Insane Difficulty: SharmatOfLove - Viewing Profile - Insane Difficulty

So, I'm back after a long period of inactivity, just started a new run for the heck of it in version 1.8.4 as well. Considering the upcoming 1.8.5 update, I figured I'd note this little thing as well.

When you examine one of the paintings in Owzer's mansion in the WoB (the one with the flowers IIRC), it mentions giving you 'piece of mind' instead of 'peace'. Is that a typo or some kind of reference I'm not getting?

Anyhow, 1.8.4 seems very nice up until now (just finished IMF). Haven't noticed that much different from my last playthrough yet, aside from the equip bonuses espers now give.

If this is meant as a FAQ for complete beginners, shouldn't it include the option to turn EXP gain on or off as well and what it affects (gaining EL levels and spell points, for example)? Maybe it is mentioned in the Beginner's School as well, but I just forgot.

Others things I can think of that would likely be asked a lot are levels ranges, as in 'what level should I be at X part of the game', rare or misseable items and stuff like that. Then again, those things can change when updates rebalance the game, so...

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.

Had a new post all typed out and ready to go... and then the site connection times out. Will have to take new screenshot and look things up again.

About Gau though, even with the rage list being condensed considerable - probably one of the best changes of the patch - I still found it hard to utilize their potential fully. I'll shamefully admit that I was one of 'those guys' who never went much farther than spamming Stray Cat in vanilla, so I never did get all that used to the mechanics.

When first recruiting Gau, it becomes obvious that his stats have shifted to being a fragile speedster - fitting for a youth going barenaked safe for whatever dead animal he has covering him. As such Gau spend a lot of lying facedown in the dirt, which makes me think that despite the many physical oriented rages he could probably do better as a support or backrow damage dealer (especially after getting to known the information in the unlockme file).

On paper his equipment and relics looks amazing: elemental immunty to two elements through relics, two more through the use of the snow muffler - the speed penalty being neglible due to his EL choices. The club was a sweet addition as well, though it does feel awkard to have his attack soar up all of a sudden. I suppose adding more clubs or other weapons for Gau would be a bit too much effort while not adding much to the game... fits the FF6 'logic' perfectly with spellcasting swords and whatever being far more common than regular clubs.

Offensive rages I've used a lot were Brawler, Dragon and Behemoth early on. Brawler is available immediatly and gives a chance to muddle entire groups AND has fire immunity, Dragon hits like a truck with Hurtmore and Behemoth is great for clearing groups with Meteo.

But like I said, his durability suffers later on and Dragon wastes a lot of turns on bosses with Glare. I feel his support / healing rages with stam investment might be a better choice, but the two I've found had their drawbacks... Defender uses an annoying melee attack, and Flan has storm / cyclonic (?) which adds a certain unpredictability to his healing capacities. I've read that Griffin is pretty good, but I never did encounter it on the Veldt.

I can't really blame anyway but my own ignorance of how to properly use Gau, so I'll definitely invest more time and effort in him in a second playthrough (might be a while, currently hooked on the Lavos' Awakening hack and a Lufia 2 that's actually challenging sounds interesting as wel).

One question btw: do elemental defenses from rages cancel those granted from equipment?

Nice to see other new players enjoying the patch. Had a great time with it myself

Imp equipment has been removed entirely on account of talking moogles and guys suplexing spectral trains being somewhat believable, but little imps with spears outdamaging the entire party just stretches the suspension of disbelief too much - don't worry though, Relm can still kick ass regardless.

As for the green cherries, their function is not noted in the initial printme so I'll post it in spoiler tags in case you rather want to find out yourself through experimenting, but they have a new application as well: