freshfeeling | Phantasy Star IV Gratitude Challenge Part V (Reply)

[This entry is adapted from the original GameFAQs posts written around the time the gameplay took place in January of 2016. It is actually being posted in March of 2023 around the origin of this blog. There may be minor edits.]

There were no further updates to my unlocked abilities and equipment since the last entry. It took a while to get back to playing; it's partly having other things to do but partly being grumpy about having to grind a bunch of levels to beat Zio. Given that I wasn't even close, I felt like I needed about 5 levels per person to make any truly significant difference and it may still be hard. I mean, androids have 0 mental: Demi's magic resistance will never go up.

I realize also that I really wanted to take Demi's Stun-Shot away before this fight, which still makes sense to me. I need a bunch of levels and then relegate Demi to strictly defending and item usage. That is unlikely to change even if someone were to allow me to use Spacedarmr (the best defensive equip Demi could access to this point).

The only other things that I could see making an enormous difference, since Zio's attacks are nearly all magical, would be Psy-Shields or Lasrbarrir... and when I think about it, I might've sold/dropped the first Lasrbarrir.

I started by just gaining levels. I started in Passageway and decided Nurvus would be a bit faster. I spent most of my time in Nurvus, but really they're probably pretty close in terms of experience yield. Floatmines, for example, give pretty crappy experience considering the danger level to my (intentionally crippled) party.

After about an hour of grinding with some slight fast-forward, my levels ended up like this before I fell asleep on the couch:

Current status:

Rika (Level 26, 98 Def, 28 Res)

Equipment: Crmcshield, Crmcshield, Crbn-Suit

Techs: Gires

Skills: (none)

Gryz (Level 25, 80 Def, 26 Res, 91 Atk)

Equipment: Struggl-Ax, Crmc-Mail

Techs: (none)

Skills: War Cry [boosts Atk to 144, 7 uses]

Demi (Level 23, 37 Def, 0 Res, 87 Atk)

Equipment: Stun-Shot

Techs: (none)

Skills: (none)

Chaz (Level 24, 68 Def, 31 Res, 97 Atk)

Equipment: Lasr-Sword, Crmc-Mail

Techs: Ryuka, Gires

Skills: Crosscut [177 power, 8 uses]

Rune (Level 24, 30 Def, 51 Res)

Equipment: (none)

Techs: Foi [75 power], Wat [83 power], Ryuka

Skills: Hewn [115 power, 7 uses]

I'm sure that helped. I'm not sure whether to even try keeping Demi alive vs. Zio; if that's a good idea, I need repair-kits, and the only place to get those in significant supply is as drops from Slaves back at the Platesystem. I might consider that.

I was also considering fighting more Floatmines to try and accrue Dynamite. That could have actually been a pretty big difference-maker. It's got 128 power so it's actually better against Zio than everything I have other than Crosscut (and Gryz after War Cry). It could certainly give Demi something to do... but it would be a pretty long, dry grind.

Nurvus

I decided to do one more grind session, emphasizing the Floatmines because I realized while writing that last post how helpful some dynamite would be. I killed a lot of Floatmines; beating Zios Guards, Techmasters and Tarantellas (sp?) was also becoming trivial so I just got all of them, too. I ended up getting about a level for everyone while accumulating a total of exactly one dynamite.

I hadn't tried Zio since I started grinding so I thought it should give him a shot to at least gauge my effectiveness, with my D: macro as follows:

Rika: Psyco-Wand, Demi: Dynamite, Chaz: Crosscut, Gryz: War Cry, Rune: Hewn.
The idea is to disable the defenses, buff Gryz, and use that single dynamite to reasonably good effect on a turn where we know Zio isn't attacking. Seemed like a good idea.

Zio

My resistance wasn't way higher, but my HP was, such that Rika and Gryz could handle Black Wave or a couple rounds of Hewn/Corrosion. Demi defended or used Dimate. Rika defended or used Gires. Gryz attacked or healed himself if several people needed healing. Chaz used up his Crosscut, then attacked, unless everyone needed healing. Rune used Hewn, then Foi, and once or twice Dimate on himself.

I found myself loving the Black Wave rounds. I only saw Zio's red blast once, so Black Wave allowed Rika to heal a single person and focus on the offense. I got lucky with a reasonably high proportion of Black Wave at the beginning of the fight.

Demi went down after about 4 rounds, but she was a helpful itembot for a while. Rune went down next a while later, to a Black Wave that he couldn't possibly survive, but it was only after he had already used all of his Hewns so his contributions (Foi) were minimal anyway.

I pressed on; the fight reached a stable point here: if one person needed healing, Rika took care of it. If more than one person needed healing, Rika did one and someone else did one. A few times, I gambled on Black Wave not happening, leaving Chaz with just over 100 HP, which ended up being okay. Gryz did get taken down eventually, and Chaz had used all of his Crosscut, but managing to survive with just Chaz and Rika wasn't bad. It was a matter of surviving until Chaz would Lasr-Sword him to death.

And then it happened!

Beating Zio last night with these restrictions, despite my fairly high levels, was the best it has felt to beat Zio since my very first time (when a friend and I had party levels in the 40s because we didn't know we were supposed to use the Psyco-Wand). It was awfully satisfying.

I should mention that because of Demi's limited role in the fight, I managed to keep the Stun-Shot.

I nearly filled my inventory with Dimate and went to Zelan. I got help there. I unequipped the new help except for Stun-Shot. Checked the boxes and grabbed Canceller and Plsmdagger (which unfortunately isn't going to be of any use, possibly ever). Left. Killed a guy using Flare, which was exciting. Crashed ship. Got more help. Unequipped this additional help. Talked to a guy and took a direct route to Tyler, where I bought a ton of silver stuff. Being on Dezolis means that all of the second wave of gifts have suddenly become available to me.

Hangar

I fought everything here but there wasn't really anything exciting here. Used a Wat-based macro against Helexes and a Foi-based macro against everything else. Raja is at the end of pretty much every macro using Gires, since that's all he can do (and he does it well, anyway).

And now we are headed to Kuran.

I think this will go okay; thanks to the upgrades from the town of Tyler, as well as anything else that was "enabled" given that I touched down on the second planet, I've got some pretty serious defense now... except for Wren. I've given some thought to making Chaz go purely defensive and I'm pretty sure it won't be worth it.

Current status:

Rika (Level 29, 137 Def, 42 Res)

Equipment: Silv-Crown, Silvshield, Silvshield, Crbn-Suit

Techs: Gires

Skills: (none)

Wren (Level 20, 38 Def, 0 Res, 95 Atk)

Equipment: Stun-Shot

Techs: (none)

Skills: Flare [179 power, 12 uses]

Chaz (Level 27, 72 Def, 34 Res, 101 Atk)

Equipment: Lasr-Sword, Crmc-Mail

Techs: Ryuka, Gires, Githu [130 power]

Skills: Crosscut [181 power, 9 uses], Rayblade [210 power, 1 use]

Rune (Level 26, 82 Def, 63 Res)

Equipment: Silvshield, Silvshield

Techs: Foi [79 power], Wat [87 power], Ryuka

Skills: Hewn [119 power, 8 uses]

Raja (Level 25, 74 Def, 59 Res)

Equipment: Silvshield, Silvshield

Techs: Gires

Skills: (none)

I'm really excited for the things that happen when I'm done Kuran, so I hope I don't have any issues with the boss. If I do, maybe I should wait until Rune has Tandle.

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