![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
FF1 No Items Part IV
Sep. 21st, 2019 12:15 amAll right, grinding. First things first, buying CUR4 and LIF2. Couldn't cast them yet, but may as well get them out of the way now because I can.
I eventually settled in the first floor of ToFR. My goal is level 29. This would be where What gets 4-hits with the Katana; Buff would get 4 with Defense a level before that. Also at that level, the WWs would have 9/8/7/7/6/5/5/3 spell charges. That should be enough! If not and hopefully worst case, level 37, where What would get 5 hits with the Masmune, and their spell charges would be 9/8/8/8/7/7/6/6.
The primary opposition seemed to be Frost Ds. WORMs were the most welcome: easy targets and paid out a handsome sum each time. The dragons were more annoying: I generally dealt with them via FIR3/FIR2 then cleaning up from there, casting EXIT when Buff was out of charges.
So much was it that I actually went and picked this up. This way, everyone could resist ice and fire (CREMATE), and the WWs wouldn't have to cast AICE every battle
So they could join in too. Their damage may have usually been chip, but it was often enough to push survivors over the edge.
So grinding away. It's about the fastest place you can go. But, it gets repetitive. Boredom set in at level 26. I decided I'd make a run at the temple, to see how it would go. As well as to collect the goodies lying within. I didn't run into much of note on the way towards PHANTOM. Encounter luck that I probably would've liked on a real run: no Gas Ds at all, and I got away from Frost Ds quick and easily when they showed up.
PHANTOM itself didn't pose a threat.
And here again, you can see no items in my inventory as I use the LUTE.
It was smooth running until the Earth floor, where EARTHs showed up! Thankfully at this point, they're relatively easy pickings. That brought me to LICH with this much in stock. Its NUKE had been on my mind for a while.
LICH started off with a physical. What did a healthy amount of damage on turn 2...
And then he died horribly.
But it went well! Double HEL2 got me back in the game for the most part, and Buff got pissed and killed the hell out of him. And as for What...well. I had LIF2 charges now! There's nothing else at that spell level worth a cast besides WALL and maybe FADE if nothing else. So it's effectively a free full heal that doesn't interfere with your CURE spells, as long as the target is dead
Here's the ProCape on the Fire floor. I gave it to Gard. Stocks were still looking good before KARY.
This was the most dangerous thing she did.
As is the nature of physicals and criticals, the damage I saw varied wildly. Still, she wasn't hitting very hard herself, so this wasn't a fight where I was in very much danger, either.
JESUS CHRIST GARD, the disrespect! I approve!
I did run into a set of WATERs, which was my cue to pop LIT3 on Buff and clean up from there. Actually, they're weak to ice, not lit. Well, still did the job anyway, and he only had the one level 7 charge at this level.
Oh, son of a--! That's not good. I was worried about this one.
I couldn't let that happen to my other damage dealer, so I started buffing him with INVS. Thankfully I got some time to do so. No INV2 available for now.
He crushed Gard next turn. I actually had Mend cast a few on herself, just to give a bit of buffer. If she went down, that would be it. This run of the temple would be over.
A lesser seen aspect of CUR4 actually popped up in this fight: it fully heals status in addition to HP. Kraken landed an INK because What didn't have a Ribbon, but CUR4 rendered it irrelevant.
The INVS casts were the right move, he barely survived that one.
Still, I need to actually crit the guy for it to matter! Come on, man. Mend actually contributed a bit too!
Okay, whew. I guess picking up INV2 would be in order for this fight proper. I can afford it: petrification shouldn't pop up too much, and as long as I keep one for emergency EXITs if needed, I should be fine. And again, as long as one WW survives and I win, anyone who does die can have LIF2 cast on them for a free full heal.
Any thoughts of trying to end it here and now were definitely out, though. Nothing left on Mend aside from a single CUR3/HEL2. Gard had more, but I'd be hard-pressed to win against TIAMAT and CHAOS with just that.
There was nothing of note in the air floor: no IronGOLs to troll me into fighting them, and no 3/64 SORCERERs. I was able to lay claim to the Masmune! That was going to make fights go by quicker, thereby letting me take less damage as well. Buff is the better wielder of the mighty sword. He has more STR than What does, and Defense has a lower item ID than Katana. There are a few moments when I'm going to pass it to him though.
Also, with that run done, I've settled that I'll be going all the way on not using spellcasting items at all, which meant getting a ProRing for What over the Zeus Gauntlet. I didn't really end up needing them: I had enough charges to throw around for big unrunnable groups. The only thing I might want is the White Shirt's INV2, but spoilers! I'm going to have three casters of it, and like I said, not using that spell level much otherwise anyway.
Anyway, completed the rest of the grind. I didn't notice Gard wasn't level 29 for some reason, but the important thing was to get What there anyway. He hit it along the way, for what that was worth. It ultimately meant only one less level 7 charge.
So here's the stats, all of them in that big stitched image. Nothing really to note here, besides the fruits of my Str grinding. I had What in the back rather than Buff as I decided he wouldn't have a Ribbon. The WWs needed it for being my healers, and Buff was my best damage dealer. So giving him a bit of safety from the status attacks was ideal. Forgot about the Black Shirt there though. Still didn't use it.
The going through at first was simple. I first encounted some WORMs which I beat up. The next floor had a FIGHTER/MAGE mix and WzVAMP/Zombie D mix that I just ran from on the way to PHANTOM.
PHANTOM hit What hard, but went down easily on the first round of combat - What having did 101 himself.
The next fight I hit this pack. It was an invitation to use HEL2 as I cast FIR3/FIR2. Topped everyone off for the most part between that and a few spells after battle. The rest of the walk up to LICH had nothing of note besides two more WORM encounters that I cut to pieces with Katana and Masmune - I hit one for over 700 damage! Got a bit ahead of myself with dogpiling against one of them: not needed anymore since Buff can often OHKO, heh.
Earth floor had GrMEDUSAs which I got a preemptive run against, and MudGOLs who I instantly ran from. I came to LICH...
...who used one of the worst NUKEs I've ever seen: 364/252/368/330! It was a good thing I had the sense to heal almost to full before this! At least no one died, I left them below 400. I had the WWs attack, Gard actually hit for 53 damage.
And Buff one-shots the guy. What did 215 right before that. Excellent. Except for coming before the HEL2s.
And here is where I decided to use a big brain strategy; intentionally getting Buff and What killed off so I could use LIF2 to fully heal them instead of using CURE spells. I did have the WWs heal themselves back up to full. I ran from Grey Ws because that'd be too dangerous. Made my first actual attempt to get them killed a R.GIANT/AGAMA, but they killed it beforehand.
I checked my encounters at this point, and it said that AGAMA would be coming up next, so that made things really safe. I stripped them off...
Sure enough, the lizards brought the pair down - even ambushing me to make it faster - and Mend got the team out. They only took a few minor scrapes in the process
Now that's a play I never thought I'd ever be making in this game.
There were no further encounters before KARY. She cast FIR3 on the first turn, going off after my HEL2 annoyingly. DId get one off at the start of the next round, only for her to hit Gard extremely hard. Not even a critical there.
That was all she got a chance to do, as the attackers killed her just like that. I healed up Mend and did a few more patchups before moving onto the Water floor.
It just flew by. This encounter was obnoxious and dealt a bit, but WATERs accompanied by NAGAs can be run from. The other two encounters here I escaped from without incident. That meant it was time for Kraken. I switched the Masmune onto What before the fight. Buff, Mend, and Gard all have INV2. I wanted to stack it up as fast as possible to assure his physicals were kept in check.
He certainly tried. But he didn't get it done.
I actually spent the next turn getting up more INV2 stacks instead of healing Mend. I could just LIF2 her if LIT3 got her, after all. Instead Kraken used INK, which again hit What. It ended up not mattering, and he finished off Kraken on turn 3. Changed the equipment back after.
I had a few more WORMs to deal with before TIAMAT, no big deal.
I decided I would cast WALL here - I had the level 8 charges to spare, and this would stop POISON from hitting What hard. The dragon spent her first turn attacking Gard physically.
Next turn was a BANE. No problem. That said this fight went on a bit longer than the others - took a few turns for Buff to wake up, TIAMAT got to ICE2, but...
...died before anything like POISON. A few steps immediately after, there were more WORMs waiting for me. Easily cut to pieces.
Well, no WarMECH, but I saw a 3/64 anyway. Aside, how is it that this is so scary to some people, and the threat of WarMECH isn't? They're the same odds, yet Sullla and T-Hawk both voiced concern about the possibility of them in numerous of their variants on the Air floor. Maybe rightfully, as they showed up in many of their challenges.
Anyway, here they are showing up in one of mine too. And I say bring it on! I'm not scared of you! It's free full healing! Just don't kill both WWs.
Or I could get out without incident, that too. Two of them hit for single digit damage and no deaths. That was the last encounter.
And here is where it stands. I have plenty of CUR4, HEL2, and HEL3 casts. It was at this point I felt this was a lock, short of a 3/256 CRACK. I just needed to make it across the finish line.
Round 1 went FAST...oh crap, I used too many of What's, I was intending to not use one on LICH and used it anyway. Um, FAST - which I should've used on What instead of Buff self-buffing, FIGHT, WALL What, INV2. CHAOS simply physically attacked Buff.
Next round I went FAST on What, FIGHT, CUR3 on What, and HEL2. CHAOS used his ICE3, after the HEL2 naturally. What landed a 219 damage attack though. Coupled with the...very little damage from before, an okay start I guess. 1777 left.
Round 3, Buff did 157, CHAOS...what the hell!? Physical and paralyzed Gard?! I forgot he can actually do that, it comes up so infrequently. Anyway, What hit for 58 and Mend used INV2.
No choice and no hesitation here: I had to heal that right now. Can't have another Buff-sitting-out-of LICH situation. CHAOS used LIT3, Mend CUR4'd Gard, Buff struck for 466 damage, and What hit for 206. Excellent! He had 890 remaining at this point.
Round 5 saw What deal 187, an INV2, a HEL2, and...freaking amazing. SLO2 on Buff. Back down to a normal multiplier, Buff hit for 176. 527 left on CHAOS.
He had one FAST charge left. I decided I'd use it. I had Mend FIGHT: I actually forgot I'd bought FADE even though it was right there in the menu, heh. Gard was out of charges though, that said. She did only 1 damage. Gard threw up another INV2, and CHAOS missed Buff with a physical. What ended up only doing 5 damage, not what I needed with that CUR4 around the corner.
What did no better on round 7: 6 damage. Buff also came in with no criticals, doing only 153. Gard did 1 damage, Mend did 39. Seriously, the White Wizard outdamaged What? CHAOS' CRACK fell ineffective. At the start of the next round, freaking Gard did 98. That had to be both attacks going critical. This is a joke, easily one of the off-the-wall fights against him I've had.
CHAOS wasn't laughing as he finally used that CUR4 with 224 health remaining. If only that SLO2 hadn't hit or What and Buff decided they didn't feel like getting any criticals... Well, on what was left of the round, Mend hit him for 1, Buff hit him for 281, and What hit for 7.
Had Gard stack another INV2 as Mend hit for 1 again. Buff did a solid 261, as CHAOS whiffed on him physically. And What did 7 again! What is wrong with him all of a sudden?! 1442 remaining on CHAOS from here.
I wasn't worried at all about that CUR4 having happened, there was still tons of my own healing in the tank. I hadn't even had to heal that much! All I needed to do was make sure I was ready for NUKE if it got to that point. Tenth round of combat saw a CHAOS FIR3, Mend missing, Buff dealing 305, another INV2, and What finally waking up and dealing 187.
Eleventh started with Buff doing 339, Mend doing 1, What doing 158, a CHAOS INFERNO, and 2 from Gard. Everyone was around or below 300 from this, so I decided next turn would be good time to sling a pair of HEL2s to get back up above 400 for everyone so not even the worst case NUKE could kill anything.
What went right back to no criticals with 7Hits/7DMG. CHAOS used his ICE2, and the HEL2s resolved, getting everyone back up into a comfortable threshold.
But Buff banged out this massive hit to finish it off right then and there!
So this challenge was different! It definitely forced me to make some interesting decisions. I had more than enough healing to get me through the Temple and wherever else it was needed - no HEAL potions or staffs or helmets required! I might've actually been able to get away with not hitting 29 and just relying on Buff's 4-hits through there. Certainly gave me more wiggle room having it, of course.
Whoever was in chat that day thought that this challenge might be worse than solo Thief. Well, I beat it, and using a Thief to boot! It ultimately wasn't that bad after I got out of the rough early game. Even the endgame wasn't as terrible as I thought it'd be, though not seeing Gas Ds at all helped too.
Let's talk about Thief/Ninja, though. Its reputation is certainly justified on NES: bugs to critical hits and running hamper it greatly, so it can't do the two things it was meant to do. It doesn't get the Hit% that the Fighter does, and it doesn't get the double hits on unarmed that the Black Belt gets. So its offense is the worst of the three physical classes - it's actually just a bit worse than Red Wizard with perfect gains, too! The Black spells it gets as a Ninja are probably better than Knight's White spells, but two are found in spellcasting items, leaving only FAST as a draw. It's not left with much to consider.
But it just so happens that this specific challenge is one of those only times where what it DOES having going for it just so happens to be useful: you want to RUN as much as possible, and you want to take as little damage as possible. Bugged or not, its high LUCK stat lets it escape early easily before other classes can, and even allows it to better escape when those below it have status on them in the late game.
Taking little damage also means ending fights quickly. You'll want to power up with FAST as soon as possible. Having two casters of it DID help immensely, and though Knight or especially Master could do well with a buff on their own, the RW was able to hold his own and make a difference. Doubling up and going full throttle from turn 2 was useful. So how about two RWs? That runs into the issue that the second is hard to gear: there's only one Opal Bracelet in the game, and you might want ProCapes on a WW or two. But Ninja can get that high absorb without clashing with RW's equipment options, bring enough FAST to count, and even a few FIR2/LIT2s to clear out a tiny bit of trash. If going full on no spellcasting items too, the other jobs can't bring that, either.
Thief/Ninja may not be the best option for the fourth slot for this challenge, but it's a viable option that can be justified in some ways over your other choices. And being viable under crazy circumstances as these is probably the best it'll ever get in FF1.
So that's it. Thanks for--wait, no, that's not it. I forgot something.
Wait, you want in too? Impressively, it survived this and hit back for fairly respectable damage.
But it died in one round. Not going looking for IronGOL though.
Anyways, EAT SHIT. Very boring encounter with it, it never NUCLEARed and didn't even ambush, so a bunch of INV2 stacks rendered it relatively harmless.
Okay, now that's it.
Index
I eventually settled in the first floor of ToFR. My goal is level 29. This would be where What gets 4-hits with the Katana; Buff would get 4 with Defense a level before that. Also at that level, the WWs would have 9/8/7/7/6/5/5/3 spell charges. That should be enough! If not and hopefully worst case, level 37, where What would get 5 hits with the Masmune, and their spell charges would be 9/8/8/8/7/7/6/6.
The primary opposition seemed to be Frost Ds. WORMs were the most welcome: easy targets and paid out a handsome sum each time. The dragons were more annoying: I generally dealt with them via FIR3/FIR2 then cleaning up from there, casting EXIT when Buff was out of charges.
So much was it that I actually went and picked this up. This way, everyone could resist ice and fire (CREMATE), and the WWs wouldn't have to cast AICE every battle
So they could join in too. Their damage may have usually been chip, but it was often enough to push survivors over the edge.
So grinding away. It's about the fastest place you can go. But, it gets repetitive. Boredom set in at level 26. I decided I'd make a run at the temple, to see how it would go. As well as to collect the goodies lying within. I didn't run into much of note on the way towards PHANTOM. Encounter luck that I probably would've liked on a real run: no Gas Ds at all, and I got away from Frost Ds quick and easily when they showed up.
PHANTOM itself didn't pose a threat.
And here again, you can see no items in my inventory as I use the LUTE.
It was smooth running until the Earth floor, where EARTHs showed up! Thankfully at this point, they're relatively easy pickings. That brought me to LICH with this much in stock. Its NUKE had been on my mind for a while.
LICH started off with a physical. What did a healthy amount of damage on turn 2...
And then he died horribly.
But it went well! Double HEL2 got me back in the game for the most part, and Buff got pissed and killed the hell out of him. And as for What...well. I had LIF2 charges now! There's nothing else at that spell level worth a cast besides WALL and maybe FADE if nothing else. So it's effectively a free full heal that doesn't interfere with your CURE spells, as long as the target is dead
Here's the ProCape on the Fire floor. I gave it to Gard. Stocks were still looking good before KARY.
This was the most dangerous thing she did.
As is the nature of physicals and criticals, the damage I saw varied wildly. Still, she wasn't hitting very hard herself, so this wasn't a fight where I was in very much danger, either.
JESUS CHRIST GARD, the disrespect! I approve!
I did run into a set of WATERs, which was my cue to pop LIT3 on Buff and clean up from there. Actually, they're weak to ice, not lit. Well, still did the job anyway, and he only had the one level 7 charge at this level.
Oh, son of a--! That's not good. I was worried about this one.
I couldn't let that happen to my other damage dealer, so I started buffing him with INVS. Thankfully I got some time to do so. No INV2 available for now.
He crushed Gard next turn. I actually had Mend cast a few on herself, just to give a bit of buffer. If she went down, that would be it. This run of the temple would be over.
A lesser seen aspect of CUR4 actually popped up in this fight: it fully heals status in addition to HP. Kraken landed an INK because What didn't have a Ribbon, but CUR4 rendered it irrelevant.
The INVS casts were the right move, he barely survived that one.
Still, I need to actually crit the guy for it to matter! Come on, man. Mend actually contributed a bit too!
Okay, whew. I guess picking up INV2 would be in order for this fight proper. I can afford it: petrification shouldn't pop up too much, and as long as I keep one for emergency EXITs if needed, I should be fine. And again, as long as one WW survives and I win, anyone who does die can have LIF2 cast on them for a free full heal.
Any thoughts of trying to end it here and now were definitely out, though. Nothing left on Mend aside from a single CUR3/HEL2. Gard had more, but I'd be hard-pressed to win against TIAMAT and CHAOS with just that.
There was nothing of note in the air floor: no IronGOLs to troll me into fighting them, and no 3/64 SORCERERs. I was able to lay claim to the Masmune! That was going to make fights go by quicker, thereby letting me take less damage as well. Buff is the better wielder of the mighty sword. He has more STR than What does, and Defense has a lower item ID than Katana. There are a few moments when I'm going to pass it to him though.
Also, with that run done, I've settled that I'll be going all the way on not using spellcasting items at all, which meant getting a ProRing for What over the Zeus Gauntlet. I didn't really end up needing them: I had enough charges to throw around for big unrunnable groups. The only thing I might want is the White Shirt's INV2, but spoilers! I'm going to have three casters of it, and like I said, not using that spell level much otherwise anyway.
Anyway, completed the rest of the grind. I didn't notice Gard wasn't level 29 for some reason, but the important thing was to get What there anyway. He hit it along the way, for what that was worth. It ultimately meant only one less level 7 charge.
So here's the stats, all of them in that big stitched image. Nothing really to note here, besides the fruits of my Str grinding. I had What in the back rather than Buff as I decided he wouldn't have a Ribbon. The WWs needed it for being my healers, and Buff was my best damage dealer. So giving him a bit of safety from the status attacks was ideal. Forgot about the Black Shirt there though. Still didn't use it.
The going through at first was simple. I first encounted some WORMs which I beat up. The next floor had a FIGHTER/MAGE mix and WzVAMP/Zombie D mix that I just ran from on the way to PHANTOM.
PHANTOM hit What hard, but went down easily on the first round of combat - What having did 101 himself.
The next fight I hit this pack. It was an invitation to use HEL2 as I cast FIR3/FIR2. Topped everyone off for the most part between that and a few spells after battle. The rest of the walk up to LICH had nothing of note besides two more WORM encounters that I cut to pieces with Katana and Masmune - I hit one for over 700 damage! Got a bit ahead of myself with dogpiling against one of them: not needed anymore since Buff can often OHKO, heh.
Earth floor had GrMEDUSAs which I got a preemptive run against, and MudGOLs who I instantly ran from. I came to LICH...
...who used one of the worst NUKEs I've ever seen: 364/252/368/330! It was a good thing I had the sense to heal almost to full before this! At least no one died, I left them below 400. I had the WWs attack, Gard actually hit for 53 damage.
And Buff one-shots the guy. What did 215 right before that. Excellent. Except for coming before the HEL2s.
And here is where I decided to use a big brain strategy; intentionally getting Buff and What killed off so I could use LIF2 to fully heal them instead of using CURE spells. I did have the WWs heal themselves back up to full. I ran from Grey Ws because that'd be too dangerous. Made my first actual attempt to get them killed a R.GIANT/AGAMA, but they killed it beforehand.
I checked my encounters at this point, and it said that AGAMA would be coming up next, so that made things really safe. I stripped them off...
Sure enough, the lizards brought the pair down - even ambushing me to make it faster - and Mend got the team out. They only took a few minor scrapes in the process
Now that's a play I never thought I'd ever be making in this game.
There were no further encounters before KARY. She cast FIR3 on the first turn, going off after my HEL2 annoyingly. DId get one off at the start of the next round, only for her to hit Gard extremely hard. Not even a critical there.
That was all she got a chance to do, as the attackers killed her just like that. I healed up Mend and did a few more patchups before moving onto the Water floor.
It just flew by. This encounter was obnoxious and dealt a bit, but WATERs accompanied by NAGAs can be run from. The other two encounters here I escaped from without incident. That meant it was time for Kraken. I switched the Masmune onto What before the fight. Buff, Mend, and Gard all have INV2. I wanted to stack it up as fast as possible to assure his physicals were kept in check.
He certainly tried. But he didn't get it done.
I actually spent the next turn getting up more INV2 stacks instead of healing Mend. I could just LIF2 her if LIT3 got her, after all. Instead Kraken used INK, which again hit What. It ended up not mattering, and he finished off Kraken on turn 3. Changed the equipment back after.
I had a few more WORMs to deal with before TIAMAT, no big deal.
I decided I would cast WALL here - I had the level 8 charges to spare, and this would stop POISON from hitting What hard. The dragon spent her first turn attacking Gard physically.
Next turn was a BANE. No problem. That said this fight went on a bit longer than the others - took a few turns for Buff to wake up, TIAMAT got to ICE2, but...
...died before anything like POISON. A few steps immediately after, there were more WORMs waiting for me. Easily cut to pieces.
Well, no WarMECH, but I saw a 3/64 anyway. Aside, how is it that this is so scary to some people, and the threat of WarMECH isn't? They're the same odds, yet Sullla and T-Hawk both voiced concern about the possibility of them in numerous of their variants on the Air floor. Maybe rightfully, as they showed up in many of their challenges.
Anyway, here they are showing up in one of mine too. And I say bring it on! I'm not scared of you! It's free full healing! Just don't kill both WWs.
Or I could get out without incident, that too. Two of them hit for single digit damage and no deaths. That was the last encounter.
And here is where it stands. I have plenty of CUR4, HEL2, and HEL3 casts. It was at this point I felt this was a lock, short of a 3/256 CRACK. I just needed to make it across the finish line.
Round 1 went FAST...oh crap, I used too many of What's, I was intending to not use one on LICH and used it anyway. Um, FAST - which I should've used on What instead of Buff self-buffing, FIGHT, WALL What, INV2. CHAOS simply physically attacked Buff.
Next round I went FAST on What, FIGHT, CUR3 on What, and HEL2. CHAOS used his ICE3, after the HEL2 naturally. What landed a 219 damage attack though. Coupled with the...very little damage from before, an okay start I guess. 1777 left.
Round 3, Buff did 157, CHAOS...what the hell!? Physical and paralyzed Gard?! I forgot he can actually do that, it comes up so infrequently. Anyway, What hit for 58 and Mend used INV2.
No choice and no hesitation here: I had to heal that right now. Can't have another Buff-sitting-out-of LICH situation. CHAOS used LIT3, Mend CUR4'd Gard, Buff struck for 466 damage, and What hit for 206. Excellent! He had 890 remaining at this point.
Round 5 saw What deal 187, an INV2, a HEL2, and...freaking amazing. SLO2 on Buff. Back down to a normal multiplier, Buff hit for 176. 527 left on CHAOS.
He had one FAST charge left. I decided I'd use it. I had Mend FIGHT: I actually forgot I'd bought FADE even though it was right there in the menu, heh. Gard was out of charges though, that said. She did only 1 damage. Gard threw up another INV2, and CHAOS missed Buff with a physical. What ended up only doing 5 damage, not what I needed with that CUR4 around the corner.
What did no better on round 7: 6 damage. Buff also came in with no criticals, doing only 153. Gard did 1 damage, Mend did 39. Seriously, the White Wizard outdamaged What? CHAOS' CRACK fell ineffective. At the start of the next round, freaking Gard did 98. That had to be both attacks going critical. This is a joke, easily one of the off-the-wall fights against him I've had.
CHAOS wasn't laughing as he finally used that CUR4 with 224 health remaining. If only that SLO2 hadn't hit or What and Buff decided they didn't feel like getting any criticals... Well, on what was left of the round, Mend hit him for 1, Buff hit him for 281, and What hit for 7.
Had Gard stack another INV2 as Mend hit for 1 again. Buff did a solid 261, as CHAOS whiffed on him physically. And What did 7 again! What is wrong with him all of a sudden?! 1442 remaining on CHAOS from here.
I wasn't worried at all about that CUR4 having happened, there was still tons of my own healing in the tank. I hadn't even had to heal that much! All I needed to do was make sure I was ready for NUKE if it got to that point. Tenth round of combat saw a CHAOS FIR3, Mend missing, Buff dealing 305, another INV2, and What finally waking up and dealing 187.
Eleventh started with Buff doing 339, Mend doing 1, What doing 158, a CHAOS INFERNO, and 2 from Gard. Everyone was around or below 300 from this, so I decided next turn would be good time to sling a pair of HEL2s to get back up above 400 for everyone so not even the worst case NUKE could kill anything.
What went right back to no criticals with 7Hits/7DMG. CHAOS used his ICE2, and the HEL2s resolved, getting everyone back up into a comfortable threshold.
But Buff banged out this massive hit to finish it off right then and there!
So this challenge was different! It definitely forced me to make some interesting decisions. I had more than enough healing to get me through the Temple and wherever else it was needed - no HEAL potions or staffs or helmets required! I might've actually been able to get away with not hitting 29 and just relying on Buff's 4-hits through there. Certainly gave me more wiggle room having it, of course.
Whoever was in chat that day thought that this challenge might be worse than solo Thief. Well, I beat it, and using a Thief to boot! It ultimately wasn't that bad after I got out of the rough early game. Even the endgame wasn't as terrible as I thought it'd be, though not seeing Gas Ds at all helped too.
Let's talk about Thief/Ninja, though. Its reputation is certainly justified on NES: bugs to critical hits and running hamper it greatly, so it can't do the two things it was meant to do. It doesn't get the Hit% that the Fighter does, and it doesn't get the double hits on unarmed that the Black Belt gets. So its offense is the worst of the three physical classes - it's actually just a bit worse than Red Wizard with perfect gains, too! The Black spells it gets as a Ninja are probably better than Knight's White spells, but two are found in spellcasting items, leaving only FAST as a draw. It's not left with much to consider.
But it just so happens that this specific challenge is one of those only times where what it DOES having going for it just so happens to be useful: you want to RUN as much as possible, and you want to take as little damage as possible. Bugged or not, its high LUCK stat lets it escape early easily before other classes can, and even allows it to better escape when those below it have status on them in the late game.
Taking little damage also means ending fights quickly. You'll want to power up with FAST as soon as possible. Having two casters of it DID help immensely, and though Knight or especially Master could do well with a buff on their own, the RW was able to hold his own and make a difference. Doubling up and going full throttle from turn 2 was useful. So how about two RWs? That runs into the issue that the second is hard to gear: there's only one Opal Bracelet in the game, and you might want ProCapes on a WW or two. But Ninja can get that high absorb without clashing with RW's equipment options, bring enough FAST to count, and even a few FIR2/LIT2s to clear out a tiny bit of trash. If going full on no spellcasting items too, the other jobs can't bring that, either.
Thief/Ninja may not be the best option for the fourth slot for this challenge, but it's a viable option that can be justified in some ways over your other choices. And being viable under crazy circumstances as these is probably the best it'll ever get in FF1.
So that's it. Thanks for--wait, no, that's not it. I forgot something.
Wait, you want in too? Impressively, it survived this and hit back for fairly respectable damage.
But it died in one round. Not going looking for IronGOL though.
Anyways, EAT SHIT. Very boring encounter with it, it never NUCLEARed and didn't even ambush, so a bunch of INV2 stacks rendered it relatively harmless.
Okay, now that's it.
Index
