Part 83: Walker, Texas Librarian

This is a half-blind LP! I am going to bring in research about FFV only when it's necessary for me to get over hurdles in this solo run. I'm going to talk about stuff with a lot of assumptions and guesses based solely on observations. This is partly for the challenge, partly in the interest of time, and partly . Feel free to correct me after things come up, as there are a bunch of people ITT that are way more knowledgeable about this game than me. I don't care if I learn stuff by reading people's corrections, so don't worry about that.

What's this giant, novelty lever next to me? Let's see--



Solo Ranger, Part 4: Walker, Texas Librarian

Thanks to several goons ITT, Walker is going to backpedal a bit to get a couple of essentials.

Before we go onto the nightmare that is the Library of the Ancients, Walker needs to borrow his good buddy Dr. Sam Beckett's time machine and go back in time to *~put things right, that once went wrong.~* Namely, to get the Main Gauche and the Elf Mantle.

I have to go back and beat Liquid Flame again, but that turns out just like before: careful application of !Aim to knock him into tornado form, sit there and wait for him to run out of MP, and then wrangling him between forms with !Aim and mixing in judicious !Animals to keep Walker's HP up. It's easy enough to beat Liquid Flame that I beat him six times in an effort to get the Flame Bow from the tornado form. I can't really choose which form he's in when I kill him, and I don't get it any of the six times. Al says Ziggy calculates that the Flame Bow isn't necessary, especially since I'm going to be using the Main Gauche for a while anyway. Frankly, I get bored and impatient, so I'm going on without the Flame Bow. We'll see how that goes.

Because Rangers take fucking forever to fight some battles depending on how !Animals goes, I'm going to have to pick my spots and just get the Main Gauche from Karnak Castle. I'm planning on getting that instead of the Ribbon. I'll get the Elf Mantle from Walse Castle Basement. I don't end up exploiting the quick save glitch that was suggested, because Walker has enough HP that he can survive a couple attacks from the Jackanapes and I just run like hell. So, now we have:





Not only that, but Walker was able to get the Main Gauche, beat Iron Claw with a faster time (with the help of the new weapon's strength), and double back to get the Ribbon just for shits and giggles.



Folks were saying that the Ribbon is Dancer-only, but one of the things I do remember from FFV is that Dancer provides an Equip Ribbon passive ability. I'm eventually going to go omni-Ranger when I master Ranger and when the Ranger-only options get boring and/or impossible. So it is possible that Walker might find it useful to get his on for a future boss or two. We'll see, but it's good to have just in case.

But for now, Walker is just a Ranger, and shit sucks.

Let me just sum up my thoughts about the Library of the Ancients from the solo-Ranger perspective:

[video type="youtube"]znQ-6o7d5_A[/video]

This is what Walker looks like going into the library:



He's hitting for about 350-400 with the Main Gauche in the front row, so !Animals is relegated to my go-to healing option and a way to paralyze enemies to buy more time (usually for healing). Squirrels and Bees are rapidly becoming dreadful. They cap out at about 300, but usually hit for closer to 120-160. sometimes it's much worse (see below).

Walker doesn't have any trouble with the library's random encounters. Something fun does happen, though:









WALKER, TEXAS ZERKER.

Anyway, Here's this asshole:

code:

Ifrit (Heavy)
HP: 3000
MP: 1000
Weak to Water, Ice.
Absorbs Fire.
Immune to Poison.
Vulnerable to Death, Stone, Poison, Blind, Old, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow.

AI Script:
{Flame,Fire2,Fire2}
{Flame,Fight,Specialty}
React:Death{
     Display Text: Ifrit:  You are strong...!
     Display Text: 'I have decided to grant my
     Display Text: 'powers to you...
     Nothing
     }

The biggest threat Ifrit poses to Walker is with Fira, and with 1,000 MP there's no chance of me just waiting him out like Liquid Flame. Worse yet, the best means I have to heal is Nightingale, which is unreliable and heals for just about the same amount as Fira deals in damage. Blaze is more manageable, but at 675 HP, I need to start going to !Animals to heal when Walker drops below 400 in order to have a chance to get Nightingale before I die. !Aim does just under 300, so I need to hit Ifrit 11 times to kill him.

My first try goes horribly. Ifrit spams Fira and Blaze until Walker dies horribly. The only two times he goes to physical attacks, Walker's evasion doesn't pick them up either. I'm desperately spamming !Animals by my third action, and I get Mysidian Rabbit three times, and then I die. Thanks, Obama game.

My second attempt goes much better, and much more indicative of how the random stuff usually goes. Ifrit mixes physical attacks that never land with Fira and Blaze. I'm able to get just enough nightingales to manage the damage, and I hit him 9 times before he gets pissed and spams Fira twice and I die looking for a Nightingale when Bees show up instead. I die, but it's close enough that I think Walker can pull this off without grinding levels.

My third attempt kills Ifrit. It's basically the same as the second, but with just one difference: I get a preemptive strike on him, which gives me two free !Aim hits before he starts in with his bullshit. Those two attacks are literally the difference, and he goes down.



Thanks, bro.

Ifrit
Walker Level: 23
Deaths: 2

So what is the big deal with the Library of the Ancients? the random encounters are no problem, and Ifrit wasn't too bad. So why does Walker hate this place? This fucking Guy:

code:

Byblos (Creature)
HP: 3600
MP: 1000
Weak to Fire.
Absorbs Water, Air, Earth, Holy, Poison, Lightning, Ice.
Vulnerable to Poison, Blind, Paralyze, Berserk, Slow.

AI Script:
{Thread,Hammer,Fight}
{Fight,Charm,Wind Slash}
{Hammer,Fight,Thread}
{Sonic Wave,Wind Slash,Fight}
React:Death  &  React:Magic:Ifrit{
     No Interrupt{
          Display Text: Byblos:  I, Ifrit...
          Display Text: 'You fools!  The seal...
          Display Text: 'But the seal of my master
          Display Text: 'Still lives!!!
          Nothing
          }
     }
React:Death{
     No Interrupt{
          Display Text: Byblos:  Uggh!!!
          Display Text: 'This is the end....
          Display Text: 'But the seal of my master
          Display Text: 'Still lives!!!
          Nothing
     }
React:HP < 800  &  HP Damage{
     {Drain,Drain,Nothing}
     }
React:Physical{
     {Armor,Nothing,Nothing}
     }
React:Magic{
     {Toad,Nothing,Nothing}
     }

Let's take stock of what Byblos can do, and what Walker can do about them:

Byblos hits like a truck. While Ifrit was doing under 100 with his physical attacks, Byblos does over 300 to Walker. Walker can deal with this reasonably well, though, because he's stacking the Main Gauche and the Elf Mantle like a champ.
Byblos's Wind Slash can't be blocked, but does less damage than his physical attacks. It does 220-250, which is manageable.
Byblos will sometimes respond to physical attacks by casting Protect on himself. This will half !Aim's damage, but !Animals doesn't seem to care. Basically, It'll make !Aim deal as much damage as Bees and Squirrels.
Byblos can use Discord to half Walker's level. This misses somewhat often, but it effectively halves Walker's !Aim damage every time it lands, and eats away at the animals friends that respond to !Animals. After two successful Discords, Walker will no longer get Nightingale. There is nothing I can do about this.
Byblos can also Confuse Walker. It can miss, but usually lands. This costs Walker a couple of turns, and usually results in Walker dying before he can heal himself. There is also fuck all that Walker can do about this at the moment.
Byblos can use Slow to effectively double-up Walker. Walker can barely keep up with consecutive attacks/Wind Slashes as it is, so if Byblos can go twice as fast as Walker, shit goes sideways in a hurry. There is nothing I can do about this, either.
Byblos uses Magic Hammer to half Walker's MP. THIS IS THE BEST AND COOLEST THING AND BYBLOS SHOULD DO NOTHING BUT THIS, FOREVER, UNTIL HE DIES.

Of course, that last bit can't happen.

code:

{Thread,Hammer,Fight}
{Fight,Charm,Wind Slash}
{Hammer,Fight,Thread}
{Sonic Wave,Wind Slash,Fight}

Based on Byblos' script, Walker's best cycle from Byblos is:

Magic Hammer
Wind Slash or Fight
Magic Hammer
Wind Slash or Fight

Magic Hammer is a free turn because Walker doesn't use MP. Fight is preferable to Wind Slash even though it does more damage, because Walker is likely to evade them. "Thread" is Byblos' Slow attack, and it never wears off. "Sonic Wave" is Discord, which also never wears off. So, if Byblos picks either of them in the first couple of cycles, the fight gets dumb and slow. In the interest of my time, I have reset the game more times than I've died because Byblos opened with a successful Web. Walker has just enough HP to keep up with things, but it's basically a waste of time to try to beat him once he gets that going and gets a Discord or two in. The only good thing about Web is that once it is established, it becomes another freebie for Walker. This fight boils down to a race against time, to damage most or all of Byblos' HP before he gets two Discords in. Two of them in addition to the Protect brings Walker's !Aim damage from this:



To this:



There just aren't any answers to Protect, Discord, Slow, and Confuse. If I could neutralize one or two of them, I might have a chance. But as it is, this is brutal. I am not convinced the Flame Bow would have helped, despite Byblos' weakness to fire. I would undoubtedly be doing more damage, but that doesn't solve the real problems of Protect, Discord, and Slow.

I bang my head against this wall at level 23 and die twelve times before I decide to retreat to level grind. Going up to level 24 isn't likely to make a difference, and I don't want to come back into the library at level 25 because of Lv. 5 Death, so I grind up to level 26 and try again.

Walker has 787 HP now but he hasn't gotten a damage bump. I'm starting to get worried that I won't be able to do enough damage fast enough without the Flame Bow. I still have a save state right before Liquid Flame, but I really don't want to do the Karnak Castle timed mission again. I try to beat Byblos again as-is and I die seven more times before I stop again. The added HP lets Walker hang in there longer, but Discord inevitably grinds me to a halt. One of these losses lasts nearly ten minutes. This is why I started resetting when I saw Byblos open with Web.

Walker and I are going to squint into the sunset for a while and do some soul-searching to see if I want to go back and kill Liquid Flame a dozen more times to try to get the Flame Bow, or if I want to grind more levels to see if a new animal friend, a damage bump, or job ability shows up to help out. The next job ability is still 282 ABP away. I'm not yet at the point I'm going to switch to Omni-Ranger. Gotta play this hand out. Gotta empty the clip. Gotta... use more clichéd metaphors.



Walker's Current Level: 26
Total Deaths: 31
Animal Friends: 5