/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ Mark Strategy Guide - No Quickenings/Espers Copyright 2006 by Rodney Tilgner rodneytilgner@gmail.com Version 1.8 2/03/2007 \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ ----Introduction----- The goal of the guide is to help people who are trying to beat these encounters without quickenings, excessive leveling and without having to spend time trying to get OPed weapons like Gladius, Kotetsu, Burning Bow, Deathbringer, zodiac spear, ect... near the start At normal levels these hunts provide quite satisfying challenges which is something that has been missing from the recent Final Fantasy games and my biggest surprise with this game. Now if only they would add increased difficulty options... The reason this guide doesn't add any more challenge stipulations is two fold... 1) I got tired of seeing everyone tell people to get and use quickenings when they asked for help and 2) I enjoy playing with and using all the gameplay options that are available that aren't cheap(cheap things dilute the fun). I probably will get around to real challenges eventually but I like to play through normally first which is more or less what this guide is based on. Strategies are designed for when the hunts first become available(with some exceptions where I missed when they were first available). In the contents section you'll notice I blocked off hunts between different points in the story. This is the time frame that the strategies are based on. Obviously fighting them later will make it easier as you would have access to better equipment, magick, ect.. and will not require as much strategy or effort. You'll notice I put my level for each mark. This is just to show what level it can be done at though it won't be easy. I put recommended levels in because people were getting confused because I had simply put my levels in to show what it was possible at and people were thinking that I was recommending those levels. The recommended levels are really just for people that A. Don't read too much and B. Aren't very good. Basically the kind of levels that if you charge in and just attack with some curaja and no thought you can probably win. As I tried to say throughout the early part of this introduction is that these will often be very challenging especially at the levels listed. If they are too much for you at those levels then try coming back later when you have better stuff, higher levels, ect... This is partly a challenge guide as despite how Gamefaqs lists my guide it's actually a No Quickening, No Espers and No Powerleveling strategy guide(as listed at the very top). Also something to note is that I tried to play without getting quickenings nor espers at all so I don't really have access to the double/triple MP(except for my mages who had 2 quickenings bought before I started to write this). This makes it more difficult and hard to just walk in and spam cura/curaja and win since you don't have the MP to keep it up. I didn't really know just how much of a difference it makes till I finally bought 'em all for everyone for Yiazmat. I've been contacted with the "heads-up" about a "certain" matter that I've suspected myself but try to be merely flattered by. I understand that my guide makes a good reference and I really don't mind it used as such but please give some thanks. Update: Due to even more plagiarism by each new guide including a new walkthrough I will not be updating anymore strategies. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------- Legal Info: ----------- Copyright 2006 by Rodney Tilgner This may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. List of sites with permission to host this guide: www.gamefaqs.com www.neoseeker.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------ Table of Contents: ------------------ 1. Version History -100A- 2. Overview of Abilities -200A- Status Spells -200B- Why use them? -20AB- What can I do to improve my chances? -20BB- Some Notes: -20CB- Buff Spells -200C- Why should I use them? -20AC- Some Notes: -20BC- Technicks -200D- 3. Character Setups -300A- What does this section cover? -30AA- Tank -300B- Weapon Based Damage Dealer -300C- Healing Mage -300D- Damage Mage -300E- Parties -300G- 4. Tips Hunt Basics -400A- About Weapons -400B- Try your own Stuff -400C- Explore -400D- Changing Target Groups -400F- Shops can upgrade after story events -400G- Giza Plains Seasons -400H- Changing Equipment During Battle -400I- Gambit Tip -400J- 5. Mark Bill Requirements -500A- 7. Clan Ranks -700A- 6. Mark Strategies -600A- Global Immunities and Un-Immunities -6A00- Note about enemy buffs pre-dispel -6B00- About Kiting -6C00- (At Start) Rogue Tomato -600B- Thextera -600C- Flowering Cactoid -600D- (After Barhiem) Wraith -600E- Cluckatrice -600F- Rocktoise -600H- (After Lhusu Mines) Nidhogg -600G- (After Leviathan) Wyvern Lord -600I- (After Raithwall - I realize you can do some of them before completing it but I just didn't think to check...I'll fix that eventually) (Tanking note and some tips) -6TNO- Croakadile -600J- Enkelados -600K- Gil Snapper -600L- Ring Wyrm -600M- White Mousse -600N- Orthros -600O- Marilith -600P- (After Henne Mines) Ixtab -600Q- (After Arriving at Bur-Omisace, Pre-StilShrine) Feral Retriever -600R- Trickster -600S- Ant Lion -600T- (After Judge Bergan) Vorpal Bunny -600U- Atomos -600V- Mind Flayer -600W- Braegh -600X- Bloodwing -600Y- Carrot -600Z- Roblon -60AA- (After reaching Archades gate crystal) Darksteel -60AB- (After Draklor Laboratories) Vyraal -60AC- Lindwyrm -60AD- Overlord -60AE- Belito -60AF- Goliath -60AG- Deathscythe -60AH- Gilgamesh Part 1 -60AI- Gilgamesh Part 2 -60AJ- (Utilizing the Masamune: -6No2- (After Reddas Joins) Deathgaze -60AK- Diabolos -60AL- Piscodaemon -60AM- Wild Malboro -60AN- Catoblepas -60AO- Fafnir -60AP- Behemoth King(After Fafnir from montblanc) -60AQ- (After Pharos) Pylraster -60AR- Ixion -60AS- Shadowseer -60AT- (Most other hunts and Hell Wyrm) -While not technically a hunt I've including some stuff about Hell Wyrm in Yiazmat's location Yiazmat -60AU- 8. Thanks -800A- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------- Version: -100A- -------- Version 1.8 - Some additions to some of the final hunts Version 1.7 - Few more corrections. I should apologize to those I brushed aside saying that I chose not to use spell casting against marks due to low MP. Well I got to thinking about some of them number-wise and realized it's overwhelmingly effective so I've modified some of them. I believe I added most of those strats anyway including credits but if not just send me an e-mail. I've also refought most of the marks and recorded more. I focus more on the fights than the location though I started to do more about locations. http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=trowishma Next update will probably be the final one 'cept maybe for errors and such 1/29/07 Version 1.5 - Mostly contribution related updates. 1/19/07 Version 1.4 - Fixed some errors. Changed the one tip to detail information about shop upgrades over the course of the story. Added a few details to some of the hunts. Added a section about kiting and how to fool around with it >_> Added new host permission 1/15/07 Version 1.2 - Two new sections, Mark Bill Requirements and preface on immunities. All hunt status tables should be complete. Additions to many mark strategies. Put in some sub-topics for sections 2 and 3. Still need to rego through the marks to get the ranks for Belito and Gilgamesh. Yiazmat's as well. But it's good enough 1/11/07 Version 0.99 - Yiazmat done. Edited nearly everything. Changed the first tip to "Hunt Basics" with info on Clan Centurio and other Basic info. Added info on the Indigo Pendent to the Status Spells section. Added an e-mail address. Next update will fill in the blanks on the immunities, have a hunt requirement table, and have more information updated and so on. May not be for awhile 12/19/06 Version 0.95 - Fixed up more stuff, added another tip. Added Pylraster, Ixion and Shadowseer. Goal for next version is to do some spell checking and get Yiazmat up. After that the goal is to fill out the immunities section, passive abilities and skills. 12/11/06 Version 0.9 - Tried to clarify some more info for various locations and strategies. Added Clan Ranks, Bememoth King and another tip. Added recommended levels. Added videos for White Mousse and Gilgamesh part 2. Version 0.8 - Guide posted! Fixed many errors, edited some info, and expanded some explanations/strategies to hopefully clarify some things better. Hunts Deathgaze - Fafnir completed. A couple more tips Version 0.7 - Hunts up to Gilgamesh completed. Edited a few sections. (This version was posted near instantly after I submitted it so I did not have the time to even notice I didn't save some of the changes) Version 0.6 - Revamped many of the sections. Overhauled tables and finished hunts up to Carrot. Mark tables are near complete. Will most likely add more abilities that can be immune(or not) later. Priority now is on getting the basics of the rest of the hunts down and later take care of the finer points 11/22/06 Version 0.4 - Initial version. Hunts up to Marilith as well as preface sections added which will be fleshed out in further versions. 11/14/06 ---------------------- Overview of Abilities: -200A- ---------------------- An overview of some of the useful abilities for hunting. I shouldn't have to go over some such as most white and black magick since most people understand how and why to use them. magick power effects the strength and accuracy of spells. So if you find that cure spell draggin with the next upgrade down the road a ways consider equipping someone with mystic armor and a magick boosting weapon to increase its effectiveness instead of just giving everyone pointy sticks. The reason I go over this is to explain the basics of how some of these work is that way I don't have to explain every time I mention it later. =Status Spells= -200B- =============== Why use them? -20AB- These are very, very helpful though it may take more than a few tries to land effects. If a foe mainly uses physical attacks always try to blind it, if it casts deadly spells try to silence it or berserk it. Slow helps with everything and HP draining skills like poison, sap, ect.. can be great against high defense enemies or simply to supplement dps. Use them, if you don't you are only making things harder on yourself. Here's a great example: The bomb king is an optional boss that can be quite hard. You can challenge him as soon you complete events at Raithwall. He spams Fira, can call minions to his aid and can use Renew to fully heal himself. To fight him at that point in the game one might think you would need quickenings however if you simply inflict silence on him he can no longer use Fira nor summon his minions. You just made it a hell of a lot easier. You can go further with the status by inflicting stuff like blind and slow. He can still cast renew silenced but to deal with that inflict him with Disease(such as with Nihopalaoa + remedy which I'll get to in a bit). With Disease it can't renew since it's current HP is it's max HP(or is that vice versa?). What can I do to improve my chances? -20BB- What determines success rate at casting status effects on enemies is your mag power vs the target's vitality. Anything that modifies mag will obviously increase or decrease the rate such as faith, serenity, shell, ect... Faith ups the rate by 1.3 and Serenity/Spellbreaker by 2.0(maltzan). Shell halves the chance(maltzan). To make it much easier get the Nihopalaoa which you can buy fairly early from the clan merchant in muthra bazaar with a high enough rank. It does cost a bit of gil and someone needs to go deep into accessories but it's worth it. It reverses the effects of items so phoenix downs will kill and Eye drops will cause blind. The kicker is that they will never miss. So much easier. It does include Remedy lore licenses so you can turn remedies into status bombs to cripple foes. (Press L1/R1 to target enemies) Nihopalaoa makes it so much less of a hassle(especially early on and if you don't know what is making you miss when casting) to inflict status effects that it's often consider to be cheap even though it can't do anything about mob immunities. Indigo pendent is something I didn't even know about till looked at the status effect section in maltzan's Game Mechanics FAQ again and makes it a good alternative to Nihopalaoa + if you're a heavy decoy user like myself it helps there with it as well. Basically the Indigo Pendent sets the chance to land status and any chance based spells to 100%. Makes using status spells, even just for variety, a lot more fun and useful. Unfortunately you can't easily buy Indigo Pendents till later in the game. You can buy them on the Bhujerba - Balfonhiem airship or by giving 15 trophies to Stok in the rare game sidequest. It's also a rare drop from level 38/39 Surianders in the optional part of Barhiem Passage. Some Notes: -20CB- Sleep/Confuse(/Charm?) + magick/Techs: Magick attacks and some technicks such as horology and traveler do not wake up foes under sleep or confuse. A plus to this is that slept foes(or yourself) receive increased damage. =Disease: While under Disease a target's current HP is their max HP so if you have Disease on a foe it will appear as if it's always at 100%. So how is that useful? Well first of all if an enemy can heal in some fashion Disease will prevent that. The other reason came to my attention from a tip from wrax_000. Basically Disease can prevent the use of HP based skills and abilities. For example a lot of enemies gain a bunch of passive abilities at critical and may also change their attack to something nastier but if you inflict them with Disease BEFORE then it will never happen. =Buff Spells= -200C- ============= Why should I use them? -20AC- Again like negative status effects on enemies, you are only making things more difficult if you don't use buff spells like protect and shell(which may or may not be what you want :p). This includes your heal over time like regen which like protect/shell is good to have on your tank. You can get them early and they are easy to gambit. Reflect is also quite handy to counter caster Marks, to reflect AOE spells back at a single Mark, or to get spells past a Mark's Reflect as a spell can only be reflected once. In the end the hardest part may be deciding which ones to use with your time and MP. Sometimes they are a waste of time or use up too much time. Gambiting buffs is generally the way to go however if a buff is vital you may want to manually recast it before it runs out which will refresh the duration. Get the Spellbound Augment to increase the time buffs last In cases where an enemy is killing you too quickly it's often a good idea to turn off any buff gambits(sometimes even healing) inorder to make progress. Some Notes: -20BC- Decoy and Reverse quality as debuffs so the success rate is a factor of the casters magick power vs the target's vitality. You can improve your success rate with the Indigo Pendent which allows you to ignore Vitality. Bubble: Bubble doubles you're current HP. This can exceed 9999 though it doesn't show at the bottom right. Bubble also prevents Disease. The earliest you can get this spell is from the clan provisioner with a high enough rank(refer to the "Clan Ranks" section. Alternately you can buy it on a certain airship ride I believe after giruvegan. Bravery: Increases physical damage. Buy from the clan provisioner after reaching a certain rank(refer to the "Clan Ranks" section Faith: Increases damage of spells by 1.3 and healing and status infliction rate by 1.5. Buy from the clan provisioner after reaching a certain rank (refer to the "Clan Ranks" section). Shell: Just like when enemies have shell, it will halve the chance of being inflicted with status ailments in addition to reducing damage from spells(not healing). This includes instant death, decoy and reverse so if you like to use decoy avoid shell when possible. Otherwise shell is often you're only way of avoiding chance based magic since most enemies seem to ignore vitality. Reverse + Stop: Stop freezes the duration of some ailments or buffs for example Reverse. So with stop you can keep Reverse on someone for a lot longer than the usual duration of Reverse. This is helpful for solo games where an enemy inflicts stop. Stop removes decoy so you can't abuse it like that and foes are less likely to attack someone stopped. Reverse + Decoy: MP and time intensive but if you can pull it off you pretty much can't lose. I don't use it for any my strategies except situationally (ie to help deal with mantis onslaught while warping them during the antlion hunt but not actually during the fight). Part of the reason I don't is simply because I don't have the MP for it because I'm trying not to even buy quickenings/espers which means no double/triple mp. =Technicks= -200D- =========== They are free but they can miss. Most of them are useful if you know how to use them though some seem to be only useful in an emergency. Check maltzan's Game Mechanics FAQ for indepth info on how some work. -=Charge=- Run out of MP? Hit charge to bring some back. If it misses it'll reduce your mp to 0 so don't try to use it refill your entire bar. This is a must have skill for casters as it soon as you can buy it which I believe is after Barhiem passage. This is especially true if you plan on doing a pure No Quickening/Esper game and hence do not have the benefit of double/triple MP. I use it a lot from Cluckitrice on. I almost never use ethers -=Horology=- Does damage to an area based on the first minutes digit in current game time(ie 09:1->8<-:56). Does low damage when the digit is between 0-4 but it does high damage when it is between 5-9. Damage ignores defense but can miss. Very powerful if used correctly early in the game. From what I've heard level also plays a role in deciding damage. Does not wake enemies -=Traveler=- Does damage based on number of steps from 0-999 and then resets. Also resets after you use it. Damage ignores defense. If you count your steps you can have yourself a very powerful attack early on. -=1000 needles=- Always cause 1000 damage but has a chance to miss. Ranged. A good attack for flying foes before telekenesis and a good way to inflict better damage when a marks defense increases at critical -=Souleater=- A stronger than normal attack though darkness elemental. Very helpful for boss encounters where your attack command is sealed -=Gil Toss=- From what I understand, damage is based on party's HP total divided by the number of enemies in range. This can do some very, very nice damage early though you need the gil for it. Ignores defense. -=Shear/Exposer=- If they work they can help but they tend to miss a lot...they also wake slept foes. The other nice part about them is they stack multiple times They can only help so there is really no reason not to use them if they work. Bad news is that nearly all marks if not all are immune to wither and addle. Part of a passive ability that makes things immune to gravity like skills, death, numerology and so on(info thanks to again to maltzan's Game mechanics FAQ). -=Infuse=- I've known about this for awhile but never really gave it my time. The use for infuse is to use it to set someone's health to critical status. The reason one would want to do is to boost the number of hits done when you combo(maltzan). Combine that with a high combo rate weapon setup and... This is great if you already like to use decoy. Decoy someone else so your critical comboer is safe and go at. Only problem is that you can't gambit healing except with Self HPYou< beat it. Especially when you find a way that does not resort to spending 2 hours leveling up or something. This is what the gameplay side of RPGs(and most games) is all about though rpgs have the wonderful feeling of exploration and discovery that is wasted by using walkthroughs step-by-step. The other reason I suggest that is because I know very few people like to play the way my style is. I learned this on the SO3 board discussing SSCC strategy. My style is more of a "If they can't kill you, you can't lose" kinda thing while most people prefer a "Kill it before it can kill you" kinda thing. Also like I said in the introduction since I started this guide I've been trying not to buy quickenings/espers so I don't have the benefit of double/triple MP. This forces me to play a bit MP cost conscious and can't simply run up and spam cura/curaja all the time. This is where the healers and mages and stuff come in since mystic armor increases healing and such but then it also has poor defense so I need that tank to not get chewed through and so on and so forth... Items I always use as a last resort =Explore= -400D- ========= Go ahead walk around town or explore new areas. Don't let the story confine you. Exploration and Discovery are important parts of the game. You can learn a lot of things from talking to people(such as don't use magick around elementals or what conditions are needed for them to appear), find sidequests or discover new areas where you might be able to buy better stuff. For example if you do some exploring and questing after Raithwall's tomb then you'll most likely complete the cactuar quest or chase of Deweg or hell even beat earth tyrant to give you access to mosphoran highwastes. You can find a merchant here where you can buy golden amulets, remedies and some other useful things. =Ignore Defense= -400E- ================ I mention this in many of my strategies but it works for all. When taking on marks at low level or when they hit critical they often have a high defense to where you aren't doing that much damage. The best thing to do is to use and abuse skills that ignore defense. Magick does, technicks like Horology, traveler, 1000 needles, ect.. do as well as Balance. For enemies with high defense it's easy to gambit with Foe HP = Critical which you get very early. =Changing Target Groups= -400F- ======================== I didn't know this till a good bit into my first playthrough. When choosing a target for a spell or whatever you can press L1/R1 to change through different target groups. You can target your party, your reserves, an enemy, or an ally This is how you can target enemies when using Nihopalaoa or casting reverse on your own party for example =Shops can upgrade after story events= -400G- ====================================== Yes it's true and combined with the fact that equipment is more meaningful than levels it can make a huge difference in difficulty throughout the game. This includes spells and techs(though less often) as well. I'll try to list them: After Barhiem: Rabanastre *Better Weap/Armor than you can buy in Bhujerba but remember that Bhujerba does have different spells and such After Leviathon: Rabanastre *Better Weap/Armor than you can buy in Bhujerba but don't remember if spells and stuff update After Raithwall's Tomb: Rabanastre On the way to Henne Mines: Jahara After Judge Bergen: Rabanastre, Nalbina, and Mosphoran Highwastes update but unless you need it to make the journey to phon coast save you're money and buy at phon coast. That mostly goes for armor, moshoporan shops sells some weapons that aren't at phon coast. Weapons are a bit spread out with usually half the kinds updated per point. Buy spells,techs, and gambits at Rab/Nalb/MH of course. After Draklor: Airship gets Syphon at this point I believe After Giruvegan: Balfonhiem and many of the "other" merchants upgrade equippment. *Best meaning best buyable Best Light armor = Merchant in south lowtown(by dalans) Best Heavy armor = Bakanamy merchant in Necrohal Best Mystic armor = Merchant in Barhiem passage(gave fuse) Many other merchants including those listed can have other accessories to buy as well as weapons. Off the top of my head: Barhiem = Hermes sandles Eastersands = Diamond armlet, golden axe Baknamy = Demon Shield, Telekinesis Westersands = Gungnir Bhujerba(guy by where rocktoise client was) = turletshell chocker, sweep Old Archades = Sage's Ring Various Aiship flights: Certain routes can offer special spells and such such as Bubble and Indigo pendent After Pharos: Balfonhiem, those "other" merchants above get a spell each except Bhujerba, old archades and airship May not be perfect but that's from my own experience. =Giza Plains Seasons= -400H- ===================== So many people panic over the weather in giza plains it's not funny. The weather in Giza is locked during two parts in the game. From the start till Raithwalls tomb the season will always be dry. After Raithwalls tomb till roughly after leaving Jahara the season will be locked as the rainy season. After that the season changes over a period of time, takes roughly an hour. There is a seeq in the southern exit of Rabanastre that calls himself the weather eye and will tell you how close it is till the season in Giza changes If he doesn't refer to himself as the weather eye it's likely too early yet in the story for the seasons in giza to change. Advance the story and try again later. =Changing Equipment During Battle= -400I- ================================== The result of a spell isn't decided immediately when it's cast and is only decided when it hits a target. With this knowledge you can change your equipment mid-battle to protect yourself. For example if you see the enemy use a thunder based spell you can equip a Rubber Suit(s) to negate it. If the enemy casts a status effect spell like silence you can equip a Rose Corsage to be immune. This also affects passive skills like Serenity. Somewhat cheap but it can be a big difference maker in tough situations where you really would rather not chance a gameover and have to redo a bunch of stuff =Gambits= -400J- ========= I may or may not expand on this but for now I just really wanted to give one tip I've noticed a lot of people didn't know or never bothered "risk" testing Basically there is some intelligence behind gambits. Maybe not enough to make them stop stealing once there is nothing to steal but enough to prevent them from repeatedly casting a buff or status effect when it is already active and so on. So for example you can use the gambit Ally:Any > Raise/Phoenix down/ect... and they'll only use it when someone dies(making Ally:Status=KO unneeded). Same for buffs, with Ally:Any > Protect they will cast protect on anyone who isn't buffed and won't just keep casting it endlessly. They aren't so intelligent when it comes to AoE spells. Basically say you you have two people with the gambits Ally < 40% HP -> Curaja gambits. If one person gets hurt <40% then only one of them will use Curaja. However if two people get hurt then both will cast curaja even if both would be fully healed by one casting. This is because the AI only sees it as targeting just one person(which is understandable, it would be difficult to say for sure the player might not move out of range of the spell in the end) and so the second one will cast curaja targeting the other person. This is the same for buff spells. The best thing to make that more efficient is either to have one person handle it(this works well in the case of 'ga buffs, usually with the self gambit) or stagger the factor in the case of healing(ie one at <60 and the other <30). Rotating who handles what depending on the situation can also help with efficiency though this is something mainly used with end foes like yiazmat. Also remember that you can change gambits anytime so if you find you're gambit setup isn't working just open up the menu and modify it to work. ------------------ Bill Requirements: -500A- ------------------ This table is to show what is needed for a mark's bill to show up on either a tavern board or montblanc. So far I just know of two that have other specific requirements but I don't imagine any others do. For Rank requirements please consult that section at the end of the guide. All marks with an "[E]" are elite marks obtained from Montblanc. For more info on Montblanc and Clan Centurio please refer to "Hunt Basics". Obviously you can get any hunt at any time so don't think that you can only get a hunt of you're rank is vanguard or you must be at a certain part of the story. Marks can be done at any time and you can wait till the end of the game if you wish. Mark Rank Story Completion and Other ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rogue Tomato | N/A | N/A ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thextera | N/A | N/A ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Flowering Cactoid | Hedge Knight | N/A ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wraith | Hedge Knight | After Barhiem ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cluckatrice[E] | Hedge Knight | After Barhiem ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rocktoise[E] | Hedge Knight | After Barhiem ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nidhogg | Hedge Knight | After Lhusu Mines ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wyvern Lord | Rear Guard | After Leviathon ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ring Wyrm | Vanguard | N/A ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- White Mousse | Vanguard | N/A ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marilith | Vanguard | N/A ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Croakadile | Rear Guard | After Raithwall's Tomb ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Enkelados | Rear Guard | After Raithwall's Tomb ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gil Snapper[E] | Vanguard | After Raithwall's Tomb ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Orthros[E] | Headhunter | After Raithwall's Tomb ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ixtab | Rear Guard | After Henne Mines ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Feral Retriever | Vanguard | Once on your way to Stilshrine ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Trickster[E] | Headhunter | Once on your way to Stilshrine ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ant Lion[E] | Headhunter | Once on your way to Stilshrine ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vorpal Bunny | Vanguard | After Judge Bergan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Atomos | Vanguard | After Judge Bergan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mind Flayer | Headhunter | After Judge Bergan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Braegh | Headhunter | After Judge Bergan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bloodwing | Ward of Justice | After Judge Bergan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Carrot[E] | Brave Companion | After Judge Bergan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Roblon | Ward of Justice | After Judge Bergan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Darksteel | Headhunter | After reaching Archades gate crystal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vyraal | Ward of Justice | After Draklor Laboratory ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lindwyrm | Ward of Justice | After Draklor Laboratory ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overlord | Brave Companion | After Draklor Laboratory ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Belito[E] | ??? | After Draklor Laboratory and Trickster ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Goliath | Brave Companion | After Draklor Laboratory ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deathscythe | Brave Companion | After Draklor Laboratory ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gilgamesh[E] | ??? | After Draklor Laboratory and Antlion ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deathgaze | Riskbreaker | After Reddas Joins ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Diabolos | Brave Companion | After Reddas Joins ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Piscodaemon | Ward of Justice | After Reddas Joins ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wild Malboro | Riskbreaker | After Reddas Joins ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Catoblepas | Brave Companion | After Reddas Joins ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fafnir | Riskbreaker | After Reddas Joins ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Behemoth King[E] | Riskbreaker | After Reddas Joins and Fafnir ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pylraster | Riskbreaker | After Pharos ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ixion[E] | Riskbreaker | After Pharos ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shadowseer[E] | High Gaurdian | After Pharos ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yiazmat[E] | N/A | After Pharos, Hell Wyrm and most hunts* *I'm still not quite sure the exact requirements for this hunt. So far these are the hunts I didn't have to do to get it to appear: Orthros Gil Snapper Belito Ixion The Seer Of course there could be more. I'm not sure whether it was Gilgamesh or carrot where it first appeared. I still have to go back to my "End of game, no hunts but RT and Thex done" save to test the rank requirements for Belito and Gilgamesh so I'll try taking on different hunts this time. What a bastard ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- Mark Strategies: -600A- ---------------- Abbreviations: HP-------------Hit Points MP----------Magick Points STR--------------Strength MAG----------Magick Power VIT--------------Vitality SPD-----------------Speed ATK----------Attack Power DEF---------------Defense MRES----Magick Resistance EVA-----------------Evade LP---------License Points CP------------Clan Points CT------------Charge Time ------------------------------------ Global Immunities and Un-Immunities: -6A00- ------------------------------------ AKA all the abilities or effects that all marks are immune to as well as a couple that work on all. I was pretty sure on some of them based on maltzan's Game Mechanics guide listing that all marks should have a passive skill called "Safety" which makes them immune to many things. I was stubborn and had to see for myself to my sorrow. The follow is the list of all the skills/effects that all marks are immune to: Instant Death Warp Break Gravity/Fangs Syphon Wither Addle Charm Bonebreaker Sight Unseeing Achilles Numerology Countdown/Doom basically doesn't work on anything except for the Chickitrices. The follow work on ALL marks: Expose Shear As such you will not find these listed in the individual immunity tables for each mark anymore. =Note about enemy buffs pre-dispel= -6B00- =================================== Just a little note to try to avoid redundancy, from the start marks often spawn with buffs but often don't recast them if they wear off. So if you want to avoid tossing yourself at mark with Bravery and haste you can try waiting around for it to wear off. The other thing is Shell, if you are trying to cast a status effect shell will halve the chance that it'll work. =About Kiting= -6C00- ============== I only mention this in a few hunts but it's something else you can try if you get a little bored with "the gambits playing the game for you" and let you take advantage of the fact that you can move around in battle. Like I said for the most part this is something just to fool around with while playing. It's somewhat humorous watching something chase you in circles >_> Aside from the few marks I specifically mention this on I never used it and none of them besides the ones that do were written with this in mind. What is Kiting? Kiting basically boils down to moving away from an enemy so they can't you while hitting them yourself. So what do I do? For slow enemies: Control the person targeted and run away from the enemy. Ranged abilities help but they also stop you temporarily. Press Up/Down on the d-pad to switch who you control. For other enemies: Try to use you're other allies to body block the enemy and then run in a circle. Obstacles on the field(ie rocks, water, field edge, ect..) can also be used. Wyrms generally have pretty bad pathing. If Immobilize works that's another way while not exactly kiting but has the same general idea. Just immobilize the enemy, move away from them and attack from afar. If you the enemy casts spells you can sometimes reflect them as well. =============================================================================== ============================= Rogue Tomato =====================-600B-==== =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- Statistics --------------------------------- HP | MP | STR | MAG | VIT | SPD | ATK | DEF | MRES | EVA | LP | CP 134 | 50 | 9 | 3 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 18 | 0 | 3 | 180 ----------------------------- Elemental Resistance ---------------------------- Fire | Lightning | Ice | Earth | Water | Wind | Holy | Dark Normal | Normal | Normal | Normal | Weak | Normal | Normal | Normal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steal: Pebble, Fire Stone, Potion ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- Location --------------------------------- Exit out to the Eastersands and you should see it straight out on a cliff --------------------------------- Strategy --------------------------------- Level 1 Whack it and use a potion if needed. It'll jump down the cliff at 50% so just run down and finish it. Don't forget to return to the man at Sandsea to finish. =============================================================================== =============================================================================== =============================== Thextera =======================-600C-==== =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- Statistics --------------------------------- HP | MP | STR | MAG | VIT | SPD | ATK | DEF | MRES | EVA | LP | CP 380 | 45 | 13 | 6 | 34 | 8 | 14 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 300 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Elemental Resistance ---------------------------- Fire | Lightning | Ice | Earth | Water | Wind | Holy | Dark Normal | Normal | Normal | Normal | Normal | Weak | Normal | Normal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steal: Pebble, Potion, Wolf Pelt ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Skills ----------------------------------- 1. Lunge - Physical attack with some range, fast startup 2. Call for help - Summons a wolf ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- Location --------------------------------- Exit out of Rabanastre to the Westersands, you should find it to the SE --------------------------------- Strategy --------------------------------- Level 3 - Recommended 6+ You can pick this hunt up right after the Rogue Tomato but you may wish to do it after a few more events when you pick up Penelo. If you want to take it on solo right away you'll need a stock of potions and it helps if you can upgrade your equipment. If you save your money and head to Nalbina you can find Magick like blind, protect, ect... and equipment that is much better than what Rabanastre currently has to offer. I actually wish I had done this. The biggest pain is the combos she tends to do. When I fought her at 3 she did several 3 and 4 hit combos. If you're lucky you'll do one or two of your own but probably not. Kill the wolves in the area and then kill the wolf right by her first. She does 20 per hit with default armor and attacks faster than you so try running away till your attack timer fills up and then attack. Pop potions or use cure as needed. Finish her off quickly as she'll summon wolves at critical. She can also poison with her attacks but poison isn't that big a deal. It took 10 potions for me to solo at 3. With Penelo it's pretty easy. Again clear out the lesser wolves and then go at her and have Penelo use cure as needed. After beating it you should have a high enough clan rank that you can now buy Hi-Potions from the Clan Provisioner. =============================================================================== =============================================================================== =========================== Flowering Cactoid ==================-600D-==== =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- Statistics --------------------------------- HP | MP | STR | MAG | VIT | SPD | ATK | DEF | MRES | EVA | LP | CP 755 | 525 | 10 | 10 | 38 | 12 | 15 | 12 | 6 | 40 | 2 | 300 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Elemental Resistance ---------------------------- Fire | Lightning | Ice | Earth | Water | Wind | Holy | Dark Normal | Normal | Normal | Absorb | Normal | Weak | Normal | Normal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Status ----------------------------------- Blind | Sleep | Slow | Silence | Poison Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confuse | Oil | Disable | Stop | Sap Immune | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Berserk | Disease | Immobilize | Reverse | Yes | Yes | Yes | Immune | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steal: Cactus Fruit, Earth Stone, Potion ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Skills ----------------------------------- 1. Ram - Physical attack with some range, fast startup time 2. Cure 3. Potion 4. 1000 Needles - 1000 damage, uses at critical once unless he resets ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- Location --------------------------------- Dalmasca Westersands/Galtea Downs Exit to the east to Yardang Labyrinth from the little camp in the eastersands where you meet Dantro, the client for this hunt. You should find it near the center. --------------------------------- Strategy --------------------------------- Level 4 - Recommended 6+(Not solo) This becomes available after completing Thextera so you can do this one before heading to Dalan and Giza Plains as well. As you can tell by the evade and HP it is also a much harder fight than Thextera. It can use 1000 Needles which will be an instant game over if you are alone although normally he only uses it once so I really recommend doing this when you have Penelo. If not you'll have to hope 1000 needles misses. I don't think blind works on that since it's a skill but it would be helpful otherwise. Anyway the best way to deal with him is with magick. Take it to him and he'll occasionally run away and try to cure or use a potion. You can prevent him from using those healing moves by staying engaged with him which can be hard as he'll run through other enemies and try to force you to fight them. You can also silence him with the mage masher to prevent cure...but he can still use potions. He only does 1000 needles at critical so if you get him down that far and he starts running you could take him solo without him using it(ie kill it before it uses it) Here is Walbert Matos's solo strategy, make sure you're speed settings are at default or lower: " Ok, first you need to get some stuff on Nalbina Fortress before you go to the fight. you need to buy the "Cure" spell(if you don't have it already) and the "Protect" spell, and have their respective licenses unlocked. After that go to the weapon's seller and buy the Altair(gun) and unlock the license to equip it. Then when you are at the entrance of the town go to the seller at the pathway to buy some "Onion Rounds". Now head for Yardang Labyrinth and kill any wolves and cactoids on your path to the Flowering Cactoid's location. When you see him on the distance equip the "Altair" and cast "protect" on yourself. Now select the attack action on the Flowering Cactoid and wait for the ADB gauge to fill before going in for the attack. After the first shot keep running away from him towards the Nalbina Fortress exit area(don't exit the area), and stop each time the attack bar fills (Note:this path should be empty because you killed all the monsters on your way to the cactoid's location). When you're near the exit turn back and head back to the cactoid's initial location and repeat as necessary, try to keep the camera on him so you can see when he retreats. When he retreats follow him and try to keep yourself on the gun attack range. If you get surrounded press R2 to flee to where the cactoid is running if he's still retreating, if he isn't then flee to somewhere empty preferably the exit area to Nalbina Fortress(again, don't exit the area). Now comes the tricky part. when the cactoid is critically low in HP and you see the message that Flowering Cactoid is getting ready his 1000 needles attack, quickly press R2 and flee away trying to go in circles around the maze (don't go to a dead end or you'll be history) keep running for some time until the dot is not visible on the map, then stop on an empty area and face to where the cactoid should be coming from, when you see his life bar quickly select the attack action, if you're lucky enough his attack will be reset and he will stop near you to ready his attack again (I think there is some time limit on his attack to remain valid after which it will be reset, I'm not sure). If you're not that lucky then pray for the attack to miss. after you shoot quickly press R2 and flee again. Repeat if necessary. Note:if you are really, really lucky he won't even try to do the attack." =============================================================================== =============================================================================== ================================= Wraith =======================-600E-==== =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- Statistics --------------------------------- HP | MP | STR | MAG | VIT | SPD | ATK | DEF | MRES | EVA | LP | CP 5146 | 600 | 18 | 13 | 33 | 15 | 20 | 7 | 10 | 1 | 5 | 750 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Elemental Resistance ---------------------------- Fire | Lightning | Ice | Earth | Water | Wind | Holy | Dark Normal | Weak | Absorb | Normal | Normal | Weak | Normal | Normal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Status ----------------------------------- Blind | Sleep | Slow | Silence | Poison Yes | Immune | Yes | Yes | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confuse | Oil | Disable | Stop | Sap Immune | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Berserk | Disease | Immobilize | Reverse | Renew Yes | Immune | Yes | Yes | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steal: Glass Jewel, Dark Magicite, Hi-Potion ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Skills ----------------------------------- 1. Doom - Death after a countdown of 10 2. Dark - Dark damage to target and nearby foes 3. Sleep touch - Does small damage and inflicts sleep 4. Poison touch - Does small damage and inflicts poison 5. Blind - Spell to blind one target Passive: "Souleater"-like ability - Can increase damage of attacks but also hurts self. Note: I just use Souleater since it's similiar and couldn't think of a name, it does not make attacks darkness based ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- Location --------------------------------- Garamsythe Waterway/Overflow Cloaca Go to where Kite had let you down into the sewers before and this time take the right door(only one you can). Go down to the middle of the room where you killed rats at the start of the game and it'll spawn --------------------------------- Strategy --------------------------------- Level 8 - Recommended 10+ His marqee move is doom. This puts a countdown to death on a char. He usually starts by putting it on all chars. He can also inflict blind, poison and sleep and he hits fairly hard including the dark spell they both can do between 80-130 damage. You can start this hunt as soon as you return to Rabanastre after you escape from prison so you could either do this solo or wait a few scenes till recover your party members. Depending on how you fight it's not that different either way. If you really, really want to tackle this solo straight away the only way to kill it before doom gets you(unless you are lucky and it misses a ton(shell may help with that since it's chance to hit you is halved with shell as well as all his other status effects) or overlevel or something) is to spam Hi-Potions on it. You can buy them from the clan vendor at this point. Buy yeah, that's expensive. Let's just wait a few quick scenes in Rabanastre to get our team back. It is possible to cure doom to do it solo but that requries a ton of LP farming for the remedy lore 3 license and farming for remedies. No, just no. It would be faster to farm gil for Hi-Potions. You can take care of Dark and Blind by silencing it with the Mage Masher. Unfortunately it can still use Doom. Then you can blind it and it's pretty much harmless...(Well there is always the chance it will manage to hit with Sleep Touch and Sleep you and then miss till the countdown kills when trying to solo it... *cough*) Anyway with it blind and silenced get it focused on someone with a shield and possibly gauntlets and it'll almost always miss or be blocked. Of course much of that is unnecessary and more for if wraith himself is killing you and not doom. You should be able to take it down before Doom starts to kill people even if you haven't really upgraded weapons and easily if you have. If you have a party of ranged you can immobilize it and then fire away. =============================================================================== =============================================================================== =============================== Cluckatrice ====================-600F-==== =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- Statistics --------------------------------- HP | MP | STR | MAG | VIT | SPD | ATK | DEF | MRES | EVA | LP | CP 7509 | 563 | 19 | 17 | 34 | 14 | 25 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 830 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Elemental Resistance ---------------------------- Fire | Lightning | Ice | Earth | Water | Wind | Holy | Dark Normal | Normal | Normal | Weak | Normal | Absorb | Normal | Normal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Status ----------------------------------- Blind | Sleep | Slow | Silence | Poison Yes | Immune | Immune | Yes | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confuse | Oil | Disable | Stop | Sap Immune | Immune | Yes | Yes | Yes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Berserk | Disease | Immobilize | Reverse | Renew Immune | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steal: Small Feather, Wind Stone, Taurus Gem ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Skills ----------------------------------- 1. Poke - Short range attack, fast start up time 2. Purify - Removes one status ailment 3. Petrify - Inflicts break on target and nearby foes, petrifies after a countdown of 10 4. Mucus - Ranged attack that inflicts ~100 damage and slow Passive: 0 CT at critical ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ================================= Chickatrice ================================ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- Statistics --------------------------------- HP | MP | STR | MAG | VIT | SPD | ATK | DEF | MRES | EVA | LP | CP 3067 | 338 | 15 | 10 | 30 | 12 | 17 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 500 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Elemental Resistance ---------------------------- Fire | Lightning | Ice | Earth | Water | Wind | Holy | Dark Normal | Normal | Normal | Weak | Normal | Absorb | Normal | Normal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Status ----------------------------------- Blind | Sleep | Slow | Silence | Poison Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confuse | Oil | Disable | Stop | Sap Immune | Yes | Yes | Immune | Yes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Berserk | Disease | Immobilize | Reverse | Renew Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Countdown/Doom also works Steal: Potion, Small Feather, Large Feather ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Skills ----------------------------------- Passive Last Stand - Increased physical defense at critical health ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- Location --------------------------------- Giza Plains/Gizas North Bank Talk to the client in the cockatrice pen and she'll tell you that Cluckitrice appears in "Gizas North Bank" but it's shy and won't come out if there are monsters about. Press "Select" to bring up the map and use the D-pad to find the area that is named "Gizas North Bank"(It's the one to the east). Now just go there and kill everything, exit the North Bank area and re-enter and it will have spawned. This can only be done during the Dry which isn't a problem if you do this when you first can. Later on it will periodically change from rainy to dry. You can talk to a seeq at the south exit that will tell you how close the weather is to changing(you can also see whether it's rainy or dry by looking out from the south exit). Some people say it changes hourly. --------------------------------- Strategy --------------------------------- Level 8/9 - Recommended 18+ After this hunt your clan rank will likely go up and unfortunately that will mean Hi-Potions get replaced by Greens. Oh dear lord this is certainly an elite mark when it becomes available. Cluckatrice itself is strong enough to make it very hard but then there are also 3 minions who have lots of health themselves. The big guy as you might guess can cause break to people where after a 10 count they become petrified. You can buy gold needles at Migelos to counteract it. It can also cause slow and there isn't anything you can do about that right now. When not doing either of those things it will usually be running around fairly quickly trying to poke people for about 80 a pop. It can also use a skill called mucus which does 100+ at range but it can miss. The chicks don't do much besides attack and they only hit for about 30 but it adds up. Like most marks Cluckatrice can go on combo sprees at low health They are susceptible to about everything you can throw at them at this point. Unfortunately the Cluckatrice can use purify to remove them so it's really a toss up on using them on him. The exception with Cluckitrice is Disable which he can't purify(and also will work on the chicks). Blinding the chicks will help out big time as blind never wears off of them. Remember that mag power helps with the success rate of status magic. Even though you can pick this up before gaining your party back solo is suicide. If you're not using gambits this will be a big stress and it's highly recommended you either slow down the pace or set it to wait(if trying at a normal or lower level). Note: If you haven't guessed it this is a very difficult mark to beat early on. You may wish to come back later or level up some. Right now there is no pretty way to do this. Bring lots of potions and yeah it takes a lot of auto-potioning but what else are you going to use all those potions for? I had over 50 of them just from picking them up along the way and of course some phoenix downs. Dark is an excellent attack to use till the chicks are dead as it'll hit all in an area for 200-300 damage. The Assassins dagger and Oaken Pole are good choices for weapons. Scale armor + protect is great for reducing the constant damage and highly recommended. Your top priority whatever you go with is to blind the chicks at the start and then either use dark to nuke them or focus fire them down with melee. Keep protect up and rely on potions to heal. The chicks tend to attack the closest thing but Cluck tends to bounce between targets. Unless you use dark to AoE them it's probably best to take out cluck first. A bit difficult when cluck hits critical but you'll spend less time healing. Killing the chicks first works too. I've heard people saying they've had success using Immobilize/disable. I didn't however especially with the steep MP cost at this point. --- If you are wondering what my LBs are like I have mostly gone into the necessary equips and magick. I didn't use any LP for augments till this fight and only got 2 gambits and potion lore 1. Obviously I'm just using equipment bought in shops =============================================================================== =============================================================================== ================================ Nidhogg =======================-600G-==== =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- Statistics --------------------------------- HP | MP | STR | MAG | VIT | SPD | ATK | DEF | MRES | EVA | LP | CP 6079 | 120 | 21 | 11 | 40 | 13 | 25 | 12 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 780 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Elemental Resistance ---------------------------- Fire | Lightning | Ice | Earth | Water | Wind | Holy | Dark Weak | Half | Half | Half | Absorb | Half | Half | Half ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Status ----------------------------------- Blind | Sleep | Slow | Silence | Poison Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confuse | Oil | Disable | Stop | Sap Yes | Immune | Immune | Yes | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Berserk | Disease | Immobilize | Reverse | Renew Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steal: Antidote, Tanned Hide, Aries Gem ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Skills ----------------------------------- 1. Tail Spear - Damage + slow Passive Attacks can inflict poison 0 CT at critical ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- Location --------------------------------- Lhusu Mines/Transitway 1 The giant snake is right at the split in the tracks. As long as you don't take the little hallway on the side you can't miss it... --------------------------------- Strategy --------------------------------- Level 11 - Recommended 18+ *If it has a lot of buffs you may wish to hang around outside of it's range till they wear off since you don't have dispel Not too bad a fight unless it takes you a while to land blind in which case he'll rip a new hole in your face. Just watch out for the combos it likes to do after you get it blind. If you primarily melee I'd suggest also slowing it. If you have a team of casters or ranged I suggest immobilizing it. Don't forget about Horology as well or the protect spell. It was doing between 300-600 damage depending on the time at level 11. I was real lucky in my first run where I was just testing out it's status immunities in that pretty much everything hit. But in subsequent runs it's been miss, miss, miss so it depends on your luck. Best thing to do is manually have everyone try to blind until it lands. He likes to target the person with the lowest HP. Heavy body armor and poles work very well. He's also weak to fire so fire magic is good as well. Finish it off quickly at critical =============================================================================== =============================================================================== =============================== Rocktoise ======================-600H-==== =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- Statistics --------------------------------- HP | MP | STR | MAG | VIT | SPD | ATK | DEF | MRES | EVA | LP | CP 17548 | 999 | 25 | 17 | 55 | 9 | 32 | 12 | 9 | 0 | 8 | 1530 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Elemental Resistance ---------------------------- Fire | Lightning | Ice | Earth | Water | Wind | Holy | Dark Normal | Normal | Normal | Absorb | Normal | Weak | Normal | Normal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Status ----------------------------------- Blind | Sleep | Slow | Silence | Poison Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confuse | Oil | Disable | Stop | Sap Immune | Immune | Immune | Yes | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Berserk | Disease | Immobilize | Reverse | Immune | Yes | Yes | Immune | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steal: Potion, Turtle Shell, Aged Turtle Shell ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Skills ----------------------------------- 1. Stone Stomp - Short range attack that inflicts heavy damage 2. Sonic Spin - Hits anyone near him 3. Fire/Blizzard/Thunder/Dark 4. Purify - Removes Harmful status effects Passive Attacks can inflict Slow Damage Reflection - Small part of the damage you do is done to you "Souleater"-like ability - Can increase damage of attacks but also hurts self. 0 CT at Critical Health ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- Location --------------------------------- Lhusu Mines/Site 2 It's in the area where you had the scene with Ba'Gamnan --------------------------------- Strategy --------------------------------- Level 11 - Recommended 18+ He can pack a bunch and he has a lot of HP but don't let that scare you. His achilles heal is his movement speed. Just use ranged attacks and magick and control whoever he targets and run away from him. You can fire off attacks and magick without him being able to catch up. If he does catch up he can hit pretty hard. At level 11 he's likely to One-Hit-KO with his stomp and otherwise take off half the HP with anything else, depending on Augments. He has a Spin move that will hit anyone close to him. Even more reason to fight at range. There is also a small damage reflection. He's susceptible to most Status though they are semi-pointless if you kite. If you try to tank it then cast Blind and Slow. If you find yourself doing little damage you can try Horology which ignore defense. Also two skeletons are lurking in the room with Rocktoise. Just take them out as you kite. An easy but abusive method to killing him(thanks to Silver Raider) is to stand back in the tunnel and he simply can't go there. He'll just stay and cast spells. Reflect that I believe you can buy you're first time at Bhujerba can be used to reflect his spells back at him. If not you can always simply run a bit out of range to heal. With this method he'll use purify so status effects are a waste of time. Not as fun but can help those a little less action oriented. That's a modified verison of Silver Raider's strategy which is thus: "To this, I'd like to comment about Rocktoise. I've been able (and also lucky) to beat it and live to tell the tale, as I almost had my whole party wiped out with the skeletons on my way out of the mines. I made my level 09 Fran obtain the license for bows, and, lucky me, found a Killer Bow. Anyway, I've had her learn Cure, and gambited to use it when HP less than 40%. On herself, she killed Rocktoise. The strategy? Attack when HP higher than 190. The Orrachea also helps. This is how to do it when solo: Go to the cave where Rocktoise is. Attack it with full HP. Keep close, but not too much, to make it go after you without casting any spell. Attack again, and it'll cast a spell. Get away until your Attack gauge fills up and attack. Keep attacking this way until the Gambit cures you, or when Rocktoise casts Dark. Go to the small entrance you came by. It'll stop, but its spell is ready to use. Walk in circles to recover MP and cure yourself until your HP is full or almost full, so you can resist some spells. Wait until Rocktoise cancels its spell and returns to the position you found it in. Quickly, attack again, and repeat the process. Each attack does 100 - 170 (ish) damage. My worst attack did 116, and the best was 335, a Critical. After some time, and patience, Rocktoise is defeated. It takes a while, but not too much." =============================================================================== =============================================================================== ============================== Wyvern Lord ======================-600I-==== =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- Statistics --------------------------------- HP | MP | STR | MAG | VIT | SPD | ATK | DEF | MRES | EVA | LP | CP 18669 | 720 | 24 | 17 | 55 | 14 | 28 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 8 | 1440 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Elemental Resistance ---------------------------- Fire | Lightning | Ice | Earth | Water | Wind | Holy | Dark Normal | Normal | Normal | Weak | Normal | Absorb | Normal | Normal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Status ----------------------------------- Blind | Sleep | Slow | Silence | Poison Yes | Yes | Yes | Immune | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confuse | Oil | Disable | Stop | Sap Immune | Immune | Immune | Immune | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Berserk | Disease | Immobilize | Reverse | Renew Immune | Immune | Yes | Yes | Yes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steal: Yensa Scale, Crooked Fang, Wyvern Wing ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Skills ----------------------------------- 1. Gust - Weak wind-based attack that hits anything to the front 2. Aero - Wind magick that hits the target and nearby foes 3. Flame Breath - Attack that hits all foes to the front Passive: Can inflict Petrify with normal attacks ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- Location --------------------------------- Nam-Yensa Sandsea/Simoon Bluff Go to the very north and you can find it flying back and forth just off the cliffside. --------------------------------- Strategy --------------------------------- Level 14/15 - Recommended 20+ This isn't too bad especially since you have a guest that will pop potions and use telekinesis. So yeah, he's flying so you need ranged attacks, magick or technicks to hit him. He has some AoE attacks so you don't want to get bunched up too much. He has Gust(low damage), Aero(~300) and a flame breath (~400). So have his target face him away from everyone else. Equipping Windbreakers will halve any wind based damage. You can try inflicting status on him but I didn't have much success. In the time I tested them Vossler ended up taking it down to half health by himself with just me tossing some healing every now and then so that should say how easy this is. =============================================================================== -=Tanking Note and some tips=- -6TNO- I think this part of the game is where tanks shine the brightest. Buy someone the Main Gauche, get them the Golden Shield, the shield block licenses and gauntlets accessory and blind every mark you can and watch as everything struggles in vain to hit your tank. A couple ignore evade though(such as Marilith) so be prepared for those cases. Also believe it or not but I usually go with a low HP tank(pre-decoy) as most mobs in the game tend to focus on the lowest HP(later it seems to switch to defense, but you'll have decoy) but I also have a High HP one as well. There are several different ways to do this. Simply don't get your tank topped off and keep his current HP lower than others, get everyone else the +HP licenses or simply use the person who has the lowest natural HP. Call me crazy but it's worked well for me over two playthroughs, at least early on. As I said once you get decoy you can pretty much through that concept out of the water. Also your clan rank will jump up quite a bit when doing these hunts(assuming you've cleared everything else so far). Defeat two and you should be a Headhunter(IIRC) and you can buy the Nihopalaoa which reverses the effects of items and gives you a guarenteed way to inflicted harmful status(ie Eye drops = blind, Phoenix down = death, ect...). You can also get Reverse which you probably don't have enough MP to really use at this point though with some clever use of it you can use it to more easily make it past some gruesome situations(remember that it has an extremely short duration though you may be able to use some chrono tears if the enemy just attacks the nearest...) Down another 2 and your rank should be Ward of Justice which allows you to buy the Bubble spell. You can now pretend your tank is twice the level(or everyone though it's expensive to keep up like that at this point). By the time you wrap up the last 3 you should be able to buy Faith as well. Also I do realize that some of these can be done before completing raithwall however I missed at which point they first become available. I have nearly a save per mark so I'll eventually go back to wyvern lord to try a bit more. =============================================================================== =============================== Croakadile ======================-600J-==== =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- Statistics --------------------------------- HP | MP | STR | MAG | VIT | SPD | ATK | DEF | MRES | EVA | LP | CP 19449 | 780 | 29 | 18 | 57 | 13 | 35 | 13 | 13 | 2 | 10 | 1440 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Elemental Resistance ---------------------------- Fire | Lightning | Ice | Earth | Water | Wind | Holy | Dark Weak | Half | Half | Half | Absorb | Half | Half | Half ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Status ----------------------------------- Blind | Sleep | Slow | Silence | Poison Yes | Immune | Yes | Yes | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confuse | Oil | Disable | Stop | Sap Immune | Immune | Immune | Immune | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Berserk | Disease | Immobilize | Reverse | Renew Immune | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steal: Horn, Pointed Horn, Aries Gem ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Skills ----------------------------------- 1. Angelsong - Buffs with Regen 2. Gnaw 3. Growing Threat - Doubles level, increases attack power 4. Aqua Bubbles - High damage to those in front 5. Renew - Will use at low health if no one is targeted ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- Location --------------------------------- Giza Plains/Starfall Field Must be during the rains. Appears just across the bridge by the sunstone. Return to the man who is at Nomad Village during the rains for the Hunt reward and you can give the ring to the Elder at Nomad Village during the Dry --------------------------------- Strategy --------------------------------- Level 16 - Recommended 25+ Pretty easy if you follow my tanking advice in the note above. Immediately blind it and as long as it stays on your tank you can beat it without it ever damaging anyone. If not things will hurt a bit when he does Growing Threat plus he comboes more frequently at critical. I only got hit twice the whole fight and that was when penelo got too close and he turned and swatted her early for minimal damage and then later after Growing Threat he turned and used Aqua Bubbles on her which hit her for 1k...Basch has the most HP at this level for me at 770 so um, stay spread out a bit. Alternately you can use immobilize to keep him pinned down About Renew: Croakadile will use Renew if no one is immediately in range for him to attack. Be aware the game can be funky when it comes to people dying and especially when dismissing espers and there can be brief periods where an enemy cannot target you. Since reverse can work on Croakadile you could take advantage of that. =============================================================================== =============================================================================== ================================ Enkelados ======================-600K-==== =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- Statistics --------------------------------- HP | MP | STR | MAG | VIT | SPD | ATK | DEF | MRES | EVA | LP | CP 18709 | 210 | 27 | 12 | 56 | 12 | 34 | 12 | 8 | 0 | 9 | 1210 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Elemental Resistance ---------------------------- Fire | Lightning | Ice | Earth | Water | Wind | Holy | Dark Half | Half | Half | Absorb | Weak | Half | Half | Normal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Status ----------------------------------- Blind | Sleep | Slow | Silence | Poison Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confuse | Oil | Disable | Stop | Sap Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Berserk | Disease | Immobilize | Reverse | Yes | Yes | Yes | Immune | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steal: Potion, Earth Magicite, Slaven Harness ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Skills ----------------------------------- 1. Spin Kick - Hits all close to him 2. Gnaw ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- Location --------------------------------- Ozmone Plains/The Shred Northern Part. Kill all and then reenter. Watchout for Bull Croc(and Aeros) if it's there as well --------------------------------- Strategy --------------------------------- Level 17 - Recommended 25+ This guy is really easy. Just check out how much crap you can inflict on him? For kicks I chose to put him to sleep and nuke him with magick and horology/traveler =============================================================================== =============================================================================== =============================== Ring Wyrm ======================-600M-==== =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- Statistics --------------------------------- HP | MP | STR | MAG | VIT | SPD | ATK | DEF | MRES | EVA | LP | CP 128648 | 999 | 38 | 22 | 74 | 11 | 49 | 18 | 21 | 0 | 16 | 6300 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Elemental Resistance ---------------------------- Fire | Lightning | Ice | Earth | Water | Wind | Holy | Dark Weak | Half | Half | Half | Absorb | Half | Half | Half ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Status ----------------------------------- Blind | Sleep | Slow | Silence | Poison Yes | Immune | Yes | Immune | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confuse | Oil | Disable | Stop | Sap Yes | Immune | Immune | Immune | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Berserk | Disease | Immobilize | Reverse | Immune | Immune | Yes | Immune | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steal: Phoenix Down, Hi-Potion, Water Magicite ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Skills ----------------------------------- 1. Rake - Short ranged attack 2. Flame Breath - Hits all targets in a large arc to the front, inflicts sap 3. Fira/Blizzara/Thundaga 4. Immobilizga - Immobilizes target and nearby foes 5. Restore - Refills some health, usable only once Passive: Ignores Evade after using Restore Counters after using Restore 0 CT at critical ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- Location --------------------------------- Dalmasca Westersands/Windtrace Dunes, SW part. Easiest way is to warp to Dalmasca Westersands and exit out east and you should see him to the south. There needs to be a sandstorm. As far as getting a sandstorm exit out of the westersands and go back in till there is one. It's best to do this before earth tyrant since it seems to be infinitely harder to get a sandstorm after defeating it. With earth tyrant you can force a sandstorm by entering his area in the NE of the eastersands(Wyrm's next IIRC). --------------------------------- Strategy --------------------------------- Level 16/17 - Recommended 30+ The most notable thing about this guy is his high HP and his ability to do a one time health restore. Other than that he's slow and he mostly attacks physically with the rare Fira/Thundara. He also has a flame breath which hits everyone in an arc in front of him and inflicts sap so don't clump up. He can also confuse with his attacks and casts immobilizga. The first priority is to blind it and get him focused on your meat shield. Once blind have someone slow it and reapply it when it wears off. Try manually casting Blind with all 3 chars till it lands. If your tank has the Main Gauche, Golden Shield, Gauntlets, and Blocking augments you'll block nearly everything. Use Esuna to remove status effects. He's slow so ranged attacks can kite him around if they are targeted. He has pretty retarded pathing around obstacles. Remember that he only heals once. As long as you don't group everyone up so they all get blasted by his flame breath at once you shouldn't be able to lose. Have your tank use Hi-Potions at low health and heal as normal with cure/cura. Watch for when he targets someone else and immediately switch to that person and run away from him in circles, preferably around a rock or something. If you happened to run across a Hand-Bomb I don't suggest them since unlike the other ranged weapons they can be countered and he counters quite a bit Sometimes it's good to be challenged, thanks to Lore Spell I've come to realize I overlooked some important info. I used to think that he just got lucky at low health and started connecting a bit more. After 10 minutes or so you stop paying attention to miss/block but now that I've come back and fought him again I see I was wrong. After he uses restore he starts to ignore evade and if he's not blind by this point it's highly unlikely you'll be able to beat it(unless you go the ranged attacks + immobilize/kiting). Also he'll start using spells a lot especially if his target is outside of melee range. Try equipping the manufacted nethecite on your tank(or use reflect either buffing or ruby rings, mosphoran highwastes merchant) which halves the damage of his breath attack and his spells and use uncounterable attacks like technicks or bows/guns. Don't forget protect/shell on the tank. +HP Augments are helpful for the tank as written in the Tank section. You'll do a good bit of healing so be ready to do some charging. Keeping it slowed after it uses restore helps but once it hits critical stop using slow since it'll have 0 CT. What you may want do is have someone try to keep immobilize on it and just use ranged attacks. Or simply use a ranged weapon and keep running away from it while firing. Just keep at it, it'll take awhile. This is an endurance fight --- Depending on the order you are doing these marks you should be a Headhunter now. You can now by Reverse and the Nihopalaoa in the muthra bazaar. I'm gonna go out of my way to farm some LP to equip it(and gil to buy it...) since it makes testing status immunities far easier on me =============================================================================== =============================================================================== ============================== Gil Snapper =====================-600L-==== =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- Statistics --------------------------------- HP | MP | STR | MAG | VIT | SPD | ATK | DEF | MRES | EVA | LP | CP 86956 | 999 | 35 | 24 | 77 | 12 | 55 | 22 | 23 | 0 | 20 | 3830 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Elemental Resistance ---------------------------- Fire | Lightning | Ice | Earth | Water | Wind | Holy | Dark Half | Weak | Absorb | Half | Half | Half | Half | Half ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Status ----------------------------------- Blind | Sleep | Slow | Silence | Poison Yes | Immune | Yes | Yes | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confuse | Oil | Disable | Stop | Sap Immune | Immune | Immune | Immune | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Berserk | Disease | Immobilize | Reverse | Renew Immune | Yes | Yes | Immune | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steal: 1000 gil, 2000 gil, 4000 gil ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Skills ----------------------------------- 1. Blizzara - Moderate ice damage to target and nearby targets 2. Disablega - Disables target and nearby targets 3. Flash - Blinds target and nearby targets 4. Flatten - Hits all targets to the front 5. Blizzaga - High ice damage to target and nearby targets(Only at Critical) 6. Purify - Removes harmful status Passive Damage Reflection - Part of the damage you do is done to you 0 magic CT at critical Last Stand Damage Reduction - Gained at critical ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- Location --------------------------------- You can only find the client during the Rains at the "Crystal Glade". Talk to her and she'll tell you that you can find it in "Tracks of the Beast" but you need to find a way to cross over to it. If you look up from her you'll see a dead withered tree. Examine it and you should get the option to chop it down and do so. You'll need to find 5 more which can be found in the following places in Giza Plains during the Rains, for completeness in case someone doesn't read or skips over the part about the one by the client I'll list it first: Crystal Glade Starfall Field Toam Hills Nomad Village Gizas North Bank Throne Road After you can cross to "Tracks of the Beast" from "Gizas South Field". You'll find Bansat from Clan Centurio there to help. Pay attention to what he says as he'll tell you when Gil Snapper is up. If he says that the mark isn't up just exit and reenter "Tracks of the Beast" until he does. If you have to exit out for some reason after engaging and come back later I don't believe he will say. You'll have to exit/reenter until you get a very, very stormy atmosphere. After killing it you can meet them in Nomad Village when it's Dry. From what I can tell the weather won't start changing until sometime after you advance the story. Try after Henne mines or stilshrine. --------------------------------- Strategy --------------------------------- Level 17 - Recommended 30+ Remember Rocktoise? Yeah nearly the exact same thing only this one can cast some spells. Fix that by silencing it with either silence shot(gun ammo) or the silence spell. Immobilize seems to have an easier time landing or it could just be me also Bansat will sometimes immobilize it. Keep your buffs up and keep it silenced and you'll be fine. If you aren't kiting it then try to blind/slow it. He is easily tankable with a good setup(Main Gauche, Golden Shield, Heavy Armor, Blocking Augments and Gauntlets). If you have the Nihopalaoa you can insure you silence it right away by using an echo herb and blind it with an Eye drop. Or you can hit him with a bunch at once with a remedy. He may use purify so you'll have to reapply any you want. =============================================================================== =============================================================================== ============================== White Mousse ====================-600N-==== =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- Statistics --------------------------------- HP | MP | STR | MAG | VIT | SPD | ATK | DEF | MRES | EVA | LP | CP 69469 | 999 | 36 | 25 | 69 | 16 | 60 | 35 | 18 | 0 | 24 | 3420 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Elemental Resistance ---------------------------- Fire | Lightning | Ice | Earth | Water | Wind | Holy | Dark Weak | Half | Half | Half | Absorb | Half | Half | Half ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Status ----------------------------------- Blind | Sleep | Slow | Silence | Poison Yes | Yes | Immune | Immune | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confuse | Oil | Disable | Stop | Sap Yes | Immune | Immune | Immune | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Berserk | Disease | Immobilize | Reverse | Yes | Yes | Immune | Immune | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steal: Potion, Echo Herbs, Hi-Potion ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Skills ----------------------------------- 1. Flash - Technick that causes blind to target and nearby foes 2. Toxify - Inflicts poison to target and nearby foes 3. Slowga - Inflicts slow to target and nearby foes 4. Waterga - Moderate water damage to target and nearby foes 5. Slap - Short Range attack, fast startup ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- Location --------------------------------- Garamsythe Waterway/West Sluice Control From the save point(Central Waterway Control, second room in after entering) take the a WEST exit to WEST No. 10 channel. (Note that both the east and west rooms are both called No. 10 channel, you need to go to the west side). When you enter the west area you will see that the mini-map shows that the upper paths connect unlike the area map. Staying on the upper path, use the connecting little connecting stairs to make you're way over and down to West Sluice Control. If you need to check out the video at the end of the strategy or search youtube. There are several vids by others on there that show how to get to him. Alternate just try every exit till you find one that is not flooded, by default all other areas BUT the west No. 10 channel are flooded so by the process of elimination you'll find the only way you can go and must go. --------------------------------- Strategy --------------------------------- Level 17 - Recommended 30+ Being a flan it tends to spend most of it's time casting. It's main attack is Watera and it also uses toxify, slowga and flash. Other than that it has the normal flan attacks like slap. There are many strategies to beat this guy and depending on how you fight it could be the most difficult hunt up to this point or another easy one. A tip for clearing up to him is to just run through(Hold down R2 to flee) No. 10 Channel and use warp or warp motes to easily get rid of the malboros once you get to the West Sluice Control area. Alternately if you have the Nihopalaoa you can use that with phoenix downs to kill them. If an elemental is in the area you can either reload or try to beat it. When you spawn White mousse I suggest pulling him up the stairs to avoid getting the Lizard which is hidden in the upper corner. Strategy 1: This is the most common. Basically all you do is berserk him and blind him. This is a good strategy if you have a party of melee with shields. It can put a strain on your healing if you have more of a balanced team or mage heavy team as it bounces from target to target(unless you have advanced the story to where you have decoy). Berserk misses often as well as wears off so you'll have to be on your toes the entire time. At low level I found berserk to be much, much more troublesome as he hits just as hard physically as with magic. Strategy 2: This is the easiest way to do it. Just put him to sleep and use fire magick or technicks to kill it. If you have the Nihopalaoa you can easily do this with alarm clocks. If not I suggest getting it blind and also use reflect to survive until you can get sleep to hit. I really, really suggest niho at low levels, you'll just miss too often otherwise. Belias also works well. If you are far enough along that you have Fira try reflecting it off your own party. It took about 15 alarm clocks and a handful of phoenix downs and hi-potions. I didn't really need to use hi-potions at all and in fact that lead to a couple deaths because I forgot to turn the auto-potion off the nihopalaoa user. Poor Penelo...(you'll notice a pattern with her >_>). Other than that a couple slaps and Fran went down. *cough* Anyway...this is the strategy I used to beat him at level 17. Strategy 3: This works at lower levels if you have a guest. Just cast reflect on everyone and attack. Skills that ignore defense are good to use. Nearly everything he does will be reflected back at him. You can reduce the amount he is healed by his Watera by casting shell on him and spreading out so as few as possible people reflect it. Bring plenty of Eye drops and Hi-Potions. Strategy 4: Later on in the game you can buy Viking coats. Equip these and it's basically an instant win as they nullify his main attack, waterga Here's a vid of the path to the mark, how to clear out malboros with warp and strategy 2, and yes a rank V takes some time to kill with just fire. I use a couple ruby rings to make it a bit quicker. You can buy them in Mosphoran Highwastes, same as the golden amulets/Thief cuffs. None too exciting and just for those who want to see it done or see the power that is nihopalaoa: http://files.filefront.com/whiteblankwmv/;6279364;;/fileinfo.html =============================================================================== =============================================================================== ================================ Orthros =======================-600O-==== =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- Statistics --------------------------------- HP | MP | STR | MAG | VIT | SPD | ATK | DEF | MRES | EVA | LP | CP 87141 | 999 | 37 | 25 | 72 | 16 | 64 | 35 | 23 | 0 | 25 | 3600 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Elemental Resistance ---------------------------- Fire | Lightning | Ice | Earth | Water | Wind | Holy | Dark Weak | Half | Half | Half | Absorb | Half | Half | Half ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Status ----------------------------------- Blind | Sleep | Slow | Silence | Poison Yes | Yes | Immune | Immune | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confuse | Oil | Disable | Stop | Sap Immune | Immune | Immune | Immune | Immune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Berserk | Disease | Immobilize | Reverse | Immune | Yes | Immune | Immune | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steal: Phoenix Down, Caramel, Slime Oil ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Skills ----------------------------------- 1. Darkra - Moderate Dark damage to target and nearby foes 2. Thundara - Moderate Lightning damage to target and nearby foes 3. Slowga - Inflicts slow on target and nearby foes 5. Mythril Bubbles - Physical attack that hits all foes in front 7. Bleed - Inflicts sap 8. Flash - Inflicts blind to target and nearby targets(not a spell) 9. Break - Inflicts petrify on target and nearby targets 10. Lunge - Physical attack with some range, instant startup 11. Phantasmal Gaze - Confuses 12. Thundaga Passive Last Stand ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- Location --------------------------------- Garamsythe Waterway/Southern Sluiceway. It's the room to the right of the one where you find White Mousse. You do not have to mess with any of the water contro