Part 99: Level 1 run - Chapter 19

CHAPTER NINETEEN: "And then Ragtimer coughed and a hundred blood came out then he went nothing and everyone sadded. One day they will all would learn to live their lifes without Ragtimer who was dead."


The airship is useful for flying to chocobo tracks.

Well that's too harsh. Hilda Garde 3 is good for flying to story locations since the game requires being in the airship for a few. This update is all set-up. Normally, I'd be taking on the bonus boss at this point. I'm saving it for disc 4 like Mega64 is, but this is still the perfect time to build up the team for... the rest of the game. I have all the abilities I need, and nice ways to build AP.


It takes a while to get the remaining chocograph pieces becuase I had... 1. The one from the first disc.


I get the remaining 3 chocographs. Choco ends with a level 37 beak and I don't have enough points for shit. Fuck.


The strongest weapon Tinhank has, since I'm slow as shit. It teaches an ability that doesn't work and an ability he doesn't have the MP to use. He'll spend every second he has left alive using the attack command or Darkside so having the highest attack is important.


Like Ark's, so also invaluable when the time comes.


Ribbons absorb wind and water, and there are quite a few bosses left where this is fantastic. The 3rd isn't available until disc 4, and Papito has the Octagon Rod to simulate it.


The other free Rebirth Ring. Thank fuck, I need two to get all my Auto-Lifes in order.


Oh yeah, new Knight's monster.


It has less than 10k HP.


Daguerreo has forests on its island, so Choco can get there too.


There's a lot of shopping, but the Sargatanas is the Big Deal. With it, Stop is unnecessary as Gitan can do the same thing but with no miss rate. If the enemy can be petrified, the enemy is petrified. No evasion, no lv+(mag/4), nothing but a yes/no depending on immunity.

God yes.


Also I max my Opal supply. I still have an evil Shiva-based scheme.


Synthing a Rebirth Ring requires a Diamond, which is also why I needed the free ones.


idgaf


This would be wonderful if fire/ice/thunder attacks at this point weren't far beyond what halving would let Tinhank and Ratchel survive.


At this point, defenses are mostly nil. Everything has enough attack to deal at least 100 damage, and that's lethal to these goobers. Luckily, this is when elemental immunities start to kick in in earnest.


Even at level 1, Grand Dragon grinding is a thing.


God I love the Sargatanas.

What does that name mean, anyway?


Oh ok.


3 AP, 6 with Ability Up. This is enough to pick up a lot of minor utility abilites.


Gimme Cats are the other Salvage area random encounter.


They are as open to petrify. Maybe that qualifies on some level.


They normally give 4 EXP. I could take out 4 without anyone gaining a level, but fuck that, that's lame.


I also set out to wrap up the friendly monster sidequest. You may notice the Kukri there. Though Gitan/Bort/Ratchel/Quark is the A-team, the B-team needs abilities too.


I shuffle equipment to master a lot of other stuff, too, but the big thing is always Auto-Life.


A lot of friendly monsters are in forests so I get a few Ragtime Mouse encounters.


Well here's a few useful moves. Darkside is Tinhank's magic stone-free way of boosting damage (in case he needs Auto-Life for example) and Dispel is useful against exactly one enemy.

It's the final boss.


We're close to some abilities so let's get some grand dra


never mind!


Feather Circle takes forever to show up that I start stoning the random encounters.


Sheesh, took you long enough.


Garuda is prompt in comparison.


More useful abilities! Papito's ~agas outdamage Flare with elemental weakness and/or boost, and we have plenty of hats to boost 'em. Aura is Owen Wilson's way of adding Auto-Life (bet you wish you had that for Marley huh) and Shock... costs too much MP.


Yans are fucking murder, yes.


Friendly Yan is in the forest too.


Let's hurt it w/ weapons. Unlike other friendly monsters, Yan will actually attept to complete this fight to the death.


BAAAHHH!!! has 158 attack, so it takes endgame armor and high levels to not die instantly. It can't miss, so evasion doesn't work there. And it inflicts Silence because fuck you.


Yeah I have auto-life.


And it does enable a second Dragon's Crest.

Yan has 255 defense, evasion, magic defense, and magic evasion. It's only things that don't check against those stats that work. It's weak to Shadow but there's no way to deal Shadow damage that isn't ramming against its defenses.


It also uses BAAAHHH!!! as a counter-attack, and eventually during each of its turns once it realizes I'm never giving it the damn diamond.

It has 50 speed, as well. 65535 HP, immunities to every relevant status. It is open to Slow but there's no means of inflicting Slow that don't run into its massive stats (so you have Gitan with accuracy+ and the Gladius hope for the 1/3 chance before netting another BAAAHHH!!! (which happens because it's a counterattack thus making Slow not so important.))

I'd need to hit it with my fixed-9,999 moves 7 times. I get two. Maybe 3 if I do tricks with Auto-Life and Aura and it isn't pissed.


In short, Friendly Yan is impossible at level 1 barring secret tricks of which I do not know.


So just hand the fucker the diamond.


I'll need a set of Rosetta Rings eventually so this is nice.


And then the boringest part: actually getting all 834 of those steals I talked about. I do it outside Quan's Dwelling as with ice immunity Mandragoras are harmless. Also they have Tents and Phoenix Pinions as steals, and now is when I finally go for all 99 pinions. The party is zombied to avoid EXP so I can just strike them down and get a ton of gil in the process. Absorbing Ice, tents, and Owen Wilson's Chakra work when zombified.


Since it's a forest, I finally finish Ragtime Mouse's quiz.


His final question is revealing his weakness:


He can indeed be slain. How?


Run into him again so he totals your score. If it's perfect?


He is so surprised he explodes in sheer disbelief.


He'd give 23,852 experience (5963 to a party of 4) but Gitan and crew are still zombies.

They have been zombies for several weeks now.


He gives 5963 times 10 gil and another Protect Ring. I like Protect Rings even if they don't do anything to help at level 1. They just feel so safe as add-on choices without a particular goal.

Anyway, next is showing off the results of training in 100 times earth's gravity or whatever.

REGISTER OF RESETS:
One to Tidal Flame Garnet for the hell of it; Unknown number lost to plant spiders spawn numbers; died to Flans without Flee; Untimely crit pushed Sealion to fatally Blizzara; less work to suicide on optional Type A fight than to win or reset; incredible number of resets for phoenix down RNG; and then again; Marcus gained levels; Snared by the Mandragoras leaving Quan's Dwelling; Only one on a pointless phoenix down rng; Antlion did not cooperate; Again, Antlion did not cooperate; Soldiers beaten too hard once; twice; thrice; Gitan lied Cleyrans died; Tinhank and Marcus didn't make it; bonus fourth Soldier beating; Alexandrian Gauntlet toll: Beatrix 3, Beatrix vs Bandersnatch 2, Beatrix vs Bandersnatch 1, Beatrix 3; Knuckleheaded death to Ralvuimago; Actually two of them; dunked by Hilgigars; Stroper sweepstakes; resources depleted by zombies; Stroper sweepstakes 2; ran out of magic tags; Stroper sweepstakes 3; Auto-Potion; Beaten to Bort; zombie-on-zombie violence; more zombie-on-zombie violence; Stroper sweepstakes 4; Stroper sweepstakes 5; Magic Elevator Ride zombies: Gitan striked, Roulette suicide, Roulette suicide 2, Gitan striked 2; Counter and Auto-Potion do not mix; Ramuh and Shiva insisted on sucking; Forgot the Forgotten chocobo tracks; got fucked up on the way; Epitaph; Epitaph; Epitaph; Epitaph grinding is risky; Desert Palace Random Encounters: Annoying, Dangerous, Random, Bullshit, Fuck, Dammit, Why; Bishop removed Zombie; Grand Dragon Thundaga; Yan'd; Friendly Yan'd.