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FF4 Solo Yang Part III
Jul. 27th, 2016 03:31 amYang's at level 69, so it seems about right to open with his post-70 level up bonuses.
~ -1 Str, -1 Agi, ±0 Sta, -1 Int, -1 Spi
~ +1 Str, +1 Agi, +1 Sta, +1 Int, ±0 Spi
~ +1 Str, +1 Agi, +1 Sta, ±0 Int, ±0 Spi
~ +1 Str, +1 Agi, +1 Sta, ±0 Int, ±0 Spi
~ +1 Str, ±0 Agi, +1 Sta, ±0 Int, +1 Spi
~ +2 Str, +2 Agi, +2 Sta, ±0 Int, ±0 Spi
~ +2 Str, ±0 Agi, +2 Sta, ±0 Int, ±0 Spi
~ +2 Str, ±0 Agi, +2 Sta, ±0 Int, ±0 Spi
These are, in few words, pretty bad. To gain Spirit at all (and therefore help the odds of Gird increasing, assuming it can fail), you need option 5. But this sacrifices Agility. Due to his terrible magic defense, you really want option 2 all 29 times. Option 6 isn't too bad either, for its large boost to agility (the +2 to Strength and Stamina are pointless as short of an excessive amount of 1s, he'll naturally max both stats no matter what)
Now for fun/to make ourselves mad, let's see what the PSX version does.
~ -1 Str, -1 Agi, ±0 Sta, -1 Int, -1 Spi
~ +1 Str, ±0 Agi, +1 Sta, ±0 Int, +1 Spi
~ +1 Str, +1 Agi, +1 Sta, ±0 Int, +1 Spi
~ +2 Str, +1 Agi, +2 Sta, ±0 Int, +1 Spi
~ +2 Str, ±0 Agi, +2 Sta, ±0 Int, +2 Spi
~ +2 Str, +1 Agi, +2 Sta, +1 Int, +1 Spi
~ +3 Str, ±0 Agi, +3 Sta, ±0 Int, +1 Spi
Note option 6 (for some reason, there's only 7) in particular. Bonuses to all stats. Spirit is guaranteed to climb at every level aside from option 1, and there's even a +2. This would let Yang double the growths of those stats, although they'd still only add up to 63 at best - a single point short of an additional multiplier. These PSX modifications are also unique in how it allows for multiple stats to change by different values post-70 - all other versions/stat growths have all post-70 growths seeing various stats increase by the same value. Of course, Yang is unlikely to reach that level in PSX since it does not, in fact, have party switching. And there's equipment to consider.
With Yang being one of the characters made formally playable in the endgame for this version, he would have some very nice equipment to pick up in the Cave of Trials. The first of these being the Funny Mask. This is unfortunately one of the lesser ones in the dungeon - a mere +5 to Strength. This is more or less maxed for Yang anyway. The Black Cowl is better for now due to its Agility bonus; it has very slightly less defensive stats, but not enough to significantly make a difference. So this is only really good for Paralysis resistance.
Then there's the Courageous Suit. It protects against Curse, which is negliable. But this bodywear is legit - +10 to Strength, Agility, and Stamina. It also adds 35 to evasion. For Yang, this was a straight-up full-on upgrade to the Black Belt in every way.
Really nothing to Yang's own boss, the Storm Dragon. It's weak to Ice, so Ice Claw + Cat Claw and attack away. The reward for this is the Hand of the Gods. It completes the elemental set of claws (well, insofar as Darkness elemental is never used except on DK Cecil's swords) by being Holy-elemental, and gives a startling +15 Bonus to Strength, Agility, and Stamina. This together with the Courageous Suit was enough to push Yang over the Agility threshold and receive another Magic Defense multiplier. It furthermore does effective damage on Ghouls and Undead. As one final note, this claw and the two postgame ones are Yang-exclusive. Edge can't equip them.
The same basic concept against Storm Dragon applied to Death Mech, only with it being a mech, Yang was pumping out 9999 damage per attack with the Thunder Claw. T-Rex was simple. No fancy setups or weaknesses from it, just hold A. Gigas Worm could also be beaten in this manner, but was much more sketchy. It's a counterattacker, but just holding A was more efficient at avoiding damage. The burning question is, what about Master Flan?
That's...very easily survivable, despite it killing me here. Once I reloaded and that never happened, I started the battle by throwing Spider's Silk, then attacked the master repeatedly. Elixir after every Flare, hopefully not dying to the combo of it and Thundaga (and accumulated damage from the flans). It took three of them to fell it, after which Ice Claws cleaned up the White Mousses and Power took care of the Black Flans.
We're getting there stat-wise, as you can see. I've been making sure to have Yang gain Intellect on every level-up so far. He's wearing a Rune Armlet as well - his Strength is still maxed without the Giant's Gloves, and this adds a bit more Magic Defense until we can grab an ever-welcome Protect Ring.
So now we're heading into the Subterrane for its bosses and such. White Dragon I thought would be mildly irritating due to its Holy absorption, but Hand of the Gods still did full damage. Something else at work?
Oh yes, one thing I didn't mention about paying attention to post-70 level up gains: it is very annoying due to the sheer rate at which you gain levels in the Subterrane. To wit, all on the first floor, after much reloads to get the appropriate bonus, I gained a level, went and grabbed the Black Garb chest (pointlessly, because Yang can't wear it...but you have to get every chest!!), and by the time I got back to the teleporter, I was close to gaining another level! Thankfully, this slows down a bit towards the middle with the incessant Bone Dragon and Dinozombie encounters, which don't give too much.
It actually was a good idea to put on the Funny Mask down here. The Gold and Silver Dragons can sometimes use Entangle, which is not good news. The final encounter of note were the Li'l Murderers. These guys at first do nothing but cast Scan on themselves repeatedly, in attempt to get you to hit them with lightning, after which they Haste up and Thundaga you to death. This only triggers against magic, so Yang was free to punch them with the Thunder Claw without retaliation.
The game was in a very good mood, too, giving up several Lunar Curtains over the course of my descent. Still, eventually had to run down to the save point to get ready to manipulate levels.
While I was down here at the save point, may as well fight the bosses! The Lunasaurs aren't weak to Holy, but they are Undead. Hand of the Gods did 9999 damage to them each time. A clever plan would be to use the Power command instead of the Fight command, bypassing their script change into using Reflect into powerful Bios bounced off their partner's wall. Even more clever, however, was taking advantage of the fact that they only go into the script if they themselves are hit, and won't cast Bio if their partner is dead. In short, the front one only got off two Bios that Yang gobbled up with his massive HP count, and the second one's Flames and physicals came nowhere close to threatening him. I left Plague alone for now, having just too little speed to take it out.
There was nothing fancy about Dark Bahamut. Just hold A. Yang did around 3500 damage on average. I needed an Elixir here, but managed to save one by HP counting and killing him when his HP was low.
I'll briefly direct you to the Behemoth's drops. Power Sash is a piece of equipment that can be worn by everyone but a Dark Knight. It gives no magical statistics, but 15 defense, 10 evade, and +15 to Strength. This might've been okay earlier on, but at this point, especially for Yang, the Courageous Suit outclasses it. Still, it's not a stupidly rare drop.
Plague proper was funny. I was trying to avoid using a Curtain on it, just to see if I could go without one. But as before and in spite of about three added levels of Agility, Yang kept dying, right after confirming an attack. I was going to check the memory to see how close Yang was getting...and then I got better rolls after I set the emulator up to watch since I was too lazy to HP count, so I didn't need to do that. A victory with 1 second left.
Even down here, there wasn't a shortage of enemies who could be killed with an elemental weakness. I continued to rearranged the inventory to better allow for weapon switching in-battle. Which got annoying to repeatedly do, especially after buying items (need to sort to get them to combine).
Ogopogo was among the enemies with an elemental weakness, I figured I'd try the strategy of just holding A - naturally with Thunder Claw. It was tight, but Yang did kill it before it killed him.
In the crystal section of the core, the most annoying thing about going down were the enemies. Not for posing a threat - Yang could kill the Behemoths as before, the Red Dragons with Ice Claw, and Ivan Ooze with Thunder Claw (mechs). But because they give a ton of experience, and of course, I want to keep Yang's leveling perfect. And running from them takes ages.
Aside - how to kill a dramatic scene 101. Inventory often ended up clogged more than usual here, and compounded by my inventory rearrangement putting the claws near the top, it could prove kind of annoying at times!!
Big Z wasn't too big a threat. Yang had maxed out on his HP. With nothing else to do, I simply equipped for Agility and attacked relentlessly. He was doing reasonable damage the whole time. Those 2000+ damage Big Bangs and high damaging Flares may be able to threaten low HP characters like Palom or Edge, but Yang had plenty of leeway.
So that's that. Another main game down.
12:12 gametime after making a solo exception to kill him a second time with everyone else, featuring me getting a taste of the Solo Kain challenge when everyone but him died against Zeromus. Maybe I'll do that myself someday, if only because he gets some disgusting stuff in the postgame. But for now and on the next page, it's Yang's turn to do that.
Next | Index
~ -1 Str, -1 Agi, ±0 Sta, -1 Int, -1 Spi
~ +1 Str, +1 Agi, +1 Sta, +1 Int, ±0 Spi
~ +1 Str, +1 Agi, +1 Sta, ±0 Int, ±0 Spi
~ +1 Str, +1 Agi, +1 Sta, ±0 Int, ±0 Spi
~ +1 Str, ±0 Agi, +1 Sta, ±0 Int, +1 Spi
~ +2 Str, +2 Agi, +2 Sta, ±0 Int, ±0 Spi
~ +2 Str, ±0 Agi, +2 Sta, ±0 Int, ±0 Spi
~ +2 Str, ±0 Agi, +2 Sta, ±0 Int, ±0 Spi
These are, in few words, pretty bad. To gain Spirit at all (and therefore help the odds of Gird increasing, assuming it can fail), you need option 5. But this sacrifices Agility. Due to his terrible magic defense, you really want option 2 all 29 times. Option 6 isn't too bad either, for its large boost to agility (the +2 to Strength and Stamina are pointless as short of an excessive amount of 1s, he'll naturally max both stats no matter what)
Now for fun/to make ourselves mad, let's see what the PSX version does.
~ -1 Str, -1 Agi, ±0 Sta, -1 Int, -1 Spi
~ +1 Str, ±0 Agi, +1 Sta, ±0 Int, +1 Spi
~ +1 Str, +1 Agi, +1 Sta, ±0 Int, +1 Spi
~ +2 Str, +1 Agi, +2 Sta, ±0 Int, +1 Spi
~ +2 Str, ±0 Agi, +2 Sta, ±0 Int, +2 Spi
~ +2 Str, +1 Agi, +2 Sta, +1 Int, +1 Spi
~ +3 Str, ±0 Agi, +3 Sta, ±0 Int, +1 Spi
Note option 6 (for some reason, there's only 7) in particular. Bonuses to all stats. Spirit is guaranteed to climb at every level aside from option 1, and there's even a +2. This would let Yang double the growths of those stats, although they'd still only add up to 63 at best - a single point short of an additional multiplier. These PSX modifications are also unique in how it allows for multiple stats to change by different values post-70 - all other versions/stat growths have all post-70 growths seeing various stats increase by the same value. Of course, Yang is unlikely to reach that level in PSX since it does not, in fact, have party switching. And there's equipment to consider.
With Yang being one of the characters made formally playable in the endgame for this version, he would have some very nice equipment to pick up in the Cave of Trials. The first of these being the Funny Mask. This is unfortunately one of the lesser ones in the dungeon - a mere +5 to Strength. This is more or less maxed for Yang anyway. The Black Cowl is better for now due to its Agility bonus; it has very slightly less defensive stats, but not enough to significantly make a difference. So this is only really good for Paralysis resistance.
Then there's the Courageous Suit. It protects against Curse, which is negliable. But this bodywear is legit - +10 to Strength, Agility, and Stamina. It also adds 35 to evasion. For Yang, this was a straight-up full-on upgrade to the Black Belt in every way.
Really nothing to Yang's own boss, the Storm Dragon. It's weak to Ice, so Ice Claw + Cat Claw and attack away. The reward for this is the Hand of the Gods. It completes the elemental set of claws (well, insofar as Darkness elemental is never used except on DK Cecil's swords) by being Holy-elemental, and gives a startling +15 Bonus to Strength, Agility, and Stamina. This together with the Courageous Suit was enough to push Yang over the Agility threshold and receive another Magic Defense multiplier. It furthermore does effective damage on Ghouls and Undead. As one final note, this claw and the two postgame ones are Yang-exclusive. Edge can't equip them.
The same basic concept against Storm Dragon applied to Death Mech, only with it being a mech, Yang was pumping out 9999 damage per attack with the Thunder Claw. T-Rex was simple. No fancy setups or weaknesses from it, just hold A. Gigas Worm could also be beaten in this manner, but was much more sketchy. It's a counterattacker, but just holding A was more efficient at avoiding damage. The burning question is, what about Master Flan?
That's...very easily survivable, despite it killing me here. Once I reloaded and that never happened, I started the battle by throwing Spider's Silk, then attacked the master repeatedly. Elixir after every Flare, hopefully not dying to the combo of it and Thundaga (and accumulated damage from the flans). It took three of them to fell it, after which Ice Claws cleaned up the White Mousses and Power took care of the Black Flans.
We're getting there stat-wise, as you can see. I've been making sure to have Yang gain Intellect on every level-up so far. He's wearing a Rune Armlet as well - his Strength is still maxed without the Giant's Gloves, and this adds a bit more Magic Defense until we can grab an ever-welcome Protect Ring.
So now we're heading into the Subterrane for its bosses and such. White Dragon I thought would be mildly irritating due to its Holy absorption, but Hand of the Gods still did full damage. Something else at work?
Oh yes, one thing I didn't mention about paying attention to post-70 level up gains: it is very annoying due to the sheer rate at which you gain levels in the Subterrane. To wit, all on the first floor, after much reloads to get the appropriate bonus, I gained a level, went and grabbed the Black Garb chest (pointlessly, because Yang can't wear it...but you have to get every chest!!), and by the time I got back to the teleporter, I was close to gaining another level! Thankfully, this slows down a bit towards the middle with the incessant Bone Dragon and Dinozombie encounters, which don't give too much.
It actually was a good idea to put on the Funny Mask down here. The Gold and Silver Dragons can sometimes use Entangle, which is not good news. The final encounter of note were the Li'l Murderers. These guys at first do nothing but cast Scan on themselves repeatedly, in attempt to get you to hit them with lightning, after which they Haste up and Thundaga you to death. This only triggers against magic, so Yang was free to punch them with the Thunder Claw without retaliation.
The game was in a very good mood, too, giving up several Lunar Curtains over the course of my descent. Still, eventually had to run down to the save point to get ready to manipulate levels.
While I was down here at the save point, may as well fight the bosses! The Lunasaurs aren't weak to Holy, but they are Undead. Hand of the Gods did 9999 damage to them each time. A clever plan would be to use the Power command instead of the Fight command, bypassing their script change into using Reflect into powerful Bios bounced off their partner's wall. Even more clever, however, was taking advantage of the fact that they only go into the script if they themselves are hit, and won't cast Bio if their partner is dead. In short, the front one only got off two Bios that Yang gobbled up with his massive HP count, and the second one's Flames and physicals came nowhere close to threatening him. I left Plague alone for now, having just too little speed to take it out.
There was nothing fancy about Dark Bahamut. Just hold A. Yang did around 3500 damage on average. I needed an Elixir here, but managed to save one by HP counting and killing him when his HP was low.
I'll briefly direct you to the Behemoth's drops. Power Sash is a piece of equipment that can be worn by everyone but a Dark Knight. It gives no magical statistics, but 15 defense, 10 evade, and +15 to Strength. This might've been okay earlier on, but at this point, especially for Yang, the Courageous Suit outclasses it. Still, it's not a stupidly rare drop.
Plague proper was funny. I was trying to avoid using a Curtain on it, just to see if I could go without one. But as before and in spite of about three added levels of Agility, Yang kept dying, right after confirming an attack. I was going to check the memory to see how close Yang was getting...and then I got better rolls after I set the emulator up to watch since I was too lazy to HP count, so I didn't need to do that. A victory with 1 second left.
Even down here, there wasn't a shortage of enemies who could be killed with an elemental weakness. I continued to rearranged the inventory to better allow for weapon switching in-battle. Which got annoying to repeatedly do, especially after buying items (need to sort to get them to combine).
Ogopogo was among the enemies with an elemental weakness, I figured I'd try the strategy of just holding A - naturally with Thunder Claw. It was tight, but Yang did kill it before it killed him.
In the crystal section of the core, the most annoying thing about going down were the enemies. Not for posing a threat - Yang could kill the Behemoths as before, the Red Dragons with Ice Claw, and Ivan Ooze with Thunder Claw (mechs). But because they give a ton of experience, and of course, I want to keep Yang's leveling perfect. And running from them takes ages.
Aside - how to kill a dramatic scene 101. Inventory often ended up clogged more than usual here, and compounded by my inventory rearrangement putting the claws near the top, it could prove kind of annoying at times!!
Big Z wasn't too big a threat. Yang had maxed out on his HP. With nothing else to do, I simply equipped for Agility and attacked relentlessly. He was doing reasonable damage the whole time. Those 2000+ damage Big Bangs and high damaging Flares may be able to threaten low HP characters like Palom or Edge, but Yang had plenty of leeway.
So that's that. Another main game down.
12:12 gametime after making a solo exception to kill him a second time with everyone else, featuring me getting a taste of the Solo Kain challenge when everyone but him died against Zeromus. Maybe I'll do that myself someday, if only because he gets some disgusting stuff in the postgame. But for now and on the next page, it's Yang's turn to do that.
Next | Index
