FINAL FANTASY: RECORD KEEPER

Okay, third time's a charm. Edge's and Golbez' crystals are mine. I got lucky this time, because Black Dragon used regular attacks for like five turns, allowing me to kill him without anyone dying. I think my mistake last time was that I immediately wanted to get my KO'd units back on their feet, rather than killing the dragon first and reviving the casualties afterwards. Also, this time, I brought Rosa with me for some Diaga action and used the RW on the Calca and Brina, saving Rydia's Ruinga uses, which definitely helped. Oh, and I also broke Kain's level cap, making his jumps pretty destructive.

Well, I decided to use my 50 mythril anyway. And it worked out pretty splendidly. Got two Shadowblades, a Healing Staff, and some red dagger I've already forgotten the name of. Never gotten four 5-star items in a single pull so that's just spectacular, even if I was hoping most for Golbez's armor, Tellah's staff, and Edward's harp... Can never be upset about getting more swords, since Final Fantasy is always about sword users.

I decided to combine my Shadowblades and feed them my Rosetta Stones, since it's my first 5+ item. I have two Kung Fu Gi and two Boon Guns but I kept them separate since I lack armor and weapons in those realms.

I also got a couple important 4-star items: two FF6 Crystal Helms. I always use the one that I have in FF6 content, so being able to fully upgrade it is awesome.

I was kind of wanting to save up and pull twice on FF9 instead, but I guess that's no longer going to happen.

Oh, neat. The limit break on Shadowblade is quite good and is my only +Attack buff. This will probably modify my Rubicante strategy into a physical spellblade one. Maybe Drunk Cecil with Shadowblade and Barrage, Bartz with Dark Sword and Watera Strike/Steal Power, Cecil with Elven Crossbow and Shellga/Curaja plus Hand of the Victor RM, Celes with Blizzara Strike (and her default Magic Shield limit break, +50% Resist for 25 seconds that stacks with everything but Bracing Bash), and Rosa with Healing Staff and Diaga/Magic Breakdown. I don't know yet, but that is sounding pretty decent. Are there any Dragoons or Spellblades that can use Armor Breakdown that I'm not thinking of? I can also swap Rosa for Y'shtola and have Stoneskin instead of a big heal, but I am assuming I will lose damage medals no matter what and would rather have the extra damage from a synergized Diaga. Not sure what I'll do for an RW yet. Maybe Runic to deal with Firaga counters or something.

Holy moley, Drunk Cecil has 471 Attack and that's with a shield equipped--not a helm or bracer. Egged him quite a bit because he only does one thing, and I want him to do that thing really well. Blasted through the boss rush and killed Odin before he could raise his sword, such that I missed the Lightning medals but mastered it anyway. Will have to do the next boss--who I've never even heard of--when I wake up.

Healing Staff actually has pretty respectable Magic on it, and is my highest Magic weapon when accounting for synergy, so I've been using it on Tellah who's filling a true sage role. It's not as Mind/Magic balanced as Thyrus and Lullaby Rod, though. Thyrus's Magic is actually surprising since Y'shtola isn't much of a black mage.

This is my setup for the weird boss I've never heard of. How sick is this synergy? Almost full natural 5-star weapons and armor. Complete overkill and I should've saved mythril for Beatrix.




Full medals on Geryon with the above party. Drunk Cecil was hitting for 4.7k per Barrage hit. Even Rosa was hitting for 5.9k with Magic Breakdown. Hand of the Emperor and the Shadowblade limit break proved an excellent combo. I think FF4 just one-upped FF6 as my strongest record synergy.

I used almost the same party as Geryon to take on Rubicante because it seemed strong enough and I wasn't in the mood to go through all the menus. The only differences were that Bartz replaced Edge, bringing with him Blizzara Strike and Steal Defense (Steal Power and Shadowblade limit break don't play well together). Cecil replaced Esuna with Curaja, and replaced Barrage RM with Hand of the Victor (which hits for 9999--triggered twice). Tellah used a +Healing RM and gave his Dragon Gloves to Drunk Cecil (who had 508 Attack), and then equipped a Black Robe so I could spread the Resist stat around which Genji Shield has very little of. And Drunk Cecil replaced Armor Break with... I don't even remember. I used Lunatic High as my RW.

This really wasn't an optimal group. It would probably be better with Cecil sporting Lure Magic to deal with Firaga counters, but the real missing ingredient is Stoneskin or Sentinel's Guard, because there's just a lot of damage in general. I still mastered it but Cecil and Tellah were healing way more than attacking and Rosa had to use her group heal twice. I really thought I wasn't going to master it because I wasted so many turns healing. I think a magic party would be the easier route overall, since you avoid the counters. I still think Celes is a good idea to consider, and she's still available even if you go with a mage party since she can equip rods. I think I may try some different party variations to see what is the smoothest, including my original spellblade-heavy idea.

Craze, since you have Tyro's SG he would make a good steal guy for you instead of Edge. You can set him up basically the same way except give him a +magic weapon instead so that Water Veil hits harder. I don't think you need Paladin Cecil either, unless you're unable to field Shellga any other way.

Without knowing more, I am thinking a good group would be Tellah, Tyro, Celes, Rydia, and Terra. At this point you should have two 3++ Ice Rods if you've kept them all, which allows you to field two mages with suped up ice magic. I think no matter what you want a dedicated healer.

Tellah - Curaja / Shellga
Tyro - Steal Power / Water Veil
Celes - Blizzaja / Curaga
Rydia - Shiva / Waterja
Terra - Blizzaga / Magic Breakdown

Ah... I didn't know you had Lustrous Shield. What's the duration on it anyway? And does it draw non-black magic spells? Lure Magic won't grab Inferno, which you'll be seeing a lot of. You could also use Quistis instead of Terra to cover your Breakdown.

I think I'm at like 30 Mythril or so, saving for FF9. I am not sure which banner to pull on, though. Beatrix's sword and Quina's spear look great, but as always I could use more mage gear and the second banner is loaded up. I also have 100 Gems leftover from that pack I got for my FF4 pull, so I'll have to use that at some point.

I've cleared everything that's available now, so I'm just waiting on the bonus battles.

Due to all of that free FF13 gear, my synergy isn't too shabby. I went ahead and combined my Boon Guns for Lightning and gave Sazh the New Years one. Bartz is using the pumpkin ball because it doesn't make sense to give it to Hope, who lacks physical abilities. I've got a 4++ fist for Snow and a 4++ staff for Vanille, in addition to Snow's ice punch armor. This should be fine.

I think Fang will be required for some bonus battles so she'll be lacking in the weapon department, but my 5+(+15) Shadowblade should be plenty serviceable, sporting about 140 Attack.

The best support characters are definitely Faris and Vaan, but if you happen to get a weapon with a unique soul break for a different support user, it's worth using them instead.

I beat Ultimate Rubicante. Tried once with a mostly physical team of Pecil, Cloud and Kain, plus a mage and healer. Three of my characters were able to do 9000 damage per hit to the boss, but holy shit I could not survive. He randomly counterattacks physical damage which made me upset. Had to give up.

Tried again with a team of two black mages, one red mage, one white mage, and Faris with Magic Breakdown + Steal. Apparently if you steal from Rubicante while his cloak is up, he lowers it (thanks for nothing, Dr. Mog). So much easier, but it still cost me a couple mythril. It looks like all the superbosses will probably need two healers, at this rate.



The fact that the person who researches the boss AI for all the events, and makes the giant posts about them on Reddit, is also a player on my online FF fan-game is very nice for me. He talks about it there a lot. He also does the same level of research about my game, and has established a reputation for always being right about everything, and for knowing more about my game than me.

Haha, I think I tried and got chewed up by the last boss, and never went back to it. Maybe I'll try again after I recoup some stamina, if it's not too late. Apparently I didn't even finish the elites, so I must have been thinking of the last one. Chalk it up to my apathy of FF4 in general, I guess. What can I say; I was a Sega kid.

Spent my 100 gems on the Lightning banner because I was tired of seeing it. Got some FF12 mace I've already fully upgraded and never use.

Craze's super FF13 pull reminds me how much I hate that new screen and how I'll probably never screenshot an 11-pull ever again. I hate that it's a scrolling list and that the button covers up a portion of your results. The old screen captured everything in a convenient rectangle.

I'm putting off the Yuffie event for a bit to get some orbs, but I should be ready for the bonus battles when they unlock.