Part 17

So, I managed to find a copy of Lunar: Dragon Song to try that Level 1 run on.

Turns out that, barring insane luck, it doesn't seem that possible! Jian (at 28 HP) and Lucia (at 21 HP) are very, VERY squishy, to the point that they're nearly one-shot by the Sasquatches.

So, the answer would seem to grind up Sundries to sell for the best gear available, right? Also wound up selling the Mental Gums, since those wouldn't be helping too much.

Things I found out:
The difference between 20 defense and 50 defense seems to be about 5 less damage taken. This does not help in not getting 2HKOed.
Health Gums seem to either recover a percentage of HP, or are just crap anyway - they only healed Jian for 8 HP, which is about 30% of his mHP, rounded down.
The Sasquatch has 240 HP, and both he and his minions act before Jian and Lucia. Minions deal about 4-7 HP each, which the Sasquatch deals 16-20 damage.
You CAN get cards without beating things up in Virtue Mode, but no cards exist yet to mitigate me getting killed so fast.

Barring insane luck with the Counter Prototype (which I'm not sure is possible without actually being able to evade in the first place), this may actually be the stopping point of a level 1 run.