Phantasy Star IV Gratitude Challenge Part VII

[freshfeeling]

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

As of this play session, the list of unlocked abilities and equipment is the same as the prior session, although it'll change next time!

Kyra is somewhat lacking on offense; she doesn't get Tandle until level 39, which I practically consider post-game (although it is unlikely to be post-game in this challenge).

She doesn't get Wat.

She has Foi, which isn't useful against Gy-Laguiah or most mechanical enemies. Flamesword will be stronger until she has more than 90 mental, anyway.

And she has Hewn - a super-powered Hewn - but that elemental is resisted by a lot of baddies and, as with all skills, the uses are limited.

I began with a grind. I started with the Weapons Plant, thinking of the tasty experience from Lifedeletrs and my access to Tandle and Spark, but after several runs I realized that I was losing a party member every 2-3 battles. Losing party members has some drawbacks... because my defense is so low that I'm actually pretty prone to game overs, and because I kind of need every party member to gain levels.

After a bit, I gave up and did some grinding in the next story area.

 

Air Castle

I killed things in the first hallway. One of my favourite aspects of grinding here in the No Hands Challenge was that you can collect a buttload of Trimates from Frostsabers, so that's another reason grinding here is good. Unfortunately, without access to any Gra techs, killing Dimensworms is time-consuming. I had a couple of macros I used frequently, as follows:
 

 

A) Wren: Attack, Rika: Flamesword, Chaz: Attack, Rune: Flamesword, Kyra: Wood-Cane

B) Wren: Attack, Rika: Wood-Cane, Chaz: Attack, Rune: Wat, Kyra: Wood-Cane

C) Chaz: Githu, Rika: Wood-Cane, Wren: Attack, Rune: Flamesword, Kyra: Wood-Cane
 

 

(A) was great for Frostsaber groups, and even Spectors. (B) was better against Stoneheads, or when more (minor) healing was useful. Great, for example, when there was a second rounds against Dimensworms. (C) was great for first rounds against Dimensworms or Spectors, because Githu kills them, but it's a big TP sink.

In retrospect, Wren's plain attack is about the same strength as Flamesword and Flamesword isn't resisted (as much) by Spectors, so I should probably have had him use one of those in macros. Eh.
 

 

I decided surviving wasn't a big issue and flying back to another planet to heal all the time was becoming frustrating so I made a break for the midway healing square. I picked up both the Swift-Helm and the Genocyclaw, which would be game changers, except that I'm still forbidden from using them for several more boss fights!
 

 

Then I grinded near the healing square, and got a few Trimates.

 

 

I had to Hinas out of there afterward because I wasn't going to try the Xe-A-Thouls without saving first.

 

 

Current status:

Rika (Level 39, 147 Def, 51 Res)

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

Techs: Gires

Skills: (none)

 

Wren (Level 31, 129 Def, 24 Res, 113 Atk)

Equipment: Stun-Shot, Elst-Armor

Techs: (none)

Skills: Flare [197 power, 17 uses], Spark [11 uses], Burstroc, [213 power, 1 use]

 

Rune (Level 32, 88 Def, 75 Res)

Equipment: Silvshield, Silvshield

Techs: Foi [91 power], Wat [99 power], Hinas, Ryuka

Skills: Hewn [131 power, 11 uses], Tandle [211 power, 4 uses]

 

Kyra (Level 33, 117 Def, 64 Res)

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

Techs: Foi [76 power], Gires

Skills: Hewn [164 power, 7 uses]
 

 

Chaz (Level 36, 86 Def, 43 Res, 140 Atk)

Equipment: Flamesword, Crmc-Mail

Techs: Hinas, Ryuka, Gires, Githu [139 power]

Skills: Crosscut [220 power, 12 uses], Rayblade [219 power, 4 uses]
 

 

Common Itemcasts available:

Flamesword (3) [112 power]

Wood-Cane (2): [32 power heal]
 

 

 

Rika's level is really creeping ahead, as it often does.

At this point, I didn't have high hopes for the Xe-A-Thouls or Lashiec. I actually thought I might grind a bit more... Nazan could be an asset (just one level away), as could a full inventory of Trimate.

Xe-A-Thouls

First, I grinded until Chaz got Nazan. Then I took a few runs at the Xe-A-Thouls that didn't go well at all. I tried once with a "concentrate fire on one guy" strategy, which I could tell pretty quickly wasn't going to work well, despite it seeming to be what the game encourages. The problem is that, with my high levels, my characters always go first. If my characters go first and trigger Thndrblast (sp?) then the enemies only get one action amongst them. If not, then they each get an action and I see multiple Gizans, Giwats or Wren-killing-finger-waggles. So I went with the well-known alternative Xe-A-Thoul strategy of "wipe the group quickly"! Maybe these strategies need better names.
 

 

Anyway, new strategy consisted of Rika: Flamesword, Wren: Burstroc (then Flare), Chaz: Rayblade (400+ damage to a single? Sounds pretty good.), Rune: Tandle, Kyra: Hewn. I took two runs with this strategy and still got my butt kicked. One time I got the leftmost guy down but that was it.
 

 

I decided I needed more levels... and it might be almost cowardly, but I leveled Kyra until she got Tandle. Rika was up to 45. Goodness.
 

 

Nearly the same strategy: Rika: Flamesword, Wren: Burstroc, Chaz: Rayblade, Rune: Tandle, Kyra: Tandle took out one guy partway through round 2, and everyone survived round 1. The rest of the battle didn't go so well but as long as I had Chaz for DPS I knew I could pull through. After the big grind, I got it on my first attempt... but golly, it was pretty close:

 

Status afterward:

 

Hinas. Heal. Save. Re-enter.

 

Air Castle Part 2

Because my levels are so high - especially Rika - I get a buttload of surprise attacks and I think I only failed to run once. I managed to just waltz on down to Lashiec in perfect condition...

... more than once!
 

 

I beat the torch guy with a single, immediate Githu. Lashiec, though? Damn.

I tried about 5 times, I think. Rika would start with Flamesword but then she'd heal every round. Wren dies after two attacks no matter what, and it's not exactly worth the time to use a Repair-Kit since he'll just go down again. Anothrgate does 190 damage to Chaz in his Crmc-Mail. Sometimes I had luck with Posession and lasted four rounds or so, with great DPS on account of all of my nice gifts (Crosscut with a Flamesword and Rayblade are almost exactly equal against Lashiec at this level). My healing resources were mostly based around keeping Chaz alive, but I tried using Star-Dews liberally since they're my only group heal. My levels are pretty crazy.

 

I never got as far as Reinforce.

 

 

Current status (without considering the most recent gifts, yet) :

Rika (Level 45, 153 Def, 56 Res)

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

Techs: Gires

Skills: (none)

 

Wren (Level 37, 133 Def, 24 Res, 119 Atk)

Equipment: Stun-Shot, Elst-Armor

Techs: (none)

Skills: Flare [203 power, 20 uses], Spark [13 uses], Burstroc, [219 power, 4 uses]

 

Rune (Level 37, 94 Def, 83 Res)

Equipment: Silvshield, Silvshield

Techs: Foi [99 power], Wat [107 power], Hinas, Ryuka

Skills: Hewn [139 power, 13 uses], Tandle [219 power, 6 uses]

 

Kyra (Level 39, 123 Def, 73 Res)

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

Techs: Foi [85 power], Gires

Skills: Hewn [173 power, 9 uses], Tandle [237 power, 1 use]

 

Chaz (Level 42, 93 Def, 50 Res, 148 Atk)

Equipment: Flamesword, Crmc-Mail

Techs: Hinas, Ryuka, Gires, Githu [146 power], Nazan [178 power]

Skills: Crosscut [228 power, 14 uses], Rayblade [226 power, 5 uses]

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