Sign in to follow this  
Nowea

Nowea Hard Type

83 posts in this topic

Got the Falcon. After the nightmare I just went through, everything here was a breeze. Only death was b/c I decided to play around with the Tentacles. (Double speed with lots of enemies is honestly somewhat scary. Most of my trouble was me dorking around with elemental attacks though).

Places

Spoiler

 

Burning House: Kusarigama + Black Belt swept this place real easy.

Serpent Trench: Drain Weapons (Blood Sword and Ocean Claws) + Black Belt + Zombie immunity (Seraph and Spirit Ring) handled everything. Blood Sword + Black Belt felt very important for the brief Celes solo portion, lest she get killed before she can do anything.

Phunbaba: Same as above. Phunbaba's fast enough that I had to actually use some healing and buffs (Haste). Gasp!

Figaro Cave/Castle: Kusarigama + Falchion + Black Belt Celes is probably the first time I've seen Celes actually kick butt in this portion of the game. Normally she's just sits around and casts Cure while Sabin does the heavy lifting. I even fought the Robot x3 encounter, something I normally flee from lest I eat a high damage Exploder. (Side note: Stray nulls the stupid Imp status of the Robots and Humpties).

Tentacles: I berserked Celes (Kusarigama only). That's a strategy I've never seen before. Oh, also tried to really, really memorize which Tentacle is weak to what. If it isn't obvious, I gave up on that and just berserked Celes.

Daryl's Tomb: Flametongue + Fire Claws + Fire Lance = killing the undead for good. Tried a Cover + Counter + dual-wield Fire Lance strategy for an alternative dps to Jump; a couple of Orogs put an end to that real quickly.

Chesticle: Kusarigama Celes did the most damage. That's a first.

Dullahan: Died under an onslaught of Flametongue + Fire Claws. Edgar & Setzer ran healing.

Shopping: I'm swimming in GP b/c I'm not buying stuff I'd normally buy. (Full set of status immunity relics, full stock of items, actually thinking about my purchases and selling old equipment, etc). Don't have enough for Crystal equipment though.

 

Characters

Spoiler

Celes - So far, I'm satisfied with the new Paladin Celes. She does good damage, she's got Cure, and she's got decent HP and defenses. Next up is playing with the new Rune Edge and Leo's Crest. ^ _ ^ Honestly, I should've tried Cover + Counter in Daryl's Tomb as an alternative to Power Glove + Black Belt. Otoh, I would've had to take off the Mystery Veil for actual defense (Genji Helm), so I don't think it would've really helped her dps. Sides, it was easy peasy anyways, so w/e.

Edgar - No one here is in any danger of dying from physicals except fools who try to face-tank lots of physicals without a shield. : / I'm worried Unicorn Edgar is gonna drop off at this point. He could prove useful if the team is running 2 frail characters with no Image support. Without the Gungnir though, I doubt he'll be able to both Cover safely and Counter fish while two-handing for decent damage. : / I've given him some Palidor ELs so that he's not totally specialized in Unicorn. Probably should've given him Siren instead, since this build is more of a support build anyways. (Which now makes me curious as to how a 10 Unicorn / 10 Siren build turns out. Basically mag Edgar with a side of Cover. Might honestly be a better idea than what I'm here).

Setzer - Seraph Setzer is best Setzer. I'll go Owzer's first so that I can start building stamina, but I don't think I'll esper reset away those 10 Seraph ELs. For one, GP Toss is ultra powerful now. For two, I saw Anima Zero running stam Setzer without GP Toss, and want to try it for myself.

Nothings set in stone, but I think the first things I do in the WoR after my initial sweep of everything is to clear Owzer's Mansion, then get Cyan and clear his Soul, and then finish up Narshe. The first to Strago, Relm, and Starlet. Second and third are so that I can esper reset asap - former to use Phantom Celes & vig Cyan (both with lots of Alex), latter to use Terrato Sabin. Oh, and I'll start using Gau and Mog now that I have Fenrir and Palidor.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

!R(GJ2F!@FQ@#TN!(TR!G

SINCE WHEN WAS PHUNBABA THIS STRONG!!!!!!

In the end, I only beat him using kaizo strats (aka, save states). Part of my problem was learning the hard way that BTB recently changed Phunbaba's script to favor an all-in offensive tactic. But...the other half of the problem is that Phunbaba is a luck-based fight at fair levels. : / I had to luck-out with the glitched Hurricane that only blows away one party member, leaving me a full team for Phunbaba. I also had to get lucky with how often Phunbaba attacked Terra, since Fire 2 - didn't have Fire 3 b/c underleveled, : ( - was my best offense, with Bum Rush in second. Also had to get lucky in who was kept after Hurricane, esp. for any poor unfortunate soul who tries to do this without the "Randomly keep 3 party members"  glitch.

Phunbaba, alongside Hell Angel & Soul Train, have been the only battles so far that I felt have been totally and completely luck-based. Everything else has been beatable with the correct strategy, even Dadaluma and Atma.

Whelp, now I can finish sweeping the WoR before going into Owzer's.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

"OK, I have Gau now, let's use the new 'Leap Anywhere' function to quickly & easily grab all but a few Rages, plus steal me a Magic Bone for his physical offense"

* 50 Game Overs later *

OK, treat everything like a full-fledged mini-boss or boss fight, especially Colossus. Be prepared to run whenever a Phoenix Cave fight turn south b/c my lvl.20 team cannot win these fights with bad luck. Punishers wreck face now, why do they wreck face now?

>_<

It's nothing I can't handle, but I'm going to have to treat the WoR with respect now if I'm too win smoothly (finally). It was my failure to respect NHT that got me killed. (Plz give us a mid-game Bone that isn't a rare steal in a late-WoR dungeon; that was annoying.)

Kinda worried about Unicorn Edgar though. Edgar's an unmatched tank in NHT, but his low vigor, speed, and stamina (Cover%) are all very noticeable. : / Definitely wouldn't go pure Unicorn in normal BNW, probably shoot for more 10/10 or 12/8 Unicorn:Siren. He does have unparalleled HP in NHT, but I'm not sure how well I can leverage that.

Also kinda worried about HP/MP Terra, but that may have just been me trying to use her at lvl.18 without respecting NHT. We'll see.

***

On a lighter note, I learned that Cover will, in fact, Cover allies on the other side of a pincer. I also got to witness Celes & Edgar both Cover the same attack (didn't pay attention to who took the damage). Fun stuffs. Cover seems more useful now that I've got actual HP & defenses, though for la-de-da-dolling along just collecting stuff, it was more just there rather than anything real serious.

OK, so, grab Mog, then do Owzer's. Going to have fun with the new Rune Edge + Falchion combo, plus old standards like Mogoon that I haven't played in a while. : )

Edited by thzfunnymzn

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This was going to be a post about how stupidly powerful Gau's Adamantite Rage is. 9999 damage to Inferno, cripples every Narshe encounter save for Hot Wheels + Low Rider and Nastidon x2, the latter of which is solved with Muddle anyways.

Instead, what happens? Right as I'm about to enter the doorway to Mog?

Pincer! Low Rider x2, Wizard x2. Attack, attack, Stop, Magic, Stop, Zombie, death. Couldn't even Warp out since Edgar is Stop'd right as I use a Warp Whistle.

- _ -

So, basically, Pincer = Game Over. I....I'm not sure if it's because I'm "underleveled" for the Narshe Mines or if this is just going to be a thing from now on. I'm going to go buy a Gale Hairpin & Back Guard (haven't bought those in years) and hope this is just a "Narshe Mines is meant for lvl.25 characters" thing. If this keeps up, though, I'll chalk it up as a 4th thing that needs to be looked after for NHT (alongside Hell Angel, Phunbaba, and Phantom Train).

Considering how much I'm relying on Gau's Adamantite Rage to carry me through the Narshe Mines, perhaps it is just an underleveled thing. Maybe NHT is hard enough to force the soft level barriers of the various dungeons. * shrug * We'll see.

Edited by thzfunnymzn

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

- _ -

Well, Owzer's clear. That was a lesson in humility. (vig Celes, vig Mog, vig Sabin, HP/MP Terra. Average finishing level of 22, except Celes at 24)

Chadarnook was simple. Bolt resistant gear, Terra's Cure 2 keeps everyone topped off, Celes & Sabin pound away, Mog Hastes and either Jumps or dances Blues. Simple stuff, just took quite a few rounds because of his HP.

No, the real threat here were the randoms. All encounters are 3, 4, or even 5 (!) buggers who open the fight with powerful physicals or AoEs. I count a handful of Game Overs.

  • One to the forced pincer in the painting in the basement (I tripped it on purpose). Or was it an unlucky pincer I got that wiped me right away? Might've been both. Think on one of them, there was nothing I could do. Just got straight up owned before I could input any command.
  • One to a Eagle x3, Atlasphere x2 opening. No back attack or nothing, just straight up "We attack first and roll Gale Cut x3, Starlight x2." I died, nothing I could do. Didn't even have poor gear or anything.
  • One to the mini-boss painting. I went in unprepared for SleepX, what does she do? SleepX, own me, SleepX right as I get up, Game Over me. HP/MP Terra's & Sabin's stamina stats weren't high enough to do anything.
  • One to the Maiden x3 guarding the basement. Tbf, this was more poor planning and "eh, it's not going my way, let's just reset and try again"

: /

The WoR is going to be smooth sailing funnyman. You keep telling yourself that.

Without severe overleveling to create a massive HP & damage buffer, it looks like Gale Hairpin + Back Guard + Ribbon + Muddle spam are going to be mandatory from here on out. Randoms just have too many dudes taking too many turns and hitting too blasted hard, or crippling me with nasty statuses. Turtling doesn't work; while I still need the HP to survive the attacks as well as status immunity, by and large, my only defense is killing & crippling my foes before they can do anything. I can't really rely on the stamina stats of my +1 stamina builds either: Edgar got owned by Stop plenty in the Narshe Mines, and stamina certainly didn't help Terra or Sabin against SleepX or Mute. (Mind you, they're +1 builds prior to having lots of good stamina+ gear, but then again, that's kinda part of my whole issue with trying to use stamina as a makeshift status relic anyways).

Three vigor dudes in Owzer's felt less like a "Easy mode, let's own this place" and more like a "Required team set-up just to survive". Without the dps from striking the low p.def of the foes here, I fear I may not've had the strength to punch through, even with Muddle spam.

I skipped the floating treasure chests because I feared for my life. I'll return to snag them when I'm stronger.

Mt. Zozo is next, after I level up Strago. I'm not looking forward to this, especially not to the Wind Dragon.

***

In more positive news:

Rune Edge Celes is great. Hits as hard as Sabin, but can actually take a hit. With her OHKO's and Cover/Counters, she was my dps MVP for this dungeon. : ' ) I'm so happy, vig Celes is finally a shining star. (Tbf, she was two levels ahead of everyone else). I stuck with Rune Edge + shield because I needed the defense here. Rune Edge + Falchion + Hyper Wrist was used on the mini-boss though.

Mogoon is Mogoon, except that the real shining star here was his statuses. While Terra also has Muddle, Mog's high speed (high starting ATB with the new patch) was a godsend for controlling randoms here. Easily the true MVP of the dungeon. Some battles, alls he did was spam Muddle. Because I was using a Thunderguard for Chadarnook, he spent most of the boss fight either setting Haste or dancing Blues. (Did I mention I like Haste Mog? I like Haste Mog). As per usual, Fire Lance was great for the plants & Trident was useful for the mini-boss.

Sabin did Sabin stuff, claws & Suplex. Didn't use Bum Rush, (though it'd probably have been just as effective as Spirit Claws vs Chadarnook anyways). Did summon Golem in the (mini-)boss fights, but that was about it. Actually less reliable for OHKOs than vig Celes (!), but still, it was Sabin.

Terra = Healbot. Boring, but practical. Also back-up Muddle user, so I guess she's strictly superior to Setzer in that regard. (Oh, and Break outdamaged a single-handed Mogoon vs Chadarnook, but w/e).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Lesson in humility: Please do "easy" and/or short WoR dungeons first with strong immediate rewards (Mt. Zozo, Gogo's Cave, Owzer's), rather than bull-charging to something hard like Yeti. >_<

***

Team: vig Mog (lvl.22 - 24); spd Gau (lvl.20 - 22); HP/MP Terra (lvl.22 - 25); mag Strago (lvl.20 - 22). Most definitely under-leveled, especially the two low HP dudes. Another level or two would've probably changed some OHKO's into 2HKO's.

This time, the randoms were simple, but the bosses were a doozy. The randoms here are all susceptible to very debilitating status effects (Stop, Death, Muddle), which my team has plenty of (Doomstick, Muddle x2, Antlion, Mute, Stop, Bad Breath). Gau & Strago dropped several times, hurting my Phoenix Down supply and further hurting Terra's MP, but overall, randoms in the ruined town / snowfields were simple.

Randoms in the Yeti Cave weren't real any stronger. Rasp / Rock were annoying, but again, status effects took control of the situation. Doomstick was replaced with Quartrstaff, since lots of stuff in here nulls Death.

Biggest issue was that such a long dungeon really hurt Terra's MP supply, even though I've given her 8 Carbunkl ELs. (Also difficulties staying Morphed in boss fights hurts her damage output, making her less MP efficient). I dipped into a handful of my Ether supply and even an X-Ether. I'm not proud of this, and really wish I had done Gogo's Cavern first so that I'd have Edgar for Mana Battery support. Otoh, Battery support can be done later, whereas I don't think Edgar would've helped at all for the Yeti fight.

Also, Gale Hairpin only gave me, like, 2-3 Pre-emptive strikes in this entire dungeon. Useless trinket. Oh well, I'm keeping Back Guard at least.

Side note: For 1.9, I had initially planned on having vig Mog run c(over)/c(ounter) Quartrstaff / Doomstick set-ups prior to finding Longinus and Gungnir. If he fails to proc, he'd still deal strong damage, so total win-win. Decided against it here because Nastidons & Cerberus hit way too hard to play around with c/c. Probably should've tried it in Yeti's Cave though. Oops.

***

Tritoch was, as usual annoying. Difference is that he's now fast enough to be dangerous. (Also, Thordain = death to Gau & Strago). I stuck to a Refract plan while Morph Terra whittled away at him with Fire 3 - used my first Ether for this fight. Mog had to Sun Bath a once or twice (failed it mostly), and I ultimately won with a few people eating dirt and zero MP left. Closest Tritoch fight I've ever had. Tbf, I think I could've improved my strat (and starting MP) to greatly smooth out the fight.

Tonberry's a jerk. First, I forget to set Mute, eating multiple Step Mines. - _ - Second, I learn the hard way that he un-Mutes everytime he returns to the back. - _ - Third, I learn that he's so fast that he'll Shank 4 times before I can revive anyone, so it's Conjurer (Rerise) or bust. - _ - Doesn't help that Shank can't be dodged via Image. Stupid. Kept a save state here to avoid walking back everytime I died.

Yeti................@$(TQGN# BN(JF@Q#$%H(Q#*G(UAV A(W*E)R(@#Q)(FVQG#$GNA(JU(SI*TW#$JNGV IW N(J$

I really should've gotten more levels (HP) before trying this. Reset that save state right before the boss fight so many times. Also learned that pissy boss mode does, in fact, set Haste alongside Safe and Shell.

Otoh, I'm quite proud of my victory against this bugger. Turtling up by stacking as much Image support as I can (Refract, Witch Rage, Desert Aria) with as much speed on those three characters as possible; keeping everyone topped off with Holy Wind, Tonics/Potions, and the occasionally Sun Bath (Aria); setting Zoneseek initially while equipping Wind resistant gear & auto-Haste (Blizzard) (Iceguard would've helped, hence, why I should've done Mt. Zozo first); and letting Witch Gau and unMorph Terra slowly beat him down with Fire 3 (lacked Dispel, but oh well). Once I got this strategy down, I beat him in two tries (sans the times he just straight up killed me on the first turn >_<).

Few levels would've still helped Gau & Strago survive at least one Yeti attack. Thankfully, Mog & Terra had enough HP/defense to survive a few attack or one Takedown.

I now have Terrato. Once I snag Alexander (later), I'm esper resetting Sabin, Edgar, Celes, and Cyan. Celes so I can go pure Phantom + Alex (she's Ramuh + Seraph right now). Cyan for Tempest (I don't trust c/c in NHT). Sabin for Terrato Sabin > : ). And Edgar because I want Siren ELs.

***

Mog didn't mogoon. Instead, he played support with status, rods, and dance. Forgot to do Quartrstaff + c/c in Yeti's: oh well. For once in my life, I actually liked Desert Aria. Strago's Refract and the Witch Rage are definitely better, but I needed a third source of Image from , and Aria did a decent job. Also got some clutch Sun Baths and Meerkats. So, not a great primary source of Image/heals (to random), but it's a nice back-up to take some of the pressure of your primary Image/heal person. I think vig Mog's speed also plays a role here: timing and # of turns seems more important for this dance, rather than raw power. BUT....otoh, Sand Storm was counterproductive - did zero damage and even triggered Takedown counterattacks. - _ - Not a fan of Sand Storm.

Terra needs Battery support. : ( Granted, this is a long dungeon prior, with no Restore Points, but half of my MP ELs are Carbunkl. Probably should just let the remainder of her ELs be Unicorn. Fire 3 still saved the day here, against all 3 bosses. I couldn't Morph against Yeti. I can't reliably keep Image up all the time, so Terra needed to be able to take a hit or two. I doubt more Unicorn ELs would've changed that, and her level wasn't too bad (25), so, meh, no Morph against Yeti.

Strago was here for Refract + Holy Wind (all in speed equips), though he got to also pitch in with statuses, Quartrstaff counters, and a few Razes.

Gau used Antlion & Brawler for randoms (status control), Dragon for Tonberry, and Witch for Yeti and Tritoch.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

As I say I will do on Discord I will post my progress here I don't know if I'm going to complete it but we'll see

Beginning of the game :

Spoiler

Tek Armor fight : They aren't to bad except the pincer one which can be prove dangerous I nearly lost Biggs and Wedge on this one because I wasn't cautious enough.

Welk : Well this is a first boss so he is easy, 3 beams then wait for him to enter his shell then exit (it's actually faster since he act faster) and finish him off, if needed healed with Heal Force he doesn't have any AoE attack so he isn't that dangerous.

Terra is alone in the cave : The random aren't dangerous but they do act faster so let's be cautious fortunatly Fire One-Shot the Wild Rat and the Mens can be killed with Physical

Locke to the rescue : I was actually worried for this fight because of one move and one only named Snowball this move can fucked us really bad in Vanilla BNW because of Blind so I was worried but I guess I got lucky this time because they never use it, as for Marshal he hits hard for this point and with the speed increase he can kill a character if he decide to focus his attack, and since he acts faster it's also possible he stop 2 of our character, the Wolves just add to the battle, just kill one of the wolf and focus on Marshal.

Figaro :

Spoiler

2 Tek Armor : Don't care about what they are capable to do because Bio Blaster one shot them xD

Figaro Cave : Now this place isn't to different except for one monster, the Hornet they are actually dangerous with the boost in speed especially if they are 2 or 3 of them cause they pretty fast, Needler spam can actually hurt and Slow X gives them a large advantage in speed fortunatly they aren't tough but in case of ambush or Pincer this guys can be scary.

Mont Koltz :

Spoiler

I did grind a little for money to get better equipment before Mont Koltz, but I get some LV in the process.

Mont Koltz random fight aren't bad Poison can be annoying but outside nothing really noticeable most fights will not last very long anyway.

As for Vargas he wasn't hard for his 2 bears just Noiseblaster them and kill them with Fire, and then Locke and Edgar do the damage (especially Locke with the Butterfly and Power Glove) on Vargas while stay on stand by and cast a general Cure when Vargas use Gale Cut, when Sabin just Hokuto Hyakurestu Ken him and he is history.

Lethe River :

Spoiler

I didn't forget to put Banon in the back row, just DON'T attack the Albatross with blitz Fireball counter is quite nasty, I actually was expecting to get more Banon's death but I guess I was lucky.

As for Ultros well Terra learned Fire 2 just before him so I use it, Pummel with Sabin for Sap then Suplex spam, Banon is on full Health duty with Edgar tossing some Dried Meat at banon if he is targeted by Tentacle, a stressful fight but not to bad.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Because it seems like what all the cool kids are doing, I decided to try my hand at NHT too. I'll probably just be posting highlights.

Biggest highlight: Gau is massively MVP everywhere I can use him.

Ultros 1:

Spoiler

The majority of my wipes in the mod were to goddamn Banon dying. After about the fifth wipe, I decided to just stop using Terra for anything except waiting for Banon to take damage and then healing him, and I got him next time.

 

Phantom Train:

Spoiler

If you put a Ghost Ring on Cyan, you can just keep yourself alive indefinitely with Empowerer while sap drains him to death

Ultros 2:

Spoiler

Similar to Phantom Train, my dudes kept dying, so I just put Gau on Conjurer and waited for Ultros to die to sap.

Number 024:

Spoiler

My party was not great for this, so I ended up putting Gau on Conjurer, Locke with double Butterfly, Edgar jumping with Stout Spear, and Celes healing. No one was doing much damage to him, (Locke hitting for ~600 total, Edgar jumping for ~700) so it was really about attrition. Took forever to outdamage his Regen at this pace.

Number 128:

Spoiler

Gau on Antlion for stopping + fire immunity, Locke with Healing Shiv, and Edgar jumping for 2k with Trident, he died quickly.

Cranes:

Spoiler

Gau on Flan to prevent elemental damage and occasionally Storming, Edgar jumping with Trident, Locke casting Bolt 2, Setzer not doing anything but setting sap with Blackjack and then dying over and over. This was a race to kill one of the cranes before I couldn't keep up with their DPS.

Sealed Cave:

Spoiler

Still a baby dungeon for babies

Heartfire:

Spoiler

Between Storm and Aqua Rake I could easily one-shot the adds, so I just had Locke on healing duty and Strago and Terra with max magic defense and magic block spamming spells.

Ultros 3:

Spoiler

Once again sap did most of the work here. A tanky Locke with a Life Bell and high defense/Healing Shiv never died, and I slowly whittled him down with the other two

I've actually been pleasantly surprised by how doable NHT is so far. I haven't run into anything I've felt was "unfair" other than pincer attacks.

Edited by Deschain

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Fuck Atma Weapon

Spoiler

Edit: ok, finally killed the mother fucker. Took me about... 20 tries? I kept dying to Meteo, so on my last few attempts I actually left the FC to go buy every single piece of M Block equipment I could find, and stacked it in every slot I could spare.

Full loadout, for reference:

Edgar, 20/12, all Unicorn, Golem equipped, Amulet/Dragoon Seal, Icebrand/all Gold armor

Shadow, 18/9, Back Guard/Zephyr Cape, double Sakura, Ninja Mask, Gaia Gear

Gau, 21/12, Back Guard/White Cape, Green Beret, Gator Hide

Celes, 20/11, mostly Siren levels, a few Seraph, Seraph equipped, Hero Ring/Gale Hairpin, Storm Blade/Gold Shield/Magus Hat/White Dress

I tried to have Edgar in the air whenever I could so he would be dodging attacks, Gau was raging Cephalid most of the time, Celes full time healing/Rerise duty, Shadow full time Rerise/dispel/float/haste duty. The most important thing was to have Rerise up pretty much all the time on everyone so I didn't wipe to an unlucky Meteo. With this loadout I didn't have much trouble with Mind Blast because I was mostly protected against the worst effects.

 

Edited by Deschain

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Continuing so

Terra's scenario has nothing important going on for it

Locke's scenario :

Spoiler

The random against Soldier can be annoyign fortunatly they are not hard to kill.

In Figaro's Cave the mobs that counter with Mega Volt is annoying but Celes can take care of them with Ice.

Hell Angel is one of the most random boss so far but that's actually partially my fault I should have done Sabin story prior to Locke would have give me the following advantages :
-Power Glove (which I forgot to remove from Sabin)
-Sprint Shoes 
-Sleep protecting accessory

So what I did is equip Locke with Boomerang and Black Belt and just have to hope Hell Angel doesn't use to many spell in the row (or sleep) do as much physical as possible (with Locke countering) and Locke getting to good throw of Boomerang as much as possible Celes is just spamming Runic.

Sabin's scenario :

Spoiler

Nothing to noticeable here Shadow just clean the way with Shuriken against random up to the imperial camp, Sabin with his Def ignore Blitz does a lot of damage.

As for the Soul Train section Cyan is a beast with Mindblow, Sabin with Spirit Claw no trouble what so ever with Random as for the Soul Train himself he wasn't bad and basically Cyan with Ghost Ring can solo him, Shadow dish good damage by throwing Mythril Dirks and Sabin just attack.

Rizopas is make completly harmless if Stop from the Spirit Claw proc.

After farming some Rages with gau the underwater section fairly easy.

Narshe battle :

Spoiler

Did go with the following teams :

-Celes, Locke and Edgar
-Terra, Cyan, Sabin and Gau

So basically :

-Celes and Terra are mostly healer, Runic is used with Celes to recover MP

-Locke : Steal some healing items and also steal the Tiara to make Kefka run away was attacking only if Bio Blaster didn't wiped out the ennemies

-Edgar : Bio Blaster OHKO almost every ennemies here so just spam it

-Sabin : Counter a lot often killing the poor unfortunate guy who attack him, spam Def Ignore blitz for Tek Armors

-Cyan : Dispatch spam and Empowerer to keep him alive

-Gau : I mostly use Wild Rat rage when Soldier are around Wild Rat give Auto-Haste and Poison and Bio which is great against human formation, when Tek Armor are around I use Albatross for Fireball

Road to Terra :

Spoiler

So originnaly I was going with Locke, Celes, Edgar and Gau to be faire this team is great for Mobs fight :

-Locke with 2 Wing Edge can dispose really easily of flying monsters (they aren't in Zozo but on the way to Zozo they are soem flying monsters which are annoying) while being safe in the back row
-Celes is healing duty and can tag Runic with some of Gau's Rage (Raven and Conjurer especially) for MP management
-Edgar clean the Humans with Bio Blaster and protect the other with Cover from spears
-Gau either help Celes to recover MP or against humans ennemy is in Wild Rat rage or Albatross for Fireball

Was really good for random but I hit a wall with Dadaluma couldn't find a strat to win without a good bunch of luck, the ennemy's speed boost is a killer for Gau here he dies way to quickly and altough Reraise is really nice sadly sometime RNG just screw me by having him casting it multiple time on the same character wasting turns as a result, and overall I was lacking DPS on him and sadly sometime Slow just miss after his Slim Jim and Dadaluma in haste is really really bad in NHT (especially if the fighter are around), tough no that I think about it Gau would probably have been really good if I had Shadow casting Smoke Bombs on him.

So I just resolve to get rid of Gau and Edgar and take Cyan and Sabin works a lot better basically :
-Locke : Since he has nothing else to do I just put him in Auto-Berserk in the back row with Wing Edges and Power Glove he can deal up 1400 damage
-Sabin : Cover/Counter set up with 2 Poison Claws, Knight Cap, Black Belt simply the MVP of the fight Suplex to put Slow on Dadaluma after Slim Jim, hit for 450 per hit with Poison Claw (+400 when Poison proc)
-Celes : Healing duty with Cure or items (for Remedies)
-Cyan : Second Cover/Counter (Kotetsu + Knight Cape) because why not he is setting Sap with Empowerer deal 1100 with Dispatch when the Fighter are here Flurry can confuse them.

Beat Dadaluma first try with this team only annoying thing are Elbow Drop, Spoon and if the fighter manage to use Rock on everyone.

So now finally access to the esper the good stuff can begin ^^

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Got all the characters! Now to clean everything up and go to KT.

Dullahan:

Spoiler

Very difficult fight. Took me quite a few tries. I had to have Celes absorb most of his spells, and even still I essentially had to keep my entire party at full HP the entire fight or Absolute Zero could turn 2-3 people into zombies. I ended up with a clutch zombified Edgar jumping twice on him for the win but it was very tight.

Phunbaba:

Spoiler

Sabin with Life Bell and Reflect Ring spammed Suplex over and over, Cyan with Reflect Ring spammed Empowerer over and over, neither one ever died.

Road to Chadarnook:

Spoiler

Gau with Adamantite + Ninja scrolls cleared out most packs, even the pincer attacks. Chadarnook itself was a pushover.

Tritoch:

Spoiler

Buff Tritoch. Pretty sure I took 0 damage this fight.

Doomgaze:

Spoiler

Immortal Umaro with Snow Muffler/Rage Belt/Life Bell basically soloed him while everyone else spent most of the fight eating dirt

Yeti:

Spoiler

Didn't have as much trouble here as thz did. I just stacked the absolute SHIT out of evade. Evade in every slot. Shadow had 104, Mog had 88, Setzer had 82, Terra had 46. I had Setzer permanently healing/casting Reraise, Shadow permanently throwing smoke bombs, Mog x-magicing Bio, Terra spamming Fire 3. Between the smoke bombs and evade I almost never got hit, even when he was attacking ~10 times between turns.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

After getting feedback and discussion about solutions, I've put out a V4 of NHT.

The objective of this version is to ensure that the player always has a tool to handle pincer/back attacks and to always have the means to get out of combat with randoms (Warp Whistles) because running in NHT is pointless.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm amused that this quick and dirty stat hack that was made as a joke is starting to slowly take off as more and more people keep trying it, and then it keeps getting small tweaks to make it more "fair".
Maybe one of these days I should give it a shot as well since I have a problem of over exploring areas and getting a bit too much exp anyway.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Brown-D and Blue-D: practically free.

Purple-D:

Spoiler

Umaro with a Snow Muffler/regen/image is, again, pretty much unkillable. He only takes damage from regular attacks, and he just heals back up with regen.

Wrexsoul:

Spoiler

Mog and Terra with Flameguards and Reflect Rings are unkillable outside of Meteo if they aren't attacking, so as long as I keep my HP above ~600 I whittle them away with Edgar jumping with Trident for ~3.5k-7k and throwing out Water Rondos when I feel safe enough

Red-D:

Spoiler

Edgar with Royal Jacket/Trident, Gau raging Ninja, Terra with Flameguard spamming Ice 3, Setzer healing/Rerising like he does in every fight

Silver-D:

Spoiler

Terra with Iceguard spamming Fire 3, Setzer healing/Rerising like he does every fight, Mog on Wind Blues duty for Sun Bath, and Edgar jumping with Fire Lance (and pretty much dead all the time)

Hidon:

Spoiler

Shadow with Avenger/Kagenui, Edgar jumping with Trident, Setzer healing/Rerising like he does every fight, Strago being petrified and absorbing a bunch of attacks because fuck Strago and his 500 HP and 29 speed. I used Fire Scroll + Flash + Blacjack to clear out the Hidonites whenever they popped up and just healed through Black Omen.

Time for FT and then KT! God help me

Edited by Deschain

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
11 hours ago, Nowea said:

After getting feedback and discussion about solutions, I've put out a V4 of NHT.

The objective of this version is to ensure that the player always has a tool to handle pincer/back attacks and to always have the means to get out of combat with randoms (Warp Whistles) because running in NHT is pointless.

Is the update will work with save from the previous version ?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
7 hours ago, Nesouk said:

Is the update will work with save from the previous version ?

Should work just fine, just do typical proper patching procedure and patch NHT onto a clean BNW and you should be good. (hell, patching it onto a V3 patched ROM should also be fine but idk)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

FT:

Warp Whistle from nearly every encounter

White-D:

Spoiler

This guy killed me before I got a turn so many times. Probably wiped to him more than every other boss put together so far. I revised my strategy a bunch of times, and nothing was working, but then I realized he did mostly holy and poison damage, so... Black Heart strats?! Quasar would get me low, and then anything else he did would finish me off. So I just pumped up my HP as high as I possibly could and farmed some Black Hearts.

I finally ended up taking him down with the following setup:

Setzer doing his usual

Mog X-magicking Bio, with a Black Heart

Edgar jumping with a Gungnir (I traded for it at the colosseum for this fight, and traded it back afterwards!) with a Black Heart equipped

Terra casting Break and healing and throwing out MORPHED TINCTURES (she could have been anyone, in hindsight I probably would have done better with Shadow here)

Magimaster:

Spoiler

Surprisingly easy. I took Gau and Mog, but I didn't realize beforehand how many of their Dance/Rage elemental attacks are multi-elemental, so Gau at least ended up pretty much being healer. Terra and Celes were my heavy-hitters here. I mostly played defense, making sure I was buffed and full, until he was on wind (Break and X-Break), earth (X-Quake), or ice (Ice 3 from both girls).

Alright, guess it's time for KT....!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

KT: Ok, first, how to split the party.

Spoiler

I obviously wanted a mix of DPS, tanking, magic damage, physical damage, healing, status ailments, element types, and making sure every party had some way to Slow, Rerise, Float, and Dispel.

I ended up with: Terra/Sabin/Relm/Cyan,  Celes/Gau/Locke/Edgar,   Umaro/Mog/Shadow/Setzer

You may be thinking, no Strago or Gogo????? Well, in NHT, they are just too damn slow and squishy. The main threats are defense-piercing attacks like Meteo, Meteor, and Quasar, so all the defense in the world isn't going to matter if you fall over in a slight breeze. Or in a hail of meteors.

 

Atma:

Spoiler

You know what's worse than fighting Atma? Fighting him a second time with your B-team!

This took me almost as many tries as the first time. I didn't have much trouble getting to the second phase, but then he's start spamming high-power attacks so quickly I would get stuck into a rez-loop, and he was fast enough that I could never end up getting out of it.

Final result: Fuck defense. I conserved mana as much as I could until phase 2, then I cast Fenrir/Seraph and went all out offense once he started mind-blasting. Gau on Cephalid, Celes spamming Ice 3, Edgar jumping with Longinus, Locke throwing out X-magic Life 2. Turns out it only took a few rounds of that for him to die, right before I ran out of mana!

Inferno:

Spoiler

Actually surprisingly easy. I didn't have to do much special here. Pretty much just let Umaro throw people for 8000-9000, while everyone else supported, with Shadow attacking for ~4k whenever I had a turn available.

Green-D:

Spoiler

Put a Black Heart on Setzer and Shadow and just killed him while my other two dudes were dead. Super easy.

Guardian:

Spoiler

Everything is going fine, Terra doing Bolt 3 for 9999, until... shit, none of this team can Dispel his Barrier OR his Shield! Welp, this fight is going to get annoying from here.

So now he has Reflect, Safe, and Shell up... but he doesn't actually do very much damage? So I stick Terra and Relm on healing duty, and continue using Tempest and Bum Rush, and he eventually goes down without much trouble.

Gold-D:

Spoiler

Edgar jumping with Trident, everyone else supporting, a Thunderguard, a Minerva, a Rage Belt, and a Force Armor = easy fight.

Kaiser:

Spoiler

Oh fuck. This guy is utterly kicking my ass. I am here with Terra/Sabin/Cyan/Relm and he's destroying me so badly I may need to actually leave KT and come back with a different party. Sabin is essentially useless in this fight and Cyan dies to everything, and I don't have anyone to Dispel him to change his wall. uuuuugh.

Ok, so, here is the plan. I go back to the White-D plan of absolutely maxing Magic Evade at the expense of everything else, and I attack with NO ONE EXCEPT Terra, and only if the dude is weak to something. Everyone else just heals and sets Sap/Slow and throws her Tinctures, and if he isn't weak to whatever she's throwing, she just heals too.

Somehow, this ended up working.

Setup:

Terra Zantetsuken/Force Shield/Circlet/Minerva - Gale Hairpin/Ribbon - Phoenix

Sabin Stormfangx2/Red Cap/Mirage Vest - Zephyr Cape/Back Guard - Golem

Relm Punisher/Multiguard (Just stole it off the last random!)/Red Cap/Dragon Hide - Crystal Orb/Ribbon - Zoneseek

Cyan Masamune/Genji Helm/Force Armor - Muscle Belt/Zephyr Cape - Kirin

So now I have exactly 8 Remedies left because I completely forgot to restock on them before coming, I should probably leave before doing the Goddesses...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

@Nowea Current levels, before fighting the Goddesses

Spoiler

Terra 30/22

Sabin 27/18

Relm 28/18

Cyan 30/20

Celes 27/18

Locke 27/16

Gau 31/22

Edgar 29/19

Mog 30/20

Shadow 28/17

Umaro 29

Setzer 32/22

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Myria:

Spoiler

I thought she may actually be impossible, what with the flaring and the flare staring and the zombificating and the inherent haste, but she was actually a lot easier than I was expecting, once I set up.

Mog jumping with Gungnir, Setzer and Shadow with Ribbon supporting, Umaro with Rage Belt and Death Ward. Strategy was just to keep Mog in the air 100% of the time, and Shadow/Setzer healing, and Umaro throwing people.

Asura:

Spoiler

Also surprisingly easy! I equipped water defense gear, and as long as I kept everyone at full health and always kept someone ready to heal, he didn't do anything really threatening.

Isis:

Spoiler

My party was Gau, HP/MP Locke, Mag/Spd Celes, and Vigor Edgar. This one took a few tries, mainly because I couldn't reliably kill anyone who got Charmed. I ended up putting Gau on Cephalid, like usual, having Locke X-Magic heal, Celes mostly Runic, and Edgar jump. It was a pretty boring fight, I just had to immediately focus on murdering whoever got Charmed with everyone and healing up before Moonlight and it wasn't bad.

Fuck I have 4 Remedies left. Hope that's enough!

Kefka:

Spoiler

Somehow this only took 3 tries! I used Setzer/Terra/Relm/Mog so that I would have Meteor, Ultima, double Rerise, Slow-X, AOE sap, everyone has a good AOE heal, and everyone can get their M. Block really high. I set Setzer up as a tank/healer, Morphed Terra so she could throw Ultima out pretty much every turn, and used Relm for RegenX + Rerise and Meteor if she got a free turn. The first two tiers were actually surprisingly easy. I just spammed AOE spells, Setzer tanked everything, and stuff died pretty quickly. On the third tier, I didn't realize that Sleep goes apeshit if you kill Girl, so I had to frantically heal with pretty much everyone every turn, attacking one or two times if I was able. Eventually I just whittled her down with Flare/Ultima, but I lost Mog in the process, so Shadow came in for Kefka. This fight was EXTREMELY hectic. This was both of my wipes. The important thing was that I set up Rerise on every person, immediately, every time they lost it. If he Purged, I would stop attacking until everyone had Rerise back up. Once I made that my strategy, he went down without too much trouble. I don't actually know what triggers Goner, but I never got two back to back.

Okay, so! Thoughts.

1) I don't like the nerfs to HP espers, I think the speed increase does a good enough job at increasing difficulty, the HP nerfs just made a lot of ITD attacks feel unfair. If the HP nerf stays, I think Meteo/Quasar/Moonlight(?) need a small nerf to compensate.

2) M. Block is absolutely essential. You basically need to make sure you're dodging enough attacks that their missing compensates for them getting twice as many turns. By the end of the game most of my strategy involved "how can I efficiently put as many points into M. Block as possible and still be able to do other things I need to do." Other than on jumping characters I pretty much didn't equip an item if it didn't give M. Block.

Other than that, it really never felt unfair. I always felt like I was able to figure out how to win, with the tools the game gives. Which really says something about how insanely well balanced BNW is.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

...OK, so, Deschain is a better player than me, and also a significantly faster player than me.

1) I'll take Deschain's remark as proof positive that HP nerfs was a bad idea then (I know I'm at least part of the reason for why it happened). Guess that validates what I'm seeing that HP esper nerfs is also homogenizing character HP values too much. Probably also hurts Cover/Counter too.

2) ...Dang, I stopped paying attention to eva and mg.eva a long time ago. Probably because I keep pushing & trying novel (aka, downright stupid) strategies. Oops

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Gogo's Cavern: (Vig Celes, Vig Sabin, Mag Strago, Umaro)

Zone Eater? Easy peasy. Just have Umaro and Ocean Sabin rip him a new one

Randoms? Sigh.

First time, died right before save point to a Shinobi / Ogor / O-Bake combo. Didn't have any Warp Whistles, got status controlled to death.

Second time, died the very first random.  Wart Puck's Quartr followed by Ogor 3x attack "Oh, I'm sorry, is your whole team dead without chance to do anything? Here, we'll put Sabin to sleep as well." - _ -

Umaro has 90 stamina. Does that do jack-all guarding against Ogor's Zombie Strike? Nope. Umaro got Zombie'd more often than not, and a Zombie Umaro is an instant Warp Whistle. (I officially give up trying to rely on stamina for status evasion. Time to go buy a full set of status immune relics). This on top of my usual "Someone got Muddled first thing in a random, let's just Warp Whistle and ignore this random"

Oh, and I still hate those buggers on the stupid bridges.

I want to fight an enjoy the battles here. I really do. But, like Fanatics', this is the one area where, more often than not, I just Warp Whistle.

*****

In brighter news:

Bodyguard Umaro works nice. Overleveled Yeti does a great job protecting the party. Shame he got Zombie'd so often.

Dunno which version it happened in, but I like being able to Stop undead. There were a number of Ogor fights I could win simply because of Strago's Stop. Also liked being able to Mute those stupid dancers.

Celes' Kusarigama got to show its face again. It's actually not terribly much stronger than the Rune Edge against high defense foes and lacks stats, but doesn't drain MP. Hmm.... (+HP% on flails? Would give Strago an actual reason to equip them. It's a spitball)

The only real unstoppable random here was O-Bake / Shinobi / Ogor. Ninjas are dangerous, even when berserked; Ogor can potentially ruin a fight before he can be Stopped; and O-Bake has Discord, plus he can't really be dealt with until the other two are handled. Most the other randoms can be dealt with via status control before they get out of hand. The Wart Puck / Ogor cheap shot was a stroke of bad luck. Don't take this the wrong way, as this still is one of the most dangerous WoR dungeons.

*****

Now, off to recruit Cyan, and then to clear his Soul so that I can respec for Phantom Celes and Terrato Sabin.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this