Part 78: Strategic Notes: Harpuia
Strategic Notes: Harpuia
Harpuia
HP: 4000
STR: 62
TEC: 60
VIT: 40
AGI: 99
LUC: 48
Exp: 150000
Item Drops:
-Common: Harpy Wing - Unlocks Youtou (Katana), and Axcella II. Limited Stock
--Winged arm with three sharp talons at the tip.
-Rare: N/A
-Conditional: Cut Quill - Kill while poisoned. Unlocks Sylpheed. Limited stock.
--Virtually weightless razored feather.
Description: The queen of the skies, whose strange harmonies inexorably lure explorers to their doom.
Weakness: Stab
Resistance: Cut, Bash, Fire, Ice
Skills:
Shriek: Cannot be disabled. High chance to inflict Confusion on the party. Used every 4 turns.
Claws: Uses the arms. Deals two heavy hits to one party member. Has a high chance to inflict terror.
Feather: Uses the arms. Deals a moderate amount of untyped damage to the party. Has a high chance of inflicting blind.
Talons: Cannot be disabled. Heals herself for 1375 and dispels all debuffs, status effects, and binds.
Banquet: Uses the legs. Deals a moderate amount of Cut damage to random targets. Has a high chance of inflicting Head and Leg binds.
Okay, so Scylla was a tough boss that you probably spent a lot of time trying to get past. So you're probably wary about this next boss. Don't be, Harpuia is a joke. She's far easier than Scylla and the next Stratum boss. Most people that have played this game never had any trouble with her, even with unoptimal parties. I'd say the main reason for her being easier to take down is because she's predictable, and doesn't really hit that hard.
She'll always use Shriek on the first turn, and then cast it again every 4 turns. Confusion can be a deadly status effect, so if you have any Therica BXs, bring those to the fight. But this move is really easy to plan around since it's so predictable. Her regular attacks hit hard, but are unlikely to kill your party members. Claws is pretty much a death sentence to whoever it targets. It hits twice, but one hit is usually enough to one shot most classes. Now that sounds harsh, but compare that to Scylla's attacks, who had a hard hitting random target attack that could kill most of your party if you got unlucky and had an AOE that was guaranteed to kill anyone it hit. If one person gets taken out, you can just revive them and keep attacking. Survivors do get terrified, but that's easily cured. Feather is an AOE that doesn't really hit hard. It shaves off half of your party's health at most, but it also has a high chance to inflict blind, which can be really annoying. It should be noted that Harpuia's AGI is actually at the cap of 99, so she's faster than every class except Survivalists and can dodge your attacks more easily, and the blind just makes it a lot harder to hit her. Talons is a special move that you're unlikely to see. It's actually a counter to one very specific skill, Dampen. If the game detects that a Hexer used Dampen, Harpuia will use this skill on the next turn, drawing out the fight. Banquet is her most dangerous move. It deals a ton of damage to random targets, and anyone hit by this will have a high chance of having their head and legs bound. She rarely uses this though.
Just carry a couple of Therica BXs on you, and maybe have someone that can dispel status effects in your party. She does have a resistance to a lot of things, but it's completely negligible. She has about a 95% to 75% resistance on all those elements, which isn't enough to make your attacks ineffective. Honestly, the only hard part of the fight would be inflicting poison on her to get her conditional drop, since that might take up a couple of turns.
Banned
: I'm getting that conditional drop. She's the only one who can inflict Poison, and she has the best chance of doing so. She's not really gonna be that helpful otherwise since she can't use Dampen.Overkill
: Pauline is equipped with a postgame bow and the boss is weak to Stab attacks. Do the math. Apollon does over 1500 damage. Without buffs. She's the only one who can outspeed Harpuia, so her 1st Turn ability is great for helping everyone else cast their stuff before Harpuia can cast hers.
: Bellamy's Analysis won't kick in for Thunder, but his Megido deals a ton of damage, over 950 points of it. That's unbuffed for the record, so if Gilbert or Frederik is on the team, that damage will skyrocket. Granted, his damage isn't way ahead of the curve. Most other physical attackers can dish out 600 points of it.Top Picks
: Gilbert is a great support since he can increase our party's damage, and more importantly, heavily increase our party's resistance to status effects. Unfortunately, he's not fast enough to sing Health before Harpuia can hit everyone with Shriek. If Pauline's on the team, that's not an issue.
: Since Harpuia's weak to Stab attacks, Fedot's Ricochet can dish out a ton of damage. Medishot is also fantastic in this fight since he can cure anyone who gets inflicted with Confusion, Terror, or Blind.Offense
: Ken can dish out a ton of damage with Midareba, dishing out about 600-700 total.
: Emilia has her chasers and Tornado. She can dish out a nice amount of damage if a team is built around her.
: Ling can dish out a ton of damage with Rampage. The problem is if Harpuia decides to use Feather or Banquet, he's pretty much done for.
: Unfortunately, Nick's Bait skill will not proc for Feather since it's untyped damage. It can proc for Banquet, but that's largely RNG based.Support
: Frederik is a very fast healer, and can increase the damage of our party members. Unfortunately, he can't dispel status effects.
: Aegis can reduce the amount of damage that Banquet dishes out, and he's the only who can tank both hits from Claws and live.
: Maverick is a healer that's very slow. He can dispel status effects and binds in the off chance Harpuia decides to use Banquet.Vote for up to any three party members. Votes must be bolded.