Insane Difficulty: Magus details - Insane Difficulty

I'm struggling with the fight with Magus at the moment. With only 18 revives I'm not able to survive long enough to even see darkmatter.

I'd love to see some detailed information on this boss and perhaps some tips. How much HP does Magus have left when he stats spamming darkmatter?

Thanks.

Never mind; I managed in the end.

I reloaded from an earlier save and loaded up on middle tonics and revives to discover that darkmatter was not as powerful as I'd feared. I raised Crono up to level 21 and he was able to survive the attack with a barrier while equipped with the dark mail and the silver earrings (level 20 might have been enough but I was wary of the random variation). It seemed that Magus' hit-points had not been boosted and that two barriers were more than sufficient (suggesting that I should have dropped haste and made use of the Taban's helmet instead of levelling Crono up).

I'm certainly enjoying the hack so far zombero. Nice work!

Up until Magus I've found no need to grind, although the dragon tank requires careful attention to detail on level 5 and the battle with Slash made me feel like I was missing something obvious (hmm... maybe hit-point counting to time Triple Raid is the way to go).

Good to hear you found a solution that didn't involve ultra-grinding The bosses are built to be beatable without doing so... until Black Omen, at least. Maybe Magus requires a couple levels of grind or so, though. The difficulty definitely really ramps up with him.

Glad you're enjoying!

Addendum: Sorry I didn't get your question before.

No problem, thanks for the reply.

I'm used to trying to avoid almost all unnecessary encounters, a habit re-inforced by the inability to flee. This leaves me on slightly lower levels than would be expected from "normal play" but not enormously so (I was at level 19 whereas the other "magus grind" thread started with the plight of someone at level 25). I'm glad to hear that the flow should be maintained up until the Black Omen (I've just had fun with Nizbel II).

I'd forgotten that I chose to grind shortly after obtaining Lucca so that I had Flame Toss ready for the four Naga-ette's. Magus was the second encounter that caused me to grind.

The surge in difficulty for Magus was greatly appreciated. The battle took about 20 minutes and was most entertaining. I even had a character fall to HP Down status, a first for me.

I noticed that you snuck the PicoMagnum into the game and it's proving to be quite useful. Have you included any of the other dummied-out pieces of equiptment?

Yeah, Graedus can be found in one of the item shops in the game now. Pico Magnum is sort of a hidden trophy that most people don't encounter in their plays. It doesn't have a huge impact on the game, but it's a pretty nice bonus for awhile. Lucca doesn't really get a better weapon until the second half of the game. I don't think I put Dark Sword in, there wasn't anything interesting about it and Crono has plenty of weapons.

I didn't want people to be able to be too high of level for Black Omen, so I pretty much to assume max level (though if you just have max magic defense, that's good enough for most characters), but the end game enemies give about 4x as much XP as before, so at least it's quicker to gain levels.

I'm glad to hear that 4-fold XP will become available later. I expected that I'd simply lose interest once heavy grinding became mandatory but I may consider the challenge of hunting for an efficient method of grinding once I'm satisfied that there's no other option. Hopefully, I can max MDef on a few characters quickly enough.

I've just beaten Golem. The recent battles have been much less demanding and I'm feeling comfortable (even confident) with the sealed goodies next up. I'll leave Swallow in it's box for now, just in case I find myself in dire need of a Safe Helm later.

I'll have to keep an eye out for Graedus. I almost never buy equiptment; I spend most of my money on tonics and such. I'll go back and check the old shops.

Thanks for the responses and thanks again for the hack.

Don't get too comfy, the difficulty ramps up for the side quests, and then goes through the roof for Black Omen.

Hint: You need epoch to reach the shop where Graedus is sold... and it didn't sell any equipment before.

I found Graedus (thanks for the tip) and, for the cost of 6 Mid Ethers, it seemed worth the investment (dare I say it: cheap).

Things are progressing smoothly. The beasts at the foot of the Mountain of Woe were pretty tough but things seem to have really eased up since then (partly due to the increased number of unavoidable encounters, partly because I allow myself to engage anything which yields 100 tech points). The Ocean Palace was no problem as most of the foes are slow and predictable, but I felt some pressure to charm everything that moved (mages twice) to stock up on Lapises, Barriers, and Shields (I live in constant fear of the future).

I should explain that my desire to open all the chests (and collect all the tablets) trumps my desire to avoid encounters. There is very little conflict in these goals early in the game (2 Guards, Omnicrone, 3 Mutants, and 5 Shadows are all I'm aware of before reaching the end of time). However, The Mountain of Woe and the Ocean Palace are littered with chests which are guarded by some encounter.

Ocean Palace Lavos was fully out of my league.

The Blackbird was a breeze (although one of the turrets did manage to get away from me). I typically change characters and equiptment between each encounter so The Blackbird was a real cause for concern. Glenn managed to learn Cure 2 here! He'd not even learnt Heal when I battled Magus.

I've just made it to the first save point of Death Peak (somehow managing to dodge all the potential encounters on the way up). My party members are at levels 33 and 34 (except Magus). I still have the Swallow/Safe Helm decision and 3 speed tablets in reserve so I expect I'll reach the summit (and I hope I won't need to dip into my stock of shields).

After this I'll have to decide the order in which to tackle the side-quests. Instinct tells me Sun Stone first and Geno Dome last but I'm going to have to experiment a bit. If you have any thoughts to share on this that won't spoil the challenge they'd certainly be appreciated.

Ha, nice, that's a lotta skipped encounters. You don't have to worry about charming any of the side quest bosses *except* Ozzie's Fort, btw. I didn't want to force people to use Ayla for the entire game. Deaths Peak definitely steps up the difficulty a bit. And then sidequests do it again, and black omen again, fun times on the horizon!

Fun times indeed! I've been busy and have already cleared Death Peak (encountering only the three Lavos Spawn) and some of the easier side-quests (Sun Stone, Hero's Grave, Rainbow Shell). I certainly felt the 4-fold EXP payouts kick in; characters are levelling up like rabbits (do I have that analogy right?). My party is now at levels 42-44 (Crono at 47) despite my finishing a number battles with characters KOed.

The side-quest bosses so far have been lackluster (due to Red Vest/Mail). Yakra XIII could have put up more of a fight. The undead at Hero's Grave were a little more interesting but didn't stand long against Fire Zone and Line Bomb.

The Lavos Spawn on the other hand were much more engaging. My first encounter with one ended before I was able to enter a command (much like Ocean Palace Lavos). Humiliated, I came back with a strategy using the gold earrings, a red vest, a hide cap, and a boat-load of revives. The battle lasted a while but, following enough Leap Slash and Robo Tackle, the Lavos Spawn eventually fell.

It's good to know I don't have to worry about charming for the side-quest bosses. I'd noticed that the Lavos Spawn were dropping Elixers but hadn't investigated this particular oddity. I trust this applies to Retinite's speed tablet.

I've opted for the 3 prism helmets over the prism dress. The dress didn't seem so special given the enhancements made to the helmets, the Zodiac cape, and to Taban's suit. Besides, I'm sure I'll be making heavy use of the elemental armors for the more difficult battles.

Crono's Shiva Edge is simply exceptional in this mod. The critical hit rate seems to be about 50% (from counting criticals in the battle with Rust Tyrano).

There's a lot of decent equiptment that gives +10 MDef so it looks like I'll be in a position to tackle Black Omen soon. Hopefully, I'll be able to raise Glenn to level 48 and Crono to level 50 in the remaining side-quests so that they each have at least 79 MDef naturally. Magus, Marle, and Lucca will reach 89 MDef by levels 47, 49, and 50 respectively so I consider these highly desirable bonuses. At these levels, characters have about 800-900 HP which is hopefully ok.

My real problem is in finding some more tech points. I'm still working on Cure 2 for Marle and Magus has yet to even learn Dark Bomb. The only final tech I have so far is Luminaire. I'm not going to be happy entering the Black Omen without at least being on the cusp of a workable Lifeline strategy.

Next up, the Sunken Desert.

Retinite turned out to be tough and interesting, nice work! I took it out with Crono (Lv 47), Marle (Lv 44), and Glenn (Lv 42) (and finally learned Cure 2 and Double Cure). I wasn't keen of having to choose between speed belts and wall rings but it turned out that there were workable strategies for both approaches. Retinite did drop the speed tablet (thank goodness) so I now have 5 in reserve.

I can't really afford a Vigil Hat but, if I recall correctly, I can find a Vigil Hat and a ton of cash in Geno Dome.

I just noticed that there are two shops which sell Graedus (although I guess their wares are sourced from the same list in the rom).

I managed to defeat Ozzie and Co. This was tough but not quite as hard as Retinite. I used Magus (Lv 44), Ayla (Lv 45), and Robo (Lv 44) (no tablets). They each gained 3 levels and Magus finally learned Dark Bomb.

Question: How much speed does Slasher 2 give in this hack?

You're referring to both of the Choras shops? Yeah, they're the same shop in the game, oddly enough. But then neither had anything useful to begin with so, why not I guess?!

Slasher 2 doesn't give Speed in this hack. Wouldn't want to steal Swallow's thunder. Not that it has much thunder to steal! At one point I was going to have Ozzie/Slash/Flea be the hardest fight in the game, but decided against that approach haha. Still, I find it a fun one.

Yes, the 600AD and 1000AD Choras shops. Just interesting.

Swallow's a pretty neat weapon then, all things considered. If I play through this hack a second time I'll not push Crono's speed past 13 (at least until I reach the Black Omen panels) to make full use of this weapon.

Yes, the Ozzie, Slash, and Flea fight was good fun, particularly with my party of choice.

I've just cleared Geno Dome. Mother Brain was tricky. My first take left me puzzled as, after taking out the displays, the projection's defences slowly raised to the point of absurdity (is this in the original game? I've not noticed this mechanic before). I tried again with Crono and Marle for Haste + Ice-Sword 2 and managed to end the fight quickly after taking out the last display, indeed, before the projection increased it's defences at all.

My characters are at levels 49-51 (Crono at 53) and everyone is able to max out their MDef with equiptment (Ayla and Robo struggle a bit but at least that means that the Flea Vest has real utility). It seems that the 4-fold EXP was just right to prepare me for your Black Omen.

Hopefully there will be some nasties within that can make me sweat as Magus did. To add to the thrill, I'm going to have Crono carry the wallet as far as he's able.

The Black Omen has been rather engaging so far. Mega Mutant was good fun but not as taxing as some of the side-quest bosses. I lost my first encounter with goons (embarrassing) so there's definitely some pressure to perform even in regular encounters.

Tubster took a couple of tries to get right but it boiled down to "easy if you know how". The speed tab charm was appreciated.

Giga Mutant was on a level of it's own. It combined the survivability concerns of Magus with the timing/synchronisation issues of the Dragon Tank, a very well crafted boss! Nice work! It forced me to drop the wallet (I think it's possible to win with the wallet, but such a feat is beyond my skill). Out of respect to Giga, I'll leave some notes here.


Do the fights get much tougher than this Zombero? Having had the wallet ripped from Crono's fingers, I hope to level up enough on the way to TerraMutant to stand a chance against it.

It's actually the consensus that Giga Mutant is the hardest boss in the game, heh. I think the rest of the crew all present their own challenges, but it's safe to say the bosses at least will not get significantly harder than Giga Mutant. He is the first of the bosses that basically assume you are completely decked out.

Lavos' final forms are both pretty fun. Zeal has a neat a gimmick (kinda like Tubster, in that sense). Nu Spekkio is a bit of a bastard.

Good. In that case I feel that the difficulty is well pitched (I was afraid things were about to spiral out of control).

I made my way to TerraMutant (twice ; damned panels). It proved itself rather feisty but not so taxing (I had fun with Max Cyclone).

Yeah, there's a panel fight that is pretty much a miniboss on its own.

Max Cyclone, that might be a first, it does some good damage though!

Yeah, I've found Max Cyclone to be one of the better techs available in this hack. At this stage I can't easily adopt MP-heavy strategies (I'm light on Full/Hyper Ethers).

I had a really tough time with Lavos Spawn (it enjoyed over an hour of ripping me to pieces; I accrued far more failed attempts here than with Giga). I eventually killed it in a rather demanding 35-min battle. I used up 8 Shields! (I'm sure that's a personal best).

I guess the lowish levels bite more when it comes to physical attacks. I can max MDef with equiptment easily enough but stamina is much harder to boost. With my winning setup, Glenn (Lv 50) had 914 max HP, 86 stamina, and 35 magic, allowing him to survive {Disorder, Disorder} from full HP with the shield buff, but certainly not {Disorder, Heal, Disorder, Disorder}.

Do you have an intended strategy for Lavos Spawn? Something involving the frenzy band perhaps?

I don't think he requires a specific strategy, really. But not having Def probably hurts more here than against enemies up until now... And it may hurt again against one more enemy. I'm pretty sure I just used single target physical attacks against its face.