FF4 Solo Palom Part IV
Dec. 1st, 2014 04:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sirsystemerrorLet's begin our descent, and I guess we'll get this done all in one gulp, so to speak. How the Lunar Ruins work is: every fourth floor, there is a chamber with Sealed Cave graphics. You need to have the corresponding character in your party AND have had them in your party when beating Zeromus in order to enter the room.
The three floors in-between can come from a pool of several possibilities. The first set are similar graphically to the Lunar Caves, and aren't anything special aside from some secret passages.
Yang's Trial is the first one we come to. This consists of six battles against enemy monks, some in a row. They actually have fairly respectable magic defense, but a Meteor is able to wipe them out. The last two sets, the Drillmasters, have 12000HP, so it takes two castings to get them.
By the way, I'm not relying on the Adamant Armor for bosses. Figured it might be more interesting this way, but I'm wearing it for the randoms, and it's on the table if I need it.
The Lunar Summons are the bosses of each trial, and for Yang's it is Lunar Titan who you have to face. LT has an attack pattern much as you'd expect: strong physicals with Earthquake, and he also has the Demon Wall's Crush. The latter is stopped by a Ribbon and the Earthquakes don't hurt that bad, leaving only the physicals to be of a threat to Palom. Which aren't enough to get the job done.
One consequence of this trial: I can't effectually keep track of Palom's stat growths, due to all the multiple fights in a row and the absurd EXP they pay out! Palom gains five levels over the course of it. Four points of Agility across five levels isn't bad at all, though, so my first venture in is also my last.
Also in the Lunar Ruins are these areas. Every Floor of Remembrance is based off part of a dungeon in the main game. This is the Antlion's Nest, and also in this set are the walkway in the Giant of Babel, the first Lunar Tunnel, the Black Chocobo forest, and a room from the path to Damcyan.
So next trial is a solo exception time. The only battles in this boring trial of Edward's, taking place in a frozen alternate Damcyan Castle, are these spirits. As this tutorial battle shows, the only way to "win" is to kill the Specters (who are completely nonthreatening), then have Edward Sing.
Conveniently, he is automatically revived for this, and all the rest are only temporarily resurrected and moved around here.
Lunar Shiva is one of the nastier bosses, throwing out Blizzagas, Ice Storms which damage based off her max HP (could do over 2000 at the start of the battle, and that'd be to EVERYONE), and even healing herself with self-cast Blizzagas as a counter for about 2500! This was a nasty nasty fight when I tried to do it with lower levels. Palom could neuter her with Adamant Armor + Cursed Ring, but decided to give her a fighting chance. She didn't take it.
The next trek is incredibly dull. Some of the floors, such as this one, have no encounters and a "puzzle". There's also a counting minigame here, and a fairy fountain. Yes, that's right, just like in Zelda. More interesting is a psuedo-maze involving waterfalls.
Rydia's trial is next, and it's trippy. She turns back into a kid, and you need to go around fighting Shiva, Ifrit, Ramuh, and Titan before you can confront the Lunar Dragon. When each of them goes into their pose, it means they're about to use a strong attack.
Shiva and Titan behave similarly to their Lunar counterparts, but the former isn't nearly as brutal - checking in with Blizzara instead of Blizzaga, and not countering. The latter doesn't use Crush. The others also prefer -ra spells. No big deal.
The Lunar Dragon was more annoying than anything else. He gained magic invulnerability as mist, but even if he's hit was a physical, it only does around 1 damage at this stage of the game. He occasionally casts Slow as mist, or Restores 9999HP. The Dragon could barely scratch Palom, and died to a bunch of Flares.
Among the three floors in between are a town (nothing particularly special in it, but lets you restock), a weird Cave of Summons type area with fixed encounters, and...the infamous teleporter maze. There's no random encounters in it, and it's notsomuch a maze to overcome as it is RNG. Each teleporter may take you to a different place, and only thing I can think of that determines it is what the game feels like.
Cecil's trial is a Paladin test. You are presented with several tasks. For the best result at the end, you need to pass them as a true Paladin woukd. Some of these involve combat. Palom passed them all, because why not?
Lunar Odin OH GOD WHY. Okay, I guess we're using a Curtain on him to protect against that.
Other than that craziness, this fight is very similar to the first Odin. It's basically a damage race, until he casts Haste followed by a double Zantesuken. There's an interesting way to kill him involving casting Thundaga at that point, which prompts him to die from "lightning coursing through [him]" before he can get it off. Palom just stuck with Flares, because that's a bit silly.
Odin does open with a Zantesuken, and uses another at one point in the fight. The Lunar Curtain item prevents all physical damage for its duration. So Odin's physicals were of no concern.
That was all the trials I could do for the moment, so out it was to beat up Zeromus with more characters. I also took the time to get Palom to 99. Behold his stats. And that`s without equipment, mind you!
His stats at 70 are 33/30/40/75/23. He gained 21 points of Strength, 20 points of Agility, 31 points of Stamina, 22 points of Spirit, and enough Intellect to naturally max it out.
Another interesting floor on the way is this one. Remember the Golden Toad from before? Well, the Platinum Toad is much the same. So how can we stop it before it runs away?
With Stop, of course!!
I forgot this on the first trip through, but got it this time. Palom's real ultimate weapon, Asura's Rod gives +15 to Intellect (useless when it's at 99 naturally!), and +15 to Spirit (very nice considering the boost toMagic Defense)
Rosa's trial is simply a race against time. To heal all the townsfolk before the three circling orbs close in around you. Five of them are Metamorphas in disguise. There seems to be no way to tell which are which, aside from seeing a petrified person moving. No problem.
But against Lunar Asura...we have a problem. She has a very similar pattern to regular Asura, but with more offense. In particular, she can counter with Restore to heal 9999 or Globe 199 to deal 9999. Either is not good news.
So are we just screwed? Well, no. There's a third counter, and a distinct pattern to it. Asura's head rolling is the key to success in this fight.
- White Face = Curaga, roll to white after, roll to blue and Thundaga when attacked
- Red Face = Toad, roll to blue after, roll to white and Restore when attacked
- Blue Face = Firaga, roll to white after, roll to red and Globe 199 when attacked
So Palom settled into a pattern, using one Elixir for every two Flares, and cycling her between white and blue repeatedly. With the Adamant Armor, this fight would've been trivial - since each -ga spell would do 1 damage.
Was even able to keep track of HP, and save an Elixir by killing her when her face was blue.
Edge's trial is mostly a puzzly-maze. It's full of Palace Guard enemies, who drop Keys that can be used to unlock certain doors.
Lunar Ifrit, what a joke for us. He charges up for Flame, which dealt a pitiful 1/10th HP damage thanks to the Protect Ring. He can counter ice-type attacks with Scorch, but Flare did close to 9999 anyway, so there was no point in using Blizzaga. His other spells, which included Fira (!?), Firaga, and Flamethrower (1 damage) weren't much more impressive.
This is a VERY nice floor. It's a personality test, and depending on your answers, you can get many great items. Every time I pass through, I decide on the Monk, which gets a Golden and Silver Apple. Very useful for a low HP character such as Palom.
Kain's trial is story-driven, is a very messed up plunge into his psyche, is done solo, and culminates with a fight against Lunar Bahamut. The way the solo Kain beats this guy is by jumping after 1 to dodge a Megaflare. Lunar Bahamut counters when you land, and you repeat this until he dies or you need to heal for whatever weak-equipment related reason.
With Palom, the fight could be done one of two ways. A Lunar Curtain to render him invincible, or just by Flaring until dead. Lunar Bahamut has a mere 50000HP, His one Megaflare whiffed.
Cid's trial is basically Crazy Taxi. Except with an airship. Get the people to their destinations on time. Lunar Ramuh, who I somehow forgot to take a picture of, is at the end. Not worth talking about. Just the usual Flarefest against an elemental attacker.
The twins' trial features status-based puzzles and enemies from the first few dungeons (literally) that I just run from. Lunar Leviathan is a crazy fight. His attacks include Tidal Wave, Maelstrom, and Entangle. The latter was especially devastating since the Ribbon doesn't protect against paralysis.
I had to pull out the Adamant Armor here (it does protect against it), after Palom kept getting comboed by those three attacks. I also threw the Cursed Ring in too for healing, because why not? I got that drop back then...albeit very easily in comparison with the other 1/64 I picked up, but still! May as well take advantage of it, right? Use what you have and whatnot.
The Twin Stars are the reward here. They actually give very nice bonuses. Let's compare.
- Protect Ring's stats: 10 Def/15 Eva/12 MDf/10 MEv, +15 Sta, Resist Fi/Ic/Li
- Twin Stars' stats: 10 Def/20 Eva/20 MDf/12 MEv
Almost strictly better as long as the Adamant Armor is being equipped. The only caveat is the Stamina decrease making for less defense. One point mind you. Without the Adamant Armor, the Protect Ring is the better option.
_________
On the final floors of the ruins, you have a chance of seeing this floor, featuring the game's superboss, Brachioraidos.
I'd write more about him, but I forgot much of the battle. He has Protect and Reflect as a counter though...in response to physical damage. So Palom just Flared away. He also has a Globe 199 counter when he begins a countdown to Mega Flare. It never happened though, and in fact the Flares stopped the count, making me think it's linked to Protect/Reflect being up. It was best to throw up a Curtain anyway, as the dragon could use a 5000+ damage Bio.
He actually has a lot of stuff in his AI routine, including Scorch and Maelstrom. With the Adamant Armor on, Palom had nothing to fear from the likes of the former. The latter could be healed with an Elixir.
Brach drops the Hero's Shield when beaten. This has the same special property as the Cursed Ring - that is, it changes all elemental resistances into elemental absorptions when equipped. Oh, and it gives +15 to all stats! Everyone but Dark Knight Cecil and...for some reason, FuSoYa can equip it. Palom's stats are truly terrifying with it and the Adamant Armor on...
Two of the other floors here feature Ivan Ooze 2.0, which Palom just runs from, and a whole bunch of dolls to fight. The Calcabrena palette swaps in particular have over 60000HP, but can be turned into statues.
That brings us to the final boss of the Lunar Ruins, Zeromus EG. Sporting his graphics from EasyType and 200000HP, he's one nasty son of a gun. But HA HA HA! We just tore the superboss a new one without breaking a sweat. How hard could this be?
Well let's see here. Big Bang inflicts HP Leak. Whirl sets HP to critical. That's game over. He must've been taking lessons from Crayclaw or something. This is...a problem.
Okay, so let's back up here. ZEG casts Reflect in response to magic (our Flare barrage), but this is trivial to overcome. Either cast a spell that pierces Reflect (like Quake), or throw up a Curtain. If you do the former, he'll counter with Reflect, which will bounce onto you, and effectively give you an endless source of them since he'll keep casting it. This is what ZEG can do to us without factoring in his counters, and in the order he does it.
~ Big Bang
~ Toad -> Mini
~ Whirl
~ Flare
~ Drain -> Drain
~ Osmose -> Osmose
~ Earthquake -> Blitz -> Flame
Toad, Mini, Drain, and Osmose are not worth worrying about. The last becomes 9999 healing with our broken equipment. Flare is reflected by our wall. But how to stop the devastating critical HP Leak combo?
Answer: We can't and don't. Only thing we can do is pray Palom is left above 5HP. He loses 4HP with each tick. Any less, and he'll die before he can get the Elixir off.
And that set the stage for this battle. An RNG luckfest. Palom's Flares did wildly variable damage; they could do 5000, they could do 9500. More RNG. Over the course of the battle, Palom had to survive four of these. Eventually...
At low HP, ZEG switches his AI pattern. He casts "Absorb" (which doesn't actually absorb from anything) in response to damage, healing around 3000HP. He also throws out Tidal Wave and the non-critical HP Tornado. He also begins using some nasty physicals, which could not hit Palom with his 99% evade. It wasn't long before...
...so wait, before stamping this - can we do this without the broken equipment? Well, yes. The sooner the first phase is done and over with though, the better. There's also another equalizer you can throw out. Let's try, for the thrill of it. This required another trip through the ruins, for Palom to pick up the Chocobo Suit. You can buy it in another town area, but it never appeared on the first rip to reach ZEG.
So those Lunar summons we were facing? Each of them dropped a Grimoire with their initials on it. Use of these Grimoires does two things: first, it allows you to re-enter the corresponding trial. Second, the summon appears and attacks the enemy for 9999 damage. And it will always do 9999 damage. Unless the target is Zeromus EG.
Against him, they deal no damage, and instead inflict a variety of different and bizarre status effects, being different like this for no apparent reason. Several of them seem to have no real effect; supposedly they inflict poison. Lunar Ifrit's is especially strange: ZEG is hit with a Death spell, then a Thundaga spell, to seemingly no effect. But three that have a HUGE effect are Lunar Ramuh, Lunar Titan, and Lunar Dragon.
These hit ZEG with Silence, Mini, and Toad respectively. They force him to run alternative scripts, after which he recovers from the status and goes back to the start of his AI routine. In Silence's case, it causes him to attack physically. These hurt...but the Lunar Curtains give the Barrier status, which prevent all physical damage. Palom could laugh and just Flare to his heart's content.
So what Palom did; he reset until he survived the first wave of attacks, threw out the Curtain and the Ramuh Grimoire (the longest lasting) just as he was getting ready to Whirl a second time, and set to work. When it wore off, out came the Titan Grimoire, which similarly cripples ZEG. It didn't last as long, and Palom still had to survive one more Whirl. But by then, ZEG had shifted into his desperation phase.
Just to add insult to injury, or perhaps mild showboating, or maybe just wanting to see him suffer for his cheap combos, I saved the Grimoire LD for last, and killed him while he was a Toad.
Doing it without the Grimoires? Well, that'd just be a luckfest. Nothing to really prove by doing it that way, right? So that brings an end to Palom's adventures through FF4.
__________
Analysis: this definitely seemed easier than Cecil or Kain's solo challenges. It's very easy to overlook Palom as a character due to the presence of Rydia. In fact, a lot of guides I read pretty much say to hell with him, why bother when she can summon!?!?!?!! I mean, SHE CAN SUMMON GUYS. IT'S LIKE...well, I'll get to that craziness at the appropriate time.
Bluff can definitely carry its weight in the early game, allowing you to do some hilarious things. He doesn't stick around for too long in the main game to abuse it, sadly. The five-year-old mage is not without his flaws, however. His postgame equipment, as I mentioned, is a bit lacking, and his post-70 growths aren't that great. Still, Flare is very nice, and Break is surprisingly devastating against many encounters. He really is a solid character who can pull his weight.
Palom's got power, that's for sure. But next up in FF4 solos: REAL ULTIMATE POWER!!
Index
The three floors in-between can come from a pool of several possibilities. The first set are similar graphically to the Lunar Caves, and aren't anything special aside from some secret passages.
Yang's Trial is the first one we come to. This consists of six battles against enemy monks, some in a row. They actually have fairly respectable magic defense, but a Meteor is able to wipe them out. The last two sets, the Drillmasters, have 12000HP, so it takes two castings to get them.
By the way, I'm not relying on the Adamant Armor for bosses. Figured it might be more interesting this way, but I'm wearing it for the randoms, and it's on the table if I need it.
The Lunar Summons are the bosses of each trial, and for Yang's it is Lunar Titan who you have to face. LT has an attack pattern much as you'd expect: strong physicals with Earthquake, and he also has the Demon Wall's Crush. The latter is stopped by a Ribbon and the Earthquakes don't hurt that bad, leaving only the physicals to be of a threat to Palom. Which aren't enough to get the job done.
One consequence of this trial: I can't effectually keep track of Palom's stat growths, due to all the multiple fights in a row and the absurd EXP they pay out! Palom gains five levels over the course of it. Four points of Agility across five levels isn't bad at all, though, so my first venture in is also my last.
Also in the Lunar Ruins are these areas. Every Floor of Remembrance is based off part of a dungeon in the main game. This is the Antlion's Nest, and also in this set are the walkway in the Giant of Babel, the first Lunar Tunnel, the Black Chocobo forest, and a room from the path to Damcyan.
So next trial is a solo exception time. The only battles in this boring trial of Edward's, taking place in a frozen alternate Damcyan Castle, are these spirits. As this tutorial battle shows, the only way to "win" is to kill the Specters (who are completely nonthreatening), then have Edward Sing.
Conveniently, he is automatically revived for this, and all the rest are only temporarily resurrected and moved around here.
Lunar Shiva is one of the nastier bosses, throwing out Blizzagas, Ice Storms which damage based off her max HP (could do over 2000 at the start of the battle, and that'd be to EVERYONE), and even healing herself with self-cast Blizzagas as a counter for about 2500! This was a nasty nasty fight when I tried to do it with lower levels. Palom could neuter her with Adamant Armor + Cursed Ring, but decided to give her a fighting chance. She didn't take it.
The next trek is incredibly dull. Some of the floors, such as this one, have no encounters and a "puzzle". There's also a counting minigame here, and a fairy fountain. Yes, that's right, just like in Zelda. More interesting is a psuedo-maze involving waterfalls.
Rydia's trial is next, and it's trippy. She turns back into a kid, and you need to go around fighting Shiva, Ifrit, Ramuh, and Titan before you can confront the Lunar Dragon. When each of them goes into their pose, it means they're about to use a strong attack.
Shiva and Titan behave similarly to their Lunar counterparts, but the former isn't nearly as brutal - checking in with Blizzara instead of Blizzaga, and not countering. The latter doesn't use Crush. The others also prefer -ra spells. No big deal.
The Lunar Dragon was more annoying than anything else. He gained magic invulnerability as mist, but even if he's hit was a physical, it only does around 1 damage at this stage of the game. He occasionally casts Slow as mist, or Restores 9999HP. The Dragon could barely scratch Palom, and died to a bunch of Flares.
Among the three floors in between are a town (nothing particularly special in it, but lets you restock), a weird Cave of Summons type area with fixed encounters, and...the infamous teleporter maze. There's no random encounters in it, and it's notsomuch a maze to overcome as it is RNG. Each teleporter may take you to a different place, and only thing I can think of that determines it is what the game feels like.
Cecil's trial is a Paladin test. You are presented with several tasks. For the best result at the end, you need to pass them as a true Paladin woukd. Some of these involve combat. Palom passed them all, because why not?
Lunar Odin OH GOD WHY. Okay, I guess we're using a Curtain on him to protect against that.
Other than that craziness, this fight is very similar to the first Odin. It's basically a damage race, until he casts Haste followed by a double Zantesuken. There's an interesting way to kill him involving casting Thundaga at that point, which prompts him to die from "lightning coursing through [him]" before he can get it off. Palom just stuck with Flares, because that's a bit silly.
Odin does open with a Zantesuken, and uses another at one point in the fight. The Lunar Curtain item prevents all physical damage for its duration. So Odin's physicals were of no concern.
That was all the trials I could do for the moment, so out it was to beat up Zeromus with more characters. I also took the time to get Palom to 99. Behold his stats. And that`s without equipment, mind you!
His stats at 70 are 33/30/40/75/23. He gained 21 points of Strength, 20 points of Agility, 31 points of Stamina, 22 points of Spirit, and enough Intellect to naturally max it out.
Another interesting floor on the way is this one. Remember the Golden Toad from before? Well, the Platinum Toad is much the same. So how can we stop it before it runs away?
With Stop, of course!!
I forgot this on the first trip through, but got it this time. Palom's real ultimate weapon, Asura's Rod gives +15 to Intellect (useless when it's at 99 naturally!), and +15 to Spirit (very nice considering the boost toMagic Defense)
Rosa's trial is simply a race against time. To heal all the townsfolk before the three circling orbs close in around you. Five of them are Metamorphas in disguise. There seems to be no way to tell which are which, aside from seeing a petrified person moving. No problem.
But against Lunar Asura...we have a problem. She has a very similar pattern to regular Asura, but with more offense. In particular, she can counter with Restore to heal 9999 or Globe 199 to deal 9999. Either is not good news.
So are we just screwed? Well, no. There's a third counter, and a distinct pattern to it. Asura's head rolling is the key to success in this fight.
- White Face = Curaga, roll to white after, roll to blue and Thundaga when attacked
- Red Face = Toad, roll to blue after, roll to white and Restore when attacked
- Blue Face = Firaga, roll to white after, roll to red and Globe 199 when attacked
So Palom settled into a pattern, using one Elixir for every two Flares, and cycling her between white and blue repeatedly. With the Adamant Armor, this fight would've been trivial - since each -ga spell would do 1 damage.
Was even able to keep track of HP, and save an Elixir by killing her when her face was blue.
Edge's trial is mostly a puzzly-maze. It's full of Palace Guard enemies, who drop Keys that can be used to unlock certain doors.
Lunar Ifrit, what a joke for us. He charges up for Flame, which dealt a pitiful 1/10th HP damage thanks to the Protect Ring. He can counter ice-type attacks with Scorch, but Flare did close to 9999 anyway, so there was no point in using Blizzaga. His other spells, which included Fira (!?), Firaga, and Flamethrower (1 damage) weren't much more impressive.
This is a VERY nice floor. It's a personality test, and depending on your answers, you can get many great items. Every time I pass through, I decide on the Monk, which gets a Golden and Silver Apple. Very useful for a low HP character such as Palom.
Kain's trial is story-driven, is a very messed up plunge into his psyche, is done solo, and culminates with a fight against Lunar Bahamut. The way the solo Kain beats this guy is by jumping after 1 to dodge a Megaflare. Lunar Bahamut counters when you land, and you repeat this until he dies or you need to heal for whatever weak-equipment related reason.
With Palom, the fight could be done one of two ways. A Lunar Curtain to render him invincible, or just by Flaring until dead. Lunar Bahamut has a mere 50000HP, His one Megaflare whiffed.
Cid's trial is basically Crazy Taxi. Except with an airship. Get the people to their destinations on time. Lunar Ramuh, who I somehow forgot to take a picture of, is at the end. Not worth talking about. Just the usual Flarefest against an elemental attacker.
The twins' trial features status-based puzzles and enemies from the first few dungeons (literally) that I just run from. Lunar Leviathan is a crazy fight. His attacks include Tidal Wave, Maelstrom, and Entangle. The latter was especially devastating since the Ribbon doesn't protect against paralysis.
I had to pull out the Adamant Armor here (it does protect against it), after Palom kept getting comboed by those three attacks. I also threw the Cursed Ring in too for healing, because why not? I got that drop back then...albeit very easily in comparison with the other 1/64 I picked up, but still! May as well take advantage of it, right? Use what you have and whatnot.
The Twin Stars are the reward here. They actually give very nice bonuses. Let's compare.
- Protect Ring's stats: 10 Def/15 Eva/12 MDf/10 MEv, +15 Sta, Resist Fi/Ic/Li
- Twin Stars' stats: 10 Def/20 Eva/20 MDf/12 MEv
Almost strictly better as long as the Adamant Armor is being equipped. The only caveat is the Stamina decrease making for less defense. One point mind you. Without the Adamant Armor, the Protect Ring is the better option.
_________
On the final floors of the ruins, you have a chance of seeing this floor, featuring the game's superboss, Brachioraidos.
I'd write more about him, but I forgot much of the battle. He has Protect and Reflect as a counter though...in response to physical damage. So Palom just Flared away. He also has a Globe 199 counter when he begins a countdown to Mega Flare. It never happened though, and in fact the Flares stopped the count, making me think it's linked to Protect/Reflect being up. It was best to throw up a Curtain anyway, as the dragon could use a 5000+ damage Bio.
He actually has a lot of stuff in his AI routine, including Scorch and Maelstrom. With the Adamant Armor on, Palom had nothing to fear from the likes of the former. The latter could be healed with an Elixir.
Brach drops the Hero's Shield when beaten. This has the same special property as the Cursed Ring - that is, it changes all elemental resistances into elemental absorptions when equipped. Oh, and it gives +15 to all stats! Everyone but Dark Knight Cecil and...for some reason, FuSoYa can equip it. Palom's stats are truly terrifying with it and the Adamant Armor on...
Two of the other floors here feature Ivan Ooze 2.0, which Palom just runs from, and a whole bunch of dolls to fight. The Calcabrena palette swaps in particular have over 60000HP, but can be turned into statues.
That brings us to the final boss of the Lunar Ruins, Zeromus EG. Sporting his graphics from EasyType and 200000HP, he's one nasty son of a gun. But HA HA HA! We just tore the superboss a new one without breaking a sweat. How hard could this be?
Well let's see here. Big Bang inflicts HP Leak. Whirl sets HP to critical. That's game over. He must've been taking lessons from Crayclaw or something. This is...a problem.
Okay, so let's back up here. ZEG casts Reflect in response to magic (our Flare barrage), but this is trivial to overcome. Either cast a spell that pierces Reflect (like Quake), or throw up a Curtain. If you do the former, he'll counter with Reflect, which will bounce onto you, and effectively give you an endless source of them since he'll keep casting it. This is what ZEG can do to us without factoring in his counters, and in the order he does it.
~ Big Bang
~ Toad -> Mini
~ Whirl
~ Flare
~ Drain -> Drain
~ Osmose -> Osmose
~ Earthquake -> Blitz -> Flame
Toad, Mini, Drain, and Osmose are not worth worrying about. The last becomes 9999 healing with our broken equipment. Flare is reflected by our wall. But how to stop the devastating critical HP Leak combo?
Answer: We can't and don't. Only thing we can do is pray Palom is left above 5HP. He loses 4HP with each tick. Any less, and he'll die before he can get the Elixir off.
And that set the stage for this battle. An RNG luckfest. Palom's Flares did wildly variable damage; they could do 5000, they could do 9500. More RNG. Over the course of the battle, Palom had to survive four of these. Eventually...
At low HP, ZEG switches his AI pattern. He casts "Absorb" (which doesn't actually absorb from anything) in response to damage, healing around 3000HP. He also throws out Tidal Wave and the non-critical HP Tornado. He also begins using some nasty physicals, which could not hit Palom with his 99% evade. It wasn't long before...
...so wait, before stamping this - can we do this without the broken equipment? Well, yes. The sooner the first phase is done and over with though, the better. There's also another equalizer you can throw out. Let's try, for the thrill of it. This required another trip through the ruins, for Palom to pick up the Chocobo Suit. You can buy it in another town area, but it never appeared on the first rip to reach ZEG.
So those Lunar summons we were facing? Each of them dropped a Grimoire with their initials on it. Use of these Grimoires does two things: first, it allows you to re-enter the corresponding trial. Second, the summon appears and attacks the enemy for 9999 damage. And it will always do 9999 damage. Unless the target is Zeromus EG.
Against him, they deal no damage, and instead inflict a variety of different and bizarre status effects, being different like this for no apparent reason. Several of them seem to have no real effect; supposedly they inflict poison. Lunar Ifrit's is especially strange: ZEG is hit with a Death spell, then a Thundaga spell, to seemingly no effect. But three that have a HUGE effect are Lunar Ramuh, Lunar Titan, and Lunar Dragon.
These hit ZEG with Silence, Mini, and Toad respectively. They force him to run alternative scripts, after which he recovers from the status and goes back to the start of his AI routine. In Silence's case, it causes him to attack physically. These hurt...but the Lunar Curtains give the Barrier status, which prevent all physical damage. Palom could laugh and just Flare to his heart's content.
So what Palom did; he reset until he survived the first wave of attacks, threw out the Curtain and the Ramuh Grimoire (the longest lasting) just as he was getting ready to Whirl a second time, and set to work. When it wore off, out came the Titan Grimoire, which similarly cripples ZEG. It didn't last as long, and Palom still had to survive one more Whirl. But by then, ZEG had shifted into his desperation phase.
Just to add insult to injury, or perhaps mild showboating, or maybe just wanting to see him suffer for his cheap combos, I saved the Grimoire LD for last, and killed him while he was a Toad.
Doing it without the Grimoires? Well, that'd just be a luckfest. Nothing to really prove by doing it that way, right? So that brings an end to Palom's adventures through FF4.
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Analysis: this definitely seemed easier than Cecil or Kain's solo challenges. It's very easy to overlook Palom as a character due to the presence of Rydia. In fact, a lot of guides I read pretty much say to hell with him, why bother when she can summon!?!?!?!! I mean, SHE CAN SUMMON GUYS. IT'S LIKE...well, I'll get to that craziness at the appropriate time.
Bluff can definitely carry its weight in the early game, allowing you to do some hilarious things. He doesn't stick around for too long in the main game to abuse it, sadly. The five-year-old mage is not without his flaws, however. His postgame equipment, as I mentioned, is a bit lacking, and his post-70 growths aren't that great. Still, Flare is very nice, and Break is surprisingly devastating against many encounters. He really is a solid character who can pull his weight.
Palom's got power, that's for sure. But next up in FF4 solos: REAL ULTIMATE POWER!!
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