FF4 Solo Edge Part II

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Edge made a side-diversion to the Old Waterway before heading to the Underworld. He threw some Spider's Silk at Baron Guards, prompting them to respond with Pig. I apparently was wrong in Palom's report - another boss that does not have the boss bit are these Calco dolls - but not the Brina dolls. An Hourglass locked them down.

In an embarassing moment though, I'd forgotten to reequip Edge's armor, having removed it to allow Pig to be inflicted more easily due to less magic defense. Made the fight harder than it should've been. In a change from the SNES version, Golbez actually seems invincible before Mist Dragon appears? I don't know what was up here, since I swear Palom was able to attack him physically before. Not even Throw could hit Golbez. So no Rydialess this time. The fight was easy enough at least; Edge just had to guzzle a few Hi-Potions to make it through.


The Tower of Babel provided a source of Sirens. I'm probably not going to use them, since getting the Adamant Armor once was painful enough. But hey, doesn't hurt to have them around, in case I change my mind. All 40 of the ones I obtained.

A lot of the enemies in here were interesting fights. Chimera/White Mousse groups could be dealt with by stabbing the Chimera and Flaming the Mousse - the other order didn't work due to Chimeras absorbing Fire and using a strong Flame when alone. There were also a lot of enemies vulnerable to either an elemental or racial attack.

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Edge had two ways of dealing with Barnabas and Lugae. He ended up doing both after dying to Lugaeborg, but I'll get to him in a moment. The first was to go to the back row to reduce damage, throw knives at the robot until it was at low HP, then knife Lugae to death. The subsequent explosion would then be fairly harmless. The second, and easier, was to cast Flame until they died together.

I slipped up against Lugaeborg - he is, in fact, Lugaeborg. He's a mech, meaning Edge would've been able to equip the Thunder Claw to do heavy damage against him. The first time, Edge was flatlined by a 1300 damage Laser. The second go at him, Edge was able to do enough damage in enough time to render the attack (which is based off his current HP) harmless. With Prisoner's Wear to protect against sleep, the ninja won out.


The Eblan Cave provided Edge with a new weapon. I could've gotten it earlier from Agart, but forgot they sell those because who ever shops there? The Boomerang is of the Wind/Throw element, and can be used from the back row. Again, there's a bug in the game where technically anything but bows can be used from the back row (and in the original release of GBA, nothing could be used from the back row), but I'm not abusing it. Nevertheless, Edge made the switch anyway. They weren't that much weaker than his Dancing Daggers, and it made him take MUCH less damage. It was also effective on floating enemies, such as these bats.


I figured Edge might be able to survive Rubicante's attack. Just watch this video to see what happens, because a lot of weird stuff happens. Idly, in the SNES version, the battle's script apparently loops instead of doing what it does here.


Paralysis, ugh. After this encounter, Edge started pulling out Pin against counterattacking enemies. Granted, with extra attack from not having the Boomerangs, he actually was able to one-shot the offenders. The Boomerangs and back row made for a good defensive combination, though.


Rubicante was a really fun fight. Before this battle, Edge learns Flood and Blitz. The former turned out to be more damaging than an Ahura + Ice Claw combo, so to the back row it was. Rubicante counters physical attacks with Fira. Edge's strategy was to attack with Flood when his cloak was open, and heal when it was not.

I used a few Elixirs here, which were probably ill-spent. I also experimented around with Image, since Rubicante attacks with physicals when the robe is closed. It just wasn't worth it. He counters with Fira when physically attacked, so attacking during that downtime wasn't worth it, either. Edge died once here, to a Scorch that did close to his max HP in damage. He got him the second formal try at the battle, though!!


With the Trap Doors lying ahead, Edge had to figure out how he was going to approach them. After some tests, I found my simple answer - just throw stuff at the problem. I did have to set the battle speed to 6, just so I could sift through the menus fast enough to get off the needed attacks before they used Ninth Dimension.

Edge threw out two Shruiken and attacked the first, threw a Sleep Blade and attacked once to finish the second, and used the Blood Sword plus two regular attacks to take out the third that blocked him. As for the Demon Wall, some Spider's Silk, a pair of Hermes Sandles, and repeatedly attacking put it to rest.


The enemies in the Sylvan Cave generally weren't worth fighting. Edge could defeat a Bog Witch by Flooding out the frogs and attacking. Most other enemies called for falling back, What it did have for Edge was some nice pickups. The Full Moon is a much stronger Boomerang, the Avenger is a strong weapon to throw, and the Mage Masher is a mild upgrade that does huge damage on Mages.


Asura is classified as a Mage. Once I wised up and actually healed in the battle, the fight was a breeze. Who needs Reflect? Mage Masher is very viable even when at lower levels.

The path to her was pretty nasty. Edge had to equip a Diamond Armlet to avoid being two-shot by Thunder Dragons, whose Blitz does half the victim's max HP unless they resist lightning, in which case it does 1/10th. Bloody Eyes could stunlock Edge, though the Prisoner's Wear prevented this from working. Both were at least easy prey for the Full Moon. Edge also picked up a weapon upgrade in the Kikuchimonji along the way.


Kikuchimonji + Thunder Claw did more damage to Leviathan than Blitz, so Edge went in physically on the sea serpent. It took two Elixirs to get the job done, all two that Edge had on him. They were barely enough to get Edge through the battle. That combination also beat Odin.


Before moving on, Edge ran a few errands. These are some of the hardest-to-find enemies in the game; for some reason, they are only found on a three-step penninsula at the west side of the Underground, or the very southernmost part of the Sylvan Cave continent. Speculate about that as you will. Whatever the case, they made a great source of Spider's Silks to steal. Edge also completed the quest for the Knife; a single-shot 255 attack power throwing weapon.

The Behemoths in Bahamut's Cave are purely physical beasts aside from their Maelstrom counters in response to Holy damage. For Palom they were a problem, but with Edge, I could simply cast Image and laugh off the attacks. Edge also found a set of Genji equipment in this cave. Only the helmet was of particular use to him. Didn't want to kill his evasion or anything.


Conveniently, a Lunar Curtain dropped from a Lunar Virus right before I entered the cave. After trying to get away with not using it, Edge threw it up to render Bahamut's Mega Flare moot.


Every enemy in the Giant of Babel is classified as a mech, including the Last Arm. Edge took it out before any stunlocking nonsense could happen, claiming an Elixir - which would happen to be the only one he would have on him for the four fiends, because I am stupid and forgot to buy more.


All told, this was a very interesting fight. Edge could hit the elemental weaknesses of Scarmigilione, Rubicante, and Cagnazzo using the Fire, Ice, and Thunder Claws respectively. The fire lord was the trickiest this time around: he killed Edge twice using Scorch. I had to throw out some Spider's Silk, use that one Elixir, and pray a bit, but eventually was able to move on.

Barbarricia called for more eloquence in execution, due to not being able to exploit her Holy weakness. Edge was able to use Image to protect against the physicals, completely ignoring the fact that he was at critical HP from Maelstrom. With a Gold Needle to counter the odd Ray, he was able to put this one to rest.

Finally, the CPU. I forgot to get off a Spider's Silk before Reflect, but since Hi-Potions could outrace Piercing Laser's 1/10th HP damage for eternity, Edge was in no danger at all during the fight. He completed this leg of the game at Level 62.

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