Part 4: Deathserker

Part 3 - Deathzerker



Next up: Karnak.



This is useful because



This formation can wipe poor Zerky! because he likes to hit back row enemies like a moron.



Cheap hammer I never use because hammers are as crappy as axes.

Mythril Armor gives Zerky! even more defense though, and the Mythril Knife isn't bad to have either.



Also Cura is nice for healing between rounds. Beats 50HP Potions.



Then I beat up a bunch of dogs to stock up on consumables.



The Steamship is nothing special, especially since Zerky! is immune to blind.



Karnak was an inside job.



Liquid Flame is kind of tricky because of its three different forms. Human is pretty bad since it has a 1/3 chance of casting Blaze, which does 1/4 of Zerky!'s max HP. And it counters damage with that before changing form, so you're guaranteed to lose a fourth of your health right off the bat.



Its special attack pierces defense, too. Not good.



Right now, Zerky! can do 300 a punch. If both land (and they can miss since Liquid's evade varies between 10%, 20%, and 30% depending on the form), that's a fifth of the way to victory. Still a long way to go, though.

Anyway, I hit Liquid, it counters with Blaze, and I end up with its hand form.





The hand form's special attack inflicts paralysis.





And when it takes damage, it casts a single-target Fira before changing form. At this level, it's worse than Blaze. Ick.



Zerky! didn't even get to live to see the third form that fight.



This form is a breather. It does nothing but cast Fira on itself, healing ~300 damage. For most fights, it's a good opportunity to refresh while waiting for the stupid thing to waste MP. Its counter is also completely useless, pulling a character to the front row. This is the ideal form to get after a form change.

I wipe a second time and realize I'm close to another level and a bonus multiplier, so I go up to L19.



This gives me a lot more leeway as far as Liquid healing itself and me missing punches.



This attempt wasn't too bad, and I end up with the win.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA5Rn_2_vTU

FINAL LEVEL: 19
DEATHS: 2





Fire Crystals can't explode stone castles.



I skip the Elixirs because who cares. I also skip Esuna because I end up short on time because Zerky! won't end encounters in a timely fashion.



This is also one of those rare times I use Potions because Barehanded ends encounters more quickly.



Since Zerky! has Equip Ribbon, might as well.





Of course, these two are the big gets for the castle for most characters, and Zerky! is certainly no exception. The Elf Cape evades 1/3 of all physical attacks, and the Main Gauche evades 1/4 of all physical attacks and is the strongest knife available for awhile. They will stack on top of each other, and if you throw in Shirahadori, which itself evades 1/4 of all physical attacks, and factor in whatever Zerky!'s natural evade is with the Mythril Shield, then physical-oriented bosses suddenly become much less of an issue.



Iron Claw is technically a boss I guess but I certainly don't plan to treat it as one.



Exploding castle, and more jobs I can't use.



I end up at L20, so after I level up to 21 to avoid L5 Death, I tackle the library.



The enemies here are no threat if you're not a multiple of L5.





Ifrit is frankly scary for Zerky!. It alternates between a pattern that will take off a fourth of Zerky!'s health if he's lucky (as Fira will do slightly more), and a phase where he can lose another fourth or potentially be paralyzed by Ifrit's special (what's with all these damn bosses having paralysis-inflicting attacks anyway). If he's lucky, Zerky! has seven rounds to kill Ifrit.

On the bright side, the Main Gauche and Elf Cape help dodge his paralysis attack.



Meanwhile, this is the damage we can do. Barehanded doesn't really fare as well as I'd like for this fight, sadly, especially with Ifrit's 20 evasion.



This...takes a few attempts.



Nice try sucker.



After an attempt or two, I try the Ashura, which has a lot more attack power and can crit. It doesn't help much.





You can get back-attacked or a pre-emptive strike on Ifrit for some reason.



Eventually, I try Dual-Wield with the Main Gauche and the Mythril Dagger. With my two evasion items, a shield isn't that important, especially when I need to kill Ifrit ASAP.

This is the Gauche's damage, the Mythril Knife dealing around 250 or so.



I even try Equip Whips for a laugh. I think Kyrosiris suggested it. Ifrit is vulnerable to paralysis, but since he's Heavy it doesn't last long.





It takes quite a few attempts before Ifrit grows bored of the entire thing and gives up. I wish there was more to explain than "I kept hitting my head against a brick wall until the building finally fell apart" but patience of RNG fuckery is the true challenge of any Berserker run.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBLqocEHniI

FINAL LEVEL: 21
DEATHS: 12



Great, now I have a summon I can't use.



Even though the enemies are a non-issue, I'm still scared to run into bad luck and die and have to repeat Ifrit all over again. I make it to the save point, to your relief and mine (well, mine anyway).



Now Zerky! faces his greatest challenge yet, learning.



That's a long script! Let's go over his attacks. Thread/Web inflicts Slow, which is very bad. Magic Hammer reduces MP, irrelevant. Charm/Confuse is irrelevant since Berserk characters are immune to the status. Wind Slash hurts, not good to see. Sonic Wave halves the target's level, which is terrible for Zerky! since it reduces his damage output for the rest of the fight.

And then there's his counters. The Toad one is irrelevant, of course. He has a 1/3 chance of countering physicals with Protect, which reduces his damage taken and prolongs the fight. Longer fights are bad. Finally, once he hits 800HP, he has a 2/3 chance of countering with Drain, which both does major damage to Zerky! and heals a good chunk of HP for Byblos.



It's best as usual to go Barehanded or to Dual-Wield since Byblos's physical attacks aren't the threat here.



I actually make it to his drain phase my first attempt, but he quickly takes care of me after that.

After three tries, I end up figuring out a way that completely trivializes this fight (or Kyrosiris suggested it, I honestly can't remember which). Can you guess what it is?





Byblos, like Ifrit, is susceptible to paralysis. Unlike Ifrit, Byblos is not Heavy, which means Paralysis will last several turns. Enough to get another paralysis proc from the whip (at a 33% chance) each time until Byblos goes down. Since I started with a pre-emptive stirke and got a paralysis proc in the first attack, Byblos didn't even get to attack once! Feels pretty damn good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXnpqopHve4

FINAL LEVEL: 21
DEATHS: 3



Yeah, I'm pretty impressed myself.







Anyway, we've got a ship now.



And Zerky! immediately ruins it.



We can get bows now, but bows are inaccurate and thus aren't that wonderful, though the Fire/Ice Bows are the only weapons we can get of that element for World 1. Harps are even more pointless since they do fractional damage based on Max HP, and such a small amount compared to one of Zerky!'s physicals. Plus they won't even work on Heavy bosses.



No, there's a much better weapon here.





Harvesters are the guys holding those sickles. They're in every encounter on Crescent Island, though the one with Black Flames is a pain due to Dark Spark, which halves level and reduces damage output.



Guess what they have as their rare drop? An axe that outclasses every weapon I have so far (barely stronger than the Ashura) and can proc Death, which is incredibly useful.

I actually get one pretty quickly at L23. Then I decide to get a second one for dual-wielding purposes.





This took two hours and eight levels to accomplish. The extra levels would come in handy, but still, holy crap was grinding for that damn sickle not worth the time sink. Of course I do all this with fast-forward, I'm not that crazy (from the guy doing a fucking Berserker solo challenge). So yeah, the RNG hates me.

Speaking of which... Next time, we face the mother of all roadblocks for any Berserker challenge. The one where Sulla had to grind to Level 62 to beat.

Ladies and gentlemen, we're about to face The Sandworm.