[acsound01]

This is the HARDTYPE version (as noted here).

Reptite-type creatures are weak to water/ice and their defense drops when struck by lightning.

My first party was Crono/Ayla/Robo; all five charas (incl. Lucca and Marle) are at Lv. 20-21. Does this help against Nizbel? No.

Initial plan: Smite with Lightning, then Drill Kick the weakened beast to death; Robo has Cure Beam duty. Ayla keeps dying.
Second plan: Ayla learns Volt Bite; Volt Bite Nizbel to death while Robo sticks to Cure Beam duty. Heal with Tonics after any multi-hit attacks.

My second party was Crono/Ayla/Marle; Ayla learned Cat Attack and the dual tech Volt Bite w/Crono. Marle and Crono have Ice Sword, and the two of them have mastered the Aura Whirl. Marle even knows Cure (a better version of Aura). Does that save the team? No.

New plan: Volt Bite/heal, Ice Sword/heal, Aura Whirl...rinse and repeat until Nizbel fucking dies. Does this work? No.

My next plan will bring Lucca back into play; she and Marle will hit that bastard Nizbel with Antipode after Crono smites the triceratops with lightning.

Of course, there's Nizbel's "releasing electric energy", which *here* hits the group for 200-250 dmg--and Nizzie starts with an earthquake attack that damages the group before Crono can cast Lightning. I'm out of Revives. Crono can't fight this beast solo if the others drop, and I can't seem to heal the team with Tonics or Marle fast enough.

Your thoughts on Nizbel.

(Nizbel *was* this annoying in vanilla CT, but I beat him; I beat the whole game without a walkthrough.)

= = =

This is now a thread for the hardest of the bosses in *Lavos' Awakening*.

[zombero]

I didn't pay much attention to my levels, but in terms of abilities, you have about the same ones I had when I played through this fight. I'll have to see if other people have similar problems with this battle. What kinda HP do your chars have?

[Anima Zero]

Personally, I did not find this battle too overwhelming or too difficult. Used a Crono/Ayla/Robo team setup. Think I was at your level, maybe one or two higher?

Basically, I just tried to fired off a Lightning when everyone was at full HP or close to it, then heal up to full and go on the assault for a couple rounds, then wait up. Once he released his built up electric charge, everyone used a Mid Tonic and kept up with their usage until he used a non earthquake attack, then Crono did Lightning again and the process repeats itself until Nizbel keels over.

So yeah, for me, not too super hard for a boss fight. If all else fails, perhaps try to have Robo learn Heal Beam? That way he can pop it off when Nizbel shakes the earth and free up Crono to Lightning his rear end and Ayla to perform a follow up attack for damage.

[acsound01]

That's what I'm doing now: training Robo for Heal Beam at the Hunting Range. I had also headed to Dactyl Nest (which wasn't nearly as difficult), and Crono now has the Meso Mail. Thanks to the Hunting Range, my whole team (including Lucca and Marle) has Ruby Vests and Rock Helms. (I may make two more for Frog and Magus before I leave to fight Niz-bastard.)

Crono has Lightning 2 (although Lightning will do the job for less MP), Ayla has learned Rock Throw and the dual tech Spin Kick with Robo, and Robo's dragging his feet learning Heal Beam. I tried this battle with Marle because she has Reptite-ravaging Ice-based dual techs with Crono and Ayla (Ice Sword & Ice Toss, respectively). Unfortunately, dual techs take an attacker (Crono or Ayla) out of action.

My HP/levels for my current party setup (Crono/Ayla/Robo--I'm back to that group, because they have the most base DEF) are at Lv. 25, maxHP between 400-585. Ayla has on the SilverEarring, Crono has the Silver Stud (to save MP), and Robo has on Defender to keep him durable. (That, and the game won't let me have Crono/Lucca/Marle, which would let me smite this fool Nizbel with ANTIPODE while Crono strikes like thunder (okay, lightning). Ayla's mandatory for this level.)

As I have no Revives, I'll have to stock up on Mid-Tonics and try Anima Zero's strategy.

The regular encounters in the Pre-Historic Era are beatable, but they force the team to burn MP for Techs like nobody's business--especially the damned Winged Apes. (The Cave Apes in Dactyl Nest are stronger, but they suffer more damage.)

Once this is done, Azala will die, and...

Spoiler

...she can take her Black Tyranno with her. (Yeah: Azala's a girl.)

...so there!

UPDATE: Nizbel DIES.

Behold:



NIZBEL. FUCKING. DIES.

= = =

And now, other bosses - Highlights:

Magus took my party to the woodshed several times, but we beat him. He was hard, but you expect him to be difficult.

Giga Gaia was a problem, but by focusing on one arm and the head, a team of Crono/Frog/Lucca prevailed.

= = =

Now: Lavos' Spawn. The first one that Magus and crew encounter in a cave burps out a sleep spell that OHKO charas with 4-digit numbers--even with Wall Rings and an Amulet equipped. Any tips for this thing?

This post has been edited by acsound01: 15 October 2012 - 10:39 AM

[grub]

When I fought the Lavos Spawn, I think I just wound up eating the sleep spell and revived the victim (IIRC, it is a single-target attack?); Barriers can be used, but it might be better to save them for later. The needle attack should not OHKO your team, especially not if you have gotten the Safe Helm from the ancient weapons site. As long as you heal your team aggressively (Marle can help immensely by casting Haste on herself and someone with whom she can use a healing Dual Tech) while having someone deliver chip damage periodically, it should be a manageable fight.

[zombero]

I would say you are highlighting all the most difficult bosses ^_^ gj finishing off the deadly dino. Lavos' Sigh is serious business, but yeah, you can just revive and move on with the fight. Grub has some good, more specific suggestions.

[acsound01]

grub, on 15 October 2012 - 03:58 PM, said:

When I fought the Lavos Spawn, I think I just wound up eating the sleep spell and revived the victim (IIRC, it is a single-target attack?); Barriers can be used, but it might be better to save them for later. The needle attack should not OHKO your team, especially not if you have gotten the Safe Helm from the ancient weapons site. As long as you heal your team aggressively (Marle can help immensely by casting Haste on herself and someone with whom she can use a healing Dual Tech) while having someone deliver chip damage periodically, it should be a manageable fight.

Yeah, I got the Safe Helm...but Crono has it. And he's currently *dead*. Now, I could have Marle/Ayla/Frog, as Slurp Kiss is available, and Marle has Haste. There's also Robo.

It seems that I have to have a designated ATK chara, with Marle and her partner on healing duty.

Here are my six and their current stats:



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My current team is Magus/Marle/Robo. Those three are at Lv. 40. I wanted to give Frog and Lucca a break. As for Ayla, she's not doing much better.

It looks like I have Aura Beam to work with, at least:



And I beat the damn thing with Frog/Ayla/Marle. Ayla's ATK (w/Techs) and Frog and Marle healing and following up Ayla's ATKs with Glacier won the day. Ayla even Charmed an Elixir out of the beast.



Since the Spawn periodically would launch a fire spell (and I had the Red Mail handy), I gave a Water chara (Frog) the Red Mail so that any Fire attacks from the Spawn would heal him (the main *team* healer). Marle was Haste-caster, leaving Ayla free to ATK.

That Sleep flatulence from the Spawn is rather cheap, though.

I'm obviously on the aptly-named Death's Peak.

This post has been edited by acsound01: 15 October 2012 - 07:19 PM

[grub]

Yeah, I think Frog/Robo/Marle might make this fight easiest. It is a flexible team in that each of the three possible pairings of the team members has a party-healing Dual Tech (although I am not sure if Lv 40 characters typically have the requisite Single Techs; in any case, Robo+Marle have Aura Beam), and two individuals have party-healing Single Techs. Whoever chooses not to heal in any given round of turns can simply attack.

If you throw in Ayla, you can Charm for an extra Elixir (you get one for beating the battle regardless of what happens).

[zombero]

The overly excited victory poses seem far more appropriate in this version of the game...

Lavos' Sigh is a bit of a troll, but otherwise the spawns wouldn't be terribly memorable. It could probably be reduced to make the damage still fatal in most cases... but not so over the top. I'll look into it at some point, but it's not too big of a deal.

Death's Peak would probably be an apt name for the entire rest of the game ^^ though technically the "peak" would be Black Omen. Good luck in your time travels! Feel free/encouraged to post any updates and experiences.

[acsound01]

And now the *SIDEQUEST segments*.

Sunken Desert, or...Sir Krawlie's Revenge: I can't even progress through the stage, let alone get to Retinite. The "Hexapods" move first, and always target Marle when she casts Haste--after hitting her for MASSIVE DAMAGE. She drops, and the rest of the team (Frog/Magus) follows suit.

Ozzie's Fort: Apparently, in this hack, the Terrible Trio *prepared* to fight Magus. Slash and Flea attack before my team can move. Frog gets off a Heal, and Ayla's even able to Charm Slash and Flea's items--then Ozzie quits fucking around; the Trio smite the team with DELTA FORCE. Repeat until team Ayla/Frog/Magus dies. Tried replacing Magus with Lucca; she and Frog can hit Slash with Red Pin while Ayla Charms off the Slasher 2 and Flea "Vest" (it's a bra). The results are the same: the team dies.

I'm not even *sniffing* at the Black Omen until the rest of the sidequests are done. Maybe I should try Son of Sun instead.

[zombero]

The major factor in how hard the sidequests are is magic defense, and the order you do them in definitely determines the difficulty (first ones you try tend to be very hard, latter ones not so much). Son of Sun is a good place to start, as fire protection makes it hard to lose. The ruins and rainbow shell are probably easier than desert/ozzie's/geno, also.

[Obob]

As far as hard bosses go, Giga Mutant is no f***ing joke.

You basically need to be immune to or resist both water and lightning, or you'll get 1-shot. He poisons your team, and while poisoned basically all of his magic attacks 1-shot you. So you need as much status immunity as possible, too--since each character must use both armors on lightning/water resist, you basically only have an amulet for one member to resist the poison.

Then you'll still need to get a little lucky. Having Lifeline helps a ton.

Fortunately I switched to a Chrono/Robo/Marle team quite a while ago, and decided to use all my tabs on them. Parts of the endgame seem like they would be crazy hard without lifeline and haste.

Haste helms are great in the original game, but here it just seems like you need the gear slots too badly to waste them on haste, at least for boss fights. It really seems to me that Marle is the MVP of this hack.

[kindex]

Obob, on 14 November 2012 - 11:53 PM, said:

As far as hard bosses go, Giga Mutant is no f***ing joke.

You basically need to be immune to or resist both water and lightning, or you'll get 1-shot. He poisons your team, and while poisoned basically all of his magic attacks 1-shot you. So you need as much status immunity as possible, too--since each character must use both armors on lightning/water resist, you basically only have an amulet for one member to resist the poison.

Then you'll still need to get a little lucky.

I've tried to kill it about 20 times, and managed to do so [sort of] following some Bad Sexy Guide from this forum (thank you, OP!).

Crono was absorbing water, Marle and Frog were feeding on light attacks;

They were all with Prismhelms, so, at full HP, they survived the unprotected element of choice [HEAL HEAL HEAL HEAL CUZ' THERE'S SOMETHING NASTY COMING NEXT!]

What really did the trick was to grind speedtabs from that cute Tuber with two red winged cyclops, just some rooms back; after that I had enough time to cast Haste and, if timed correctly, keep everyone alive the whole time. Oh, Elixirs really helped!

Frenzy and Rageband on Crono and Frog, MagicRing on Marle [poison really messed up my schemes, but since everyone was high on coffeehasted, I choose to spend a turn using heal but hitting harder the IceSword2];
After about 10 6 Ice Sword 2, each dealing 2.3k, plus the counters, it went down!

[SharmatOfLove]

Giga Mutant wasn't the horror I expected it to be, actually. I went out of my way charming R'bow helms for every character in the hope that they would be useful somehow, and being able to resist 50% of Luminaire's damage helps a lot. Having water-absorbing gear means a free heal every other turn, and the figt become very doable if you target the lower half first.

[zombero]

Giga Mutant probably requires the most specific set of setups of any boss in the hack, so that's the main basis for the reputation. It isn't really possible to know what you need in advance, either, so short of reading how to beat him from someone else: one death is almost guaranteed, which is more than can be said for most bosses.