Part 91: Walker, Texas Coward

New intro for the OMNI RANGER I'm still playing the game blind except form what I learn from the other LPs in the thread, and from what I look up after the fact online. I played FFV over ten years ago, so I remember some stuff but no important details, and certainly no AI scripts or anything that would help me substantially in a solo run. But now that I'm using other job abilities with the Ranger, I'll pause at the end of each episode to ask the goons to choose how I use those options at the start of the next episode. I'll switch things around to keep things interesting and moving forward in the middle of my posts, but I want to have some reader participation.

For the last time: Walker, Texas Ranger Lever GOOOOOOOO



Solo Ranger, Episode Twelve:
Walker, Texas Coward

Here's what Walker looks like at the moment:





We going into the Rift or the Void or whatever it's called. The game seems to alternate between the names. Is the Rift just the doorway? Is the Void just where Exdeath is right now? More importantly: who cares?

I'm running from everything in here, partly because I don't want to take on any more levels than I already have, and partly to sharpen the Chicken Knife. Some of the battles give me some guff about running, but I have the Mirage Vest on to give me that extra freebie evasion. I think about switching from !Rapid Fire to !Flee just to make things easier, but I don't remember this place well enough to not get caught triggering a boss fight without !Rapid Fire. So I slog through it.

So I'll just summarize the bosses. I'm not going to look at the AI scripts until after I kill them, then I'll pull them from Zerky!'s run. I'll consult them if I run into trouble, but otherwise I'm flying blind:

Calofisteri:

code:

Calofisteri
HP: 18000
MP: 1000
Vulnerable to Poison, Blind, Old, Silence, Slow.

AI Script:
Condition:Status:Party Member:Wall{
     Change Target:Single party member
     {Haste,Armor,Regen}
     }
Condition:Self:Wall{
     Change Target:Self
     {Wall,Bio,Venom}
     Change Target:Self
     {Wall,Old,Stop}
     }
{Wall,Old,Stop}
React:HP Damage{
     Drain
     }

Calofisteri
Walker Level: 52
Deaths: 0
!Rapid Fires: 3

I run into Omega next. I give that a shot, thinking that I have a shadow of a chance with !Rapid Fire ignoring his prodigious defense, but I don't have an answer to Encircle:





Yeah, fuck that. I could probably bang my head against this until I win somehow, but I just don't have the inclination. It would probably take a lot of level grinding and several hours of work. I save a state right next door just in case I want to go back and finish the job at any point.

Apanda:

code:

Apanda
HP: 22200
MP: 1000
Weak to Fire.
Vulnerable to Blind, Berserk, Silence, Slow.

AI Script:
Condition:V00=01{
     No Interrupt{
          Display Text: Apanda:  -shiver- -tremble-
          Change Target:Self
          Medicine
          Reverse Polarity
          Set V00=00
          }
     }
{Thread,Hammer,Fight}
{Fight,Charm,Wind Slash}
{Hammer,Fight,Thread}
{Sonic Wave,Wind Slash,Fight}
React:Magic:Ifrit{
     No Interrupt{
          Reverse Polarity
          Display Text: Apanda:  Eek eek it's Ifrit
          Set V00=01
          Nothing
          }
     }
Condition:V00=00 & React:Physical{
     {Armor,Drain,Nothing}
     }
Condition:V00=00 & React:Magic{
     {Toad,Drain,Nothing}
     }

I hit Apanda for about 7,900 before he uses Protect. That halves my !Rapid Fire damage, but I'm still able to put out an average of 2,500-3,000 damage per action. He keeps spamming protect like more will help, and he gets off a couple of Drains that take about 500 HP. There is no healing for Walker. There is only



Apanda
Walker Level: 52
Deaths: 0
!Rapid Fires: 8

Then there's this fucking place:



The wizards walking around are a type of Aevis in disguise. Too bad for them, I kept one Aevis Killer bow:



This x 4, forever.

The second one kills Walker with an Encircle (smile: from the human form, because the Aevis Killer doesn't do quite enough to kill the human form in one action. One volley from the Yoichi Bow kills the human form, and a few from the Aevis Killer downs the second form. The place is thick with them and it's just kind of annoying because of the sheer numbers and having to keep switching bows. Still, I kill them all and get the Rainbow Dress, Red Slippers, and Man Eater. Yay?

Azulmagia

code:

Azulmagia
HP: 27900
MP: 50000
Weak to Poison.
Vulnerable to Blind.

AI Script:
Condition:V00=01 & Status:Self:Toad{
     Change Target:Self
     Toad
     }

	 ...
	 
{DrkShock,GuardOff,MindBlst}
{Condemn,Roulette,L2 Old}
{L5 Doom,L4 Qrter,MghtyGrd}
{TinySong,Flash,????}
{Aero 2,Emission,Missile}
{Time Slip,DeathClaw,WhiteWind}

I get to work mashing !Rapid Fire, and he kills me with a Roulette. I switch into Bone Mail, enjoy the next full heal he throws my way, and finish the job with four !Rapid Fires.



Azulmagia
Walker Level: 52
Deaths: 1
!Rapid Fires: 4

(I guess this guy had a gimmick about learning Blue Magic, but Walker doesn't dabble in any of that. Again, there is only smile:

On the other side of this nightmare of a room is Catastrophe:



I lay down three !Rapid Fires before he uses Evil Eye to kill me. Looking at my inventory, I don't have anything that proofs against petrification, so I'm going to have to chance it. I still haven't looked his AI script, but I'm going to guess Evil Eye is on there a bunch, with him being a beholder and all that. I try again, this time managing to avoid the Evil Eye. Catastrophe only gets two actions, and he doesn't make the most of either of them.



Catastrophe
Walker Level: 52
Deaths: 1
!Rapid Fires: 4

Next is Halicarnassus:

code:

Halicarnassus
HP: 33333
MP: 5000
Vulnerable to Mini, Blind, Old, Silence, Slow.

AI Script:
Condition:V00=01{
     {Fight,Dynamo,Specialty}
     {Fight,Fight,Dispel}
     {Fight,Dynamo,Specialty}
     {Fight,Fight,Haste}
     {Fight,Dynamo,Specialty}
     {Fight,Fight,Shell}
     Set V00=00
     Holy
     }
Set V00=01
Change Target:Whole party
Kurururu!
React:Summon Magic{
     Display Text:   focusing power!
     Change Music??
     Strong Fight
     }

She turns Walker into a frog just as I punch in my second !Rapid Fire:



Pew pew pew! I fix it, and continue my assault.



Halicarnassus
Walker Level: 52
Deaths: 0
!Rapid Fires: 5 (6? smile:

Next!

Twintania

code:

Twintania
HP: 50000
MP: 10000
Weak to Water, Holy.
Vulnerable to Blind, Silence, Slow.

AI Script:
{Atomic Ray,Snowstorm,Fight}
{Atomic Ray,Snowstorm,Fight}
Change Target:Whole party
{MindBlst,Wind Slash,Wind Slash}
Unhide Monster: Twin Tania (2nd form)
React:Physical{
     {Tidal Wave,Nothing,Nothing}
     }
React:Magic{
     {Mega Flare,Nothing,Nothing}
     }

(He apparently has a second form, but Walker never saw it.)

Walker slams a Mt. Dew Elixir once while mashing The Win Button.



Twintania
Walker Level: 52
Deaths: 0
!Rapid Fires: 8

~Gilgamesh Break~



Yeah, dude. I just shot you in the junk like, sixteen times. Of course it's Walker!



Bro hug.







Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Anyway...

Shinryu







FUCK THAT

(Saved a state here too, just in case I hate myself enough to try it later.)

Necrophobe

code:

Necrophobe (Heavy)
44044HP
10000MP
Weak to ALL ELEMENTS.
Vulnerable to Blind, Silence, Slow.

Condition:V00=02{
     No Interrupt{
          {Fight,Fight,Hurricane}
          {Fight,Fight,Specialty}
          }
     No Interrupt{
          {Fight,Fight,Specialty}
          {Fight,Fight,Specialty}
          }     
     No Interrupt{
          {Fight,Fight,Hurricane}
          {Fight,Fight,Specialty}          
          }
     No Interrupt{
          {Fight,Fight,Specialty}
          {Fight,Fight,Doom}
          }
     }
Condition:Alone{
     Display Text: 'M... my invincible barrier...
     Display Text: 'Then I have no choice...
     Display Text: 'Have a taste of...
     Display Text: 'My real power!!
     Set V00=02
     Flash
     }
Condition:V00=01{
     Nothing
     }
Display Text: 'With these four barriers...
Display Text: 'I am now invincible!
Display Text: 'Can you defeat me?
Set V00=01
Nothing

I give this one a shot, even though I know it isn't likely without switching to !White, !Time, or something besides !Rapid Fire. There's too amny targets and I can't put out enough damage in the two actions I have before the Holy/Flare barrage starts.





Booooooo.

I try !Rapid Fire with the Assassin Dagger, just to see if its Death effect works with !Rapid Fire. (I meant to try this much earlier, but honestly forgot I owned it after Fork Tower).

~Hold music~

Pro tip: it doesn't work. (I die)

I try the Rune Bow, which does no damage but can cause Silence. I try it with and without !Rapid Fire, but it doesn't appear to work on the satellites. (I die again)

I try the Magic Lamp to see if Odin can get the job done. I luck out and get him to show up on the second try, but both Necrophobe and his barriers come back. (I die yet again)

So I'm switching to something else in my ability slot. !Throw is tempting, what with all the Fuma Shirukens left lying around this place like so much garbage. But I need to guarantee I kill two of the satellites in two actions. Walker has enough HP to survive two Holy/Flare hits, so I can't leave a third alive to act. !Throw might be a better bet than !White or !Time, since the satellites appear to have innate Reflect.

Here's !Throw:





But it's not enough to take one out in one shot. So Walker gets killed again.

I could probably cheese this guy with !Mix, but I've already done that once and I'd rather not do it again, especially in a battle I don't even need to win.

So it's on to the main event. It's...

Ol' Dirty Magus. Big Baby Treesus. Dirt McGurt.

Exdeath



My Chicken Knife is only up to 107 attack power, so I'm still trucking with the Yoichi Bow. If I need the Chicken Knife for this, I'm going to have to do some serious grinding. As it is, I go into the fight with !Rapid Fire, Yoichi Bow, Black Cowl, Mirage Vest, and Hermes Sandals.

So here we go:

















Turn one White Hole. It looks like I need some help from the RNG. Walker doesn't have an equipment or ability answer to instant death attacks or stone, so White Hole is a problem that I'll just have to beat my head against. I have more luck with my next few tries, but the Yoichi Bow and the Artemis Bow can't put out enough damage to kill Exdeath before he gets off another White Hole. I still haven't looked at his AI script, but from the look of things, he has White Hole plugged in two of three times in the first seven or so actions. I die a dozen times, always to White Hole, before I regroup and change my tactics.

Right now, the Chicken Knife is at 109 attack power. I've picked a horrible place to have to do a ton of grinding. But It's my best bet to get this done with !Rapid Fire. I want to try every option I have to do this with only Ranger options, so this is my last stand for that.

But while I'm grinding, I'm going to get some help from the D&D Ranger's best pal: the Rogue.



I use !Flee, and because I'm paranoid of all the nasty stuff in The Void, I also use the Mirage Vest and the Elf Mantle.

Sooooo...













I put on an episode of This American Life and settle in for a lengthy grind, but the Chicken Knife appears to stall at 127 attack power. So I test out the Chicken Knife as it is now (and from the back row):



I'll grind for a few more minutes and see if it gives me any more damage.



Hmm. Well, looks like I'm capped out at about 2,100 from the back. Let's try it with !Rapid Fire, just to see if the Chicken Knife somehow breaks !Rapid Fire's damage calculation:



But, hey, no random escape attempts!

Unfortunately, this isn't going to do it. I can do more than 4,400 damage to Exdeath with the Yoichi Bow. I could do 8,800 from the front row, but then Walker will just get killed by a vacuum wave or two. At only 2,800 HP and with no access to heavy armor, I absolutely have to stay in the back row. So !Rapid Fire might not cut it. I could level grind a bunch, but I just got a damage bump at level 51. The next one will be in the high-50's, and I'm already at a higher level than I wanted to be at the end.

All this means that I might have to dip into non-Ranger options to win the day. Given the issue with White Hole, !Mix is the most obvious solution, but I don't want to use that unless I have to. I'd rather not just copy Walter's run, and I've already done that once earlier in this run. I have some other options that might work, but I'm going to try it a few more times with !Rapid Fire before I give up on that.

My first try benefits from the luck I was trying to get out of the RNG before:



Note Walker's HP. Whoops. Here's hoping I can get the initiative against--



Vacuum Wave does about 1,000 damage. Walker doesn't have any evasion with this load-out, so that might have to change. The Ranger's problem, at this point, is his light armor options. I have to ask too many things at once of the accessory slot: Hermes Sandals for the Haste and status defenses, Reflect Ring for obvious reasons, and the Elf Mantle for the evasion that other classes could get from shields. Not only can Walker not use shields, but his armor options leave him vulnerable to Vacuum Wave and other strong attacks. The first form was doing 650-750 damage per hit. Without Haste, I need to be doing more than using an Elixir every other action when I get to the second form. Without Reflect, though, I'm going to be vulnerable to even more sources of damage. I just have to pick my poison. I'll try it without the Reflect Ring this time, but I'm kind of worried about how much damage Holy or Flare are going to do.



Nooooooope.

Yep, going to have to use the Reflect Ring. It's bad in the long term, because according to earlier solo runs, Odin can take out the spellcaster part of NED out of the Magic Lamp. So I'm not going to need it as much in the second battle, but I won't even get to the second battle at all if I don't use it in the first place. That's going to leave me without the Hermes Sandals' Haste and status protection, or without the Elf Mantle's physical evasion. I'll give it a few more tries before I move onto non-Ranger options.

~A couple dozen more deaths later~

Alright, I give. I'll use my Omni Ranger options. First I try to solve the White Hole problem as directly as possible:





What I never realized about Equip Ribbon is that it also allows you to equip the other Dancer-only items, like the Rainbow Dress, Red Slippers, and Man Eater knife. I try out the Dancing Dagger with the Ribbon and the Rainbow Dress equipped, because why not? Sword Dance only does 1,500 from the back row, which is as much as the Yoichi Bow does with !Aim without a critical hit. So I switch to that and slog through the first battle. The Reflect Ring protects me from Holy, and I have to use a couple of Elixirs due to all his physical attacks. Exdeath uses White Hole about ten times, and I'm starting to get a better glimpse of his AI script, even without looking it up. Shit's in there a million times, basically. The Yoichi bow is doing over 4,500 when it crits (about 50% of the time), so after a couple of minutes, Exdeath goes into his freak out mode:



Welp.

As much as the Ribbon is an excellent option, it deprives me of a good damage option. Walker's best weapons simply don't deal damage fast enough to beat Exdeath quickly enough when he starts freaking out, let alone when he has four parts in the next form. I would have loved to beat him with Walker looking like Eddie Izzard, but it's just not going to happen.

I try !White with the Hermes Sandals, Black Hood, Mirage Vest, and Yoichi Bow.





Things go alright as I get Protect, Shell, and Reflect up. White Hole misses for the first time since I started fighting Exdeath, and then it misses again. I chalk it up to Shell giving me an evasion to it, but I honestly am not quite sure. I find it hard ot believe that it had a miss rate before that just never triggered, because I'd been hit with it 100% of the time about 50 times up to this point. Holy is doing about 3,500 damage, so I'll probably save that for when he goes into panic mode. The Yoichi Bow does more damage when it crits, but I need to have something more reliable to kick him out of panic mode when that happens.

I'm not fast enough, though.



Even with Shell, Meteor does about 3,200 damage. Walker has 2,800 HP. Like Equip Ribbon, !White doesn't give Walker a strong enough damage option to finish off Exdeath before he uses Meteor. It's great for everything else, but it just barely falls short for that reason only.

I'm going to try my old favorite magic school, !Time. For this, I'm using the Elf Mantle, Black Cowl, Mirage Vest, and Yoichi Bow. I do without the Reflect Ring this time because I'm going to tr yto use some spells on myself.







I get Haste and Regen up, then I try Quick. I use it to hit him with Meteor twice. All the while, the only thing he's done is use White Hole, which misses. (Now I'm puzzled about that. Was I really that unlucky about it before? Does equipping a magic ability give you innate magic evasion?) Meteor does about 7,000 damage, and then about 4,500 damage with a relatively weak draw from the RNG. Still, that's the kind of damage I need. I go to !Aim and wait for him to hit me with something hard, so I can make the most of an Elixir. (I'd rather not use one now just to get my MP back, but I'll do it if he hits me hard enough.) Instead, he just kills me with one Flare. It does just 21 more damage that Walker has max HP.

It's starting to look like I'll need to level grind. I like my chances with !Time if I can just survive one Flare or Holy. But I've been at this too long and I'm losing my patience and I have other things to do. I'll finish the job, one way or another, next time. I'm also going to cave and consult the AI Scripts for both of Exdeath's forms, although I think I could approximate the first one myself just by how many times I've gone through it to this point.

Walker's Current Level: 52
Total Deaths: 79 + about 50 from Exdeath alone
Animal Friends: 8 (Rabbit, Squirrel, Bees, Nightingale, Flying Squirrel, Falcon, Skunk, Wild Boar)
!Rapid Fires required to kill bosses in The Void: 33
The Ribbon is: *~fabulous~*





























Omniscient MP: Still 0