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FFL2 Solo Mutant Part I
Dec. 8th, 2015 03:25 amFFL2 Solo Monster is probably one of my favorite challenges in how it turned out. With this in mind, I decided to do one of the followups at last. This time, I'll be going through FFL2 with a Solo Mutant.
In contrast to FFL1, Humans and Mutants now both follow the traditional SaGa formula of gaining stats based on use of them. The exact stat growth formula is incredibly convoluted - true to early SaGa form. The basic formula is (CONST1 + CONST2 * (EnemyDS -- CharDS)) / 200.
- CONST1 and CONST2 vary depending on character and stat. It's {10,15} for all human stats except DEF, {5,15} for mutant STR, DEF, and MANA, {5,7} for mutant skill learning and AGL, and {0,0} for human DEF.
- EnemyDS is the enemy's DS level.
- CharDS is calculated by S / ((S / 20) + 5) for stats and HP / ((MHP / 26) + 50) for HP
- The difference between EnemyDS and CharDS will never be negative, it stops at 0 (it's what the -- operator means).
First mutant powers are checked for changing, followed by HP growth, and lastly stats. If a check succeeds, the game immediately moves onto the next character - you can only earn one thing per battle in this version. Furthermore, only the last stat a human/mutant "used" can grow - this corresponds to what stat it raises on a Robot (even if it's by 0, such as the Rune Axe and MANA), rather than what it uses for a damage formula. The Whip being a good example, using STR to deal damage while raising AGL. Using is different from selecting the item; a command needs to actually executed to count. Furthermore, if the last used item uses no stats (like potions), then the human/mutant simply won't gain any instead of using what he or she used before that.
There's a couple bugs associated with this formula - namely, HP growth can bug out and cause you to stop gaining stats, and mutants can never actually gain STR despite being intended to. Those and the full story are covered here.
After searching for a name, I decided to become anime, especially because these are in a way considered both espers and mutants. Toma it is. I'm going with the male Mutant over the female. There's almost no difference, aside from starting with more max HP, a point more of STR, a point less of AGL, and having Blizzard instead of Flame - the former being just a bit better, I feel.
The early going was, as before, a bit tricky. Jaguars were huge threats, but I could at least strike certain groups down with Blizzard to gain stats without relying on luck. However, given the potential for growth, there wasn't much to it. Toma got some HP along with an Ice spell. Those two things plus BabyWyrm missing got me through the North Cave. Note that it was important to do this before Toma ran out of skill uses, as they cannot be replenished beforehand.
I bought a Bronze Gauntlet before heading into Hidden Ruins. This was a great time to have that Ice Spell. It was stronger than Blizzard, and could wipe out groups of Lizards and Flies instantly. Toma got a few extra points of MANA; that combined with the Mana Magi shot his damage output into the triple digits.
I used 3400 of the funds I raised from there to purchase a Gold Gauntlet. While not as awesome as they are for a robot, these are still very nice pieces of equipment to have and accessible in the first town.
Along the way through Ashura's Base, Toma lost the O-Poison he had picked up in favor of Cure. I guess I should take the chance to go over Mutant skills now. Mutants are capable of learning up to four skills, which can be less if you load them down with items (which I did). Randomly after battle, a Mutant may gain a new skill. If there's less than four and there's room for more, a new one will be learned. Otherwise, the bottommost ability will be replaced - this allows you to choose your skills. The skills you can learn in a battle depend on the DS level of the enemy group - you can learn the abilities that correspond to their level and anything below.
Of the DS-1 skills, Cure, Ice, and Fire all do what you expect. O-Poison grants immunity to the status and the element, and Warning will prevent surprise attacks. Notably, Flame and Blizzard can only be learned at the start, so if you replace them, they're gone forever. At least as far as this version is concerned. The remake adds them in as options, alongside mutant specialization to make learning certain skills more likely.
OUCH. I forgot the Rhino hits this hard. I could deal with him in one of three ways. First, gain enough HP to just tank this. Second, gain enough MANA to one-shot him and hope I go first. Or third, use Temptat or Sleep to lock him down and hope I go first. I had to run back, and decided to go with the last of these. That was enough to do in the Rhino.
Ashura's World brings forth DS-2 monsters routinely, allowing Thunder, O-Para, and O-Quake to be learned. Not much to say about it. I passed on Silver Armor because there would be a freebie in the tower. I thought that it had a free Psi Knife too, which is critically important, but it did not. I had to go back down the tower after freeing Mask.
The fights in here varied. Some of them could shred Toma in no time flat; when enemies are doing 30-40 damage a hit and there's 6-8 of them, you're just toast. Others were pathetic nonthreats, such as Beetle groups.
Somewhat true to the game's saying so, Ashura sports O-Damage. He is immune to all forms of elemental damage. However, he is not immune to status magic such as Sleep or Temptat. These two can lock him down, until he wakes up or go "back to sane".
JESUS. And note that this is with almost the maximum amount of DEF a Human (and Mutant who can't build DEF through ordinary means) can have at this point! I had 8 instead of 11, but those three points weren't really going to make a difference. Even worse, I could barely damage him. 10 MANA wasn't going to be enough. 38 damage is just far too little.
So a bunch of grinding later and I get to 13 MANA. I kept trying to get more, but it was being incredibly stubborn, so I just went for it to see if it was plausible.
And it was, much more plausible! Toma could survive Axe and Flame, and it was possible for Sleep to miss. All I could do was Temptat him, attack with a Psi Knife, and hope he doesn't break out and use 6-Arms or it misses. He'll usually do nothing, but occasionally attack with Axe, Sleep, or Flame. He'll occasionally help by using the former on himself. Sadly, he will never use 6-Arms on himself.
On the second-to-last turn of the eventual winning fight, Ashura snapped out of confusion at long last. However, according to my damage counting, the next swing of the Psi Knife would do him in. Ashura went first...with Flame! Toma made contact on his swing and finished off Ashura. Unfortunately, it did come with a cost: losing Cure. For Warning. But it's a small price to pay, and despite Ashura having a DS level of 7, not worth farming him out for Toma to potentially gain an ability.
One good thing about all that grinding most of which was fruitless: Toma became filthy rich.
Just like that, his defense shot up - almost by fivefold and would be by the time I got enough for Giant Gauntlets (Getas being free in Old Giant's Town), which I did by the time I was ready to head to Ki's Body. Ability-wise, DS-3 isn't worth talking about. Blitz just reduces an enemy group's AGL by 10, Steal gives AGL*5 GP if it works, and X-Fire is a joke - giving yourself a weakness is bad!
I should also talk about my strategy in regards to stats. If you recall my solo monster, you'll remember Apollo was brutal in regards to turn order. The only way around it was an endless grind or hacking down my AGL. I'm not sure how much you need to go last every time - if I had to make an educated guess, it'd be less than half of his, or 40ish. And I forgot to check and don't have a save handy in which I can do so. So for solo human and mutant, I'll be keeping it as low as practically possible, just to legitimately get through at the end. Robot will 99% require an exception, however.
With STR being impossible to raise due to bugs, that leaves only MANA to inch up. DEF is not impossible to raise, but it requires specific setups on certain monsters or a particular weapon, both of which are inaccessible now.
The rest of Giant's World and Ki's Body would've been total walkovers because of this if not for Amoebas and Plasma. Both could use Dissolve to bypass Toma's now absurd defenses, which absolutely nothing else could get through except occasionally ROBO-28's Rockets. Therefore, I blew through, picking up Thunder along the way while running from the dangerous enemies. The Phagocyts could thankfully use Wind Up, so bypassing them to deliver the Ice was easy.
The enemies in the Apollo's World were much of the same. Jellies and Phagocyts were obnoxious, but just about everything else could barely touch Toma. I hustled through, picking this up for more defense and potential AGL along the way, before heading to my goal...
Dunatis is infamous for having a DS level of B, allowing Mutants to learn any of their abilities after a battle with him. The most notable use of this is Teleport, which you can use in the Dragon Circuit to take your dragon out of the racetrack and through walls - although that said if I want to show it off, you can still get Teleport in the Circuit itself. What I usually get here is P-Blast - it's only slightly weaker than Flare and has 10 more uses.
See, take a look at both skills. Not that big a damage difference! And from both being here, you can tell that I got both of them. But neither of them are what I wanted this time. Touch was another option to drain HP, but it too was not what I wanted. And by the time I really want it, I'll be able to obtain it.
Battling Dunatis was nothing to talk about. He could not two-shot Toma, and Toma could two-shot him with Thunder. I chose Ice as the sacrificial ability, due to having Blizzard around to achieve the element. I usually don't open my Mutants' fourth slot until the end of the game, when Parasuit is accessible.
And finally, after roughly half an hour of running at my usual 4x speed through innumerable battles, I got it. O-All does exactly what you expect - full immunity to all elements, full immunity to all status, and halving physical damage. Perfect and ideal for a solo character.
Let's take a look at Toma to close out this part. His equipment gives him 30 STR, 10 AGL, and 43 DEF. I can also swap in the Geta for an extra 5 STR, at the cost of the AGL and 2 DEF. He only has 19 MANA, which is barely on the threshold of good enough.
Next | Index
In contrast to FFL1, Humans and Mutants now both follow the traditional SaGa formula of gaining stats based on use of them. The exact stat growth formula is incredibly convoluted - true to early SaGa form. The basic formula is (CONST1 + CONST2 * (EnemyDS -- CharDS)) / 200.
- CONST1 and CONST2 vary depending on character and stat. It's {10,15} for all human stats except DEF, {5,15} for mutant STR, DEF, and MANA, {5,7} for mutant skill learning and AGL, and {0,0} for human DEF.
- EnemyDS is the enemy's DS level.
- CharDS is calculated by S / ((S / 20) + 5) for stats and HP / ((MHP / 26) + 50) for HP
- The difference between EnemyDS and CharDS will never be negative, it stops at 0 (it's what the -- operator means).
First mutant powers are checked for changing, followed by HP growth, and lastly stats. If a check succeeds, the game immediately moves onto the next character - you can only earn one thing per battle in this version. Furthermore, only the last stat a human/mutant "used" can grow - this corresponds to what stat it raises on a Robot (even if it's by 0, such as the Rune Axe and MANA), rather than what it uses for a damage formula. The Whip being a good example, using STR to deal damage while raising AGL. Using is different from selecting the item; a command needs to actually executed to count. Furthermore, if the last used item uses no stats (like potions), then the human/mutant simply won't gain any instead of using what he or she used before that.
There's a couple bugs associated with this formula - namely, HP growth can bug out and cause you to stop gaining stats, and mutants can never actually gain STR despite being intended to. Those and the full story are covered here.
After searching for a name, I decided to become anime, especially because these are in a way considered both espers and mutants. Toma it is. I'm going with the male Mutant over the female. There's almost no difference, aside from starting with more max HP, a point more of STR, a point less of AGL, and having Blizzard instead of Flame - the former being just a bit better, I feel.
The early going was, as before, a bit tricky. Jaguars were huge threats, but I could at least strike certain groups down with Blizzard to gain stats without relying on luck. However, given the potential for growth, there wasn't much to it. Toma got some HP along with an Ice spell. Those two things plus BabyWyrm missing got me through the North Cave. Note that it was important to do this before Toma ran out of skill uses, as they cannot be replenished beforehand.
I bought a Bronze Gauntlet before heading into Hidden Ruins. This was a great time to have that Ice Spell. It was stronger than Blizzard, and could wipe out groups of Lizards and Flies instantly. Toma got a few extra points of MANA; that combined with the Mana Magi shot his damage output into the triple digits.
I used 3400 of the funds I raised from there to purchase a Gold Gauntlet. While not as awesome as they are for a robot, these are still very nice pieces of equipment to have and accessible in the first town.
Along the way through Ashura's Base, Toma lost the O-Poison he had picked up in favor of Cure. I guess I should take the chance to go over Mutant skills now. Mutants are capable of learning up to four skills, which can be less if you load them down with items (which I did). Randomly after battle, a Mutant may gain a new skill. If there's less than four and there's room for more, a new one will be learned. Otherwise, the bottommost ability will be replaced - this allows you to choose your skills. The skills you can learn in a battle depend on the DS level of the enemy group - you can learn the abilities that correspond to their level and anything below.
Of the DS-1 skills, Cure, Ice, and Fire all do what you expect. O-Poison grants immunity to the status and the element, and Warning will prevent surprise attacks. Notably, Flame and Blizzard can only be learned at the start, so if you replace them, they're gone forever. At least as far as this version is concerned. The remake adds them in as options, alongside mutant specialization to make learning certain skills more likely.
OUCH. I forgot the Rhino hits this hard. I could deal with him in one of three ways. First, gain enough HP to just tank this. Second, gain enough MANA to one-shot him and hope I go first. Or third, use Temptat or Sleep to lock him down and hope I go first. I had to run back, and decided to go with the last of these. That was enough to do in the Rhino.
Ashura's World brings forth DS-2 monsters routinely, allowing Thunder, O-Para, and O-Quake to be learned. Not much to say about it. I passed on Silver Armor because there would be a freebie in the tower. I thought that it had a free Psi Knife too, which is critically important, but it did not. I had to go back down the tower after freeing Mask.
The fights in here varied. Some of them could shred Toma in no time flat; when enemies are doing 30-40 damage a hit and there's 6-8 of them, you're just toast. Others were pathetic nonthreats, such as Beetle groups.
Somewhat true to the game's saying so, Ashura sports O-Damage. He is immune to all forms of elemental damage. However, he is not immune to status magic such as Sleep or Temptat. These two can lock him down, until he wakes up or go "back to sane".
JESUS. And note that this is with almost the maximum amount of DEF a Human (and Mutant who can't build DEF through ordinary means) can have at this point! I had 8 instead of 11, but those three points weren't really going to make a difference. Even worse, I could barely damage him. 10 MANA wasn't going to be enough. 38 damage is just far too little.
So a bunch of grinding later and I get to 13 MANA. I kept trying to get more, but it was being incredibly stubborn, so I just went for it to see if it was plausible.
And it was, much more plausible! Toma could survive Axe and Flame, and it was possible for Sleep to miss. All I could do was Temptat him, attack with a Psi Knife, and hope he doesn't break out and use 6-Arms or it misses. He'll usually do nothing, but occasionally attack with Axe, Sleep, or Flame. He'll occasionally help by using the former on himself. Sadly, he will never use 6-Arms on himself.
On the second-to-last turn of the eventual winning fight, Ashura snapped out of confusion at long last. However, according to my damage counting, the next swing of the Psi Knife would do him in. Ashura went first...with Flame! Toma made contact on his swing and finished off Ashura. Unfortunately, it did come with a cost: losing Cure. For Warning. But it's a small price to pay, and despite Ashura having a DS level of 7, not worth farming him out for Toma to potentially gain an ability.
One good thing about all that grinding most of which was fruitless: Toma became filthy rich.
Just like that, his defense shot up - almost by fivefold and would be by the time I got enough for Giant Gauntlets (Getas being free in Old Giant's Town), which I did by the time I was ready to head to Ki's Body. Ability-wise, DS-3 isn't worth talking about. Blitz just reduces an enemy group's AGL by 10, Steal gives AGL*5 GP if it works, and X-Fire is a joke - giving yourself a weakness is bad!
I should also talk about my strategy in regards to stats. If you recall my solo monster, you'll remember Apollo was brutal in regards to turn order. The only way around it was an endless grind or hacking down my AGL. I'm not sure how much you need to go last every time - if I had to make an educated guess, it'd be less than half of his, or 40ish. And I forgot to check and don't have a save handy in which I can do so. So for solo human and mutant, I'll be keeping it as low as practically possible, just to legitimately get through at the end. Robot will 99% require an exception, however.
With STR being impossible to raise due to bugs, that leaves only MANA to inch up. DEF is not impossible to raise, but it requires specific setups on certain monsters or a particular weapon, both of which are inaccessible now.
The rest of Giant's World and Ki's Body would've been total walkovers because of this if not for Amoebas and Plasma. Both could use Dissolve to bypass Toma's now absurd defenses, which absolutely nothing else could get through except occasionally ROBO-28's Rockets. Therefore, I blew through, picking up Thunder along the way while running from the dangerous enemies. The Phagocyts could thankfully use Wind Up, so bypassing them to deliver the Ice was easy.
The enemies in the Apollo's World were much of the same. Jellies and Phagocyts were obnoxious, but just about everything else could barely touch Toma. I hustled through, picking this up for more defense and potential AGL along the way, before heading to my goal...
Dunatis is infamous for having a DS level of B, allowing Mutants to learn any of their abilities after a battle with him. The most notable use of this is Teleport, which you can use in the Dragon Circuit to take your dragon out of the racetrack and through walls - although that said if I want to show it off, you can still get Teleport in the Circuit itself. What I usually get here is P-Blast - it's only slightly weaker than Flare and has 10 more uses.
See, take a look at both skills. Not that big a damage difference! And from both being here, you can tell that I got both of them. But neither of them are what I wanted this time. Touch was another option to drain HP, but it too was not what I wanted. And by the time I really want it, I'll be able to obtain it.
Battling Dunatis was nothing to talk about. He could not two-shot Toma, and Toma could two-shot him with Thunder. I chose Ice as the sacrificial ability, due to having Blizzard around to achieve the element. I usually don't open my Mutants' fourth slot until the end of the game, when Parasuit is accessible.
And finally, after roughly half an hour of running at my usual 4x speed through innumerable battles, I got it. O-All does exactly what you expect - full immunity to all elements, full immunity to all status, and halving physical damage. Perfect and ideal for a solo character.
Let's take a look at Toma to close out this part. His equipment gives him 30 STR, 10 AGL, and 43 DEF. I can also swap in the Geta for an extra 5 STR, at the cost of the AGL and 2 DEF. He only has 19 MANA, which is barely on the threshold of good enough.
Next | Index
