Part 103: Level 1 run - Chapter 23

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: Gitan ran into to see what was noise and saw that it was naked Ozma. "Oh no, is Ozma!"



Let's chat about everyone's favorite giant hate orb, Ozma. This fucking thing seems impossible at level 1, but the only real difference between regular levels and level 1 is that Meteor and Curse are always lethal instead of usually lethal.

But to get to that point, we must understand Ozma's moves, and she has a lot!




First up, Death. It skips a lot of the rigamarole of other attacks and inflicts death directly. Ozma has a 141% chance to hit before magic evasion, and our gear for this fight gives Death a low but appreciated chance to miss.


Ozma's Curaga counter, even on a low roll like this, adds another attack we have to land. Frustrating!


Curse one-shots the entire party. And it makes the attacks off of Berserk weaker. The other ailments are wiped on KO so ailment resistance is straight pointless.


Flare one-shots a single person. However, its long animation means the other three get full ATB pretty much assuredly, and one KO isn't quite the entire party.


Berserk wastes time by 1) canceling any entered commands 2) Forcing someone into an awful physical (Ozma has a staggering 30 defense) 3) making someone else (usually Bort) use a Ghysal Green to cure it.

Most of the time, it just cancels an attack and then is cured when Curse one-shots the entire party.


Flare Star hits for level*50 damage, or 50 at level 1. Gitan, Bort, and Ratchel get away with no problem, but Quark is usually at 1, and it'll down anyone who's only up from Auto-Life.


Meteor one-shots the entire party. The most common cause of wipes is Curse and Meteor in some order.


Holy one-shots a single person without Holy resistance. In this set-up, only Quark is open.

Not seen are Lv. 5 Death and Lv. 4 Holy, because Ozma will never cast them at level 1. And Mini, which never showed up for whatever reason. And Absorb MP because like hell I am trying that.


Most of the time you just wipe to curse.


Wiping is common. Don't despair, though.


The fight is highly lethal. Ozma only has 55,535 HP.


But Ozma is just as capable of ending you.


Unless Rebirth Flame kicks in...!


...oh.


Meteor has extreme damage ranges. This would be helpful for normal people.


Quark tried it on their own, but instead demonstrated that I have only one person open to Holy.


This is a lot of wipes to Curse to Meteor.


Or Meteor to Curse.


Haha, everyone Auto-lifed through the Curse but then got plugged by Flare Star!


This you shouldn't feel too bad about, even a level 99 party would be in tatters from this.


You know, all these wipes to Curse and I haven't even posted my set-ups.


Gitan has a shadow immunity off of the Ninja Gear, and holy off of the Chimera Armlet, and is otherwise going for speed.


Bort has a Pumice Piece for holy/shadow protection and is otherwise +magic because I want to pretend her Holy can help (it doesn't, Ozma has an improbable 70 magic defense).


Ratchel has the other Pumice Piece and is, like Gitan, equipped for speed.


Quark has only the Egoist's Armlet for shadow protection, and just the Green Beret for speed.

Everyone has Auto-Life equipped. Ratchel and Gitan have Bird Killer as a hail mary if Berserk hits them.

Oh, right, Shadow Protection. There's one move of Ozma's I didn't mention.


Doomsday is the best action you could ever see from Ozma. Completing the Friendly Monster sidequest changes her Shadow absorption to a weakness.


So she plugs herself for 9,999, and the party is unaffected. Quark nulls it even, to not leave Limit Glove HP.


Gitan uses Thievery the whole fight. He has enough MP to use four, more than enough.


Quark of course uses Limit Glove. They has the MP for four as well, and the one HP restriction is no problem since everything Ozma does to them is lethal or completely nullified.


Bort tosses the Dark Matter if she has nothing more important to do. It deals 9,999 damage. After this she's on duty to cure Berserks and use Ethers on Ratchel if she needs.


Dragon Crest costs 16 MP, and Ratchel has two uses before empty.


Let's talk about me for a bit. The first time I had heard of the level 1 challenge was way back when, on a webpage of RPG achievements with videos of a few to download. One of them was fighting Ozma with a level 1 party. It was unbelievable that someone could get to that point at level 1, but to win, too? It was in Russian, so I didn't even know the gear set-ups.


Another thing stuck with me. The audio was replaced with X-Japan's Blue Blood. Timed nigh-perfectly with the action. It made the feats all the more impressive.

And it fits the challenge. Look out! I'm raving mad!

So why am I saying all of this now? Well, there's something I neglected to mention about Flare Star.

It can miss.


This was the successful run all along.


I used the thesaurus!


It's a matter of counting to six. Doomsday, Thievery, Limit Glove, Dark Matter, Dragon's Crest, Thievery.


Ozma has 55,535 HP to spare. Or should I say, had?


Pose with your fancy lightsaber, GItan. You've earned it.


He's not going to learn anything from it, though. Virus blocks the 65,535 experience reward.


The rewards are pointless in general, really. Who cares, it's about being able to say a level 1 party beat Ozma.

It did.

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; Why did the gargoyle die; these resets aren't alone: Abadon, Abadon, Abadon, Shell Dragon; Random encounter Mistodon wipe; OZMA; OZMA; OZMA; OZMA; OZMA; OZMA; OZMA.