FF4 Solo Edward Part III

Each character you can switch into the party at the end of the GBA version and its derivatives gains two pieces of armor from the Cave of Trials that exclusive to them. All provide stat bonuses that can actually put them ahead of the original final five. For Edward, these are the Red Cap and Red Jacket. The Cap gives him +10 stamina and sports 10 defense/evasion, and 12 magic defense/evasion. It lowered Edward's attack compared to the Green Beret with how the multipliers lined up and the stat bonus is whatever, so there's no qualms with replacing it with a Ribbon. Red Jacket meanwhile, gave +15 to strength and agility! Absolutely fantastic.


In spite of this, it was imperative that he did NOT equip either of these when traversing the cave due to a weird quirk in how FF4 handles the fire and ice elements. If you resist one, you're weak to the other unless your equipment also grants resistance to it. This would cause these particular enemies to instantly kill Edward if they were to ambush him. Yes, it's called Blaze, but it's ice elemental. Similarly, he needed to have a Diamond Armlet on in case two Thunder Dragons ambushed him. It meant being vulnerable to Malboros' Bad Breath, but Edward could just confuse them or run.


I eventually made it through the cave; the enemies were primarily from the Underworld dungeons and not too dangerous. This brought Edward to the bosses, and his was the Gigas Worm. This fight is incredibly dull. It only attacks physically and occasionally throws out Vampire, a weak attack that inflicts HP Leak. The physicals were manageable, even with it countering every attack of his own. It was slow enough that he had ample time to heal up. Edward just had to tear through its 55000HP with arrows from the back row and...


Finally, an actual weapon.

Okay, that's underselling it. Apollo's Harp is an incredible salve. 98 power, effective on dragons, and +15 to Strength, Spirit, and Agility! Edward was suddenly up to 133 attack, with full power from the back row. Stronger than any bow/arrow combination he could use. At long last, Edward was starting to get good.


Here's it in action against the Storm Dragon. This damage was a massive step up from what Edward was doing before, especially since it was hitting a racial weakness. The only reason it wasn't doing even more is that it absorbs the fire element of the harp. This works out to halving the damage of a physical attack.


My next stop was the Lunar Subterrane. The Ribbon and Protect Ring were both down there, and both would be excellent additions to Edward's equipment. Just because I had a new weapon doesn't mean the Lamia's Harp time was over, though. Again, both of these enemies would petrify themselves when charmed. Very good for the Selene Guardians anyway, because they used it against Edward if they hung around too long.

Defeating White Dragon was a simple matter of hiding beyond the Maelstroms. Much like Storm Dragon, it resisted the fire element but was still a dragon. To contrast, I was hitting other dragons in the depths for 9999. And after defeating it, Edward reached level 70. The time had come at long last.

First, let's look at his stats at this point without equipment. 42/41/26/28/28. Not that great. But now here's the table of his eight possible stat-ups for his last 29 levels.

~ -1 Str, -1 Agi, -1 Sta, -1 Int, -1 Spi
~ -1 Str, -1 Agi, -1 Sta, -1 Int, -1 Spi
~ -1 Str, ±0 Agi, -1 Sta, -1 Int, -1 Spi
~ -1 Str, ±0 Agi, -1 Sta, -1 Int, -1 Spi
~ +1 Str, +1 Agi, ±0 Sta, +1 Int, +1 Spi
~ ±0 Str, +2 Agi, +2 Sta, +2 Int, ±0 Spi
~ +3 Str, +3 Agi, ±0 Sta, ±0 Int, +3 Spi
~ +4 Str, ±0 Agi, +4 Sta, +4 Int, +4 Spi

Yes. Seriously. While he has four negative possibilities, those last two are downright insane. And I'm free to manipulate these. The only question is, how much of each do I need to maximize those stats?

Well, it's going to come down to some mix of options 7 and 8. So I really only need to focus on AGI and STA. STA needs 73 more and AGI needs 58 more. So 18 levels to max AGI 20 levels to max STA. Not possible...except that's before factoring in his equipment. Both Apollo's Harp and the terrifying weapon he gets access to in the postgame give +15 to AGI, and the latter gives +15 to STA. Similarly, Red Jacket gives +15 to AGI. The Vishnu Vest in the postgame gives +10 to that and STA.

With Vishnu's boosts in play and one of the harps (which will always be the case moving forward), his AGI is 66. This means 11 boosts will be needed at most. So the rest can go into option 8, which should be enough to maximize stamina and will be just enough for intelligence.

The rate of leveling in the final dungeon was as insane as it always was, to where I frequently had to stop and save. It was more imperative than with any other character that I optimized Edward's level ups.


I got the Protect Ring on the way down, which provides resistances to the main three elements in addition to just being an excellent piece of armwear in general. The Lunarsaurs guard the Ribbons. Edward couldn't survive their Bios, so I instead threw up Reflect from a Curtain and laughed as they reflected Bad Breath off it onto themselves. The fight was a formality at that point. The Ribbon doesn't quite do what you would expect: in the SNES version, there were some status ailments it did not protect against. In this version, it now does protect against Sleep and Confusion, as well as the sometimes positive Berserk. As for Paralyze? Tough darts, grind out either a Crystal Ring or Pink Tail for Adamant Armor at 5/6272 odds. Alternatively, get high enough STA so it barely lasts any time.


Speaking of rare odds, I amusingly ran into Flan Princesses without a Siren! I just had to try fighting them. No Pink Tail, not even any other drop out of it, but I didn't get screwed on the subsequent level-up either. I wouldn't be going for it this run either.


Dark Bahamut was simply a slaughter with Apollo's Harp. This is what happens when the enemy has no resistance. For Ogopogo, Edward simply hid past any Tidal Waves. The sea serpent couldn't really do much with its physicals. And as for Plague? Well, Edward had to use archery to kill in time, but not big deal there.


There was a very funny way to fight Ivan Ooze. By hiding at the start and at his fixed Reflect points, Edward could force the monster to heal and haste him instead. It was spite, of course. For that matter, it wasn't going to be much trouble to escape from the enemies down here, either. Since Edward can continue to run while in hiding, it doesn't matter how long it takes.

Back on the planet for more optional bosses. I'd beaten Asura a little earlier by just holding down attack and having her loop Life on herself. Leviathan was the same as the later palette swap: hide behind the Tidal Waves. Odin of course gives a really blatant cue for Zantetsuken.

For the rest of the Cave of Trials bosses, I hid behind Death Mech's Lasers and Globe 199. As usual, Master Flan is the most dangerous opponent. He was fast too, even if I used Spider's Silk. The trick lied in his recasting Reflect: he followed a Thundaga-Flare-Drain pattern, and would most often cast it after the second looping of it. This allowed Edward to dodge the higher damaging spells, until he suddenly started going Thundaga before the recasting (and going right back to Thundaga after). Still, not as bad as Flare.


As for Bahamut? You'd think I'd just hide past the Megaflares, right? Well, you'd be WRONG! It just didn't do enough damage to worth worrying about, so it was just a "hold down A" fight. It even missed Edward outright one time.


So all that was left was to get to level 99. Big Z was going down either way, this was just for convenience's sake. I just fought outside the last save point because almost everything down there was a dragon. Look at these glorious stats. Even without equipment, AGI was still 74 and STA was 98, the other three were naturally maxed.. He is the one of two characters able to get 99s across the board; the other is Rydia and she needs Adamant Armor for it. Edward doesn't even need the Hero's Shield, which Rydia and Kain need to reach the effective max! This man is no longer spoony, but supreme.


Zeromus always telegraphs his Big Bangs by playing a shaking animation before it happened. Edward was just too fast and could dive out of the way consistently. It was funny too: the background just sort of awkwardly shifted in the other direction while no other part of the animation played. The big boss did occasionally throw out another spell, but these were survivable and sometimes just whiffed entirely. Edward was doing around 3000 damage per attack.


And eventually, that was it.

Think that was good? This isn't even Edward's final form. I'll dive into the postgame next time to show how he really gets crazy.

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FF4 Solo Edward Part IV

With 31:21 on the gameclock, Edward was ready to head into the Cave of Trials. Of all the bonus dungeons added in the remakes of Final Fantasy games, I think I like this one the best, although I can admit to not having played FF6 far enough to see how it works in practice. It exists unlike 3, it's not a tedious romp like 1 or 5, and it doesn't make assumptions about what weapons you had your characters specialize in like 2 PSP. It gives each of the characters a chance to shine, gives you some busted equipment and the opponents to unleash them on, and maintains a reasonable amount of difficulty and replay value.


Yang's trial wasn't hard at all. The lesser monks could barely touch Edward, and the same went for the Lunar Titan boss at the end of it. When I let him use his telegraphed Earthquake attack on Edward instead of hiding, it didn't even crack 1000 damage. He starts spamming Crush at the end, the same thing the Demon Wall uses when it gets close. Except now you can have instant death immunity.


Edward's trial is more interesting. You enter a parallel version of Damcyan Castle that has become frozen over.


You obtain the Requiem Harp within. Now this is a ridiculous weapon. The downside is that it imposes a penalty of 5 to all base stats. Otherwise? It's effective on giants and flan (!) and absorbs damage from anything it hits. Look at this madness! I would absolutely use this over the uberweapon in the Ruins if this was not restricted to the trial. The only enemies you can use them on are these things. After defeating them, they reappear, and you need to use the Sing command. This will cause a Requiem effect that will set their souls to rest. You do not need the Requiem Harp equipped for this either.


Sadly, I guess they couldn't have the bard be too supreme. Alas.


Lunar Shiva attacks with ice. Who knew? Remember what I said about Edward's equipment from the Cave of Trials though: it makes him weak to ice. So having them on actually makes him very weak in this fight. Protect Ring overrides this though, and s Edward had no problem with her attacks. She's still weak to fire as well, so Apollo's fiery song melted her in no time.


And this is the reward.

The Harmonious Ring has 15 Def/20 Eva/20 MDf/12MEv. While it confers no bonuses, it changes Edward's Sing to Chant. This causes it to instead cast Protect and Shell on all allies. Were this a later Final Fantasy game, this would be a miniature Mighty Guard. But in FF4, they simply raise the defense stats by a small amount, like a weaker version of the FOG spells from FF1. Still a good piece of equipment just for the raw stats once he has his ultimate armor.


That said, not everything about the Lunar Ruins is great. This floor is full of fixed encounters you have to break through. Or there's a teleporter maze with no encounters and no logic, just randomness. I got this last one all four times I went through the Ruins! Sheesh. Small consolation is that there's far worse in other games.


Cecil's trial is a Paladin test. The more tests you pass, the better of a weapon you receive at the end. If you use the Grimoire you receive after completing a trial, you can reenter it. Since I am not playing as Cecil, I gleefully swiped this Golden Apple to boost Edward's HP a little further. Lunar Odin is the boss at the end. You can instantly kill him by using an electric attack when he raises his sword after Haste. I did this the first and third time, but hid through the Zantetsukens the second time and fought him more legit.


And then the cave bridge maze map showed up. The floors in the Ruins are randomly drawn from a set between trials. I was hoping for this!

Behold, Loki's Lute. This weapon has 150 power and gives Edward a bonus of 15 to his Strength, Agility, and Stamina. Like Apollo's Harp, it is effective on dragons, effectively dealing 4x damage to them. It is also effective on machines, beasts, ghouls, giants, mages, and undead! This isn't every monster type in the game, and some are untyped, but it's still absolutely monstrous. Too bad randoms aren't really worth fighting for me anymore, but in a normal party? Yeah, this is when Edward becomes pretty damn good even at normal levels.


Here I am unleashing it against Ivan Ooze's palette swap. Which, I joke about this sprite because that's who it reminds me of, but this one looks like his 2P color in the Power Rangers Fighting Edition game on the SNES. That pretty much cemented it in my mind.


And the Vishnu Vest on the same trip! This piece of equipment has 30 Def/50 Eva/15 MDf/6 MEv. It gives resistance to fire, ice, lightning, holy, and darkness and a bonus of +10 to STR, AGI, and STA! The low magical evasion aside, this is an excellent piece of equipment that only makes the supreme bard even better.

As for the rest of the trials? Back in. The presence of Ifrit in Rydia's trial was why I stopped short there last time. Being the summon of fire, he takes 1 damage each time from Apollo's Harp thanks to having the immunity bit (same thing that causes Decil to deal 1 damage to undead). Loki's Lute kills him just fine, though. Actually, all of these summon minibosses were just a Hold Down A affair. They were big sacks of HP with little in the way of power.


The same held true for the Lunar Dragon that was the boss of the trial. It retains the gimmick of turning into mist, but the counter was nothing in the off-chance I messed it up. It's holy-elemental, but it doesn't cast the spell. The worst it did was not something to Edward but an occasional 9999 self heal. And all that did was set Edward back a bit. Unfortunately, it is not considered to be a dragon racially, so Edward's damage was only sufficient rather than absurd.


Lunar Asura in Rosa's Trial was absolutely pathetic. She has a much more intricate version of her earthly form that I went over in Rosa's own report. In brief though, I simply had to avoid triggering her Restore or Globe 199 counters. Which, are only triggered when she's hit with magic. The easiest way for any physical attacker to do the fight is to wait until her face turns red and she casts Toad, physically attack her and she'll cast Mini, then she'll get another turn and use Toad again. Repeat until dead. For extra humiliation, I attacked her when her face was white instead. This triggers physical counters (barely hit or hurt) and Curaga castings (didn't heal enough).

Lunar Ifrit uses fire moves, and again, I needed to wait until getting Loki's Lute to take him on. He's most notable because his attacks get weaker as he does. Like instead of charging up for Flame, a maxHP% damage attack, he uses Flamethrower. Which is nothing even to the average party. I swear they got the script backwards.


And while it didn't show up last trek, now it was time for the superboss! It is indeed considered a dragon, so Loki's Lute was belting out 9999 damage each time. If Brach is attacked when counting down to Mega Flare, he goes a little crazy and starts reflecting sets of three powerful magics off a wall he throws on himself. Sometimes he casts Globe 199 too. So I didn't do that and just had Edward hide. The biggest threat were his Scorches, which did insane damage even through Vishun's resistances. Sometimes Edward could survive, sometimes he would take 9999 damage. But unfortunately for the big lizard, Edward could just hide behind those though. I threw on a Silk and Sandals to make things faster; there's an opening to attack between the two Scorches.

The reward is the Hero's Shield. 20 Def/55 Eva/20 MDf/15 MEv, +15 to all stats, and the absorb flag, which turns elemental resistances into absorption. Like, the Vishnu Vest's. Of course it's a shield, so Edward can't actually use it with a harp since it's two handed.


But he can use it with the Assassin's Dagger, a weapon that can be purchased on one of the town floors in the Ruins. This weapon is okay, mostly notable for being able to deal instant death to enemies. This cuts off access to Sing/Chant and Edward has to be in the front row, but with the Vishnu Vest, he has 99% evasion. Is it better or worse? Depends on the situation. Assassin's Dagger is weaker than Loki's Lute, but both shred random encounters in their own way. The Lunar Ruins bosses have no racial weaknesses and certainly aren't going to be instantly killed (by this weapon at least).


But against bosses that use elements? Yeah, I could just hold A here. I couldn't for Lunar Leviathan, but that just meant healing. I mean, you make so much money down here and Edward has nothing to spend it on but Elixirs. It even works on Brach's Scorches, so in a casual playthrough, you can snowball a lot more Hero's Shields after winning one.

The last boss to deal with was Kain's Lunar Bahamut. This is a gimmick fight in which the solo Dragoon is supposed to jump over the Megaflares. Hide worked just as well. As did having absurd stats that neutered it.


Which just left the final boss of the Ruins. Zeromus EG follows this pattern: Big Bang -> Toad+Mini -> Whirl -> Flare -> Drain+Drain -> Osmose+Osmose -> Earthquake+Lightning+Flame. The biggest threat is the combination of HP leak from Big Bang to HP critical through Whirl. Most of my solos had to use the Grimoires you get from beating the Lunar Summons, which inflict crippling statuses onto him. Hey, did you notice he has no Black Hole in this phase? Edward could destroy him by wearing the Hero's Shield since it turned the elemental moves into massive healing. With the Loki's Lute, this was slower. But with too many Elixirs, Edward was unkillable by damage.

Later on, EG will go Tidal Wave+Tornado -> A bunch of physicals -> A bunch more physicals -> Fira+Blizzara+Thundara -> Black Hole. For a desperation phase, this is actually weaker, especially with high evasion. He also counters damage with Absorb, which doesn't absorb anything but does heal his HP. As long as you can outdamage the healing, which Edward could indeed do - he was doing around 4000 damage at worst and EG was healing for around 3000, less he was damaged, there's no problem.


And that was that.

Edward finished the postgame with 40:05 on the timer. It's the natural consequence of lacking massive damage some of my others were able to pump out. He only got good at the very end of the game, which to be fair, is when you're supposed to get him again. Still, that equipment and especially postgame equipment does a lot for the bard's usability. It's kind of funny in a way that Advance Edward still doesn't conform to what a Bard was later established as. In a normal playthrough, he's a glass cannon. Then he takes elements of the Onion Knight or Freelancer class in how he's a late bloomer. His support is basically nonexistent. This actually applies in After Years too: his songs are random and unreliable, but he still has Loki's Lute and Salve can be used with any healing item making him a godlike healer.

He was a fun character to play overall, and one of the ones I was most looking forward to - ironic that it took me so long to get around to it, though. That's 6/12 characters I've played a solo of with FF4. But I think it's time I personally do the only solo you can do without cheats or codes. Maybe with a twist or two to go along with it. Look forward to it in the indeterminate future.

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