Part 126: Super Fighting Blue Mage, Rock

Rock the Omni-Blue Mage - Part 15: Super Fighting Blue Mage, Rock


Previously, the Fork Tower disappeared, freeing up the launch pad below it. Rock lands the airship on it. Why?



To perform impossible feats of literal aeronautical engineering, that's why!
That, and to get access to one of the most useful !Blue spells in the entire game.



With any good obscure secret, this !Blue spell requires a revisit to an earlier part of the game - in this case Walse Tower.

It's not what's in the tower that Rock's after, but in the seas above it.



Stingrays appear in a narrow strip of sea right above the approximate location of the tower, and have the !Blue spell Rock's after.
However, they are a pain in the ass for the following reasons:

- They are a rare mob, and the quicksave glitch is a little wonky in that they are the second enemy to appear.
If you are not expecting that, it can be easy to get impatient and sail out of the small area they appear in.
- They will only use their !Blue spell when !Controlled or confused. Guess who forgot !Control during the first encounter with one?
- Finally, they have 30k HP, which takes forever solo.

Granted, they are level 93 which makes them a prime target for Level 3 Flare, but for Rock that's about 10 castings worth.
So why is every Blue Mage and their mother so eager to find these bastards?




Because Mighty Guard applies Protect, Shell, and Float simultaneously and party wide.
If Rock were part of a team, he'd easily be a candidate for MVP.

Now there's only one !Blue spell left - Roulette



Skipping ahead to the first part of The Rift, the Pyramid area has a ton of Death Dealers wandering about, making it extremely easy to get here.

It's a bit difficult to show in still screenshots, but Roulette literally has the menu cursor rapidly cycle through all targets (friend or foe) on the battlefield until the A button is pressed.


Whatever target it lands on, gets hit with Death. For Rock, this means a full HP heal thanks to the Bone Mail.



After the Pyramid area is the forest, and with it fast-forwarded DEATHS: 38 the first victim of the boss rush.




Calofisteri is, ultimately, a self-defeating boss. As it is, a combination of Dark Spark and Level 2 Old will eventually neuter anything she can toss out.

The rest is the fact that she will cast Reflect on herself before applying debuffs like Bio, Poison, Old and Stop by bouncing them at Rock.

Rock absorbs the first two and is immune to the third due to Bone Mail. The fourth?



A textbook case as to why you never let the Aegis Shield burn.

Really, the only threat she has is that she counters any physicals with Drain. At least, it would be a threat to anyone who doesn't have Bone Mail.



Boss Deaths:



Defeating her grants access to the next area.



Filled with these bastards who can lead to DEATHS: 40 when all you want is to heal with Vampire.

In any case, let's get a status update on Rock:



Endgame and level 47. Lookin' good there, Rock! Feel like taking on a soulless, ancient mechanical monstrosity of pure murderous intent and the loadout to match?



Then get your rod and ring, boyo. It's time to strut your stuff!



Omega is a very challenging boss. Rock's first step is to equip !Time and use Quick.



Next step is to break a Poison Rod on himself.



Finally, he waits. For 2 hours.




BOSS DEATHS: #VictoryOmega



Right after Omega is Apanda. Any strategies used for Byblos can be used here, as he's just a copypaste - right down to the scripts for Ifrit.

BOSS DEATHS: In fact, he's even easier since Drain will backfire on Bone Mail.



Moving on, Rock approaches the castle section of The Rift. The paths just before are a great place to stock up on Dragon Fangs, as Dragon Aevis (Aevii?) are common and give them up easily.



After poking about the castle for a bit and running into some Iron Giants DEATHS: 43, Rock stumbles upon the brig. This guy is giving him the stink eye, so Rock decides to put him in his place.



Only to find that he inadvertently started a !Blue off. Azulmagia's gimmick, in case the name didn't tip you off, is that he uses !Blue magic.

Not only that, but if you were to use a !Blue spell that's not already in his known repertoire, he learns it mid-fight and can use it against you. Self-Destruct, for example is one of these spells.

Now, the thought of using such a spell for an easy win had crossed Rock's mind, but that left the sticky issue of not having a live body afterwards to finish his quest.
But Rock is smart. He knows that a decent amount of !Blue spells are reflectable, like say, from a Reflect Ring.




By the way did you also know that Azulmagia is level 57? Rock does, and lands a Dark Spark + Level 2 Old combo.



So while Azulmagia gets weaker, Rock starts trashing him with a Brave Blade-fueled Goblin Punch.
Vampires are used as needed, though Azulmagia never uses it during this fight. Which is a shame as it would have ended it rather quickly so Rock could be on his way.

Boss Deaths: The superior Blue Mage prevails


The other cells are filled with old men who are monsters in disguise and can remove Rock from battle causing an instant DEATHS: 44, with one cell containing a literal stink eye and a trapped woman.



Rock is not one to back down from no challenge from no stinkin' eyeball.



Catastrophe, as we all saw in Walter's run, is very simplistic. If he...it? notices anyone floating, the physical manifestation of a metaphysical concept will drop everything with a 100 Gs.

And will continue to do so as long as someone is floating. Now this is perfect for a bit of trivia - Mighty Guard, for all its wonders, has one major weakness in that it reflects.

Meaning that if Rock wants to float, he has to take off the Reflect Ring, apply Mighty Guard in a random battle, and then wear the ring again. The effort is worth it, as Catastrophe will literally do nothing else
except cast 100 Gs (which gets reflected) for as long as Rock floats, allowing him to take his time fighting.

BOSS DEATHS: Catastrophic failure, Rockin' victory

Anyway, time to free the damsel.















Oh. Okay, well, if an asswhoopin' is what you're after, Rock's hard enough for a fight.



Halicarnissus starts off with Ribbit, which turns Rock into a Toad. Go figure.

A single Maiden's Kiss trivializes this attack.




You know the drill.



Holy gets bounced right back thanks to Reflect Ring.



Any physicals are either blocked or incredibly weakened due to Level 2 Old.



Dispel has no effect on Reflect Rings.



BOSS DEATHS:

On to the next.



Now Twintania is an interesting challenge.



All of his attacks are easily reflected, like Mega Flare here, with only two exceptions:



Wind Slash



and Gigaflare.



Now while Gigaflare is charging, Twintania loses all status immunities. A single Pond's Chorus and Gigaflare is stuffed.



However, Rock is just slow enough that he can't fire off a follow-up killing blow before Twintania gains his status immunities back.

See the way he "charges" for Gigaflare is that his AI script switches him out with an identical monster with no resistances and who's sole ability is to use Gigaflare.
When he switches back, he sheds whatever status ailments that were on him because technically he is a new monster.

What makes this problematic for Rock is that without the right setup, Twintania can get 2 Gigaflares to Rock's 1 ATB. So how does Rock counter?



By finding the right setup. Break (via !Black) takes the least amount of time to fire off before Gigaflare does, and instantly kills.

BOSS DEATHS: 4

Onwards to the deepest part of the Rift.



Early on, Rock bumps into Gilgamesh.



He has something Rock needs. The Genji Shield has the highest Physical Evade in the game.



In an earlier sidejob in his adventure, Rock stole a Mirage Vest from these red demons from in the same shrine where Wendigo was hanging out.

So what do these two things have in common?



An intricate level of preparation and planning. Among other things, Rock got into some fights to use the Wonder Wand and have some unsuccessful attempts at !Lancing MP leading to DEATHS: 45 until it was set for Berserk.

Casting Mini on himself (via !White), in conjunction with the Genji Shield, skyrockets his physical evasion. The Hermes Sandals crank his speed up so he can get the first attack, and Equip Swords allow for a mid-fight gear change.

All this Batman-level prepwork leads to...



Rock's fight with Shinryu. Blasting Shinryu with Berserk swaps out his magical onslaught with a physical barrage, and the Hermes Sandals lets Rock fire it off before the initial Tidal Wave.



The physical barrage gets constantly blocked by the combination of Mini + Genji Shield. That said, if you forget to wear the Mirage Vest, it's still possible for Shinryu to land a lucky hit through all this and kill you. That happened to Rock once.



Swapping out the Wonder Wand with Brave Blade lets Rock start whittling down Shinryu's health, and should the need arise, the Mirage Vest bug can be used to reapply Blink.
Mighty Guard is wholly optional - if Shinryu hits, that's it unless you have extremely high HP.



BOSS DEATHS: 1, #VictoryShinryu



Only one last fight left.



Rock is channeling the power of Walter by bringing !Mix into the fight.



The same general strategies with !Mix apply - Lifeshield, Dragon Defense, etc. for defensive buffs.



But also put 9 Dragon Powers on Exdeath. This maxes his level to the cap of 255. Which means...



#Victo-



Wha-



Well, shit. Rock can't take the easy way out for Neo Exdeath, as it seems the glitch with Level 5 Death has been fixed in the GBA version.

BOSS DEATHS: 1

TOTAL BOSS DEATHS: 26
ENDING LEVEL: 48

<__TO BE CONTINUED...___