Full Games List
Featured Games
New Games
Reviews
Media
Images
Blogs
Game Updates
Images Feedback Summary
Game Design Highlights
Tutorials
Articles
Scripts
Utilities / Plugins
Resources
Engines
Engine Bulletins
What is Makerscore?
Past Events
Achievements
Misaos
Forums
Post History
Chat
New to RMN?
Full Store List
RMN Music Pack (free)
FINAL FANTASY: RECORD KEEPER
Posts
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
LockeZ
View playlists
CloseYou don't use Tyro as a healer? He's so bad at dealing damage. I almost always make him a healer since Curaja is good enough that he still fully heals people.
Cagnazzo is the new worst fight ever. I'll post my strategy later. I am too angry to type it out now.
LockeZ
You don't use Tyro as a healer? He's so bad at dealing damage. I almost always make him a healer since Curaja is good enough that he still fully heals people.
He doesn't have a medica (I mean he does but even if I had it, I wouldn't use it) and I wanted Banishing Strike over Dispel, but didn't have room for a knight. Sometimes I'll put a heal on him but also bring somebody with a medica, typically Vanille, who can use black magic.
Ultimate+ Cagnazzo mastery party:
I spent like 3+ hours on this asshole last night. He's resilient, unpredictable, has multiple abilities that can knock you all down, has really strict ability requirements, and has rage-inducing mechanics.
You need to slot these in some fashion:
These are almost non-negotiable. That's like 7+ of your 10 ability slots right out of the gate and possibly your RW. You'll probably still need a Cure. Abilities will be really tight.
Cagnazzo has a gajillion RES. Over 2600, a full 1000 points higher than his DEF. A mage with a naked 400 MAG will only hit him for 4500 with Flare. This is not enough damage if you want to finish this fight before your abilities run dry. This means if you use magic, which you probably want to, you must use spells that hit weaknesses. Mental Breakdown? You don't have the slots for it. If you're lucky you'll have a good Mental Break SB. I have Wakka's which lasts a whopping 10 seconds (to compare, Mental Break itself is 15 seconds), so that's not an option for me.
So, why do you want a magic party? Because he counters physical attacks with Stop. A lot. If the wrong people get Stopped then it's a wipe. You can devise parties that deal with Stop via Lure Magic + Reflect, Carbuncle, or with a Runic effect. I tried all three many times, in many configurations, but I was missing a something to seal the victory.
Lure Magic + Reflect is a bad idea because that requires two ability slots. That's bad. You need lots of offense to finish Cagnazzo before running out of abilities. Carbuncle is slot-efficient, but Cagnazzo will bounce Wateras that heal him for 4k, sometimes casting three of them at once. This is a viable option if you can stack Magic Break effects, bringing that healing down to manageable levels--I could not. Agrias's Kaiser Shield, Gordon's Goddess Bell, Mog's Heroic Harmony, or Faris's/Fran's bow... If you've got one of those, you should strongly consider a Carbuncle-oriented strategy because you can bring his magic damage low enough that Major Regen will out-pace the AoE damage and Cag's Watera won't heal him very much.
If you have Runic, you can smash Cagnazzo with a physical party. I ran out of Runic friends before I figured out a working party. I believe you can win this fight in the span of two RWs if you have the right party. Runic will nullify counter-Stop and Watera, while enabling you to spam lower-honed abilities. If you have your own Runic, you will probably find this fight easy.
Two thunder abilities are required, but you will probably need three... I found safety in four. A ninja can use Swift Bolt twice before Cagnazzo charges up Tsunami. My Tyro was capping Swift Bolt while under the effects of Lulu's Focus, with 450-ish MAG, the Shadow's ninja damage RM, and a 20% damage bonus from Thunder Rod. This is sort of amazing. In one of my attempts I gave him an off-record rod and he was still hitting for like 5.5k with Swift Bolt. I recommend this. Tyro, in +MAG gear, was even healing for an admirable 1k with his Celebration Grimoire. That helped Y'shtola out when she was busy refreshing Stoneskin to heal (in one of my non-mastery clears, Sazh had Curaga which helped out too).
Cagnazzo can be Poisoned, which will tick for over 5k. Do this.
Double cast RMs are good. Each hit counts towards breaking down Cag's Tsunami charge, allowing more flexibility with your turns while saving MP. Double strike RMs are high-risk and will result in two of your homies being Stopped. I gave Steiner Hand of the Victor instead of Spellblade Master for this reason, which has a very high chance to turn his normal attack into Blizzard Strike that hits for 4.5k instead of 1.2k.
Cagnazzo's opening move is Haste like 90% of the time. Sometimes he charges up Tsunami instead. Wait to see what he does first, in case you find yourself unable to get mitigation up at the same time as interrupting his Tsunami charge. Getting mitigation up is paramount, otherwise you risk getting three of your dudes blasted for 6k Watera while you're trying to interrupt the Tsunami. If you tag Cag with Reflect before his first action (which requires your Reflect-user to have initiative), he will bounce Haste at you many times throughout the fight. This worked pretty well but is tricky because you'll need to Reflect an ally if you want to use spells.
Haste is important because Cagnazzo will use a group Slow pretty often. You'll throw your phone when he does this immediately after you use your Mighty Guard RW. This is why I recommend bringing your own Hastega in addition to an RW, or just slotting Haste. I opted to slot Haste because I didn't want Sazh triggering Stop counters with another Breakdown or Poison Shell or whatever. If you don't deal with the Slow, you will wipe. Fortunately you can deal with the Slow.
What you can't deal with is Sleep. If Cagnazzo sleeps multiple homies at a bad time, you will wipe. If Cagnazzo sleeps the entire party, then you will wipe and there's nothing you can do about it. Sleep can happen at the beginning, which you'll happily reset. Sleep can happen at the very end, snatching victory away from you when things were going so well.
Tsunami's damage isn't as bad as you'd think it is. You should probably interrupt it anyway. Tsunami charge happens at really unpredictable times that I couldn't figure out. Sometimes Cagnazzo uses his entire action to charge Tsunami. Usually Cagnazzo charges Tsunami immediately after another action... this action seems to include casting Tsunami. I missed mastery on my first clear because I could not get in any ice damage for this reason. This leads you into believing you can just wait and see what Cag does to decide if you'll use Blizzaja or Thundaja, but sometimes Cag charges up Tsunami a moment or two after he acts instead, which confuses the shit out of me. I count a full second after the ATB bars start moving before queuing a spell to be sure... sometimes he still charges Tsunami up even after that. I get the impression that sometimes the encounter just forces Cag into his charging stance at any random time, regardless of whether it's his turn or not.
Bringing some form of +RES seems like a neat idea. Garnet SSB and Celes's default SB will stack with Lulu's Focus. One of my more successful parties used Celes for that, so if you can fit her, you ought to.
I think I'm forgetting something. Anyway, this boss is a dickhead.
I spent like 3+ hours on this asshole last night. He's resilient, unpredictable, has multiple abilities that can knock you all down, has really strict ability requirements, and has rage-inducing mechanics.
You need to slot these in some fashion:
- Blizzard ability
- Thunder ability
- Thunder ability
- Thunder ability
- Haste and/or Hastega
- Shellga
- Stoneskin/Sentinel's Guard
- Dispel/Banishing Strike
- Poison ability
- Magic Break(down)
These are almost non-negotiable. That's like 7+ of your 10 ability slots right out of the gate and possibly your RW. You'll probably still need a Cure. Abilities will be really tight.
Cagnazzo has a gajillion RES. Over 2600, a full 1000 points higher than his DEF. A mage with a naked 400 MAG will only hit him for 4500 with Flare. This is not enough damage if you want to finish this fight before your abilities run dry. This means if you use magic, which you probably want to, you must use spells that hit weaknesses. Mental Breakdown? You don't have the slots for it. If you're lucky you'll have a good Mental Break SB. I have Wakka's which lasts a whopping 10 seconds (to compare, Mental Break itself is 15 seconds), so that's not an option for me.
So, why do you want a magic party? Because he counters physical attacks with Stop. A lot. If the wrong people get Stopped then it's a wipe. You can devise parties that deal with Stop via Lure Magic + Reflect, Carbuncle, or with a Runic effect. I tried all three many times, in many configurations, but I was missing a something to seal the victory.
Lure Magic + Reflect is a bad idea because that requires two ability slots. That's bad. You need lots of offense to finish Cagnazzo before running out of abilities. Carbuncle is slot-efficient, but Cagnazzo will bounce Wateras that heal him for 4k, sometimes casting three of them at once. This is a viable option if you can stack Magic Break effects, bringing that healing down to manageable levels--I could not. Agrias's Kaiser Shield, Gordon's Goddess Bell, Mog's Heroic Harmony, or Faris's/Fran's bow... If you've got one of those, you should strongly consider a Carbuncle-oriented strategy because you can bring his magic damage low enough that Major Regen will out-pace the AoE damage and Cag's Watera won't heal him very much.
If you have Runic, you can smash Cagnazzo with a physical party. I ran out of Runic friends before I figured out a working party. I believe you can win this fight in the span of two RWs if you have the right party. Runic will nullify counter-Stop and Watera, while enabling you to spam lower-honed abilities. If you have your own Runic, you will probably find this fight easy.
Two thunder abilities are required, but you will probably need three... I found safety in four. A ninja can use Swift Bolt twice before Cagnazzo charges up Tsunami. My Tyro was capping Swift Bolt while under the effects of Lulu's Focus, with 450-ish MAG, the Shadow's ninja damage RM, and a 20% damage bonus from Thunder Rod. This is sort of amazing. In one of my attempts I gave him an off-record rod and he was still hitting for like 5.5k with Swift Bolt. I recommend this. Tyro, in +MAG gear, was even healing for an admirable 1k with his Celebration Grimoire. That helped Y'shtola out when she was busy refreshing Stoneskin to heal (in one of my non-mastery clears, Sazh had Curaga which helped out too).
Cagnazzo can be Poisoned, which will tick for over 5k. Do this.
Double cast RMs are good. Each hit counts towards breaking down Cag's Tsunami charge, allowing more flexibility with your turns while saving MP. Double strike RMs are high-risk and will result in two of your homies being Stopped. I gave Steiner Hand of the Victor instead of Spellblade Master for this reason, which has a very high chance to turn his normal attack into Blizzard Strike that hits for 4.5k instead of 1.2k.
Cagnazzo's opening move is Haste like 90% of the time. Sometimes he charges up Tsunami instead. Wait to see what he does first, in case you find yourself unable to get mitigation up at the same time as interrupting his Tsunami charge. Getting mitigation up is paramount, otherwise you risk getting three of your dudes blasted for 6k Watera while you're trying to interrupt the Tsunami. If you tag Cag with Reflect before his first action (which requires your Reflect-user to have initiative), he will bounce Haste at you many times throughout the fight. This worked pretty well but is tricky because you'll need to Reflect an ally if you want to use spells.
Haste is important because Cagnazzo will use a group Slow pretty often. You'll throw your phone when he does this immediately after you use your Mighty Guard RW. This is why I recommend bringing your own Hastega in addition to an RW, or just slotting Haste. I opted to slot Haste because I didn't want Sazh triggering Stop counters with another Breakdown or Poison Shell or whatever. If you don't deal with the Slow, you will wipe. Fortunately you can deal with the Slow.
What you can't deal with is Sleep. If Cagnazzo sleeps multiple homies at a bad time, you will wipe. If Cagnazzo sleeps the entire party, then you will wipe and there's nothing you can do about it. Sleep can happen at the beginning, which you'll happily reset. Sleep can happen at the very end, snatching victory away from you when things were going so well.
Tsunami's damage isn't as bad as you'd think it is. You should probably interrupt it anyway. Tsunami charge happens at really unpredictable times that I couldn't figure out. Sometimes Cagnazzo uses his entire action to charge Tsunami. Usually Cagnazzo charges Tsunami immediately after another action... this action seems to include casting Tsunami. I missed mastery on my first clear because I could not get in any ice damage for this reason. This leads you into believing you can just wait and see what Cag does to decide if you'll use Blizzaja or Thundaja, but sometimes Cag charges up Tsunami a moment or two after he acts instead, which confuses the shit out of me. I count a full second after the ATB bars start moving before queuing a spell to be sure... sometimes he still charges Tsunami up even after that. I get the impression that sometimes the encounter just forces Cag into his charging stance at any random time, regardless of whether it's his turn or not.
Bringing some form of +RES seems like a neat idea. Garnet SSB and Celes's default SB will stack with Lulu's Focus. One of my more successful parties used Celes for that, so if you can fit her, you ought to.
I think I'm forgetting something. Anyway, this boss is a dickhead.
Sounds terrible. I've been training up Kain, Rosa, and Rydia for this for like two weeks now, farming as much mythril as I could to try to get two pulls on the second banner seeing as it has EVERYTHING I wanted... Only to find out that my first 50 pull was 3x 4* that weren't even FF4 related and the rest silver. Now that Jude is saying Cagnazzo is this terrible, I might just give up on the whole idea of this being my first full mastery clear of an event. I really wanted an awesome FF4 team, too.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Cagnazzo only ever starts charging tsunami when his ATB bar fills up. The problem is that he has 550 speed, so his ATB bar filling up is almost instant, and 80% of his turn is normally spent on his casting bar. (Enemies have both ATB bars and casting bars, just like you.) But beginning to charge up for tsunami is an instant action. It doesn't have a casting bar. So it happens very quickly after his previous action - 0.8 seconds later, instead of the normal 2.3 seconds it takes him to use other abilities. There's no good way to predict it, it's a 25% chance on every turn. Just have one person use lightning every turn just in case, I guess?
Once he starts charging Tsunami, you have about 6.5 seconds to use three lightning abilities on him before he casts Tsunami. 5 seconds if he's hasted. If everybody is hasted, and if nobody is asleep or slowed or stopped, and if Cagnazzo is not hasted, then that's enough time for everyone on your team to get one turn in, and one or two of them to maybe get a second turn. That's not guaranteed to be true, though, of course, which is why you really need that fourth lightning user. A lightning soul break might be good enough for the fourth person if you have one - you probably have enough time to cast a soul break if your ATB is already at least halfway filled up when Cagnazzo starts charging up for Tsunami.
Runic feels like a really really good idea.
Once he starts charging Tsunami, you have about 6.5 seconds to use three lightning abilities on him before he casts Tsunami. 5 seconds if he's hasted. If everybody is hasted, and if nobody is asleep or slowed or stopped, and if Cagnazzo is not hasted, then that's enough time for everyone on your team to get one turn in, and one or two of them to maybe get a second turn. That's not guaranteed to be true, though, of course, which is why you really need that fourth lightning user. A lightning soul break might be good enough for the fourth person if you have one - you probably have enough time to cast a soul break if your ATB is already at least halfway filled up when Cagnazzo starts charging up for Tsunami.
Runic feels like a really really good idea.
His speed definitely explains it. His ATB is faster than my spellcasting times. I wouln't cast a lightning spell every turn just to be safe, because you'll blow your ability wad way too quickly. The reason I found safety in a fourth lightning user wasn't so much for a fourth chance to interrupt, but for another set of charges in case I run out on somebody else. Cagnazzo has a like 340k HP, so honage is important.
The best way to land your ice abilities is to start charging them a moment after your third lightning ability will interrupt the Tsunami. Still not a guarantee, but very successful.
The way Cag can instantaneously change his vulnerability encourages you to wait until he charges his Tsunami before you act, which gets even more annoying when he takes a full five turns in his normal stance. That can be dangerous because during that period you're not generating meter to maintain the mitigation that's ticking away, and is the biggest reason I gave Y'shtola Thundaga, for the meter boost. I even considered rolling out Wrath again, but mastered before I got to that iteration.
Because if that vulnerability flux, I was also close to just doing one of my standard physical parties and ignoring the Tsunami mechanic altogether. Tsunami damage is very survivable, it just requires many mitigation layers and a group Cure or two. Or just multiple SSBs to bust Cag up faster than he can do to you, though I only have Sephiroth's.
The best way to land your ice abilities is to start charging them a moment after your third lightning ability will interrupt the Tsunami. Still not a guarantee, but very successful.
The way Cag can instantaneously change his vulnerability encourages you to wait until he charges his Tsunami before you act, which gets even more annoying when he takes a full five turns in his normal stance. That can be dangerous because during that period you're not generating meter to maintain the mitigation that's ticking away, and is the biggest reason I gave Y'shtola Thundaga, for the meter boost. I even considered rolling out Wrath again, but mastered before I got to that iteration.
Because if that vulnerability flux, I was also close to just doing one of my standard physical parties and ignoring the Tsunami mechanic altogether. Tsunami damage is very survivable, it just requires many mitigation layers and a group Cure or two. Or just multiple SSBs to bust Cag up faster than he can do to you, though I only have Sephiroth's.
Lawr
0
Geryon sucks. DeNa's idea of a "challenging" fight is to just make them do ridiculous amounts of damage and give them mind-numbingly high stats.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Nah. It's more that buffs in this game are so good that if the boss's stats weren't that high it'd be mind-numbingly easy for the people who have them. The way all the strategies are locked behind specific soul breaks and can't be farmed for is designed to make the game not fun for people who don't pay.
I think it's fine that the Runic effect is rare, but I do think things like single-target Blinks should be common to approximate a similar, but weaker, effect. More than anything, I think it's dumb that there are so few Wall effects. There ought to be a spectrum of Wall effects, at different potencies, affecting single and multiple targets, and with additional effects or damage. For a lot of players, getting a Sentinel's Guard or Stoneskin is still their highest priority. Or, the effect should've never existed to begin with, similar to Lifesiphon.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Lifesiphon isn't that good. I mean it's a great filler skill but you usually have more important things to fill your skill slots with.
Sentinel's Guard and Stoneskin are stupidly good, though. It's not that there aren't other defensive buffs at different potencies. There are. Lots of them. It's that none of the others stack with each-other. But SG and Stoneskin are coded weird and stack with all of them, in addition to halving all damage.
I went eight or nine months without them and I thought people were exaggerating how good Sentinel Grimoire was and I didn't understand why people brought Tyro to every fight. Then I finally got it and Oh my God. I went from an average of 60 attempts per ultimate fight to an average of 2 attempts.
Sentinel's Guard and Stoneskin are stupidly good, though. It's not that there aren't other defensive buffs at different potencies. There are. Lots of them. It's that none of the others stack with each-other. But SG and Stoneskin are coded weird and stack with all of them, in addition to halving all damage.
I went eight or nine months without them and I thought people were exaggerating how good Sentinel Grimoire was and I didn't understand why people brought Tyro to every fight. Then I finally got it and Oh my God. I went from an average of 60 attempts per ultimate fight to an average of 2 attempts.
I'm strongly considering putting down the game for a bit. All I looked forward to when first picking up the game was an amazing FF4 team. I worked the dungeons all week farming mythril to try to make up for the disaster that was my first pull, and what do I get treated to? This.
This game really fucking wants me to use these shitty ass gloves.
This game really fucking wants me to use these shitty ass gloves.
jp just got guaranteed 5*s in its 11-pulls recently. maybe save up your mythril for 5~ months, and/or take a break if you feel you need to? similar shit happened to me with ff12 recently. sucks.
The worst part is I already have a ++ Metal Knuckle, so that one got scrapped. Now I have a ++ Power Glove, Tifa's Somersault SB Glove, and a + of Zell's gloves.
Gloves are like my least favorite weapon. (Just by taste) wtf Japan?
Gloves are like my least favorite weapon. (Just by taste) wtf Japan?
My personal best (worst?) is 0/44, which I've done three times. One of those streaks included three lucky draws, so at least it wasn't as expensive. Speaking of lucky draws, I am already mentally prepared for another 0/11 in the coming week. I'm optimistic about this upcoming FF3 banner, however.
100 gem + cult of 3 tonight! 100 gem + 11-pull on thursday! i'm ready to have my heart torn open for 0/16!
at least 0/16 is better than 1/77 or whatever awful number it was for ff12. (technically 3/X because of 2 lohengrin swords but FUCK THAT SHIT.)
i need to do geryon still. i might skip cagnazzo like i did bahamut sin because fuck that shit, although cagnazzo is 1 stamina so it's nowhere near as risky outside of just time spent. i'll at least try, i suppose.
at least 0/16 is better than 1/77 or whatever awful number it was for ff12. (technically 3/X because of 2 lohengrin swords but FUCK THAT SHIT.)
i need to do geryon still. i might skip cagnazzo like i did bahamut sin because fuck that shit, although cagnazzo is 1 stamina so it's nowhere near as risky outside of just time spent. i'll at least try, i suppose.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Geryon isn't bad at all for an ultimate. My advice is to bring Minwu as your roaming warrior because twice in the battle you will need to heal your entire party really fast.
Lawr
0
I've had Clear Tranquil (instant cast) and Tailwind on standby at all times. I can actually get Geryon to 25% HP but I run out of RW Advance at that point, even with Terra nuking him and saving the Spellblades.
I know it's not meant to be easy as a F2P, and I'm reminded of that fact every ultimate. I just need a native Donald Trump Wall + another Ultima Sword and all of this will be mostly a joke!
I know it's not meant to be easy as a F2P, and I'm reminded of that fact every ultimate. I just need a native Donald Trump Wall + another Ultima Sword and all of this will be mostly a joke!
Got Ingus's Protectga/Hastega shield. I think I have more knight relics than for any other character type.
Worked it out and discovered that after buffs (Soul Eater, Dark Bargain, and Apocalypse Shield... these put me just barely under the buff cap), Sanguine Cross will do about 800 more damage with Dark Sword than a 5-star synergy weapon against Ultimate+ DEF. This means my Drunk Cecil is a viable damage dealer pretty much always. I've already honed Sanguine Cross up to R3. Would've been dope if I had Ebon Armor too, which I tried to get (almost) every time it was available.
Worked it out and discovered that after buffs (Soul Eater, Dark Bargain, and Apocalypse Shield... these put me just barely under the buff cap), Sanguine Cross will do about 800 more damage with Dark Sword than a 5-star synergy weapon against Ultimate+ DEF. This means my Drunk Cecil is a viable damage dealer pretty much always. I've already honed Sanguine Cross up to R3. Would've been dope if I had Ebon Armor too, which I tried to get (almost) every time it was available.
