sirsystemerror | FFL2 Solo Human Part II

Getting the MANA stat up wasn't too difficult. Again where I could, I weakened with Punches before moving in for the kill with magic. I eventually started grinding in the cave once I could one-shot things, because groups of Hofuds were common there. This allowed the mushroom to earn some much-needed money.

I actually bought two extra Ice books once hitting 24 (DS-4) and grinded out some more cash, getting a few points more in the process. Notice by the way how easily HP grows. I actually reset some of the growths later on so it wouldn't get too out of hand too soon.

There was nothing really of interest in the Guardian's World except the Sypha weapon. This acts like a shield and a weak STR-based weapon simultaneously, blocking physicals (the ones that can be blocked in the first place) at 100% odds. It does deal piddly damage though, comparable to the weakest STR-based weapon, the Hammer. I never actually used this in the playthrough despite it being there. Probably should've, though.

Magic can be very strong, as the third miniboss in the short Guardian's Base world showed. Even with its extra MANA, the mushroom could be two-shot by this. I actually decided to farm some extra stats and drops off the minibosses. I got two extra AGL points from the first two, a MANA point and a Cure book from this thing, and 25HP and a Magnum from the Commando. A Magnum? You'll see shortly.

Nothing to the Ninja either, because it dropped in two blows from a Gold sword. I farmed out an Ice sword drop. It's only as strong as the Flame swords in the next world, but as I've been over, Ice is a handy element to have. Although that said, these elemental swords only deal added damage plus the chance for an instant kill if an enemy is weak to an element, and don't do less if an enemy is immune.

You can see the Flame sword right here, but also of interest is the X-Kick. While martial arts' time in the sun is over for the most part, the final use bonuses they offer aren't to be underestimated. I bought a couple with intent to use them on Venus at the end of the world.

Venus' World of course brought forth the Hermit. I could use the Magnum to grind STR off it without needing any MAGI (or luck in not getting blocked by Shell). I could win in 1-3 shots, depending on luck with the weapon's wildly variable damage and the Hermit's use of Shell to halve it. And I employed Thunder books to grind MANA (which were a guaranteed one hit kill). I took both of these stats of the mushroom up to 49 before proceeding.

Now I'm really cooking stat-wise. Note that AGL is being boosted by Hermes Shoes, so I'm not as close to the 40 "cap" as you might think. This footwear is actually really handy, because it'll let the mushroom have a total of 50 normally, and can just remove them for Apollo later.

I actually found out in this that there's an additional advantage to the mushroom that isn't found in ordinary humans - attacks like Touch cannot absorb HP from it. Didn't know that. Well, it's not a huge factor, and it's too late to go back now.

The Ancients' Volcano served up the Mage staff. I actually found that the mushroom had use for this - it is one of the few ways for a human to deal damage to all enemy groups. In the meantime, I was lowering the number of uses on an X-Kick. I got no AGL boosts through this dungeon, good in the sense that I want it low. But not too low, because you do need that to hit.

Speaking of hitting, the mushroom was hit with blind in this dungeon. But it didn't seem to affect the accuracy of martial arts and I was having it use only those and rarely magic, so I just kept going, only getting Eyedrops once back in the city.

I used two full-power X-Kicks on Venus to slice her HP up, then finished her with a swipe from an Ice sword. She did kill the mushroom the first time by confusing it with Charm, but wasn't so lucky the second time around.

Naturally, the first thing I did on reaching the Dragon Circuit was purchase this bad boy. Even if it reduces the STR bonuses I get by equipping this, I could always pull the Giant stuff back out for boss fights if I need to.

The new armor immediately went to work in the circuit itself, assisting in the defeat of the Adamants. With high MANA and the Ice spellbook, defeating the enemies blocking the way was no problem.

I picked up a Dragon Sword in Edo, as well as a Flare Book, just in case. The former is the strongest STR-based weapon money can buy. I mostly ran away from battles in this world due to most encounters being numerous groups of enemies. Unlike Toma who could just Flare or P-Blast them away, the mushroom had to take them out one at a time, and sometimes needed multiple shots to get the job done. A few (Gae Bolgs) were even immune to the elemental magic, although those ones could be assaulted physically.

I also found out there's very slightly more to being a human mushroom than things like Touch just not draining HP. These Mosquitoes were killing themselves on my character, as if it were undead or a god-class enemy!! I guess I have a Godshroom. Again, too late now, let's just laugh about it. Similarly, human mushrooms are immune to D-Beam (an attack that deals damage to humans and mutants).

It does make sense in a way though and reveals an interesting way about how those attacks work: I'm guessing it's reading the class of the target to determine what those attacks do. Since a Fungus is usually in the plant family, it's immune to D-Beam and deals drain reversal on certain attacks, despite this mushroom being a human functionally.

I picked up some of the usual goodies in the ship, although all of it but the Hecate shoes would be sold.

Getting into Edo Castle was kind of tricky due to how Knights could put O-Ice onto everyone with their shields. I was fighting a group of three of them and five Stonemen. They could even defeat my character just by piling up damage. I could've just grabbed a Thunder book, but eventually won by taking out the Knights first - they could be taken out in one blast, if they don't get a chance to use the shield, the protection doesn't go up. It's one place where I really should've used Sypha - wipe the Stonemen on the first turn, then use it repeatedly to lock the purely physical Knights down.

The Ninja Gauntlet was in the castle of course, so here's what the mushroom's setup looked like. Giant Helmet adds to its defense, Dragon Armor gives elemental protection, the NInja Gauntlet gives O-Weapon, and the Hermes shoes give +10 AGL, which was helpful in having attacks land without building the stat itself up.

Sho-gun is always an easy fight. Even when he confused the mushroom with Riddle, he couldn't do much. I used the opportunity to lower the number of uses of a Jyudo I'd purchased. It's pretty cool - it's just like Whirl in how the enemy gets thrown up into the air, and if it dies from the attack, it doesn't come back down.

I fought a Dolphin too to further lower it, but ran into an unexpected problem: martial arts can in fact miss. The living statue kept on hitting the mushroom with Blitz to send its AGL into the tank. Damaging it wasn't a problem between this and the Ice spellbook, and its attacks could be outhealed. The problem is I had only a few uses of the latter left, so I needed enough Jyudo to land before they started missing constantly.

Unfortunately, due to O-Change (and therefore O-Weapon), the damage it dealt on Magnate was very disappointing.

I had two plans for Magnate. The first of these was to go in physically. His attacks were not a problem - as long as I was prompt on healing. Cure very cleanly outpaced Tornado, so even if he used it repeatedly, the mushroom could survive forever as long as its Cure book lasted. The problem with physical attacks, which did around 300 on average, was this. 39 AGL wasn't enough for the attacks to consistently hit, but they weren't consistently missing either. The only question is whether the Cure book would be able to last through the fight...

...which it did.

The second way to go about the fight was to emulate a mutant and go in with Flare. The mushroom actually turned out stronger than Toma somehow - he was able to get Magnate in eight uses of the book. I officially used the physical method, though.

So that's that. Turn the page for the final part of this report.

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