--- Final Fantasy Tactics Calculator Challenge FAQ --- --- by UltimaterializerX --- --- Version 1.9, 03/09/05 --- +++++++++++++++++++ + Version History + +++++++++++++++++++ Version 1.9 - Fixed some minor errors. Version 1.8 - I have recently switched to gmail, and as a result am updating my contact information on my guides. CJayC also went and renumbered the game boards on GameFAQs, so I'm updating the links at the bottom as well. Version 1.7 - Thanks to arkenaga pointing out how stupid I am, I noticed that some of the links I had in the Contact Information section were outdated. But not anymore =) Version 1.6 - After reading through the help files, I`ve discovered that the proper way to list the version of your FAQ was not to go by whole numbers every time you add silly little things. As such, I went back and changed the version numbers to reflect common sense. Version 1.5 - falcon815 has finally completed the SCC. Kudos to him, and this update will pretty much be me adding his stuff into the guide. Please note that it may seem like I`m really not adding all that much. This is because the only things I`m really adding are the things that I haven`t covered already. Also take note that falcon now has his own little section at the bottom. That`s the reward for completing the SCC and telling me how you did it. It`s the best I can do, and hopefully, it motivates someone out there. Version 1.4 - I sat on this guide all the way through four versions before I finally decided to run it through a spellchecker. Doesn`t that just suck? It was a pain, too, because this guide was written on Wordpad, which doesn`t have a spellchecker. I had to copy-paste the entire thing to Microsoft Word, spellcheck it, then transfer the entire thing back to Wordpad. Pain in the ass. The usual people pointed out a ton of errors, and most of them were fixed after doing some actual proofreading. I will continue to check the SCC board regularly to see if anyone has spotted anything new, so if you catch anything I may have missed, feel free to point it out. On a side note, does anyone know of a good writing program that can type in a text format that actually has a spellchecker on it? I was thinking of using Word 97, but I can`t figure out how to get it to type more than 70 characters per line while it`s in the text-only format. Version 1.3 - Ok, I`ve had my fun with chococid for the time being. My apologies, and hopefully it was all taken in jest. I tweaked the anti-choco in the guide, and everything now comes off as a complete joke, as it should. As for technical stuff, I fixed a typo. Wow. Version 1.2 - I finally got off of my lazy ass and got down and dirty with fixing some things. Saturngohan, Zaku X/Y (??), falcon815, and Sopranotek were the big helpers in this aspect, though I left it "gam", for humor purposes. More on that later. To a lesser extent, chococid deserves some credit, as well, as he was one of the many who provided random theories for each battle, and in some cases, they were indeed rather helpful. As for specifics, I fixed everything that people saw wrong with the guide, which turned out to be quite a few things. Hopefully, I spotted everything. If I have not, however, I am openly accepting all contributions to the guide itself on the SCC board. The link to the SCC board is at the bottom of the guide within the Contact Information section. Version 1.1 - I fixed an error or two here and there. I mistakingly said that you need some team members to be of the Sagittarius Zodiac sign, which was quite stupid. Also, when I first wrote this FAQ, I sat for a long time with my credits, because I KNEW I had forgotten someone. Sure enough, I accidentally left out Mike (you may know him better as Mooglelicious). I must have still been upset over the Yankees losing, I guess. Lastly, falcon815 is almost done the Calculator SCC himself. While most people think he`s just taking my strategies and putting them into effect, there are a few differences between the way he and I went through this nasty little SCC, and eventually, he`ll have a section here all for himself. But that`s in a later version. In THIS version, I fixed a couple of errors, and corrected my Credits section. That`s pretty much it. Oh, and due to the unanimous negativity surrounding my decision to fool around with the level caps in the Solo SCCs, I have removed that question from the FAQ section. And that, as they say, is that. Stay tuned for 3.0, which will be much bigger in terms of additions. Version 1.0 - Finally, I have completed the Calculator SCC. As such, the only thing that was left to do was to write an FAQ on how I did it in the first place. Expect the usual minor errors of a first version of an FAQ, which will, of course, be fixed when I notice them. Also, keep in mind that practically the entire FAQ was done from memory. If anyone spots something that is wrong, don`t hesitate to e-mail me. +++++++++++++++++++++ + Table of Contents + +++++++++++++++++++++ I. So What Exactly IS a Calculator Challenge, Anyway? II. The Calculator Challenge: Getting Started a. Gariland Magic City b. The Soldier Office c. Delita`s Mandalia Setup d. The Mandalia Plains e. The Sweegy Woods f. Getting Your Calculators Ready III. Walkthrough for the Impossible Dream i. Chapter 1: The Meager a. Delita`s Chapter 1 Setup b. Dorter Trade City c. Zeklaus Desert d. Thieves Fort e. Lenalia Plateau f. Windmill Shed g. Fort Zeakden ii. Chapter 2: The Manipulator and the Subservient a. Dorter Trade City b. Araguay Woods c. Zirekile Falls d. STICKS! e. Zaland fort City f. Bariaus Hill g. Zigolis Swamp h. Levelling up to 35 i. Goug Machine City j. Bariaus Valley k. Golgorand Execution Site l. Gate of Lionel Castle m. Queklain iii. Chapter 3: The Valinat a. Goland Coal City b. Lesalia Imperial Capital c. Getting Necessary Equipment d. Underground Book Storage Second Floor e. Underground Book Storage Third Floor f. Underground Book Storage First Floor g. Grog Hill h. Yardow Fort City i. Yuguo Woods j. Pre-Riovanes Checklist k. Gate of Riovanes l. Weigraf/Velius m. Roof of Riovanes Castle iv. Chapter 4: Someone to Love a. Doguola Pass b. Bervenia Free City c. Levelling Down d. Finath River e. Zeltennia f. Levelling Back Up g. Bed Desert h. South Wall of Bethla Garrison i. Bethla Garrison Sluice j. Germinas Peak k. Poeskas Lake l. Gate of Limberry Castle m. Inside of Limberry Castle n. Zalera o. Igros Castle p. Murond Temple q. Inside of Murond Temple r. Zalbag s. Orbonne Preperations t. Underground Book Storage Fourth Floor u. Underground Book Storage Fifth Floor v. Murond Death City w. Lost Sacred Presincts x. Hashmalum y. Altima IV. Frequently Asked Questions V. Credits/Special Thanks VI. Falcon`s FAQ/Special Thanks VII. Disclaimer/Contact Information +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + I. So What Exactly IS a Calculator Challenge, Anyway? + +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Ah, the million dollar question. Long ago, a debate ensued: What would happen if 5 Chemists were in a battle with 5 Preists? The debate sparked ideas of how other 5 member parties would fare in FFT. A poster named MunkiBleedsGreen then created an idea called the Straight Character Challenge (SCC), slapped together an FAQ for it, and an FFT legend was born. In the beginning, the question was whether or not all of these SCCs were even possible. After all, the game has 20 job classes, and little was known about how some could get through the tight spots. Over a year after the original inception of the SCC, however, 19 classes proved very doable, with one very notable exception: Calculator. How in the blue hell could a team of Calculators ever get through the game of Final Fantasy Tactics without their precious Math Skill? See, the basic idea of the SCC is to go through the game with a single job class, without using any abilities outside of the class. As such, Calculators had to go through the game with nothing but Damage Split and their weapons. There are other rules, of course, such as level caps, but the basic idea is easy enough to follow. For more details, go check out Munki`s FAQ. It is a true work of art. Anyway, it was eventually deemed that the Calculator SCC was impossible without the use of Math Skill, and until very recently, there was absolutely nothing to disprove this claim. Around the summer of 2002, I, like many others before me, set out to try and prove the impossible more than possible. Though it took me well over a year to finally complete the challenge, it has been completed. What follows is my work, from start to finish, in great detail of how I was able to get through the game with SCC Math Skill-less Calculators. Hopefully, someone reads this, and uses it to their advantage. A word of warning, however, to those who dare to try and complete this SCC. It is VERY frustrating. In the middle of doing this, I found "free" time to play all the way through FF5, FF6, some of Kingdom Hearts, Super Smash Brothers: Melee, and Chrono Trigger. Sure, this was the main reason it took me so long to do, but sanity had to be retained. As I proceeded further and further through the challenge, more and more people started pushing me to complete this "impossible" task. Though I may have been rather annoyed at the actual time of this going on, I don`t think I would have found the fortitude to keep going without you guys. For that, I thank you, and credit will no doubt be given to each and every one of you, in no particular order, at the end of this document. As a last note, there are spoilers ahead. If you e-mail me and tell me that this guide ruined FFT for you, I will laugh at you for quite a long time. It should also be noted that this guide, obviously, is not meant to be a normal walkthrough. If that`s what you`re looking for, you`re in the wrong place. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + II. The Calculator Challenge: Getting Started + +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Let`s get right into the nitty-gritty, shall we? You need 9 units to get through the game. 4 of them need to be Gemini, 4 others should be Torii or Sagittarius, and lastly, Ramza MUST be a Pisces. No exceptions. He needs to survive for a very, very long time at that Lionel Castle Gate battle, and if Gafgarion isn`t doing 27 damage per night Sword, this battle becomes a FAR bigger problem than it already is. But before we even get into the beginnings of getting our Calculators ready, there is another, far bigger, matter to discuss. From the beginning of the game all the way until you get sticks, you will be doing practically no damage at all. EVERYTHING will rely on your guests, especially Delita, and if he is not very high-powered from the start, all hell will break loose. As such, we need to get him to total uber-ness, don`t we? It`s not as hard as you may think, however. It`s more time-consuming than anything else. Then again, you have nothing but time on your hands if you`re actually thinking of going through with this, so let`s get started. --- a. Gariland Magic City --- Enemies: 3 Male Squires, 1 Female Squire, 1 Male Chemist Enemy Levels: Very low Units to Use: Ramza, your 2 Chemists, and your 2 Male Squires Objective: Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 1/10 Right off the bat, there are strategies to follow. Such is the nature of this challenge. Your starting team should consist of Ramza, 2 Male Squires, and both of your Chemists. The battle itself is not hard at all. Then again, it never is. The trick here is that you`re looking to get Delita enough Job Points (JP) for Auto Potion, Potion, and Hi Potion. Our goal for Chapter 1 Delita is to turn him into a Knight with Auto Potion, and to eventually have Auto Potion set to recover him 70 HP every time he gets hit. As a backup plan, he will have Item secondary, so that he can heal himself if need be. Furthermore, it should be noted that it is more than possible to get Delita enough Squire JP by the end of this fight to teach him Move +1, which is a HUGE bonus for him in the Knight class. Anyway, get into the flow of battle. Send Ramza up the roof to deal with the female Squire, and allow your other three fighters, Delita and the two Squires, to battle the opposing Squires. When the battle is under your control, attack Delita until he is in critical status. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT kill him. He needs to be alive to get the mass amount of shared JP that is coming his way in a few minutes. Once everything is under control, kill off every enemy, with the lone exception of the Chemist. Trap him with your two Chemists in a corner (this may take a lot of work), and be sure not to trap him on the roof. I trapped him on the roof myself, and I almost paid for it big time. A critical hit knocked him off, and he survived the fall by 2 Hit Points. Trust me, the rooftop is a big no-no. Anyway, trap the Chemist, and begin attacking him with your Chemists. With the enemy having an infinite amount of items, you can attack him all day long if you have to, because he will keep healing himself. Repeat this process, and regularly check Delita`s status screen and job info. When he has enough JP for Auto Potion, Potion, Hi Potion, and Move +1, feel free to kill the Chemist, because at this point, Delita is built up to the point of being able to carry you through Chapter 1 single-handedly. The ONLY downfall to this is that the Red Panther at Mandalia, the monsters in Sweegy Woods, and all random battle enemies will be at your level, which will be around 10 by the end of this fight. You didn`t expect this to be easy, did you? --- b. The Soldier Office --- Prepare to spend a very long time here. Not only do you need eight units, but you`re also looking for specific zodiac signs, as well as near-perfect Brave and Faith values. Don`t believe me? Go do it for yourself. It`s not uncommon to spend four hours in the soldier office getting the right units. But then again, for a challenge hard as this one, preparation is key, and everything can easily be lost before it starts if things aren`t done well near the beginning of the game. To keep things simple, what we are looking for in the soldier office are as follows: Number of units: 8 Sex: All female Brave: 70. Period. You can get away with some units at 68 Brave, but I don`t personally recommend this. There is a battle in chapter 2 where you can and will lose Brave points, so keep that in mind if you`re going to be lazy and not go for 70 Brave on everyone. Faith: 40/70. NeoElfboy noted that 40 Faith for Velius is key for surviving Cyclops. 41 at the VERY most. I got lucky and managed to Damage Split Titan twice, though had Velius used nothing but Cyclops, the battle may have been unbeatable, due to me being a moron and having scattered Faith values between 40-44. Anyway, the 40 Faith is necessary for your Taurus/Capricorn units. They will be doing most of your fighting for you. In fact, the only story battles where I actually used my Gemini were Queklain, Bed Desert, and Balk 2. Other than that, they were literally doing not much more than taking up space. It has also been postulated that a single Pisces female can be used instead of one of the aforementioned zodiac signs for the sole purpose of making Golgorand a bit easier. This has merit, though it can cause holy hell come Bed Desert. Still, it`s a good theory, and one worth looking into. Thankfully, we have someone doing this as we speak. Zodiac Signs: You need 4 Gemini, and 4 Torii/Capricorns. Falcon815 suggests using a Pisces in place of one of the Gemini, which seems like a great method on paper. It WILL make Golgorand and the Lionel Gate battles far easier. The problem is Bed Desert, obviously. The whole reason for me having 4 Geminis was this one battle, and I BARELY won the damned thing. It seems more than possible, however, to get past this fight with high levels should you choose that one Pisces. The choice is yours. Personally, I`d stick with the Gemini, but that`s only because that`s what worked for me. Oh, and you did make Ramza a Pisces, yes? You know, late February - early March? Please tell me you did. And if you didn`t, I would LOVE to see you get past Lionel Castle`s Gate. Oh, and as a completely shameless plug, the game recognizes February 21st, my birthday, as Pisces. Go me. You may find that you don`t have nearly enough money to afford all of these units right away, which is fine. Just remember to strip and boot all of your generics, and to sell off all of their equipment. Furthermore, sell off all of your Items, save the Phoenix Downs, Potions, and Hi Potions. If you still don`t have enough, keep in mind that you only need 3 units for the Mandalia battle, and the rest can easily be bought later. One final note is on the HP of the units you buy. You may want to consider only buying units at the upper end of the HP spectrum (I believe that the max HP value for a female level 1 Squire is either 42 or 43, but I`m not 100% sure), to give you a small boost. It should be noted on the other hand, however, that you will be spending time in the Squire and Priest classes, which will give you much-needed HP boosts per level up in those classes. The reason I mention this is because your max HP will GREATLY affect whether or not you`re able to get past the Velius fight. For the BMG nuts out there, here`s why: [Q * C-MA * (T-FA/100) * (C-FA/100)] = Damage That`s your basic formula for calculating faith-based attacks. In English, the game multiplies the Q value of the spell cast, the MA of the user, and then slaps a decimal point in front of the respective Faiths of both caster and target before adding them into the equation as well. Take all of those numbers, throw them into a blender, press the button that says "Hi-Powered Smoothie", and you get your final damage total. For those who don`t feel like looking the numbers up, I did it for you, because I love you all like that. Q Value for Cyclops: 50 Velius` MA: 12 Velius` Faith: 70 Target`s Faith: 40, but it can vary depending on what you did in the soldier office. In English: [50 * 12 * .7 * .4] = 168 points of damage from Cyclops It doesn`t seem like much damage, but it can cause a problem if your Faith is above 40. After all, you`ll be wearing Wizard Robes in that fight, which will be a big blow to your max HP. Therefore, do spend some time to gain an extra level or two in the Squire and Priest classes. You do NOT want to do all of the work to get to Velius and not have enough max HP to be able to survive Cyclops. Many, many thanks to NeoElfboy for help on this section, especially Velius` MA, and the bit about much-needed Squire/Priest HP falcon says that most of what I said is perfectly okay, with the exception of one of the Gemini units. A party consisting of three Gemini and a Pisces will make Golgorand easier, as a female Pisces will have the best compatibility with Gafgarion. As for the Taurus/Capricorn units, any combination works fine, though falcon also recommends 2/2. For everything you gain or lose with zodiacs in the Adramelk/Zalbag battles, it is balanced out. --- c. Delita`s Mandalia Setup --- Job: Squire Primary Ability: Guts Secondary Ability: Item Reaction Ability: Auto Potion Support Ability: It Doesn`t Matter Movement Ability: Move +1 That should be enough to carry you through Mandalia without any headaches. It should be noted that for the Mandalia fight, you MUST choose not to save Algus. You will gain 2 Brave points this way, and as everyone knows by now, Brave is the lifeline of the Calculator. It must be as high as possible, at all times. The other thing I`d like to point out is that Algus doesn`t need to be superpowered like Delita for you to get through Chapter 1. He can actually be left alone with minimal loss. If, however, you want to level him up for an easier time, consider trying to get him to Delita`s setup through the battles at Mandalia and Sweegy. It will, however, take awhile, and it`s virtually unnecessary. He`s only going to be around for two battles, and Delita`s current setup is more than enough for him to handle those battles with ease. --- d. The Mandalia Plains --- Enemies: 1 Red Panther, 1 Male Thief, 4 Male Squires Enemy Levels: All of the enemies are at horribly low levels, including the Red Panther. Thanks to Zaku X/Y (??) for pointing out this error. Units to Use: Ramza + your three weakest Squires Objective: Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 1/10 This battle is a snoozefest, and the only real challenge is that Red Panther being at your level. Then again, Delita has Auto Potion, Ramza is at a high level as well, and you still have Algus to back you up should you actually need to do so. Hell, the SCC hasn`t even started yet, and you`re more than free enough to have Item as a secondary ability on everyone to get by. Do with Algus however you see fit, though I promise you that leveling him up is a waste of time, and proceed to completely power own (pwn) this battle. The one exception to this rule is if, God forbid, Delita isn`t at the desired setup yet. This is your chance to get him some last-minute JP to get him what he needs. --- e. The Sweegy Woods --- Enemies: 1 Red Panther, 2 Bombs, 2 Goblins, 1 Black Goblin Enemy Levels: Equal to yours Units to Use: Ramza + your three weakest Squires Objective: Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 3/10 Help! This battle can actually look tough with all of those powerlevelled enemies! Oh, wait... I can still slap on Item, and Delita is currently, shall we say, God. This battle is harder than normal, but still, not a problem. Simply beware of Self Destruct, and you`ll be fine. --- f. Getting Your Calculators Ready --- By now, you should already have Delita and Algus ready to go. All that`s left to do is to get everyone into the Calculator class, and to teach all of them Damage Split. Sounds easy enough, and in all honesty, it really is. For starters, everyone should be Squires. Teach any and everyone Accumulate, Gained JP-Up, and Move +1. With those three abilities slapped on to any of the mage classes that you must pass through, you will have very few problems in getting those classes their required JP. So, get working. The prerequisites for Calculator, by the way, are a Level 4 Wizard, a Level 4 Priest, a Level 3 Time Mage, and lastly, a Level 3 Oracle. Get to those levels however you see fit. Once you start unlocking the Calculator class for your whopping 9 units, mix your units in battle. Sending in 5 Calculators and trying to teach them all Damage Split at once will simply not work without non-Calculator abilities. If you have to send them in one by one, one battle at a time, with mage support, I won`t insult you. Technically, purists could say that this is against the SCC spirit, so to speak, but I doubt anyone will honestly see a big problem with taking an extra step or two to teach everyone Damage Split. It`s not like this challenge has a lack of difficulty or anything. Anyway, do what you have to do to get everyone into the Calculator class, and from there, do whatever you have to do to teach everyone Damage Split. Bear in mind that there is a Sweegy Woods random battle or two that will feature 1-2 enemies. This is not only perfect for teaching everyone Damage Split, but later on, it makes for a perfect level up ground. It should also be noted that most of the Mandalia Plains random battles, boring as they may be, share most of Sweegy`s features as well. Once you finally have your team ready, and it will take quite a long time, ditch all of your non-Calculator abilities. From here on in, you have nothing but weapon damage, guests, and Damage Split. Good luck, because even with the proper preperation, you will need luck by the ton to make it all the way through. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + III. Walkthrough for the Impossible Dream + +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ^^^You know you love that title^^^ Anyway, a note on the Calculator setup. You will not use Math Skill once throughout this entire challenge, so spending any extra time teaching yourself anything in the main skillset early is a waste. I would like to out, however, that you should not teach yourself anything inside of the Math Skill set AT ALL. Sure, you won`t use it manually, but if an enemy happens to Confuse you, the AI will use it for you. It`s a longshot, but this can help you, and we don`t want that to happen. Besides, there is no fun in allowing Confused Calculators to kill Adramelk for you should he use Loss. As such, no Math Skill. At all. Don`t even teach it to yourself, because not only will you be tempted to use it, the AI doesn`t know you`re doing an SCC here. What you should commit to, however, are the experience abilities, most notably Gained EXP-Up. A lot of leveling is required for this challenge, and the sooner you get Gain EXP-Up, the better. The next skill on your list should be Move-Gain EXP. Those two abilities, along with Damage Split, are the only things that will ever see use. You`re better off not even worrying about teaching yourself anything else. A final thing I`d like to note before getting started is that for each battle, I`ve listed the enemies, a rough estimation of their levels, the units you should use in the battle, and my personal difficulty rating for the fight itself. There may be an error or two, so don`t think you`ll be giving me a shot to my ego for pointing something out that may be wrong. Main Ability: Math Skill Secondary Ability: (nothing) Reaction Ability: Damage Split Support Ability: Gained EXP-Up Movement Ability: Move-Gain EXP One last note is that for those end-of-chapter battles. Remember to take off your experience abilities, because you don`t want to go over the level cap by accident. === i. Chapter 1: The Meager === As hard as this chapter CAN be, you`ll long for the days of overpowered Auto Potion Delita once things are all said and done, should you get that far. That, however, is a problem to deal with later. For now, enjoy yourself. In every battle, you`ll find yourself running around like ants in an attempt to not die, while Algus and Delita do everything for you. You also lose Algus before the chapter`s hardest battle in Lenalia Plateau, making that battle pure hell if the AI decides to be smart. Still, this chapter isn`t long, and you`re most likely already near the level cap after opening up the Calculator class in the first place. Your HP won`t be god-awful, but you won`t be a bunch of walking battle tanks, either. Your basic strategy will be to stay away from the enemy, punch yourself, let your guests do their thing, and allow yourself to become targets to finish things up, should the need arise. You CAN follow Delita around and punch him to trigger Auto Potion, but I`d only do this in an emergency. Anyway, go get the latest equipment on everyone, along with Battle Boots for EVERYONE, and get going. --- a. Delita`s Chapter 1 Setup --- This should be a no-brainer. It`s exactly like the one you used before, only now, he`s a Knight, fitted with the latest fashion statements. Job: Knight Main Ability: Battle Skill Secondary Ability: Item Reaction Ability: Auto Potion Support Ability: It Matters Not, I Say Movement Ability: Move +1 --- b. Dorter Trade City --- Enemies: 1 Male Knight, 1 Long Bow Archer, 1 Cross Bow Archer, 1 Bow-less Archer (??), 2 Male Wizards Enemy Levels: Low enough to not worry about them Units to Use: Ramza + your low Faith units Objective: Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 6/10 Send in your three strongest low Faith Calculators, and start them all the way in the back. Keep in mind that you cannot change Ramza`s starting position, so it doesn`t matter where he goes. For starters, send everyone up the building. Don`t worry too much about the Long Bow Archer, because either Delita or Algus should be able to kill him long before he can cause any real damage. Then again, these are Calculators, and they suck. Who knows how much bad luck you`ll run across. Anyway, send them up the building along with your guests, and watch as they kill the Archer for you. Yay. Now stay as far away as you can, punch yourself for some much-needed JP and EXP, and watch as Delita and Algus do everything. In all likelihood, Algus will die, but that`s okay. It all depends on how much you taught him, really. In any case, if you stay far away from the action, you should be fine, though if an enemy gets close to you, you have Damage Split, so don`t panic. Also, if you see an enemy sitting around with HP in the lower end of the single digits, give him a good bop on the head. After you win this battle, give yourself a good pat on the back, and treat yourself to something really expensive. You just won your first-ever True Calc battle! --- c. Zeklaus Desert --- Enemies: 3 Male Knights, 2 Male Monks, 1 Male Archer Enemy Levels: Around the 5-6 range Units to Use: It doesn`t matter Objective: Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 5/10 For this battle, your best early option is to start as far away from the action as you possibly can. Sit back, punch yourself to build your stats, and let Delita and Algus do everything. What else can you do? Make sure you have a healthy supply of Potions for Auto Potion, and your guests should be set. The enemies don`t do a terrible amount of damage, so at least Delita should be fine. Beware of boredom, however, because this battle can take quite awhile if Algus goes down early, which happened to me. Not a terribly hard battle, just a long-ish one. --- d. Thieves Fort --- Enemies: Miluda (Female Knight), 3 Male Thieves, 2 Female Priests Enemy Levels: Around the 6-7 range Units to Use: Ramza + your low Faith units Objective: Defeat Miluda Difficulty: 5/10 This will be the first battle where the enemies are really able to come after you. Do not panic, because if Damage Split goes off most of the time, you`ll be fine. Furthermore, the enemies coming after you, especially the Priests with their Bolt spells, is a good thing. Damage Split will weaken them, making it that much easier for Delita and Algus to finish them off. I`m not saying rush your entire team forward, but don`t worry about if you`re being attacked. Once Algus and Delita are able to kill of a couple of enemies, Miluda will make her way over to your team. Surround her if you can, and hope that Damage Split does its thing whenever she hits you. With a little bit of luck (you will hear this word a LOT in this FAQ), this battle shouldn`t be too bad. Take note that this battle is one of the very reasons why you should not even be TEACHING yourself Math Skill abilities, let alone using them. A Thief Charms one of your girls, they let loose a spell, it accidentally hits Miluda, and you win. We wouldn`t want something like that happening. --- e. Lenalia Plateau --- Enemies: Miluda (Female Knight), 2 Female Knights, 2 Male Wizards, 1 Female Time Mage Enemy Levels: The range of the high single digits. Units to Use: Ramza + your low Faith units Objective: Defeat Miluda Difficulty: 7.5/10 Depending on how good or bad your luck is, this battle can be pure hell. It was for me, ad it took quite a awhile before I finally beat it. This battle is the one reason why I simply will never recommend for Delita to ever be a mage in this challenge. Originally, I made Delita a Wizard with Equip Sword in hopes of him using up his MP for Fire spells before being able to physically kill everything. With his low Faith (55), this was easily thrown into the rather large pile of my worst ideas ever. So I switched him to a Knight with Black Magic secondary. Oops! Sounds good on paper, but if Auto Potion fails, Delita cannot heal. Thank God I had the abilities necessary to make him a Knight with Auto Potion, Item, and Move +1. You`ll notice that this is the setup I recommend the most, and this battle is the biggest reason why. I was stuck for a long time before sticking with that setup for good. Anyway, on to the fight itself. Algus is gone from the party for good, so you finally get to throw 5 Calculators into the battle. You have two good options to start the battle, depending on your playing style. Option 1: #~~C# ~#CCC #~~C# The above formation will allow one of the Wizards to nail all 5 Calculators with a spell. If you have your high Faith team deployed, this allows for Delita to kill that Wizard very early in the battle. This is a good plan for a quick first kill, with one catch. You are far closer to the enemies than you want to be, and with your slow speed, they will reach you before Delita is able to kill off everything. Still, it`s a decent plan, and the choice is yours. Option 2: #~~~# C#C~~ #CCC# This Pre Battle Formation (PBF) will allow you to be as far away from Miluda at the start of the battle as you possibly can. Do I need to list the benefits of this? Go with the low Faith team here, because the plan is to avoid damage for as long as possible. No matter what path you take, this battle is still tough, and quite easily the hardest battle in chapter 1. Even when staying as far back as possible, the enemies will be smart enough to try and hit you. What`s worse is that they will be dealing pretty decent damage, and should Damage Split fail a lot, then you will have issues. The upside to this fight is that Delita, fitted with all of the latest fashion statements, will make a very god Knight. Furthermore, you can finally ditch all of your Potions for the more favorable Hi Potions, which allows for Auto Potion to heal Delita for 70 HP every time he gets hit. Stock up on a lot of these Hi Potions, because Delita will need most of them. Once the battle gets going, you will yet again find yourself looking like a bunch of ants in an attempt to get as far away from the fight as possible. Should an enemy or two get close to you, your only option is Damage Split and very weak punches. Oddly enough, you are fully able to kill an enemy or two by doing this, but it`s not something you want to see very much in this fight. The enemies are simply capable of too much offense. Delita, meanwhile, is absolutely amazing in this battle. With Auto Potion as his guide, he will kill off all of the enemies for you, or at least most of them, one by one. One all of the enemies are dead, the showdown between Delita and Miluda is on. Even with Miluda`s Counter, Delita has high HP, Item, and Auto Potion. It will be a very fun battle to watch, as long as Delita isn`t stupid enough to bring the battle all the way down by where your team is (this happened to me, and I came close to losing after all of the hard work). After quite the slugfest, Miluda should fall. In the event of Delita going down, however, you can still win. Remember, it`s 5 on 1, and Miluda should already be pretty weakened. Lure her in, surround her, and let Damage Split finish her off. With some luck (that word again...), this battle shouldn`t be TOO tough. --- f. Windmill Shed --- Enemies: Wiegraf (White Knight), Boco (Chocobo), 2 Female Monks, 1 Female Knight Enemy Levels: Around 8-10 Units to Use: Ramza + your low Faith units Objective: Defeat Weigraf Difficulty: 4/10 Why such a low difficulty for a battle that seems hard, you ask? Well, if you start out in the right spot, then this battle is nothing but pure percentages and luck. And for once, you don`t need all that much luck to get by. PBF: ~CC ~~CR Ramza`s positioning doesn`t matter all that much, really. Just keep him away from the Calculators that need to take damage. What will wind up happening is that Wiegraf will come barreling forward and nail three Calculators with Stasis Sword. If you`re using your low-Faith team, and there is no reason why you shouldn`t be, they will all take 63 damage. Add up the Damage Splits, and if everything goes well, Wiegraf will take a whopping 96 points of damage. From there, it`s pure luck. Let him hit whoever he wants, and hope that you do enough damage via damage Split to kill him. You could punch his lights out at 2 damage a pop if you think he`s getting close to his 25% of max HP barrier, or you could hope and pray that Delita hits him for you. Either way, if this battle gets off to a good start, then you don`t need as much luck as normal to win. Getting Wiegraf down to 25% of his max HP isn`t that hard when you`ve nailed him for 96 points of damage before the battle has even started. The only thing that can really make this battle kind of tough is if Wiegraf gets healed, or you simply have no ways of damaging him. Then again, Ramza is a Pisces, which has Worst compatibility with Wiegraf. As long as Ramza doesn`t die from Crush Punch, you should be fine. On the bright side, Delita is still Delita, and he will easily distract all of the enemies for you, allowing for a nice 4 on 1 battle with Wiegraf. --- g. Fort Zeakden --- Enemies: Algus (Knight w/ Equip Crossbow, the moron), 3 Male Knights, 2 Female Wizards Enemy Levels: Around the 9-11 range Units to Use: Ramza + your low Faith units Objective: Defeat Algus Difficulty: 6.5/10 Well, this is it. Your final battle with Auto Potion Delita. Give him a nice boost, and make sure he has all the latest Knight equipment. Battle Boots are a must, as well as a nice supply of Hi Potions. The only thing you can really do is sit back and wait. With any luck, Algus` Auto Potion will fail him, and Delita will be able to take home the win for you. One thing of note is that in all likelihood, Ramza will be targeted by the closest Wizard very early in the fight. If the projected damage will kill him, reset. Delita simply will not be able to kill Algus in time if Ramza dies that early. As for the rest of the battle, just sit back and watch Delita work. Don`t forget to attack yourself, either. Hopefully, by the end of chapter 1, you`ll have enough JP to teach a unit or two Gained EXP-Up, which is a MUST for getting to the all-elusive level 35 speed point by the end of chapter 2. Without it, leveling up will be so god-awful tedious. As a final note, I`m sure there is a method to have Algus get hit by a redirected spell from one of his own Wizards. Personally, I didn`t bother trying to figure it out, though if someone has found a reliable method, feel free to contact me. === ii. Chapter 2: The Manipulator and the Subservient === Okay, you`ve gotten past Chapter 1, and you are more than bored with seeing Auto Potion go off by now. Well, have no fear. Your guests in this chapter don`t get anything close to Auto Potion. Instead, they are simply powerful enough to do your dirty work for you. Gafgarion and Agrias are unbeatable when they are in battle together with you, and right when Gafgarion leaves the party, you FINALLY get some weapons. After the Zirekile Falls battle, sticks become available to you. Thankfully, there is no real challenge up to that point, so get moving. The real challenges of chapter 2 are everything from Zaland and onward. Yes, you have sticks, but the battles will start to really test your skills, and your sticks alone will not save you. You need to be every bit as prepared for battle as you were in chapter 1. Furthermore, I don`t think I need to note that keeping up with the latest fashion trends will go a long way in getting your butt through the tough battles. As a final note, I have something important to add. If you read my Calculator updates on the SCC board, you know that I spent a very long time trying to get Earth Clothes from high level enemies. After doing so, they turned out to be practically pointless, as the damage loss from de-equipping my Wizard Robes was very noticeable, and it actually made it harder to kill high HP enemies. I will happily add the sections on where and how to get good equipment from boxilized enemies, but take a note that the only jump you truly need to make is from the Wizard Robes right to the Black Costumes. A set or two of Earth Clothes will be nice, but it isn`t necessary for beating chapter 2. In fact, when looking back on how I did things, I recommend against it. The setup of choice, when it is available to you, will be the latest stick, Green Berets, and Wizard Robes. The only possible use I can see for a set or two of Earth Clothes will be for a much-needed HP boost at Golgorand Execution Site. Bear in mind, however, that you will be doing far less damage without your Wizard Robes. But anyway, I`ve babbled enough. Let`s get going. --- a. Dorter Trade City --- Enemies: 2 Male Wizards, 2 Male Thieves, 2 Female Archers Enemy Levels: Around 11-13 Units to Use: Whoever needs JP the most Objective: Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 1/10 This battle is such a joke. Give Agrias a set of Battle Boots, and you can`t lose. Stay back, get your EXP/JP by hitting yourself, and let the enemies do whatever they want. Gafgarion and Agrias will easily handle everything for you, and should an enemy actually be able to hit you, it will be for small damage, and you have Damage Split. Enjoy one of the few easy fights that you will have through this challenge. --- b. Araguay Woods --- Enemies: 1 Black Goblin, 5 Goblins Enemy Levels: Around 11-13, and thanks to Zaku X/Y (??) for pointing out that the enemies in this battle do NOT share your levels with you. Units to Use: Those with the highest Brave, or Ramza alone Objective: Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 1/10 You have 2 choices here. You can try to save Boco, or you can take the easy way out and lose 2 Brave. For once, it is very hard to actually save Boco, and taking the 2 point Brave loss can be the better option. If you choose to do this, make SURE you use the units with the highest Brave to do so! You don`t want to lose more Brave then necessary, and what`s worse, if you lose Brave on one of your Gemini units, it`s gone for good, because bringing one of the Gemini to Zaland in an attempt to raise their Brave will be suicide. Another decent option is to send Ramza in alone, and have him be the only one who loses Brave. Anyway, as for the actualy battle, it`s a joke. Let Gafgarion and Agrias do their thing, and make sure Agrias gets as much JP as possible. Again, enjoy one of those rare easy battles through this challenge. It does NOT stay this way, believe me. Sopranotek and falcon815 point out that the better option is NOT to sacrifice the Brave points, simply because it`s not all that hard to save Boco. In fact, the difficulty of the battle hardly goes up at all should you try to save Boco, and your resets won`t be noticable in comparison to the rest of the SCC should you go out and do so. Kudos to them for this advice, as it is very true. I have been pwned in this instance. --- c. Zirekile Falls --- Enemies: Gafgarion (he`s SUPPOSED to be a Dark Knight), 5 Male Knights Enemy Levels: Around 12-14 Units to Use: Whoever needs JP the most Objective: Save Ovelia/Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 1/10 Remember to strip Gafgarion down of all his equipment beforehand, and then change his job into one where he hasn`t learned any skills yet. Send in the units that need the biggest boosts, and commence laughing at the enemies. Between Agrias and Delita, none of them stand a chance, and you will be laughing all the way to not only gaining a huge amount of JP by hitting yourself, but to Agrias getting hordes of JP as well. Leave the entire battle in the hands of Delita and Agrias, and do nothing but attack yourself for the JP. This concludes the only 3 battle stretch in the game that is a joke for Calculators. Enjoy it well. --- d. STICKS! --- Sticks are buyable! Oh, thank the good lord! Finally, you are able to do some damage! Save your game and high-tail it over to Dorter, pronto. FINALLY, you are able to not only use decent weapons, but you can finally get into some random battles. Take this time to gain a few levels, because keep in mind, getting to level 35 before Goug Machine City is a MUST. The best place to do this is the area I like to call Old Faithful, which is the line between Sweegy Woods and the Mandalia Plains. Get into some random battles, and don`t hesitate to reset if you don`t like what you see. You have all the time in the world, anyway, right? Anyway, go and do your thing. Through these random battles, teach everyone Gained EXP-Up and Move-Gain EXP, should they not have it already. At this point, you have all of the abilities you need for your non-Math Skill Calculators, so you can stop worrying about JP. Remember, do NOT teach your team any Math Skills, because Confused/Charmed Calculators will use these skills. After some time leveling up (level 30 should be fine), you are ready to move on. The only thing left for you to do is to get ready for the next fight. Go buy the latest gear for everyone, plus 5 sets of Spike Shoes. Lastly, make sure Agrias has Move +1, Battle Boots, and possibly even Crush Punch. Fit her out with all of the latest gear, as well, and get ready for Zaland fort City, your first battle with sticks. --- e. Zaland Fort City --- Enemies: 2 Male Knights, 2 Male Wizards, 2 Female Archers Enemy Levels: Around 13-15 Units to Use: Ramza + your low Faith units Objective: Save Mustadio/Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 7/10 Even with all of the necessary preparations, this battle can be a huge pain. If you haven`t guessed by now, the choice of action is the save Mustadio. It may make things tougher, but winning the battle heavily relies on him helping you, anyway, so you might as well get the Brave bonus for this. As for a good PBF: ~CCC~ ~~~~C The main reason for leaving a hole in the front line of the formation is because Agrias is going to move first. With Battle Boots and Move +1, she`ll be able to get into that spot, giving her a much-needed movement boost early. Furthermore, I have found that this causes Mustadio to move left a higher percentage of the time. When the battle starts, choose to save Mustadio. If he moves left with his first turn, fight the battle through. If he moves right, just reset. Hell, even if he doesn`t move left, his AI is total garbage, and he`s likely to do something stupid, anyway. Once everyone does their thing, move your Calculators as close to the Wizards as you can. This will cause them to target you in round 2 of the battle, rather than Mustadio. From here, it`s a war of attrition. With any luck (that word yet AGAIN), Agrias will cause Stop and Dead status with Stasis Sword and Crush Punch, which can go a LONG way to turning the battle in your favor. Another great strategy to use in damaging the enemies is the fact that you have Spike Shoes. Don`t waste your time getting on the other side of the wall the long way. Just jump over the thing. Not only is jumping the wall a great way to reach the enemies, but it can also be used to your advantage. By standing on the wall, the enemies can have a very hard time reaching you, especially the Knights. Simply stand up there and whack away if you can. In all likelihood, however, a calculator will fall, and you`ll be forced to resort to an all-out offensive. This is fine. Don`t panic. You have sticks, which can cause great damage. You also have decent HP and Damage Split, which will allow your units to survive longer than you may think. The combined effort of you, a smart Mustadio (when this ever happens), and a lucky Agrias can push you to victory. Just play it smart. If you can catch an enemy or two mid-charge, feel free to get off of the wall and deal some good damage. The first enemies to fall will definitely be the Wizards. Damage Split, Mustadio, Agrias, and stick death will do them in. By the time the Wizards are dead, everyone on the battlefield will be gasping for air. This is the time to make your choice as to when to commit to your offensive. If you are able to stay on the wall and poke the Knight a few times before jumping down, then by all means, poke the Knight a few times. If, however, one, or both, of the Archers get close enough so that you can reach them, then definitely go for the Archers. They are not easy units to get to, and an opportunity to hit them cannot be passed up. Yes, you open yourself up to Knight damage, but you have guests and defenses to help you. The ultimate choice is yours. Take care of the Wizards first, and then do what you will later. Just play it smart and go after the enemies that you are able to kill, and you should win in the end. It will be close, no doubt, but you can still win. Good luck. falcon notes that there is an MA point at level 23, and choosing not to save Mustadio still gets you a brave point, should you decide to take the easy way out. --- f. Bariaus Hill --- Enemies: 2 Male Knights, 2 Male Archers, 2 female Summoners Enemy Levels: Around 14-16 Units to Use: Ramza + your low Faith units Objective: Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 7.5/10 If there was ever a prime example for why Agrias needs Move +1/Battle Boots, this is it. Her having extra range will help you out immensely. Furthermore, Agrias has loads of JP by now. If you haven`t already done so, take this time to teach her an extra action ability. All of them are good, but try to stay away from Lightning Stab. Stasis Sword`s Stop is far better than Lightning Stab`s Silence. Furthermore, if Agrias knows both Stasis Sword and Lightning Stab, her AI usually has using Stasis Sword, anyway, so the spent JP is a waste. Personally, I`d go with Crush Punch. Dead is a wonderful status, and it is above and beyond Death Sentence and Silence. Holy Explosion would be nice, but you`re unlikely to have the JP for it. If you do, however, then this is your ability of choice. Then again, I`m rather late with typing up this little tidbit, aren`t I? Most players will have Agrias set up for good before the Zaland fight. Oh, well. Touch‚. As for the battle, it`s not fun at all. The strategy is simple enough to follow, but getting to the final execution, even WITH Agrias, is a pain. The enemies can cause loads of damage, and for once, they`re smart about the way they do it with that height advantage of theirs. How does one counteract such madness? Well, it`s tough. The AI has a tendency to go after your Calculators whenever possible, which leads to a very obvious double-edged sword effect when guests are involved. Sure, the enemy isn`t going for the guests, but you`re taking damage, and if you are wiped out, your guests usually aren`t smart enough to be able to finish off the enemies in this battle before someone crystallizes, slow as you are. On the other hand, you NEED your guests to win. You can stay back and try letting them deal with everything, but you then run the risk of THEM dying, thus creating the double standard. What ever is a team of slow Calculators to do? Much like Zaland, you need to mix up your strategy between letting the enemies come after you, and letting your guests hit the enemy. Remember, you have sticks now, so you`re not completely helpless. Another thing to note is Mustadio. If he stays alive through the initial Summon + Arrow attack that the enemy throws at him, he will go a long way towards helping you win this fight. You could always throw a mantle on him and reset until he is able to kill the left Summoner in two shots. This choice of action will make the battle much, much easier, because not only will the left Summoner be gone early, Mustadio can help you attack the other enemies. Not a bad way to tackle this fight, if I say so myself. To add even more to why I love this method so much, the Archers can and will come forward to attack Mustadio. If they are having problems hitting him, the door will be wide open for you to attack them, which is another way that this battle can be made easier. No matter what you choose to do, you still have to actually worry about helping Agrias kill the enemies without any of you dying early. I found the best method to be starting your Calculators as far forward as possible. This causes the closest Knight to come right at you. With one Damage Split and a full round of physical attacks with your sticks, he`ll go down. From there, keep Ramza the hell away from the action, and the Summoners, for as long as possible. Don`t keep him away from the battle completely, because you may need him to win, but don`t let him get any closer than 10 panels away from those Summoners unless they`re both either dead, or have less than 24 MP. You low Faith Calculators, on the other hand, can survive a Summon or three, and Damage Split will help kill those Summoners. In the end, however, this will come down to what happens at the very beginning of the fight, your luck with Damage Split and enemy evasion, and the extent of how much your guests will help you through the fight. Personally, I highly recommend resetting until Mustadio kills the left Summoner in two hits, followed by luring the closest Knight to you. This eliminates two enemies early. From there, send your low Faith Calculators right at the Archer and Summoners, while Ramza stays back until his risk of death from going forward is gone. If all goes well, Mustadio and Agrias will be dead-on in helping you kill the enemies (Dead/Stop status from Agrias alone can win the fight for you), Damage Split will be dead on, and most, if not all, of your attacks hit the enemies. Hell, if the right Summoner is stupid enough, she`ll let you hit her mid-charge. No matter what happens in the end, however, do take note that this battle isn`t as hard as some of the game`s later battles for Calculators, so don`t get too frustrated if you`re having problems. This is cake compared to parts of chapter 4. You have two guests, after all. --- g. Zigolis Swamp --- Enemies: 1 Bone Snatch, 2 Gusts, 2 Skeletons, 1 Uribo/Marbol/Flotiball Enemy Levels: Around 15-17, while the randomly generated enemy in the back will share your level. That random monster will either be a Uribo, Marbol, or Flotiball. Once again, thanks go out to Zaku X/Y (Which one will it be, man?) for pointing out my previous error. Units to Use: It doesn`t matter Objective: Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 1.5/10 Thankfully, an easy battle after the tough road the last two battles turned out be. Teaching Mustadio Seal Evil is a must, as usual. From there, play it smart, stay out of the swamp, and take your time in dealing with this lovable group of losers however you see fit. Oh, and one more thing before you read on. After clearing Bariaus Hill, Battle Bamboo and Wizard Robes are both buyable in the shops. Throwing them on all of the units that you plan on bringing into this fight will make it even easier. The damage increase is quite good, even for weak units such as these. --- h. Leveling up to 35 --- You know, with a heading like that, one would think that now is a good time to level up to 35, no? Again, the best place to do your leveling up, no matter what point in the game you are in, is between the Sweegy Woods and the Mandalia Plains. The enemies suck. One other thing I should note is that once you get into the area of the low 30s in levels, a few choice enemies will start wearing Earth Clothes. Furthermore, falcon815 (I have found and remembered the name of the "current SCCer" I keep alluding to! WOOT!) has discovered that if you enter Zirekile Falls from the Araguay Woods, you may be lucky enough to encounter a Gokuu Rod-bearing Oracle. I did not see this myself, though I didn`t really think to try. Getting 5 Gokuu Rods will be a HUGE help for the battles near the end of chapter 2, and a whole hell of a lot of kudos go to falcon815 for this information. As for the Earth Clothes, I made the mistake of getting 5 of them. After having played through the challenge and looking back on the way I did everything, you only need one set of Earth Clothes. In every other battle, Wizard Robes will not only suffice, but I recommend them over anything else until Black Costumes become available. In either case, you still need a set of Earth Clothes. The best places to do this come from two different random battle areas. The first comes from Sweegy Woods, when you enter from Dorter Trade City. The other comes in the form of Bariaus Hill, when you enter from Lionel Castle. In both areas, enemy Monks will wear, and drop, Earth Clothes. If you are VERY lucky, you may just encounter an overleveled Monk sporting a shiny little Black Costume. After level 36, the enemies can equip them, so who knows, you may get very lucky. Either way, get one set of Earth Clothes (or a Black Costume if you have the luck of the Irish). Personally, I recommend doing this at Bariaus Hill. The Monks here are all Female, and the battle terrain is such that you can deal with the enemies easier. The Monks also do less damage than their Male counterparts, and with most of your team being Female themselves, there is a good chance for Bad or Worst zodiac, making it even easier to deal with the Female Monks. Once you are at level 35 and have one set of Earth Clothes, you are ready to go. If you decided to try and get a Gokuu Rod or 5 from Zirekile Falls, even better. --- i. Goug Machine City --- Enemies: 2 Male Summoners, 2 Male Thieves, 2 Female Archers Enemy Levels: Around 14-16 Units to Use: Ramza + your low Faith units Objective: Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 6.5/10 Despite the fact that you are on your own for the first time ever, this is a really easy fight. You`re at level 35, which means a speed point, and you`re sporting a lethal combination of Triangle Hats and Wizard Robes. The Thieves will throw themselves at you, and barring a horribly times steal or two, they`ll pose no threats. Deal with them easily. Next up is simply rushing forward as fast as possible and killing whatever gets in your way. Between Damage Split, that much-needed speed point, and the extra damage you`re doing, the enemies will fall before you do. Just take note to go after the Archers when the time becomes available, because Archers can really do you in when given the chance. Oh, by the way, there`s something I should note before I forget to do so later. Take off Gained EXP-Up and Move-Get EXP before this fight. You have to beat 5 battles at level 35, and if any of your characters gain ONE level, you`re over the cap. As such, ditch your EXP boosters. It`ll be close enough without them, let alone with them. --- j. Bariaus Valley --- Enemies: 2 Male Knights, 2 Male Wizards, 2 Female Archers Enemy Levels: Around 14-16 Units to Use: Ramza + your low Faith units Objective: Save Agrias/Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 2/10 The only issue here will be Agrias dying, which, due to your total inability to help her early, can be a problem. Or can it? By starting your team as far forward as possible, the enemy AI will go after you over her. That solves the problem of Agrias dying, and this fight becomes a joke again. So it`s settled then. We`ll start as far forward as possible, let Agrias use Stasis Sword with her first attack, let the enemies do whatever they want, and then move everyone as far forward as possible. Between Agrias, Damage Split, our low Faith, and stick damage, this battle poses no problems whatsoever. This holds true for the right side of the battle as well. Though it`s a 2 on 2 battle, let yourself get attacked. You have low Faith and Damage Split, and once you reach those two enemies, they`re goners. --- k. Golgorand Execution Site --- Enemies: Gafgarion (Male Dark Knight), 3 Male Knights, 2 Female Archers, 2 Female Time Mages Enemy Levels: Around 16-17, JUST under their speed points Units to Use: Ramza + your low Faith units Objective: Defeat all enemies (ugh...) Difficulty: 10/10 This is the hardest battle in the game to date, and off of the top of my head, I can only think of about 5 more that could be worse. You`re horribly outnumbered from the start, which creates all sorts of hell. To make it worse, you MUST equip Green Berets, Wizard Robes, and Wizard Mantles to survive, with one very important exception that I`ll touch upon in a minute. While this setup has obvious benefits, you are losing your movement of 4, which makes you even more crippled than you already have been. Oh, did I mention the Time Mages? You MUST go into this battle with your low Faith team, because getting hit by a load of their spells can really screw you up. How is a team of Calculators supposed to defeat all of this, you ask? Well, there have been three SCCers to date, myself, trampoline, and falcon815, who were able to beat this battle, so it`s not impossible. It just takes patience to the extreme to be able to win, because the resets accumulated just from getting what you want, let alone in trying to win the fight, will be rather high. I haven`t even touched on Gafgarion yet, have I? There is no strip him down trick before this fight. You have to take him on while he`s a Dark Knight. What`s even worse is that you have to take him down first round. It`s possible to win without doing so, but life gets much, much harder on yourself. If you are able to take down Gafgarion in the first round, then you can get the jump on the rest of the enemies, and you _might_ be able to defeat them all. So how do we get such a jump? It involves you having swiped a set of Earth Clothes from a boxilized Monk, oddly enough. Without it, all of your Calculators will have the same equipment, and you won`t be able to control where Gafgarion goes with his first attack. Without being able to do this, it will take an eternity to get him where he needs to go in order to kill him. It should be noted that falcon815 was able to beat Gafgarion when he had 240+ HP, for the record, and I`m 99% sure it was thanks to his one or more Gokuu Rods. Keep in mind that while writing this strategy, I had no Gokuu Rods. If YOU have Gokuu Rods, then your life here will be much easier, and you`ll be able to get unlucky once or twice and still win the battle. Without them, however, the damage becomes very exact. Personally, I say make sure you get a Gokuu Rod or two before Goug. It will make this fight MUCH easier, though it`s still hard as hell. Either way, read on. Formation 1: CR ~X ~~ ~~ #~ Formation 2: ~~ YC Equipment: Battle Bamboo/Gokuu Rod --- Green Beret Wizard Robe Wizard Mantle On Calculator X in formation 1, substitute Earth Clothes for the Wizard Mantle. This will cause Gafgarion to go after Calculator Y virtually 100% of the time, because his AI won`t allow him to open himself up to a possible 4 attacks unless there is no other way around it. "Ulti, you`re crazy. You only have 2 units attacking Gafgarion!" I heard that more than enough times while going through this battle. The fact is, however, that the main job of formation 1 is better suited to getting the jump on the closest Knight. At the very beginning of the battle, hit the Triangle button at the earliest opportunity. Check Gafgarion`s HP, and if it is below 200, you`re set. The very beginning of this battle will feature Gafgarion attacking Calculator Y, and then getting Damage Split for 32 points of damage. After all of the enemies get their turn in, it`s your turn. Have your two weak side Calculators both attack Gafgarion, who will suffer 140 total points of damage if everything connects. He should run away after a grand total of 172 points of damage. Bet you didn`t think you`d be capable of that when you first started this SCC, did you? As for the rest of the fight, don`t panic and play stupid just because you found a way to kill Gafgarion in the first round. You still have to go out and kill 7 enemies, all of which are capable of royally messing you up. For starters, have Ramza`s crew collectively attack the closest Knight. With any luck, all three attacks will hit, and he`ll either be dead, or in critical condition. Either way, don`t let up on him once round 2 starts. Kill him. As for your weak side Calculators in round 2, send them after the Archer with the Crossbow (Poison Bow, I believe?). From this point, this battle will be the melee war from hell, and before you`re able to kill off all of the enemies down below, the three enemies from the top of the site WILL reach you. Here`s where things start to suck. You`re going to have to face off against a Hasted Knight or two, and you`ll possibly even have to deal with your own units getting blasted by those infernal Time Mage spells, which can make or break the battle. The key to getting through this and winning this battle is to play it smart. By rushing at all of these enemies, they can easily kill you. By taking what they give you and attacking the enemies closest to you, then retreating, on the other hand, is not only smart, but it creates a much-needed distance between you and the enemies. With this in mind, attack who you can, and with patience and luck (you KNEW I was going to say it sooner or later), you`ll win. The way I was able to win was to get Gafgarion out of the fight in the first round, followed by a quick kill on the Cross Bow Archer. From there, I was actually able to hit the other Archer twice. I didn`t kill her, but she was weakened enough so that another attack or two would have finished her off. From there, I got ready for the assault of the Knights by getting the jump on them, and ganging Ramza`s group up on a single Knight early. That Knight was put into critical, and thanks to the two panel attacks of the Battle Bamboo, that Knight could damage no one before running. This created a sort of 5 on 5 battle pitting my team against the Time Mages, 2 Knights, and the other Archer. The combined efforts of 5 Calculators was soon far too much for one of the Knights to handle, and soon died. My team, however, was weakening. I had to use this Knight`s corpse to guard against a deathblow to a criticalized Ramza. Soon after this, the Archer came forward to try and kill Ramza. The Wizard Mantle allowed Ramza to survive her attack, and he then killed the Archer himself. From there, it was just a matter of winning the melee war, which was not hard at all with my 2 panel attacks. The hard part of the battle, obviously, is killing Gafgarion, both Archers, and getting the enemies to the point where you`re in control of the fight. That`s pretty much everything I can say about Golgorand. Good luck to you when you make it this far. And remember, you`re wearing mantles. The law of averages say that no matter how many times the enemies hit you, you will eventually get a run at this battle where they miss everything. Furthermore, don`t underestimate the power of Damage Split. It allows you to take far more damage than you normally would, and it`s pretty much going to be responsible for all of your victories from here on in. falcon`s suggestion is a good one for this fight. While in the Soldier Office at the beginning of the game, go for a female Pisces. When this battle rolls around, you`ll be able to stick Wizard Robes on everyone, meaning that you don`t have to waste a bunch of time going after Earth Clothes. Anyhoo, stick your Pisces in the weak side formation. Gafgarion will go after her. One Damage Split and two attacks later, he`s dust. From there, everything pretty much plays out the same way. --- l. Gate of Lionel Castle --- Enemies: Gafgarion (Male Dark Knight), 3 Female Knights, 2 Male Archers, 1 Male Summoner Enemy Levels: I know for a fact that Gafgarion is at level 18, at least. As for the rest of the enemies, I`m pretty sure they aren`t at level 18 yet, but don`t quote me on that. Besides, it doesn`t really matter. Units to Use: Ramza + your low Faith units Objective: Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 4.5/10 Before starting this battle, equip everyone with Rubber Shoes, and make sure you throw your Earth Clothes on Ramza. The only thing that gives this battle a higher difficulty rating than necessary is the fact that you have to kill Gafgarion, which is a huge pain in the rear. We`ll get into that later, but first, let`s go deal with everyone else. With Rubber Shoes, the enemies can`t hurt you. In fact, with the lone exception of the Summoner and Gafgarion, they serve as nothing more than target practice. On the side of the battle featuring your generic units, Damage Split the Summoner to death, and then have fun killing everything else. With any luck, you will be able to kill all of the Knights before Ramza hits the switch. With even MORE luck, they won`t break too much of your equipment in the process. Let`s just fast forward to the hard part of the battle, because the beginning stages are pure common sense and luck (again...). Ramza MUST be a Pisces to survive this fight. The damage he will take, even if every single Night Sword is Damage Split, can easily put him in critical. Not only is he slow as molasses, but he will also be your lure later on when the time comes to actually kill Gafgarion. Either way, have your generics do their thing, and move Ramza towards the switch as quickly as possible. Run Ramza out of the castle, but make sure that he is in range of Gafgarion at all times. Gafgarion`s AI is wierd in this battle. Unless he is in critical and needs to attack someone else to heal, he will ALWAYS attack Ramza. Use this to your advantage. Use Ramza as bait while your other Calculators surround Gafgarion and beat him to a pulp. With his evasion, of course, this could be hellish, but for the most part, you`re home free. Keep Ramza in range of Gafgarion, and Gafgarion will happily keep going after him until he dies. The reason I give this battle a 4.5 instead of something lower was because I had this ideal situation twice, and lost. Bad luck sucks like that. Either way, once Gafgarion is gone once and for all, kill off the stragglers to win. --- m. Queklain --- Enemies: Queklain (Male Impure King) Enemy Levels: Above 18, at least Units to Use: Ramza + 4 Geminis Objective: Defeat Queklain Difficulty: 2/10 Depending on how well your battle at the castle`s gate went, this battle may or may not be a total breeze. If you have enough equipment so that everyone has Battle Bamboo, Green Berets, Wizard Robes, and Defense Rings, then you`re set. If not, you`ll have to make with what you have. Either way, this battle isn`t too tough. Keep in mind that Ramza`s positioning doesn`t matter in the following PBF, because he will always start in the same place. PBF: CCCC ~~~~ Seems easy enough, and it is. Queklain will nail your entire team with a Bio 3 spell, which can be Damage Split for pretty good damage. When your first get the opportunity to move, arrange your Calculators like so: C~X~C~~ ~~C~~~C Have your 4 Gemini line up like this, while Ramza attacks Queklain from the right (Queklain`s left). Queklain will when target another Bio 3 spell on spot X. From there, the battle is a joke, no matter what happens. Attack him when you are able, and he`ll fall. falcon notes that even with the low Faith setup, Queklain still remains a joke, so long as you have Defense Rings. The strategy relies a little more heavily on Death Sentence, but whatever. It still works. === iii. Chapter 3: The Valiant === Hard as this challenge is, chapter 3 can be made to be one of the easiest stretches in the game. The level cap is 50, and some major equipment can be swiped from boxilized enemies. In fact, every strategy I write after the Lesalia battle usually calls for Octagon Rods, Black Costumes, and Thief Hats. Getting this equipment will take the utmost patience, but it will pay off big time. As for the chapter itself, there are only two battles that pose major roadblocks, Yardow Fort City and the Weigraf/Velius battle. The latter was solved right at the beginning of the game in the soldier office (at least I hope so, for the sake of the player attempting the challenge), while Yardow is one of the hardest battles in the gam for ANY SCC, and the aforementioned equipment is virtually necessary to win. Saturngohan notes that the word 'gam' should indeed be spelled 'gam'. --- a. Goland Coal City --- Enemies: 3 Female Thieves, 2 Male Chemists, 1 Male Mediator Enemy Levels: Around the 18-20 range Units to Use: It doesn`t matter Objective: Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 3.5/10 Chapter 3 starts off nice and easy. As with any other SCC, the battle will be considerably easier if Olan is smart and uses Galaxy Stop early in the fight. If it`s damned accurate, the fight gets even easier. And hell, 80% of your team is Female, which means little to no fear of Charm. Have you noticed the simplicity of the battle yet? Good. Run forward and kill stuff. --- b. Lesalia Imperial Capital --- Enemies: Zalmo (Male Holy Priest), 3 Male Knights, 2 Female Monks Enemy Levels: Around the 19-21 range Units to Use: It doesn`t matter Objective: Defeat Zalmo Difficulty: 3/10 The only reason that this battle gets a higher difficulty rating than a 1 is because Zalmo has the Elf Mantle equipped. Other than that, you will be treated to another joke that even you, the useless Calculator, can deal with with the extreme of ease. What you do is up to you, because there are loads of good methods of winning this fight. Charge forward, sit back, do whatever. Just make sure that you eventually go after and murder Zalmo, and while he`s charging if possible. Personally, I was lucky. I sat back on the little porch-like thing in the back of the castle, and Zalmo happily came right at me. --- c. Getting Necessary Equipment --- We`ve reached the point in chapter 3 where we are about to forget about story battles for a very, very long time. There are not one, not two, but THREE different pieces of equipment that you need to get. And you`re not getting one of each, either. Your checklist for moving onward is a long one, as it involves getting a lot of items from tough-to-kill boxilized enemies: 5 Black Costumes, 5 Thief Hats, and 5 Octagon Rods It`s tough. I won`t lie. It took me well over a week of nonstop play to get all of that garbage, and my luck in doing so was insane. The basic idea here is to get into a random battle where an enemy or two will carry this stuff, kill that enemy, and wait for their treasure. In most fights I had, getting the treasure was a life or death situation, often resulting in me moving my last remaining Calculator to the treasure, picking it up, and barely killing the final enemy before one of my characters crystallized. Hey, no one said this was easy. In fact, in many ways, this very task is what makes up the challenge for chapter 3. Anyway, let`s get going. The first thing that you should get are the Black Costumes. After all, you`ve reached the point in the game where your Wizard Robes are simply not giving you the HP you need, and you need a big HP boost. Even moreso, you`ll need that HP boost if you plan on tackling enemies that are wearing Thief Hats. The best way to go about getting these Black Costumes is the exact spot you picked up your Earth Clothes, at the Bariaus Hill random battle caused by entering from Lionel Castle. And much like when you got your Earth Clothes before, reset until you get a winnable battle, and use the terrain to your advantage. Kill the Monk(s) as soon as possible, obviously, and pray that they drop their precious Black Costumes. Oddly enough, the odds of this aren`t too bad. After all, they only wear two pieces of equipment. Furthermore, use this chance to level up. The enemies need to be at level 45+ before they start carrying the other stuff that you need, so if you win one of these battles without getting a Black Costume, don`t sweat it and reset. Trust me, you`ll have a TON of resets between getting everything else, trying to get the battles you need, and staying under the level cap in the process. Anyway, get your 5 Black Costumes. After that, get your entire team up to level 45, where the fun starts. Save your game, and get yourself positioned on the Araguay Woods. Prepare to spend a LOT of time here. With your Black Costumes fully equipped, you must enter and re-enter Zirekile Falls from this destination. In Zirekile Falls, you will see a lone Oracle. That Oracle will be bearing the gifts of not only the Octagon Rod, but the Thief Hat as well. Then again, if too many enemies are present, you must reset until you get a winnable battle where you are able to kill that Oracle quickly, and then guard his treasure chest. Hopefully, he`ll drop his goods, and hopefully, you can rinse and repeat this process a whopping ten times without tearing your own hair out. Remember, it took me well over a week to do this, and most, if not all, of the battles will have you hanging by a thread. It should be noted that though this is the only place where you can get the Octagon Rods, there ARE other places you can get Thief Hats. The problem is that most of the enemies that carry them are hard to kill. Archers, most mages, and even Squires are not nice to Calculators. Still, if you wish to try your luck, I have a decent list of other places to get Thief Hats. Bariaus Hill: Enter from Lionel Castle. I have actually seen Time Mages with Thief Hats. If you can get this regularly, then by all means, get the goods here. I had major issues, however, with the key word being REGULARLY in the above sentence. Araguay Woods: Archers can carry Thief Hats, and with them, they will do extra damage to you, thanks to all of that extra speed. Good luck. Anyhoo, enter from Dorter Trade City. Lenalia Plateau: I`m pretty sure that you can encounter Time Mages when entering from Gariland Magic City. I may be wrong, however, and even if I`m right, I had a hard time in trying to get Time Mages with Thief Hats. After all, I only saw it once. Mandalia Plains: I KNOW one of those battles features Squires by this point in the game, but for the life of me, I can`t remember which entrance it is. If you get lucky, you may see Squires, but no Archers. Get even luckier, and those idiots will be sporting axes along with their trusty Thief Hats. Anyway, do whatever you have to do to get all of the necessary items within the bounds of the SCC rules. And stick within the honor system, too. Sure, no one will know if you made everyone Thieves to get this task done, but it is BEYOND the cheap way out. Stick with your SCC Calculators, and get the items the hard way. You`ll be ever the more proud of yourself for doing so. Anyway, do you have all of your items yet? You DID take off all of your EXP abilities while doing the latter part of the work, yes? We wouldn`t want to go over level 50, after all. Oh, one final thing to note. The easiest way to stay under the level cap while item hunting is to simply reset if you play through a battle without getting your desired item(s) in the battle. This is common sense, of course, but I know all to well how common sense can go right out the window while doing this challenge. One last note. Alma leaves the party once you enter Orbonne. Make absolutely sure that you strip her of her Red Shoes before this happens. Furthermore, DO NOT SELL the Red Shoes. --- d. Underground Book Storage Second Floor --- Enemies: 3 Male Lancers, 2 Male Time Mages, 1 Male Chemist Enemy Levels: Around the 20-22 range Units to Use: Ramza + your low Faith units Objective: Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 4.5/10 Yes, I`m aware that the difficulty rating is far lower than you would expect. I also know that you`re fully equipped with Octagon Rods, Black Costumes, and Thief Hats. Hell, at your current levels, you could easily ditch the Black Costumes for Wizard Robes (What? After all of that work?!), slap on Magic Gauntlets, and not miss a beat. Either way, this battle will be amazingly easy for you, and it`s the beginning of a damned good payoff after doing all of the work necessary to make this battle so easy in the first place. PBF: ##CC# CC~~C ~~~~~ ##~~# With that PBF, the enemies can`t do anything to you in the first round at all. After their initial moves, kindly waltz forward and start killing things. With the Octagon Rod/Wizard Robe/Magic Gauntlet combo, you can do 120 damage at neutral compatibility. If you ditch the Wizard robes for the Black Costumes you worked so hard for, your HP will be such that the enemies have little chance to actually kill you before you kill them. Either way, run forward and slice your way through the enemies. Trust me, it`ll be easy, because your ONLY challenges are Lancer evasion and bad luck with Damage Split. Granted, those can cause big problems, but it`s better than facing Adramelk with the God almighty P Bags... Have fun with this battle. You deserve it. I mean, damn, the Chemist has no gun in this battle after TWO Chemists had them at Goland. Such a horrid imbalance. falcon notes that the above PBF can be altered slightly. Take the Calculator all the way on the left in the picture, and move her down one panel, and right one panel. --- e. Underground Book Storage Third Floor --- Enemies: Izlude (Male Knight Blade), 2 Male Archers, 2 Male Knights, 1 Male Summoner Enemy Levels: Around the 21-23 range Units to Use: It doesn`t matter. Yes, I`m aware that there`s a Summoner in this battle. Objective: Defeat Izlude Difficulty: 1.5/10 I`ve been called crazy by more than a few players who claim that Izlude is far harder than he truly is. I maintain, however, that he`s a total wuss. When you have the strategy for preventing him from jumping on your head down to a science, you have to have some damned bad luck to lose. As for your equipment, make it easy on yourself, just like in the last battle. Go with the Octagon Rods, Thief Hats, Black Costumes/Wizard Robes, and Germinas Boots. From there, you simply cannot lose. PBF: WWWWAX ~RCCA ~~CCAYZ WWWWW I`m aware that the actual area of the max PBF is larger than this, but this is the only section you`ll ever have to worry about. The enemies will all get the first actions. One of them may even be able to hit you. Don`t panic. This battle is a complete joke, and the ONLY thing that kept it from being a 1 is the fact that Izlude has evasion on three sides. Anyway, it`s now your turn, and you`re undoubtedly wondering just what in the blue hell that PBF means in English. Fine, I`ll explain it to you. R = Ramza`s starting point C = Generic Calculator starting points W = Wall A = Wall X/Y/Z = I`ll get into those in a moment With your turn, move one Calculator to panel X, one Calculator to panel Y, and your other three to panels labeled A. Take note that the panels labeled A are on top of the wall. You are now in perfect position. With the enemy`s next set of turns, Izlude will waltz over to panel Z and physically attack the unit sitting on panel Y. The other enemies will do nothing of note. You can now surround and beat the holy hell out of Izlude. falcon notes that stick have a height range of 4, so you can easily attack Izlude while on the wall. Furthermore, one of your Calculators should get a Summon targetted onto her. Use some common sense and slap her on the wall. She`ll be the only one taking damage. --- f. Underground Book Storage First Floor --- Enemies: Wiegraf (Male Holy Knight), 2 Female Archers, 2 Female Knights, 1 Female Wizard Enemy Levels: Around the 22-24 range Units to Use: It doesn`t matter Objective: Defeat Wiegraf Difficulty: 2/10 Wiegraf is an absolute pimp. This is now the second battle you have against him, and again, he has loads of female support. And the one exception, Boco, was found alone in the Araguay Woods. And when you see Wiegraf later on in Riovanes, you see a bunch of dead MALE Knights littering the battlefield before the fight. That goes to show you that if you are not a blonde-haired girl with something to offer him, then you will simply die. That`s his big secret. That`s why he went nuts after contracting Velius. Rather than being the sexy girl he had hoped for, Velius turned out to be a big, ugly ram. What`s the use in that? Wiegraf couldn`t handle this, and he went nuts. End of story in terms of why Wiegraf went crazy. Oh, as for the battle at hand, it only gets a difficulty rating of 2 because of the Elf Mantle, and getting through it has nothing to do with skill whatsoever. It`s all luck. Surprise, surprise. To put yourself in the best position, slap on those Black Costumes/Germinas Boots again. PBF: R#~ CCC ~C~ No matter what Wiegraf does to you (notice that he will tend to go after your female units... I WONDER WHY??), he will get massively Damage Split, and the fight will then become a joke. Jump to his location, position yourself well, and attack him 5 times. In all likelihood, you won`t need that many attacks, but he DOES have the Elf Mantle. Moving onward... Oh, and falcon would like to remind you all that Black Costumes negate Stop. --- g. Grog Hill --- Enemies: 2 Male Squires, 2 Male Chemists, 1 Male Archer, 1 Female Thief Enemy Levels: Around the 23-25 range Units to Use: It doesn`t matter Objective: Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 3/10 Make sure you stick with your trusty Octagon Rod/Thief Hat/Black Costume/Germinas Boots combination for this fight. You`ll have loads of hit points, and your jump of 4 will allow you to easily reach the enemies before they`re able to do much harm. Granted, you`re dealing with Chemists, but once they get into the mode of having to heal their comrades, you`ll be fine. The first enemy you come across will almost always be the Thief. You`d think that if a girl was to surround herself with 5 guys, they`d be high-class. Anyway, kill her. From there, you`ll honestly be amazed as to how easy this fight can be for you. Advance, and kill things. Once this battle is over, go and level up to 50, which is the cap. Afterwards, make SURE to take off your EXP abilities. You`re about to fight 5 battles at level 50, and for four of them, you`ll need every advantage you can get. The joke part of chapter 3 has officially come to a close. The challenge, my friends, starts right now. *ominous music plays* --- h. Yardow fort City--- Enemies: Malak (Male Hell Knight), 3 Male Ninjas, 2 Female Summoners Enemy Levels: Around the 24-26 Units to Use: Ramza + your low Faith units Objective: Save Rafa (lovely....)/Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 9.5/10 Why, do you ask, does this battle not see the perfect 10 difficulty rating? The damage you can cause. You have some very good equipment WELL before you`re supposed to, and it will win you this fight. Later in this game, when you face a few perfect 10 battles, you don`t have this luxury. But we`ll worry about that later. For now, we have a HUGE problem on our hands, and this battle can cause resets before it even starts. Check the battlefield. If Malak has a Jump of 5, reset. If any of the Ninjas have Elemental as their secondary skill, reset. If either of the Summoners have Time Magic as their secondary skill, reset. Sure, you may be resetting before fighting more than a few times, but you`ll save yourselves some certain headaches. When you get a battle that fits all of these requirements, however, you still have it rough. Ninjas and Summoners are the two deadliest generics in the game, after all. Anyhoo, give yourself a good advantage with your positioning right from the start. Furthermore, you`ll want to equip Octagon Rods, Thief Hats, Black Costumes, and Magic Gauntlets. PBF: #~~ #~# CCC C#~ R~~ The above reasons for resetting from the start, as well as this PBF, is the best advice for starting this battle that I can offer. Now, to the battle itself. With the enemy`s first round of turns, Rafa and Malak will take their usual first actions, the Ninjas will line up in a row of three, and the Summoners will do nothing but move. Should one of the Ninjas jump on the wall and throw something at you, by the way, reset. If all goes well, two of the Ninjas will attack Rafa, and nothing catastrophic will occur. Your following course of action depends solely on whether or not Rafa knows Move +1, because she`ll be standing on two different panels, depending on whether or not she knows the ability. If Rafa does not have Move +1: ~CC CKC R~~ If Rafa has Move +1: CCCC RK~~ R and C stand for Ramza and Calculators, as usual, while K stands for Rafa. After moving to your necessary locations, have everyone Wait. Malak and Rafa`s spells will both go off, and it`s go time for the enemies. All three Ninjas will move forward, and with the utmost luck (you were wondering when I`d use that word in this battle`s strategy, didn`t you? DIDN`T YOU??), Rafa will survive. Malak and the Summoners will do nothing, though if the Ninjas are weakened after Rafa`s initial attack against them, expect to see a Moogle or two. If everything has gone well up to this point (it will take a LOT of luck for everything I mentioned to actually happen; just be patient), Rafa will currently be alive, and you`ll have the opportunity to attack the two closest Ninjas with all 5 of your Calculators. Attack each Ninja from the side twice, which will usually kill them. Furthermore, you`ll want to have a weakened Calculator stand AT the entrance, but not IN the entrance. Lastly, if possible, keep Ramza the hell away from those Summoners. You have one round to get all of this right, so take your time and plan out the moves you will make before you make them. If done correctly, you`ll wind up with two dead Ninjas, Calculator temporarily blocking the entrance, and Ramza at low risk for massive summon damage. What`s better is that Rafa will have one final turn to move as far away as possible. The enemies will now get their turns. The Ninja, for all intents and purposes, will kill the Calculator at the entrance. As for Malak and the two Summoners, we can only hope that they don`t do too much damage to you. From here, it is a full-out offensive at the remaining enemies. Take care, however, NOT to screw everything up with your next set of turns. Move one of your Calculators two panels in front of the Ninja at the entrance to attack him, but do NOT block him in with everyone else. The idea here is to attack him once, have everyone else wait, then rush the fort when the Ninja comes out. Prepare to do so. The Ninja will happily come out to attack you, and with any luck, he won`t kill anyone. From here, finish him off, and rush everyone else at Malak and the Summoners. With any luck (by the end of this FAQ, you will tire of me starting sentences with those three words), you`ll be able to catch one, or both, of the Summoners mid-charge. With your current setup, it can easily be a one shot kill. As for Malak, it`s stick damage against stick damage, and you don`t have to completely kill him to get him out of the fight. That`s pretty much all I can say about this fight. Even with everything I know, it`s blatantly obvious that it will take a load of luck and patience, as well as repetition and resetting to get things the way you need them to be in the first place, to win this fight in the end. When you do, and you will, do yourself a favor and take a quick break from this challenge. Even if it`s just an hour or two, you could use one after the hell that was that battle. --- i. Yuguo Woods --- Enemies: 2 Female Undead Time Mages, 2 Male Undead Wizards, 1 Ghoul, 1 Gust, 1 Revenant Enemy Levels: The humans will be in the range of 25-27, while I`m 99% sure that the monsters will share your level Units to Use: Ramza + your low Faith units Objective: Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 4/10 A nice, easy battle. You need it, too, because between Yardow and Riovanes, you NEED a break. Reflect Rings are buyable if you want them. Anyways, there isn`t much strategy for this battle. Keep Ramza away from the mages as long as you can, and kill things. Even if your luck is horrid, the battle isn`t all that bad. The only reason its difficulty rating is a bit up there is because of Ramza`s Faith, and the levels on those ghosts. Other than that, this battle poses little to no threat at all. --- j. Pre-Riovanes Checklist --- I know it`s common sense by now, but before going to Riovanes, make ABSOLUTELY SURE that you have everything you need, and make ABSOLUTELY SURE that you create a backup save before going in. You don`t want to make it this far and get railed in the worst of ways. Anyways, make sure that, aside from the equipment you have already, that you go out and buy at least 4 P Bags. These weapons will be your best friend in a few upcoming chapter 4 battles, as well as your best friend in the very next fight you get into. Furthermore, make sure everyone is at level 50, especially the 5 units that you will be bringing into the Velius battle. Lastly, go out and buy 5 sets of Sprint Shoes. You will need them very quickly. You should have more than enough money for all of this. Once you`re ready, create two save files for your current state of affairs, and get rolling. --- k. Gate of Riovanes --- Enemies: Malak (Male Hell Knight), 3 Male Knights, 3 Female Archers Enemy Levels: Around the 26-28 range Units to Use: It doesn`t matter Objective: Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 6.5/10 This battle isn`t too bad. It just takes awhile. If you try doing this battle normally, you`ll soon notice that the Archers can hit you from too far away, that you`re still too slow, and that you need to heal. Know what this means? We`ve reached the first battle that sees religious use of P Bags! This will also be the beginning of a pattern in these types of fights. Your female units have P Bags, and the Regen status that goes with it, while Ramza is stuck with the Octagon Rod, and will usually find himself running around finishing off everything that Damage Split couldn`t get to first. This works like a charm, but it is a huge pain to actually do. Anyway, to prepare for this battle, first deal with Rafa. Equip her with nothing but an Elf Mantle, leave her in her Heaven Knight class, and give her nothing but her primary Action Ability and Defend. This will cause the enemies to have a rough time with her in the beginning of the battle, which gives Ramza`s formation time to run from the Archers. As for Ramza and his crew, equip everyone with P Bags, Thief Hats, Black Costumes, and Sprint Shoes. Ramza, obviously, must equip the Octagon Rod rather than a P Pag. The battle begins. As mentioned previously, Rafa will give Ramza`s crew ample time to get away from the Archers. Do so. As for the rest of the fight, it`ll take a long time, but if you play it smart, you`ll gave little trouble. Stay in the back-left corner, and let a Knight or two go after your team. You`ll find that with Damage Split, Regen, and the enemies spreading out their attacks over multiple units, the actual damage you take is very small. The only way you`ll take any real damage is if either the enemies gang up on someone, or Ramza gets hit. In either case, you have 5 units, and you should we well-adept in using any means necessary to use healthy units as human shields to protect weaker units. And in the case of P Bags, you can begin one hell of a cycle where you keep the weak back, let them heal, and then reverse the positioning of your team. This strategy works WONDERS in this fight. After what will seem like an eternity of Damage Splits and Regen, a few enemies should start weakening. They simply can`t do enough damage without ganging up on you to actually kill anyone, so eventually, you`ll be in complete control of the fight. Allow Ramza to start killing enemies, but don`t let him wander too far off, because unlike everyone else, he cannot take a theoretical infinite amount of damage in this fight. Simply use him to kill a close enemy if possible, and then pull him back. With a lot of patience, the three closest Knights will eventually fall. Hell, even P Bag damage can add up to greatly aid you in this fight. From there, hang back until you`re good and healed enough to finish off the Archers. With any luck (here we go again...), one or two of them will have horrid compatibility with your team, ad the collective damage done to you will completely suck. falcon came up with a beautiful Rafa setup, just in case you want the enemies to pretty much never be able to hit her. Give her the P Bag, Diamond Shield, Circlet, Diamond Armor, and your highest level mantle. Make sure the only skill she knows is Defend. The enemies will waste a ton of turns going after her, which stretches the battle out, which favors you. --- l. Wiegraf/Velius --- Enemies: Wiegraf (Male Holy Knight), Velius (Unisexual Warlock), 3 Archaic Demons Enemy Levels: Around 30 (I THINK that Velius` level is 35, but don`t quote me on that) Units To Use: Ramza, maybe? It`s not like you`re able to use anyone else for the first part of the battle. As for your other four units, did you not catch my rant? You need those 40-41 Faith girls for this one. Objective: Defeat Wiegraf/Defeat Velius Difficulty: 10/10 Ah, the infamous Riovanes fight.. After doing a few SCCs, you`ll soon realize that Wiegraf is a total pansy. Hell, even a battle where you`re using a Calculator isn`t all that bad with the right setup. As for Velius, well, he`s a different story. You spent all of that time in the soldier office for a reason, and this battle is it. Oh, and I`m aware that the actual difficulty of this battle is not truly a ten. It gets that rating due to all the preparation needed to win the fight in the first place. Formation 1: 1~ ~~ Formation 2: 23~~ ~~~4 Ramza`s Equipment: Octagon Rod --- Thief Hat Black Costume/Earth Clothes Germinas Boots Calculators Labeled 1/2/3: Octagon Rod --- Thief Hat Wizard Robe Sprint Shoes Calculator Labeled 4: Octagon Rod --- Thief Hat Wizard Robe Red Shoes With all of that in place, this battle becomes very doable. For the Wiegraf duel, you have a Pisces Ramza. Lightning Stab will do all of 70 points of damage, and with enough luck in getting through Wiegraf`s evasion, as well as enough luck with Damage Split working, Wiegraf will fall. The only real issue here comes with Ramza`s armor slot. The Black Costume is the better choice, obviously. Your HP will rival Wiegraf, and you`ll have a small window of error for all the luck you need. The issue with the Black Costume is that Velius will most likely cast Titan to kill Ramza, and NOT Cyclops. This can cause some big issues, but the battle against Velius is still winnable. The other option, Earth Clothes, will obviously cause Velius not to use Titan. He`ll try to kill Ramza with either Lich or Cyclops. The catch is that the duel becomes slightly harder, and you have little room for error. The choice is yours, of course. Keep in mind that if you read my SCC updates on the board, you saw that I won the battle with Velius casting Titan. This is all well and good, but did you notice the well-timed critical hit in that battle? Personally, I`d force your way through the Weigraf duel with the Earth Clothes, and then pray for Velius to use Cyclops later. If, however, he won`t cast Cyclops, then you`re forced to go with the Black Costume on Ramza, and then you must pray that enough damage gets done to Velius with titan getting Damage Split, and not Cyclops. It`s rough either way, obviously, but the better choice is the Black Costume. It makes both fights easier if all goes well. Anyway, kill Wiegraf. MAKE SURE that the battle ends with Wiegraf getting Damage Split, so that you can use the CT glitch at the beginning of the Velius battle. Once Velius enters, it`s Ramza`s turn. Move him 3 panels back, and 1 panel to the right. Have him wait. Velius will then come rumbling down and charge a fatal spell on Ramza. Without Earth Clothes, he will charge Titan. With them, he will charge either Lich or Cyclops. It should be noted that Ramza will be able to get an extra turn in to move later on. It is now time for your Sprint Shoes-laden Calculators to attack. Move Calculator 1 directly behind Velius and poke him for 180 damage. Calculator 2 will have to poke Velius in the face from 2 panels away, for another 180 points of damage. As for your Calculator 3, the last with Sprint Shoes, she goes to Velius` right and inflicts another 180 points of damage. You`re halfway home, and the enemies haven`t even hurt you yet. After the Archaic Demons take their turns, it`s time for your last two Calculators to attack. Have Calculator 4, the one with the Red Shoes, walk right in front of Velius and poke him in the face for 192 points of damage. As for Ramza, throw him to the spot on Velius` left, which you will NEED the Germinas Boots to get to. Poke Velius for 84 points of damage. Finally, Velius` spell will go off. If it is Cyclops, 2-3 Damage Splits is a guaranteed kill. If it is either Titan or Lich, depending on your equipment and luck, and Velius does NOT die from Damage Split, don`t panic. He`ll be very close to death, and one or two more attack will easily do him in. Much, MUCH thanks to NeoElfboy for help with this battle. In the original Calculator topics, he designed a pretty good Calculator strategy, and look, it worked. A good 95% of this section, at least, was designed by him. All I really did was put his work into effect at my house. Without the aid of NeoElfboy for this battle, I seriously doubt I would have beaten the thing. falcon would also like to lick the sand off of NeoElfboy`s boots for this strategy. He also managed this battle with Gokuu Rods and perfect Damage Split success. --- m. Roof of Riovanes Castle --- Enemies: Elmdor (Male Arc Knight), Celia (Female Assassin), Lede (Female Assassin Enemy Levels: Around the 29-31 range Units to Use: It doesn`t matter Objective: Defeat Elmdor (all you truly have to do is criticilize any enemy on the map) Difficulty: 8/10 This battle, like many others, depends solely on luck. Thankfully, it`s a short battle, so even if you lose, it doesn`t take too long to try again. PBF: CCC~R Equipment: Octagon Rod --- Thief Hat Wizard Robe Sprint Shoes I won because before I could even move, one, or both, of the Assassins charged Ultima on Ramza. From there, I just moved him right in front of Lede, then attacked her mid-charge. One redirected Ultima then killed her. Yes, the battle was that easy for me, but the battle still gets such a high difficulty rating due to the fact that it`s entirely luck based. === iv. Chapter 4: Someone to Love === You just finished three chapters of one of the single hardest video game challenges ever made. Well, I wouldn`t go that far, but in the realm of FFT, it may be the hardest doable challenge that involves a human party. Either way, you are probably feeling pretty good about yourself. I mean, after all, you just conquered Yardow Fort City, Velius, and the Rooftop battle. You SHOULD feel good about yourself after all that. The problem, however, is that chapter 4 is a total world of its own. See, in chapter 3, you have equipment that was very advanced, and the enemies couldn`t do much of anything about it. In chapter 4, however, around the middle of it, your equipment is no longer such that the enemies won`t be able to take you on. Furthermore, there is a ton, and I mean a TON, of leveling down, then up, down, then up, all throughout this chapter. You also have to deal with zodiac demons that simply do not care that you need a break. Adramelk and Altima, most notably, can really mess you up. Oh, and have I mentioned that you`ll virtually HAVE to level up to 99 in the final series of battles to be able to beat the game in the first place? Granted, I`m sure it`s possible to beat the final series under level 99, but I wouldn`t recommend it. Hell, in the Rofel battle, even at level 99 with full HP, a character with Good compatibility with Rofel will BARELY be able to survive one of his Divine Swordskills. And if you try to counteract this by using your Gemini, the high Faith of both you and the mages will do you in. This chapter is HARD. I kid you not. In doing this chapter alone, I found the time to play all the way through Final Fantasy 5, all the way through Final Fantasy 6, and I found a load of extra hours for Super Smash Brothers: Melee. I needed those breaks, because trying to figure out some of these battles had me going nuts. Granted, there are a few battles that remain as jokes, but they are few and far between. Take all of the confidence you have from the first three chapters and throw it out the window, because chapter 4 is a whole new world for your Calculators. --- a. Doguola Pass --- Enemies: 1 Male Knight, 2 Male Wizards, 2 Male Lancers, 1 Male Archer Enemy Levels: Around the 30-32 range Units to Use: Ramza + your low Faith units Objective: Defeat all enemies Difficulty: 6.5/10 Okay, the first fight isn`t THAT bad. Just remember your Sprint Shoes. Start everyone to the front of the PBF, and with your first turns, send everyone to the top. Once there, take out the closest Wizard. Now comes the tough part. You don`t want to fight both Lancers at the same time, so while you`re going after the Archer, try to clog up the ledge that the mid-level Lancers use to jump up to where you are. If done correctly, you`ll have the Archer and a Lancer isolated. Kill them both as quickly as possible, and do remember to get in your attacks on the Lancer in from behind whenever possible. By the time you are done killing those two, the rest of the enemies will undoubtedly reach you. With any luck, you`ll have enough left in the tan to win. A good percentage on Damage Split won`t hurt, either. Oh, and it won`t kill you if you decide to reset until the Knight has Defend. He will use it with every turn until he can reach you, which will give you plenty of time to kill half of the enemies before taking more damage. falcon would like to point out that you can equip Magic Gauntlets and win this fight. Being so slow, redirecting spells is easy. Plus you get to cause more damage. --- b. Bervenia Free City --- Enemies: Meliadoul (Female Divine Knight), 2 Female Archers, 2 Female Summoners, 1 Female Ninja Enemy Levels: Around the 30-32 range Units to Use: Ramza + your low Faith units Objective: Defeat Meliadoul Difficulty: 4.5/10 This battle isn`t all that hard. The only issues are Meliadoul`s evasion, and the fact that she can break some of your hard-earned equipment. It is more than possible, however, to win this battle with buyable hats and armor. Furthermore, if you happened to pick up a Flash Hat or two while hunting for Thief Hats way back in chapter 3, now is the time to use them. They are quite expendable. Keep in mind, however, that Meliadoul can cause around 160 points of damage with one of her attacks, so if you have to level up a bit, do so. PBF: RHHH ~HHH 1234 R = Ramza H = The house near your starting point 1/2/3/4 = Calculators Before this battle even starts, check to see if either the Ninja or Meliadoul have any means of extra movement. If they do, then reset. They both need to go to very exact spots if you want a reliable method of attacking Meliadoul 5 times in this fight. Finally, after the enemies do their thing, it`ll be your turn. Have Calculator 1 move forward three panels, Calculator 2 move right three panels, Calculator 3 Wait on the spot, and Calculator 4 move to the bottom-right corner. Lastly, Ramza should simply Wait on the spot. The enemies will then all get attacks on you. If everyone survives, then you will then be able to attack Meliadoul 5 times. Have Ramza and Calculator 1 attack her in the face, have Calculators 2 and 3 nail her from her left side, and lastly, have Calculator 4 hit her from behind. If everything connects, you win. --- c. Leveling Down --- You already know how to level up just fine. The problem with this challenge is that you must level down, then up, multiple times. Finath River, Zalera, and Zalbag are pure hell at high levels, and I`d put money on those fights being absolutely impossible in that state. As such, you need to level down. Prepare a nice snack and get comfortable, because it will take quite awhile. You CAN, however, avoid leveling down altogether before Finath River. All you really need to do is reset until you get the 5 Yellow Chocobo, 1 Uribo battle. And from there, if pretty much all of the enemies have very low Brave, you might be able to win if Damage Split is perfect. I would high advise against this, however. I went through this hell, and it can easily be viewed as one of my hardest battles ever, because in an attempt to satisfy the above conditions, the battle itself took me around a week to win. For those that are willing to level down before this fight, the best place to go is most like Zekalus Desert. Reset until you get a winnable fight with few enemies, then break for the Degenerator trap. As for the entrance that puts you closest to the trap, I`m pretty sure it`s from Goland, but don`t quote me on that. Either way, break for the trap, and begin moving your team on and off of it while fighting off the enemies. Stretch the battle out as long as you possibly can, and then end the fight by killing the final enemy or two. Don`t slack with your equipment, either, because even a relatively weak enemy team can do decent damage to you. With any luck, you`ll be able to drop a decent amount of levels on two or more Calculators before the fight ends. Now all you really need to do is to save your game, then do it all over again. Considering that the next battle is Finath River, which I never bothered leveling down for (suicide on my part), I wouldn`t be able to tell you a target level to get your team to. Personally, if I had to do it all over again, I`d level down to 1, just to get revenge on the bastards. Level 35, however, seems like a pretty decent point. You get to keep your level 35 speed point (duh..), and when the time comes to level back up again, the process won`t be too bad. Remember, this can be a pretty long task, considering the job class you`re in. Don`t make yourself go crazy over it. Level down for an hour or two, then take a break to do something else with your life, and then come back to the task when you`re good and energized. When you finally have all nine members of your team to the point you want them at, fit everyone with Octagon Rods, Thief Hats, Wizard Robes, and Magic Gauntlets. --- d. Finath River --- Enemies: Varies. The most number of Red Chocobos you`ll ever see is 4. The most number of Black Chocobos you`ll ever see is 1. The most number of Yellow Chocobos you`ll ever see is 6. Lastly, the occasional Uribo will pop up in the middle of the map every now and then. As for the locations of all of these enemies, it`s wierd to explain. The panel where the Black Chocobo can show up will ONLY house either a Black Chocobo, or a Yellow Chocobo. The Black Chocobo will never show up anywhere else. As for the Uribo in the middle of the map, that spot is the ONLY place you`ll ever see a Uribo. I`m also 99% sure that there are two panels, the Black Chocobo`s plus one other, where you will never see a Red Chocobo show up. For the life of me, I can`t remember the second, but I promise that you`ll never see a Red Chocobo on the panel where you can usually see a black one show up. You pick up a lot of technical information about the starting spots of the enemies when you lose here as much as I did. Enemy Levels: Equal to yours, obviously. That`s why you leveled down. Units to Use: It doesn`t matter Objective: Defeat all enemies Difficulty: As hard as you want it to be. The higher your level, the harder the battle becomes. Hopefully, your levels are nice and low. Depending on how much work you put into leveling down, this section will be pretty useless to you. At low levels, the chocobos can do very little in the way of actually hurting you, because even at those levels, you have some pretty high HP with those sporty Thief Hats. The main thing to note is to start everyone as far forward in the PBF as possible. After surviving the initial attacks from the enemies, just run forward and start killing things. Again, if your level is low, you have a great chance to overpower the enemies. If not, you may be forced to reset until you get the 5 Yellow Chocobo, 1 Uribo fight. Even then, you can still lose. Do yourself a favor and level down before this fight. If you don`t want to level down to a target point, then alternate. Level down 5 levels, then try to win the fight. If it`s too hard, then drop 5 more levels. Repeat this until you win. This battle`s difficulty rests ENTIRELY on what level your team is, which not only makes the battle very unique, but it says something about the power of a well-controlled team of chocobos. Little can be said about actual specifics in this battle, save one final note. No matter WHAT level you`re at, Calculators have a very hard time just hitting Red Chocobos, let alone killing them. Do yourself a favor and reset until you`re only going against one of them, or two at the very most. falcon815 suggests levelling down to 38. You get to keep valuable speed and MA points this way, which should give you just barely enough to finish off the Chocobos without too many problems. On a personal note, however, don`t be like falcon815 here and try to extend the lifespan of Gokuu Rods. Get those Octagon Rods back when I told you to, because they make your life far easier. On another personal note, this is the first falcon815 contribution that I`ve put in the FAQ itself. It may be in an odd place, but this is the first one I remembered off of the top of my head. Sue me. Expect many more falcon815 contributions in future FAQ updates, as he will soon be only the second man to complete the Calculator SCC. Chococid suggests resetting until getting as many Black Chocobos as possible. Too bad you can never get more than one, eh buddy? ~_^ --- e. Zeltennia --- Enemies: Zalmo (Male Holy Priest), 3 Male Knights, 2 Male Oracles Enemy Levels: Around the 31-33 range Units to Use: It doesn`t matter Objective: Defeat Zalmo Difficulty: 1/10 If you`re honestly worried about this battle, then go and level up. Delita shares your level, and if you`re at an insanely high level, he will be, too. You might as well go off and gain a few levels, anyway, because you`re stuck leveling back up before the next battle, anyway. As for the fight itself, is it EVER hard? Sit back and watch Delita work. You can help him, too, if you want. It doesn`t really matter. These enemies are such losers that you`d probably have to kill Delita just to get a decent challenge out of this fight. Sit back and enjoy yourself for what is undoubtedly the easiest battle in chapter 4. --- f. Leveling Back Up --- After Zeltennia, you`ll need to level back up again. Bed Desert is a tough battle, and it`s purely based on numbers and luck. The ENTIRE battle will involve taking damage from Balk with your Gemini, who have Best compatibility with him, then throwing half of the damage back with Damage Split. You will need some pretty high HP to be able to do this. Furthermore, Bethla Garrison houses two of the hardest battles in the game for Calculators. What to do, you ask? Well, for starters, you need to pump up those levels. Personally, I`d go all the way up to level 69. I went through absolute hell with the first battle at Bethla Garrison, and at the Sluice, I got so lucky that it was sick. The big reason for this difficulty was a total lack of speed, and level 69 will give you a speed point. This MAY allow you to ditch Sprint Shoes at Bethla`s South Wall in favor of Dracula Mantles, but that`s for you to decide. Personally, I think the choice is obvious. The ONLY way I could win that fight was with Sprint Shoes. At level 69, you won`t need Sprint Shoes, and you can make the battle far easier on yourself with evasion. The problem is that at level 69, you may wind up taking one extra set of Poison damage at Bed Desert, which can really ruin your day. Personally, I`d recommend leveling up to 68 for Bed Desert. If you feel that the battle is too hard to win without the speed point, then knock yourself out and go get the thing. Either way, I`m a living example of why you should most definitely go out and get that speed point before Bethla Garrison, because I made things SO much harder on myself than they should have been. I REALLY wish I would have gotten the speed point naturally, then gone with Dracula Mantles for some evasion. Things would have been so much easier. Either way, the choice, ultimately, is yours. Do what you will. When you`ve decided on your course of action, get ready for Bed Desert, and get a move on. Oh, if someone makes it here and feels like testing how many pulses of Poison damage you`ll receive at the two different speeds, please e-mail me. As a final note, I beat Bed Desert at around the level 55 range. I also was ridiculously lucky in doing this battle, as an AI flaw was the only thing that won it for me. In looking back on everything, I wish I had leveled up to 68-69 for Bed Desert, because things would have been far easier. Either way, I`m done rambling. On with the strategies. --- g. Bed Desert --- Enemies: Balk (Male Engineer), 2 Male Knights, 2 Male Archers, 1 Male Wizard Enemy Levels: Balk is at level 35. I`m 100% sure of this. Everyone else is around the 32-34 range. There MAY be some enemies above level 35, but I don`t think it shows up with any regularity as of yet. I do know, however, that there are pre-set enemies inside of Bethla Garrison at level 35, with shiny speed points. All the more reason for you to level way up by this point. Units to Use: This is the time for your 4 Gemini to shine Objective: Defeat Balk Difficulty: 9/10 Take one note before reading this section. I`m not 100% sure what happens in terms of the flow of the battle if you level up to 69. I`m sure my strategy will still work, but there may be differences in terms of how much Poison damage you will take, as well as how much HP you will receive from Regen in the fight from the P Bags that I severely hope you have equipped. For this reason, I suggest trying the battle at level 68, and getting to 69 ONLY if you are 100% stuck. Remember, my strategy was written for a team without that level 69 speed point. Then again, I was wearing Sprint Shoes. You can happily level to 69, then ditch the Sprint Shoes for the accessory of your choice should you desire the same speed I had. PBF: C~~~ CCC~ Equipment: P Bag (Ramza keeps the Octagon Rod) --- Thief Hat Black Costume Sprint Shoes (expendable at level 69) For starters, reset until none of the enemies have Item as a secondary ability. You do not want Balk getting healed in this battle at all. Secondly, take Damage Split off of Ramza. Ramza`s positioning doesn`t matter, because he will always start in the same spot. At the beginning of the battle, Balk will attack a Calculator, and take at least 91 points of damage. It will be more if a higher level Ice spell goes off when he hits you. Have Ramza move forward two panels and Wait, while the other Calculators move as far left as they can. Have them all attack the thin air. If all goes well, Balk will kill the Calculator he shot with his first turn. From here, move Ramza to Balk`s left and have him attack. Though the attack will only cause 36 points of damage, this will eliminate the need for you to Damage Split an Ice 2 spell to eventually kill Balk. Without Damage Split equipped, the generics will surely kill Ramza before Balk can. This is a good thing, because Balk will start going after your last three Calculators before the generics get too close, and they`re all pretty healthy. As for what to do with them with their second actions, move them left, and have them attack the air again. This will hopefully use up enough CT so that they only take 2-3 pulses of Poison damage. At this point in the battle, with two dead Calculators already, it comes down to pure luck. You have three healthy units, and Balk only needs to take three more Damage Splits to die. With none of the enemies having Item equipped, the task becomes much easier. Run around, stay as far away from the generics as you can, and Wait over and over, to Regen as much HP as you can. With any luck, you`ll win this battle without too many problems. It will, however, take a ton of luck for that to happen. You know how I won this fight? I was down to my last Calculator, who practically had full HP. Balk shot her for 182, and took 91 points of damage. A Knight then gave him a Potion, which gave him a total of 90 HP. He`d still die from another Damage Split, but this occurrence is the very reason I recommend resetting until none of the enemies have Item. Anyway, a Wizard then charged Fire 4 on my last remaining unit. She would have survived by less than 5 HP, and because of this, Balk shot her again. She took 182 points of damage, Damage Split went off, and Balk died. When Balk shot her the final time, guess how many hit points she had before Damage Split went off? THREE. Trust me, you want to level up before this battle. I would paraphrase what falcon said, but it was so well thought up... :) Anyhoo, here`s his stuff: Time for some more major strategization. First off, Ramza needs a weapon downgrade. Why? The Gokuu Rod inflicts Innocent 20% of the time, and you can't have that. Balk will stop shooting, which means that Balk won't do any damage, which means that he won't damage himself. So. Back to an Iron Fan for you! It only costs you 6 damage from Ramza anyway. As for the PBF: RCXCC LXXXX (R = Ramza, C = Calculator, L = Gemini with lowest HP) Equipment: Females: P Bag / Thief Hat / Black Costume / Feather (or Dracula) Mantle Ramza: Iron Fan / Flash Hat / Wizard Robe / Angel Ring Ramza's Angel Ring will function properly so long as you follow the PBF. As for the placement of the lowest HP girl? Balk always went after my lowest HP Gemini first. Since he was so adamant about it, I decided I'd make him move as far as possible to be able to shoot her. To begin, Balk will shoot the lowest HP girl. If Damage Split fails, reset. Next, move your girls and attack thin air, to waste CT so your P Bags' Regen will take effect sooner. Move Ramza forward and poke Balk for 54. Balk will follow the girl he first shot, and fire again. So long as both have been Ice1, and she split the first, she will *barely* survive. Hopefully she Split the second as well. Meanwhile, Ramza will be targeted by just about everybody. If you can, redirect whatever spell the Wizard is sending your way. I had a couple runs where I nailed Balk with a Fire3, which helped knock him down quickly. Balk will keep shooting, and Ramza should get another free 54 damage shot after he reraises. If you're lucky, you'll have 290 (91 + 91 + 54 + 54) damage done to Balk just from Ramza and your first Calculator! Two other Geminis will be more than enough to Damage Split him to death, with any kind of luck. Mucho thank you, my friend. --- h. South Wall at Bethla Garrison --- Enemies: 3 Male Knights, 2 Male Archers, 1 Male Ninja, 1 Male Thief Enemy Levels: 1 Knight will be at level 35. As for everyone else, I don`t think they`ve hit level 35 yet, but there is a possibility that another unit or two will be there. Then again, I