FFR: Living Off the Land Part II
Jan. 4th, 2024 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sirsystemerrorAfter changing class, I went to the Waterfall. While the SEARCH treasures in the Waterfall were pedestrian, with the only thing of note being a Water Bell, the treasure room was of course a different story. The first Ribbon of the game, the Defense Sword, and the Wizard Staff were all here to be obtained. The headwear went to Finder as my lead character. Defense went to Looter: its massive +35 hit% boosted him to 64 hit%, getting him to the 3-hit threshold. Digger took the Wizard Staff. Since I had the Zeus Gauntlet on Seeker for actually being able to equip it, he needed a piece of spellcasting equipment to use in Gurgu and the Sea Shrine. This sufficed.
Gurgu was the next stop. I really wanted to level a bit higher for the later dungeons: I hadn't gone out of my way to grind ever in this challenge, and I intended to keep it that way. The treasures here were boring, even factoring in the SEARCH ones. The big exception of course was the Flame Armor and Flame Shield, which boosted my characters' absorb even higher. Geomancer was nice here for being able to ignore damage floors. This skill was like the healing one the Earth Cave, plus an AFIR. It didn't end up mattering here against Red D because I killed it before it could do anything.
KARY was a funny fight. I had brought in a SAMPLE of ocean terrain which confused her. She attacked herself on the first turn, broke out, then immediately got confused again because of Looter using the Wizard Staff. She killed herself on the next turn.
After that, I ran errands. Sea Shrine upper (which got me a second Zeus Gauntlet), Lefein, and Mirage Tower. This was an interesting SEARCH find that I didn't get on my original playthrough. This can only be used by Red Wizards, but much like the other shirts, it has an itemcast effect: SLO2. It would be useful in at least one case. Furthermore, I completed my bell collection and turned them in at Pravoka to get the Blessed Bell, freeing up item space. This boosts all Geomancy elements and turns GEOSTORM into a win button.
Sea Shrine lower was troubling somehow. I actually reset here when I kept encountering GHOSTs. It wasn't hard to fight them, thanks to having three Light Axes and the Mage Staff, but their massive physicals eventually wore me down. Digger got knocked out, but what sealed this was the EXP they eventually gave pushing Looter over the top and him failing to roll STR. He had been invaluable on his own, but I did want to make sure he got as much of it as possible. Still, when they weren't showing up, this was ridiculously easy. How could it be hard with two Zeus and one Thor?
KRAKEN was where I discovered a bug in the game. That SLO2 the Red Shirt casts? Whatever it is, it isn't actually SLO2. The message popped, but he was still hitting 8 times. Still, he hit people who could take it, and a few castings of PRESSURE out of Geomancy magic (reducing attack by 20%) crippled him anyway. Not too hard.
One dungeon left. I was close to level 20. The one problem here was making sure Looter rolled a STR growth at 25% on it. I eventually threw up my arms and got it outside instead of making small progress inside and repeatedly not getting it.
One of the ProRings went to Digger. It incidentally came into play immediately when it blocked an EYE from using XXXX on him. The other went to Seeker. At this point, everyone but Seeker had a Ribbon. The Procape went to Digger as well; it was had less than Opal, Aegis, and Flame. I notably ignored the Black and White Shirts: I didn't foresee using them. The encounters were nice, and It didn't take long until--
Oh, screw off.
Seriously. Just die. Not in the mood for you. And this is why I'm not using it besides revenge for all the times its reared its ugly head in front of me during challenge runs. It's just too cheap.
TIAMAT wasn't too tough, not with my characters all having resistance to her myriad of skills. Here's the Katana in action, now one of the few weapons in FFR to have an appreciable critical hit rate now that the bugs to it are fixed. HP was 182/265/176/160 when the boss was terminated. Not a problem.
There were two more Power Staffs: one was behind her and the other was in Sea Shrine B1. They total 48 power when the entire party equips one, which also earned me an achievement! Still, they also have no bonus to hit%, so this is more of a meme than anything even at full power. Maybe if they were quadratic.
Also, the new version of the game had a small bonus if you return to King Coneria after opening the final dungeon. This is a bottled WARP spell whose only purpose is to let parties without WARP, EXIT, or TELE access escape one-time. But like the last of them, they have to walk all the way back up. Interesting but not helpful for me.
I wish there was more to write about the trip through the past. I failed one run because PHANTOM decided to GLARE the one person it was able to, and another because KRAKEN landed a massive critical. There were three SEARCH finds here that were of note. The first was right before the first of the many bosses. This was like any other bracelet in the game, except with 42 absorb, same as Opal and Dragon. Right after was the fourth Ribbon.
LICH never ended up using NUKE either of the two times I beat him. Quite welcome. I found an AGAMA on the fire floor and healed against it. Even though I just had the Heal Staff due to choosing to favor equipment over itemcasts that would only really be useful here and here alone, that was still enough. Still, it led to an indirect problem: I only had so much healing. AGAMAs here, whatever potions were left, and Geomancy. ToFR is stuck with the awful artificial terrain that has two weak non-elemental spells that don't get to benefit from bells, a mediocre absorb boosting spell, and a really freaking good attack boosting one that was perfect for the later bosses here. I had brought FROZEN terrain, which came with a heal and an AoE ice move to splatter Gas Ds, but there were only three castings of it. At least, there were a few HEAL3 potions to be found around the temple. And I did have just enough to make it anyway as long as I avoided combat where possible: it's not like I had much to gain at this point.
KRAKEN and TIAMAT saw a similar strategy employed: Finder used WARCRY to buff everyone else's attack for two turns, and Digger used FORGED IN IRON to boost their attack and critical hit rate for the rest of the fight. Then the warriors attack while Digger...well. That was different between the fights. KRAKEN thankfully went down this time without any meaningful physicals from his end.
There were two legendary swords to find on the final floor! In addition to the Masmune, there was this. The Glass Sword could be used more than once unlike what it was referencing, and gave a huge 75 attack bonus. And zero to hit%. Still, unlike the Power Staff, this was significant enough to offset that on someone with enough natural. It went to Finder. With the Xcalber and Katana on Seeker and Looter respectively, that meant the Masmune went to Digger!! It was the correct choice: I could buff attack to make him more competent, and Blessed Bell was now pointless.
There were two HEAL3s to find before CHAOS. These were everyone's HP values before heading into the big guy.
The strategy was the same as the previous two bosses. Finder used WARCRY, Digger used FORGED IN IRON, Seeker did 237, Looter did 17. CHAOS' first move was ICE3 for 64/53/61/64. Next turn was huge: 633 from Finder, 353 from Digger, 178 from Seeker, and 161 from Looter. Already the final boss was down to three-quarters health!
Needless to say, this quickly and anti-climactically ended on turn 3.
So uh, yeah. Thief is kind of tailor-made for this challenge. Same for Geomancer. I was expecting at least some resistance from the game, but there wasn't much of any. Those two turned the whole challenge upside down and kicked it in the ass. Not to say that it wasn't satisfying, it just left a little to be desired. Part of this is LotL itself. Like I mentioned in my original Capitalists, all the best stuff is handed to you in FF1. In vanilla, it's a struggle early game but relative normalcy sans buying HEALs late game. SEARCH let me get a lot of equipment sooner and gave a steady supply of potions. So it was more like the early game was a little interesting and the late game wasn't too difficult. I didn't actually end up using the PURE/SOFT exception Sullla did either; either I had enough on me or I could use Geomancy to heal. As for the other party members, two Warriors worked well and I feel was the best choice. I don't think any of the lategame benefits of Lancer would've been worth the early game hassle. Dark Knight absolutely wouldn't be worth it. And Trainer would've worked fine (they get Long Sword and Dragon Armor), they'd be worse attackers in the long run.
One bit of bad news: there's an achievement in the newest version to complete the game with less than 100000G spent. Which practically means less than 50000G because of the BOTTLE. But it's bugged and I didn't get it; I know my inn costs weren't that high.
What next on the challenge list? I'm not sure. With all these bugged achievements running around, I'm a little reluctant to jump in and do more; my runs would end up redundant. Solos are still options and do have achievements and even actual implementation for them. My first thought was Blue Mage, but that's out because it's one of the presently bugged ones. I discovered something that makes me want to do Geomancer, but it'd have to be one with class change (or on NG+). I'm sure I'll figure something out. Thanks for reading!
Index
Gurgu was the next stop. I really wanted to level a bit higher for the later dungeons: I hadn't gone out of my way to grind ever in this challenge, and I intended to keep it that way. The treasures here were boring, even factoring in the SEARCH ones. The big exception of course was the Flame Armor and Flame Shield, which boosted my characters' absorb even higher. Geomancer was nice here for being able to ignore damage floors. This skill was like the healing one the Earth Cave, plus an AFIR. It didn't end up mattering here against Red D because I killed it before it could do anything.
KARY was a funny fight. I had brought in a SAMPLE of ocean terrain which confused her. She attacked herself on the first turn, broke out, then immediately got confused again because of Looter using the Wizard Staff. She killed herself on the next turn.
After that, I ran errands. Sea Shrine upper (which got me a second Zeus Gauntlet), Lefein, and Mirage Tower. This was an interesting SEARCH find that I didn't get on my original playthrough. This can only be used by Red Wizards, but much like the other shirts, it has an itemcast effect: SLO2. It would be useful in at least one case. Furthermore, I completed my bell collection and turned them in at Pravoka to get the Blessed Bell, freeing up item space. This boosts all Geomancy elements and turns GEOSTORM into a win button.
Sea Shrine lower was troubling somehow. I actually reset here when I kept encountering GHOSTs. It wasn't hard to fight them, thanks to having three Light Axes and the Mage Staff, but their massive physicals eventually wore me down. Digger got knocked out, but what sealed this was the EXP they eventually gave pushing Looter over the top and him failing to roll STR. He had been invaluable on his own, but I did want to make sure he got as much of it as possible. Still, when they weren't showing up, this was ridiculously easy. How could it be hard with two Zeus and one Thor?
KRAKEN was where I discovered a bug in the game. That SLO2 the Red Shirt casts? Whatever it is, it isn't actually SLO2. The message popped, but he was still hitting 8 times. Still, he hit people who could take it, and a few castings of PRESSURE out of Geomancy magic (reducing attack by 20%) crippled him anyway. Not too hard.
One dungeon left. I was close to level 20. The one problem here was making sure Looter rolled a STR growth at 25% on it. I eventually threw up my arms and got it outside instead of making small progress inside and repeatedly not getting it.
One of the ProRings went to Digger. It incidentally came into play immediately when it blocked an EYE from using XXXX on him. The other went to Seeker. At this point, everyone but Seeker had a Ribbon. The Procape went to Digger as well; it was had less than Opal, Aegis, and Flame. I notably ignored the Black and White Shirts: I didn't foresee using them. The encounters were nice, and It didn't take long until--
Oh, screw off.
Seriously. Just die. Not in the mood for you. And this is why I'm not using it besides revenge for all the times its reared its ugly head in front of me during challenge runs. It's just too cheap.
TIAMAT wasn't too tough, not with my characters all having resistance to her myriad of skills. Here's the Katana in action, now one of the few weapons in FFR to have an appreciable critical hit rate now that the bugs to it are fixed. HP was 182/265/176/160 when the boss was terminated. Not a problem.
There were two more Power Staffs: one was behind her and the other was in Sea Shrine B1. They total 48 power when the entire party equips one, which also earned me an achievement! Still, they also have no bonus to hit%, so this is more of a meme than anything even at full power. Maybe if they were quadratic.
Also, the new version of the game had a small bonus if you return to King Coneria after opening the final dungeon. This is a bottled WARP spell whose only purpose is to let parties without WARP, EXIT, or TELE access escape one-time. But like the last of them, they have to walk all the way back up. Interesting but not helpful for me.
I wish there was more to write about the trip through the past. I failed one run because PHANTOM decided to GLARE the one person it was able to, and another because KRAKEN landed a massive critical. There were three SEARCH finds here that were of note. The first was right before the first of the many bosses. This was like any other bracelet in the game, except with 42 absorb, same as Opal and Dragon. Right after was the fourth Ribbon.
LICH never ended up using NUKE either of the two times I beat him. Quite welcome. I found an AGAMA on the fire floor and healed against it. Even though I just had the Heal Staff due to choosing to favor equipment over itemcasts that would only really be useful here and here alone, that was still enough. Still, it led to an indirect problem: I only had so much healing. AGAMAs here, whatever potions were left, and Geomancy. ToFR is stuck with the awful artificial terrain that has two weak non-elemental spells that don't get to benefit from bells, a mediocre absorb boosting spell, and a really freaking good attack boosting one that was perfect for the later bosses here. I had brought FROZEN terrain, which came with a heal and an AoE ice move to splatter Gas Ds, but there were only three castings of it. At least, there were a few HEAL3 potions to be found around the temple. And I did have just enough to make it anyway as long as I avoided combat where possible: it's not like I had much to gain at this point.
KRAKEN and TIAMAT saw a similar strategy employed: Finder used WARCRY to buff everyone else's attack for two turns, and Digger used FORGED IN IRON to boost their attack and critical hit rate for the rest of the fight. Then the warriors attack while Digger...well. That was different between the fights. KRAKEN thankfully went down this time without any meaningful physicals from his end.
There were two legendary swords to find on the final floor! In addition to the Masmune, there was this. The Glass Sword could be used more than once unlike what it was referencing, and gave a huge 75 attack bonus. And zero to hit%. Still, unlike the Power Staff, this was significant enough to offset that on someone with enough natural. It went to Finder. With the Xcalber and Katana on Seeker and Looter respectively, that meant the Masmune went to Digger!! It was the correct choice: I could buff attack to make him more competent, and Blessed Bell was now pointless.
There were two HEAL3s to find before CHAOS. These were everyone's HP values before heading into the big guy.
The strategy was the same as the previous two bosses. Finder used WARCRY, Digger used FORGED IN IRON, Seeker did 237, Looter did 17. CHAOS' first move was ICE3 for 64/53/61/64. Next turn was huge: 633 from Finder, 353 from Digger, 178 from Seeker, and 161 from Looter. Already the final boss was down to three-quarters health!
Needless to say, this quickly and anti-climactically ended on turn 3.
So uh, yeah. Thief is kind of tailor-made for this challenge. Same for Geomancer. I was expecting at least some resistance from the game, but there wasn't much of any. Those two turned the whole challenge upside down and kicked it in the ass. Not to say that it wasn't satisfying, it just left a little to be desired. Part of this is LotL itself. Like I mentioned in my original Capitalists, all the best stuff is handed to you in FF1. In vanilla, it's a struggle early game but relative normalcy sans buying HEALs late game. SEARCH let me get a lot of equipment sooner and gave a steady supply of potions. So it was more like the early game was a little interesting and the late game wasn't too difficult. I didn't actually end up using the PURE/SOFT exception Sullla did either; either I had enough on me or I could use Geomancy to heal. As for the other party members, two Warriors worked well and I feel was the best choice. I don't think any of the lategame benefits of Lancer would've been worth the early game hassle. Dark Knight absolutely wouldn't be worth it. And Trainer would've worked fine (they get Long Sword and Dragon Armor), they'd be worse attackers in the long run.
One bit of bad news: there's an achievement in the newest version to complete the game with less than 100000G spent. Which practically means less than 50000G because of the BOTTLE. But it's bugged and I didn't get it; I know my inn costs weren't that high.
What next on the challenge list? I'm not sure. With all these bugged achievements running around, I'm a little reluctant to jump in and do more; my runs would end up redundant. Solos are still options and do have achievements and even actual implementation for them. My first thought was Blue Mage, but that's out because it's one of the presently bugged ones. I discovered something that makes me want to do Geomancer, but it'd have to be one with class change (or on NG+). I'm sure I'll figure something out. Thanks for reading!
Index
