I wasn’t too far off, actually… Krile was level 21 and...
I wasn’t too far off, actually… Krile was level 21 and the others were 22 when they took on Exdeath.
But let’s not get ahead of things… *ahem* Hank and friends have leapt into World 2, ready and willing! And possibly able! Things did look a bit bleak at the start, I must say, with the low-level party losing and reloading to Gilgamesh, of all people. The Blue Magic was still a bit weak in terms of offense and Hank was having a hell of a time getting his 25% chance of the Sword Dance to actually land 1 in 4 times (something that would continue throughout the run) Eventually, a combination of the right skills and the right luck got them by, and they were off.
to read the rest of the amazing story of yesterday’s stream, click below! Aside from that, the final Fiesta stream is starting RIGHT NOW!
THANK YOU, FRIENDS!
As Hank planned, the party did a lot of running. There was an occasional pause to learn the pertinent Blue Spells, primarily Level 3 Graviga and Aeroga. They WANTED to learn 1000 Needles as well, as it’s one of the more useful Blue spells that ignores enemy defenses. But… it’s pretty amazing how many monsters in the FF5 world know this spell, yet refuse to use it. Following the advice of various tomes on the internet highway, they spent well over an hour trying to find and acquire it, to no avail. It was embarrassing and awful.
A similar setback occurred on the way to the great sage Ghido. They learned that killing the Metamorphs in the cave may yield them a Staff of Light, which contained the powers of the Holy spell which the Time Mage may find pretty useful. They went through about 30 of these damn things befor throwing their arms up and going “FUUUUUUUCK THIIIIIIIS”. We’re not sure what the drop rate of the Staff of Light is, but if it’s supposed to be over 5%, we were definitely getting hosed. But they learned Aeroga from it anyway… which is the best Blue Magic in terms of raw magic power… so there’s that.
But aside from that, things went pretty much as planned. The run actually ended sooner than expected, even!
The party did run from pretty much every encounter, and when it became somewhat hard to run normally, Faris the Time Mage remembered she had a Teleport spell and started warping everyone to safety. This pretty much left just the bosses.
Tyrannosaur went down to…. the Phoenix Down
Dragon Flower succumbed to Romeo’s Ballad and was helplessly cut down
Gilgamesh came back only to get afflicted with Dark Shock, followed by a Level 5 Death in the face. Again, he didn’t get a chance to summon his familiar.
(let’s take this time to explain that Dark Shock halves an enemy level, rounded down. In lucky situations, it will make the enemy’s level a multiple of 5, and Level 5 Death does pretty much what you think it does)
Atomos got Dark Shocked and killed the same way.
The Crystal Guardians… wellll… they were a problem. Four high-level bosses against a low-level party meant Dark Shock and other such Blue Magics wouldn’t land so easily this time. They actually have weak attacks until they lose a big chunk of their HP, when they start using spells that pretty much destroy the entire party in one shot. Indeed, a few reloads ended up happening with this boss. But the thing about FFV, and especially the Fiesta run, is trying every combination of things you can think of and eventually hitting upon the one that works. In this case, it was Graviga+Aeroga. The Time Spell Graviga seemed to have a much higher chance of landing than the Blue Spells, and it took off ¾ of their lifebar, leaving enough for one Aeroga hit to finish it off. Except for the Crystal that was a wind elemental. That one needed a few well-timed casts of Aqua Breath instead, and it was pretty scary, but they managed to do it. The need for grinding for EXP was successfully delayed once again.
They moved onto Exdeath’s castle, where the first item of business was to find a Magic Dragon and learn Level 2 Old from it. This was the third and final spell for turning the Blue Mage into a completely evil, cackling bossfucker.
Gilgamesh was next. The party lined up with their Blue Magic and kept casting Dark Shock until it landed. As we explained earlier, Dark Shock halves an enemy’s level, rounded down, and if you’re a mathlete, you know this means that this will, after two casts at the most, turn an odd-numbered enemy’s level even. And that’s where Level 2 Old comes in.
The “Old” status will reduce the afflicted’s level by 1 with every tick of the ATB meter. Sooner or later, it’ll tick down to a level that is a multiple of 5.
GET IT?
After being shocked and made Old, the party kept casting Level 5 Death again and again, until they saw the skull appear. It worked. Now they were all sons of bitches.
It actually caused the game to skip a cutscene and the Excalipoor didn’t drop, but oh well. The Blue Mage is actually one of the two jobs that can get some use out of the Excalipoor, but oh well!
Exdeath was up next, and unlike Gil, his level was already an even number, sooooo…. Level 2 Old, a few Level 5 Deaths…… SKULL.
They were so giddy about their new bastard status that they forgot to learn Level 3 Flare from him… but OH WELL!
World 3 is next, and everyone had an idea how it was going to go. Don’t expect more than one tablet to be collected. We’ll collect a Mirage Vest and maybe a Magic Lamp and stuff but it’ll be mostly a straight hop into the void. The new technique isn’t entirely flawless, as Dark Shock requires a fairly low-level boss for a low-level party to land it at a decent rate. But there are ways to get around that. Certain, bardy ways.
World 3 Now.
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