Part 61: Strategic Notes: Scylla

Strategic Notes: Scylla


Scylla
HP: 3100
STR: 55
TEC: 55
VIT: 60
AGI: 50
LUC: 45
Exp: 100000
Item Drops:
-Common: Snow Vine - Unlocks Snow White (Bow), Pale Queen (Whip), and Nectar III. Limited Stock.
--These appendages steal warmth with their touch.
-Rare: N/A
-Conditional: Snow Bone - Kill within 3 turns. Unlocks Bindings. Limited stock.
--Sharp bone the size and shape of a large spear.
Description: A beautiful ice monster that inhabits the Frozen Grounds. The love in her heart froze long ago.
Weakness: Volt
Resistance: Stab

Skills:

Cry Soul: Uses the head. Randomly hits 3-7 party members. Deals heavy Cut damage.
Six Sins: Uses the legs. Attempts to inflict Confusion, Paralysis, and Blind on the party.
Tentacle: Uses the head. Attempts to inflict leg bind on the party.
Lullaby: Uses the head. Attempts to inflict sleep on the party.
Embrace: Uses the arms. Hits the party with a physical attack that deals severe Cut damage. Somewhat inaccurate. Used once her health drops below 50%.

The best strategy to deal with her is to save the game, and then reset. Then go to the sea- wait wrong game. Okay, Chimaera was a bit tough, but with proper planning it could be taken down. Hellion was a chump, especially if you brought a Dark Hunter. Then you come across this gal and she just completely wrecks your party. Scylla is somewhat infamous in that she's considered to be a brick wall for a lot of people. She's one of the tougher Stratum bosses and she will not go down easily.

She only has 2 attacks, but they both hit really hard. Cry Soul hits hard enough that it can kill some of our squishier members in one hit. It deals around 250 damage, and it doesn't care about rows since it's a ranged attack. (Scylla is screaming at you after all.) Embrace isn't really a threat. It hits really hard, for about 500 damage, but it's pretty inaccurate. It might tag like 1 or 2 people when she uses it but 1 or 2 deaths isn't a big deal. Until she uses Tentacle, at which point Embrace turns into a guaranteed party wipe. Leg binds reduce the AGI stat a lot which means your party members are much less likely to evade attacks. She'll use Embrace a lot more frequently as she gets closer to death. Which can be a good thing if she never bothers using Tentacle since it'll miss most of the time.

Now how would you go about dealing with her? Well there's a reason why Atlus lets you buy Mists at this point. Cut Mists really reduces Cry Soul's damage to the point where it won't one shot your squishier characters (100 damage.) Unfortunately while they will reduce Embrace's damage, it won't be enough to stop it from one shotting everyone. Also Mists are limited in stock, so you have to farm the items needed to buy them. Therica AXs are also really important for dealing with Tentacle, otherwise your party will eat an Embrace and you'll get a game over. If you've been saving those Therica BXs you've been getting, this is the fight you want to use them for. Status effects will really hinder your party from taking Scylla down. She's a bit resistant to Stab attacks, but she's not too resistant to them. She does have a Volt weakness, but it hardly matters unless you have an Alchemist. It's gonna be a pretty long fight, so going for her conditional drop on the 1st try is pretty much out of the question unless you bring a Revenge Hexer, or design a team specifically for dealing with her.

Easy Mode

: Gilbert's is probably the best support to bring to the fight. Heavily reduce the chances of our party getting hit with status effects? Check. Increasing our party's damage output? Check. Fast enough to unbind our team's legs even when he gets hit with leg bind? Check. His songs will make life easier for the rest of the team. Maybe a bit too easy. Unfortunately Health can't do anything about binds.

: Bellamy's Volt spells deals a disgusting amount of damage on their own to Scylla. From 600 to 700. If Gilbert is on the team, they'll deal 900 damage to her. Don't even get me started if Frederik is on the team as well. He is probably one of the best damage dealers that can be brought to the fight. The other damage characters just don't compare. They all deal around 100 damage to Scylla with their attacks. On the other hand, he might make the fight a bit too easy.

Offense

: Midareba deals a decent amount of damage to Scylla. Ken's not a bad choice for a damage dealer, he's probably one of the best ones.

: Fedot does a decent amount of damage with Ricochet, and he can heal up any status effects that Scylla inflicts with Medishot. But Scylla's Stab resistance does hamper his damage a bit.

: Nick's Bait skill will hit multiple times if Cry Soul hits the front row a lot. He can also try to bind Scylla's Head, which will shut most of her moveset down. Unfortunately she's pretty resistant to binds.

: Emilia has Shocker at her disposal, which can deal a decent amount of damage as long as she has a team built around her.

: Probably the worst choice for this fight. Ling's suicidal tendencies really hold him back. He can deal some decent damage with Rampage. That's about it. Oh, think he can just defend the others with Loyalty and parry Scylla's attacks to null them? He can't. Loyalty ignores the status of the user when it kicks in. So his parry ability won't activate when Loyalty procs.

Support

: Frederik is a decent support. He can heal our party, and boost our party's damage. He's also very fast. Unfortunately he has to use items in order to heal statuses or binds since his skillset can't deal with those.

: Your only weakness is Volt? Yeah, lemme change that real quick. Aliara will make life easier for our physical attackers with Dampen, especially the ones that use Stab attacks. Scylla actually isn't too resistant to Stab, but every little bit helps.

: Unfortunately, Aegis can't Provoke Cry Soul and then Parry all the hits. Provoke doesn't work on Cry Soul. Front Guard still works on it, so he can make that move a non issue, and help the front row survive an Embrace if it connects. He can't do anything for the back row, unfortunately.

: Maverick is another healer, but he's really slow at his job. He can undo binds on his own with Freedom and heal up status effects with Purify. But he's so slow that if Scylla hits everyone with Tentacle, and then decides to Embrace them, he won't be able to save them in time.

: Pauline's main role will be more of a supporting one than an offensive one. 1st Turn is great for our slower characters, especially members like Maverick or Fedot if status effects need to be dealt with.

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