Final Fantasy VI Fewest Steps Challenge

[Life]

I kinda owe an analysis of the final 4 WoB characters so here we go. I'll do Relm when I tackle Umaro and Gogo simply because I'm lazy.

Setzer Gabbiani:

Part Gambler (one of like... two in all of Final Fantasy), part Samurai. Setzer's actually quite decent for most of the game but he does require a little bit of building to be much better than a filler character like Umaro (I hold everyone up to Umaro as a standard). Slots is really nice for the World of Balance since stuff like Prismatic Flash, Chocobo Stampede and Dive Bomb come up kinda often (Dive Bomb has come up a lot in this run). His better pulls like Esper Summon or Mega Flare are really appreciated when they get pulled (unless you pull Crusader so fuck Cleansing), especially Mega Flare. Mega Flare is essentially summoning Bahamut for free in the World of Balance. That's kinda nifty. Joker's Death is way too unreliable (and I don't give a crap about unrigging the slots) and Mysidian Rabbit is a free MT Cure spell.

That's World of Balance Setzer. Teach him some spells for some consistent damage and you're golden. World of Ruin Setzer requires a bit more effort. See, it's possible to get Setzer's best weapon, the Fixed Dice, really early. The thing is, they sit in Kefka's Tower which basically requires a Moogle Raid (Molulu's Charm on Mog). Once you get them, however, Setzer has a lot of potential to become a damage god... if fates smile on you. See, the Fixed Dice have a weird formula where the higher you roll, the more damage you do. The max is 9999 while the min is somewhere around ~200. And more often than not, the Fixed Dice are rigged against Setzer. That being said, giving Setzer the Master's Scroll gives him 4 rolls and better yet, does NOT reduce each roll's damage by half. If you can do the math in your head, Setzer is usually doing about ~15000 per "Attack". Not bad. He also gets the Heiji's Jitte, giving him Coin instead of Slot. This turns him into a Samurai with !Zeninage but it's not really that useful for the most part. It is worth mentioning.

Armour is kinda funny. See, Setzer gets the best of both worlds here. He can equip heavy armours but then he also gets stuff like Gaia Gear which Edgar misses out on. There's nothing special that Setzer gets just for himself but it doesn't really matter. Just set Setzer up with the Fixed Dice and Master's Scroll for nice offense. Then defense can be generic (Force Armour, Aegis/Thunder Shield, Red Cap) and Setzer's good to go. Just remember to teach the guy spells for his pre-Fixed Dice era.

Mog:

Mog the Moogle. He's furry, cute, speaks English, wields lances and likes dancing. What more can you say about him?

Mog is so close to Edgar style broken that it's not even funny. You can get 6/8 of his dances easily (Water Harmony takes some effort but it's really good) as soon as you get him. And Dance murders EVERYTHING in the World of Balance. Mog can join right after the IMRF and if you get Water Harmony, he turns the Cave to the Sealed Gate into an absolute joke with Plasma and El Nino. The Floating Continent gets destroyed by Water Harmony or Earth Blues since both do a number on all of the enemies around. And they're not even that bad in early WoR since Mog is usually the first person recruited after gaining the Falcon (c'mon, early Valigarmanda and Midgarsormr with Quake is awesome) simply for the Molulu's Charm.

Speaking of the Molulu's Charm, it allows Mog to completely circumvent random encounters. Like we can fight Holy Dragon as soon as we get it (Silence and he's dead) and get a quick 2nd Holy Lance. We can grab awesome stuff from Kefka's Tower and Cultist's Tower such as these items: Fixed Dice, Aegis Shield, Air Anchor, 2x Force Armour, Genji Shield, Red Cap, Hypno Crown, Ribbon, Safety Bit... The list goes on and on. This is stuff that we can have early in the WoR before half of the Espers! And it's all thanks to Mog.

Mog in the WoR basically works the same way as Edgar. There's two Dragon Horns in the game (Ward Bangle in the Colliseum is one and Phoenix Cave has the other) and two Holy Lances (Murakamo eventually becomes one and Holy Dragon drops a 2nd). It's the exact same set up for offense. Defense wise, Mog can hit 255 Def with the Snow Scarf, Red Cap and Genji Shield which is nuts, frankly. If you add the Paladin's Shield to that, he absorbs most magic.

Go figure that the stuffed animal is harder to kill than the Monk or the Samurai.

Strago Magus:

If there was one review I was dreading more than Cyan, it was this old fogey.

Strago is your resident Blue Mage. And I hate Blue Magic. The nice thing is, Strago doesn't actually have to be hit by a Lore to learn it. He just needs to observe it. That being said, you need to force the Lore to be seen in some cases and the nicer Lores take a bit of effort (White Wind, Lv. 4 Flare, Traveler).

Strago is kinda meh in the WoB. He's got Aqua Breath which does nice damage in the Burning Mansion but fails to impress everywhere else. Stone is completely situational and don't get me started on Revenge Blast. White Wind is found pretty early and a nice plus for it is that it goes through Reflect Rings and Runic. Lv. 4 Flare is situational but it does pretty decent damage and Traveler only gets better as you take more steps. Those are both found on the Veldt at this point so get hunting.

In the World of Ruin, Strago really only has one saving grace: Grand Delta. General Spoon's response of "Fuck Hidon" basically summed up the whole situation. Quasar can substitute for Grand Delta but you either have to watch Gilgamesh use it (Gilgamesh is not someone I want to keep alive for Lore learning) or go deep into Kefka's Tower. Without Grand Delta, Strago kinda sucks, which is a shame really since Grand Delta is really really good.

As for equipment, Magus Rod is a must on the guy. He needs as much Magic as you can give him. The Behemoth Suit is arguably better than the Nutkin Suit and everything else is generic. Honestly, Strago requires a lot of effort to be as good as everyone else so... fuck him. He's really not that good.

[Life]

I was kinda hoping that she was dead. Then this challenge would be over.

But Celes didn't wake up so Cid decided to have some... fun.

He's dead. So is Terra, Sabin, Cyan, Gau, Shadow, Strago and Relm. Stop asking.

One that you probably sodomized for the past year. Why do you think Celes is still dressed like a ho?

Stand in place for about 2 minutes or so to let Cid die. It cuts down on steps. I'd even wait 5 minutes just to ensure that he dies.

I'll tell you what's wrong with him, my lad. 'E's dead, that's what's wrong with him!

Well, you were supposed to feed him and you didn't so it's kinda your fault, Celes.

This reminds me of a commercial for the Israeli Post Office where a mother pretends to die just before telling her son something really important about the post office.

Yep, Israel is fucked up.

This is why FFVI is so much better plot-wise than FFVII. You have 10 people (Terra, Locke, Edgar, Sabin, Shadow, Cyan, Celes, Setzer, Strago and Relm) who all have... oh what was the word I was looking for... oh yeah, personalities. These are actual people stuck in a dire situation and aren't perfect by any stretch. I can even write essays on how each character is flawed based solely on their re-recruitment in the World of Ruin. Note that I am not including Mog, Gau, Gogo or Umaro but 10 characters is still larger than any cast that has followed this game.

Take Celes in this scene, for example. Cid tells her that they're the only ones left on the island and possibly the entire world. Then he dies and Celes is left with no one. Locke's probably dead, Cid's kicked the bucket, the rest of the crew is god knows where, the world is rotting to pieces... so why bother living?

Compare this to Tifa. Her boyfriend's a sociopath and a liar, he's stuck in a coma and the world's about to die thanks to a fight between Shinra and Sephiroth (personally, I'll back the guy who can use Magic and summon meteors from space). What does Tifa decide to do? "Let's wake up Cloud and take on Sephiroth like one big happy family!" This is absolutely stupid and strikes me as too Mary Stu-ish (everything will be alright when we all work together!). Like if Cloud snaps the fuck out of whatever funk he's in, we can save the world.

It's just stupid how FFVII tries to portray all of their characters as perfect if they're not doing something idiotic (like if Cait Sith isn't selling out the party, he's gung-ho about helping out Cloud and co. for example). It makes them seem less real than they are. Maybe this is why I like FFVI? Maybe this is why I think that FFVI is actually a good game and it's fun, unlike FFVII? Who knows.

/end FFVII rant.

It isn't, you're actually dead.

Suddenly, I think Cid's just faking so that he can yell "bitch, you got punk'd!" after we defeat Kefka. I mean seriously, how the hell did this get here?

Time to start the World of Ruin properly. Make sure Celes is properly equipped (Blood Sword, Shiva or Unicorn depending on whether Celes knows Osmose or not, Amulet) and get moving towards the Chocobo Stable. Save first.

7113 Steps.

[Life]

It actually does mean offspring.

I think I'm gonna hurl...

[Silvercrow]

I gotta say, the Celes suicide scene is beautifully done. I really have a hard time thinking of almost any moment in a video game as emotional as that, makes Aeris' death look cheap in comparison...

That said, there were parts of FF7 I thought were excellent. Namely, I thought the first part in Midgar was really, really good. Like, better than the bulk of FF6 good. After leaving the city, though, it lost a lot of its charm, I felt.

[General Spoon]

I gotta say, the Celes suicide scene is beautifully done. I really have a hard time thinking of almost any moment in a video game as emotional as that, makes Aeris' death look cheap in comparison...

That said, there were parts of FF7 I thought were excellent. Namely, I thought the first part in Midgar was really, really good. Like, better than the bulk of FF6 good. After leaving the city, though, it lost a lot of its charm, I felt.

Aeris's death might have been better if the player actually cared about her. A personality would have been a good place to start.

Edited February 2, 2011 by General Spoon

[Life]

The goal now is to grind for as much AP as possible for Celes. She's got a quick trip to Tzen (or more specifically, just past it), the South Figaro Cave, Figaro Engine Room, quick trip to Kohlingen/Darill's Tomb and the inside of Darill's Tomb to learn as much magic as possible. After that, it's straight to Kefka's Tower. Yippie.

Celes needs to know 3 specific spells (and anything that comes with them) before starting Kefka's Tower. Osmose, Cura and Shell (she learns Protect naturally). She's 1 AP away from Osmose so that's a given but needs 25 AP for Cura and then an additional 38 AP to complete Shell (25% at 1x, 75% at 2x). That's a lot of AP grinding that needs to happen. The nice thing is that Shiva teaches Blizzara at a 5x rate so Celes does have good offense at this point.

In most of the fights at this point, take out the most dangerous enemy first since Celes will basically OHKO everything. Rukhs can use Shamshir which is basically Gravity and !Beak which sets Petrify (equip a Ribbon). A single Blizzara kills them. As for the Luna Wolf, use the Blood Sword to heal your HP and ice them to death.

These guys are annoying. They'll show up in packs of two or four but unless they're the last monster left on the field, they use Flee on Turn 1, depriving me of possibly extra Exp (they still give off only 1 AP). Fuck. They're weak to ice, mind you.

The goal here is to dispose of the Murussu first. He knows Snort and while he'll only use it while alone, it's a good idea just to take him out so that he doesn't get the chance. Once again, everything here is OHKO'd by Blizzara so just remember to keep Celes' MP up with Osmose (Rukhs have 100 MP and if you can drain it all, they won't use Shamshir).

This is the closest we're going to get to recruiting an optional character. Sabin's in there and he's waiting for Celes to rescue the kid but... oh well.

When you get to the desert just south-east of the Chocobo Stable, force a battle with one of these guys. Black Dragons have some pretty high HP (can survive two Blizzaras) but give off 3 AP. If you can force two or more, that's even better. But fight at least one of them since every other battle will only give you 1 AP. They also have !Bone Powder which causes Zombie (AKA Game Over). Equip an Amulet to make sure that you don't get hit by it.

Here we are, the Tzen Chocobo Stable. Hope you forced as many fights between Celes landing on the mainland and now because she won't be fighting again until we hit the South Figaro Cave. In my case, I fought 21 battles including 3 Black Dragons for 27 AP. Managed to learn Cura and Shell is at 27%. That's pretty damn good especially because Edgar is ahead of schedule for his magic learning (he finished Death in the last battle before the end of the WoB) and Setzer is right on par (half done Vanish, almost done Esuna).

Buy a Chocobo and ride it all the way to Nikeah.

There's a hidden passage behind this house that saves steps. Head for the pub and speak to all of the gang members there.

This is kinda insulting. I'm mere steps away from the Armour store and the Relic store and yet I can't visit either. And that Relic shop has Prayer Beads and Zephyr Cloaks...

Clearly, they have been mourning long and hard for the loss of their old boss.

No, he's Gerad. Just because he's a palette swap of Edgar doesn't mean he has to be Edgar, Celes. Gosh!

All palette swaps of Edgar flirt with women. It's quite common.

Brett Favre couldn't have called a better audible here.

Celes will sneak aboard Gerad's charted ship and get a free ride to South Figaro. Head to the Inn to chat with Gerad. Afterwards, head for the Chocobo Stables and grab a Chocobo. I promise, this is the last time we spend money in this game.

Ride the Chocobo to the Figaro Cave and save your game. Equip Celes with some Hermes' Sandals before going in.

7443 Steps.

[eclipse]

FF7 rant

I think I understand why Red XIII is my favorite character in that game. Thanks!

Think you'll hit your under 9000 goal?

[Life]

The enemies in Figaro Cave have gotten a lot stronger. The newest addition is Dante, an undead wolf rider that likes using Lv. 3 Confuse. A Peace Ring or Ribbon will easily circumvent this problem but !Crystal Lance will hurt if it connects (Attack x3 I believe).

The fun part is that these guys have a rare Golden Shield drop. And I have 2 out of the required amount of 3. Guess what that means!

I don't have a good comeback to this line.

Hop on the turtle to follow Gerad and his men towards Figaro Castle.

Humptys take 2 MT Blizzaras or 1 focused Blizzard to hit the ground. The more MP cost efficient way when you face a bunch is to MT it up. Earrings help a lot in boosting damage. Same goes for the other enemies here but Neck Hunters take 2 hits to die.

Shouldn't you not be able to talk if you can't breathe? Follow Gerad down into the bowels of Figaro Castle and forget all the chests.

You'll find Gerad in the Engine Room. Suit up for the upcoming battle with an Amulet, Hermes Sandals and the Blood Sword.

About time you acknowledged the old girl, Edgar.

This is probably my least favourite WoR boss (Chadarnook/Lakshmi is a close 2nd) and maybe even my least favourite boss ever. The Tentacles are stupidly annoying since if you don't have inherent Haste, they'll set Slow on you and then start draining your HP away. It's stupidly annoying. They also like using Poison and Bio so the Amulet blocks that.

The Hermes Sandals on Celes make the battle... well, easier. Three of the four Tentacles are vulnerable to poison so Edgar should use Bioblaster ASAP. After that, it's a waiting game for those three Tentacles to die from Poison damage. Celes can heal by attacking the non vulnerable Tentacle (top left) and once they all die, it's Blizzara time. Reviving Edgar has no point since all you get from the battle is AP and Edgar doesn't have an Esper equipped.

Go get a new boss, same as the old boss.

After the battle, equip Edgar fully (he needs Relics and Espers). If he hasn't finished Death, go with Shoat. If he has, Fire and Esuna are the next priorities so I'd go with Fire (counters Freeze which will appear during the next boss battle).

After Figaro rises again, send it to Kohlingen. Setzer and the Falcon are waiting for us! Remember to save on the Overworld, don't want to do the whole "Golden Shield drop" thing again.

Once again, force as many battles between now and Kohlingen for maximum AP gain. Sandhorses go down to Blizzara from either person.

These are the guys that you're looking for. One battle will net 2 AP so suffice to say that you want to fight them. Pretty badly.

Hit up the pub in Kohlingen to run into the albino flying pirate gambler with a scar named Setzer.

So your ship broke in half and everyone else on it died. NBD, Setzer.

Celes will snap Setzer out of his funk and it's time to hit up Darill's Tomb, the last mandatory dungeon of the WoR before Kefka's Tower. Before setting out, equip Setzer with his stuff. He needs Vanish ASAP so give him that while Edgar works on Esuna. Save outside of Kohlingen.

7803 Steps.

[Life]

This is our last overworld trip (and the last time to abuse the AP gain) so enjoy it. Now that you finally have your full party, go wild with the enemies. Setzer's Slot still does some damage as does Edgar's Flash Tool (he's better off sticking to Magic though).

Once you get to Darill's Tomb, use a Tent and save up. Oh and equip Amulets on everybody to avoid Zombie.

Darill's Tomb is the reason why I had Edgar learn Teleport ASAP. There are two points during the tomb that we must use it to save steps and while we did get a Teleport Stone in Albrook, we'd still need to Teleport a second time. So that's why I bothered teaching Teleport to Edgar as soon as I could.

Welcome to the center room of Darill's Tomb. Our first destination is the southwest corner.

Generally, everything and their mothers inflict Zombie in this place. The Malboro isn't one of those but he can give you a bunch of other nasty status effects with Bad Breath. Amulets do block Poison so you should be OK for the most part.

This is definitely the most insulting part of this run. Usually, trading the Regal Gown in for the Minerva Bustier (Colisseum win) is something I do after completing Darill's Tomb. But now I can't... God damn it. And it didn't even cost me steps to grab this thing.

Hit the switch and then Teleport out.

Exorays can inflict Zombie (surprise surprise) so either knock them out quickly or Amulet it up. In this case, I'd still try to take out the Malboro first to avoid Bad Breath.

This time, head to the northeast in order to raise the water of that first switch room. Teleport back out right afterwards.

The third run through the tomb has the party riding a turtle like it's nobody's business. Guess they all had pet turtles growing up too, eh?

Hit the switch to raise the water and ride the next turtle to the doorway.

This is another dud of a weapon. You can equip it on Setzer for a bit of a Magic Evasion boost but honestly, it's not that good (it's still not good even in a normal run). If Setzer wants to do damage with Attack, he needs front row with that thing on.

Examine the gravestone to start a battle with the next boss (one of my favourites and also pretty damn hard normally).

Dullahan looks amazingly cool. You cannot deny this. Also, he's basically Ultima Weapon without needing to steal a Ribbon. He likes his magic and he can get Rasped to death.

The first thing he'll do is start off the battle with Lv? Holy. I can't remember the requirements needed for it to hit but even if it does, it doesn't do that much. Toss up your barriers like usual (Dullahan likes using Magic a lot so Shell is a must but !Morning Star will hurt if it connects) along with Haste. Afterwards, Rasp the sucker to death. You can try to outdamage him if that suits your fancy, mind you. If you do that, abuse Runic since he will toss out stuff like Holy and Blizzaga. If Northern Cross connects, hope that you get unfrozen before you die (if nobody unfrozen has Fire). Dullahan only has about ~1750 MP so it shouldn't be as long as Ultima Weapon.

The Canadian government pays me $100,000 every time I break the speed limit. Not quite that pointless.

Oh, I'm entranced by your lovely behind... in bed!

Setzer will get the ship moving and screw the rest of the cutscenes. Save on the Overworld and we're ready (sorta) to take on Kefka!

8056 Steps.

[General Spoon]

If you run into Deathgaze, you're going to need to do it all over again.

[Radiant Dragon]

Level ? Holy requires the level of the target to be divisible by how much gil you have. I believe it uses your gil when enemies use it as well.

[Shadow Mir]

Level ? Holy requires the level of the target to be divisible by how much gil you have. I believe it uses your gil when enemies use it as well.

Actually, IIRC it's the last digit of your Gil that's used.

[Life]

If you run into Deathgaze, you're going to need to do it all over again.

I've been considering looking for him for Bahamut since it costs 0 steps to get it.

I'm also going to take a slight break since the next part will destroy my brain. And in the meantime, I'm going to start a "break the game into fucking oblivion" run of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. No guide needed, I'm experimenting with it as we speak.

[Radiant Dragon]

Actually, IIRC it's the last digit of your Gil that's used.

Whoops, I forgot to mention that.

[Life]

This run has NOT been abandoned.

[Integrity]

Liar. Prove it.

[Life]

[Integrity]

...fuck.

[eranjial]

I actually read all 5 pages @_@;

I really wanna see you beat it under those 9000 steps, and you've worked so hard on it.

Good luck my good sir.

[Life]

I shall continue this run (with pictures) tonight. I am now at the level I wanted to be at.

[eranjial]

^_^ I can't wait to see the update, and this makes me wanna play FFVI again ahhh memories :D

[Life]

This update will cover the first part of Kefka's Tower up to (but not including) Guardian. Sorry guys. Guardian is a full update by himself.

And finally, after a lot of training and dying, we're here. Kefka's Tower. Get your popcorn ready.

She's gonna jump! Again!

Might not be a bad thing considering that wars and shit have been fought over those things.

Stop being a furry? Last I checked, she died a year ago.

These are the three teams for Kefka's Tower. Celes gains the job of soloing Inferno and Guardian while Setzer picks up the Fixed Dice on his path without taking extra steps. I'll cover the Warring Triad when I get there.

Celes goes first. Berserk tames the Great Malboro, everything else essentially dies to Blizzaga. I gave Celes the Black Belt along with the Blood Sword so that she can heal herself whenever she gets hit. Quite sweet.

Here's another enemy that gets hurt badly by Berserk. It's amazing how the mandatory Espers from the IMRF are so freaking useful with the spells that they teach.

And yetmore enemies that are affected badly by Berserk. Both know Lv. 5 Death and I think Death Machine knows Death straight up. Berserk the Death Machine first but don't wait around because the Duel Armors can also toss around Lv. 4 Flare (which hit me and hurt).

So head along the path until... SURPRISE! HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY! HERE'S A PIP-BOY 3000!

GJ 10:15 pm

oh THAT prick

i fucking HATE him

Welcome to Inferno, one of the hardest bosses in the game. Kefka's not a god for nothing, you know.

Inferno has Rahu and Ketu, his two arms, and a couple of spells up his sleeves. The dangerous ones are Meteor, Thundaga (both only come out if either Rahu or Ketu dies), Gigavolt and Delta Attack. Delta Attack petrifies so... yeah, you need a Jeweled Ring (courtesy of Dadaluma) or Ultima's Ribbon (which I have) to combat that. He attacks quickly and furiously so Haste, Shell and Protect are all musts here. Using the Blood Sword is the only way to get past him; the Black Belt just increases your chances of healing up. Toss out some Blizzagas if you get the chance but concentrate on healing and keeping your buffs up.

Once Inferno dies, keep moving. Landworms are easy to deal with even with the high damaging Hailstone move that they have since they'll heal you with an Earth attack. Unless you don't have Gaia Gear, of course. Blizzaga destroys them.

Skip by the Skull Dragon. He costs us steps and there's no reason to fight him.

See that switch? Step on it and that's the end of Celes' run for right now. Transfer your shit over to Edgar now.

Even in Kefka's Tower, Auto Crossbow is amazing. Abuse it. Use Teleport to run from other fights (like Primeval Dragons) if Edgar doesn't have Confuse/Berserk (Confuse only comes from stealing a Noiseblaster from Right Crane, something I didn't do).

Skip by the bathroom and let Ultima poop in peace. Not worth the steps (like usual).

Movers are little pathetic things that go down in a single shot. And they sit in Kefka's Tower? Shame.

Hitting this switch allows Setzer to get to the main switch room. Good idea to do it now.

These guys aren't that bad. Auto Crossbow them to death. The worst they can do is Dischord.

Edgar skips the Gold Dragon, the other dragon that sits in Kefka's Tower. Boo hoo...

Hit this switch and go to Setzer. Two down, one to go...

Setzer may not have access to the Blood Sword like the other two but he does have a very important spell: Vanish! Berserk everything you can find and then turn on Vanish. An Angel Ring should heal Setzer back to full HP while he's busy killing stuff. The Fixed Dice are coming up soon so Setzer's damage will rise.

I think this was intentional. Are you kidding me? Setzer's best weapon is in the middle of the path? Awesome.

Remember the first switch that Edgar hit? If he doesn't hit it, Setzer can't continue here.

Yes, they do look awesome.

Following the path reunites Setzer with Celes and Edgar. Time to take on the final bosses of Kefka's Tower: Guardian, Fiend, Goddess and Demon... but not until next update!

Edited October 31, 2011 by Kefka

[Life]

When Setzer gets to the room with the three switches, have him go left. This means that he'll be fighting Fiend by himself.

Setzer drops the first weight onto the switch that Edgar was on and then heads to his own switch.

Edgar drops the other weight onto Celes' switch and then positions himself for Goddess.

Celes hits the final switch and then is in for the fight of her life. Guardian. Give her the Angel Ring (Regen), Dragoon Boots (Jump) and the Blood Sword for the battle. She'll need them.

Guardian is something like a 5 stage fight but it starts with the Default program. Buff Celes up with Haste, Shell and Protect before going on the attack. The Default program that Guardian starts off on uses Attack, Missile, Atomic Rays and Magitek Laser. That's about it. Atomic Rays will hurt but the others are pansy-ass attacks.

A little bit into the battle, Guardian will load up the Ultros Battle Program. This consists of Ink, Tentacle, Attack, Stone and Entwine. Entwine's the only dangerous move since you'll need to stick Haste back onto Celes ASAP. Watch out for Stone's chance at causing Confusion though.

Use Jump to heal since Celes holds the Blood Sword. Jump isn't here to add to damage or anything but rather to jump over later attacks that are very dangerous. The fact that it does damage and heals is just an added bonus. For actual damage, use Blizzaga/Thundara instead. I prefer Thundara due to Guardian's Thunder weakness and that it saves your MP (not much open time in the battle to use Osmose).

After a bit, Guardian will revert back to the Default. He'll load up the Dadaluma Battle Program soon after, the first program that has a shot at killing you.

Guardian will attack quickly twice and then throw a weapon at you. In my case, it was an Ashura. Celes will die to this without question but Vanish makes it miss. Don't try to jump over it, you'll fail badly at it. Get Vanish up after Guardian's second attack in the Dadaluma Battle Program because Shockwave negates Vanish.

After the weapon toss, Guardian will use 2 Hi-Potions (like Dadaluma), a Potion and Magitek Barrier. The latter essentially sets Reflect, rendering Blizzaga and Thundara useless. Jump for damage at this point and wait for Guardian to return to his Default program.

When the Air Force Battle Program goes up, it's time to start worrying. Launcher has a bug in it which forces Celes to stay in the air if she's hit in the middle of a Jump. Because of that, we need it to hit her. However, we want to jump over Wave Cannon since that's another attack that will kill us. Luckily, Wave Cannon has a countdown so we can time the Jump.

This is Launcher. After it ends, Jump for some HP.

Guardian will start counting down to Wave Cannon. Celes will land once the countdown finishes and Wave Cannon has already missed. Jump again so that you can survive an Atomic Rays if Guardian hits you with it during the Default Program.

The Ultima Battle Program is the last part of the battle. Guardian will use both Flare and Meteor. Flare can be countered with Reflect so get that up as soon as you can. Meteor can't and basically kills if it hits you. Thankfully, he'll only cast it on Turn 1 and 3 so you can effectively jump over it.

After Turn 4, Guardian will start charging up for Flare Star. Once again, Jump over this attack. Afterwards, he'll revert back to the Default Battle Program and the battle will start over. Just keep Celes alive and you should come out on top.

After a bunch of cycles (took me about 3.5 since I was already deep into the Dadaluma Battle Program on the 4th go-around with Guardian) and many MANY tries (took me about... 15? I was using savestates to avoid redoing Kefka's Tower but not to cheat Guardian), Guardian will fall. Motherfucker.

Guardian drops a Save Point. Use it. Now.

8876 Steps.

Edited October 31, 2011 by Kefka

[Life]

No update coming out yet... because I can't beat Demon. I've been trying on and off for almost 3 hours. This guy is not even fair.

[Life]

Time to take control of Setzer. Give him the Dragoon Boots and an Angel Ring. Let's go take Fiend.

The idea with Fiend is that he likes to freeze you. A lot. Northern Cross is designed to inflict Freeze, Absolute Zero and Blizzaga exist for damage. Setzer's very vulnerable to these attacks so keeping him up in the air is really the best call. Fixed Dice go through defense so just hope that high numbers pop up during the Jumps.

Once Setzer piles on 30000 damage (very easy since the Fixed Dice can hit 9999 pretty easily), Fiend will glow. He'll then use Force Field which... makes him immune to a random element and damage. Except, Setzer's Fixed Dice ignore that. Awesome. Turn on Vanish at this point since Fiend will now start attacking physically with Fiendish Rage. If Targeting is used, it'll pull off Vanish. If that happens, stick back on and let the slaughter commence. Fiend's not as hard as Guardian. He just requires some lucky pulls with the Fixed Dice and a lot of missed Northern Crosses.

Once Fiend blows up, save on the save point. One down, two to go.

Take control of Edgar now. Goddess is the next one from the Warring Triad on our shit list. Give Edgar the Blood Sword, the Ribbon and the Dragoon Boots.

Goddess' shtick involves Entice. Entice is like Control except that there's no way to reverse it. You're permanently fucked. So, we're going to play a game called "Entice Hopping". Entice may be used every 2nd turn of a 3 turn battle script. So naturally, we want to be in the air on that 2nd turn. Easier said than done, of course...

After 8 hits, Goddess gets angry. She'll pull out Cloudy Heaven, a one-time use Doom attack that sets Zombie. In a run where Edgar has to solo her, that means a Game Over. The idea is to Jump over that but this is not a timing thing like Guardian's attacks. It's a reaction. The only way we can force Cloudy Heaven while Edgar is in the air is for Goddess to hit herself. That's where Reflect comes in. Cast Reflect after Edgar hits her for the 7th time, cast Reflect and then wait for Goddess to cast Thundara/Thundaga. It'll bounce off of Edgar, hit her and then Edgar is free to Jump over the incoming Cloudy Heaven.

Goddess will only use Cloudy Heaven once and as soon as you spot Flash Rain, that means that she's stopped using Entice. At this point, just Jump away. Taking a Quasar to the face may hurt but Edgar will heal it back with a single Jump. Goddess will go down soon and drop the Excalibur.

Once Goddess goes boom, save on the save point. Two down, only one to go. And damn, this guy is gonna be hard.

Move Celes as close to Demon as you can go and heal up. Save and get ready for the hardest fight of this challenge...

There's a couple of rules to keep in mind with regards to Demon. First off, Stop = Death. If Demon hits you with Stop, an ID attack follows that. Game Over. The second rule is the Metal Cutter hurts. A lot. He counters with Firaga which is going to hurt. Hope that he uses his weaksauce moves rather than Metal Cutter and Stop for the beginning of the battle. Celes needs Shell, Haste and Reflect up in that order. Demon is vulnerable to his own Stop spell so Reflect will be a nice asset here.

If you manage to achieve the "Bring Demon down to under half HP" feat, he'll get even harder. Stuff like Aero, Southern Cross and Flare Star will start popping up in the battle with Stop and Metal Cutter being neglected. At this point, just keep your HP high. One of Demon's favourite combos is a double Flare Star, something that you desperately want to be up in the air for. Keep going until Demon ends up dying. It's a nearly impossible fight but once you see the stupidly powerful attacks, you're almost done.

In retrospect, I started fighting Demon at 5:30 PM. Sure, I took breaks to give out candy and to watch the football but it's now 2:15 AM and I just beat him. That's a hard boss.

Once you take out all of the Warring Triad, you realize that Kefka's even stronger than them. Great... Anyway, walk forward and save on the Save Point in the room that Demon was guarding. Move Edgar and Setzer to the final switches but keep Celes on the Save Point.

9013 Steps with 4 more to go.