai and Power gauntlets and Ribbons will protect against that anyway. Armlets only offer 1 point of defense and magic defense over Bangles. Speed Shields are legit with their +5 Agility, but do note that if you want a piece of Diamond equipment on for its resistances, Diamond Shield/Power Gloves actually give more evasion and just as much defense, though less magic defense.

Of the weapons, Samurai Bow is probably the best. 170WP and not tied to the Damage element, the formula on its class of weapons (which includes the Ninja Boomerang, which is with 220WP) is Damage = skill x (WP + 2 x Att.) - Def.

Skill is again 2 for humans. You may have noticed earlier that agility is part of regular weapons' formulae...though it isn't here or for Martial Arts, which are Damage = 1/2 x skill x WP x Att. - Def.

Skill is 1.5 for Beasts, 1 for everyone else. So yes, this means that Diamond Shield/Power Gloves make no damaging difference unless these classes of weapons are involved. What about the other two weapons? They have elements attached to them, but are ultimately weaker than purchasable weapons like Gungnir and Defense - the latter of which gives +5 to all stats and has 190 power.


Enough padding, though. Let's do this thing. Since I probably won't be using non-Mystic Sword weapons anyway, I go with 2 Speed Shields (which go to Dune and Polna, Milfi has an Ice shield for omnielementalresistance along with the rest of her equipment and Shiryu holds the Aegis which gives the same on its own) and also get a Samurai Bow to play around with. That uses up all my forged weapons.

The trip through is leisurely. With everyone still a stone statue, Borgin has no trouble running away from every fight. Because statues are faster at getting away than not-statues. Seems legit, game. I don't even need to save at any point.


PLOTHOLE ALERT: There is no way that Borgin should have known that his father's brain is in the Talon2, because Dune hasn't even been born yet in this timeline...plus he never knew his own father. The remake turns this into a plot twist in an awesome way...but here, it's just something nobody who plays this game seems to otherwise notice. Check here and there if you want to read up about how it's handled there and more on these discrepancies, and maybe the FAQ there. It's really fascinating


There's three Ribbons in Xagor's Palace. These, along with the one from before, are very important on the next boss, Ballor.


See, he has this attack. It's called Dk-Virus. It's basically Grand Cross, randomly inflicting two of the eight statuses in this game on everyone in your party. With Ribbons though, you laugh at this. This is also why the aforementioned person couldn't finish a solo monster challenge. Monsters can't use equipment, and the highest-level monsters don't have O-All to resist this. The highest that does can't handle the rest of his attacks.


What you don't laugh at are his Nukes, which can level you. He has 34000HP. If you do the math, we need to hit him with at most 20 nuclear bombs to take him out. For contrast, the strongest Mystic Sword, XCalibr, checked in at 710. The strat was simple: two guard against the nukes, two chuck nukes.


Humorously, I once did win this fight with only Polnaref left standing. But this is a low level game, so this was an unacceptable result. Had to repeat until only Borgin was left. Things got hairy though, because he actually had to HIT him to finish him, which Dk-Virus inflicted blind was not helping that regard.


This took up a lot of our Nukes, so much so that I decide to spread them across three party members and give Shiryu the XCalibr.


Finally, the final boss. It has three phases to it - four on the remake, which we're not on. The first is against Sol, who just sits there. Once enough turns pass and you attack him, the next phase against Xagor begins. Of course, if you never attack him, you're free to buff as much as you want. I use this time to buff Shiryu enough so XCalibr does very high damage.


The bad news about this fight, he resists Nukebomb damage, until his third phase. Buffed, the Masamune and XCalibr do more even at our absurdly low levels, though it still does as much or more than the other two Mystic Swords. His attacks include various hit-all attacks that are painful. Dk-Force which basically flatlines a target for 900 damage, and a few others. There's a few tricks we do have to aid us in this struggle, though.


First, the Talon joins in the fight. This deals around a fair amount of damage, around 600 each turn.


Second, CHAINSAWS!! This doesn't instantly kill Xagor, but it does lower his defense a bit each time.

So what about his third phase? It triggers when he takes enough damage late into the fight, where he opens his mouths. This raises his natural defense slightly (XCalibr did roughly 100 less damage), and probably does some other things, it also gets rid of all his resistances. So still a problem for us?


Well..when trying to win, something strange happened that I haven't seen documented anywhere (not that there's much places to look) or seen on any videos. I found that Xagor will open his mouths early if he defends.

This made him vulnerable to Nukebombs. Of course, it meant that I had to keep them equipped and thus do no damage in the meantime, but that was fine, as only three people could use bombs anyway due to my stocks being drained, and I wanted two of my main party defending anyway. With this in mind, I stalled out, having Polna and Shiryu use the Saw and XCalibr respectively.

I did this. A lot. Masamune might've been better than the Saw, dealing more damage right then and there rather than allowing me to do slightly more damage later, but hindsight. I would've done this if the strat didn't work.


Eventually, around a dozen rounds into one fight, where I get a streak of nothing dumb happening...we in there. I have Borgin and Shiryu defend the nukers...then the fight quickly gets out of hand from there. I get caught in a revival loop, and eventually Xagor decides to LitX when I'm trying to revive.


Only Borgin left. All I can do is have him Cure3 himself, hope the Talon finishes the job, and hope I don't get one-twoed.

Things go well for a while. Then Borgin moves first one turn, healing nothing and then being damaged. If Xagor rolls first and uses Dk-Force next turn, I'm dead...


But then, the Talon gets a critical hit, and so it doesn't even matter!! This death scene, which would've been better if the nukes had done the job, brought to you as the previous two times, with ANIMATRONICS!!


Dune names himself because time paradoxes are cool...we don't confront Borgin for being a giant jerk because that's not in this version...


And that's all the Final Fantasy Legend games on the Gameboy completed with some sort of variant. Final thoughts here? This was a fun, if sadistic-at-almost-all-times challenge. Especially those last three bosses, who I had to have racked up around 500 tries between the three of them. Most of the early bosses had some sort of strategy or way to deal with them, though some of the later ones became "just hope it doesn't use the wrong move". I was surprised by that Xagor defense thing, though. The whole game really played out in an interesting way. Even if some of it amounted to bashing my head against a wall until the wall broke.

There may or may not be more FFL3 here in the future. I wrote I had some ideas for it in-mind, but I didn't write any of those ideas down. So I'd have to remember them for that. So until next time...

Index

FF2 Solo Monk Part I

Something had always been on my mind since my first runthrough of FF2 NES. Combined with my runthrough of FF3, a new idea for a variant came to mind. So after FFZZ, I decided, it was time for more copyright infringement.


All right Solo, I've guided you to victory once before. You've conquered the force of chaos and not one but two creatures of the void. It's time for you to conquer an empire in the game of FF2.

Playing through this game with physical attacks as opposed to magic makes for a far different experience, and runs into its own set of issues. The early goings of this quest aren't much to talk about. I take Solo up to around these stats before I set off to Phin.


Solo makes 4 hits on the way to Semitt Falls. The strength of unarmed attacks in FF2 is 8*(Fist Level-1)+(Power/2). I went with this character mainly due to his essentially looking like the Black Belt class from FF2 - though it's worth noting Guy has the highest starting strength of the three. A good case could be made for Maria though, due to her 15 Agility. If you've read my Magicians playthrough, you know how important that stat is. Guy by comparison has only 5 Agility to start.

I went through the entrity of the spellcasters' game relying on evasion. However, at least for the early game, defense is perfectly acceptable. Which is the path Solo takes. Long-term though, enemies will be able to break defenses easier and easier, and worse yet - it doesn't stop effects when attacked unless no damage is taken at all, except in one case.


The advantage to Guy? Well, remember. The first boss of the game is the Sargeant. Without enough power to punch through his defense, we're not getting anywhere. This would take longer if Maria was the character. With Solo's current attack of 36 (25 power with level 4 fists), he makes short work of the soldier.


On the way out of the falls though...roadblock!! The slime enemies have an absurd 210 defense score. Solo can't get through that...yet. Worse yet, this is an unrunnable encounter. What can we do here?


Well, critical hits break through defense. But there seems to be a sort of bug in the game...eventually, no more crits came. This was a reset.


Because of Solo's low agility, I sneak/save him over to Mysidia to pick up a Thief Gauntlet. We need to start building Agility eventually, and with it feeding off itself, the sooner, the better. We can't equip a shield for this challenge - unarmed attacks don't work with shields. This is the problem with going unarmed.


On the second attempt, Solo gets a spellcasting item from a drop. A 5% drop from Soldiers. Garlic inflicts damage to all undead enemies on the field with 30 Power (working out to 30-60 damage) - essentially a HARM spell. Granted, this run is soonthereafter ended by another run-in with slimes, but still.

The notable thing about spellcasting items in FF2 is that they are reusable. Or to be more specific, they won't always disappear when used. In Garlic's case, there's a 50/50 shot of you being able to use it again.

I was debilitating whether or not to allow spellbook use (mainly Cure) or spellcasting items, including spellbooks as items. In the end, I decided the latter would be okay. With that said, it takes several tries before I get a run that makes it through successfully. I actually do run into a group of slimes when I do make it, but critical hits manage to take them out, and Solo successfully makes it in and out.


I felt that this should be included in the report for the sheer amusement value of it. I completely forgot you need to use [Warship] to get by the guy in Bofsk, instead of the rebel password, [Wild Rose]. Whatever the case, I ended up exploring my options via my knowledge of hacking and whatnot. That horribly screwed up picture was the results of one such experiment, in attempt to get by the guy without moving him out of the way - by moving myself behind him

I eventually succeeded in this, but much to my surprise, the Dark Knight wasn't there! The Warship never took off. I started the game over, thinking I messed something up, using memory editing so I wouldn't have to build Solo back up all over again, but ran into the same problem again and again.


Eventually, finally, and a lot of fooling around later, I figure out the problem and load everything back to normal. I don't pick up the Pass at the end of the Sewers again...thinking that Solo will end up strong enough to take on the Captains to fight his way on-board.


Moving on at long last and like 3-4 runs off the early game, even with a roided out character. The Snow Cave wasn't much to talk about. Here, Solo demonstrates his ability to talk to animals


Here, Solo beats up the bosses, and manages an evasion. He currently sits at level 8 evade, which sounds awesome, and comes about as a result of being targetted all at once by a lot of enemies. But the kicker is, it's 8 chances to evade, at Agility + (Weapon Level*Weapon Bonus) - Equipment Weight. Which in this case, is 7%.


This becomes a factor against these fellows in Kashuon Castle. Their attacks have the HP Drain effect. This deals 1/16 HP damage for each successful hit. In layman's terms, they can Blood Sword Solo to death.

Meanwhile, the Stunner rats are left unable to break through Solo's defensive armor, dealing 0 damage and never inflicting their trademark status.


At least the boss is much simpler for Solo than it was for the Magicians. There's no need to muck around with running off to Mysidia early, even though I did. Two punches puts it down for the count.


So far, so good. Again, note Solo's evasion stats. For comparison, Alice hit 10 evasions by the end of the game, and Solo is not far removed from that. However, the big difference between them is the percentage of succeeding on those evasions. His Magic Defense is 6, which is as much as Patchy had in Pandemonium. Remember, due to a bug in the game, target-all spells occasionally cause the first character's Soul to increase, rather than anyone's Magic Defense. Thusly, being the only target in-battle really makes these stats - along with HP - inflate. Unfortunately, the going gets harder from here on out...

Next | Index

FF2 Solo Monk Part II

Even though Solo isn't exactly optimized for it, it doesn't stop him from landing a successful Captain kill. Still, it takes a lot of luck to pull this off - namely, his using Bow instead of attacking, or if the latter, a lot of the evades triggering. Not quite satisified, I decide to get a little more daring at this point...


I manage, through a combination of saving and occasionally engaging Mines/Bombs (who Solo is more than capable of beating! They won't explode if they're instantly splattered!) to make my way over to Mysidia Cave. If you recall, there's a very nice piece of equipment on the first floor...


To review, the Black Robe gives +40 defense, has 0 weight, and gives a +10 bonus to Agility. This unfortunately does not stack with other agility bonuses. It's a pretty daring move to go and get this so early in the game.


Getting to the cave itself was easy because of save mechanics. Getting in and out without being killed, though, is not exactly easy. Especially when I decide to push things further and go for the Gold Hairpin as well. Still, after several resets, I get a few lucky encounters, and manage to get it done.


I decide to send Solo into the Black Mask Cave first. You can purchase EarthDrms there, which cast Quake 10 when used as an item. Even better, they're reusable, much like Garlic - except they only have a 5% chance of breaking. In short, with a few of these, Solo has a lot less to fear from Slimes moving forward. He can just beat his drum and take them out if they're stubborn.


It takes four hits to down the BigHorn, a battle that sees heavy blows being thrown from each side. A bit of a scary fight, to be honest. A bad roll could've been a game over.


This took Solo to Dist Cave. Again, look at his stats and particularly the evasion evasion. 11 chances to evade, at 19% odds - him finally having started to gain some Agility. That's better than before, but again, not that great.


The going was absolutely brutal. These Revenants have the HP drain effect, Blood Swording Solo to death. The Gigas hit hard, and can take a few hits themselves. Both were formidable foes. Once Solo's stock of XPotions ran out, he was forced to just cross his fingers and hope he survived.


On the winning run, Solo got through with a mere 7 HP. Those EarthDrms really came in handy to wipe out the large undead groups at once.


Lamia Queen time, An amusing glitch was exposed here, in how Solo's sprite was being used on the field, instead of Soul's. Solo himself ran out of the room, dressed in white, then came back in to fight.


That was funny. What isn't funny is how brutal this fight turned out to be, especially with my going for a Ribbon again. She has all sorts of things to make Solo's life miserable. Wink 9 confused him - whatever attack he had queued still went through, but after that, he proceeded to kill himself with his physicals. Her own physicals inflicted Sleep status when they hit. Finally, she tops it off with Blink 16. The Lamia Queen actually has a very high evade rate at 70%. A single casting of this was essentially battle over.


After that...more glitches!! Gordon was dead when he left the party, yet returns alive. With the same amount of HP that he had. So we basically have a zombie here. One that died as soon as he was pegged with a hit-all spell though, so no big deal.

Earlier, I encountered a Behemoth on the way to Mysidia Cave (a rare encounter). Solo was mauled by it then. Against this fixed boss one, Solo just beat it in a few punches. Hooray for exponential growth!


This also worked with Layla a short while later. Gotus, I reset against several times to pick up this. Bacchus' Wine is a consumable item that increases Attack power by 40 when used. Very useful against those high-defense foes, of which the final Emperor is one.


Solo's stats around this point. Due to a strange bug in the skill system, possibly some kind of underflow, his Evasion growth skyrocketed shortly after Dist, taking him from 12 to 16 in a few fights. This is actually pretty interesting as far as evading is concerned. He has all these evasions, yet a fairly low chance of them triggering. He actually gained a bit of MP, due to MP-draining enemies knocking him around a bit.

His other stats are continuing to climb gradually. I was just surprised he hadn't maxed his Power yet. He only was wearing the Ribbon and the Black Robe - two pieces of weightless armor - allowing for the maximum evasion possible. Fists don't give any bonus, so it's simply his Agility minus equipment weight.


There's nothing really to say about Phin's Basement or Mysidia Cave when I'm actually supposed to be doing Mysidia Cave. Solo had more than enough power and resources to make it through the latter dungeon, and the former is never difficult.

This enemy group is at least somewhat interesting. The EarthDrm's Quake 10 attack is considered Matter-elemental. It has the interesting property of ignoring resistance to the Matter element. However, absorption is not ignored, and thus the attack healed the Soul enemies. If Solo wanted to beat a drum to beat the Slimes, removing the Souls first was important.


Solo picked this up in Leviathan. He didn't equip it though. The Power Armlet gives a +10 to Strength, and has a weight of 3. I want Solo to gain as much Agility as possible though, meaning he had to forgo this.

He actually died once on the boss due to my being stingy with healing beforehand. I kept to my guns the second time, and ended up taking less damage when walking through the creature's body.


Solo was getting strong. He could now actually damage the Puddings without a critical hit! Granted, it was for like 2 damage, but still.


Solo...actually lost to the Ice Gigas? What?! Well, it seemed as though XPotions simply weren't enough. The enemies in the tower were simply too damaging.for a full stock of them. Long story short, Solo had to use an Elixir for the first time here.

The Tower was at least host to something very interesting for Solo...no, not the Black Shirt. I didn't want to chance fighting that Dragon, and the elemental resistances were pointless since the Ribbon gives them to him anyway.


The Shoes are another reusable battle item, it casting Haste 8 on the user. They can break at 10% odds, but they're still very nice to have around. Solo gave them a try on the Thunder Gigas for kicks, landing 13 hits on the overgrown magician.


YESSSS!!! Agility bonus goes to Solo! He didn't get the Power bonus, sadly. After this dungeon, Solo got the Hir-DRAGON. This provides an unlimited use of Fire 7 in battle. Basically, Solo doesn't have to worry about running out of Earth Drums anymore, or he would if more Slimes were in his future.

What is in his future is the Emperor, his castle, Jade, Pandemonium, and the Emperor again.

Next | Index

FF2 Solo Monk Part III

Solo got some sick drops in the Whirlwind...he doesn't really go looking for treasure due to his not needing it, but accepts whatever his enemies happen to cough up. It's free money, after all.


Because of the wine, I decided to test one out on the Emperor. Solo could only do about 500 damage on average to those Golems beforehand, and with that one draught, he did this much. Very, very messy results, in other words.


Oh god damn it. There's that low evade at work again.

Enemies' physical attacks work by deaing 1-2 times their attack value, subtracting out defense from each hit. Solo's equipment gives him 50 defense, vs their attack of 120. So every hit does between 70-190 damage, and there's up to 10 of them. The very worst case would be 1900 damage. Even with added defense from the Power Armlet, this would still be incredibly painful.

As an aside, the Genji set of equipment gives 150 defense. So you're still not guaranteed to be bulletproof with it, whereas with evasion, you can just laugh by it - and way earlier than you can access the Genji gear.

But we have a problem here. That problem is, any appearance of these guys is dead. How can we solve it?


Well, two ways. The first is to start packing Elixirs instead. The Sorcerers on the overworld are a nice source of money with their spellbook drops, but can we do better?


Well, we need evade for that. Which means some agility building, which means getting targetted by enemies a lot. I settle in the desert just outside the castle itself. SandWorms get 7x85% hits, Blades get 6x80 hits, and the rare Malboros and Shades get 7x80% and 8x100% respectively, The Blades and Malboros are also assured to physically attack. All these encounters are also a nice way to earn money.

Despite the fact that Shade is a 1/64 encounter, I run into three of them on my grinding adventure. None of them pose any threat, but to their credit, they can at least take a few hits.


That aside, Elixirs were really all there was to the strategy. If we can't consistently evade them, just heal off the damage they cause. Only other thing of note is that I ended up with four Sun Swords between the drops and the fixed one.


With this, the only thing left to do was to get Solo's fist level up to the maximum. This wasn't so bad, especially with uselessly attacking teammates and because he achieved the final two levels instantly due to the same glitch that maxed his evade.


Now Solo could pump out serious damage on 210 defense enemies. So much for the attacking items. The Emperor also happens to have 210 defense, so these slime enemies make a good benchmark of whether or not you have enough physical power.


So into Jade it was. Solo particularly got two Genji Gauntlet drops from Dragons along the way. His magic defense seemed to be preventing the status ailments of the Malboros from taking effect. Or something like that. What I'm saying is, they were a non-issue. Solo punched his way through all the opposition, used Elixirs when his HP got low, and moved on. He fought the chest guardians as well, and had no trouble.

Funny thing - Elixirs can be used in battle, but they're actually a spell in that instance. Solo had so much HP, they didn't restore him to maximum HP if he was at really low health. Elixirs only restore around 4500-5000


Speaking of magic defense though, it rendered those Krulls that hassled the magicians completely inept. Their Blast 10 could not stand up to Solo's absurd magic defense. What was a problem were the DthRiders, who could Blood Sword Solo to death. Incredibly painful enemies, but ones that thankfully didn't show up too often on the ending run.


The Masmune, I'd technically consider usable by Solo. He could've used it in FF1, after all. It'd actually be the better weapon for the Emperor if we took the time to build sword to 16, but who has time for that? It still has a use for us though, as it casts a handy Haste 11 spell when used in battle. It'd considered spread unlike the Shoes, meaning we're less likely to be able to use it successfully with Solo's abyssmal intelligence, but it never breaks.


I had the fortune of running into not one, but TWO Giants along the way. These actually apparently play the boss music when you encounter them in the NES version, pretty crazy. They're most notable for the loot they can give you - both of them coughed up Xcalibrs.


None of the Genji Guardians were really a threat. Astaroth could've been a jerk with his HP Draining physical, but he chose to throw out useless status spells rather than attempt to murder Solo with those.


Only the Emperor remained, and here were Solo's stats before he engaged him.


He too, has an HP-draining special. And this time, all his magic was in-play, including the advent of Meteo(r) in the series, also known as Starfall in some translations. This does heavy non-elemental damage to all targets, but for Solo and his inflated magic defense, this only did 200-300 on average.

Solo guzzled one of the Bacchus' Wines he had been saving up, used the Masmune to power up, and let the Emperor have it. A few rounds later, the Emperor's 11000HP was depleted, and the battle was won.


Another game conquered by the fists of fury. So my thoughts on this? Some people have apparently said that playing through the game with a solo character is arguably easier than playing through with a full party. The Magicians proved this isn't necessarily the case - though the biggest advantage a solo character can have is having all the magic defense growth.

This is one of the things the remake fixes, since spread magic attacks are bugged in the NES version and raise Firion's Spirit instead of anyone's magic defense. Speaking of Firion, his advantage as a solo character is that it is his agility/evasion that determines whether you get ambushed, have a preemptive, or neither. This was mostly an annoyance for Solo, though it was quite amusing to see bosses (even the Emperor himself) get the first attack.

Solo's fist ruled out the evasion abuses. As you saw, this was really debilitating in a few places. All the defense in the world means nothing against those HP drainers, and you still need to worry about the ones with high attack too. Again, agility/evasion really is the most important stat in FF2.

Will I do more with this game? I have a few ideas, yes!! I've considered the opposite of the magicians: a party of front row warriors who have to sit around and take the punishment they receive. And of course, a solo spellcaster is an option for a variant as well. This is a very much unexplored game for variant potential. Maybe I'll be the one to squeeze as much out of it as I can. What a dubious honor that would be.

Index

FF3 Solo Monk (NES) Part I

The Job System has been a part of Final Fantasy since its inception. The very first one stuck you with whatever your characters happened to get at the start. The second one had elements of it with the spellcasting penalty on heavier pieces of equipment. Wear those, your damage output with magic takes a dive and the odds of status magic plummet.

The fifth had arguably the best in the series, with several different formal jobs unlocked at each crystal. Between Sullla, T-Hawk, myself, and English Language, solo reports of every job class in the game has been done. Tactics had a setup where units could unlock jobs by gaining Job Points in other jobs, and even some unique characters had special job classes (that's also popular for job challenges, party-based and solo, though reports of it on Realms Beyond seem to be scarce for some reason). The twelfth even had a job system of sorts in the aptly-named International Zodiac Job System release. Well, aptly-named except for the International Part, since it never came out stateside. It also has a presence in games like the mobile-only (WHY?) Final Fantasy Dimensions, Final Fantasy: The Four Heroes of Light, and the latter's spiritual successor, Bravely Default.


In this report, we'll be playing Final Fantasy III, the game with the most archaic representation of the formal job system. One catch: this game, particularly the NES version, is nowhere near as condusive to soloing as FF5 or...well, any other game in the series, really. Some bosses demand the solutions of particular job classes. Furthermore, several jobs simply exist as near or full-on straight-across upgrades of other classes. The White/Black Mages and Devout/Magus classes in particular, or almost every class and the Ninja/Sage. Furthermore, in NES version, there's a level requirement to use jobs from each crystal! One that we can bypass, but still. Regardless of the circumstances, I was curious as to how a solo job challenge would play out if one actually attempted it on this game. So that's what I'm doing.

It should be stated the DS/PSP release fixes some of these job nuiances - but has its own share of issues and retains some of the other problems. In fact, it could be argued it's even less friendly to soloing at times. So it's pretty much a wash. While I am capable of bringing you a report from the latter version, I figured I may as well do the NES version.

So of our six starting jobs, since we may as well start with the basics, Onion Knight is out due to being statistically weak. It would take a ton of grinding to get them far enough for the massive stat gains at the very end to matter, even though it would be fairly hilarious. Four of the other five get upgrades at a later point in this verison. The best case could be made for Monk - it has one good perk over its Karateka upgrade, compared to Warrior's one meh perk and the Mages' nothing. So it's a tossup between Monk and Red Mage. Power vs. healing and magic options.


One intro dungeon later...I may be committing some sort of copyright infringement here. But whatever. As did the Solo reports start as such in FF1 and FF5, so shall they start in FF3. For however long they go for before I get tired of doing them, because like I said, this game is not really friendly to solo job challenges. For this excursion, Solo is being joined by his old pal Dead. But since you can't name your characters the same thing in FF3, also joining him are Corpse and Mr. Boddy.


Solo picked up a pair of Nunchucks from the nearby village of Ur before setting out. The formula for unarmed damage for Monks' fists, along with the later Karateka class, is 1.5 times their level. This applies to each fist. So for now, these do more damage.


Umm...wow. Talk about your early wipes. See what I mean when this game does not like solos?


Solo tries to enter the first dungeon, only to run into trouble. Not shown is how these mummies can poison him and make his life miserable. Yeah. I think it's grinding time, and the game has just started. Shades of Solo's original adventure.


I took Solo to level 9 before entering the Cave of the Seal. This gave him a 4x attack multiplier on his attacks. I also made the quick decision to ditch the nunchucks due to their terrible accuracy. His unarmed attacks were doing more damage just on the basis of being more accurate, and eventually outclasses the nunchucks anyway.

The statistics are mostly as you'd expect them to be. Note that magic defense gets a bonus based off Intellect and Spirit. Solo is stuck with those stats at around that level, so he's going to be feeling any magical attack that gets hurled his way more than most classes might.


You may be noticing a trend with these screenshots...the random encounters can really rack up the damage. It should stop soon, both when Solo has the HP to fight through and the massive Potion stock to wipe away their damage, but for now, we'll just have to soldier on.


At least the first boss of the game we got to fight with him was a snap. Jinn cursed the village of Kazus and the castle of Sasoon, turning everyone there into flat 2D ghosts. Solo could punch him for over 100 damage a hit, and his Fire spells weren't much to talk about. An easy victory the first try he reached him.


Compared to the nasty undead mix in the previous dungeon, the birds on this short mountain dungeon called Road to the Summit were not particularly threatening.


The next "boss" is Bahamut. The objective is to run away. Somehow, this is difficult, and I end up getting killed once. When you run, you're rendered Defenseless for the turn, which lowers your defense and evasion to 0. This is, needless to say, very undesirable. While irrelevant for our challenge, any member of the party using Run renders the whole team Defenseless.


And now we have a problem and a solo exception. The next part of the game requires you to shrink down using Mini to traverse a dungeons. Making the switch isn't the problem - even though Dead can't actually cast the spell due to not having the spell charges (we're back to using those in this game instead of MP), Solo can switch over to do so, using a Healing Spring to get the charges.


It's this that the problem. No fighting ability. Yeah. You're intended to get through this part of the game by blasting through the opposition with mages. But we're stuck with one class, a class that cannot use magic.


This is what most of the random encounters looked like. The rest of them ended with the entire party dead. And remember, trying to run during a round renders you Defenseless. It wasn't actually too big a problem from the back row, since most of the enemies missed anyway. I kept this tactic in my mind for later.

This is also where the Karateka class has a pretty nasty fault in comparison to Monk. It has no Run command in its menu. What it does have is BuildUp; the Karateka can store power before using the Attack command to do double damage. It can also use the command twice for triple damage. The downside is, it gives the Defenseless property. While there is a part of the game where this is good to have around, I don't see it practical to get through here if you can't run from battle!! It's one good thing about the remake: every class can use Run.


The good news is about this place is, this is a short dungeon.


The bad news is, there's another one right after it. The Nepto Shrine. It's not too long either, but you need to walk back out after you go in. And remember, all the while, Solo will be unable to fight. He'll simply have to run from everything. A friend of mine underwent a similar ordeal before, doing a melee jobs only challenge. Of course, the big difference between that and this is, that I have only one character. Only one chance to run away per round instead of four. And if he fails to run, he'll be smacked around pretty hard.


I was doing a pretty poor job of getting screenshots. But those spiky guys have magic spells, and as alluded to before, Solo really felt them. He again ran from all of the fights. Those spiky things could kill him very quickly if they decided to cast magic several rounds in a row.


And there's a boss at the end. Now Solo has to fight. Ugh.


The good news is, Solo didn't have to whittle down its 450HP with just his dinky mini physicals. He could break out spellcasting items - such as this one to cast Ice2 - to deal consistent damage to the rat.


The bad news is, the rat has magic of its own. And it hurts. Umm, yeah. Solo only has three SouthWinds. That's dead. This is a roadblock battle for any class that has to go at it physically. What can we do about this?


Well, go back in time for one, as I forgot a few items. This Griffin is a monster in a box in Sassoon Castle, guarding a Red Mage exclusive weapon. It also has spellcasting items on its drop list, so Solo farmed for one. He also got a Zeus' Rage in Kazus, which casts Bolt2 on the enemies.


Finally, he went up to Level 14 to give himself some extra HP.


Even with the added buffer, this was still a ridiculously hard encounter. Spellcasting items I believe are not affected by magic stats, but can do wildly variable damage. Getting through the dungeon itself was no easy task either - he sometimes never even reached it. And the rat's magic is absolutely deranged. Solo survived one assault on his winning run with 1HP left!!


After his spellcasting items ran out and had done enough damage - and even in the best case it wasn't going to be enough - all Solo could do was beat away for 1-2 damage a hit. His constant Potion guzzling did not outrace the boss' magic. And stalling it out isn't an option in this game, since bosses don't have MP in this game, like they do in FF2 or FF5.


It took ages and several attempts, but the deed was eventually done.


That's not the last mini area we'll be seeing, by the way. But it's mercifully the only one with a boss. And with this, comes access to a ship.

Next | Index

FF3 Solo Monk (NES) Part II

With Solo finally back to normal size and me able to actually play the game again instead of running away all the time, things were looking up. Solo chose to stay in the back row for defensive reasons. He had trouble hitting the enemy at times, but they had more trouble hitting/hurting him. Even when he was asleep as shown here, they still couldn't hit him! That was amusing, to say the least.


He also found this useful spellcasting item. This casts Haste when used in battle, which doubles hits. There's only five of them in the game, with the rest being ultra rare drops.


Solo able to upgrade his equipment at the Ancient's Village. He found a Kenpo Gi earlier, and was able to purchase a Headband from this shop.


We have a ship, but we can't access everywhere due to a whirlpool being in the way. So next up is a dungeon you need to be a frog to enter, the Tower of Owen. Thankfully, you don't need to be a Toad the rest of the way. Being a Toad is like being Mini, only you can't cast any magic but Toad.


These guys caused Solo a bit of grief on the way up, inflicting the Blind status. He only had one Eyedrop in stock, so you can guess how that ended.


On hitting Level 17, Solo got two more attack multipliers. If I'm reading the data correctly, he'll be at 6 hits for a while yet. But in between 30-35, he'll jump to 8 and from 10.


He was thusly able to break out these improved brawling skills on the next boss, Medusa. She can do two things: a physical attack that doesn't do a lot of damage, or Break. Thankfully on that last one, the spell is inaccurate. So this didn't become a diceroll of a battle.


Beating this dungeon removes that whirlpool. The third-tier nunchucks were purchasable in the next...well, it's a cave of dwarves. Solo's fists were already better than two of these; he found a freebie earlier, but only able to access the one, it plus the second tier nunchuck were weaker than his fists.


Also, Hi Potions were purchasable here! Solo stuck to the regular stuff for the time being, but bought 20 Hi Potions in case he needed them. I should've mentioned this before, but note that when you buy in bulk in FF3, you get a discount. Specifically, a 10% discount when you buy 4 (well, 25/256 to be precise), and a 20% discount (51/256) when you buy 10. So instead of 12000, each set of 10 Hi Potions only cost 9610.


The next dungeon has petrifying enemies. Saw this screen a couple times before it was over.


Guzco was a snap. You'd expect someone with his build to be a melee-orientated attacker. This might be a good time to talk about how FF3's AI "scripts" work. Each enemy has a set chance to use a special attack. In Guzco's case, it's 80%. If this check passes, then they roll to see which attack they use. Guzco only has Fire2 to choose from, so that's what he always uses. Because Solo actually had his defenses from not being mini (yes, magic defense is zeroed when small too!), this spell abuse was moot.


Guzco someone survives this encounter, steals both of the Dwarves' horns, and retreats to the Flame Cave. For some odd reason, you can swim through lava in FF3 like it's nothing. Waterfalls of any kind hurt, though - whether they're made of lava like the ones in here, or water like the ones back in an early town. The only treasure in here for Solo was two Hi Potions. He picked up the Blizzard sword just for selling purposes.


This dungeon also has the first bombs and slimes in FF3. Thankfully, in this game, the slime enemies have no physical defenses to speak of, so Solo simply punched them a few times before they died.

There was also another enemy in here that could inflict Petrify on Solo, which sort of looked like a Chimera. He took these out whenever possible, but still suffered a reload.


The boss of this dungeon, the Salamander, has an 80% chance of using his lone special attack: Flame, which does an impressive amount of damage, if not for the fact that Solo now has Hi Potions. They easily outhealed this for about 430HP of restoration. Solo punched the lizard to death and moved on.


Next up...PAIN. Hyne's Castle is one of the nastier dungeons in the game, and not just because you're committed to it once you're thrown into it (literally). Those Pharoah enemies could inflict Sleep on Solo. Those Lamias could inflict Confuse. They could simply inflict status over and over, and Solo would never get a turn past his first. I ended up getting him a few more levels, and sending him to the back row once more. With this, the battles were no less annoying, but far more manageable.

It's certainly one of the more interesting dungeons graphically as far as the NES games go, at least. It's a fortress in a magically corrupted tree.


Hyne himself is certainly one of the game's more interesting bosses. Every third turn, he's guaranteed to use WallChange, which will switch his weakness to Fire, Ice, or Lightning. He absorbs all other elements. Knowing this, I was able to slip in some SouthWinds at the start to sneak in some extra damage.

Other than that, he has a 99% chance of attacking with a special skill. 37.5% of the time, it will be Ice2 or Bolt2. 25% of the time, it's Fire2.


You're supposed to use mages for this fight again as with the Big Rat; the game pushes you to take advantage of the Scholar job, which has a command much like the Cid in FF4's or the Blue Mage in FF5 to check enemy weaknesses. Hyne has 4x60% evasion to foil physical attackers, but has a paltry 11 defense. Solo just kept plinking away, sucking down Hi Potions as needed.


Even without the SouthWinds, this would've been a straightforward, if lengthier encounter. A bit more dangerous than some of the recent boss fights, but by no means hard.


You get Airship access shortly after finishing this dungeon (well, again; you're given one as your first vehicle, but it's quickly destroyed). Solo picked up some Magic Keys, which would be needed to access some treasures. He could get these later, and wanted them for an upcoming dungeon, but it was convenient to get them now.


Most notable is this find in Arguss Castle. Elixirs are hard to come by in this game, and restore HP and spell charges to maximum. You can never buy them anywhere in FF3, only get them as a drop from a lategame enemy, and potions never improve past Hi Potions, so their usefulness - if need to conserve them - can't be understated.


And that ends what I suppose you could consider the World 1 of FF3, the Floating Continent. Up next is the surface world, which would be World 2. Look out for it. And I do mean look out, because this is where the game's dungeons get longer, and the bosses get nastier.

Next | Index

FF3 Solo Monk (NES) Part III

The Water Cave is the next dungeon, and it, true to its name, houses the Crystal of Water. I'm not sure why these lizards are called Cockatrices, but they do inflict partial petrify with their blows. I also get my first back attack along the way. Solo was in the back row for safety, but had no trouble in the front. He just had to heal after the battle. I'm surprised it took so long to see one, though.


Release...the Kraken!! He begins out of battle by killing Elia, Maiden of Water, with a "Cursed Arrow". He proceeds to not use them at all in battle. This is quite the routine boss. He has the usual assortment of level 2 elemental spells, using them at 80% odds. Backed by 50 attack power, his physical accuracy is 5x70%. Attacks get exchanged, you know. The usual.


Real neat cutscene of the world unflooding. FF3 pushed the NES pretty far graphically in some places;


Bad news is, our ship got chained up, and the only thing we can do is punch mermaids and stuff.


Good news is, we get new equipment!! This is especially welcome. The Chakra Band gives +5 to Vitality and +5 to Strength, and the BlackBelt gives +5 to Agility.

We can't go to the guy who chain the ship up's place yet though. If we try to cross over the black patch of land in front of it, we fall into the Bottomless Swamp, hit the bottom, and die. Game over. Don't ask.


Instead, we need to go do a sewer dungeon. Here, we find a Catclaw. In the remake, this would be of practical use to us. In those verisons, nunchucks are removed, and replaced with claws - which both Monks and Karateka/Black Belts may use. In this version though, only the latter can use them.


The "boss" of this very uneventful dungeon...yeah. Only interesting thing is, the data I was reading was wrong. We did pick up 8 hits along the way.


There's also a Power Ring in this dungeon. More stat bonuses, hooray!!


With the floating shoes we get from a hag in the sewer, we can cross that Bottomless Swamp which does have a bottom and reach the next dungeon. Goldor's Manor isn't much to talk about. Aside from these Nightmare horses, all of the enemies here are themed around Gold. There's even a dummied enemy called the Lost Gold who were supposed to go here, but were not put in. I reset once because of petrification from some bears, but it's straightforward.


And finally in the flesh, GOLDOR!! The guy whose name makes me think of Power Rangers. Actually, this is a somewhat easy boss...for Solo. Remember Big Rat and Hyne? Goldor has ridiculous magic defense. My friend who did the melee jobs only challenge also did a spellcasting class only challenge in this game. She couldn't get them past Goldor, though. Serious business for them, but nothing compared to the trials of Big Rat for melee jobs or the horror that is to come.

He's yet another boss with three level 2 elemental spells, by the way. The site from before, the same one that had the FF2 stuff, has an FF3 guide as well, but doesn't seem to be as good. He sure didn't seem to be using the attacks at 80% odds, but who knows? His physicals did less than 100 damage.

Beating Goldor gives us our (air)ship back. Now you may be wondering if this game has a Penninsula of Power or something akin to that.


The answer is yes.


You're ordinarily supposed to fight these guys right before the last dungeon. More insta-death triggers are in the conventional way - you get blown up or something by these statues. But there's some outcroppings of land nearby where you can go and fight them early. As you can see, I failed against these guys - partially due to a back attack.


Death Needlers get 7 attacks, but only at 36% accuracy. Despite their name, their physical actually inflicts poison. At this point, Solo had 40% evasion. In the back row, these were easy encounter to win. Even if they ambushed him (and he was thusly in the front row), Solo could still land the victory with ease.


I take Solo to Level 37 via these battles. And for good reason: the next boss fight...whole portion of the game, is just stupid. It may have been overkill, but this part of the game is stupid.


So first off, when you go near this HUGE city on the map, your airship gets blown out of the sky.

You're now confined to this place, which has a few forests and a small dungeon that provides you with Dragoon equipment. The encounter rate in them is kind of low. And they're obnoxious at times. So good luck gaining any more levels if you came here unprepared. The game gives you that equipment for a reason: it expects you to use a certain job to battle a boss.


But even with the whole set. Garuda is no joke. He does one thing (or at least 99% of the time): his Thunder special, which can do in the neighborhood 300-500 damage. The way you're intended to fight him is by jumping repeatedly with your Dragoons, and hope you kill him before he kills you. It's a hard question whether to go all in or take a White Mage for healing - he doesn't use Thunder if there's no one to target.

All Solo could do here is punch and punch away, and guzzle Hi Potions when he got low on health. Each hit that connected did about 110 damage, and he was averaging 7-8 hits. Garuda has 5000HP, so it took a few rounds. Thankfully, the average damage healed by Hi Potions was just more than the average damage from Thunder. And he needed it to gradually rebuild himself when he got low on HP.


But, another potential roadblock battle done and over with. Easier than I thought it would be, though preparing and knowing ahead of time certainly helped.


We get a sweet new airship afterwards to replace our dead old one. The Nautilus can travel at extremely fast speeds, and that's what's needed to overcome some heavy winds, see the first appearance of Moogles in the series, and enter the next dungeon.


It's another goddamn Mini dungeon.


Wipes wipes wipes. Solo frequently met his end trying to run away and failing. Really not much else to say about it, really. These guys liked to cast spells a lot, which was extra dangerous, as the back row provided no protection.


Eventually, after about two dozen tries and a bit of extra leveling later, Solo got deep into the cave. Only to run into a group of four Dark Knights. He tried to run. They would not let him run. He healed up and tried to run some more. They would not let him run. I'm not sure what the running formula is. My best guess: something completely stupid. Solo tried to run an astonishing 47 times, and every single one of those run attempts failed, I went in with full Hi Potion stocks, and look where it had ended up!!


Annoyed, I broke out the spellcasting items. Four Zeus' Rages downed the first, the remaining Zeus' Rage and two Bomb Shards the second. Solo used his remaining BombShards on the third which was unfortunately not enough to kill, opened a Bombs R.Arm to kill the fourth, then set to work beating the remaining one.


Very very slowly, but DIE!!! HAHAHAHAHA.


Seriously?! One step away from the last room. And another encounter.


Solo used the two Earth Drums he had found. Despite these things having wings, they were quite vulnerable to the drum's Quake attack. That sealed the deal on this dungeon. Good riddance. This is the last time we have to go through with this. No boss here, thankfully.

I thought I took a screenshot of it, but I didn't. But Solo's Hi Potion stock after that ordeal: 24. He'd run through three-quarters of them in that one place. What an awful dungeon.


Beating this dungeon magically enhances our airship so it can go underwater.

Next | Index

FF3 Solo Monk (NES) Part IV

Before entering the next dungeon, the first side-dungeon of the game opens. The Undersea Cave beneath the triangle-shaped island. The random encounters were quite varied, palette swaps of the Griffin, Mermaid, and those weird tentacle eye things show up, as do weird crabs. Solo came in here to pick up an Elixir, but also fought these monsters in a box.


This looks scary, but Solo punched it down to size in two hits.


Against another enemy...this happens. This is the first of several enemies in the game that split when you physically hit them. The Magic Knight job class' unique weapons, dark swords, circumvents this behavior, as does magic. The clones retain the HP of their origin at the time of splitting, including the damage that made them hit making it possible for other classes to get by. Solo could take down their HP in two hits, so he did that, knocking out the clone and then the original.

There's an entire dungeon full of these things later. Another one is among the monsters in boxes, but gets punched to death in one hit, cutting out its splitting shenanigans. This is the one point of the game where Karateka would be more useful, since with their BuildUp, they would have a better chance of getting these things in one shot.


Besides the Elixir, all he got from this venture was a bunch of stuff to sell. The only thing for Solo to buy anymore are Potions, Hi Potions, and maybe a few OtterHeads - items that cast Exit outside of battle. The shops in FF3 are very limited in their selection, as are equipment options...so all this money may as well just be a retirement fund.


Next dungeon is the Temple of Time. The doors here have to be unlocked by Thieves or a Magic Key, just like Goldor's Mansion.


There's some nasty-looking enemies in here, but for Solo, they're more bark than bite. Behemoths take two punches to take down, but that Dragon is surprisingly frail. And no boss at the end.


What is here though, is through a secret passage up a waterfall, Solo was able to locate this beauty. The Protect Ring in FF3 continues to perform as a good defensive piece of equipment - all jobs but Mystic Knight can equip it. I'm not sure if it protects against Death - the guides seem to be lacking that data, but it does give +5 to Vitality. He sticks with the Power Bracers for now, however.


In the Ancient's Labyrinth...oh dear. These enemies can manually split themselves. It's a special attack which they have a 40% chance of using. And remember, the run system in this game is weird, and often refuses to allow you to run for no good reason.


Solo is able to deal with one of these encounters by throwing some spellcasting items out; with several of them confused and then paralyzed, he's able to win out. Though dies to another such encounter moments later.


Again, another dungeon with no boss. What we do get at the end is access to the Airship Invincible. A ship so cool it has its own vending machines, bed, and Fat Chocobo station.


It turns out I forgot a side dungeon when going for things you can access with the sub, but it flows a bit better this way by happenstance. So these are the Salonia Catacombs. Most notable here are these upper chests, all which have an Elixir. The encounters in there aren't worth talking about, because Solo beat them all in a single attack. Four Elixirs is a really awesome reason to come here.


And Odin is here too I guess. He does 500-600 damage with his Atom Edge special. Solo punches a lot and gets the win.


Back on the Floating Continent...Lake Dol can be accessed with the Invincible's ability to hop over small mountain ranges. These guys are yet another status-inflcting enemy, able to cause Solo tons of grief with sleep status.


Leviathan's Tsunami does around 800-900 damage. Nothing Solo can't handle before punching him to death.


Solo goes up to 14 hits when traversing the next dungeon, featuring Bahamut.


Yeow. Mega Flare hurts. Bahamut's own physical attack isn't much better, though. Unlike the prior two bosses, Solo simply couldn't outrace these with damage. With this much damage being thrown out each turn, simply healing with Hi Potions isn't enough, either.

Solo could easily win this fight; he simply needed to use an Elixir. Just one would be enough. But I want to save all those up for the mandatory fights that might require them. So he's left unofficially defeated.


Navigating the mountain ranges on the way to the next dungeon...there's nothing to say, really. These guys are yesterday's news; I fought them back when going to Dorga's manor the first time. Why they didn't make upgraded air enemies for these spots is a question for another day. They're even easier now, by how the Invincible pitches in at the start of each battle.


Back to the main dungeons, we have yet another dungeon where FF3 wants you to use a specific job class. Remember splitting enemies? The ones that split when you hit them, I mean. Almost every enemy in this dungeon is a splitter. Magic Knights' Dark Blades don't cause them to split when hit, and they're weak to them too. Neither does magic, so they would be okay. Solo would deal with this threat by...staying in the front row and one-shotting them 9/10 times.

This is also a seriously long dungeon. It's over twice as long as any dungeon before. By the end of it, Solo had exhausted his Hi Potion stock to 25, partially due to needing to stay in the front row to kill everything efficiently. At least there was the usual no boss at the end.


Oh. There is a boss at the end for once.


And an interesting one, for once. This fellow simply has a very powerful physical attack. Just like Solo. That's interesting?! Well, when most bosses we've been seeing have been using level 2 elemental spells or just one attack repeatedly, yes, it is!!


Hekaton has 6500 HP to Solo's 4685, so if you do the math, you can guess how this one was eventually going to end if he stayed in the front row. Solo fell back, and began healing with Hi Potions. I kept track of the damage, and it worked out.


The next boss...umm, yeah. Here's how every battle played out: turn 1: Solo punches Dorga, who responds with Quake. Turn 2: Solo punches Dorga, who kills Solo with Brak2. Can't get anything yet to prevent that status. Help?


Wait...fighting them just opens up Forbidden Land Eureka, an optional dungeon. Right? Solo decided to jump ahead to the Ancient's Labyrinth, past the evil statues, and fight the next boss, a palette swap of the one we just fought. Titan casts Flare at times, but otherwise is less of a threat and does less damage than his cousin.


Dammit. Guess we do have to fight them. Well, if he's using Brak2 on the second round, I guess we'll just have to kill him by then, won't we? He's got 4500 HP. Solo went up to Level 65 for 16 hits, then tried again.


Well...it worked, but it didn't work. Dorga eventually didn't use Brak2 on the second round, instead using another Quake and so Solo was able to win. Oh well, I probably will need those levels and then some anyway.


After fighting Dorga, you must immediately fight Unne. She led with a WWind attack, which is more like its FF4 and FF6 incarnations rather than its FF5 one. Rather than use an Elixir, I just had Solo keep attacking. She used Wall next turn...perfect! She died on turn three.

So Solo has punched his way through to the end. But now...the real game begins. There's a reason why I didn't want to use any of the few Elixirs I found at all.

Turn the page to see the last part of the game, where shit gets real.

Next | Index

FF3 Solo Monk (NES) Part V

So in preparation for the final dungeon, I took Solo up to Level 68 or so by fighting outside Sylx Tower. He got 18 hits out of it, and...things took an interesting twist.


Oh.


Oh god. I got a bonus, but OH GOD. NOT GOOD.

So while grinding up or traveling, I accidentally triggered the item upgrade glitch. This happens when you have a stock on 99 of an item and get a copy of that item as a drop. It was more than likely HiPotions. This caused a number of our items to disappear from our inventory, and be replaced with...other stuff. That's of far less use. It's a really freaky glitch; the most common method is to go forward one item at a time, but others are possible - such as what happened here. It can do things like upgrade your number of items, or even change the first character's job class. It can notably be exploited to do things like get the fangs and Sylx Key early, skipping a good chunk of the game. It's very versatile, and there's not a lot of easily accessible documentation.

I didn't notice until it was too late - I already saved. Damn it, damn it, damn it. I said shit was going to get real, but wasn't expecting this. Well...okay. Only one thing to do, then. Put in some codes and get back what was taken from us. Particularly the Elixirs, which were about the only big thing that got lost, because I absolutely cannot beat the game without them. No remorse.


With that garbage out of the way, Solo is able to move onto the Sylx Tower proper, and more importantly, explore the Forbidden Land Eureka. This is an entirely optional place full of legendary weapons...and this.


The Ribbon does everything you'd expect it to do coming off FF1 and FF2, but it's guarded by a simple monster in a box that's a normal encounter later on. A few punches settles this. Unfortunately, the Ribbon doesn't protect against Toad, as a few horse enemies show me. Bleh.


The first actual boss of this gauntlet is Amon. Like his predecessor Hyne, he can change his weakness with WallChange. Unlike his predecessor, he has no real protection against physical attacks, and so dies really quickly.


Seriously game? Those 99 stocks caused this to happen. I just reload a savestate at this point - I'd started keeping some since that incident just in case - and used up a few of them to rid myself of this nonsense.


The Masamune has unfortunately been downgraded to a simple Dark Sword exclusive to the Mystic Knight class in this game, though it's the second-strongest sword after the Ragnarok. It's guarded by the Kunoichi, who tries to throw out a MindBlast each turn. Solo's new Ribbon protects him against this, so it's an easy battle.


Excalibur is protected by this guy, who simply has a physical. Solo's damage outraced his damage, though, so I didn't have to futz around with healing.


Speaking of Ragnarok, its guardian is...Guardian. It has Wall and Quake at its disposal, and sometimes heals with Cure2. Solo just ignored it and punched him to death.


But guarding an Eldest Staff and the NInja/Sage jobs...the Scylla does one thing every turn: Flare. Solo's punches hurt, but they couldn't chew through her 10000HP before she chewed through his HP. Umm...can we stop it somehow without healing?


Yup. Barrier items, which we picked up a number of in Dorga's Cave, cast Wall. This reflects a single spell - as long as it was cast from the enemy side. A few of these, and she finished her own self off.


After walking out of Eureka and back through the Ancient's Labyrinth to restock at the Invincible, this is what Solo's stats looked like.

_________________


Well...since they were there in 99, I figured I may as well use a couple of them to see if it would actually work to rebuild HP. And, it did. Don't get me wrong, the climb up was easy enough. I was just trying to play as conservatively as possible. In all honesty, it probably wasn't necessary.

Through the Sylx Tower...I didn't run into any Dragons along the way, which are this games' equivilant of a Warmech/Iron Giant. They have the bonus of being able to drop additional Elixirs or the fabled, broken Onion Equipment.


Zande is the main antagonist for most of the game, and his gimmick is that he casts Libra every odd round, and a strong spell every even round. Well, mostly strong spells. He has a set pattern in which he uses them. It wasn't too difficult, and Solo simply killed Zande before he was killed.

Battle-you-must-lose, then it's onto the Dark World. The really final dungeon of the game. There's four bosses to take down here, followed by the final boss.


Cerberus is basically Garuda 2.0 - the only attack the three-headed dog uses at 99% odds is Lightning for about 1250~. Solo drank one Elixir to get by. Note his allies were revived and healed after that fight, so now he's not dragging around minified frogs.


Echidna casts a variety of nasty spells, but a good number of them are of the instant death variety, which Solo nullifies with his Ribbon. A pair of Elixirs allowed him to put this one to rest.


Next is Ahriman, and in fact is the first appearance of them in the series. You'd expect him to deal instant death like those that follow him, but...that's not the case. Instead, he opens with Meteo. He follows up by using all sorts of high-powered magic in a specific pattern. Solo needed about 3 Elixirs here to cinch the victory.


Lastly, the Two-Headed Dragon, who is absolutely insane. A 32x99% physical coming from 255 power. Even in the back row, that hurts. And let's not talk about the front row.

_________________

Okay. So. I was expecting heavy resistance from the final boss rush. What I ended up with was three bosses that were surprisingly easy after digging into the Elixir stash, and one who's nearly impossible. Solo's attack is pretty heavily nerfed from the back...oh, that's partially because my Gods' Wines got zapped as part of the item upgrade process. If I had them, this would be easy.

So another item to hack back in. I had five of them, so that's what I gave myself. These codes really didn't contribute anything I wouldn't be able to do via stupid, tedious busywork with the upgrade glitch. So how to beat this guy. What we need is more defense. Can we get more defense?


Amazingly, yes. TurtlShell items cast Protect on your character. This dropped the dragon's attacks by a noticeable amount. But...I had only three. I could do one of two things here. First, I could farm more. They're amazingly one of the droppable items you can get as drops. The problem is, the drop rate is about 1.6%. Second, I can turn the upgrade glitch against the game to save myself time and effort.

Well, I went ahead and got a couple drops, bringing my stock to 5. But then I got impatient and upgraded glitched 5 more. Could I have gone with less? Maybe. That upgrade glitch causing me those severe problems had really riled my patience, unfortunately. It's semi-legitimate at best, but it felt good to turn it against the game.


So one trip back up the tower later, we were ready. I went straight for that dragon this time. After a couple false starts that gave me nice walks back up the tower, everything fell into place. Two wines got drank, ten shells got used. Was it overkill? Might have been, Two-Headed Dragon's damage was wildly variable. It could do as little as 29 damage in the front row, and as much as 3000~ in the back row. But Solo's offense was far more consistent. He still had to drink five Elixirs over the course of the fight, but eventually...


EAT IT.


The actual run of the ending rush wasn't much to talk about, having talked about them before. Solo...in retrospect, stupidly used a wine each on each of the final crystal bosses, leaving none left for the final boss.


The bad news is, I was clean out of potions by the end. Had to use one Elixir; even the draining stock wasn't consistent enough.


The good news is, Solo hit Level 81 on the doorstep of the final boss. This took him up to 20 hits. He was 33 HP away from the maximum, which was a little disappointing, but ultimately made no difference.


So here we are, the DarkCloud. Solo has already punched one horror looking to turn all into the void to death. Can he punch out another? Note that without having beaten the four dark crystal bosses, this simply plays out as a repeat of the first, unwinnable encounter. With it, she (at least, from the anatomy and Dissidia I would presume this is a female entity) becomes vulnerable.


For the offense we're up against, DarkCloud simply does one attack. Ever. At 100% odds, she uses FlareWave every turn. This does around 2000 damage every time.


For the offense she's up against, Solo punched and punched away. If he did have an extra wine, or didn't needlessly use them on the dark crystal bosses, his damage output would be just under double this. Since he did not, all he could do was punch away. A pure damage and healing race. 45000HP vs. 11 Elixirs. 2000~ damage a turn vs. 2500~ damage a turn.












As it turns out, I was horribly stingy with Elixirs throughout the game. Solo had 6 remaining in his stocks when he won the battle.


And so guided by one of his fans, who again is arguably committing a kind of copyright infringement, Solo claims victory over another Final Fantasy game. The game itself conspired against him towards the end there, which was frustrating. But he got through to the end. I hope I have served him well

It's worth noting that after completing this, I found a guide on GameFAQs that details exactly this kind of challenge. The writer advised going to level 99 for Sylx and the Dark World - at least for a Monk. It also detailed the White Mage and Black Mage versions of the quest; the former was actually the easier one, which doesn't really surprise me thanks to it actually having offensive magic, the buffing magic Haste, and healing.

He also does silly arbitrary things like demand you exploit the upgrade glitch to minify your characters, but NOWHERE ELSE. He also forbids the Onion Equipment even if it's dropped, to the point of asking you reload a savestate if one of them drops a piece in Sylx Tower and try to get it to drop an Elixir instead...in a Black Mage game. It did detail a way to get Toaded without having to make an exception...but says it's okay to make a temporary switch cast the spell on your own party members but not for your soloist, but highly recommends it for personal pride. Um, yeah.

Well, it's a Monk game, so his strategies more or less matched mine. Except for maxing level, and the fact that he not once considered the back row as a strategic advantage. I was surprised at that. There's a damage formula guide worth checking there too, and according to it, attacking from or to a back row carries a penalty of Hit% = (Hit%/2). This is a non-trivial advantage when you consider most enemies don't have perfect accuracy or a high number of hits. I really was on the right track with that.


Thanks for reading. More FF3 in the future? Probably, if I can handle it. And considering some of the things I went through before and after, I should be fine on that front.

Index

FF4 Solo Palom Part I

Final Fantasy IV was a game from my childhood. After my older brother swapped it for our copy of VI/III with his friend. Thanks, Jeff. Thanks a lot. But, it may have been for the better, since I liked the game anyway. Still, I wonder how different my perception would've gone had he not done that?

Coming off FF3 and FF2 solos, I was tired of punching things. And since the first two RB solos of this game (by Sullla and Sofis respectively) were done with physical characters, let's shake things up and do a magical character. And unlike Sofis' messing with memory directly, all it takes here in the GBA version I am using is a simple change of address 02006068 to get what I want.


(art by en la festa)

Palom (on the left) is a Black Mage from Mysidia, the Yang to the Yin that is his twin sister Porom. Together, they are capable of using Twin, which casts the Pyro spell roughly 3/4 of the time and the Comet spell about 1/4 of the time, with a 1/256 chance of failing. Later on in the post-game of GBA/PSP, they may equip the Twin Stars for a chance of casting Double Meteor. Obviously, this is out for our solo challenge.

His primary skill is naturally Black Magic. It's worth noting that his twin sister and himself learn their spells at different levels than that of Rosa and Rydia. For example, the last black spell Palom learns is Flare at level 52. The last black spell Rydia learns is Meteor at level 60.

Palom also has the Bluff ability. This simply increases his Wisdom/Intellect by 16 when used. How does this play a factor? The spell multiplier is determined by Int/4 + 1. With Palom able to pump his up to 99 just with this, he can hit the maximum multiplier of 25 right from the get-go, with a bit of buffing.


Palom's stats are much as you'd expect for a magely character. Low on the physical end of things, and somewhat disappointing Agility, but high on the magical end. Among his starting equipment is an Ice Rod. Unlike the SNES version, the Blizzard spell cast by this may only be used single-target. It did on average around 30 damage to most targets. That's one disadvantage to GBA/PSP...

The good news about rod magic in this game is that it has unlimited uses. The bad news about rod magic is that, as well as being weaker, it does not benefit from the user's intelligence - instead using a fixed spell multiplier (in this case, 2). Still, it was a better alternative to physically attacking.


Let's do some image stitching here to cut back on number of images uploaded. By gaining a single level, Palom obtained the Blizzara/Ice2 spell. Whereas the first levels of spells have a spell power of 16, second level spells have a spell power of 64. Nearly four times the power!

Combined with Bluff, the Mist Dragon never stood a chance. It couldn't even do much with its physicals; they only dealt single-digit damage to even Palom.


Apparently, the General and Baron Soldiers are vulnerable to Pig. Pig is a status exclusive to this Final Fantasy, and it prevents all magic besides Pig from working. It doesn't affect physical ability. Think the opposite of Mini, which disables that, but allows full use of magic.

It's also worth noting that due to how status priorities are handled, Pig basically gives an attacker immunity to several statuses. If you can see where this is going now, you get a cookie.

Oh right, the battle...this battle works by having the General cast a "spell" to make the Baron Soldiers attack. If the soldiers are defeated, the General will cast a Retreat "spell". If the General is defeated, the soldiers attack themselves. With Pig on them, they couldn't do a thing, so they were easy to mop up after Cecil was removed from the equation.


Apparently, it's a bad idea to attack these guys with non-lethal magic? Could've been my first wipe if I wasn't careful.


Palom blasted his way through the cave by mostly leaning on his basic spells, which were more than enough at this point. Just about everything had an elemental weakness to exploit. A notable exception were the TinyMages. These little guys not only had an impressive magic defense to thwart Palom's magic, but would also respond to them with Osmose. A nice spell that's in our future, albeit one we'll be waiting until level 40 for. Short of a ridiculous drop.


If you thought Cecil and Kain had an easy time with Octomammoth, you haven't seen Palom in action. The octopus attacks at a high speed. Its speed decreases as it loses HP/tentacles, and its power increases. Palom simply Bluffed his Intellect to the maximum, and cast a Thundara. Considering the thing only has 2350HP to begin with, this was a clear-cut case of overkill.

Partway through the next dungeon, Palom reached level 19, learning Bio in the process. This spell is non-elemental, has a base power of 128 (twice as strong as -ara spells), and is cast instantly when used. Needless to say, with this, Antlion didn't stand a chance. I didn't even bother with Bluff.


This thing is a scripted encounter with an ungodly amount of HP - 45672 to be exact. Nothing Palom the destroyer can't tear through, though!! But that's stupid and requires using some Ethers, so I don't do it.


Speaking of breaking things!! MomBomb has 11000HP, but after dealing a certain amount to it, it will inflate, and after a turn, use Explode to deal damage and split into three Bombs and three GrayBombs. It never got the chance to do this, as Palom was able to blow it away with three Bluffed Bios before it could even say it was going to explode.

Nothing to note in Fabul. I gave Yang a break during the battles, just in case. All of them were over in one Bio. I was hoping he would be able to abuse Kain in the same way he abused the Sahagin, but the encounter terminated immediately after Cecil had been jumped on, followed by Palom.


And so Palom joins proper!! I actually had to reset here, because he joined with different equipment. Including, for whatever reason, a Rod instead of an Ice Rod. He was also able to upgrade to better equipment anyway.

Palom hit level 23 along the way to Mt. Ordeals, and he learned Quake. This spell targets all enemies not weak to Wind, has a base power of 200, and targets all enemies by default. This means that it does not become weaker when targetting multiple enemies.


Compare - an unbluffed Bio vs. an unbluffed Quake. Nearly ten times the damage on a set of six enemies!!

This might be a good time to talk about the damage formula for spells. First, you start with the spell's base power, which is modified based on enemy weaknesses and resistances.
- If the target is immune to the element, multiply by 0
- If the target resists the element, multiply by 1/2
- If the target is weak to the element, multiply by 2
- If the target is weak+ to the element, multiply by 4

Finally, if you are multi-targetting the spell, and it does not automatically target all enemies (such as with Quake), divide the spell power by the number of targets.

Next, the number of "hits" is calculated, based on the caster's spell modifier. First, the attacker rolls a number of times equal to their spell multiplier to see if they land a hit. If so, the defender can roll to see if they can evade. For monsters, the magic defense multiplier is always equal to 0.

The base power on each "hit" can be from 1.0-1.5 times the power, subtracted out of the target's magic defense.


If that's too complicated to wrap your head around, you can either check the Algorithms guide, or just check this out. Scarmiglione did not last against the power of Quake assault. Even without Bluff, Quake was a one hit KO on him and his Skullnants. With Bluff, I did enough damage to override his dying message, which is actually a script that triggers at low HP.

I also went without Bluff for his undead form, just because I wanted to see if I could. Bio and Fira actually did the same amount of damage, but I went with the latter, because why not? Since earth isn't actually an element in this game, he doesn't actually absorb Quake when it's used. However, he has immunity to the spell via a weakness to Wind, so it still wasn't an option for this battle.


Kain might not have been able to do this, using a solo exception to sleek on by this scripted fight, but Palom could! By Bluffing to the maximum and unleashing Quake, he could chew through Yang's HP, doing anywhere from 6000-7000 on average. It took some Ethers that were probably ill-spent, but eventually, the Monk was sunk.

The Old Waterway was actually slightly tricky for Palom. He could damage the enemies easily enough, but their damage was starting to catch up to his HP. He ran from more than a few battles when down here, preferring not to mess around too often

The body of Baigan casts Reflect on itself, in an effort to foil your mages' attempts to damage him with magic. Unfortunately for him, Quake bypasses Reflect. Whoops. Took two castings to down him, no need to mess with Bluff and risk an Entangle.


Cagnazzo is weak to Ice when he's inside his shell or not gathering water. He absorbs the element when he is gathering water, and is instead weak to electricity. Palom was easily able to handle this encounter. I didn't have him use Bluff here, except once in attempt to bypass the shell form. It didn't take, but Palom was able to outdamage its healing anyway with Blizzaras.


Palom officially leaves the party at this point, but what's that to us? This nice pickup in the Village of Mist gives a +5 to Intellect. This is about the only thing worth mentioning from getting the Airship. He could fight in Elban Castle aside from the Ogre Magi, but it wasn't worth it.

The Magnetic Cave...Palom had some problems in here. Namely, from Ogres, who hit hard even with the boastful black mage in the back row. Any back attack with them around was basically instant death. A mixture of Quake, and Bio for when it was good enough or facing the vampiress/bat groups served to get him through.


The Dark Elf at the end turned out to be an unexpectedly difficult battle, however. He actually has a fairly ridiculous Magic Defense of 254. Even with the maximum Bluff, Bio could only deal 1 damage on average. Quake wasn't much better. Palom was Level 30 at the time. I had him gain 2 more levels to pick up Blizzaga. He also had to keep the Ruby Ring on, to protect against Pig. With its power of 256. Palom was able to break through his massive defenses and move onto the second phase of the battle.

This is a good time to introduce the Boss Bit. This is a special flag set on a number of different monsters, the vast majority of which are bosses. If a monster has the Boss Bit set, any status a weapon can inflict will never be inflicted, and any spell with the bit will automatically fail - unless it is an enemy spell that inflicts a status. Spells with the Boss Bit include the vast majority of status inflicters. This is no FF5 - damage is what the game wants on almost every boss.


The one exception, however, is the Dark Dragon. It does not have the Boss Bit checked, more than likely by design due to it not being changed in remakes - however strange a choice it may be. Palom wasn't complaining in any case, as it allowed him to lock the boss down with Stop and destroy him with more Blizzaga.

The Tower of Zot had its ups and its downs. Palom could wipe the floor with the opposition with a Bio or a Quake, though they could easily defeat him - especially on a back attack. Had a few wipes here for no good reason.


The Magus Sisters are another boss who exploit Reflect. And just like before, Quake goes right through that. A couple Bluffs and a Quake saw Sandy and Mindy dying instantly, and a second one dropped Cindy. No sweat.

That brought us to Barbariccia, also known as a boss the game expects you to use a certain job for. The Dragoon Job by Kain. The bad news here was, magic evasion was included in the package of protection. To add insult to injury, Palom couldn't even get one off at the start of the fight due to what I'm presuming is a weird bug activating the magic evasion too early. So...what to do about her, who was a major roadblock for Cecil and even Kain to an extent?

Well, first!!! Something Sullla tragically overlooked when doing his Solo Cecil run was the Gaia Gear. This piece of equipment gives resistance to partial petrification, and by extension due to the game's code, instant petrification as well. This made a third of what Barbaricia had to do useless.

The only catch with this equipment is that only the mages and Cecil may equip it. Still, others have their way to go about this fight without too much pain.


His next job was to grab a Dancing Dagger - though this required a significant detour to Mist including another walk through the cave. This would be our source of damage, if magical attacks were out of the picture. As for the defensive line, he encountered these enemies, Bluffed once, and Fired every Puppet they summoned.

What for? It just so happens that every item in their drop tables is a Decoy. This useful spellcasting item lets you use Blink, which gives protection against two physical attacks.

So easy to stock up, right? Well, not exactly. Many guides tell you the drop rates on items, but what many fail to tell you is that before something can even be dropped, a check needs to be passed. There is roughly a 5/98 chance of this happening. So that Pink Tail? It doesn't have a 1/64 chance of being dropped, it has a 5/6272 chance. That's over one in 1250! Still, with the sheer number of them, Palom picked up a good dozen with no difficulty, also ascending to Level 40 in the process.

He also managed a Rune Armlet drop off a Puppeteer, giving him a bit of extra defense and magic evasion.


Long story short, this worked well. Palom was able to throw a Spider's Silk at the start, as well as Hermes Sandles for a big speed advantage. He chipped away for wildly variable damage, as low as 30 and as high as 350, but between the Gaia Gear, Decoys, and some Hi-Potions when the stock of those ran out, he was in no danger. Thanks to a bug in the game, he could stay in the back row with no harm done to his accuracy. I don't intend to abuse this for the melee characters, but why not for the ones who have trouble?

And that's the Overworld done, FF4's World 1. Next up is the Underworld section of the game.

Next | Index

FF4 Solo Palom Part II

In preparation for the first battles in the Underworld, Palom went out and...cast Poison on himself? The point of this is related to status priorities, as I was talking about before. The Calcabrena dolls were destroyed in a single casting of Quake.

The battle against Golbez features a problem and what would be a solo exception for Rosa and Yang. He paralyzes you, then the Shadow Dragon kills everyone but Cecil, before Rydia shows up. Kain can jump out of the way, those two would have problems. Palom, however, is not targetted by this...yet the paralysis is still a factor. But because poison has a higher priority than paralysis, the status never triggers, and we can do whatever in the meantime instead of being paralyzed. Sneaky, right?


Golbez appears to be magically immune before the Mist Dragon appears, though physical attacks work as they should. But once it does appear, and with Palom having powered up with Bluff in the meantime, he blows Golbez away with a single casting of Thundaga. Rydia doesn't even get a chance to appear.


A pair of Quakes drops Barnabas and Lugae together, taking out the explosion factor in the battle.

As for Lugaeborg, Palom had the Prisoner's Garb equipped to protect against his Sleeping Gas. He bluffed twice, then unloaded with Thundaga all over him. Each strike did over 5000 damage, separating him from his 9321 without incident.


The enemies in the Tower of Babel was more of the same as we've been seeing as of late. Enemies who are quite threatening with their physical punch to Palom, but who he can easily mop the floor with as well. To demonstrate, this is how bad things could turn out on a back attack - assuming we survive. Well, back attacks, and those incidents where we kinda sorta forget to shift Palom back into the proper slot after we switch Yang back in, just to be sure nothing screws up.

The Elban Cave was a nice break by comparison. Nothing here could really threaten Palom. He made a nice pickup in the underground shop in the Black Robe. He also had the option of wearing a Black Belt he had found, for increased evasion. I decided to give him the latter for defensive purposes.


The second part of Babel had some interesting enemy groups, including the Mad Ogres. It was rather interesting seeing them only able to hit Palom for single to double digit damage, when they previously destroyed him if he tried to open the chest with them inside in Elban Castle.

On the subject of breaking bosses you're not supposed to...Palom COULD'VE done so, killing King or Queen Elban before he finished their speech. It would've required grinding up though, so I decided not to undertake it.


As for Rubicante...um, yeah. Don't be turned around by that damage - Scorch did anywhere from around that to 1000, doing around 1500 on average. Palom's max HP was 1744. So several attempts could end just because of a bad roll on damage.

As for Palom's own damage output? Blizzaga produced a healthy 9999. Since Rubicante absorbs ice when his cloak is up, he took the opportunity he had in-between to fire Bios at the guy, which did just under 2000. He made sure to be at full health to ensure the best chances of surviving Scorches - he had no way of reducing the damage, unlike Cecil and Kain, who could slap on Ice equipment.

It took about a dozen tries before everything lined up, but the deed was eventually done.


And so Palom settled in the floor below, in attempt to farm Light Curtains. They were being incredibly stubborn to drop. Palom hit level 50 in the process, learning Meteor!! Look out. This spell has a spell power of 800, and hits everything on the screen. Though the massive downside is it takes ages to charge - it's 10, unless you're playing the Japanese EasyType, in which case it's 5.

Palom managed to pick up a single Light Curtain...but by that time, he hit Level 52. Then he didn't need them anymore.

So the next dungeon is the infamous Sealed Cave, bane of two solo variants thus far. I was farming those Light Curtains off a cue from Sofis. The catch of this place is the numerous Trap Doors. They use their first turn to pick a target, and their second turn to use Ninth Dimension, instantly killing the victim. The spell is reflectable, however, which can be exploited to kill the Trap Door instead.


Palom simply didn't care about fancy stuff like Avengers or Light Curtains. He could just blow them away with Nuke/Flare before they could even do anything!! Flare has a spell power of 400. It is single-target only, costs 50MP, and it is instantly cast when used. Fantastic spell.

But before I do that (actually, that image is from after I did that), I decided it was side-dungeon time.


The Sylph Cave was a nice time to be Palom, unless he got back attacked by Mammon treea and killed. If you resist one ailment inflicted by an attack that inflicts multiple, you resist the entire attack. This fact and a Rune Armlet completely neutered the Malboros.

He also had a hilarious solution to the obnoxious Bog Witch encounters who cast Toad on you - casting Toad on the Bog Witch!! She actually does this on her own when all the toads are dead, but doing this early...well, her command to make them attack is much like the Generals from way earlier. It's a spell. So with Toad on, she can't make them attack. Even better, he could use Osmose on the toaded witches to drain hundreds of MP. Unless it was that formation. In that case, an oversight in the targetting system made it impossible to actually target her.

There was a good pickup here in the Fairy Rod. Giving +10 intellect, it casts Charm when used as an item. That all said, Palom had no problem getting through the cave.


Asura's hook is her constant barrage of Protect and Curaga spells. Both of them meant nothing to Palom, who could pump out 9999 damage with Flare or Meteor. She counterattacks every time you hit her, but the damage was negligible. Leviathan...is a problem.

Some guides I see say that Asura is the hard fight and Leviathan is the easy one. In my experience, this is not necessarily true. Asura is just a gimmick fight with several ways to overcome. The traditional way is to cast Reflect on her, but besides simply outdamaging her with spells, going in with the Mage Masher works, and is particularly effective at low levels. Comparatively, if you don't have the levels or resources to pull against Leviathan, you're simply sunk.

Leviathan's Tidal Waves are tuned to 1/4th your maximum HP. His Blizzaras did 400-600 points of damage to each casting on Palom. Even with a Spider's Silk, this was a tough fight. One that...I actually couldn't beat? I probably could've with Hermes Sandles thrown in, but I'd rather save them for the more dangerous fights. So what else can we do? Well, I didn't explore the Sylph Cave entirely...I left a few monsters in boxes inside. Each of them has 6 of a certain spirit enemy in it called an Evil Dreamer, and like all the spirit enemies, they have a particular drop.


The Cursed Ring is one of the game's many 1/64 items - which, again, are actually closer to 1/1250 factoring in the odds of an item actually dropping. Also, I cannot believe I got that in just 20ish fights against these things. For as rare and only slightly more useful these things are, this is by far the most unique and interesting of the lot. First off, it's the only piece of equipment a Dark Knight can equip that are not its armor. This is mostly useless. Second, it gives a number of reductions in base stats. -15 in each, actually!! So why would you want to use it?


All your elemental resistances become elemental absorptions when it is equipped. Palom is wearing a Light Robe here, which he picked up from the Land of Summoned Monsters. It resists lightning, which becomes absorption with the Cursed Ring.

Still, you REALLY don't want to understate those stat reductions, particularly in regards to Agility. Palom went into that demonstration fight with full HP, and those Hell Flappers damaged him near-death before he could get off the Thundaga. Definitely not an item to be ignored, but not one you can wear under any circumstance.

Still, there's a problem with my plan. Leviathan's assault is entirely ice-based. e.g. even level 1 Cecil could destroy him with a piece of ice-resistant equipment and a Cursed Ring, though it'd take ages. But...Palom can't get ice resistance on any headwear or bodywear. There's some that give it that are armwear, but then he can't equip the Cursed Ring. Miscalculated there.


So onto the Sealed Cave it was. As stated before, Palom could simply destroy each Trap Door that blocked his path in a single Flare. The boss was marginally more threatening. With Gaia Gear to protect against petrification, and Flare around to do 8000+ damage with an instant cast time. Chimera Brains are scary for full parties with their max-HP based icy Blaze, but a single Quake could settle it.


The Moon and the Babel Giant were by comparison NOT nice places. The...whatever the Eukaryotes and Prokaryotes are supposed to be, did heavy damage to Palom. At least the flans and bombs were a joke. Palom could even cast Thunder on the latter, making them respond with Chain Reaction which made everything on the field explode.

Speaking of Thunder, it's the most common weakness in the Babel Giant. But Palom kept getting back attacked by enemies who could do insane physical damage to him. Trying to outsmart the game by putting him in the front row still didn't work as well as I thought, as Palom would still take heavy damage just from his lowered ATB bar from the nature of back attacks. And of course, it made ambushes (which don't swap your row but do lower your ATB) a thing to be feared.


The Four Elemental Lords/Archfiends was a fun fight, at least!! The hardest, strangely enough, turned out to be Scarmiglione. He would occasionally throw out a Curse - this status halves the physical attack and physical defense of the victim. Very, very bad. This was a frantic battle of healing with Hi-Potions while hoping he didn't do too much damage. As for damage, Flare did 9999 after a couple Bluffs, so it was the spell of choice against all opponents.

Rubicante would cast Fira (low damage), Firaga (heavy damage), and Scorch (less than Firaga and not too bad now) in order. Cagnazzo sometimes threw out a Tidal Wave for 1/4th damage, but he mostly ended up sticking to physicals. I used this opportunity to heal up, as he didn't really do anything dangerous. Finally, Barbariccia's attackss included a physical, Ray, and Maelstrom. The latter two never became a factor. Each archfiend took three Flares to defeat. Palom won on the second try...


...then died to a back attack so I had to do it over again.


Once that was that, that brought Palom to the CPU. He had it much trickier than Cecil and Kain. The CPU uses Reflect to protect itself from magic. Meteor goes right through this, but the problem is, it destroys the nodes as well. If the nodes are destroyed, the CPU counters with Globe 199, the strongest attack in the game. With the sphere's magic attack, it will almost always deal 9999 damage. In other words, it's invariably fatal. And no, I tested to see. There's no small interval in which you can hit it when Reflect is down. It'd be cool, but it just doesn't work.

So is Palom simply to beat the big ball to death with his little stick and hope for the best? Not necessarily. Remember, we picked up some Light Curtains, which cast Reflect when used as an item. The strategy is simple. The CPU has 30000 HP. First, we Flare the Defense Node. Then we use the Light Curtain (its Reflect lasts the battle), Bluff a bit, and reflect Flares off our own wall.

If we can hit it twice, we can do a physical, then cast Meteor for the victory. If we hit the Attack Node, we die. Simple, right?


This lined up on - amazingly - the first try, though I didn't have Palom Bluff enough and had to do a little extra damage with his physicals. Hi-Potions could outrace the 1/10 Max HP damage of the Attack Node easily. That's one advantage to low HP.


At this point in this version, you unlock the ability to switch in your old party members. So Palom can really be in the party for real at this point. Furthermore, a new dungeon opens that contains ultimate equipment for these characters. It'll be the first thing we do in the third update of this challenge.

Next | Index

FF4 Solo Palom Part III

The Cave of Trials opens up on Mt. Ordeals the first time you go to change characters. The enemies in it are quite tame - they're mostly from the Underworld dungeons, with a few exceptions.


Palom's first piece of equipment is beyond a hidden passage a short ways into the dungeon. The Coronet has 7 Defense and 16 Magic Defense. It protects against polymorph effects, has 18 on both evasion stats, and gives him a +5 to Intellect.


Sage's Robe is the next piece located a little later on. It gives +10 to Agility and Intellect. Check out Palom's stats now. Bluff has essentially outlived its usefulness. And it'll be fully obsolete at the end: the last room of the Cave of Trials has five weapons. If the coresponding party member is in your party, you can approach the item to initiate a boss battle.


Master Flan is the guardian of Palom's item. It's an interesting fight in the original release, due to it being given protection from targetting when at least one Flan is alive, but this is changed in the European release and Japanese 1.1.

His attack pattern is to first open with a permanent Reflect. Then cast Thundaga. Then cast Flare...and very probably kill me. Then cast Drain for like 1 damage.


Porom's boss is the T Rex. It actually has an interesting script where it counters elemental magic you use with attacks of the same element. It also casts Earthquake periodically, which did a pitiful 300~ Palom simply blasted it with Flare, taking that out of the picture. The Storm Dragon guarding Yang's weapon has a variety of wind attacks, including a damaging Tornado (not the spell version). Just like before, Flare got him through. Same for the Gigas Worm guarding Edward's Apollo's Harp.


Master Flan continued to be a problem, though. But I came up with something that worked.

So here's the plan: Palom began by throwing out a Spider's Silk before the Master Flan could do anything. He also threw up a Lunar Curtain. he healed after Thundaga hit, and had to hope Flare didn't kill him. If it didn't, he could heal, then fire off Flares off his own wall to finish the fight. Trying to heal more after the second Thundaga didn't work out. The reward for this was Triton's Dagger. While its 62 attack power is not that great, it does give +15 to Int, and casts Flood with a decent multiplier of 7 when used as an item.

As an aside, an uncommon encounter in the Cave of Trials was the Golden Toad. This behaves much like a Metal Slime from Dragon Quest - 65000 Gil and Experience, and it'll randomly run away. Palom could beat them by casting Flare, which caused them to respond with Reflect. Casting Quake caused them to cast it again, giving Palom a wall, which he could finally use to deliver a second Flare and win the battle.


I returned with Cid in tow to fight his boss, the Death Mech. It too, has a nasty array of attacks, including Globe 199. Palom just went with the usual strategy: Flare away and heal as needed.


With the increased Agility, Palom was finally able to beat Leviathan. Same for Odin. Finishing off Rydia's collection of summoned monster kills ran into an unexpected roadblock, though...


The Behemoth bridage before Bahamut turned out to be a luckfest. They counter attacks, counter holy damage (Holy and Meteor) with Maelstrom, and occasionally throw out unprovoked physicals because why not? I think that behavior is exclusive to these remakes. There's really nothing to say about these battles. Either Palom would kill them, or they would kill him. He made a retreat after each one.

The rest of the monsters in the cave were simple enough, though Palom decided to run away from them in favor of conserving his power for the Behemoths.

Bahamut itself...if there's one thing Palom's good at, it's a damage race. And when the opponent isn't dealing damage and Palom can do 9999 every time...well. He won before Bahamut got to 1. Know that much.


That last venture got him up to Level 70. So now let me introduce you to FF4's way of making your characters brokenly powerful: the post-70 level-up system.

It's simple. For every level a character gains up to level 70, their stat gains (aside from HP and MP) are fixed. For every level a character gains over level 70, they randomly gain (or lose!!) stats based on one of eight possibilities, unique to each character. Granted, this is well beyond what you'd need to normally finish the game, and even with the post-game content in GBA/PSP, you'd barely be scratching the surface.

For a solo character though, and especially one who may or may not be doing said post-game, it's something we may as well pay attention to. Let's look at Palom's possible stat changes.

~ -1 Str, ±0 Agi, ±0 Sta, ±0 Int, -1 Spi
~ -1 Str, ±0 Agi, -1 Sta, ±0 Int, -1 Spi
~ +1 Str, +1 Agi, ±0 Sta, +1 Int, ±0 Spi
~ +1 Str, +1 Agi, +1 Sta, +1 Int, +1 Spi
~ ±0 Str, +1 Agi, ±0 Sta, +1 Int, +1 Spi
~ ±0 Str, ±0 Agi, +1 Sta, +1 Int, ±0 Spi
~ ±0 Str, ±0 Agi, +2 Sta, +2 Int, +2 Spi
~ +3 Str, ±0 Agi, ±0 Sta, +3 Int, ±0 Spi

Skipping over the explanation of each stat, which do we want? Well, the 4th option, +1 to all, is obviously nice. the 7th also is beneficial for its large bonuses to Stamina and Spirit. The 8th seems nice, but Palom's weapons don't really have the power to support large bonuses to strength. 3 and 5 are acceptable, but not preferable if I'm near a save point.

So I kept this in mind as I advanced Palom through the Lunar Subterrane, running and being aware of Palom's statups at all times. I suffered some resets as a consequence, but hey, I came prepared with patience going into this quest. White Dragon just got nuked to death, nothing to write about.


Protect Ring!! FF4 breaks from the tradition made by the NES games by not having it protect against death, but this is still a damn fine piece of equipment for anyone but a Dark Knight. It gives resistance to the three basic elements, and a +15 to the Stamina stat.

Interestingly, I was able to pull out Break on several opponents here, taking them out at a cheap 15MP that would otherwise take more MP or multiple hits to pull off.


Here's the play-by-play of this fight: Palom uses Flare for 9999. Dark Bahamut uses Mega Flare and whiffs. Palom uses Flare, Palom uses Flare, Dark Bahamut uses Reflect. Palom charges Meteor. Dark Bahamut uses Flare three times in the duration, whiffs all three times. Palom casts Meteor, charges it again. Dark Bahamut whiffs three more Flares. Meteor resolves, and a Triton's Dagger stab ends it.


A silly solution to Plague is to throw up a Light/Lunar Curtain. Edward would even be able to troll by hiding; Plague would subsequently die from his own reflected Doom. Palom just went to work with Flare and won the race.

The Lunarsauruses only activate their Reflect/Bio AI script if they're attacked physically. Palom had little to worry about out of them. Bad Breath was neutered due to the Coronet protecting against some of its statuses, and Flame wasn't that damaging. Still, with their magic defense of 254, Meteor turned out to be the best spell to use against them. To compare the prize against winning to his current headwear.

- Ribbon's stats: 9 Def/12 Eva/12 MDf/12 MEv, immune to almost all statuses
- Coronet's stats: 7 Def/18 Eva/16 MDf/18 MEv, immune to polymorph statuses, +5 Int

Palom's Intellect was max even without the Coronet, so he decided to make the switchover.


Now then!! Palom had three Sirens. One from the Giant of Babel, two from the Cave of Trials. Shall we...? Looking ahead and SPOILERS, Palom doesn't get very much of note armor-wise in the postgame. He gets the Chocobo Suit.

- Chocobo Suit's stats: 28 Def/35 Eva/30 Mdf/15 MEv, immune to poison, +15 Agi
- Adamant Armor's stats: 100 Def/10 Eva/20 Mdf/12 MEv, immune to Fire, Ice, Lightning, and most statuses, +15 all

Going after this piece of equipment isn't always the wisest idea, even in solos that are going to do the GBA/PSP postgame. First off, Flan Princesses have 20000 HP and 154 attack. They don't have flan-like defenses, but their physical prowess is not to be understated. Palom could easily win the fights against them by casting four Quakes, but others may have a tougher time. Maybe it's worth it, maybe it's not. But hey, may as well.

Just remember, the actual odds of a Pink Tail drop are 5/6272. Well, multiplied by 5, because that's how many there are in a battle.

I'm not sure how long this took. I was beginning to think it wouldn't be worth it. But eventually, I started keeping track of the numbers, after about 20-30 attempts. Things droned on, and I even started to notice a definitive trend in the battle RNG - though not necessarily representative of the drop RNG. But the 67th try after that...


Got'em!

A trip back to Earth to pick up the armor from the guy, and back down it was. The Adamant Armor trivialized the random encounters. Well, most of them anyway.


The way down to the final boss has a lot of dangerous minibosses. My least favorite being these Ivan Ooze looking mofos. They cast Reflect on themselves, then Reflect on your party, and assault you with high-powered spells. And they take ages to run from. You can sometimes encounter them in pairs, too. Palom could fight them, but it was so not worth it.


Random - I actually live near where Ogopogo is supposed to be in real life. Was really mindblowing to move when I was 10 and hey, Ogopogo is actually a thing. That said, Adamant Armor + Cursed Ring could make this a joke. The sea serpent counters every Flare with a Blaze, that ordinarily did a fixed amount of damage around 450, but with the combination, healed Palom for 8000-9999!!

That was too easy, so I tried it without, and won with a single Elixir.


Ogopogo falling meant only Big Z himself was left. He's a counterattacker, throwing back Flare at anyone who attacks him with a non-summon spell. Unless it's a holy-elemental spell (Meteor, Holy), in which case he tosses out Maelstrom. This is the strat I used when going in low level. With Solo Palom, it was just a contest of Flares vs. Flares.

Zeromus' could do wildly variable damage; anywhere from 300ish to 2000ish. Adamant Armor may have all the Defense you could ask for, but its Magic Defense is a bit lacking.


Big Bang is also not a particularly pleasant attack. As you can see, the variable damage one-twoed Palom the first go at the battle. He was hit with a high-damage Flare, then killed with Big Bang before he could react.

The second go down, Palom didn't even reach the final boss - he died to Ivan Ooze, who kept on casting spells as Palom was left unable to run. Third time was the charm, though!!


I was surprised at how quickly he died. The high damage meant Zeromus' pathetic and inaccurate Meteor spell never actually got a chance to be used.


And that's the game, but not the postgame. Since we're playing on GBA, how about we check into it...?

Next | Index

FF4 Solo Palom Part IV

Let's begin our descent, and I guess we'll get this done all in one gulp, so to speak. How the Lunar Ruins work is: every fourth floor, there is a chamber with Sealed Cave graphics. You need to have the corresponding character in your party AND have had them in your party when beating Zeromus in order to enter the room.

The three floors in-between can come from a pool of several possibilities. The first set are similar graphically to the Lunar Caves, and aren't anything special aside from some secret passages.


Yang's Trial is the first one we come to. This consists of six battles against enemy monks, some in a row. They actually have fairly respectable magic defense, but a Meteor is able to wipe them out. The last two sets, the Drillmasters, have 12000HP, so it takes two castings to get them.

By the way, I'm not relying on the Adamant Armor for bosses. Figured it might be more interesting this way, but I'm wearing it for the randoms, and it's on the table if I need it.


The Lunar Summons are the bosses of each trial, and for Yang's it is Lunar Titan who you have to face. LT has an attack pattern much as you'd expect: strong physicals with Earthquake, and he also has the Demon Wall's Crush. The latter is stopped by a Ribbon and the Earthquakes don't hurt that bad, leaving only the physicals to be of a threat to Palom. Which aren't enough to get the job done.


One consequence of this trial: I can't effectually keep track of Palom's stat growths, due to all the multiple fights in a row and the absurd EXP they pay out! Palom gains five levels over the course of it. Four points of Agility across five levels isn't bad at all, though, so my first venture in is also my last.


Also in the Lunar Ruins are these areas. Every Floor of Remembrance is based off part of a dungeon in the main game. This is the Antlion's Nest, and also in this set are the walkway in the Giant of Babel, the first Lunar Tunnel, the Black Chocobo forest, and a room from the path to Damcyan.


So next trial is a solo exception time. The only battles in this boring trial of Edward's, taking place in a frozen alternate Damcyan Castle, are these spirits. As this tutorial battle shows, the only way to "win" is to kill the Specters (who are completely nonthreatening), then have Edward Sing.

Conveniently, he is automatically revived for this, and all the rest are only temporarily resurrected and moved around here.


Lunar Shiva is one of the nastier bosses, throwing out Blizzagas, Ice Storms which damage based off her max HP (could do over 2000 at the start of the battle, and that'd be to EVERYONE), and even healing herself with self-cast Blizzagas as a counter for about 2500! This was a nasty nasty fight when I tried to do it with lower levels. Palom could neuter her with Adamant Armor + Cursed Ring, but decided to give her a fighting chance. She didn't take it.


The next trek is incredibly dull. Some of the floors, such as this one, have no encounters and a "puzzle". There's also a counting minigame here, and a fairy fountain. Yes, that's right, just like in Zelda. More interesting is a psuedo-maze involving waterfalls.


Rydia's trial is next, and it's trippy. She turns back into a kid, and you need to go around fighting Shiva, Ifrit, Ramuh, and Titan before you can confront the Lunar Dragon. When each of them goes into their pose, it means they're about to use a strong attack.

Shiva and Titan behave similarly to their Lunar counterparts, but the former isn't nearly as brutal - checking in with Blizzara instead of Blizzaga, and not countering. The latter doesn't use Crush. The others also prefer -ra spells. No big deal.


The Lunar Dragon was more annoying than anything else. He gained magic invulnerability as mist, but even if he's hit was a physical, it only does around 1 damage at this stage of the game. He occasionally casts Slow as mist, or Restores 9999HP. The Dragon could barely scratch Palom, and died to a bunch of Flares.

Among the three floors in between are a town (nothing particularly special in it, but lets you restock), a weird Cave of Summons type area with fixed encounters, and...the infamous teleporter maze. There's no random encounters in it, and it's notsomuch a maze to overcome as it is RNG. Each teleporter may take you to a different place, and only thing I can think of that determines it is what the game feels like.

Cecil's trial is a Paladin test. You are presented with several tasks. For the best result at the end, you need to pass them as a true Paladin woukd. Some of these involve combat. Palom passed them all, because why not?


Lunar Odin OH GOD WHY. Okay, I guess we're using a Curtain on him to protect against that.

Other than that craziness, this fight is very similar to the first Odin. It's basically a damage race, until he casts Haste followed by a double Zantesuken. There's an interesting way to kill him involving casting Thundaga at that point, which prompts him to die from "lightning coursing through [him]" before he can get it off. Palom just stuck with Flares, because that's a bit silly.

Odin does open with a Zantesuken, and uses another at one point in the fight. The Lunar Curtain item prevents all physical damage for its duration. So Odin's physicals were of no concern.


That was all the trials I could do for the moment, so out it was to beat up Zeromus with more characters. I also took the time to get Palom to 99. Behold his stats. And that`s without equipment, mind you!

His stats at 70 are 33/30/40/75/23. He gained 21 points of Strength, 20 points of Agility, 31 points of Stamina, 22 points of Spirit, and enough Intellect to naturally max it out.


Another interesting floor on the way is this one. Remember the Golden Toad from before? Well, the Platinum Toad is much the same. So how can we stop it before it runs away?


With Stop, of course!!


I forgot this on the first trip through, but got it this time. Palom's real ultimate weapon, Asura's Rod gives +15 to Intellect (useless when it's at 99 naturally!), and +15 to Spirit (very nice considering the boost toMagic Defense)

Rosa's trial is simply a race against time. To heal all the townsfolk before the three circling orbs close in around you. Five of them are Metamorphas in disguise. There seems to be no way to tell which are which, aside from seeing a petrified person moving. No problem.


But against Lunar Asura...we have a problem. She has a very similar pattern to regular Asura, but with more offense. In particular, she can counter with Restore to heal 9999 or Globe 199 to deal 9999. Either is not good news.

So are we just screwed? Well, no. There's a third counter, and a distinct pattern to it. Asura's head rolling is the key to success in this fight.

- White Face = Curaga, roll to white after, roll to blue and Thundaga when attacked
- Red Face = Toad, roll to blue after, roll to white and Restore when attacked
- Blue Face = Firaga, roll to white after, roll to red and Globe 199 when attacked

So Palom settled into a pattern, using one Elixir for every two Flares, and cycling her between white and blue repeatedly. With the Adamant Armor, this fight would've been trivial - since each -ga spell would do 1 damage.


Was even able to keep track of HP, and save an Elixir by killing her when her face was blue.

Edge's trial is mostly a puzzly-maze. It's full of Palace Guard enemies, who drop Keys that can be used to unlock certain doors.


Lunar Ifrit, what a joke for us. He charges up for Flame, which dealt a pitiful 1/10th HP damage thanks to the Protect Ring. He can counter ice-type attacks with Scorch, but Flare did close to 9999 anyway, so there was no point in using Blizzaga. His other spells, which included Fira (!?), Firaga, and Flamethrower (1 damage) weren't much more impressive.


This is a VERY nice floor. It's a personality test, and depending on your answers, you can get many great items. Every time I pass through, I decide on the Monk, which gets a Golden and Silver Apple. Very useful for a low HP character such as Palom.


Kain's trial is story-driven, is a very messed up plunge into his psyche, is done solo, and culminates with a fight against Lunar Bahamut. The way the solo Kain beats this guy is by jumping after 1 to dodge a Megaflare. Lunar Bahamut counters when you land, and you repeat this until he dies or you need to heal for whatever weak-equipment related reason.

With Palom, the fight could be done one of two ways. A Lunar Curtain to render him invincible, or just by Flaring until dead. Lunar Bahamut has a mere 50000HP, His one Megaflare whiffed.


Cid's trial is basically Crazy Taxi. Except with an airship. Get the people to their destinations on time. Lunar Ramuh, who I somehow forgot to take a picture of, is at the end. Not worth talking about. Just the usual Flarefest against an elemental attacker.


The twins' trial features status-based puzzles and enemies from the first few dungeons (literally) that I just run from. Lunar Leviathan is a crazy fight. His attacks include Tidal Wave, Maelstrom, and Entangle. The latter was especially devastating since the Ribbon doesn't protect against paralysis.

I had to pull out the Adamant Armor here (it does protect against it), after Palom kept getting comboed by those three attacks. I also threw the Cursed Ring in too for healing, because why not? I got that drop back then...albeit very easily in comparison with the other 1/64 I picked up, but still! May as well take advantage of it, right? Use what you have and whatnot.


The Twin Stars are the reward here. They actually give very nice bonuses. Let's compare.

- Protect Ring's stats: 10 Def/15 Eva/12 MDf/10 MEv, +15 Sta, Resist Fi/Ic/Li
- Twin Stars' stats: 10 Def/20 Eva/20 MDf/12 MEv

Almost strictly better as long as the Adamant Armor is being equipped. The only caveat is the Stamina decrease making for less defense. One point mind you. Without the Adamant Armor, the Protect Ring is the better option.
_________


On the final floors of the ruins, you have a chance of seeing this floor, featuring the game's superboss, Brachioraidos.

I'd write more about him, but I forgot much of the battle. He has Protect and Reflect as a counter though...in response to physical damage. So Palom just Flared away. He also has a Globe 199 counter when he begins a countdown to Mega Flare. It never happened though, and in fact the Flares stopped the count, making me think it's linked to Protect/Reflect being up. It was best to throw up a Curtain anyway, as the dragon could use a 5000+ damage Bio.

He actually has a lot of stuff in his AI routine, including Scorch and Maelstrom. With the Adamant Armor on, Palom had nothing to fear from the likes of the former. The latter could be healed with an Elixir.


Brach drops the Hero's Shield when beaten. This has the same special property as the Cursed Ring - that is, it changes all elemental resistances into elemental absorptions when equipped. Oh, and it gives +15 to all stats! Everyone but Dark Knight Cecil and...for some reason, FuSoYa can equip it. Palom's stats are truly terrifying with it and the Adamant Armor on...

Two of the other floors here feature Ivan Ooze 2.0, which Palom just runs from, and a whole bunch of dolls to fight. The Calcabrena palette swaps in particular have over 60000HP, but can be turned into statues.


That brings us to the final boss of the Lunar Ruins, Zeromus EG. Sporting his graphics from EasyType and 200000HP, he's one nasty son of a gun. But HA HA HA! We just tore the superboss a new one without breaking a sweat. How hard could this be?


Well let's see here. Big Bang inflicts HP Leak. Whirl sets HP to critical. That's game over. He must've been taking lessons from Crayclaw or something. This is...a problem.

Okay, so let's back up here. ZEG casts Reflect in response to magic (our Flare barrage), but this is trivial to overcome. Either cast a spell that pierces Reflect (like Quake), or throw up a Curtain. If you do the former, he'll counter with Reflect, which will bounce onto you, and effectively give you an endless source of them since he'll keep casting it. This is what ZEG can do to us without factoring in his counters, and in the order he does it.

~ Big Bang
~ Toad -> Mini
~ Whirl
~ Flare
~ Drain -> Drain
~ Osmose -> Osmose
~ Earthquake -> Blitz -> Flame

Toad, Mini, Drain, and Osmose are not worth worrying about. The last becomes 9999 healing with our broken equipment. Flare is reflected by our wall. But how to stop the devastating critical HP Leak combo?


Answer: We can't and don't. Only thing we can do is pray Palom is left above 5HP. He loses 4HP with each tick. Any less, and he'll die before he can get the Elixir off.

And that set the stage for this battle. An RNG luckfest. Palom's Flares did wildly variable damage; they could do 5000, they could do 9500. More RNG. Over the course of the battle, Palom had to survive four of these. Eventually...


At low HP, ZEG switches his AI pattern. He casts "Absorb" (which doesn't actually absorb from anything) in response to damage, healing around 3000HP. He also throws out Tidal Wave and the non-critical HP Tornado. He also begins using some nasty physicals, which could not hit Palom with his 99% evade. It wasn't long before...

...so wait, before stamping this - can we do this without the broken equipment? Well, yes. The sooner the first phase is done and over with though, the better. There's also another equalizer you can throw out. Let's try, for the thrill of it. This required another trip through the ruins, for Palom to pick up the Chocobo Suit. You can buy it in another town area, but it never appeared on the first rip to reach ZEG.


So those Lunar summons we were facing? Each of them dropped a Grimoire with their initials on it. Use of these Grimoires does two things: first, it allows you to re-enter the corresponding trial. Second, the summon appears and attacks the enemy for 9999 damage. And it will always do 9999 damage. Unless the target is Zeromus EG.

Against him, they deal no damage, and instead inflict a variety of different and bizarre status effects, being different like this for no apparent reason. Several of them seem to have no real effect; supposedly they inflict poison. Lunar Ifrit's is especially strange: ZEG is hit with a Death spell, then a Thundaga spell, to seemingly no effect. But three that have a HUGE effect are Lunar Ramuh, Lunar Titan, and Lunar Dragon.


These hit ZEG with Silence, Mini, and Toad respectively. They force him to run alternative scripts, after which he recovers from the status and goes back to the start of his AI routine. In Silence's case, it causes him to attack physically. These hurt...but the Lunar Curtains give the Barrier status, which prevent all physical damage. Palom could laugh and just Flare to his heart's content.

So what Palom did; he reset until he survived the first wave of attacks, threw out the Curtain and the Ramuh Grimoire (the longest lasting) just as he was getting ready to Whirl a second time, and set to work. When it wore off, out came the Titan Grimoire, which similarly cripples ZEG. It didn't last as long, and Palom still had to survive one more Whirl. But by then, ZEG had shifted into his desperation phase.


Just to add insult to injury, or perhaps mild showboating, or maybe just wanting to see him suffer for his cheap combos, I saved the Grimoire LD for last, and killed him while he was a Toad.

Doing it without the Grimoires? Well, that'd just be a luckfest. Nothing to really prove by doing it that way, right? So that brings an end to Palom's adventures through FF4.

__________

Analysis: this definitely seemed easier than Cecil or Kain's solo challenges. It's very easy to overlook Palom as a character due to the presence of Rydia. In fact, a lot of guides I read pretty much say to hell with him, why bother when she can summon!?!?!?!! I mean, SHE CAN SUMMON GUYS. IT'S LIKE...well, I'll get to that craziness at the appropriate time.

Bluff can definitely carry its weight in the early game, allowing you to do some hilarious things. He doesn't stick around for too long in the main game to abuse it, sadly. The five-year-old mage is not without his flaws, however. His postgame equipment, as I mentioned, is a bit lacking, and his post-70 growths aren't that great. Still, Flare is very nice, and Break is surprisingly devastating against many encounters. He really is a solid character who can pull his weight.

Palom's got power, that's for sure. But next up in FF4 solos: REAL ULTIMATE POWER!!

Index