SPOILERS Hard Mode Discussion

Lex

Lex

Administrator
I need this and I think others will probably want to discuss strats too. Spoilers for entire game obviously.

I've only done chapter 1, but I decided to hop into Chapter 17 because another Shinra Combat Simulator is unlocked. It looks like the game's secret boss is in there, in the last gauntlet. I've managed to do them all with some strat tweaking, I'm just on the last one now.

Apparently the final fight is
the Proud Clod, or "Pride and Joy" as it's known in this game
but I am having SERIOUS ISSUES with Bahamut on Fight#4 of that particular gauntlet. I survived one megaflare with manawall and another with reprieve. I had planet protection for the third but it wiped my whole party anyway (even though one party member had full health at 8k+ HP!?!?!?). I had him at half health and managed to kill the Ifrit he summons almost immediately by saving Cloud and Tifa's LB's for it. Has anyone cleared this yet who has any tips? I was having real trouble hitting him with that stupid anti-barrier he has up around him all the time. Should I be using damage moves rather than going for focused for stagger?
 
Lex

Lex

Administrator
And you'll cap incredibly quickly as soon as you finish, because EXP is doubled and AP is tripled when you unlock chapter select.

I'm capped, and spent a good portion of today maxing materia for my attempts at the hard mode simulator stuff. It paid off, I'm just going to have to keep cracking away at that last one I think.

I will say though, when my attempt failed I was 26 minutes into it. It takes effing forever.
 
Lex

Lex

Administrator
I've maxed out 2xHP+ and 2xMP+ per character (6 in total), but the MP+ isn't really needed. I will say though, maxing revive is great. "Arise" doesn't cost nearly as much MP as I thought it would, and it's been hella useful in my combat simulator battles so far.
 
ForceStealer

ForceStealer

Double Growth
When the game described Hard Mode to me after clearing it didn't sound very appealing to me, haha. Still don't fully get how you're supposed to get MP back if you can't use Items AND the benches don't restore it.
 
Tetsujin

Tetsujin

he/they
AKA
Tets
You're not supposed to get them back is the answer :monster:

Load up on MP Ups, maybe put an MP Absorption materia somewhere and then be conservative with your spells
 
ForceStealer

ForceStealer

Double Growth
I don't understand how that's supposed to carry you the whole length of the game, but maybe I'm missing something. Maybe MP Absorb gives a lot more than in the original? I know Soul Drain gives kind of a disappointing amount.
 
snatchr

snatchr

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Snatchr
I'm loving it, kind of wish it was available from the start (tho balanced around a fresh save). Having to actually think about what materia I slot as opposed to the basic sense of equipping weaknesses in my first playthrough makes the fights feel much more engaging.
 
Lex

Lex

Administrator
That it's fight number 4 that's actually challenging. Fight number 5 is unique/ neat but not that hard. They're all fairly time consuming.

It's Shiva - Fat Choco - Leviathan - Bahamut - Secret Boss

Bahamut summons Ifrit when he hits half health. You need manawall/ planet protector and full health (7.5k+ health) to survive megaflare. Don't exclusively use stagger gauge increasing moves like focused thrust, also concentrate on doing damage. I used a lot of triple slash/ divekick. Aerith stayed far away from all the bosses and just healed. Elemental+Ice on armour is really useful for Shiva (on Tifa and Cloud). Tifa and Cloud will both get a limit break before Bahamut hits half health. Immediately use Tifa's LB when Ifrit is summoned, followed by Cloud's. This will kill Ifrit (or get him very close). You need to get rid of Ifrit ASAP, he is a p r o b l e m.

tl;dr, don't focus on staggering Bahamut because if you're not getting his health down fast enough you'll run out of MP to heal and that's the real risk. That and megaflare. You want reprieve on every character and then you want to keep them all above 60% for the entire fight to not trigger it so it saves your ass. You will see megaflare at least once or twice, first time I did it I saw it 3 times lol. Planet Protector or Manawall with full HP is the only way to survive it.

Aerith had an accessory that boosts limit gauge when MP is used. Tifa had an accessory that boosts limit gauge when ATB moves are used. Each characters had 2x HP Plus materia (3/4 stars each), everyone had around 7-8k HP.
 
Lex

Lex

Administrator
Btw that accessory you get for winning the gauntlet gives you an LB going into every fight and fills the LB bar over time (it's pretty fast). This has so far trivialised every fight on hard mode :monster:

I imagine it'll still be challenging later but still, having a free LB at the start of every fight is going to help a ton.
 
Lex

Lex

Administrator
Claymore said:
Just reached Chapter 8 on Hard Mode. It's not been as bad as I was expecting ... so far.

HP+, Chakra, Pray, Raise, Barrier and Barret have all been amazing.
Click to expand...

I honestly feel like I've trivialised Hard Mode by getting that accessory before starting it lol. Going into every fight with an Ascension ready to go (and others that build fairly quickly if the battle lasts a certain amount of time) makes it a whole lot easier.
 
Claymore

Claymore

3x3 Eyes
Lex said:
I honestly feel like I've trivialised Hard Mode by getting that accessory before starting it lol. Going into every fight with an Ascension ready to go (and others that build fairly quickly if the battle lasts a certain amount of time) makes it a whole lot easier.
Click to expand...

If the play-through gets too difficult I'm definitely seeking out that accessory, lol. I've just floored Reno though so I'm going to keep pushing on for now.
 
Claymore

Claymore

3x3 Eyes
Damn. Chapter 9 kicked my ass this evening. Cloud and Aerith vs Hell House (with Tonberry support) was extremely difficult. After numerous attempts, I finally worked out that Bio was king here, and it kept chipping away at its life whilst I kept the party moving and buffed up with Manawall and Regen. The Tonberrys were actually easy to deal with, since I made sure to save ATB when those scenarios would occur to use Cloud's Triple Slash and/or Aerith's Sorceress Storm to quickly get them out of the way.

Hitting Hell House itself is something that I still haven't figure out though. Magic can hit through (though at a weakened amount) against his God Mode status, but that was difficult to juggle when I needed all the ATB to keep both characters alive. As soon as he was down and in the final phase - chucking those two Sweepers at you - I unleashed the saved up Leviathan to quickly deal with most of that.

Aerith's Planet Protector got me out of quite a few scraps.

VERY messy. But finally did it. Ugh.
 
Claymore

Claymore

3x3 Eyes
It is time to once more pay homage to the Materia orb that is Poison lol.

Bio really is a fantastic spell to use on Boss Battles, seriously allowing you to take consistent chunks off of their health when they keep hitting you hard or purposely remain out of reach. The ghost battle in the Graveyard facility took a few tries to get my set up right, especially since you need to avoid a hell of a lot in that battle including floating debris, it's ethereal claws, it's devastating claw pulse move, and how it would switch from ghost to corporeal form. In a lot of ways though, it mirrored the Hell House battle. Let Bio do it's things, switch up between physical and magical attacks when it changes forms, and remember to NEVER GO ALL OUT. Hang back for an opening, then hit it fast and get the hell out of there. Like most Bosses it will target your controllable character, which gets annoying when you have a particular spell or ability you desperately need to get out to save your party, but that's where Tactical Mode and quick-switching come to play.

Eligor was the other major stumbling block. Though I knew to equip Elemental + Ice on Cloud, I was unable to really hit him during the phase where he races through the air, which kept bringing his life right back to full health! What was incredibly frustrating was the Reflect on the group, so I had to save up for Pray or Chakra. Each new attempt I got better though. I ended up using Bio again to keep it's life chipping down whilst slashing with Cloud with that Ice Shield Enemy Skill and using Shiva when I got the chance. As soon as he got into the air, a couple of swings with Cloud brought him back down.

Definitely needed the Reprieve ability and all the Revival Earrings I had on the group.

Phew. Gonna call it a night for now. Making good progress though.
 
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