FF5 Solos vs. Shinryu Part II

The Freelancer

T-Hawk said that a natural Freelancer could get this done on its own. Time to prove him right!


Freelancer is one of four jobs that can use Coral Ring while not needing to worry about losing Haste, thanks to Masamune's Haste and instant ATB starting effects. Although actually, it wants the Flame Ring instead - the opening Tidal Wave can be blocked with Aegis Shield. Flame Ring takes care of Atomic Ray and the annoying Snowstorm. Diamond Helmet was used to neuter Lightning - although Ribbon is an option as well. The armor slot is open - Bone Mail's big perk is
turning Roulette into a nonthreat/full heal, although Rainbow Dress lets you use Elixirs to heal instead of relying on that and the finnicky Assassin's Dagger self-stab.


Plenty of weapons see action here - in addition to Masamune, Defender (Protect), Wonder Wand (Shell), Sasuke's Katana/Main Gauche (put on for blocking when healing if using the Rainbow Dress), Assassin's Dagger (healing if using Bone Mail), Judgment Staff (cancels Mighty Guard), and finally the attacking weapon of choice, the Dragon's Whisker. It deals full damage from the back row making it better than Dragon Lance, and can be equipped with the Aegis Shield making it better than Apollo's Harp. I was fighting this at level 85, because I misrembered the Necromancer report and thought it said mid-80s rather than mid-70s.


Which of Bone Mail or Rainbow Dress is preferred? That's up to the player. I used Bone Mail on this, partially to vary it up, and partially because I did not actually do these in the order I listed them - both here and on Realms Beyond - and just got off a couple annoying ones where Roulette was being a thorn. It's really a question of whether you trust in Aegis and Shell to block Maelstrom or not. It does bring the advantage of making Roulette and Poison Breath irrelevant, and in fact on my winning run, Erdrick was technically killed by a physical, only to survive with minimal HP because of Poison Breath. If you go with Rainbow Dress, Ribbon might be the better option for the head slot, especially if Roulette is giving you grief.


So yup. Don't underestimate the Freelancer and its ability to equip anything and everything.
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The Mime

It's a worse Freelancer when solo.


Though that said, there is a strategy that both are capable of using, one that Mime does have to fall back on: minishield! Go in small with the Genji Shield, Berserk that bad boy with Power Staff, and start busting up rods.


I did this at level 85, mostly because I set it to that for Freelancer and was too lazy to go back and redo all the setup with this job at 65 (since my main saves had everything mastered) but...really, any level works if you're using this strategy. The added levels would just potentially give more buffer in case an attack does slip through minishield, which shouldn't be often. For this reason, it's also a good idea to get Protect up just in case, from the Wonder Wand in Mime's case.


Popped out of Mini after it had just moved so I could show it dying as a Mime.
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The Knight

And now for the classic duel of the brave knight vs. vicious dragon. At level 85, although I'm sure 73 is possible with this one..


Most classes fear this thing's absurd physicals and want to stay in the back if possible, and those that don't are playing with fire when they do - usually at the cost of killing it faster. This is a common factor with several jobs, although Knight has a counter - Guard! Yeah, that's a nice physical attack Shinryu has, and it's a shame that something happened to it.


This one's about switching the shield in and out as needed. Use it when healing or Guarding (especially before a potential Evil Eye), take it off when attacking. Knight can engage Shinryu in the front row with relative safety because of this and Defender to give itself Protect. And with Brave Blade, Erdrick tore through this one relatively quickly.


Fairly reasonable one as far as fighting Shinryu is concerned, although repeated Maelstroms can be annoying.
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The Blue Mage

Blue, blue.


A fun thing about this one if you assume level 97: it happens to be Shinryu's level. If you're that high up/don't mind getting to absurd levels, Goblin Punch will absolutely slaughter the dragon with Enhancer or Excalipoor on. 9999 every time, and even with Mighty Guard it's still 6.5k. This is a nice "if all else fails" strategy, but of course, given my own rules, I need to fight it at a lower level where possible, and it is here.

It really is too bad about Shinryu's stupid magic evade. The Blue Mage has a grabbag of things to otherwise unleash on the dragon - Flash to cripple its accuracy, Vampire, Dark Shock into L2 Old, and from there into L5 Death if you really want to play dirty.


Minishield is an option here. Berserk out of the Wonder Wand and go crazy with...Mind Blast? It's not the most damaging (Aeroga is), but it isn't half-bad in its own right, is much cheaper on MP, and lets the Blue Mage use the Main Gauche as backup on the blocking.


That strategy can also be used to set up something dirty in spite of said stupid magic evade. So if Blue Mage really wants, it can cross the streams and employ both strategies in the fight - Berserk it with minishield, land the Dark Spark/L2 Old and whatever else, and get that Flash too if you want, and just kill it from there. Even with L5 Death if you want - not even Shinryu is safe against Death By Math. Or send it into its routine proper with Dispel after a few more Wonder Wand uses.


Finally, a straight-up fight is more than possible to achieve, too. Mighty Guard brings the defense alongside Aegis and maybe Main Gauche, and Mind Blast or Aeroga can be used on offense. But of course this is not nearly as fun as just stepping on the thing. Doing it this way, prepping the Wonder Wand for Dispel is ideal, just to get rid of one instance of Mighty Guard.

Blue Mage can and really should even use minishield anyway here - it really doesn't affect the big physical damage too much while blocking even more of them outright, and the Blue Mage doesn't rely on physical damage anyway unless it's using level 97 strats. The big annoyance doing it straight-up is Roulette - Bone Mail can counter it (as well as weaken Snowstorm, while making Atomic Ray more annoying), but it makes healing awkward, even with your own Roulette. It may well be the best, though - this fight isn't quick, so that's less chances to get screwed over. As long as you can land those self-Roulettes (or Assassin's Dagger stabs), which the game doesn't always let you easily do.


That's four ways to bring death to Shinryu with Blue Mage: "fairly", with absurd levels and Goblin Punch, minishield berserk, and by math. And you thought the Red Mage was versatile.
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The Red Mage

Who isn't too versatile in this game due to peaking early. Still, it's no slouch, so let's see what it can do here.


This is not a pretty fight, even with Berserk - which is more or less the only way for Red to do this. It should be technically possible without, but it's way less painful given its lack of defenses and damage output that give Roulette and/or Evil Eye more opportunities to catch up with it. I sent Erdrick to level 85 for this fight, which provided enough of an HP buffer to survive two physical attacks in a row. To get going, opening with Shell from the Wonder Wand is required to survive Tidal Wave. Then Protect needs to be gotten up, followed by Berserk out of the Power Staff.


From there, the same basic principal as with the White Mage applies. By popping an Elixir immediately after it lands an attack, and Erdrick could get in an attack - in this case, a broken rod - getting his next turn with Shinryu only having a chance to get two in-between and therefore no chance of killing. Only without the benefit of Blink, that means a bunch of Elixirs. Red Mage did have its own benefit, that said - Main Gauche allowed it to block attacks from time to time, saving it some Elixirs and giving it some extra rod breaking turns.


Hey, and it didn't even need "max" level. Just like 20 rods and 40 Elixirs. For the record, level 85 is 5017223 experience and 97 is 8934635 experience. So yes, quite a step up - it takes very roughly double the effort to get from 85 to 97 than it does to get to 85 from 65.
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The Summoner

May as well keep going with the rest of the magic jobs. Especially since they can all get it done at this level.


And unlike previous instances, Summoner can't get up Protect. The White and Red Mages can do it on their own. Blue Mage can as well. All three can also get Shell. Time Mage can get Protect too, through the Wonder Wand, and doesn't need to worry about Shell/being instantly destroyed by Tidal Wave thanks to Quick. But Summoner needs to use the Wand for Berserk. Which is problematic when the dragon can instantly move to kill you from there!


Erdrick had to go to level 85 for this one to be consistent. I wanted Golem to be able to consistently take two hits. The formula for its HP is (20 + Level) * 50, and it can easily hit for way over that amount at lesser levels. By putting on Circlet instead of Gold Hairpin, if I calculated it correctly, Shinryu's Berserked attacks do 4522-5130 damage. At level 85, Golem's HP is 5250. It also gave Erdrick himself 5890HP - enough to survive a hit with some change.

Luckily, thanks to an ATB mechanical quirk, it is possible to forgo an adventure in starting off with Shell to survive Tidal Wave and working the Wand down to Berserk - if Erdrick Berserked Shinryu right away, he'd eat two attacks and die horribly before getting his next turn. But if he waited a bit before doing so, the Berserk would reset Shinryu's ATB and it would only get in one turn, enough to get up Golem. As long as you're not on mobile/derivatives. ATB doesn't reset on Berserk/Confusion in that version, so...yeah, don't play the mobile version if you're doing challenge runs for this and other reasons.


But I'm on GBA here, so it's all good. From there, it was much like it was for the Red and White Mages. Use Golem immediately after the dragon had moved, it'd get one turn, then the Summoner would get a turn, followed by Shinryu again - no double turn nonsense, and Golem could be refreshed once more from there ad infinitum.

The spell of choice was Bahamut - it and boosted Syldra were doing roughly comparable damage, and this allowed Erdrick to equip the Main Gauche as well, which gave him some extra turns like it did with the Red Mage.


Repeat this enough and it dies. It's interesting that even though some of these are formulatic, they all have their own twist on their formula.
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The Mystic Knight

Arabian KniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiights


So there's a big issue with the Shinryu fight against Shinryu that affects Mystic Knight in particular - you can run from the fight. I have no idea why this is the case - it's possibly a mercy, but most people wouldn't think to run from it, and many would die instantly to Tidal Wave before they could anyway.

The difference is not pretty - my 2014 fiesta run used Chicken Flare Mug and was doing over 9000 each time, coincidentally at level 65. The next best thing would be Rune Blade, except it doesn't work with Spellblade. That reduces Mystic Knight to using Enhancer or Assassin's Dagger, depending on whether it desires slightly higher power or the evade-halving properties of the latter since it's a knife. These did 2900~ and 2500~ each time from the back row without Mighty Guard. Or gambling with the Dancing Dagger (2100, but like 5600 if Sword Dance goes off like here).


One big advantage Mystic Knight has over any other physical class that completely stupid aspects about this fight can't take away with it is the presence of Shell. As soon as Shinryu lands a successful Maelstrom, Erdrick picked up the handy status. This helps reduce the odds of it happening again, helps stop Roulette, and weakens the really annoyingly damaging Snowstorm.

Besides this, there's nothing to do but hack and hack away and hope it dies before you do. This is really quick and fun if you can do 9999 each time, but even if I assumed 97 (this was at 85), it couldn't hit those heights - not without Dancing Dagger Sword Dance going off in the front row, at least. No Lamia's Tiara on this class to boost the odds of it triggering, either.


In a plain old solo game with no job restrictions, Mystic Knight is an excellent offensive powerhouse option for tackling Shinryu if you want to avoid Mix and the like. That running issue though...it plagues Mystic Knight on its own.
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So that's that for this set of jobs. Some need to go to high levels, and the next ones will need to go even higher to win, be it to do so in the first place or to do so sanely. But all of the next can get it done!

Next | Index

FF5 Solos vs. Shinryu Part III

The Monk

Shinn Ryuu's Punch-Out!!


A fun if screwy one. It at least needs enough levels to survive Tidal Wave. It needs to equip Bone Mail, and hope Shinryu uses Roulette a lot. Hope it uses Mighty Guard never. And then pound away. It sounds dumb. And it probably is to some extent. But it's fun in practice.


One critically important thing - it needs to defend before the big potential double physical. Because if both go off and the Monk is in the front row as it should be, that's dead. Of course, Monk has a counterattack, and Shinryu's physicals will occasionally trigger them for extra damage.


The Monk does need the levels, but if it has them, it should be able to pull this one off. By the way, an interesting fact - I try to capture Shinryu with the name there as it's dying because of Crystal Dragons existing, but it can be annoying to get that since sometimes the name will stick around for half a second, other times it vanishes almost instantly.
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The Black Mage

Okay, now let's actually look at a job that has a much harder time than it did against Gil Turtle, for real this time. Black Mage could rapidly murder the last superboss with an elemental weakness. This time, it's not so lucky.


Every magical class can attempt a Berserk-based strategy against Shinryu. Unlike those seen so far, Black Mage has no way to counter the monstrous attack power it gains as a result - being able to survive two hits and sometimes block them outright. Therefore, inflicting the status is simply a creative way to commit suicide in this instance. So instead, it has to fight the dragon with its natural AI script, beginning with Shell out of the Wonder Rod. It'll weaken the magical attacks and help mitigate things like this from happening.


As with the Summoner, Flare was cleanly outdamaging boosted third-tier elemental spells. And if the Main Gauche wasn't preferred for defense, the weapon of choice would therefore be the obscure Lilith Rod. This gives the highest magic power boost of any equipable rod, including the postgame Demon's Rod.

This super-technical fight is all about three things: first, having a general idea of Shinryu's ATB. Second, knowing Shinryu's script and knowing what you can potentially get away with and when. And third, praying or making a demonic sacrifice so you don't get ruined by Roulette or Evil Eye, or seeing Mighty Guard too early.


And maybe for Main Gauche to make some saves. Like many of the jobs in this set, I fought it with my maximum level of 97. I'm pretty sure I could've done it lower than this though - Black Mage in any case benefits a lot from having enough HP to survive two physicals in a row should the need arise. Assuming Circlet and Black Robe, the most Shinryu could do in a single attack should be 3268. Meaning in the worst case while remaining safe from the level spells...95 for Bartz (6679HP).

Although that is the very worst case, so 91 (6323HP) should work fine as well for most instances (and save you from having to get over two million extra experience). Of course, the more levels you have, the stronger you are and the faster it dies, and therefore the less opportunities it has to screw you over. Didn't feel like doing it at that level again though after figuring out 91 was possible - once was annoying enough.


Didn't expect calculating what you would need via the algorithms guide to come into effect here, did you? Well, neither did I.
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The Berserker

One of the worst jobs vs. a superboss. What the h*ck am I thinking. Does it stand a chance?! Well yes otherwise it wouldn't be in this spot, so here's how it gets the job done.


Berserker would absurdly enough be one of the easier jobs to take this thing down with, except for the issue of being able to run from the Shinryu battle, stopping it from completely slaughtering the dragon with Chicken Knife (which does 7000~ a hit). If it weren't for this, it'd just take some love from lady luck.


And I guess it still does, just a whole lot more luck because it can't rely on that for semi-consistent insane damage. So instead, it has to choose between Thor's Hammer and Titan's Axe. The former is weaker and less accurate, but can be used from the back row which can help protect against the physicals. Reverse those for the latter. And of course it does not ever want to see Mighty Guard. Damage is variable between these two, but varies enough so that I'd slightly prefer the Titan's Axe.


The ideal set of equipment is one of those weapons, Aegis Shield, Diamond Helmet, Bone Mail, and Hermes Sandals. However if you're dipping into the postgame, you can try Earthbreaker Axe. It has the same advantages/disadvantages of Titan's Axe, only it's significantly more powerful. Bone Mail of course gets healing off Roulette, and can even save you if Poison Breath goes off after a lethal physical during its 2nd no interrupt sequence.


It's far from the most ideal circumstances, but Berserker of all classes can get the job done. It'll even reasonably be at those high levels (97) to pull it off! Also if I had this on tape, I'd put it here. I succeeded when I wasn't recording when testing the Earthbreaker, though - which is where it dying here is from! Haven't been able to get it since in about three dozen tries (came within 10k HP once, though). Possible is possible, though, no matter the odds or what you need. It's not overly unreasonable like Gil Turtle is, and though I am going to try to be staying away from GBA postgame stuff, it's still on the table if a job needs or really wants it. BERSERKER!!
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The Ranger

It's already failed miserably against one superboss. Will it disappoint again?


Well, this is world 3, so Ranger has what it takes offensively. Chicken Knife Rapid Fire is in full force here, and oh boy, it did 17272 damage every time at max level. Brute force is the way to go here. It's defense that's the big issue here - Ranger does need the Coral Ring, sadly - even at 97, it can't survive a Tidal Wave naturally.


Bone Mail is the big trick to getting through this. Shinryu's fourth normal turn is incredibly deadly, but if it uses Poison Breath, you'll survive no matter what (even if the previous physical technically killed you). Here's the lowdown on every turn Shinryu will get and what you want to see during them.

- Turn 1 (Attack/Roulette/Maelstrom): Obviously Roulette or a failed Maelstrom is ideal here.
- Turn 2 (Lightning/Atomic Ray/Snowstorm): If Attack or successful Maelstrom happened last turn, Atomic Ray must happen this turn. Otherwise, anything.
- Turn 3 (Attack/Roulette/Maelstrom -> Mighty Guard/L2 Old/L3 Flare): Don't want to see Attack if Erdrick was hit. Don't want to see Mighty Guard.
- Turn 4 (Attack/Attack/Evil Eye -> Attack/Attack/Poison Breath): Really want to see Poison Breath last on this turn.
- Turn 5 (Attack/Roulette/Maelstrom): Roulette is ideal. Maelstrom can work too.
- Turn 6 (Lightning/Atomic Ray/Snowstorm): Again, hoping to see Atomic Ray here, although anything should do if Roulette healed last turn.
- Turn 7 (Attack/Roulette/Maelstrom -> Mighty Guard/L2 Old/L3 Flare): As long as Attack doesn't kill or Mighty Guard doesn't happen, it's dead next turn.


A bit of luck here really isn't all that demanding compared to other jobs - high levels aside (although it should be able to get away with mid 80s/low 90s). Ranger is one of the few that can get it done without Aegis Shield or Shell too, so it has that much going for it. Any job that can't get Haste is in for a bad time against this boss.
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The Ninja

Some people say there's a law that says the more ninjas you have the worse off you are. So can just one Ninja absolutely dominate here?


No, not necessarily. This is another job that can't get enough HP to naturally survive the Tidal Wave. So it would ordinarily have to use Coral Ring and be savaged by the regular attacks. Except this is a job where postgame content comes to the rescue. It's possible to accumulate enough magic defense with the new Vishnu Vest and Royal Crown to potentially survive Tidal Wave! It's not a sure bet and high levels are still necessary, but we're here to kill this dragon under any circumstances with a solo job.


From there, the strategy is to just throw Fuma Shurikens. Use Image to protect against the physicals, use Elixirs as needed, and hope not to get tagged by Evil Eye or something. Sasuke's Katana is also really nice here to guard against physicals from time to time - and it stacks with Main Gauche if you don't want to use Chicken Knife for the additional 5 points agility.


There's at least one other class that can't do it ordinarily but can with these two handy items, but I'll get to that one when relevant.
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The Necromancer

All it took for Rathma to do this was to believe in himself.


Feelin' lucky? Curse can inflict darkness status, which goes a long way to take the heat off you in this fight, but the odds aren't that great. If you can manage to land it though - although that is a really big if - it does a lot to tilt the odds in your favor. It is actually a very good idea to gamble on this, because there's a very good chance you'll have to eat two physicals in a row otherwise. Or even three.


That said, Necromancer isn't in a totally bad spot here. It gets fully healed from Roulette, without needing to worry about the fire weakness from the Bone Mail. However, it conversely needs to worry about Poison Breath - poisoning plus Maelstrom can be almost as lethal as HP Leak. Necro will want Wonder Wand Shell - Maelstrom is just too much of a threat to go without, even with the physicals able to 1-2-3 it. Even so, when it does it, it sometimes big plays need to be made, like I had to here.


Damage is no issue. The spell of choice was Meltdown, since all the elemental ones do the same amount, and the only potential status of relevance was its HP Leak.


Okay, so maybe Rathma was sane. But he technically could've done it.
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21/26 jobs so far. Unfortunately, the sunshine and rainbows end with this. The next set of jobs have serious problems with the big dragon. Some of them can do it, but a few have it impossible, even with absurd levels. And unlike Gil Turtle, there's not much "later" to fall back on. Click forth to see how peril befalls what remains.

Next | Index

FF5 Solos vs. Shinryu Part IV

The Thief

Of course being "treasure hunters" who want things they can't use, they have to rip Shinryu's lungs out. And more than likely die trying.


This job is the other one I meant when discussing Ninja when I said there's a job that needs postgame content to stand a chance against Shinryu.


Unlike that one though, this is significantly more painful. Chicken Mug only does 3800, and that's if you're in the far too dangerous for this job front row. It's halved from the back, and halved again once Mighty Guard goes up. The odds of Thief making it out alive is not that great - it has no defensive options besides Main Gauche and its theoretically overwhelming offense turns out to be not that great.

I guess this one is technically possible? It can get by the opening move, and there's nothing standing in the way but luck. Luck in dodging tons of lethal moves that it has no defense against except said luck. I'm not going to try it though, because believe it or not, there are in fact limts to my patience/masochism.


This death is simulated. But you know a job has it bad in any situation when Berserker outclasses it in said situation. It's just barely removed from insurmountable depths, though. I thought it would do better than this.
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The Dancer

Oh god not another class with no way to guard against the opening Tidal Wave and bad vitality


This is the setup Dancer wants to take, or optionally Coral Ring instead if avoiding postgame content. Either works - Sorceror's has much more magic evade though, while protecting against all elements including halving Tidal Wave to survivability and not making Lightning take off half your max health. Anything to tilt things your way. Hope for a lot of Sword Dances and Roulettes and nothing to screw you over! This is why Lamia's Tiara is desired over Ribbon.


The really fun part about this? If we're assuming a fully powered Chicken Knife at 97, Mighty Guard does nothing to reduce the damage in the front row. Feel free to let it use it! See how much you care. Front vs. back is an interesting dilemma - the former lets you laugh that off, but the latter is the only way to reliably survive a double physical attack, by defending during one. Considering this dickbag can occasionally get three turns to your own; I was not kidding at all when I said any job that can't get Haste is in for a bad time.


Just like Thief, the odds aren't great for this job. But it's possible. Probably more possible than Thief, actually. I actually didn't have much faith in this job at first, categorizing it with the three that are to follow, but it proved me wrong. Still a poor enough performance to go in this spot, though.
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The Bard

Sing a song about how this dragon is so dead~


A great job for fighting this thing, it has no problems doing damage thanks to Apollo's Harp! And it has Hide to-


-wait, GODDAMMIT. This ruins everything!! The Bard is the great Shakespearian tragedy of fighting Shinryu. If it wasn't for not being able to Hide past the Tidal Wave and tons of other threats, this would be a top class solo dragon slayer. And unlike Dancer, Bard can't equip Bone Mail to gamble on Roulette pulling it through. 


Its HP is too low to tank it even with postgame content, and fighting it without Haste is suicide. Ranger could manage it due to sheer overwhelming power and Bone Mail, as could Dancer thanks to the latter. But lacking that option makes that very impractical here. Bard, or at least Apollo's Harp, is excellent for fighting this thing. In a regular party. Solo Bard is pretty much screwed, though. I guess it might be possible if Shinryu's turns line up perfectly enough so it never instantly kills or forces to constantly heal, but this is otherwise impossible for a Bard.

If it could survive though, the strategy would be to just shred it with Apollo's Harp, and heal with Main Gauche on as needed. Still, the lack of Hide hurts and limits its options.
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The Oracle

Seriously, what were they on when they thought this one up?


This job can barely survive the opening Tidal Wave while maintaining Haste with postgame equipment. But from there at 97, using Predict with Bartz will produce Eruptions. Maybe Level 99, where Bartz will have 860? Well, you saw what Shinryu's L3 Flare can do to a Chemist with Shell. It would not end very well. And though it would be badass just for thinking outside the box, you can't use Lenna or Krile here - they would indeed have MP ending in 0 for Cleansing at level 97, but they would also have less HP (6376) and I'm pretty sure that makes them unable to survive even with Royal Crown/Robe of Lords.


So how about Berserk? It can inflict it with Power Staff, but unfortunately, it has no way to lower or prevent the damage so it's not a one-two combo. This one is in the same boat as Bard - unable to win here without TASing it and even so it'd be a nightmare.
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The Geomancer

It's a good thing it's in those pyjamas, because Shinryu is about to send this godawful job to sleep right away. Permanently.


...wait, it's alive? Huh. Didn't even need postgame equipment for that. So it can use Hermes Sandals here.


Still, this fact changes nothing. Geomancer's offense is absolutely pathetic - almost all of its Terrain abilities don't help you here, attacking with the Rune Bell is feeble, you can't use Chicken Knife in this fight, and even if you could it'd disappoint. It can't get Shell to mitigate the likes of Evil Eye and Roulette, it can't get Protect to dampen the physicals, it can't wear Bone Mail, it's completely worthless!!

In this fight, everything I hate about Geomancer. It's fine for clearing trash in parties, but when it comes to bosses, it can be helpless or reduced to item duty due to the unreliability and non-Heavy hitting centralness of Terrain abilities. And in fights like this you can't afford to get away with it.
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So of every job class that went up against Shinryu solo, 23/26 are able to get the job done - although some of these are unlikely wins. One more than I was expecting, actually. Maybe even some of the other three can theoretically done, but if so require a simply inexcusable amount of luck. Like, way way worse than Thief and Dancer.

It just goes to show that just about every class has some sort of way of dealing with this thing. Shinryu is not nearly as terrifying a fight as some make it out to be! Many different party compositions can take this thing on, relevant when it comes to fiestas. In particular I heard of a fellow who did like nine fiesta runs one year, and he was able to defeat Shinryu with all nine of them. And they don't even necessarily need to be horribly overleveled like some of the classes had to go to here to win.

Due to that fact though, a proper tier list when it comes to solos fighting Shinryu is difficult to put together, unlike with Gil Turtle. Nevertheless, you can get an idea of what it takes to defeat Shinryu from this and what each job can do. One special case - any party with Berserk access can fight it by doing so and reviving faster than Shinryu can kill. And even if you have to push your way through, it's not that bad. Simply things like Protect/Shell access, ways to deal damage quickly, and especially ways to employ Haste, can do a ton for you.

This isn't to say the fight is free. But this is where Shinryu is fairly well-designed in that regard. Like most of FF5, there's often a solution to a problem. You simply need to know what you're doing and in the case of variant or otherwise restricted parties, what it's capable of. All it takes is some knowledge and maybe some perseverance, and you can make it through.

And that's where the next superboss comes in. The requirements there are going to be stricter - said person who did a ton of fiestas and beat Shinryu on all of them? He did beat Omega with all of them too...except one. So yes, I'm going to try that fight too with all solos. Sometime. But no guarantee that as many will be able to pull this off.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this edition of all vs. one.

Index