Part 75: Preparations
Chapter 74 - Preparations
Last time we had just left Mideel. To the northeast of Mideel there's this island with a cave in it. Unfortunately we still can't access it as there's nowhere to land.
In the north, the Crater is still surrounded by Sephiroth's energy field. Nothing we can do.
Before we move on with the plot, there's something I want to do. This update is mostly combat-related with a lot of gifs. Be warned.
Up until now we have skipped most random battles. Still, it's very easy catching up in this game because of the way the leveling curve works, but we're still a bit level-starved.
The main issue, however, is that we're also VERY materia-starved. At this point a normal player should already have at least one mastered [All] materia. Which we don't.
So we're getting our Double-Growth weapons ready. I'll also throw an Elemental in. Even though we can null most elements right now with our armors, there's still some ground to cover.
Next we equip our newest Materia, [Contain], the one the white Chocobo gave us. Contain is a very powerful materia that gives us the one most powerful single-target magic in the game, Flare. Although Comet2 has the potential for more damage if there's only one enemy in the field, the damage is usually split otherwise.
It's worth pointing out that with the exception of Flare, each one of the other Contain spells cause a negative status ailment, although at a very low chance.
The [Full Cure] we've got at Cosmo Canyon. As the name implies, it heals for 100% health, but we have to unlock it first.
This is also the perfect opportunity to get those limits rolling. The first 4-0 Limit available to us was Red's and we still haven't got the chance to use it.
It's crap.
Barret's still on Level 2. And Cid, well...
Oh lord. We've got work to do.
Our first destination - the beaches of Mideel.
I don't know about you, but if I had just reached an island and I saw a beach full of those things I would NOT build a town there.
As I had said before, Cid's modeled after the traditional Final Fantasy "Dragoon", or Dragon Knights. His first limit is the traditional Jump ability from the Dragoons, but other limits follow this concept as well.
And this is [Freeze]. Sometimes it causes [Stop], but it won't work here. Also, those things have a lot of life.
[Magic Plus] is one of our top priorities to level up. Each level increases 10% of our Magic status, but it can stack up to two full materias (+100%). We're gonna need that. Big time.
The giant worms are amusing, but not very time-efficient for what we want to do. Let's try the forest.
The forest is filled with insects that come in bundles of 3-4, so it's perfect to level up those x-1 limits. They cause the sleep status...
But that is easy to solve with our Ribbons and Headbands.
For all intents and purposes, this is pretty much the best zone to grind in the game until we have access to the later areas.
The other great place to level is around the Junon Alarm. You can get to level 50 before even reaching Gongaga easily there.
Cue Barret tossing grenades from a Drill.
With Double-Growth, these 320 become 640 AP. Our cap here will be getting their limits up to 3-2 so they're ready for their 4-0s, but by then we'll have mastered pretty much all of our worthwhile materias.
This will take a long time. Well, not so long. About 2 hours. During which time we'll be killing the local fauna in a myriad of ways.
Like this. Yes, it's Cid lighting a dynamite with his cigarette and tossing it at bugs.
Honestly, it's a surprise the entire forest is still intact.
This is [Break], the second Contain spell. It's earth-based and causes Petrify, don't ask me why it starts with a whirlwind.
Oh for Christ's sake.
Nothing bad can possibly happen out of bombarding a volcanically active area. Yup.
Let's toss some more Fire into the mix. This is Fire3-All. I don't see any forests catching fire so we must be doing it
So close. Wealth is 7865 AP away.
Lastly, let's explore the fields a bit.
Those are the main enemies we're looking for in the open areas. They're a bit annoying and cause a somewhat decent amount of damage, but they also have a pretty special property.
When Morphed, they become [Guard Sources]. Since our Morph deals SO little damage (around 30), that's why we need to level up Gravity for now.
[Contain] spells deal Ice, Earth, Wind and Fire damage, in that order. Notice the absence of Lightning - If Tornado dealt Lightning damage, it would be possible to kill some bosses in one single action, because there are so many mechanical bosses in the game.
Unfortunately there are not many creatures that are vulnerable to Wind in the game, much less bosses. We'll find one soonish but he's not officially a boss and he's so easy it doesn't matter anyway.
The [Exit] Materia also allows this. There's something so unsatisfying about blowing an enemy away in this game I don't bother.
Cid's 2-1, [Hyper Jump] is also another variation of... well, Jump.
AT LAST.
I hope you have welcomed a lot of cash in your life.
Hohoho...
HAHAHA! RICH, I SAY! I DON'T NEED FRIENDS, I HAVE MONEY.
Time to buy 99 of everything, plus anchovies.
We can finally buy all this crap too. Although 1.4m seems a lot... well, it is. One Master All is good enough to buy everything you need in this game and still have a lot left.
But we're gonna spend a lot of it in an upcoming sidequest and it's a good thing we've got two more Master Alls coming along. Let's just say - there IS a way to spend all this money and it's not obligatory, but it will make our life easier.
[Flare]. Unlike the other Contain spells this one doesn't do status ailments, just damage.
Red's 2-2, [Stardust Ray]. It's not as bad as it seems if you can get it early on but it's really outdated by now.
Anyway, we've got Demi 3 with All.
And we can start abusing it.
We pretty much have to use Tent after two of these battles because of the mana cost of all the Demi3s and Lasers we use. We morph about 20 Guard Sources. We could go on but it'd be ineffective - we'll have a better way to Morph items somewhat soon, I just wanted to Demi the hell out of something.
Go away.
This is Cid's 2-2, Dragon.
I have no clue either.
We're almost done with the Limits. This is where things get fun. Personally, I think Barret's level 3 limits are the bests.
Personally I find the level 3-All common magic spells much prettier than Contain, but that's just me.
Seriously, this is really cool.
As is this. This one is hard to show on screenshots but don't worry - you WILL see it in video. It's Cid's 3-1, Dragon Dive. He jumps up the sky (as usual) but when he falls down HUGE BEAMS OF BADASSERY emerge.
And this is Red doing some horrible crap that forces him into Berserk.
Cid's 3-2, Big Brawl. It does exact what the name says.
Another All sold. This should be good enough for our needs.
We get Red's 3-2 which is some horribly disappointing thing with earth rocks that look like bubbles, but it enables us to...
Finally get down to it and use [Cosmo Memory] on him. We'll see it in a video in the future.
And [Ungarmax] which is some poorly translated form of Anger Max I suppose. We'll see it in the future too. Actually, we'll see it a lot. Not only is Ungarmax cool as all hell to see, it also has the potential to be the greatest damage-dealer in the game (tied with another limit, but Ungarmax has a far shorter animation). Ungarmax is the stuff.
10 levels later with 2.5 million Gil, all our relevant materias mastered, our dudes with all their respective limit breaks, 99 Tents, Phoenix Downs, Ethers and Hi-Potions and 24 Guard Sources, we leave to our next destination - Fort Condor.
NEXT TIME:
A 4-part Bioware quest starts! Bad strategy minigames! Not getting offa trains!
