Part 197: Coyote's Tales, Episode One: In the Beginning

Welcome to a new solo challenge LP for the Zerky! Memorial FFV Solo Challenge Thread. This one is going to be quite a bit different from my Ranger run, which was more of a standard solo run. I'll probably stick to just the bosses, since I just did a run and I want to finish this one a bit faster. This one is going to have a gimmick, and a few extra challenges to offset the absolutely broken class I'm going to use. That, and because I don't want to use the class with the same gimmick someone else is already using.

This is going to be a Mime solo run. I'll get into the added challenges in a minute.

This is our hero.



He's a loner. But he's also a trickster:



The Mime doesn't look like much. It's a Freelancer wearing a cape. But that is what the Mime wants his enemies to think, to lull them into security and complacency.

But the Mime is never complacent, or content. This is what the Mime is capable of:



Namely, everything, and nothing. I am using omni options for this run, for reasons I'll explain in a bit, but this part is important: the Mime trades the safe and effective, but banal, !Attack and !Item commands in order to do any combination of three abilities. The Mime is restless, and a master of chaos.

I'll just plug in the top three for the first fight with the goblins, because nothing matters yet.



The Mime has Mimic instead of both Attack and Item. Mimic... mimics the last command used by the party. Since I'll be traveling alone, this means I can repeat my last command. It's good for saving MP, and not very useful otherwise in a solo run. In a party with disparate abilities, it's really powerful, but it isn't really the star of the show here.



Yes, who is this mysterious stranger?







I guess it's a good time to talk about the rules for this LP.

Coyote's Tales

Coyote must always be alone. The trickster is paradoxically a creature with people, and without people. His nature is to give and take from others, but he is fundamentally alone because he has no peers. Basically, this is a solo run.

Coyote is of the land, and needs nothing besides what he can get for himself. Coyote will only use items he can find lying around or from stealing. Coyote is a trickster, and he does not rely on phony conventions like "money" or "beds." He'll do a lot of stealing, and he'll do a lot of scavenging, because that's what the Coyote does. He can and will use money for !Zeninage, but he cannot otherwise spend any money, for any reason. Basically, this is also a "living off the land" run, because I think that's a fun idea and it fits with the concept. This won't be as big an issue as with other runs, because I can use abilities to supplement not having many consumables. But it will restrict my spell and equipment options significantly for most of the game.

Coyote is restless, and a bit of a coward. He must never pause too long in his travels, lest he get complacent. Basically, I'm going to try to minimize level-grinding and try to solve each boss at a low a level as possible. I'm not shooting for breaking any records here, since I'm still not as well-versed in this game as most of the folks in the thread, but I'll just try to keep grinding to a minimum.

Coyote is his own worst enemy. In other words: Coyote will lose access to one of the abilities he uses after each boss battle. That means not only will each boss fight be different, but I'll have to be strategic in the long term about which abilities I use. For the purposes of this rule, Abductors and Gargoyles aren't bosses because you encounter them more than once and they're lame. Gilgamesh does count, but I'll use the same three abilities each time I fight Gilgamesh (I'll just go back and dust them off when I fight him and retire them again afterward.) The ability lock-outs only apply to boss battles, so I can go back to using things like !Mug and Learning between boss battles, even if they're locked out for boss battles.

That last one is what makes this LP unique, and what (if anything) is going to make the solo Mime challenging. I took an inventory of active and passive abilities, not just to see which ones could deal damage (so I didn't set the rule such that I ran out of options halfway through the game), but also to see which ones I simply wouldn't use in a boss battle. Things like Find Passage and Read Ahead are cool, but Coyote is not going to use them in a boss battle. Taking away all of those, I'm left with 69 abilities. There are about 50 boss battles (a few less if I avoid option ones, and a few more if I go after ones I didn't count like Shinryu and Omega). That means that even if I lock-out only one of the abilities that I use in each boss battle, I'll still only have about 20 to choose from by the end of the game. Sure, I could keep !Rapid Fire for the whole game and always pick another ability to drop, but I'm not going to do that. I'm sure I'll make an effort to strategically preserve good abilities for later in the game, but I'll also mix things up a bit. Coyote won't look the same for any two boss battles. That's not how he rolls.

So with that in mind, let's fast-forward to Wing Raptor. I used Mug, Learning, and Chakra throughout the Pirate Cave and Wind Temple. Coyote learned Vampire and Goblin Punch, failed to steal a bunch until he hit level 4, and ran like a coward a whole lot. I also stopped at Tule to play the piano and to get a potion, a tent, and some worthless gold. The pirate cave has an ether, another tent, and yet more worthless gold. Nothing else to report.

Alright. Here's what Coyote is using for Wing Raptor:



I'm not going to waste good abilities on this scrub. I'm going to have to lose one of these, and I have a sinking feeling it's going to be !Calm. I should say that I am already having trouble deciding what to get rid of. I know I'm going to want !Mug for a long time and !Chakra for a while, but picking a third ability to flush down the drain was harder that I thought. !Chakra is simply for Coyote's lack of HP at this early stage, and !Mug is going to be Coyote's !Attack command for much of the game. No need to overthink this one.

And yet, the battle still does no go according to plan. True to form, Coyote flakes out and goes into the fight with Wing Raptor naked.



I configured the game to "unequip all" when I switch abilities. I don't remember why. But I forgot about it, and initiated the battle without fixing Coyote's gear. Worse yet, with not !Item command, Coyote can't even equip his dagger or shield in the middle of combat. With !Mug dealing about 16 per action, this was going to be a long slog. I even tried out !Calm in one of Wing Raptor's many defensive stances. (It didn't appear to do much). Other than that, it was just a few punches and a Chakra. Rinse. Repeat. Wing Raptor isn't very interesting, and Coyote's just following suit.











Wing Raptor
Coyote's Level: 5
Abilities Used: !Mug, !Chakra, !Calm
Deaths: 0
Total Boss Deaths: 0
Coyote-esque Mistakes: 1
Total Coyote-esque Mistakes: 1

So I'm choosing to lose !Calm. Here's the list as it is now:

!Items
!Attack
!Guard
!Focus
!Steal
!Mug
!Jump
!Lance
!Image
!Throw
!Mineuchi
!Zeninage
!Ianuki
!Animals
!Aim
!Rapid Fire
!Call
!Check
!Scan
!Calm
!Control
!Catch
!Mix
!Drink
!Recover
!Gaia
!Hide
!Sing
!Flirt
!Dance
!Spellblade
!White
!Black
!Time
!Summon
!Red
!Dualcast
!Blue
!Oath
!Condemn
!Predict
!Open Fire
!Blade Blitz
!Finisher

Equip Shields
Equip Swords
Equip Armor
Equip Ribbon
Equip Lances
Equip Katanas
Equip Axes
Equip Bows
Equip Whips
Equip Harps
Artful Dodger
HP +10%
HP +20%
HP +30%
MP +10%
MP +30%
Barehanded
Two-Handed
Dual-Wield
Pharmacology
Counter
Shirahadori
Learning
Magic Shell
Berserk
Equip Rods
Undead
Long Reach

You may notice that the list is missing a lot of stuff. The missing abilities are all stuff that I can't/won't choose for a boss battle in the first place, like out-of-combat abilities like Find Passages, and teamwork abilities like !Cover and !Revive. I'm not going to cheese my own rule by putting them on the list just as cannon fodder.

!Calm, on the other hand, is shit, and I will not lose any tears over it.

Up next is Karlabos. Here's what Coyote is going to use in this battle:



(Notice that Coyote is not naked this time.)

I don't have the luxury of sacrificing a crappy ability this time. I could probably go without Artful Dodger, but I want the extra speed and the evasion chance. Even with it, Karlabos is likely to spam Feeler until Coyote dies, so I need every chance I can give myself. !Lance is for the inevitable Tail Screw, and !Attack is there is !Lance doesn't do enough damage for some reason. That will probably be what I choose to lose, because I have better options (namely, !Aim) that do the same thing as !Attack but with added bonuses. It seems like a fundamental thing to lose so early, but I really won't miss it much.

At level 6, Coyote can't beat Karlabos to the punch on turn one. He eats a Feeler, and Karlabos decides not to mess with what's working for him. Four consecutive Feelers later, Coyote is dead without having taken an action.



That one isn't on Coyote. Karlabos is just a heinous bitch in solo runs. We soldier on.

This time, Karlabos opens with a physical attack, as does Coyote. Coyote is dealing about 40 damage with !Attack. It then goes to Feeler again, and now I'm thinking I'm in for it. But it attacks again, and when Coyote comes to, I'm able to get a !Lance in before anything else happens.



Shit. Guess I really didn't need !Attack. Coyote is healed, but I'm not out of the woods yet. I still have to avoid Feeler. I get in another !Lance before it lands another Feeler. Then it uses Tail Screw. Coyote recovers from paralysis just as Karlabos launches another attack with Coyote sitting haplessly at 2 HP.



It is another Tail Screw.

Coyote goes for a third !Lance, which heals him up and finishes off Karlabos.





Karlabos
Coyote's Level: 6
Abilities Used: !Attack, !Lance, Artful Dodger
Deaths: 1
Total Boss Deaths: 1
Coyote-esque Mistakes: 2
Total Coyote-esque Mistakes: 2

In hindsight, !Attack was a goofy mistake. Then again, if I hadn't taken it, I would have to choose to lose Artful Dodger or !Lance, neither of which I'm willing to give up quite yet. !Attack goes into the garbage heap without having been useful at all.

!Items
!Attack
!Guard
!Focus
!Steal
!Mug
!Jump
!Lance
!Image
!Throw
!Mineuchi
!Zeninage
!Ianuki
!Animals
!Aim
!Rapid Fire
!Call
!Check
!Scan
!Calm
!Control
!Catch
!Mix
!Drink
!Recover
!Gaia
!Hide
!Sing
!Flirt
!Dance
!Spellblade
!White
!Black
!Time
!Summon
!Red
!Dualcast
!Blue
!Oath
!Condemn
!Predict
!Open Fire
!Blade Blitz
!Finisher

Equip Shields
Equip Swords
Equip Armor
Equip Ribbon
Equip Lances
Equip Katanas
Equip Axes
Equip Bows
Equip Whips
Equip Harps
Artful Dodger
HP +10%
HP +20%
HP +30%
MP +10%
MP +30%
Barehanded
Two-Handed
Dual-Wield
Pharmacology
Counter
Shirahadori
Learning
Magic Shell
Berserk
Equip Rods
Undead
Long Reach

Coyote sits at level 6, and has run from a majority of his battles. He has the ship graveyard up next, and a boss battle that reads like the title of a true Coyote myth. Next time:

The Coyote and the Siren.