Insane Difficulty: Solo FFIV - Insane Difficulty

Inspired by The FFV Solo Reports, I decided I would play through FFIV solo with each character over the next X months.

Thanks to the wonders of Game Genie, I could start from the beginning with any character, and eliminate the rest of the party from existence for the truest solo experience possible! There's a few parts where the game can hang indefinitely if Cecil isn't in the party, I made notes of these for anyone else who might want to try this. They are:

-Events at Baron at the start, just wait until the world map to configure your party
-The event after the earthquake at mist
-needed to trigger the battle with guards in Kaipo
-the event after the first Fabul battle
-the Kain related event after the battles at Fabul
-Events at Mysidia when getting the twins
-The event between the battle with the King of Eblan and Rubicante
-The battle against Zeromus, Cecil is needed to use the Crystal

All you need to do is just enable/disable a cheat code to have or not have Cecil at these points and the game will run fine. I'm playing on the VBA emulator, it has a very easy to use built-in cheat code thingy for this.

With all the expositional stuff outta the way, let's dive right into the first playthrough, in the post below!

EDGE

First up is Edge. This is basically a warmup, since Edge is easily the best overall character in the game. Strong, Fast, unreal weapon pool, versatile skills including steal, throw, and some limited ninja magic. Only point against him is his low defenses, though as you'll see, physical attacks won't matter for the second half of the game, and while magic is something you can't really do much about, there are still ways around that here and there.

Edge struck me as a good way to start things off, instead of a character with very little going for them (like Cid, for example).

So let's get this underway. Something to know, is that characters are hard coded to join at a certain initial level and don't have data for levels below that. So in this case, Edge starts at level 25 which is... quite high. In the interest of keeping the early game not a total joke, I elected to avoid most exp gains from randoms, and stuck his starting gear in the fat chocobo to be forgotten about, forever.

If the first bit of this is a little dry, I apologize. When the game's still easy, no sense getting long winded

With that said, here are Edge's starting stats and equips:






As you'll see below, some weapons can't be thrown. So, that's out for awhile.


Obviously, there will be a lot of punching for a little while. And as you can see, unarmed damage is... well, not great.



I do have the Flame spell though, that will be my offense in boss battles for awhile:



It's like taking candy from a baby!



At Kaipo, I finally obtain some armor. leather cap and armor. Decent. There isn't an automatic heal at the inn preceeding the Baron Guards battle, so with my MP empty, I had to beat them to death with my fists. Waterway, I ran from everything, grabbed the chests, mostly stuff I can't use that will be sold. Flame on the octomamm, followed by lots of punching.

Nothing of note in the antlion den, it goes down to 3 flame attacks. Some stuff happens, then I fight a mombomb. As you can see below, Flame is still carrying my offense for the time being:



Go to Fabul, finally get my first weapons, the 3 basic elemental claws. They don't add any attack power, but the elemental boost can lead to obscene things as you'll see soon enough. A lot of players seem to undervalue the fact that Edge can use claws, but they're really one of his highest points.

Anyway, I punch some guards and things at Fabul. Go to Mysidia, where I buy the first decent-ish piece of gear, the silver armlet. Up to mount ordeals, and fighting Scarmiglione. Flame wastes his undead, but then something new (for this playthrough) happens:



I actually had to heal, whilst punching him to death. He counters everything with a basic thunder spell, but when my damage is so low, things add up. In the screenshot, this is after having used 6 or 7 potions in a row from critical health.



In the refight, he is undead and weak to fire. I punch him to death with dual flame claws. I did not need to heal here. Defend against a dark knight, ride the serpent road to Baron. And oh my god, now I have a dumb fight to do:



Normally, this fight is inconsequential, but likely due to the fact I unmade the normal party members here, the trigger to end the fight, doesn't happen. Yes, I have to take down a monk with a presumed 65535 HP a hundred damage at a time. I lost my first attempt at this battle after running out of potions. On my refight, I prepared by buying 198 (no joke) potions, of which i used 147 (!) over a 41 minute fight by the in game clock. The worst part about this?



I forgot I could go to mist and buy those beautiful little murder machetes. My physicals average about 650 with these equipped, that would've shortened that Yang fight by a not nearly insignificant amount. Argh.

Blitzing through the waterway, I pick up the ancient sword. This (and the 2 daggers I bought) are the first throwable weapons I obtained, so that's something.



Baigan hits quite hard, but I hit harder.



Here's the first case of Edge attacking with a mixed pair, using a dancing dagger and an ice claw (the boss is weak to ice, until he puts up his water barrier). Even though stats-wise, I have 30 less points of attack, the elemental boost from the claw more than makes up for the difference. When the water barrier comes up, I swap the ice claw for a thunder one.

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST

With the airship, there's some sidequestin' to do for miscellaneous items. First, I hit up Mythril town for a free mythril dagger. This weapon is extra effective against ghoul type enemies, which unfortunately aren't the same as undead, so ultimately this weapon ended up being something I'll never use, instead of something I thought would be awesome. I bought 3 mythril swords with the intention of throwing them, but they cannot be thrown (.....).

Next up is Eblan, where I DO get a couple weapons I can throw, though theyre guarded by nasty monsters hidden in chests. I have hourglasses saved up, an item which temporarily stops all enemies, and use those to win the battles, which would otherwise murder me horribly.





Except this one, which as you can see I handled with a bit more strategy. Flame obviously wrecks the skeletons, but the giant is even more dangerous. I use the Pin skill to paralyse it, the only time I used this skill in this playthrough. Found a use for it though, so had to put the screenie. Did not use an hourglass in this one, as evidenced by my almost dead HP total. I pick up a Sleep sword, and a Blood lance, both of which can, and will, be thrown.

the magnetic cave sucks like always, but I pick up an awesome Fairy Claw. It has +3 speed, and is effective against giants, as seen below. Obviously, this weapon will be a staple of this playthrough.



You can also steal hi-potions from mind flayers, I stocked up on these a fair amount for upcoming boss fights. Vs the Dark elf, it's all daggers and hipotions. There can be tense moments when he uses his tornado spell, but ultimately not hard as long as you're patient and use the potions.



At the tower of Zot, I start fighting randoms again since I'm not horribly overlevelled anymore. Flame for big groups, mixed weapon pairs for smaller groups. None of the weapons in here can be thrown, and the hell claw is garbage. Against the Magus Sisters, I got unlucky and was berserked early in the fight, but my high HP total kept me going and Edge pulled through.

Barbariccia was a much tougher fight. I opened with a couple dagger physicals before she hides in the tornado. At this point, my physicals either outright miss, or do low low damage. Flame can't even connect.



Luckily I have throw. In the image above, this is the sleep sword being tossed. I threw all my weapons, in between turns of high potions and the odd gold needle, and just barely won. (Sleep sword, blood lance, ancient sword, mythril knife, both dancing daggers).

Of course, afterwards it's back to mist to buy my daggers back, and then onto the underworld.

I'm missing some screenshots from the next section, so here's some text. Against the dolls, Flame spell immediately triggers phase two, which is another attack constantly, high potion when low affair. Against Golbez, it's the same, though I have Rydia be courteous and kill herself with Bio when she appears. You don't need Cecil in the party here depending on who you're playing, it seems like the script for the shadow dragon will only target Rosa, Kain, and Yang.

More mixed pair shenanigans in Babel tower. Here's one of the only screenshots I could find from this section:



This is Edge attacking with a fairy claw and an ice claw, doing double weakness damage to this poor, poor Golem. Statistically, my attack is only 43 with this combo equipped. Claws are really good, guys. I also stole some sirens from the robot in the picture, which I ultimately do not end up using this playthrough.

I reach lv38 on my way up the tower and learn Image. Physical attacks are nothing to me now, with some patience and a healthy supply of ethers. Against the doctor, image rules the day in the first fight, though I eat a very hard hitting self destruct at the end of the battle. in the "real" fight, I open with hermes sandals and chug hi potions to fix the damage done by the self destruct, and to have enough HP to survive Laser, an absurdly powerful attack. I wait until the boss poisons me before attacking- hitting the boss triggers a sleep counterattack, but due to the way statuses work in this game, if you are already poisoned, you can't be put to sleep. Had to drink a lot of high potions to win this one.

In eblan, I buy 2 kunais and a boomerang. I now have the typical Edge starting gear, halfway through the game. The boomerangs are bugged in the version I'm playing, and do NOT deal full damage from the back row. They do "throw" elemental damage though, which usually wrecks floating type monsters, so it has it's uses for randoms.



Here's an amusing screenshot of Edge KO'd with full HP after the event battle against Rubicante. When I took this screenshot I saw my level, and decided I would ignore randoms until I got to the moon, since I seem a little overlevelled again.

I just hung out and stole potions from Edge's folks during the event battle, because I thought it was amusing.



This was another tough battle, I needed both spider's silk and hermes sandals (slow and haste) to win this. Attacked using an Ashura/Ice Claw mixed pair, to predictable results. Had to drink 3 elixirs to win the fight, his Glare spell is absurdly strong.

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST

Now, here's the section of the game I had the most trouble with, mainly due to a certain completely unfair enemy (to a solo character) in the sealed cave.

I started off by stocking up on high potions for in and outside battle heals, bought two full stacks.

Next, I went to the sylph cave, there are amazing things inside for Edge, namely a Mage Masher and a second Cat Claw (+5 speed). From here on, assume I have 2 catclaws equipped at all times, and switch them out in battle to the weapons I will actually be attacking with, letting me get that all important first few turns of buffing done quicker. I also really wanted the Rising Sun (stronger boomerang) and Avenger (amazing weapon, but for Edge, throw fodder) but chests filled with malboros aren't going to be won without a ribbon.

So it's off to the Summoned Monsters Cave. There's some nice treasure here, including a kikuichimonji which will be my main attack power type weapon for awhile, and a Defender to throw which as you'll see was beyond necessary. I also bought a Kotetsu, to have a strong secondary weapon for monsters without weaknesses I can exploit. While not necessary, because Edge can't summon, I opted to fight Asura and Leviathan, just for kicks.



Asura is a mage type enemy, meaning my mage masher (kikuichimonji secondary) mutilates here- this damage is even after the boss buffs itself with protect. I opened this fight by casting image, drinking a bacchus wine (berserk) and sitting back and letting nature take it's course. A boss that can heal itself repeatedly for 3000 damage with curaga, can't outheal this raw power. Also, Rydia needs to be in the party for these battles, or the summons wont agree to fight you. Naturally, I had her pre KO'd for both battles.

Leviathan was tougher, but ultimately it's the same battle as against Rubicante, spider's silk / hermes sandals, a good mixed pair (kikui / thunder claw in this case) and a couple elixirs.

Now it's onto the sealed cave and the much hated trap doors. The open the fight by scanning a character, and on their second turn it's a completely unavoidable instant death attack. There is a very real time limit to these fights. With brute force, and good damage rolls, I could theoretically kill one in 3 physical attacks, but only had enough time to get off two, even with opening the battle with a spider silk to slow the door down.



Thank god for Throw. Actually, initially, I just kept beating my head against a wall here, but refusing to level up just to get past these doors. Only after looking through my inventory did I realise I had an easy solution right here... for one door. There are no other massive damage throws like this available right now- the smithy doesn't sell fuma shurikens until later, and there are no thrown store bought weapons available right now.

I did however, gain a level from this battle, and got a point of agility. As luck would have it, this was just barely enough to get 3 turns of attacking. However, my initial guess of "roll high" on physicals still wasn't cutting it, but I do have two shurikens from chests which are marginally stronger than my physical with the best two weapons- this was just enough to kill a door in three attacks. Even more fortunate, is that after the first door I Defender'd away, there are only 2 more mandatory trapdoor battles in the dungeon. Obviously, I'm missin out on some decent treasure, but I'll live.

The Demon Wall was a very major concern of mine going into the fight, and I lost several times before finding the solution (aside from just grinding levels). What I ended up doing through a handful of losses, was a spider silk, a hermes sandals, a bacchus wine, and prayer.



On my 6th attempt, things clicked, but as you can see it was quite close, both in terms of my HP and the wall being right where it starts using crush (guaranteed 9999 damage move).

Off to the moon, but first I get Excalibur, and the ultimate throwing weapon, the Knife.

Get the Knife.

On the moon, I bought 3 elixirs from the humingway place, and raided bahamut's cave for genji stuff. The behemoths are a joke with Image, and a Lunar curtain (provides reflect) is all you need to beat Bahamut, who I cannot summon. A shame.

At this point, my level was 52, which is pretty typical for a normal playthrough (FuSoYa joins at level 50), so I decided to run from randoms inside the Giant to see how I'd fare against the four fiends. I also remembered that videos exist around this time, so here's my fight!!

https://www.youtube....eature=youtu.be

This really shows what Edge can do, making full use of his skill set and insane weapon selection. Of note, I somehow triggered a glitch where I had infinite blink, probably related to the multiform aspect of this boss in some way. In my previous successful fight (which is the Canon one, I didn't throw excalibur and the Knife, that was just for show) I had to keep reapplying image against cagnazzo and barbariccia, with the odd gold needle thrown in.



Also, I came really close to dying in that unrecorded fight.

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST

Less screenshots again, I apologize, I lost about half of what I took for this playthrough.

The CPU is an easy fight, kill the defender, attack until dead, heal as needed. Used high potions, as the attacker is quite weak (285 damage every time, seems to do 10% of max HP).

Before the final area, I went to the smithy and bought 4 fuma shurikens. Outside the smithy, you can fight Undergrounders- and steal spider silk. I grabbed about ten of these, as I was all out. Bought two more elixirs from humingways, and now into the final dungeon.

Here, I start fighting randoms again, to gain some levels. I wasn't sure how Zeromus's Big Bang worked in terms of split damage (it usually hits 1000-2000 on a full party, would I need max HP of 4k+ just to survive?). Most randoms are a joke between image and mixed pair attacks, though I avoided groups of 3 or more, which I couldn't keep up with in terms of image-ing.

Got Black Garb from a chest monster, 2 giants. Fairy claw and image make short work of them.

Got my Murasame, the 2nd best katana and casts protect as an item- which I don't need because Image exists. Had to kill a white dragon for it- Tossed a spider silk, and image/attacks did the rest.

Moving through the dungeon I get a Protect Ring from a chest with no monster, nice- almost have all my final gear.

Next I fight Ogopogo, whom I handled exactly the same as the White Dragon, though I needed two elixirs to win as this guy actually has magic attacks. Got the Masamune, which is amazing for it's high attack, +3 speed, and haste casting when used as an item.

Now I just need the Ribbon, and have to fight 2 Lunasaurs. Spider silk apparently is multitarget slow which is awesome, haste from my katana, and judicious use of Image and masamune/fire claw pair. They have a nasty Bio spell doing nearly 2000 damage, I needed 2 elixirs to win this fight.

I thought about trying to fight Plague, but couldn't deal enough damage quick enough to win through his 10 second death countdown. I was close, at having landed 6 attacks of 5k each with masamune/boomerang. I could win this fight if I threw my Knife, but I have no interest in a spear I can't even use. Pass.

So, here's my final stats and equipment:





I'll just go fight Zeromus, and win the Game.

Cecil is needed for this fight, it's instant game over if I send him off into the aether. Also, he's needed to toss the crystal. Here's a video:

https://www.youtube....eature=youtu.be

There is an exploit in the boss's AI, normally he invisibly fully heals himself making it look like he has 110 to 120k hp instead of his actual total of (presumably) 65535, but this can be avoided. It is only triggered if he is between 12 and 16 thousand HP remaining. So, I thrown my items in a specific order, 7 fumas (~35k damage, boss down to ~30k) then Excalibur (9999, down to ~20k) then the Knife, 9999 putting him at ~10k and skipping the heal. Since I'm counting his HP, I know after my last fuma, unequipping and throwing my legendary katana will win the day.

And there's the Solo Edge. Like I said going in, I knew this wouldn't be too tough, outside a couple places as mentioned. Edge is just really good, Mixed pairs, Image, and for the odd time you get stuck on something, you can just Throw your way to victory.

If anyone reading this has any suggestions for who I should try next, by all means. I'll probably have another one of these done up in a couple weeks.

Cheers!

Seems pretty neat. I'm not much of a fan of actually doing solo runs, but I enjoy watching/reading about them.

White mage solo seems like it would be interesting until you get Holy, then it would be pretty easy. But I think you should do Rosa before Porom and Rydia before Palom when you get there, so as to save the tougher characters for later (unless there's something that actually makes Palom/Porom more proficient at their roles than Rydia/Rosa that I don't know about, like a higher stat growth).

On a side note, it seems like there's a few characters that might be stonewalled by Barbariccia's gimmick. Are you just going to call a mulligan on that if it would require massive overleveling to get through?

There's some fairly tangible differences between rosa/rydia and the twins, twins generally have higher magic related stats, and learn spells at lower levels, while the girls have actual physical options, limited though they may be. Also, in the GBA version, the twins get some unique end game gear from an optional dungeon which generally is better defensively than stuff from the lunar core. I'm likely picking one of these four for my next run to have a different kind of variety than micro-managing a couple dozen weapons, and mostly attacking physically.

As for Barbariccia, I probably will make some exception or other if I can't find a way around it, so as not to be crazy over levelled for the rest of the game. It's probably a case by case scenario though.

Jackimus, on 29 October 2014 - 08:26 PM, said:

Oh yeah, the GBA version allows you to switch characters at some point. Now I remember that from those videos I watched a long time ago. The twins are probably balanced better in the endgame than I was expecting then. I was expecting Rosa/Rydia with less stuff, but now I can see why they'd be more fleshed out.

ROSA

Solo playthrough 2... GO!

This one will be a little more detailed than the last, on account of for the most part, I don't just bulldoze my way through every poor living thing that happened to come within 100 kilometers of me. More screenshots too, since half that I took DIDN'T vanish into the ether this time. Hooray!

So, Rosa is a white mage. She casts the spells that buff and fix your broken guys. White mages typically have no offense. Luckily, Rosa can use bow and arrows.

Let me be frank here though. Bows and arrows in this game are garbage for anyone who isn't Rosa. The accuracy on them is terrible, and in the GBA version the back row compatible weapons are all bugged and don't do full damage from back row. Bow and arrows do have a very high damage bonus on critical hits however, which can offset this penalty somewhat if luck is on your side.

Luckily though, the way back row works in this game is based on a hefty accuracy penalty, rather than a straight up damage cut of (usually) 50%, as seen in other games in the series. So, Rosa's Aim is one of the only ways to use physicals from the back row effectively.



Arrows also always deal "throw" elemental damage, which as a rule usually wrecks floating enemies, and a handful of others too. For comparison, I shot a goblin in the next encounter for a paltry 15 damage.

So, here's Rosa's starting stats and equipment:





Rosa also starts with 5 white magic spells, seen below, and will gradually fill the list via levelling up throughout the game:



Cure is a basic heal, and frankly more than I'll need for quite some time. Hold gets overlooked alot, but playing solo it can be quite useful. Slow is straight up one of the best two spells in the game, and the other two may as well not even exist.

The beginning of the game is largely inconsequential, but lets me show off one of Rosa's tricks which I will not get much mileage out of soon enough:



Pray has a slight chance to cast Cure for free. Against the mist dragon (who I obviously slowed to start the battle, assume this forever) this is pretty useful while it's in Mist form and can't be damaged.



By the way, this is how much damage I do right now. This was a long fight, but Rosa had a zero percent chance of losing. I nearly burned through my starting stack of 50 iron arrows on this one boss. Rosa went to level 11 and learned raise, which I'm not positive I ever use since I'm solo.



By the way, slow can be multi targetted. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa-mazing. While I'm in Kaipo, I pick up a staff for free infinite poisona (cures poison) and 3 stacks of iron arrows.

In the waterfall cave, Rosa learns Protect at lv12 (which seems bugged in this version, never seemed to lower physical damage on me) and Cura at lv13. After using one stack of iron arrows, I start fleeing from randoms, conserving ammo for the octomamm- with one exception:



Yeah, take that you damned zombies. It ain't quite the same as a shotgun and a chainsaw, but it'll do.



Obviously, this was a half hour fight with an octopus wherein Rosa fired no fewer than 150 arrows. My offense will get better, I promise! With that done, I get a bow upgrade (crossbow) in Damcyan, as well as 20 holy arrows, which will be saved for now, and storebought later.

A quick trip to Kaipo to restock arrows (bought 4 stacks), and it's off to the antlion den. This dungeon is completely inconsequential enemy and treasure wise, I ran from randoms here to conserve ammo.



The antlion counters physicals with counter horn, which does kinda sting as you can see. I'm drowning in healing options though, so this is more annoyance than real threat. 30 arrows and the odd prayer later, he is toast.

(continued in next post)

An amusing side effect of using game genie to play through the game solo, means you sometime get amusing scenes like this, where Rosa saves Rosa from the desert fever. (No, there won't be lesbian kissing scenes later, get your mind of out the gutter)

Mt hobs is where Rosa starts to look pretty decent. With two exceptions, the enemies are all floating (one shot kill from a bow) or undead (mass cura = instant win). One such enemy is the spirit, which I'll get my revenge on soon enough, and the bombs, which unfortunately make up the meat of the next boss fight.

The first phase is simple enough, fire away until it grows, heal up, and defend for the explosion. When it splits into 6, things get a little more interesting. The bombs use self destruct on their third turn, and the way their speed lines up, the 3 grey bombs will all use it in sequence and kill Rosa outright. Thankfully, the damage is their remaining HP, so one holy arrow fired into each bomb is enough to mitigate the damage to barely surviveable. Rosa heals up with Cura, tanks the much weaker regular bombs' self destruction, and Done.

Fabul battles are easy, shoot arrows, heal if needed. Rosa reached lv18 here and learned Esuna,which cures all negative status.

In Mysida, Rosa gets some nice equipment upgrades. A Wizard cap, Gaia Gear, Heal staff for infinite cure spells, and most importantly Holy Arrows, which are good throughout the entire game. I buy 5 stacks for now, and will get more later as needed.



Here they are in action against the afore mentioned Spirit enemy, which while not undead, is weak to Holy. Yeah, I'm hitting 4 digit damage against weaknesses already. niiiiiiiiice. Everything else on the mountain aside from these guys and their stronger older brothers, the Soul, are undead and fall quickly to Cura.



There go Scarmiglione's minions, the rest of the fight is a holy arrow / Cura as needed affair. Sadly, he's not weak to holy, so this took about 50 arrows and around 10 curas. I could have saved myself some healing by only killing 3 of the Revenants (the boss's battle script isn't activated until they're all gone, but he still counters everything with Thunder), but I didn't think of this until after the fact. Oh well.



His second form, despite having higher defense than the trash enemies on the mountain, fares even worse. I don't even care that I'm poisoned. Rosa learns berserk at lv20, which is a straight up death sentence if I use it on myself. Don't do that!

Before going into Baron proper, having learned from my previous mistake with Edge, I head to mist first and snag a gold hairpin, which will be my best casting helmet until pretty much endgame.



I died to these guards once- they counter physicals with mini, making their physicals one shot squishy 'ol Rosa. Hold paralyses them and alleviates this problem. In the interest of preserving my sanity, Cecil enters the party for the Yang fight- I am not fighting a 65535 HP Monk 50 damage at a time, firing literally thousands of arrows and untold amounts of cure spells. This fight is just broken for solo characters who aren't Cecil, as the battle is scripted to end after one attack from him after Yang has kicked the party twice.

I buy a twist headband and kenpogi in Baron, for strength and agility boosts, nearly doubling the damage from my physicals. I ran from everything in the secret sewer cave, though I had one verrry close call:



Back attacks are super scary playing as a solo white mage. I will die often from these later in the playthrough, but here I escaped by the skin of my teeth.

Baigan was another fight I died on once- the left arm casts hold, which paralyses Rosa, and that inevitably leads to a gameover. On the second attempt, I focused my attacks on that arm first, killing it, weakening the right arm (it self destructs when baigan is killed) and from there... you guessed it, arrows and healing as needed. Rosa gained a level, learning blink at lv23. Her speed is nowhere near as good as Edge, so I won't be able to straight up null physicals for the entire game like I did there, but it still has good use at times.

Next up, I faced my first real roadblock and the reason I'm typing up this report nearly 3 weeks later than I figured I would be:



Cagnazzo is not a difficult boss by any means, but when he's near death (under 1000 HP or so by my estimate) he does this. And ONLY this. until his HP's over that threshold, where he goes back to his regular attack pattern. If he falls below that point again? You guessed it, more infinite healing for 530 a Pop. Rosa's arrows hit for 200 on a good roll, 400 on a crit. Even with haste and slow, I still only get double turns on the boss which means my solutions were:

1- Gamble on something like 20 straight critical hits. Frankly, I probably would have better chances winning a lottery
2- Grind to some stupid high level where I can actually outdamage this with my weak (by attack power) weapon, or possibly even to Holy (lv55).
3- Think of something else.

In the interest of my sanity and not savescumming, 1 is out. In the interest of not ruining the remaining 3/4ths of the game, 2 is out. So, after a break of about a week, I looked through enemy drop tables and found that the Hydra enemies in the baron cave can drop poison arrows (much higher attack power) in stacks of 10 at a something like 1 in 64 chance.



After about an hour of resetting every 5 battles or so if I didn't get the drop (prevent my level from increasing too much) I got the wanted item. The result? Rosa's arrows hit for 300 on a good roll, which while barely enough to overcome the boss's healing, 10 shots won't do it. But if even one of those shots does critical damage (650+) it'll work. Three tries at the boss later, and I finally won out, without having grinded any levels after my victory over Baigan. Sweet!

(continued in next post)

With the airship, there's some useful things to collect. A mithril staff from mithril for infinite esuna, treasures from eblan including 10 mute arrows which I can't buy for some time, but I'll put to good use soon enough (the nasty chest battles were won by using an hourglass to stop all the monsters), a Great Bow bought from Troia, and a full stack each of fire, ice, and thunder arrows. You know, two of those arrow types would have been really good to have had for Cagnazzo...... I checked drop tables for these first, obviously. No dice from any early game monsters : (



The magnet cave is normally a horrible dungeon since you can't use your standard weapons, but Rosa just laughs at it. For the nastier enemies that aren't one-shot by holy arrows as seen above, the Hold spell carries the day. Rosa learned confuse at lv24, which I'm not sure I used in this playthrough or not.



The Dark Elf is also weak to Holy Arrows. This ends for him about as well as you'd expect.

In the tower of Zot, about half the enemies are weak to Fire. Fire arrows kill them obviously. Hold is good for enemies who aren't weak to fire. Groups with 4 or more enemies are death for Rosa even at full health, so I start running from those at this point.



The Magus sisters are Mage type enemies, naturally, which Mute Arrows straight up destroy, I didn't even use all ten of them to win this battle.

Here I must point out that you need to unequip Rosa before the Tellah related cutscene. If you don't, all her stuff will be replaced by a lone Prisoner's wear and that's no good.

Barbariccia is a fight that as has been mentioned, is also broken for most solo characters. Rosa luckily isn't one of them, though the fight is by no means a cakewalk. Rosa's aim can bypass the tornado form's evasion, though it doesn't knock her out of the spin, unfortunately. Also, the boss is so fast that I can't get a slow off before the tornado activates, meaning I have to deal with the boss at full speed. Using a hermes sandals on Rosa offsets this enough to allow me the odd turn to attack.

The boss' AI has a very simple cycle: Tornado (sets character to single digit HP) and Ray (inflicts gradual petrify) as a double turn, physical attack. Repeated endlessly.

Naturally, what I did was keep blink up forever, cast esuna every 3rd Ray, and fire arrows on free turns. No weakness, so this was a long fight, about 20 minutes or so.

The strategy is pretty straightforward, but requires some focus not to mess up which action you need to perform to not die instantly- In the GBA version it's hard to tell how many times you've been hit with gradual petrify (4 stones the character, killing them). I did screw up a few times, either not having blink or counting the Ray attacks wrong, but eventually won out:



Next there's some dolls in the Dwarf castle. If you kill a set of identical dolls, the boss can form the bigger doll. Rosa can't beat the big doll solo without Holy, it seems- eventually the boss claims to have "run out of power" and the fight starts all over again, Rosa cannot deal enough damage to prevent this.



So, unlike Edge, Rosa will win the fight by killing all the smaller dolls, instead of fighting the larger one. A mass slow is a must here- the dolls hit pretty hard. Blink is pointless as there's six of them, so a lot of healing is needed until a couple of them go down. As you can see, you just have to alternate which color doll you kill throughout the fight. The blue dolls have more HP but the red dolls are faster. So for the last two, critically injure the blue so one attack will kill it, wait until after it attacks to kill the red, and you should have double turns on the blues, so kill it with your next shot. Bam, done.



Rosa is one of three characters targetted by the Shadow Dragon's instant death, so Cecil is a must in the party for this fight to not be unwinnable.



Naturally, after reviving Rosa, Cecil and Rydia commit honorable seppuku in the interest of a somewhat fair fight for poor ol Golbez...



...who is pretty weak against fire attacks.

-----


I'll type up the rest of this solo report tomorrow, there's social activity a callin'!!!

Good on ya for doin this. I did a *TON* of FFV solo single class games because of Sulla. Loved reading through all his stuff.

Thanks buddy! I plan on doing every character at some point. yeah, sulla's ffv stuff is fun reads.

--------------------------------------------------------

I the dwarf castle, I pick up a rune armlet, a black belt, and a stack of dark arrows for the few enemies I can't hit a weakness on. There aren't too many of them, ice arrows hit a weakness on nearly everything in the undergroud. On my way to, up ascending, the tower of Babil, Rosa got new spells;

Curaga and Mini at lv30 (only healing spell I'll ever need until end of the game, and something I never use)
Dispel at lv31 (situationally useful)
Haste at lv33 (the other best spell in the game)
Float at lv35 (situationally useful)
Reflect at lv36 (very useful)

I also scored a drop of Medusa arrows from a random encounter. They have no attack power, no elemental damage boost, and a very low chance to instakill enemies vulnerable to it. I never end up using them.

I pick up a Green beret in the tower, which has a +3 speed boost on it. Cool. For the record, I am, and have been, using the light armors on Rosa, rather than the casting stuff- her spirit is high enough, and I could really use the boost to my arrow damage.

At the end of the dungeon, there's a fight with the evil doctor. Him and Barnabas (and him again in the refight) are considered machine type enemies. While they aren't weak to thunder, thunder arrows are the choice here as they do bonus damage to machine-types.



I forgot about this on my first battle. Barnabas Z will appear if you kill Barnabas first, and does this on his third turn, always. Obviously, Rosa can't have this guy appear, thats a game over. If you kill the Doctor first, regular Barnabas also self destructs- so, I had to whittle Barnabas' HP down to where my next arrow would kill him, and then kill the doctor.



That is a much more manageable SD to take.

The second fight, I ran into another problem which had me stumped for a few days:



That Laser attack is a one shot KO. It's damage is based on the doctor's remaining HP, and Rosa simply can't damage him enough before he uses it to mitigate the damage to something survivable. So now, I'm faced with the possibility of having to grind again, either for a higher max HP or Holy.



Or so I thought. Turns out I had the solution from the get go. I had to laugh when I saw this spell turn a boss fight that was driving me insane into an unlosable circus show, the doctor continually trying to use his attacks on me, but every single one being reflected back onto him. Good to know Reflect works on things outside the 'normal' magic spell sets, but I'm sure this will never be useful again (spoilers: it will be almost gamebreakingly useful).

Now, it's the cave of Eblan, and the upper floors of Babil. Rosa gained 2 levels and got Curaja at lv38. It's more healing than I need, since curaga is a full heal and then some right now.



It's a great attack spell against undead though! this is another dungeon where Rosa is just cruising. For enemies I can't do this to,



There's always elemental arrows, I'm using Holy ones in this screenshot. They hit a weakness on most enemies in this part of the tower.



I run into a brick wall known as Rubicante at the top, This is Rosa, getting one shot KOed at full health, with the highest mdef equipment I have. Glare can't be reflected, and I can't wear any gear that reduces fire damage. The damage it does varies considerably, I've seen anywhere between 800 and 2000 damage. I had to grind out two levels to survive the move reliably, I was lv44 on my successful attempt.

Naturally, I'm using ice arrows for this battle- unfortunately rubi counters attacks with a weak fira spell. While this is normally a mild nuisance at best, as Rosa solo, even with haste and slow, it's not possible for me to both attack the boss and be a full health when he gets to the glare part of his pattern. I fixed this by reflecting both myself and the boss, and bouncing curagas off the boss to heal up after glare. Also, for some reason I'm not entirely sure of, his reflected fira spells actually damage him instead of being absorbed. Wierd, but I'm not complaining at the extra damage. The fight was a long tense one, but I obviously won eventually, after a few tries. Rosa got Arise at lv45, which is a spell I have no use for playing solo.

(continued in next post)

Now it's time to collect some stuff in the underworld. First order of business is to buy 5 stacks of mute arrows from the dwarf town whose name eludes me. Next it's a quick pit stop at the sylph cave to grab an elven bow, which will be obsolete in exactly five minutes. I honestly don't know why I even bothered- I guess the bow casts shell when used as an item, but like Protect, it seems to be bugged in this version. I ran from all the encounters here.



This is a nice advantage Rosa has for these two optional dungeons, which I'm going to miss in upcoming playthroughs. no damage floor! I fought encounters in the eidolon cave, everything has an exploitable arrow weakness of some sort- in some cases a double weakness. This is another dungeon where Rosa wrecks face. Back attacks are instant game over here though, I died a couple times on the way to the town. Picked up a yoichi's bow and 10 yoichi arrows from chests, and bought 3 stacks of angel arrows, which have bonus damage on giant type enemies.

For fun I fought Asura and Leviathan. Here's a video for the Asura fight, with a barrage of mute arrows ripping her a new one:

https://www.youtube....h?v=r8lk5KqrjXc

Leviathan I fought exactly like rubicante, though the fight was a lot easier. His attack pattern is tidal wave (1/4th of char's max HP) / blizzara / blizzara / repeat. Every three cycles I would have to bounce a curaga off the boss to heal up. Apart from that, just lots of thunder arrows.

Now it's off to the Sealed cave, and the hated doors that gave me a rough go as Edge.



Rosa just doesn't give any fucks. As revenge for my last playthrough, I mercilessly have every door in the dungeon kill itself.



The regular enemies fare no better. they are all either floating, weak to holy, giant type, or some combination of those. Arrows one shot everything - except the chimera brains, but I didn't get any encounters featuring them. Lucky me! This is another area Rosa is excelling at- I think I've said that about the last 4 or 5 areas now. once you start getting good buff/debuff spells and a wide variety of arrows, Rosa actually has quite a lot going for her it seems.



Including Holy, which is learned at lv55. I got this on the second last trapdoor, and at this point will no longer be fighting randoms for the rest of the game, in the interest of keeping my level at about endgame for a full party, and nothing more. To beat the boss, I used slow/haste as always, followed by 2 castings of Holy, a gold needle (he counters magic with a gradual petrify move), and 3 more Holies, killing it.

Just to see if I could win had I shown up at a lower level, I tried fighting the wall without using Holy. I was able to do about 15k damage using the ten yoichi arrows I had plus a couple angel arrows before the game over barrage that is Crush.

Some plot stuff and escaping happens and before long Rosa is inside a Giant fighting the 4 archfiends. No video this playthrough, the fight was quite long. Went in wearing mdef optimized gear. Against Scarmiglione, naturally after the usual slow/haste, casting Curajas on him was the offense, Curagas/Esunas (for Curse) on Rosa as needed. Ice arrows were fired at rubicante, using curaga as needed- I did try a mute arrow at first as he's a mage type enemy, and while it did the bonus damage, the ice arrow still did more damage overall. Not sure why this is as the mute arrow has much more attack power. Maybe enemies can be "weak" or "super weak" to elements, or somesuch. Used an elixir at this point of the fight to replenish MP. Cagnazzo was fought identical to rubicante, but sub "thunder" for "ice" in the arrow of choice.



Barbariccia is weak to Holy. But, due to the way her attack pattern goes, it's better to keep up blink rather than heal after tornado / maelstrom. 3 of these and she is toasts. By the way, I hope you enjoyed the Holies, they're never useful again in this playthrough, despite usually being hyped as the white mage's best spell.




The CPU is the game's easiest boss once you figure out what to do. Kill the defense node so it won't heal, and then focus on the core. The only attack you'll evr see this way is a laser beam that always does exactly 1 / 10th of your max HP. A level 1 naked Cid could solo this fight, with enough potions in the inventory. I'm never talking about this boss again in future playthroughs, just assume it spontaneously combusts when the chosen hero walks into the room.

(continued in next post)

It's officially endgame now. All my spare gil is spent on Elixirs from the Hummingway shop.

In the lunar core, I pick up a Sage's staff from a chest, 2 stacks of 10 artemis arrows, also from a chest. Going deeper, I pick up a protect ring, a white robe that I'll never use, and fight a chest battle (won by using an hourglass) for Minerva's Plate. While this really lowers magic related stats, the +15 speed is way too good to pass up on for slow 'ol Rosa, and I already said I wont be castin any more holies. I also got a stack of 10 artemis arrows to drop from this very same encounter, while nice, the 20 I have is already more than enough for the one fight where I'll use them.

https://www.youtube....h?v=WG0dTeOUSUc

Artemis arrows do bonus damage to Dragon type enemies. While these lunasaurs are clearly very dangerous, the fact that I can kill them in 4 shots each make this fight more than manageable. Rosa picks up a ribbon, rounding out the set of final equipment. I ignore every other chest / optional boss in here, as they aren't needed. I died a couple times on the way to Zeromus, the Evil Mask enemies, even outside of a back attack, are an instant gameover for me at my current max HP.

So, here's the final stats and equips for this playthrough:





Note the agility would be 28 without Minerva's Plate, which would not go over well in the final battle. I am using the sage's staff here, as I won't be using arrows against Zeromus.



I also won't be using Holy, as that is suicidal. He counters with Whirl, which is not reflectable, and reduces the character to single digit HP. This, combined with the HP leak from big bang, is an instant loss.

So, I'm not casting holy. I'm not shooting arrows. How am I going to damage the boss?



Well I'm not. Actually, I feel so bad for him having to look so hideous, that I'm actually just going to try to heal him instead.



Zeromus does not appreciate my kindness, and casts flare. Luckily, Rosa is not dumb and has reflect up.



The spell reflects on Zeromus dealing acceptable damage.

The final boss has three phases with a different attack pattern each.

Pattern 1-> Charging, Big Bang, Black Hole, Charging, Big Bang, Black Hole, Charging, Big Bang, Bio, Black Hole

Despite the pattern beginning with a charge, it's better to think of it as beginning with Black Hole. This just makes the fight flow more naturally as you carry out your actions.

This is the easy part of the fight. Open the fight with reflect before casting slow (he counters slow with a flare also). After you eat the Big Bang, wait until Black Hole dispels your reflect to cast curaga to heal, the put the reflect back up.



When bio comes around on the 3rd cycle, reflect is still up.



It doesn't damage him as much as flare, but every little bit helps.

Repeat this until he falls under 16,000 HP where he invisibly full heals himself. I skipped the second half of this battle with Edge, but I'm not doing enough damage this time around for that, so now I have to deal with it.

Pattern 2-> Black hole, Flare, Charging, Big Bang, Charging, Big Bang

Argh, that Flare right after Black Hole ruins the smooth sailing of pattern one. This is where you have to actually pay attention. Unless you're straight up drowning in Elixirs, I'd estimate at least 25 (I wasn't) you are going to have to bounce curagas off the boss to heal yourself in between big bangs. Black Hole doesn't dispel the reflect you place on Zeromus though, so it can be tough knowing if it's there or not. After a few cycles of this pattern, I eventually settled into doing the following; putting reflect up immediately after black hole so I don't die to Flare. Bouncing reflect off my reflect to apply it to the boss, followed by reflecting a curaga off the boss to heal prior to big bang. Reflecting another curaga off the boss to heal before the second big bang. Bouncing 2 reflected cures of myself onto the boss, triggering the reflected flare counter attack, actually dealing damage before he gets to the black hole, eating the second big bang on the way, and the pattern repeats- however, substituting a reflected curaga with an elixir if Rosa's MP was low.

A little on the convoluted side to be sure, but it worked. After about a half hour of fighting, he dropped under 12K HP and activated pattern 3, which is Meteo over and over again. Zeromus' Meteo, for some reason, is absurdly weak, never exceeding 800 damage. Rosa just reflects his counterflare until victory at this point.



didn't make a video for this fight due to how long it was, but that should sum things up nicely.

In closing, Rosa is a pretty damn good character overall. Lack of speed hurts a bit, but with infinite access to slow and haste this is almost a non issue. Holy is a little overrated, while good use of the buff / debuff spells can carry you through most fights. Arrows are not bad at all with Aim, especially when exploiting weaknesses. Obviously, there were a couple rough spots this time around (Cagnazzo, Rubicante, Zeromus) but with the right strategy, often getting convoluted with reflected stuff, it's more than doable.

Tune in next week when a dragoon makes a mockery of absolutely everything ever!

Jackimus, on 28 November 2014 - 02:40 PM, said:

Oh man, I was waiting for the FFIV Freya solo!

KAIN

Kain is a dragoon. He jumps on guys and doesn't afraid of anything. The end.

....

No? I have to actually type this whole thing out? Fine then. Here's the starting stuff, as per usual.





Kain is a slightly above average speedwise, high on HP defense and attack, crap at magic kinda guy. He can use daggers, swords, and spears; and both the heavy and light armour sets. Incidentally, get used to the gear setup in the above photo- there's nothing better for Kain until about a quarter through the game.



Spears, incidentally, deal "throw" elemental damage, which as we've seen in past playthroughs, generally wrecks flying enemies among others.



Kain's special skill is jump. It's a two turn move- the first turn, Kain is hidden invincibly offscreen, the second turn he lands for double damage. Something that will be important is that in this game, unlike later games in the series, you can use weapons other than spears and get the damage boost from using Jump. Jump, apart from Aim as seen with Rosa, also is one of the few ways to use backrow physicals effectively. Here's jump used to kill an easy first boss. I don't need to say anything else, because even in a non solo playthrough, Kain basically does all the work in this fight while Cecil swings his sword with only moderate effect.

In Kaipo, I buy a stack of potions for a lack of anything better to spend my money on. With Kain's relatively high defense, there are few enemies right now that deal more than 1 damage, but they'll be useful in boss fights and such.



You see? I couldn't just mash a through this one, the odd potion was needed.



Jump doesn't trigger the Antlion's counter horn, which is his only attack of note. He's about as threatening as a snickers bar.



Here's the main reason why Jump is so absurd in this game. Despite the fact that spamming it only places Kain invulnerably in the air half the time, all enemies in this game follow strict attack patterns- there's no random chance like in later entries to the series. Here, it's predictable that the bombs self destruct on their third turn. With Kain in midair, they explode harmlessly and the fight is won effortlessly, as many more to come will be.

HOLD A TO CHARGE YOUR LASER SAVE FABUL.



On the way to Mt Ordeals, I got this drop from a Zu, which is pretty nice. Kain doesn't especially need it, but I can think of other characters I may end up having to do stupid things like grind for a bunch of this drop for. We'll see. Also, what else am I really going to talk about? Holding A wins randoms with little fuss right now.

That said, Kain ignored randoms on Mt Ordeals- they are all large groups and take too long to wipe out.



Here's one of the game's attack items in action as I havent had a place worth showing these off yet. They ignore the characters' magic stats and do set damage, and can be situationally useful as seen here. 2 of these bomb fragments has the skullnants all within one regular attack of death. three turns later,



The fight is more than manageable. Scarmiglione still counters my damage with a thunder spell, but with a stack of potions there's nothing to fear here.



Hanging out on the back row and jumping, the undead Scarmiglione is even easier.



That said, I am a lazy bastard and toss an xpotion at him, significantly shortening the fight.



Oh look, it's an equipment upgrade... am I a quarter done of this playthrough already?

(continued in next post)

Against the Baron guards, Jump one shots them easily armed with a dancing dagger, meaning no mini counter attacks and an easy fight.

Like with Rosa, I bring Cecil in for the Yang fight. It's just straight up a mess for solo characters who aren't Cecil, and half hour fights with no threat of losing are boring. Skip that stuff.

Finally bought some equipment upgrades- a twist headband and kenpogi. They are technically inferiour to my iron gear in defense stats, but they boost my offense, and on a character who'll rarely be out of the back row, that is fine.

mashed a in the waterway. Kain gained some levels or something, I dunno.



The only notes I took for the Baigan fight were "the screenshot should be enough". So, uh, there's how I beat Baigan.

Cagnazzo is still a prick.



I mean, Kain never took a single point of damage this fight as you can see, but his endless self healing was still something that had to be overcome. In the end, I needed to use a spider silk once he was in healing mode, a hermes sandals, and a bacchus wine to berserk Kain, boosting his attack power. This was enough to get by.

At this point, I really should point out that hermes sandals are limited items in this game. This wasn't an issue in past playthroughs as both Edge (masamune) and Rosa (spells) had access to haste. They are crazy valuable, don't use them unless it's completely necessary, as was the case here (minus grinding levels, but why even bother? game's a joke enough as Kain as is.)

Usual airship cleanup- buying a full set of mythril gear, despite the fact that Kain never once ended up equipping the armour or helmet, and looting Eblan (using hourglasses for the chest battles). Of note, the Sleep sword found here is the strongest weapon available at the moment, and the Blood Lance is garbage, don't use it.

If there haven't been many screenshots this post, it's cause I wasn't bothering taking any at this section of the game. I apologise.

Kain stripped naked and ran from everything in the magnetic cave (all his weapons are metallic). Against the dark elf, a ruby ring to null pig, and timing jumps to avoid the tornado spell make the fight a breeze. With Kain on the backrow, the usually more dangerous dragon form was hitting pathetic double digit damage, Kain won yet another fight without ever healing though he actually took some damage this time.

Picked up a fire shield and flamesword in zot. Mashed a on front row vs Magus sisters, starting with the center one as is the tradition.

Barbariccia, who was a problem in both previous runs, was a total joke- naturally, since Kain's Jump is her weakness. Just wait to command Kain to jump until you see her enter the tornado, and you won't see anything other than a very weak physical counter attack all fight- you're on the back row, naturally, and won't even take a full 100 hp of damage.

The dolls may as well not be there, take em out individually with back row jumps, front row physicals on the last two of opposing colour (so they cant unite- like with Rosa, Kain solo can't quite deal enough damage to beat this boss before the "out of power" message and the fight starting over)

Kain is one of three characters targetted by Golbez's Shadow Dragon, so you have to add Cecil to the party-



Oh wait, nevermind. Just jump the whole cutscene. Rydia kills herself upon entering the battle.



Then Kain lands, ending the fight in one attack (firesword + jump + weakness to fire + low HP= probably the only OHKO on a boss I'll get in any of these solo runs)

Bought a flame lance which is a mild upgrade over the flame sword, a flame mail which I also think Kain never actually used, got a power ring and black belt out of chests which Kain constantly used, and a dwarf axe, which is supposed to be a same damage from backrow weapon, but we know by now those are all bugged in the GBA port.



In the interest of trying to say more than JUMP = INSTANT WIN, here's the flame lance being used as an item. This is useful exactly never.



The icelance picked up in the tower has exactly one use as an item, and it's this formation I'm fighting right now. Still, it's a high attack ice element weapon and a staple for Kain for quite some time.



In continuing the pattern of nice drops that I don't need, here's a weapon with the same attack power as the ice lance. If I got this in a Cecil run, that would have been swell. Kain doesn't care though.



Kill Barnabas with backrow jumps, then time a jump to dodge Z's self destruct.



Equip prisoner's wear so you can't be put to sleep by counter attacks, and time your jump to avoid laser, the only threatening move in this fight.

(continued in next post)

Kain isn't exactly overlevelled compared to previous playthroughs, but I just feel overpowered and started running from randoms at this point for a few dungeons. Picked up a Blood sword in Eblan (it's crap) and an Ogrekiller (nice weapon- but Kain doesn't really care as I'm ignoring randoms).

Some stuff happens, and then I fight Rubicante. He's a tough boss, and will probably, finally give me a good...



oh.



.....ohhh.

Well, moving on then. Bought a full set of diamond gear in the dwarf town who's name STILL eludes me- Kain actually used this stuff, but not for it's defensive value. More on that later. Stopped by the land of Eidolons, buying an Aegis shield, which is going to be Kain's shield of choice until endgame, and getting the Defender sword out of a chest (using an hourglass to beat the nasty monsters inside). Incidentally- outside of a very rare drop and post game GBA only content, this is Kain's ultimate weapon. Crazy, I know. I didn't fight Asura or Leviathan this time because I'm lazy.



Kain also stopped by the blacksmith to get the Soma Drop treasure, because I need more MP for all those spells I keep casting.

Okay fine, I'll go deal with those awful doors in the sealed cave.



Honestly, did you really expect anything else at this point?

Several doors later, I remember that I forgot an important treasure in the sylph cave, so I backtrack there momentarily and toss an hourglass at some malboros, netting Kain the Avenger sword. It requires two hands, and looks terrible on paper, but it gives the user auto berserk and auto haste. Honestly, it will be a better overall DPS than Kain jumping with his strongest weapon, but then I both can't control Kain and can't avoid certain attacks.



That said, it's imperative to beat the evil wall before the gameover barrage that is endless Crush. Toss a spider silk, switch your weapon and pray- that's all you need.

Some more stuff happens, then Kain solos 4 archfiends:



Jumping with fire lance vs Scarmiglione...



With ice lance (and avoiding Glare) at Rubicante...



You really think Kain would have a Thunder elemental weapon, but he doesn't.



This is the only threatening move in this fight.

Before the CPU battle (which as mentioned is automatically won if you know what to do), Kain equips the diamond set and the ice lance which I no longer need. He mysteriously is wearing a set of genji gear and a gungnir after the events in the Giant, none of which I ever use...

In the Lunar core, Kain picks up the set of Dragon equipment- the shield's the only thing he'll use. The Holy Lance is Garbage, and the boss guarding it is nigh impossible for most solo characters, so I'll just go fight Zeromus already





Here's Kain's stats and equipment going into the final battle- most full party playthroughs will be considerably higher levels than this. Crazy.



This screenshot basically summarizes this whole playthrough.



Oh look, I actually got hit! Too bad Zeromus is a hit or two away from death. I'll just switch to the Avenger Sword...



...and,,,, game.

Basically, what this all comes down to, is the exploitable nature of the AI in terms of not a single mandatory boss uses two threatening moves back to back, plus Kain's jump = you win. The game is basically like playing a round or two of punchout at this point. The only thing holding Kain back in this game, shockingly enough, is the rest of the party. The fact that you can't ignore characters who are ready to act- you gotta command them before you can switch who you're controlling- means that in non-solo play, it's much tougher and at times outright impossible to have Kain avoid literally every single threatening enemy move in the game as seen here. Kain honestly goes from being "why is this guy even on the team" to "effortlessly solos everything" by virtue of being the only guy you have to command. He's not the best overall character- that honour still goes to Edge by a country mile- but Jump is a broken, broken, broken ability in (solo) FFIV.

There'll be another solo report in a week or two, just gotta decide who I'll play next.

CECIL

I know, I know. Tons of people have done a solo Cecil run (sulla, who I linked in the OP included), mainly cause it's the only one worth doing without game genie. This is just my take on it. It may or may not be different than others, I don't know- I didn't spoil anything for me (outside of existing metagame knowledge, but yeah).





Cecil has two character classes. He starts the game as a Dark Knight, who has good strength and agility, above average defense, and awful casting stats (obviously). He can only wear dark knight exclusive gear, which comes in 3 tiers; Dark, Hades and Demon. That's it. Considering these peak out a fifth into the game, it's a good thing he changes class, soloing the game as a dark knight would likely involve grinding to lv99 and no fun.



The dark knights special ability, dark wave, hits everything on the screen with a physical attack at a cost of 1/8th Cecil's max hp. It's also back row compatible, which I found out by accident when this pack of goblins ambushed me outside Mysidia a little later in the run. Would have been useful knowledge earlier, but meh. Frankly it is a very good ability, and the main strength of the class. Random encounters are told to kindly go to hell, at the cost of a potion used outside battle afterward.



Like always, the Mist dragon is a joke, it hits Cecil for 1 damage. It is not going to live long enough to attack me 200 times.



Cecil fights this battle solo in vanilla also, nothing to see here. Picked up a stack of potions in Kaipo.

In the waterway, Cecil reached lv13 getting an attack multiplier- this affects Dark Wave too. Great!



Cecil's sword does Darkness damage, which the undead are effectively immune to.



If you luck out a critical hit however, the sword will work. That said, it's still better just to run from the zombies for now.



Some not insignificant equipment upgrades found in chests here. The stronger sword, also affects Dark Wave's damage.



The octomamm is weak to Dark, and hits single digits on Cecil. This fight was so onesided, the boss still had 3 tentacles left when it died. I didn't even get the usual message from tellah when it's almost dead.



On my way to the antlion den, I got this drop from a pack of Goblins. Verrry nice.



The antlion's counterattack hurts a bit.



That said, I am a gamblor and refused to heal. It was close though.

Ran from everything on Mt Hobs, undead are not fun for a dark knight to fight. The spirit/soul enemies are not considered undead though, and dark swords work. I didnt get any formations with them exclusively though, so whatever.

The mombomb is also weak to dark, doesn't take long before it gets ready to explode. heal up, defend and the second half of the fight begins.



Here's where it would have been nice to know Dark Wave is backrow OK. While this oneshots the regular bombs, the greys hit like trucks right now.



Luckily, I have hourglasses. That said, had I fought this in the backrow this wouldn't have been necessary. Oh well.

HOLD A TO SAVE FABUL like always, bought a full set of demon gear, got the shield from a chest, and the deathbringer from the King.



this is the Dark Knight's ultimate equipment setup.



Of note, the Deathbringer has a very high chance to proc instant death on enemies you don't outright one shot anyway. A nice little boost. Bought some hipotions from mysida, and due to metagame knowledge the set of paladin gear- minus the armour which I was too poor to afford at the time. cecil ran from all the undead on Mt Ordeals.



Here's Cecils final stats as a Dark Knight, before fighting Scarmiglione.



Opened the fight by oneshotting 3 of his goons with hipotions,



From there it's the usual attack, heal the thunder spell counters as needed.



Scarmiglione despite being undead is vulnerable to Cecil's Dark Swords. A couple hipotions as needed and that's it. Cecil becomes a Paladin

(continued in next post)