FFR: Solo Blue Mage Part II
Mar. 27th, 2025 09:30 pm
Oh yes, I forgot about this guy. Not that it changed anything. Gas Ds use the infamous POISON, a L6 spell which has 136 base power. It hurts even more coming from a Blue Mage in FFR due to INT now giving a boost to damage.

I went for Gurgu first out of the midgame dungeons, and I had to approach it in a bizarre way due to levelups. First, I had to descend and fight the Red D: the spike tile in front of the Flame Armor is a far more convenient place to obtain BLAZE. It's weak to Ice, Water, Poison, and Stone. I fought it with the newly acquired spell for kicks.
I then had to go right back up because KARY would've given a level. I grabbed the Ice Sword on the way out. What a difference it made! Shanoa's physical offense had been faltering lately, but this was enough to get her up to 3 hits. Her physical attacks had been starting to lag, but this boosted them right back to being good.

The snakelady has an infamous weakness to the status element. One GAZE and she was under Shanoa's spell. The newly added water element is also a weakness of hers. It took three of them because the second rolled very low.
Ordeals was unusually rough. It's usually too short to be of any threat, but things kept popping up and killing Shanoa. She even died to the Zombie Ds twice when they rolled paralysis on their physicals before she could move! I also could've lost by leveling up, but that was on one of the Zombie D deaths. Of course, it brought forth the usual goodies. One thing worth noting: spellcasting items no longer benefit from INT because of a weird conclusion made of an unrelated issue. Though Zeus was still good in the original, so it doesn't affect much.
That brought me to the Ice Cave. Level 21 was really pushing it for a solo character. Shanoa has plenty of win buttons, but the problem was the threat of leveling up. 26 and 32 were my potential level goals: this is when she gains 5 and 6 L5 charges respectively. Higher is naturally on the table: it's the Ice Cave after all. The Peninsula was the right place to be: BLAZE destroyed the ZomBULL/TROLL groups and were the first encounter after a reset.
I don't have any pictures, but it was a fourth try Ice Cave. Can't ask for much better! On the winning attempt. I ran into the slot 7 on the first floor, aka the same as the spike trap. It had a full 9 pack and Shanoa BLAZEd them into oblivion before they could move. I got away with a CREMATE plus HEAT on one of the undead encounters that followed. Made it through the spike, and had an "um" moment when I bumped into random encounter Frost Ds. I wasn't sure what to do. I tried GLARE, and it missed. They just used physicals. I hit run and it worked. It alerted me to exactly where I was on the encounter table though: 24. I cautiously stalled on B1 instead of charging forward mindlessly: that would've seen me run into MAGEs and SORCERERs! Instead, Shanoa had to fight through WIZARDs (Zeus, one group nearly killed her) and a MUMMY/COCTRICE mix (thankfully few in number). I went down when a pair of slot 1s were slated. The EYE got GLAREd at, and I indeed just had two R.BONE group encounters. I had to get through one more MUMMY/COCTRICE mix (slot 4, SORCERERs on B3), and that was it! I'll take a bad Ordeals and smooth Ice Cave any day!

And after that? Shanoa had to get level 27. This was a strong HP level that needed STR and VIT. I actually took a suboptimal STR+25HP growth here instead of fighting for the 1/96. And yeah, good strong HP levels are more important than VIT if it's somehow between the two: you gain VIT÷4 HP per level up, but a strong HP growth ranges from 20-25. It adds up, and one point is worth a lot more than a quarter of a point. Shanoa had only missed 2HP from it so far.
I would not be class changing in this run or exploring a run with class change. Blue Wizard gets three things out of it: besides the usual new equipment still comparable to what's available on Red (Defense being a notable exception, gotta wait till Mirage for an upgrade), their LIMIT is to make the next spell they use cast with double accuracy and guarantee learning on the next they're hit it. CONVERGENCE doubles the power of a multi target spell in exchange for making it hit only one opponent. Nothing worth exploring.
After running the Waterfall for the obligatory Ribbon, I could start hunting L7 spells. A man in Lefein south of the magic shops could be spoken to without the SLAB and carried a Blue D. I tried instantly killing it but it was being stubborn, so I had Shanoa sword it to death instead. THUNDER has 152 base power. Compare to ICE3 which has 140. Without weaknesses involved, lit is generally a better element than ice: a lot of what resists it also resists ice anyway, only Blue D, OOZE, and SCUM are exceptions across normal monsters.

Sand Ws carried CRACK: earth-elemental and +16 accuracy, adding yet another instant death spell to Shanoa's repitoire. It's tied with GLARE for the most accurate, though it's in a much worse element at the cost of hitting everything. And the final L7 spell?

Hahahahahaha. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
TRANCE is every bit the horror you know it as: non-elemental paralysis that hits everything. While it doesn't have an accuracy bonus, it benefits from INT and it works on absolutely anything in the game except the Spellblade superboss and most of the Evoker ones - which Shanoa didn't have to worry about. Everything else, including CHAOS himself? Not safe from TRANCE. Instant death physicals are naturally not included with this, but when you look at a fair chunk of the Blue Mage's skillset, they can compensate for that with spells.

Now it was just a matter of clearing out what's left. I grabbed the SLAB from the upper floors of the Sea Shrine, grabbed the CHIME, and went into Mirage. This weapon is worth talking about. Shanoa actually couldn't equip it; it's exclusive to Blue Wizards, Beastmasters, and Rune Knights. It has 30/30/2.5 offenses, identical to Sun Sword except being 2 points weaker. However, it's effective on beasts. What FFR defines as a beast is "anything that isn't undead, humanoid, or mechanical". It can deal a touch more damage. Shanoa had to use the Sun Sword itself, which got her to 4 hits. While I was there, I was finally able to pick up DAZZLE, leaving only the L8 spells to pick up.
But before that time came, there was the final two fiends. I mostly ran from everything in these two dungeons, fighting only when I had to. BLIZZARD did a great job of demolishing WATERs.

This spot onwards to KRAKEN's room is very special. I'd be coming back to it later.

For KRAKEN, Shanoa used Defense thrice and GLAREd at him.
Again, I ran from everything in the Floating Castle. I counted so I didn't run into WarMECH. Yeah, I'd be fighting the thing: NUCLEAR is absolutely a Blue Mage spell. Just not yet. I picked up the ProCape for added defense.

TIAMAT was GLANCEd at. No need for a Bane Sword, she's just as weak to the stone element.
Now, I could easily beat the game at this point. Shanoa is a solo at the top of her class. But there were still the L8 spells left to grab. The two options were to get to level 50, or sacrifice stat growths. I chose the latter to make for more of a challenge. First up, heading back into the castle.

Beating WarMECH took some luck. Thankfully, the second encounter was not an ambush. Defense thrice, then I had her stall with Heal Staff until NUCLEAR came out. It eventually did. The question was how to beat it from here.

When I said everything in the base game except CHAOS is vulnerable to the time element, I meant everything. In the vanilla game, WarMECH would be protected from this anyway due to having 200 MDef, which due to the buggy formulae means most status spells will never hit anyway. But in FFR, INT works. And even after I discovered a massive failing/copying from Gamecorner which lists magic defenses in percentages which Ozmo copied over causing everything to have halved MDef, he adjusted the formula so things could still be hit with status about as consistently as before. Hence, an instantly scrapped robot.
It's also worth 32000XP, so Shanoa couldn't keep maintaining her level manipulation. NUCLEAR is the most easily accessible of the L8 spells. Its 160 base power makes it a weaker NUKE (200). Still a nice option, especially if you don't want to go in on instant death. The only flaw is being a L8 spell, and you might not reach that in normal gameplay without grinding.
Next up was INFERNO. This spell used to be exclusively found on CHAOS. There are two other enemies that use it in FFR. One of them is PHOENIX, who is exclusive to Evokers and out of Shanoa's reach. The other, I had to go back into the Sea Shrine in that little area I showed. From the end of that big room on B1 to the portal out, you have about a 1/100 chance (apparently) of running into something new that can use this skill. It doesn't follow regular encounter table logic: it just shows up and doesn't even replace the next encounter.

The first time, Shanoa died to LOBSTERs. The second go, she leveled up due to too many WATERs. But I kept going and the big guy eventually showed his face.
HADES has 128 attack, same as WarMECH, but only hits once. He has 800HP, and is weak to holy (a mostly nonexistent element in FFR; exclusive to Spellblade's EN-HOLY and Dragoon's Holy Lance) and water. And getting GLAREd at still kills him, of course. He usually uses ABYSSAL DARK. Despite the name, this is poison-elemental. Geomancers can sometimes use this as a rare spell here, and it still hurts through resistance. It can take a while for him to use INFERNO, but it popped up quickly enough in this run.
INFERNO is the fifth and final fire-elemental spell. It checks in with a power of 192, the strongest spell that a Blue Mage can cast (and still weaker than NUKE), as long as it's not resisted. I've seen this hit for over 700 damage on targets weak to it.
After that, I advanced the encounter table about...oh, a hundred times or so. Then it was off to the past!
There really wasn't much to write about the trip through the temple. I played conservatively, sometimes taking a pause to Defense/Heal Staff through battles instead of using potions. I also ran from a lot of fights. Gas Ds were a no show. PHANTOM got slashed down, and the fiends were all hit with GLARE. Even KRAKEN, who I just killed before he could move instead of futzing with Defense.

Yes, here it is: IronGOL. The eighth slot (1/64) encounter on the final floor of the game! The first time this appears on the encounter table is 129. For the first and last time, I used the Blue Mage's ability: SKILL LURE. This increases the odds of the Blue Mage being targeted by a skill, and doubles the odds of them using it. It's of dubious use, especially for a solo. The second part of it was convenient here: IronGOLs only have a 1/8 chance of using TOXIC, so this sped things up.
For all the hell to find it and worse to lock it into your save, and for being a unique skill on the rarest enemy in the entire game, TOXIC is nothing special. In spite of its name, it's a death-elemental attack that hits everything and inflicts death. Do you remember what I mentioned about SQUINT vs. GLANCE? Exact same story here with STONE, right down to STONE having +5 accuracy. You can kill Frost Ds on the march back in with it, but you can kill them with INFERNO too. This is no Masmune. It isn't even a Glass Sword.
If you're wondering, by the way: TORNADO has a skill power of 128, same as the L5 SWIRL and BLAZE. Wind-element, naturally. INK is functionally identical to FLASH: same darkness, same +24 accuracy modifier, same status-element.

Oh yeah. And I wanted to lock it in. I got the encounter so early that I didn't even go for the Masmune before heading back. It wasn't like I was going to use it much on the way. Here's TOXIC in action against some Grey Ws on the Fire floor. Again, Shanoa was able to instantly splatter the fiends on the walk back. She had to use CRACK on LICH because of running out of L7 spells. Yeah, irony: the earth fiend is not immune to earth. I used the WARP Stone FFR provides if you talk to King Coneria after breaking the Black Orb to make it out once I was through the elemental floors.
Unfortunately from there, the temple became extremely uncooperative. I guess I got insanely lucky on that back and forth. KRAKEN resisted GLARE twice and killed Shanoa, KARY resisted GLARE thrice and killed Shanoa a couple of times, PHANTOM once got a double critical and nearly killed Shanoa. I once tried to outsmart KRAKEN and Defense once, but he hit twice and killed Shanoa. I even had a CHAOS loss, and a moment where I tried to get too conservative and too looking for the right Heal fight and ended up dying.
Eventually, things lined up again. Shanoa would still want the Masmune, which took her to 5 hits. CHAOS resists all elements - even the new wind, water, and holy ones! He also resists silence and confusion for what it's worth, as well as a few oddball new ones. She couldn't quite kill CHAOS with just NUCLEARs, so she had to sword him. Before that, TIAMAT just got instantly killed. No worries.

Here were Shanoa's stats. Higher level than I was intending to be at at the end, but it's sort of what happens when you frequently fight because you can (and go back and forth through the temple). I think she gained around 8 levels just because of L8 spell hunting.

Like I said, CHAOS is not immune to TRANCE. The first try, I got very unlucky and CHAOS hit SLO2 before it landed. He stayed paralyzed forever as Shanoa plinked him down with NUCLEAR and single hit slashes once she ran out of those. She TRANCEd him again as he recovered, but he broke out quickly. I'd used too many L7 spells on the water floor and she was out. CUR4 happened and that was it.
This time, it happened nice and early (but not before a bit critical from him). He stayed paralyzed as Shanoa worked him down. She usually did around 200 damage a FIGHT, but did over 500 on a critical. He eventually did recover, but it was too late.

I dropped a NUCLEAR as a stylish finish.
This was a pleasant solo to play through. I was expecting one on the easier side, which it was when the game wasn't being ridiculous. Blue Mage has strong options for handling groups of randoms, and can just delete any boss in the game except the final one with a snap of its fingers. And when spells fail, it still has swording to fall back on.
Of course, that's the thing about Blue Mage: while it has some damaging spells, it has a ton of instant death and that's where it shines the most. Things really get ugly with its LIMIT involved. If that's not your style, you're likely to be disappointed in it. This can be circumvented a bit by changing class: CONVERGENCE does a lot for their single-target damage output. Compared to the Black and Red Mages, its damaging spells are weaker in the early and late game (without that skill being involved), but stronger in the midgame. However, they don't bring the support spells that those two classes can bring. Black is even better at status and instant death: their spells are more accurate and they get a skill to ignore resistances.
Overall, it really is sort of a variation of Red Mage. As a solo, I'd say it was easier, especially if we're talking about a Red Mage that goes unpromoted. But I feel Red is better in a party setting. Especially with the new trick it gains post promotion. It doesn't mean that Blue Mage is a bad class. It's solid, and it does well even without the L8 spell hassle (at least WarMECH is easily to manipulate). Your mileage may vary on it being limited to FF1 spells. I think it was the right choice, though: deviating from the original list would take it further away from being a FF1 expansion. Still, if STINGER disappeared in particular for TORNADO, I don't think anyone would miss it.
I've ranted enough about the coinflip on learning spells too. It's bad. All that needs to be said.

Still, there it is. A full spell list, and one I saved too.
I still need to finish all the games I mentioned in the previous report...funnily enough, I started this because I was too amped after getting 100 hammer rally in Mario & Luigi Brothership. Too much else distracted me, like a Super Robot Wars R playthrough (also Y hype!). One bit of progress at a time. Thanks for reading. May or may not do more before Samurai and Machinist drop. We'll see!
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